Catholic bishops criticised the “lethargic pace” of a government inquiry in to the Easter 2019 Church bombings, warning that they will begin organising the faithful to action if their demands for an official explanation are not met. The bishops have given Sri Lanka’s government a one-month deadline to answer their letter sent on behalf of…
More than 220,000 people left the Catholic Church in Germany in 2020, according to official figures released last Wednesday. The statistics issued by the German bishops’ conference on July 14 showed that 221,390 people exited the Catholic Church last year. The figure was almost 19% lower than that of 2019, when a record 272,771 people departed. But it was…
A two-time survivor of China’s detention camps in Xinjiang described suffering physical and sexual violence at the hands of camp guards, in her July 14 testimony at an international religious freedom gathering in Washington, DC. Tursunay Ziyawudun, 42, of China’s northwest province of Xinjiang, spoke at the International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington, DC on…
A Vatican prosecutor requested that Fr Gabriele Martinelli, who is accused of sexually abusing a younger student at the St Pius X Pre-Seminary, be sentenced to six years in prison if convicted. At the 11th session of the Vatican criminal trial July 15, Roberto Zanotti, the prosecutor, explained that the recommended sentence for the crimes…
Church officials are studying a reported miracle attributed to an Italian Catholic who died at the age of 21, the postulator of his cause has said. Fr Walter Vinci, Postulator General of the Order of St Camillus, noted that Pope Francis had recognised the heroic virtues of Nicola d’Onofrio on July 5, 2013. Heroic virtue is one…
Vatican’s financial watchdog highlights ‘increasing trend’ in reports to Promoter of Justice The Vatican’s financial watchdog authority reported last Thursday that it received 89 suspicious activity reports in 2020, 16 of which it forwarded to the Promoter of Justice for possible prosecution. In a 52-page annual report, released July 15, the Supervisory and Financial Information Authority…
South African bishops call for an end to violence and looting Catholic bishops in South Africa have called for an end to violence and looting that has led to the deaths of 72 people. People were trampled to death this week amid looting and rioting in the streets of two South African provinces, Gauteng and…
Saying he was acting for the good of the unity of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis has restored limits on the celebration of the Mass according to the Roman Missal in use before the Second Vatican Council, overturning or severely restricting permissions St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI had given to celebrate the…
On Sunday, July 11, the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL) called on Cubans to continue to pressure Cuban communist authorities to open general elections after thousands of people took the streets of major local cities to protest the unprecedented scarcity of essentials and the death rate produced by Covid-19. After months of food and medicine shortages…
In an abandoned mall on the outskirts of Beirut, an image of St Thérèse of Lisieux hangs in the window of what was once a storefront. This former clothing store now serves as home for Christian refugees who have been hit hard by the inflation caused by Lebanon’s severe economic depression. The living conditions for…