Young Catholics joined the tens of thousands of students from across the country who participated in a massive demonstration along Washington’s Pennsylvania Avenue protesting gun violence called ‘March for Our Lives’. The event was organised by survivors and friends of those who died at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, where 17…

Bishop Jose Ronaldo Ribeiro of Formosa was arrested and charged, along with four diocesan priests, of stealing about €492,000 of diocesan money. Two days after the arrest, Pope Francis appointed Archbishop Paulo Mendes Peixoto of Uberaba to serve as apostolic administrator of the diocese. Prosecutors in the state of Goias allege Bishop Ribeiro and the…

Aborting a child with a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome is a gross violation of human rights and anti-discriminatory commitments, and can be considered genocide, according to a Vatican spokesperson at a UN panel. “Here at the United Nations there is much sincere talk and normally passionate action to fight against unjust discrimination,” said Archbishop…

A prominent Polish archbishop accused his country’s government of falsifying its data on refugees, while also fuelling a crisis with Germany over new demands for war reparations. Retired Archbishop Henryk Muszynski of Gniezno said the Polish government “still relentlessly insists it won’t accept a single one”. He said the government often states that it would…

Peru’s bishops have called for Peruvians to work together to root out corruption in the wake of the resignation of the country’s president, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, amid accusations of corruption. The country is suffering from “a systemic process of corruption caused by the divorce between ethics and politics, reinforced by personal and group ambitions, exacerbated…

Dialogue and respectful understanding are the prerequisites for social harmony and world peace, Hong Kong Cardinal John Tong Hon told a symposium on Christianity and China. “If we see only our own reasons and insist on our own experience as the norm, thereby denying the basis of other people’s experience, then disagreement, quarrels and even…

Letter from Rome   In Catholic circles high and low, a widely reported potential deal between the Vatican and China over the appointment of bishops is stirring varied reactions. While some hail the accord as a critically important way for the Church to deepen ties with a global superpower, others see it as capitulation in…

Knights
 of
 Malta 
suspend
 ‘Dictator 
Pope’
 author The author of a highly critical book about Pope Francis, entitled The Dictator Pope, has been suspended by the Knights of Malta. In a statement the order said it disassociated itself from the book and condemned the “vile attack against the Pope”. The order said author Henry Sire has been suspended pending the results of…

A Vatican tribunal has found Archbishop Anthony Apuron of Agana, Guam, guilty of some of the accusations made against him including the sexual abuse of minors. After a canonical trial conducted by the Apostolic Tribunal of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Vatican judges imposed the following sanctions on the 72-year-old archbishop: the…

Prostitution is a form of “torturing women” Pope Francis told a group of young people at a pre-synod in Rome this week. Responding to a young Nigerian victim of human trafficking, who was forced to become a victim of prostitution to pay supposed debts, Pope Francis said sex-buyers are “criminals”. “If a young person has…