An unidentified man is in custody after driving a car at high speed through a gate at the Vatican May 18, the Holy See press office said. A guard stationed at the Santa Anna entrance fired his weapon in the direction of the vehicle’s front tires, hitting the left front fender, but the vehicle proceeded…
After hundreds of public prayers for peace in Ukraine and 443 days after Russia launched an all-out war on the Eastern European country, Pope Francis welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the Vatican. The topics of the conversation May 13 included “the humanitarian and political situation in Ukraine caused by the ongoing war”, the Vatican…
An investigation by the Spanish newspaper El Pais has revealed that the Spanish Jesuit priest Alfonso Pedrajas Moreno, who died in 2009, sexually abused as many as 85 boys and adolescents in the 1970s and 1980s and recorded the incidents in a secret diary as “blunders”, and that the Jesuits covered it up. A nephew…
Archbishop Ladislav Nemet of Belgrade, Serbia, told OSV News that “no child should be a victim of violence,” following a school shooting in that city that left eight children and one security guard dead, with six students and a teacher injured. On May 3, a 13-year-old male student at the Vladislav Ribnikar Elementary School opened…
An art exhibit at the European Union’s Parliament building in Brussels, Belgium, has prompted criticism from conservative politicians in Italy for its display of a blasphemous depiction of Jesus Christ and the apostles. The artwork, a series of photographs by lesbian Swedish photographer Elisabeth Ohlson, includes one of a man who is meant to represent…
Fr Johan Verschueren, the superior of Fr Marko Rupnik, a Jesuit priest and artist accused of sexually abusing numerous nuns, explained that from an ecclesial point of view it is “illegal” for Fr Rupnik to be the owner of a company. On April 22, Fr Verschueren, the Jesuit superior in Rome, told ACI Prensa that…
The Vatican announced on April 26 that there will be laypeople participating as voting members in the Synod on Synodality’s October assembly, a break with past custom, which allowed laypeople to participate without the right to vote. Pope Francis will also approve every member in advance. The general assembly of the Synod on Synodality will…
Vatican reportedly preparing text for divorced and remarried couples The Vatican’s Dicastery for the Laity, Family, and Life is preparing a document that will address divorced and remarried couples at the request of Pope Francis, according to the dicastery’s prefect, Cardinal Kevin Farrell. Cardinal Farrell mentioned the in-progress document in a speech delivered in Italian…
World leaders – including those from the Church, humanitarian and diplomatic community – have appealed for a return to dialogue to save Sudan, as fighting triggered fears of a humanitarian catastrophe in the northeastern African country. The leaders are pushing for a ceasefire, humanitarian access and respect for civilians and civilian structures, as the Sudan…
Catholics gathered at the continental level say the Church must be united, not uniform, and embrace its many forms of expression throughout the world, said members of the synod preparatory commission after a weeklong meeting at the Vatican. “I think one of the most important things we have experienced during these ecclesial, continental assemblies, is…