A Catholic priest was shot dead on Friday, July 20 in the Cameroons. Fr Alexander Nougi Sob was parish priest of Bomaka, a district of Buea, the capital of the English-speaking region of South-West Cameroon. He was also a former Catholic Education Secretary there. According to the Journal du Cameroun, Fr Sob was hit by…
Catholic dioceses in China are being required to show how they will reduce foreign influences and adopt a more Chinese ideological and theological identity. The aim is to do this through a five-year plan running until 2022. A strategy was agreed at a May 17 meeting of the Bishops’ Conference of the Catholic Church in…
A seven-foot-tall bronze statue of the Virgin Mary in a Catholic church in New Mexico appears to be weeping a substance with the chemical makeup of olive oil treated with perfume. The ‘weeping’ began on Pentecost Sunday on May 20, when parishioners at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Hobbs noticed that there appeared to be tears…
Pope accepts resignation of accused Honduran bishop Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Juan José Pineda, auxiliary bishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, following a Vatican investigation into accusations of financial mismanagement and sexual misconduct against seminarians. The bishop, 57, has long been the subject of accusations of financial misdealings, as well as rumours that he offered support to a male companion…
Pope Francis has chosen four cardinals from countries where young people are facing special challenges to preside over sessions of the Synod of Bishops in October. The Vatican announced on July 14 the Pope’s appointment of the presidents-delegate: Cardinals Louis Sako of Baghdad, the Chaldean patriarch; Desire Tsarahazana of Toamasina, Madagascar; Charles Bo of Yangon,…
The Australian state of Victoria has said a recommendation by the royal commission that it pass a law requiring priests to break the confessional seal to report cases of child sex abuse requires further consideration. Victoria attorney general Martin Pakula said on July 11 that the government needs to further consider 24 of the 317…
Indian officials are seeking to freeze bank accounts of the Missionaries of Charity, founded by St Mother Teresa of Kolkata, following the arrest of a nun on child trafficking charges in Jharkhand state. State police Chief D.K. Pandey wrote to the federal home secretary last week urging the freeze to facilitate an investigation into whether there…
Elise Harris The Vatican’s former top advisor on canon law has made a public call to insert legal obligations for the care of creation into the Church’s universal canon law – making it a legal duty for Catholics not only “not to harm” the environment, but to improve it. According to veteran Vatican watcher…
Pope Francis has named an Italian journalist with decades of experience in print, radio and television broadcasting to head the Vatican’s Secretariat for Communication, the first time a lay person has headed a Vatican department. Paolo Ruffini (61), who was in charge of the Italian conference of Catholic bishops’ TV and radio network, was named…
An English bishop warned Catholics to be alert to the possible deliberate killings of seriously ill patients in state-funded hospitals. Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth issued a pastoral message to clergy and laity after the publication of a report, which concluded that 650 people died in a hospital within his diocese after they were given…