VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Italian health ministry's liberalization of recommendations for using RU-486 to induce an abortion is a further sign that the government is moving away from its promise to help women and families facing an unplanned pregnancy, the Pontifical Academy for Life said.
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TREVIGNANO ROMANO, Italy (CNS) -- An Italian woman who claims to regularly experience supernatural visions said Mary told her in September 2019 that a new disease would soon emerge from China. "Pray for China, because new diseases will come from there, all ready to infect the air by unknown bacteria," wrote Gisella Cardia in a message she alleges came from Mary.
Read moreVATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Catholic Church has always been very cautious when it comes to judging reported Marian apparitions. More than 1,500 visions of Mary have been reported around the world, but in the past century fewer than a dozen cases have received Church approval as being worthy of belief.
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SAO PAULO (CNS) -- Ignoring early warnings and pleas from bishops' commissions for prison ministry, countries across Latin America are seeing rising COVID-19 infection rates and deaths among inmates in their generally overcrowded prisons.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- One kind of ministry, by its nature but also church mandate, shuns the limelight and remains discreet: exorcism. Unfortunately, commercial interests and media have exploited that vacuum, offering sensationalized, spine-chilling and, yet, often inaccurate depictions.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The coronavirus pandemic has shed light on other, "more widespread social diseases," particularly attacks on the God-given human dignity of every person, Pope Francis said. "The pandemic has highlighted how vulnerable and interconnected we all are. If we do not take care of each other, starting with the least -- those who are most affected, including creation -- we cannot heal the world," the pope said Aug. 12 at his weekly general audience.
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JERUSALEM (CNS) -- From her home's balcony in the predominantly Maronite Catholic Upper Galilee village of Gush Halav -- or Jish as it is known in Arabic -- Neveen Makhoul, 37, can look out and see Lebanon.
Read moreROME (CNS) -- After the Italian health minister confirmed on Twitter plans to approve the administration of abortion-inducing pharmaceuticals outside of hospitals, Catholic commentators reacted with concern, especially for women who could be at home, cramping and bleeding.
Read moreWASHINGTON (CNS) -- During his Aug. 8 homily, Bishop Elías Bolaños Avelar of Zacatecoluca, El Salvador, admitted he was still struggling with the Aug. 6 killing of a priest from his diocese, who also was the rector of the philosophy department at the St. Óscar Romero Seminary in Santiago de María.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis has sent 250,000 euros ($295,000) to Lebanon to help the Catholic Church and Catholic charitable organizations assist people impacted by the massive explosion Aug. 4 in Beirut.
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TREVIGNANO ROMANO, Italy (CNS) -- An Italian woman who claims to regularly experience supernatural visions said Mary told her in September 2019 that a new disease would soon emerge from China. "Pray for China, because new diseases will come from there, all ready to infect the air by unknown bacteria," wrote Gisella Cardia in a message she alleges came from Mary.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Renewing the membership of the Vatican Council for the Economy, Pope Francis named six women to the previously all-male board that oversees the financial operations of all Vatican offices and entities.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Changing the words of the formula for baptism render the sacrament invalid, said the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Specifically, a baptism administered with the formula "We baptize you ..." instead of "I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" is not valid because it is the person of Christ through the minister who is acting, not the assembly, the congregation said.
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AMMAN, Jordan (CNS) -- Lebanese were reeling after a massive explosion at Beirut's port destroyed homes, businesses and livelihoods across the capital, and Catholic leaders immediately took action and called for international support.
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MEXICO CITY (CNS) -- The Nicaraguan bishops' conference has called an arson attack on the Managua cathedral "an act of terrorism," but vowed not to be intimidated as a government campaign of intolerance targeting the Catholic Church turns increasingly cruel and involves acts of sacrilege.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Let Mary inspire and guide young people today, Pope Francis told participants at the annual International Youth Festival at the Marian shrine in Medjugorje. Mary will always be "the great model of the church" because she is ready to follow Christ with vitality and docility, he said in a message to those attending the festival Aug. 1-6 in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- An author with a long and close relationship to retired Pope Benedict XVI told a German newspaper that the 93-year-old retired pope is "extremely frail." Peter Seewald, the author who has published four wide-ranging book-length interviews with the retired pope, was quoted in the Aug. 3 edition of the Bavarian newspaper Passauer Neue Presse.
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DUBLIN (CNS) -- Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh, Northern Ireland, has hailed political leader John Hume as a "paragon of peace" for his key role in bringing an end to the conflict in Northern Ireland.
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DUBLIN (CNS) -- Cardinal Michael Czerny, Pope Francis' point man on migrants, has voiced support for a German abbess facing trial for sheltering refugees. The cardinal linked Mother Mechthild Thurmer, a Benedictine nun, with "a long tradition of Christians living their faith to the final consequence."
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Human lives and jobs are not the only things threatened by the coronavirus pandemic: In many countries, democracy and efforts to build a more just world also are under attack, said Father Arturo Sosa, superior general of the Jesuits.
