Elise Harris   Pope Francis said today that Confirmation is the sacrament in which Catholics are marked with a seal that solidifies their belonging to Christ through the Holy Spirit, adding that this is God’s invisible gift to each person who receives the sacrament. Referring to how candidates for Confirmation are told to “receive the…

Everyone should have access to essential health services and no one should have to fall into poverty to obtain needed care, a Vatican representative said. “For many poor communities, families and individuals, access to the much-needed health care services remains an unachieved objective,” said Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic, Vatican observer to U.N. agencies in Geneva. “We…

An Australian archbishop has become the most senior Church cleric to be convicted of covering up child sex abuse, and faces up to two years in prison. Archbishop Philip Wilson of the Diocese of Adelaide will be sentenced next month after being found guilty of the crime in Newcastle Local Court in Sydney. He pleaded…

Mourning the deaths of protesters in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, the Vatican’s observer at UN agencies in Geneva urged people on both sides to let “wisdom and prudence prevail”. Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic spoke at a special session of the UN Human Rights Council dedicated to discussing “the deteriorating human rights situation in the…

Letter from Rome   Arguably, no single thing any Pope ever does is more consequential than choosing the cardinals who will elect his successor. When a Pontiff reveals his picks for new members of the Church’s most exclusive club, therefore, it always delivers a powerful statement not only about where the Church is today, but…

Claire Giangravè   Only 11 miles away from the Turkish coast, the Greek spearhead-shaped island of Rhodes is accustomed to seeing Muslims docking on its rocky shores. In the past, religious knights took arms against these strangers, but today a handful of friars warmly welcomes them with food and clothes. When Franciscan Friar John Luke…

The return of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar has again stalled after Bangladesh and Myanmar officials failed to fix a start date for actual repatriation. A Joint Working Group responsible for overseeing the repatriation of Rohingya refugees held its second meeting in four months in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, but were unable to agree on a date…

The Holy Spirit helps Catholics to do good works by giving them the gifts they need to be effective ‘salt and light’ in the world, Pope Francis said at the general audience today. Like Jesus said: “You are the salt of the earth… you are the light of the world”, the Pope said, explaining that…

All 34 Chilean bishops speaking at a Vatican news conference of Friday about the cover-up of sexual abuse in their country have offered their resignation to Pope Francis, the bishops announced today. Decisions about the bishops’ fate will be decided by Pope Francis in the ensuing weeks, where he can accept or reject the resignations.…

Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos, renowned for championing the Traditional Latin Mass, died in Rome today, aged 88. The Colombian cardinal was president of the pontifical commission Ecclesia Dei when Pope Benedict XVI published Summorum Pontificum, granting greater freedom to the celebration of the older Mass. He was known for leading attempts to reconcile traditionalist Catholics to…