Three priests associated with a minor seminary located in the Vatican testified that they neither witnessed nor were informed of suspected cases of sexual abuse occurring at the school. Taking the stand at the Vatican City State criminal court April 14, the three priests affiliated with the St Pius X Pre-Seminary also cast doubt on…
Category: World Report
Christian leaders in Nigeria allege Islamisation attempt
Christian leaders in Nigeria claimed April 11 that Muhammadu Buhari’s government is keen on Islamising the West African nation, following the recent appointments of Court of Appeal judges. In their statement, the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria called for “serious adjustments” on already executed appointments, and a “paradigm shift” in future appointments. “Under…
German legislators consider ending state payments to churches
Germany’s lower house of Parliament is considering replacing state payments to the nation’s two largest churches. The Catholic and Protestant churches received combined state benefits of more than $542 million in 2020. At a hearing in the interior affairs committee of the Bundestag, or lower house of parliament, they welcomed in principle the intention of…
Christian anthropology can renew the West, Vatican foreign minister says
It is a difficult and uncertain moment in the West, when the vision of who man is and what he is for is being questioned, and the answers proposed by society are “short-sighted,” the Vatican’s foreign minister has said. In an interview with Le Sfide magazine, Archbishop Paul Gallagher said he is “cautiously optimistic” about…
Vatican Roundup
Major Vatican conference on priesthood slated for 2022 Increasing vocations to the priesthood, improving the way laypeople and priests work together and ensuring that service, not power, motivates the request for ordination are all possible outcomes of a major symposium being planned by the Vatican in February 2022. “A theological symposium does not claim to…
In Brief
Sponsor a gargoyle: Fundraiser launched for Notre Dame A novel fundraising approach to restore one of the most iconic monuments in the world, the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, enables donors to have a piece of history. On April 15, Friends of Notre-Dame de Paris unveiled an interactive website – restorenotredame.org – that allows…
Prayer is more than mental exercise or meditation, Pope says
Prayer is more than just a mental exercise or form of meditation, said Pope Francis at his weekly general audience, as he reflected on the importance of speaking the words of prayers out loud
Vatican statistics show continued growth in number of Catholics worldwide
The number of Catholics and permanent deacons in the world has shown steady growth, while the number of religious men and women continued to decrease, according to Vatican statistics. At the end of 2019, the worldwide Catholic population exceeded 1.34 billion, which continued to be about 17.7% of the world’s population, said an article published…
Martyrs’ bones identified almost 150 years after discovery in an attic
Two skulls and a cluster of other bones discovered in the attic of a house in the Welsh town of Holywell have been identified as Welsh priests and martyrs Philip Evans and John Lloyd. The bones were discovered in 1858, but it wasn’t until recently they were identified, by Jan Graffius, curator of the Stonyhurst…
Church in France opposes bill to legalise euthanasia
As parliamentarians debated last Thursday a bill to legalise euthanasia, French bishops spoke out against the proposal. A bill to institute a right to “a free and chosen end of life” was debated in the National Assembly, the lower house of France’s parliament, April 8. “The solution when a person faces suffering is not to…