A former Vatican official facing charges of extortion and abuse of office related to a controversial London property deal said he was acting under obedience in his role and made no decisions without approval from his direct superior, Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra. Msgr Mauro Carlino, who served as secretary to then-Archbishop Angelo Becciu, when he…
An Arab Christian police officer was one of five killed by a Palestinian gunman in a suburb of the Israeli city of Tel Aviv March 29. The attack took place that evening in Bnei Brak, one of the country’s most populous ultra-Orthodox Jewish areas. One of those killed was Christian police officer Amir Khoury, a…
Catholic priest abducted after Sunday Mass in Nigeria A Catholic priest of the Diocese of Minna in Nigeria was among 45 people kidnapped after Mass March 27. The Nigeria Catholic Network reported that on the morning of March 27, assailants abducted villagers along with Fr Leo Raphael Ozigi, a priest of St Mary’s Catholic Church in the…
Proposal to expand nature reserves to 30% globally Expanding nature reserves to cover at least 30% of the planet by 2030 is the flagship proposal of high-stakes talks to rescue Earth’s animals and plants from human destruction. But experts agree that a new target is the easy part and will be ineffective without funding and…
Gunther Simmermacher In 1633, at the height of the Reformation, the Black Death was sweeping through Europe, including the southern German region of Bavaria. The terrified people of one small village decided to do something to protect themselves from this pandemic: The villagers vowed that every 10 years they would perform a “Passionsspiel” – a…
Staff reporter Pre-packaging claims as “rights” can be used to shut down debate and deny the chance to “discern” the validity of the claims, Senator Rónán Mullen has said. This comes after senators took issue with Senator Mullen’s reluctance to use the term “transgender rights” during an Order of Business debate. Senator Mullen took to…
The verdict in the closely watched trial of a Finnish Christian MP was announced March 30. A court in Helsinki dismissed all charges against Päivi Räsänen, a physician and mother of five, and Juhana Pohjola, a bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland, after a free speech trial that drew international attention. The court said in…
Oregon has dropped its residency requirement for assisted suicide, meaning doctors will be allowed to prescribe lethal drugs to people who do not reside in the state. In response to a federal lawsuit, the state agreed to stop enforcing the residency requirement, March 28. In addition, the Oregon Health Authority agreed to write a bill…
Dear Editor, Dublin City councillors, and some TDs – whose housing failure, for years, gave us our housing crisis – now want to re-zone Church land to prevent it being used to build houses and to impoverish the Church, its services, parishes, clergy and people. Some propose seizing such assets, Henry VIII style, built by…
Pope Francis to visit Indigenous peoples in Canada in July Pope Francis has said that he will travel to Canada in the summer, possibly for the feast of St Anne on July 26. He made the announcement during a meeting with Canadian Indigenous leaders at the Vatican on April 1. “You have brought the living…