China’s nine major religious organisations want all religious sites across the country to raise the national flag on special days to reflect patriotism and sinicisation. But some Catholics claim the initiative aims to force religious people to be patriotic. “Is it necessary to train believers to hold the ritual of raising the national flag and to…
Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, Nebraska, has apologised for failing to be more transparent about a pastor removed from ministry and sent to treatment last year because the priest had developed “an emotionally inappropriate, non-sexual relationship with a 19-year-old male which involved alcohol”. He sent Fr Charles Townsend, pastor of St Peter Parish in Lincoln,…
Building on the development of Church teaching against capital punishment, Pope Francis has ordered a revision of the Catechism of the Church to assert “the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person” and to commit the Church to working toward its abolition worldwide. The catechism’s…
A Catholic bishop in the Philippines has expressed support for a government plan to rescue three Filipino migrant workers abducted in Libya last month. Bishop Rufino Santos, head of the Episcopal Commission on Migrants and Itinerant People, said he supports President Rodrigo Duterte’s proposal to send a frigate to help rescue the Filipinos. “Yes we support,”…
Faith in Jesus satisfies deeper hungers Doing God’s will means believing in Jesus and allowing love for him to translate into love for one’s neighbours, Pope Francis has said. The Gospel story of the multiplication of loaves demonstrates the concern Jesus showed for people’s daily physical needs, the Pope said, but the passages that follow show how “it is even…
With more and more people planning their vacations online and sharing their experiences digitally, the tourism industry and tourists themselves should pay more attention to using online forums to encourage respect for the locales visited and for the communities that live there, the Vatican said. In a message for the September 27 celebration of World…
Hannah Brockhaus Today the Vatican changed the Catechism’s teaching on the permissibility of the death penalty, which the Church has taught is legitimate in extreme cases, stating it is ‘inadmissible,’ and its elimination will be sought. A new draft of paragraph 2267 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church was issued by the Congregation…
Pope Francis has accepted the resignation from the College of Cardinals of Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, retired archbishop of Washington, and has ordered him to maintain “a life of prayer and penance” until a canonical trial examines accusations that he sexually abused minors. The announcement came first from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and…
Public anger is mounting in China after revelations that major vaccine makers violated safety standards. Thousands of faulty vaccines have been administered to children, eroding public trust in essential services and damaging China’s standing overseas as it tries to become a major player in the pharmaceutical industry. A Catholic doctor told a Catholic news provider the case…