A Chilean appeals court has ruled in favour of three survivors of abuse by former priest Fernando Karadima and ordered the Catholic Church to pay damages. In a decision announced yesterday, the court ordered the Church to pay 100 million pesos (€4,594,271) for “moral damages” to each of the survivors: Juan Carlos Cruz, Jose Andres…

Hannah Brockhaus   The ‘daily bread’ asked of God in the ‘Our Father’ is for everyone, and Christians will be judged by how well they shared their gifts with those in need, Pope Francis said yesterday. “Let’s get this in our heads: food is not private property, but providence to be shared with the grace…

Nearly two million people marched on Saturday last in Pope Francis’s native land of Argentina in pro-life demonstrations dedicated to defending the life of the unborn, and offering solutions to mothers in crisis pregnancies. The rally was organised by Argentina’s March for Life, a lay-led organisation. Although Catholic bishops, evangelical pastors, and Jewish and Islamic…

A Venezuelan cardinal has called on state security forces to exercise civil disobedience when given orders to use lethal force against citizens. “State security agencies exist not to take care of the government but to take care of the citizens,” said Cardinal Baltazar Porras, at a press conference last week. “Therefore, every order that is…

More than half of US Catholics say they are very concerned about the persecution of Christians around the world, with this 58% figure up by 17% from a similar poll a year ago. When asked to rank their concerns about global issues, respondents considered persecution of Christians as a slightly more important problem than climate…

The professional body for doctors in the UK dropped its traditional opposition to assisted suicide, despite a poll that found a majority of its members remain opposed to the practice. The Royal College of Physicians declared it has adopted a policy of neutrality, although a majority of doctors said they were against assisted suicide. In…

‘Special
 attention’
 for
 migrants
 at
 Francis’
 Morocco
 visit Pope Francis wanted to go to Morocco in December to draw attention to the need for international cooperation in assisting migrants and in alleviating the situations that force people to seek a better life outside their homeland. Protocol dictated that he could not fly to Marrakech just for the United Nations meeting on migration,…

Simon Caldwell   The professional body for doctors in the U.K. has dropped its traditional opposition to assisted suicide, despite a poll that found a majority of its members remain opposed to the practice. The Royal College of Physicians has declared it has adopted a policy of neutrality, although a majority of doctors said they…

Pope Francis has expressed his grief for the loss of life caused by the sinking of a ferry in the Tigris River near the Iraqi city of Mosul. In a telegramme signed on his behalf by Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Pope said he is deeply saddened to learn of the accident and expressed his prayerful…

Jonathan Luxmoore   A close aide to St John Paul II has vigorously defended the late Pope’s handling of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy and denied accusations that he ignored the problem during his 27-year pontificate. “Emerging opinions that John Paul II was sluggish in guiding the Church’s response to sexual abuse of minors by…