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by Catherine Marciano and Ella Ide VATICAN CITY (AFP) — The Vatican admitted Tuesday that late pope John Paul II ignored advice against promoting US clergyman Theodore McCarrick to cardinal given rumours of sexual misconduct against him that were later substantiated. The admission was made in the 450-page findings of a two-year investigation into who knew what about McCarrick’s abuse of at least one teenage boy and a number of male seminarians. The latest in […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — Pope Francis’s former envoy to France, Luigi Ventura, goes on trial in Paris on Tuesday for sexual assault following complaints by five men who accused him of groping them during public ceremonies. The allegations against the 75-year-old Italian-born archbishop caused deep embarrassment for the Vatican, coming in the midst of a slew of revelations about clerical sex abuse that have rocked the Catholic Church. Ventura was stripped of his diplomatic […]
VATICAN CITY (AFP) — Some senior nuns are abusing their power, including by denying sisters healthcare and warm clothes, a report in a Catholic journal said on Friday. The Jesuit review Civilita Cattolica said that the problem of abuse of power by nuns “has not so far had sufficient attention.” The abuse “mostly does not take the form of sexual violence and does not concern minors,” the journal noted. Some mother superiors cling to […]
VATICAN CITY (AFP) — The Vatican on Thursday took the unprecedented step of closing all Catholic churches across Rome to stem the spread of a coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 1,000 people across Italy. The papal vicar for Rome said the churches would reopen when a broader Italian government crackdown on public gatherings expires on April 3. “The faithful are consequently exempt from their obligation to fulfill the festive precept,” a statement […]
VATICAN (AFP) — The Vatican on Friday reported its first coronavirus case, saying it had suspended outpatient services at its health clinic after a patient tested positive for COVID-19. The clinic inside the tiny city-state — which has some 1,000 residents — will be deep cleaned, while the emergency room will remain open, spokesman Matteo Bruni told AFP. The patient tested positive on Thursday. The clinic is used by priests, residents and employees — including […]
VATICAN CITY (AFP) — Catholic Church’s Pope Francis postponed his official appointments Friday and was working from home, the Vatican said, a day after cancelling a scheduled appearance at mass because of “a mild ailment”. Francis, 83, had appeared earlier in the week to be suffering from a cold. He was seen blowing his nose and coughing during the Ash Wednesday service, and his voice sounded hoarse. He celebrated morning mass as usual and […]
ROME, Italy (AFP) — Former nuns “abandoned” by the Catholic Church, including some who became prostitutes to survive, have been sheltered at a Vatican residence for more than a year, a Brazilian cardinal said. Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz confirmed the house’s existence at an undisclosed location in Vatican City during an interview for the February issue of the Vatican’s magazine Women Church World. In the wide-ranging interview about women’s roles in the church, […]
by Catherine MARCIANO Agence France Presse VATICAN CITY (AFP) — Catholic bishops gathered at a special Vatican assembly will vote Saturday on whether to recommend to Catholic Church’s Pope Francis to open the priesthood to married men or create female deacons, issues that are taboo for traditionalists. The ballot comes at the close of a three-week “synod” on the Pan-Amazonian region which highlighted the challenges facing the region, from the destruction of the rainforest to […]
by Catherine MARCIANO Agence France Presse VATICAN CITY (AFP) — An idea to fill empty pulpits in remote locations by allowing married men to become priests is bitterly dividing a Vatican assembly, with critics warning the emotive issue could fracture the Catholic Church. The hot-button topic of whether an exception can be made to the centuries-old custom of celibacy in places where there is a shortage of priests has dominated the start of the three-week […]
Catholic Church’s Pope Francis officially accepted on Thursday the resignation of New York’s Bishop John Jenik, who has been accused of sexually abusing a teenager. Jenik was suspended in 2018 pending a Church investigation into the alleged assault, which reportedly took place in the 1980s while the American was pastor of a Bronx parish. “Although the alleged incidents occurred decades ago, the Lay Review Board has concluded that the evidence is sufficient to find […]
by Allison Jackson, with Valeria Pacheco in Puerto Maldonado, Peru Agence France Presse ITAITUBA, Brazil (AFP) — A shortage of Catholic priests in the Amazon is eroding the church’s influence in the remote region, bishops in Brazil and Peru warn, ahead of a Vatican synod dedicated to the rainforest. Wilmar Santin, one of scores of Brazilian bishops set to attend the October 6-27 gathering, says the church is ceding ground to more nimble Evangelical […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Disgraced Cardinal George Pell lodged an appeal against his child sex abuse convictions in Australia’s High Court on Tuesday, an official in Canberra said. It is the final avenue of appeal for the 78-year-old — who is serving a six-year sentence for sexually assaulting two choirboys in the 1990s — to get out of jail and clear his name. The former Vatican treasurer who once helped elect popes, last month […]
