Category Archives: Catholicism

Pope visits women’s prison in Venice and tours Vatican show at art Biennale

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Pope Francis, 87, met inmates, staff and volunteers at Giudecca jail during first trip outside Rome for months

The pope has met female prisoners in Venice who are stars of the Vatican’s pavilion at the Biennale contemporary art show, and urged the women to rebuild their lives in the first ever papal visit to one of the world’s biggest art gatherings.

Pope Francis, 87, arrived by helicopter in the courtyard of the women’s prison on the island of Giudecca, amid concerns over his health. He has not travelled outside Rome since visiting the French city of Marseille in September.

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US priest accused of raping teen in 1975 not fit to stand trial, psychiatrists say

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Retired Lawrence Hecker, 92, charged in New Orleans, has memory loss and should be re-evaluated at later date, report finds

A 92-year-old retired Catholic priest charged with strangling a teenager and raping him in a New Orleans church in 1975 has short-term memory loss that prevents him from assisting in his defense, according to a team of forensic psychiatrists whose findings could influence whether one of Louisiana’s most prominent cases of clergy abuse is ever tried.

In a report which has not been publicly released but was reviewed Tuesday by WWL Louisiana and the Guardian, the psychiatrists said the priest – Lawrence Hecker – should not be tried for now on rape, kidnapping, crimes against nature and theft charges until he is re-evaluated later.

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Mental competency hearing delayed for US priest charged with raping teen

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Lawrence Hecker is charged with raping teenager after strangling him in 1975 in a New Orleans church

A mental competency hearing has been delayed again for a 92-year-old retired Catholic priest faced with charges of raping a teenager after strangling him unconscious in 1975 in a New Orleans church.

Lawrence Hecker’s trial on state charges of aggravated rape, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated crime against nature and theft has been delayed several times since January.

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Insider art: Vatican sets up Biennale pavilion at Venice women’s jail

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Pope Francis to attend installation that includes short film featuring Zoë Saldaña and Giudecca inmates

Originally a convent dating to the 13th century, and once a reformatory for prostitutes, the Giudecca women’s prison, set on an island in the Venetian lagoon, will this summer perform a quite different role: as the official pavilion for the Vatican at this year’s Venice Biennale.

Pope Francis is due to attend on 28 April – the first pontifical visit to the Biennale since it was founded in 1895. In the women’s prison he will see a work by Maurizio Cattelan, who notoriously created a hyper-real sculpture in 1999 depicting Pope John Paul II struck down by a meteorite.

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Catholics’ fury as Italian TV ad depicts nuns eating crisps for communion

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Viewers’ association accuses Amica Chips of resorting to blasphemy in order to increase sales

An Italian TV advert that depicts nuns eating crisps instead of altar bread while receiving holy communion has been accused of blasphemy by an outraged association of Catholic TV viewers.

The 30-second advert for Amica Chips – one of Italy’s top crisps brands – takes place in a monastery and opens with nuns preparing to receive holy communion. Their mother superior realises that the tabernacle is empty of hosts, and so fills it with crisps.

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Doctor to say if New Orleans priest with rape charges is competent to stand trial

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Catholic priest Lawrence Hecker, 92, was evaluated by psychiatrist after defense attorneys said he’s too sick to be tried

Seven months after his arrest on rape and kidnapping charges, 92-year-old Catholic priest Lawrence Hecker appeared in court in Louisiana on Thursday in an orange prison jumpsuit, was rolled in a wheelchair to a back room and was evaluated by a doctor to see if he’s competent to stand trial.

Since being charged with aggravated rape, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated crime against nature and theft, Hecker has taken ill and was transferred from Orleans parish jail to a long-term care facility, under armed guard. Hecker’s defense attorneys argue he’s too sick to be tried and filed a motion last month to have him evaluated for his mental competency.

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Pope presides over Easter Vigil service after skipping Good Friday procession

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Appearance comes a day after last-minute decision to miss previous service to ‘conserve his health’

Pope Francis presided over the Vatican’s somber Easter Vigil service on Saturday night, a day after making the last-minute decision to skip his participation in the Good Friday procession at the Colosseum as a health precaution.

Francis entered the darkened, silent St Peter’s Basilica in his wheelchair, took his place in a chair and offered an opening prayer, sounding somewhat congested and out of breath.

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Sagrada Familia in Barcelona ‘will be completed in 2026’

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New date for Antoni Gaudí’s basilica announced but enormous, controversial stairway will take another eight years

Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia basilica has a new completion date of 2026, which will come 144 years after the first stone was laid.

The president of the organisation tasked with completing Antoni Gaudí’s masterwork announced the date last Wednesday, which coincides with the centenary of the death of the building’s architect.

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Dismay as Louisiana lookback law for child sexual abuse victims struck down

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Court rules 4-3 to overturn law that had allowed victims to file civil suits over sexual abuse that took place decades ago

In a split ruling that has major implications for hundreds of child sexual abuse victims, the Louisiana state supreme court has struck down a law that had allowed victims to file civil lawsuits over molestation that happened decades ago.

Child molestation victims and their advocates were devastated by the 4-3 ruling from a court whose members are elected.

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Pope criticised for saying Ukraine should ‘raise white flag’ and end war with Russia

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Francis’s failure to condemn Moscow as aggressor decried as ‘shameful’ and ‘incomprehensible’

Pope Francis has been criticised after saying Ukraine should have the courage of the “white flag” and negotiate an end to the war with Russia.

