Pope Francis has abolished the Catholic Church’s ‘pontifical secrecy’ in cases of clerical sexual abuse of minors in a major reform of canon law. The rule had been heavily criticized for protecting abusers and silencing victims. The pontiff issued two new documents on Tuesday changing how the Church handles abuse[…]
Former Vatican treasurer Cardinal George Pell will spend his first night behind bars on Wednesday after he was remanded into custody pending sentencing for sexually abusing two choir boys in Australia two decades ago. Pell, a former top adviser to Pope Francis and the most senior Catholic cleric to be[…]
Tens of thousands of Catholics and several thousand Muslims attended an unprecedented public celebration of Mass on Tuesday by Pope Francis, the first pontiff in history to visit the Arabian peninsula. About 135,000 worshippers gathered in Zayed Sports City stadium in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates,[…]
A senior Vatican official called on Pope Francis to resign, accusing the pontiff of failing to act sooner on sexual abuse allegations against former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. In an 11-page statement, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano said sanctions imposed on McCarrick by Pope Benedict XVI over sexual misconduct were lifted under[…]
Pope Francis has arrived in Myanmar on his first trip to the Southeast Asian nation, where tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees have faced brutal military crackdown in the past three months. His trip comes as the Myanmar government is accused of “ethnically cleansing” its Rohingya Muslim minority, more than[…]
Pope Francis met the grand imam of Cairo’s Al-Azhar Mosque at the Vatican on Monday in a historic encounter that was sealed with a hugely symbolic hug and exchange of kisses. The first Vatican meeting between the leader of the world’s Catholics and the highest authority in Sunni Islam marks[…]
Pope Francis, speaking at New York’s St Patrick’s Cathedral, has expressed “closeness” with the world’s Muslims after more than 700 pilgrims were killed in a stampede outside the Islamic holy city of Mecca. Speaking during a packed evening prayer service on Thursday, the pope said he wanted to express “my[…]
Pope Francis’s reference to President Mahmoud Abbas as “an angel of peace” was meant as encouragement for him to pursue peace with Israel, the Vatican said Monday, after the words whipped up controversy on social media. The pope often presents heads of states with a large bronze medallion representing an[…]
The Vatican has become the latest country to recognize the state of Palestine, after a new treaty was finalized on Wednesday. Unsurprisingly Israel has hit out at the move, saying that it damages prospects for peace in the region. The treaty, which was agreed, though has yet to be formally[…]
Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has appealed to Pope Francis to reconsider meeting the Dalai Lama, the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation said on Monday. “I am very aware of the dilemma in which so many have been finding themselves with regard to their relationships with His Holiness and the[…]
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