Pope Francis has approved a new law strengthening the oversight of Vatican-related foundations and nonprofit organisations as well as detailing sanctions and clarifying existing norms on transparency, accountability and mandated compliance with anti-money laundering measures. The new law, which took effect December 8, applies to all legal “persons” or entities dedicated to a specific purpose…
For the second year in a row Nigeria has been left off of the US State Department’s list of countries that engage in or tolerate the world’s worst religious freedom violations, despite regular reports of kidnappings and killings of Christians, sparking outcry from members of a bipartisan government watchdog group. For more than two decades,…
Vatican holds thermal shirt drive for Ukraine The Vatican’s charity office is holding a drive to collect thermal shirts for people in Ukraine as they face an energy emergency amid the war. Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the Pope’s almoner, said December 5 that the charity office of the Vatican is “already stocking up” on thermal shirts…
The Ukrainian government said it would sanction members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate. After a December 1 meeting of the National Security and Defence Council, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the government also would review if the Church met the legal criteria for use of one of the main shrines…
Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Catholic woman who escaped death for alleged blasphemy and who now lives in Canada, has appealed for the protection of victims of blasphemy laws in her home country. She also said her family is struggling in Canada, because the government only supported them for one year, reported ucanews.com. In her first…
As California’s three-year window to file child sex abuse lawsuits past the statute of limitations nears its conclusion, 66 Catholic clergy and religious have been named in 116 lawsuits in Alameda County, which covers the area between San Francisco and San Jose. Additionally, 14 of the clergy members and religious identified in the lawsuits are…
German Synodal Way designed to create ‘pressure’ The German Synodal Way was designed from the outset to avoid legal sanctions while simultaneously creating “pressure” on the Church to change Catholic teaching, one of the founders of the process told German media Friday. Thomas Sternberg, former president of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), said…
After postponing his trip last July, Pope Francis has rescheduled for January 31-February 5 his trip to Congo and his ecumenical visit to South Sudan, the Vatican announced. With the Pope’s mobility still impaired, the new schedule for the trip has been trimmed slightly from what was planned in July, according to the scheduled released…
Migration across the Mediterranean Sea is as old as humanity, and while some governments say they want to stop that movement of people, it will not and should not happen, Pope Francis said. “Migration is essential to the well-being of this area and cannot be stopped. Therefore, it is in the interest of all parties…
Prefect of Vatican economy office steps down Three years after Pope Francis appointed him to speed up financial reforms, transparency and budget controls at the Vatican, Jesuit Fr Juan Antonio Guerrero Alves has resigned for health reasons. The Vatican announced November 30 that Fr Guerrero was stepping down as prefect of the Secretariat for the…