The Vatican’s liturgy czar has intervened against the implementation of resolutions of the German ‘Synodal Way’ that demand laypeople should be able to regularly baptise and preach the homily at Mass in churches across Germany. In a letter to the German Bishops’ Conference president dated March 29, Cardinal Arthur Roche said neither was possible –…

Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, SJ, the archbishop of Luxembourg and a key leader of the Synod on Synodality, said the Catholic Church’s teaching on a male-only priesthood is not infallible and a future pope could allow women priests. The cardinal, 64, addressed the topic of the ordination of women, homosexuality, women in the Church, obedience to…

Pope Francis has updated the procedures for investigating allegations of sexual abuse or the cover up of abuse, specifying that the leaders of Vatican-recognised international Catholic lay associations and movements have the same responsibilities over their members that a bishop has over the priests of his diocese. The updated version of Vos Estis Lux Mundi…

Two new alternatives to burial and cremation fail to comply with the Catholic Church’s teaching on respect for the bodies of the dead, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine said. In a March 23 statement, the committee said it had evaluated human composting and alkaline hydrolysis, and concluded that both “fail to…

Malawi is still reeling from the consequences of Cyclone Freddy that hit the southeastern African country on March 12. The storm system caused flooding and mudslides that have resulted in the deaths of about 500 people, according to Malawi’s Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DODMA) earlier this month. More than 490,000 people have been displaced…

A synod of German bishops overwhelmingly approved Church blessings of same-sex unions and unions between divorced and remarried Catholics, but the move has faced harsh criticism from some members of the Catholic hierarchy who have accused the German bishops of abandoning the Faith. German Cardinal Gerhard Müller and American Cardinal Raymond Burke rebuked the German…

Actor Rainn Wilson, best known for his role as Dwight in the hit TV series The Office, recently took to Twitter to criticise Hollywood’s “anti-Christian bias”. Wilson’s tweet responded to a depiction of a cannibalistic Christian preacher in a new episode of HBO’s popular zombie series The Last of Us, starring Pedro Pascal.  “I do…

Pope Francis has said that gender ideology is “one of the most dangerous ideological colonisations” today. In an interview with journalist Elisabetta Piqué for the Argentine daily newspaper La Nación, Pope Francis explained the reasoning behind his strong statement. “Gender ideology, today, is one of the most dangerous ideological colonisations,” Francis said in the interview…

The German Synodal Way has voted to adopt “implementation texts” related to same-sex blessings, lay preaching during Mass, and a request for Pope Francis to re-examine the discipline of priestly celibacy in the Latin-rite Catholic Church. The votes took place during the first two days of the fifth synodal assembly in Frankfurt, Germany. The assembly…

Isolating Syria from the international community through sanctions “benefits no one” and complicates relief efforts to the millions left homeless after earthquakes devasted the country, said a top Vatican official who visited Turkey and Syria. “We are still in the middle of this tragedy because it is not certain that the tremors are over,” said…