Vocation crisis caused by lack of holiness not celibacy – bishop A bishop in Brazil who is a member of the Amazon synod has said he believes a major obstacle to increasing priestly vocations in the region is a lack of personal holiness among the ordained, rather than the discipline of celibacy. Bishop Wellington de Queiroz…
Bishops applaud research which highlights risks of euthanasia among disabled Leaders in the US Conference of Catholic Bishops applauded the National Council on Disability for its recent research on the risks of assisted suicide for people with disabilities. “Every suicide is a human tragedy, regardless of the age, incapacity, or social/economic status of the individual,”…
The persecution of Catholics in mainland China is increasing after prominent Catholic figures in Hong Kong continue to speak out against the communist regime, according to reports. The reports from Bitter Winter, a magazine covering religious liberty and human rights in China, come alongside allegations that the Chinese government has ignored requests to tolerate Catholic…
Less than two weeks before the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon is scheduled to begin at the Vatican, the Brazilian bishops’ Indigenous Missionary Council reported that the number of indigenous land invasions and indigenous murdered in Brazil in 2018 soared. The report, released last week, said the number of indigenous people murdered grew by…
A Catholic bishop in the Philippines has called for a strong response from the government to fight poliovirus, following an announcement last month from health officials that the once-eradicated disease has made a reappearance. “It is very sad that there is a re-emergence of polio after having eliminated it for many years,” Bishop Broderick Pabillo,…
Lawmakers in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca have approved a measure to decriminalise abortion, despite vocal Church opposition. The measure passed the Oaxaca state legislature, 24-10, amid shouts in the session from boisterous supporters and opponents. It allows for abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Oaxaca becomes the second Mexican jurisdiction to…
Police in South Korea are investigating a doctor who mistakenly performed an abortion on the wrong woman in August. The mix-up was due to an inadvertent switch of medical charts and a failure to confirm the patient’s identity before the procedure, CNN reports. A Vietnamese woman pregnant with a 6-week-old baby entered a gynaecology clinic…
First US head of CDF group dies age 83 US Cardinal William Levada, former head of the Vatican’s doctrinal congregation and retired archbishop of San Francisco and Portland, Oregon, died on September 26 in Rome. He was 83. When Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected Pope Benedict XVI in 2005, he named then-Archbishop Levada to replace…
China harvesting organs from minority groups, activists say The Chinese government is harvesting organs from religious and ethnic minorities, a human rights organisation told the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva last week. The China Tribunal, which calls itself an “independent, international people’s tribunal” that investigates allegations of organ harvesting in the country, said…
France’s Catholic bishops have opposed legislation to allow medically assisted procreation for single mothers and lesbian couples and urged citizens to help block its enactment. “We hear and understand the suffering of those who cannot have children from their union with a person of the opposite sex and of homosexual women who aspire to have…