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…
Spanish Cardinal Amigo Vallejo dies at 87 Spanish Cardinal Carlos Amigo Vallejo, a medical student turned Franciscan and a much-loved Archbishop of Seville, died in Spain on April 27 at the age of 87. He had experienced a number of complications after suffering a fall in February and died at a university hospital outside of…
The former director of the Vatican’s financial watchdog agency told the Vatican court that his office’s minimal involvement in a costly property deal was at the behest of Pope Francis and several top Vatican officials. Tommaso Di Ruzza, the former director of the Vatican watchdog agency, then known as the Financial Information Authority, or AIF,…
In the basement of a church in western Ukraine, far from the most ferocious Russian attacks, residents and displaced people contribute to the war effort by weaving camouflage nets, baking vareniki dumplings and making rosaries. “We’re not just weaving good luck charms for the guys; we are weaving the country together,” said Lyudmila, who fled…
Pope praises Papal Foundation’s generosity Pope Francis praised members of the US-based Papal Foundation for helping the Catholic Church build “a culture of solidarity and peace,” including by providing assistance to victims of the war in Ukraine. “As we are witnessing in these days the devastating effects of war and conflict, you increasingly see the…