Category Archives: Catholicism

‘The Saint’ leaves Italian town after case opened into statue’s ‘tears of blood’

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Maria Giuseppe Scarpulla investigated after claim blood stains on statue of Virgin Mary come from a pig

A woman nicknamed “the Saint” has mysteriously vanished from a small lakeside town near Rome where pilgrims have flocked for years to pray before a statue of the Virgin Mary that she claimed shed tears of blood.

Maria Giuseppe Scarpulla, originally from Sicily, and her husband reportedly fled Trevignano Romano last week after a private investigator triggered a judicial investigation against her based on his alleged finding that the blood stains on the statue came from a pig.

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‘I’m still alive’: Pope Francis leaves hospital after bronchitis treatment

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Pope, 86, responded well to antibiotic infusion for breathing difficulties, medical team says

Pope Francis has left hospital to return to the Vatican after being treated for bronchitis, quipping to journalists before being driven away: “I’m still alive.”

The pope, 86, was taken to Rome’s Gemelli hospital three days ago after complaining of breathing difficulties. He had responded well to an infusion of antibiotics, his medical team has said.

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Australian Catholic order accused of waiting for paedophile to die and using death to shield it from abuse claims

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Marist Brothers approach in seeking to halt a survivor’s case over a clergy member’s death would be ‘absolutely perverse’, court hears

A Catholic order allegedly sat on its hands for almost two years waiting for a notorious paedophile clergy member to die and is now using his death to claim it could no longer receive a fair trial against one of his victims, an approach described in court as “absolutely perverse”.

The Marist Brothers order is currently seeking to permanently halt a survivor’s case alleging abuse by the late Brother Francis “Romuald” Cable, arguing his death renders it unable to fairly defend itself because it can no longer call him as a witness.

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Australian Catholic order argues paedophile’s death shields it from abuse claims

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Marist Brothers are accused of concealing Francis Cable’s crimes for decades but say they cannot receive a fair trial because they are unable obtain a witness statement from him

A Catholic order will argue on Friday it should be shielded from abuse claims relating to one of the worst paedophiles in the New South Wales Catholic school system because he is dead, despite allegedly concealing his crimes from authorities for decades.

The Marist Brothers allegedly knew of child abuse complaints about Brother Francis “Romuald” Cable from at least 1967, but did nothing to either eject him from the order or inform police, court documents obtained by the Guardian show.

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Catholic church uses paedophile priest’s death to try to block NSW survivor’s lawsuit

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Case is latest in series where church seeks to capitalise on landmark ruling that a priest’s death meant church could not receive a fair trial

The Catholic church is attempting to use the death of a paedophile, who had been jailed for the abuse of 17 children, to shield itself from further civil claims from his survivors.

In recent months, the church has adopted an increasingly aggressive approach to survivors in cases where paedophile clergy have died. It has sought to capitalise on a recent decision in New South Wales’s highest court that ruled a priest’s death meant the church could not receive a fair trial in a claim brought by a woman known as GLJ.

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Catholic bishop David O’Connell shot dead near Los Angeles

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Killing in Hacienda Heights being investigated as homicide, LA county sheriff’s department says

A Catholic bishop in southern California who was hailed as a “peacemaker” was shot and killed on Saturday blocks away from a church, stunning the Los Angeles religious community.

Detectives were investigating the death of Bishop David O’Connell as a homicide, the Los Angeles county sheriff’s department said.

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Portugal: Catholic clergy abused nearly 5,000 children since 1950, inquiry finds

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Independent commission reaches conclusion after hearing evidence from over 500 survivors last year

Catholic clergy in Portugal have abused nearly 5,000 children since 1950, an independent commission said on Monday after hearing hundreds of survivors’ accounts.

Thousands of reports of paedophilia within the church have surfaced around the world, and Pope Francis is under pressure to tackle the scandal.

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Vatican expels ‘rebel nuns’ for refusing to leave Italian monastery

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Two nuns told they ‘disobeyed the church’ by trying to stay at seven-centuries-old site in Ravello

The Vatican has expelled two cloistered sisters from the nunhood after the pair disobeyed a request to leave a seven-centuries-old monastery along Italy’s Amalfi coast.

Known in the clifftop town of Ravello as “the rebel nuns”, Massimiliana Panza and Angela Maria Punnackal left the Santa Chiara monastery on Saturday after receiving a letter signed by Pope Francis telling them they were being relieved of “the obligations of sacred ordination”.

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Pope urges churches in South Sudan to raise voices against injustice

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Pontiff says on peace mission that religious leaders ‘cannot remain neutral’ amid abuses of power

Pope Francis has said churches in South Sudan “cannot remain neutral” but must raise their voices against injustice and abuse of power, as he and two other Christian leaders conducted a peace mission to the world’s newest country.

On his first full day in South Sudan, Francis addressed Catholic bishops, priests and nuns in St Theresa Cathedral in the capital, Juba, as the archbishop of Canterbury and the head of the Church of Scotland held services elsewhere.

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George Pell funeral: hundreds protest outside St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney

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LGBTQ+ protesters condemn cardinal’s record on same-sex marriage, women’s rights and protecting children from clergy abuse

Hundreds of people have marched in protest outside Cardinal George Pell’s funeral service at St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney, with heated exchanges between his detractors and admirers.

Campaign group Community Action for Rainbow Rights (Carr) planned the protest through Sydney to the cathedral on the day of Pell’s requiem mass, in condemnation of his opposition to same-sex marriage and women’s rights, and his failure to protect children from widespread sexual abuse within the Catholic church.