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China has been accused of hacking Vatican computers as well as those in the Diocese of Hong Kong and other Catholic organizations in May. The hacking appears to be an attempt to gain an advantage in talks between the Vatican and China, due to resume as early as this week, about a fresh deal on the appointment of bishops.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The recent Vatican instruction on pastoral care clarifies the responsibility of every member of the church community to work together in the shared mission of evangelization and warns against turning the parish into a mere provider of services, said Cardinal Beniamino Stella.
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MEXICO CITY (CNS) -- The Argentine bishops' conference and pro-life groups have expressed dismay with the pending approval of a new protocol on accessing abortion. In a brief statement July 27, the bishops backed an earlier declaration from Cardinal Mario Poli of Buenos Aires and his auxiliaries, which "expressed their particular worry for the extension without limits for the performance of an abortion and the absence of the institutional right to conscientious objection."
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BONN, Germany (CNS) -- The Vatican instruction on the reform of Catholic parishes continues to stir debate in Germany, where some bishops say the current parish model with a priest in charge is no longer sustainable because of a lack of vocations.
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ROME (CNS) -- The acquittal of two "right-to-die" activists who aided in the suicide of a person suffering from multiple sclerosis may force the Italian government to legalize assisted suicide in the country.
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AMMAN, Jordan (CNS) -- Catholics and other Christians are upset by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's conversion of Hagia Sophia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, into a functioning mosque where Muslim Friday prayers were recited recently.
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MEXICO CITY (CNS) -- Mexico's bishops called on Catholics to speak out ahead of a Supreme Court ruling that could lead to abortion being decriminalized nationwide. In a statement July 24, the bishops said, "We urge all Catholic faithful and all citizens to join efforts to ensure that the dignity of each human being is appreciated and that we get through the serious challenges we confront at this time in our country."
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NANTES, France (CNS) -- A Rwandan is facing up to 10 years in prison after he confessed to deliberately setting fire to the city's Gothic cathedral. French media reported the 39-year-old man, named only as Emmanuel A, admitted lighting two fires in the area of a 17th-century organ and a third above an electrical panel in the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul July 18 and a third above an electrical panel.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Italy's bishops will need to help their communities participate more in parish life and return to taking part in the sacraments in ways that continue to respect evolving measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus, according to their conference leadership.
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NAIROBI, Kenya (CNS) -- Emmanuel Milingo, the former Catholic archbishop excommunicated in 2006, has appointed an African to succeed him as head of the International Married Priest Prelature of St. Peter and Paul.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican Library has revamped its website to serve scholars better and facilitate navigation for the curious. "Because of the pandemic, physical presence has become more difficult and, therefore, the website aims to be a place for welcoming, collaboration and openness," Msgr. Cesare Pasini, the library's prefect, told Vatican News July 22.
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DUBLIN (CNS) -- The Vatican ambassador to Ireland has backed a campaign to have the government rebury the remains of infants and children found in a mass grave at a Catholic-run home. Campaigners say they hope the support of Archbishop Jude Thaddeus Okolo, papal nuncio, will put pressure on the government to act when the report of a Commission of Investigation into the deaths at the home in Tuam is released later this year. The report had been due to be released in June, but in mid-July, a spokesman for the Department of Children told Catholic News Service that he expected it to be released in October.
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MANCHESTER, England (CNS) -- The Catholic Church has failed to defend Christians effectively, partly because it historically accepted persecution as part of its "community story," a Vatican official said.
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NAIROBI, Kenya (CNS) -- As Ethiopia prepares to open the continent's largest hydroelectric dam, East African Catholic leaders emphasize water is a resource that must be shared equitably. The Nile River passes through 11 countries, but the conflict over the dam pits Ethiopia against Egypt and Sudan.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican distanced itself again from any involvement in the Spanish government's decision to exhume the remains of the country's late dictator, Gen. Francisco Franco. The statement, released by the Vatican press office July 21, was made in response to a recent interview in which Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez suggested that Pope Francis helped him resolve the divisive issue of exhumation.
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VALLA BEACH, Australia (CNS) -- China has announced that Bishop Paul Ma Cunguo of Shuozhou, a Vatican-recognized bishop, has joined the official state-run Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association. It is the third such concession made by Chinese authorities inside a month as it prepares for a new round of talks with the Vatican in Rome by the end of July. The talks are aimed at refreshing the provisional two-year September 2018 agreement on bishop's appointments, reported ucanews.com. The talks will be the first between the two sides since November 2019, most likely due to travel restrictions and health concerns linked to the COVID-19 coronavirus.
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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 17, 2020 CNA.- As Christians and world leaders lament Turkey’s reconversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque, some experts warn that the act could spell a religious resurgence as much as a nationalist action.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican's Congregation for Clergy issued a new instruction on pastoral care that specifies the role of lay men and women in the church's mission of evangelization and offers guidance in parish reforms and restructuring.
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MEXICO CITY (CNS) -- Inocente Orlando Montano, the former Salvadoran army colonel accused of participating in "the decision, design or execution of the killings" of six Jesuits in 1989, testified in his Spanish trial that no order was ever given to eliminate the priests.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith released a 17-page document offering a step-by-step guide for how bishops, religious superiors and canon lawyers are supposed to handle accusations of alleged abuse by clerics against minors.
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