Some politicians and commentators in Europe reacted with anger after the pontiff appeared to stay silent on Russia’s crimes as aggressor in the invasion, which has killed tens of thousands, and placed the onus on Ukraine to make peace.

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Priest accused of abusing Inuit children in Canada will not be dismissed by church

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Senior church officials in Rome decline to act, citing worsening health of French clergyman known as ‘devil priest’

A French clergyman dubbed the “devil priest” who stands accused of sexually abusing Inuit children in Canada’s north will not be dismissed from his congregation after senior church officials in Rome declined to act, citing the nonagenarian’s declining health.

Johannes Rivoire, a priest with the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, worked in several Canadian Arctic communities in the 1960s and 70s before returning to France in 1993.

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New York archdiocese calls funeral for trans activist at cathedral ‘scandalous’

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Pastor of St Patrick’s Cathedral condemns service for Cecilia Gentili after she was celebrated as being ‘mother of all whores’

The Roman Catholic archdiocese of New York City has condemned a funeral service for the transgender activist Cecilia Gentili at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral after congregants cheered her for being celebrated as “the mother of all whores”.

The packed funeral – organisers reported 1,400 mourners – took place on Thursday, 10 days after the Argentinian-born Gentili, 52, died at her Brooklyn home.

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‘Sexual pleasure a gift from God’ but avoid porn, Pope Francis advises

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Pontiff thought be be responding to conservative critics after sexually explicit book by cardinal resurfaces

“Sexual pleasure is a gift from God” but Catholics must avoid pornography, Pope Francis has said.

The pontiff made the remarks during a catechesis devoted to the “vice of lust” at his general audience in Saint Peter’s Square on Wednesday.

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Catholic bishop subject of Vatican investigation no longer in control of Broome charities

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Christopher Saunders, who has denied accusations he sexually assaulted young Aboriginal men, was responsible for nine charities

The Catholic bishop Christopher Saunders, who is accused of sexually assaulting and grooming young Aboriginal men, has been removed as the person responsible for nine Broome diocese charities, records show.

Saunders, who denies the accusations, which are alleged to have occurred during his almost five-decade career, stood aside as the bishop of Broome in 2020 and Pope Francis accepted his resignation in 2021. He is now described as “emeritus” bishop of Broome.

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‘Meloni’s response left me stunned’: the Italian priest taking on the mafia

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Maurizio Patriciello has had police protection since a bombing near his church in Caivano, Naples, but he vows to keep fighting crime

Father Maurizio Patriciello is running late. “I’m waiting for my bodyguards,” he says by text message.

He is neither a celebrity nor a politician but a parish priest in Caivano, a desolate, crime-ridden town on the outskirts of Naples. He has been living under police protection ever since a bomb, accompanied by the message “get out of our way”, exploded by the gate of his church.

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Shia LaBeouf mulls plan to become deacon after Catholic confirmation

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Actor, 37, received sacrament on New Year’s Eve and Capuchin friar Alexander Rodriguez says he wishes to be a deacon ‘in the future’

The Hollywood actor Shia LaBeouf is seeking to becoming a Catholic deacon after receiving the sacrament of confirmation on New Year’s Eve.

A California-based chapter of the Capuchin Franciscans, a Catholic religious order, shared the news in a Facebook post on Tuesday alongside photos of the 37-year-old actor smiling next to several of the organization’s members.

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Vatican: same-sex couples ruling is not endorsement of homosexuality

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New practice does not endorse homosexuality but is not heretical, Catholic church says amid opposition from some bishops

The Vatican has stressed that allowing priests to bless same-sex couples is not an endorsement of homosexuality, but neither is it blasphemous, after some Catholic bishops reacted negatively to the measure announced last month.

Pope Francis approved a ruling in December allowing priests to bless unmarried and same-sex couples so long as the blessing was performed without any type of ritualisation and did not give the impression of the church’s approval of the relationship.

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Italian priest struck off for calling Francis an ‘anti-pope usurper’

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Priest in Tuscany compares Francis unfavourably with Pope Benedict in New Year’s Eve address shared online

An Italian priest has been struck off after calling Pope Francis an “anti-pope usurper” in his New Year’s Eve homily.

Father Ramon Guidetti’s speech to the congregation at St Ranieri church in Guasticce, a hamlet in the Tuscan province of Livorno, was a tribute marking the first anniversary of the death of Francis’s predecessor Benedict XVI.

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‘Sorrow and silence’ in Bethlehem as Christmas festivities are cancelled

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The streets are usually thronged with tourists and pilgrims but this year the town is mourning the dead of the Gaza war

In the days leading up to Christmas, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, said that one particular Bible verse kept running through his mind.

“When Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem she gave birth to the Lord in a manger because ‘there was no room for them’,” he told about 5,000 people during the Christmas Eve midnight mass service in the Palestinian town where Christians believe Jesus was born.

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Indian Christians find comfort and joy in church communities across Britain

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And churches used to dwindling congregations are delighted to see numbers boosted by worshippers of all ages

Father Happy Jacob has a reason to be cheerful. When he started St Thomas’s Indian Orthodox Church in Liverpool in 2002, his congregation numbered about 60 families, and stayed at that level for almost two decades.

Then, a few years ago, things began to change. “We have seen a massive increase in families coming to the church,” says Jacob, 48. At his last count, there were 110 families, with worshippers including NHS workers, international students and about 100 school-age children.

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