Philippe Barbarin could face up to three years in jail if convicted of failing to report priest who abused Scouts
The highest-profile Catholic cleric to be caught up in a paedophile scandal in France is going on trial charged with failing to report a priest who abused Scouts in the 1980s and 90s.
Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, the archbishop of Lyon, is accused along with five others from his diocese of helping cover up abuse in one of the parishes in the area.
Continue reading...Newly elected head receives decree of autocephaly in elaborate ceremony in Istanbul
The biggest rift in Christianity in centuries is expected to open up after a new Orthodox church in Ukraine gained formal independence from Moscow in a move set to heighten geopolitical tensions in the region.
The newly elected head of the Ukrainian Orthodox church travelled to Istanbul to receive the “tomos”, or decree of autocephaly (independence), from the Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, in an elaborate ceremony in St George’s Cathedral on the eve of the Orthodox Christmas.
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