King and Queen of Jordan honoured with Peace Award On the occasion of its 29th Annual Gala on 9 May, the Path to Peace Foundation presented the 2022 Path to Peace Award to King Abdullah II ibn Al Hussein and Queen Rania Al Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The prestigious annual award, presented…
Cardinal George Pell said Friday that the recent testimony of Cardinal Angelo Becciu at the Vatican finance trial “was somewhat incomplete”. He drew particular attention to a lack of evidence regarding payments of more than $1.6 million made to Neustar Australia, an information services firm, in 2017 and 2018. Cardinal Becciu, who was the second-ranking…
Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, founded by Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Robert Barron, issued a brief statement May 2 saying it had fired an employee possibly over an incident involving some unwelcome advances. “The accusations against this employee surrounded events in the employee’s personal life, not the Word on Fire workplace, and did not involve…
A Catholic diocese in Nigeria has announced “with joy” the release of a priest held captive for 40 days. The Diocese of Zaria in Kaduna State, northern Nigeria, said that Fr Felix Zakari Fidson was released on May 3, reported ACI Africa. Diocesan chancellor Fr Patrick Adikwu Odeh said: “With hearts filled with joy, we announce the return of…
Swiss Guard recruits encouraged to ‘grow as Christians’ Pope Francis on Friday encouraged 36 new recruits of the Pontifical Swiss Guard to “grow as Christians” during their service in Rome. The Pope, who currently uses a wheelchair due to a knee condition, met with the new candidates for the world’s smallest but oldest standing army on May…
The head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church said Russia’s reasons for attacking Ukraine are nothing more than an excuse to justify its ultimate goal of wiping out the country and its people. Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halych said that although Russian President Vladimir Putin has said “demilitarisation and denazification” are the primary reasons for invading…
Australia’s Catholic bishops have elected Archbishop Timothy Costelloe as their new leader. Archbishop Costelloe, a priest of the Salesians of Don Bosco, is the first member of a religious order to serve as president of Australia’s bishops’ conference. The 68-year-old archbishop of Perth, Western Australia, succeeds Archbishop Mark Coleridge, who was president of the Australian Catholic Bishops…
Swiss Guards launch fundraiser to renovate Vatican barracks The Holy See penned a deal May 4 with the “Foundation for the Renovation of the Barracks of the Pontifical Swiss Guards in the Vatican”. The Memorandum of Understanding was signed by Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin and Jean-Pierre Roth and Stephan Kuhn, president and vice…
The US Supreme Court will vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalised abortion nationwide, according to draft opinion cited in a news report released Monday evening. “We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. writes in the purported 98-page draft document, obtained by Politico, which…
Catholics in Cologne who responded to a survey preparing for the 2023 worldwide Synod of Bishops on synodality have called for big changes in the Church. The German Catholic news agency KNA reported that a statement on the archdiocese’s website noted a majority of respondents called for the Faithful to be given greater self-determination and…