Archive

Lyon, France, Jan 15, 2020 / 07:01 pm (CNA).- Bernard Preynat, a former priest of the Archdiocese of Lyon, is on trial before a civil court in France. He has been accused of sexually abusing dozens of minors between 1971 and 1991; he was found guilty by an ecclesiastical tribunal last year. Allegations against Preynat,… Read More »

Vatican City, Jan 15, 2020 / 11:52 am (CNA).- Cardinal Claudio Hummes, the relator general of the Amazon synod, sent a letter Monday to some ordinaries indicating that the apostolic exhortation on the synod should be promulgated this month or the next. “The draft is currently being reviewed and corrected and then needs to be… Read More »

Washington D.C., Jan 15, 2020 / 11:00 am (CNA).- More than a dozen members of Congress have asked President Trump to press for the release of U.S. pastors imprisoned in China, as the two countries sign phase one of a trade agreement today. Six senators and seven House members sent a letter to the President… Read More »

Vatican City, Jan 15, 2020 / 10:53 am (CNA).- Pope Francis has named Dr. Francesca Di Giovanni as undersecretary for multilateral affairs in the Vatican Secretariat of State, marking the first time that a woman has been appointed to a managerial position in the secretariat. Di Giovanni, 66, was appointed undersecretary for the Section in… Read More »

Paris, France, Jan 15, 2020 / 06:00 am (CNA).- The French Catholic bishops’ conference permanent council has approved a recommendation to remove references to the sex of parents on baptismal registry forms. “The increasingly complex situation of families in France makes it extremely difficult to draft Catholic acts, especially regarding baptism,” Bishop Joseph de Metz-Noblat… Read More »

Vatican City, Jan 15, 2020 / 04:00 am (CNA).- While often persecuted and misunderstood, the Church never tires of announcing the love of God made present in Jesus Christ, Pope Francis said Wednesday. With this reflection, the pope completed an eight-month long series of weekly Biblical meditations on every chapter of the Acts of the… Read More »

New York City, N.Y., Jan 14, 2020 / 01:00 pm (CNA).- The Diocese of Brooklyn has responded to an act of vandalism at a parish this past Sunday, and released a video showing a man “desecrating” the altar during Mass. According to a statement released by the Brooklyn diocese on Tuesday, the incident occurred during the… Read More »

Vatican City, Jan 14, 2020 / 12:37 pm (CNA).- In his chapter in a new book on priestly celibacy, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI says a historical understanding of the priesthood in the Old and New Testaments makes it clear that celibacy is an ontological, rather than optional, part of the Catholic priesthood. “From the Depths… Read More »

Ghent, Belgium, Jan 14, 2020 / 12:30 pm (CNA).- A Belgian lawyer has admitted to searching the social media profiles of potential jurors to weed out “devout Catholics” for a trail. The lawyer is representing a doctor who is accused of “unlawfully poisoning” an autistic woman via euthanasia.  Lawyer Walter Van Steenbrugge, who is defense… Read More »

Vatican City, Jan 14, 2020 / 10:32 am (CNA).- Amid still-unfolding controversy surrounding a new book on priestly celibacy, the book’s US publisher says it plans to continue identifying pope emeritus Benedict XVI as coauthor of the text. The former pope’s private secretary requested Tuesday that Benedict not be listed as a coauthor. The book,… Read More »