Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai has implored Lebanon’s patron saint to help save the country from “total collapse” amid one of the worst financial crises the world has seen in decades. In a homily for the feast of St Charbel, the leader of Lebanon’s Maronite Catholics said that he sought the intercession of the 19th-century Lebanese…
Synod of Bishops publishes list of commission members The Vatican released the names of members of two commissions charged with assisting the leaders of the Synod of Bishops’ general secretariat in reviewing documents, drafting resources and developing best practices. According to the synod website, the theological commission and the methodology commission will include religious and…
‘Do not abandon Mozambique’, say Catholics, amid jihadist attacks l Islamist terrorism threatens the future of Mozambique, according to a Catholic community aiding hundreds of thousands of refugees driven out by attacks. “Do not abandon the people of Mozambique,” Fr Angelo Romano urged at a press conference in Rome on July 21. “The future prospects…
Glasgow’s third oldest Catholic church has been gutted by an overnight fire leaving the local community devastated. The loss is acutely felt by the Polish community since St Simon’s Church, which was built in 1858, has been a spiritual home for the Poles since large numbers of immigrants arrives following Poland’s accession to the European…
Catholic bishops criticised the “lethargic pace” of a government inquiry in to the Easter 2019 Church bombings, warning that they will begin organising the faithful to action if their demands for an official explanation are not met. The bishops have given Sri Lanka’s government a one-month deadline to answer their letter sent on behalf of…
More than 220,000 people left the Catholic Church in Germany in 2020, according to official figures released last Wednesday. The statistics issued by the German bishops’ conference on July 14 showed that 221,390 people exited the Catholic Church last year. The figure was almost 19% lower than that of 2019, when a record 272,771 people departed. But it was…
A two-time survivor of China’s detention camps in Xinjiang described suffering physical and sexual violence at the hands of camp guards, in her July 14 testimony at an international religious freedom gathering in Washington, DC. Tursunay Ziyawudun, 42, of China’s northwest province of Xinjiang, spoke at the International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington, DC on…
A Vatican prosecutor requested that Fr Gabriele Martinelli, who is accused of sexually abusing a younger student at the St Pius X Pre-Seminary, be sentenced to six years in prison if convicted. At the 11th session of the Vatican criminal trial July 15, Roberto Zanotti, the prosecutor, explained that the recommended sentence for the crimes…
Church officials are studying a reported miracle attributed to an Italian Catholic who died at the age of 21, the postulator of his cause has said. Fr Walter Vinci, Postulator General of the Order of St Camillus, noted that Pope Francis had recognised the heroic virtues of Nicola d’Onofrio on July 5, 2013. Heroic virtue is one…
Vatican’s financial watchdog highlights ‘increasing trend’ in reports to Promoter of Justice The Vatican’s financial watchdog authority reported last Thursday that it received 89 suspicious activity reports in 2020, 16 of which it forwarded to the Promoter of Justice for possible prosecution. In a 52-page annual report, released July 15, the Supervisory and Financial Information Authority…
Michael Kelly