An investigation into allegations of sexual abuse and cover-up in Chile will continue despite the prelate tasked with leading it having been admitted to hospital for gallbladder surgery, it has been announced. Malta’s Archbishop Charles Scicluna was in Chile to meet with survivors of abuse from Fr Fernando Karadima, who in 2011 was found guilty…
When people are unable to love or accept a child with problems or illness, many times it’s because they are too weak themselves to be able to bear someone else’s vulnerabilities, Pope Francis told a group of children and young people who are wards of the state. “If I have a giant rock, I can’t…
Despite an agreement between the governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar it could be years before Rohingya refugees living in squalid camps can return home, the secretary-general of the world’s largest Catholic charity has warned. Michael Roy of Caritas Internationalis said that it’s likely the Rohingya minority who fled Myanmar after a military crackdown will have…
US clergy have urged community members to come together “to support one another in this time of grief” after a mass shooting on St Valentine’s Day at a Broward County high school that left at least 17 people dead. “With God’s help, we can remain strong and resolute to resist evil in all its manifestations,”…
Jacob Zuma’s resignation as president of South Africa is long overdue, the country’s bishops have said, noting that his scandal-plagued presidency fostered corruption and dereliction of duty at all levels of government. “The fact that Mr. Zuma has been allowed to hold on to the highest position in the land despite long-standing and overwhelming evidence…
Pope Francis often meets on Fridays with survivors of sex abuse, he has said. Speaking to a group of Jesuits in Lima during his visit to Peru last month he revealed that these meetings, which he said do not always become public knowledge, make it clear that the survivors’ process of recovery “is very hard”.…
Few people have considered how communities and nations actually tolerate and encourage human trafficking, particularly as it relates to prostitution, Pope Francis has said. Modern forms of slavery “are far more widespread than previously imagined, even within the most prosperous of our societies”, the Pontiff said during a meeting with an international group of law…
The US bishops have praised signs of progress against ‘abortion ideology’, in response to a State Department report on new limits to US funding for groups involved in abortion. “Abortion undermines basic human rights, certainly for the child, and it also can wound the mother emotionally and physically,” Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York said.…
Catholic Olympic gold-medallist Yuna Kim lit the torch at the Opening Ceremony for the 2018 Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. The Korean skating sensation has long expressed a desire to use her public role to share the light of Christ by witnessing to her Catholic faith in international competitions and performances. Kim was honoured…
Even though the Church has all the necessary norms and laws in place to safeguard minors from abuse by clergy, the problem continues to be a lack in understanding or caring about those rules and guidelines and applying them effectively, said one Jesuit expert. What must change “without a doubt” are Church procedures for handling…
Colm Fitzpatrick
Chai Brady