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George Pell funeral: Tony Abbott praises cardinal as a ‘saint for our times’ and rails against child abuse charges

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Former PM says the cardinal was ‘the greatest man I’ve ever known’, likening his treatment to a ‘modern-day crucifixion’

Former prime minister Tony Abbott has described George Pell, a man found to have failed to act on knowledge of child abuse, as “the greatest man I’ve ever known”, likening him to a saint and comparing his treatment to “modern-day crucifixion”.

Abbott spoke at Pell’s funeral on Thursday and variously described him as “one of our country’s greatest sons”, a “great hero” and a “saint for our times”.

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George Pell funeral: removing abuse victims’ ribbons is wrong, former church official says

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Advocates furious the church keeps removing ribbons intended to give voice to survivors of clergy abuse

Francis Sullivan, the former head of the Catholic church’s Truth Justice and Healing Council, says the removal of ribbons commemorating abuse survivors from St Mary’s Cathedral appears designed to prevent the scandal from being “associated with Cardinal [George] Pell” in the days leading up to his funeral.

Survivors and their supporters are furious that the church is continually removing ribbons they have tied to the fence surrounding Sydney’s St Mary’s Cathedral before the requiem mass planned for Pell on Thursday.

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Pope and Justin Welby to visit South Sudan amid tensions over LGBTQ+ rights

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Head of Anglican church in South Sudan said archbishop of Canterbury was ‘failing to defend biblical truth’

Pope Francis and the archbishop of Canterbury will begin a historic joint visit to South Sudan on Friday against the backdrop of potential tensions over LGBTQ+ rights.

The leaders of the global Roman Catholic and Anglican churches, whose numbers are growing in sub-Saharan Africa in contrast to the west, will be joined on their “pilgrimage of peace” by the leader of the Church of Scotland.

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Church v state: Daniel Andrews’ candid comments after George Pell’s death reflect a long-held stance

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Victorian MPs are adamant the premier’s views are based on principle, not political instincts

Responding to the death of George Pell – a staunch conservative found guilty and then acquitted of child sexual abuse – is inevitably a political minefield. But Daniel Andrews and the Victorian government chose to go where others didn’t.

Mere minutes after the Vatican confirmed the cardinal’s death at the age of 81, the government minister Steve Dimopoulos acknowledged the news could be triggering for survivors of child sexual abuse.

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George Pell lying in state in Vatican’s St Stephen of the Abyssinians church

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Around 20 people were seen kneeling in prayer in the church – typically used for baptisms and weddings – prior to funeral for Australia’s most senior Catholic

George Pell, Australia’s most senior Catholic, is lying in state in a closed dark brown wooden coffin behind the walls of the Vatican as preparations continue for his funeral, which will be blessed by Pope Francis.

Pell, who was the subject of damning findings by Australia’s child abuse royal commission, is in a coffin on the floor of the small church of St Stephen of the Abyssinians, inside the Vatican walls.

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George Pell wrote memo calling papacy of Pope Francis a ‘catastrophe’

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Journalist who published the anonymous memo criticising ‘politically correct’ decisions reveals cardinal was its author

Cardinal George Pell was the author of an anonymous memo condemning the papacy of Pope Francis as a “catastrophe” where political correctness held sway while global wrongs were ignored, says the journalist who published it.

Released last year under the pseudonym Demos, the document accuses the pope of silence on moral issues, including the German Catholic church’s openness to the LGBTQ community, female priests and communion for the divorced.

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News live updates: Albanese flags Australian interest in Papua New Guinea hydro and hydrogen; NSW and Victoria rule out Pell state funeral

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Victorian premier says there will not be a state service for cardinal, out of respect for victim-survivors of institutional child sexual abuse. Follow live

Visa processing problems in spotlight

Pat Conroy acknowledged ongoing visa processing issues and said the government was “hopeful that we can get a resolution on that issue”:

People in Papua New Guinea are also very keen on our Pacific engagement visa, which is about creating 3,000 permanent migration spots each year into Australia … and there’s also lots of interest in Papua New Guineans working, studying in Australia as well.

His message around democracies is that [it is] incumbent upon politicians in both countries [to] defend democracy and we defend democracy by demonstrating it’s the best system to deliver actual benefits for the people that we govern. So that’s about investing in stronger health outcomes, lifting stronger economic outcomes.

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Daniel Andrews ‘couldn’t think of anything more distressing’ for victims than a state funeral for George Pell

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Victorian premier says those abused ‘at the hands of the Catholic church’ are foremost in his thoughts

Two Australian state governments will not offer taxpayer-funded public funerals for Cardinal George Pell, with the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, saying his decision was made out of respect for victims of institutional child sexual abuse.

The nation’s most senior Catholic, who was a former archbishop of both Melbourne and Sydney, died on Wednesday morning (AEDT) from heart complications arising from hip replacement surgery in Rome. He was 81.

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Pope Francis pays tribute to controversial cardinal George Pell

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Pontiff praises ‘determination and wisdom’ of Pell, who was convicted but then acquitted of child sexual abuse

Pope Francis has praised George Pell for his “determination and wisdom”, in a statement dedicated to the controversial cardinal after his death at the age of 81.

Pell, who was Australia’s most senior Catholic and was found guilty and then acquitted of child sexual abuse, had undergone a hip operation in Rome and died after a cardiac arrest. Days earlier, he attended the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican.

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