Category Archives: Vatican

Excommunicated Spanish ‘witch’ village turns curse into tourist cash

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Embracing its strange past is a blessing for Trasmoz as thousands flock to its witchcraft attractions

Tucked into the foothills of northern Spain, the village of Trasmoz attracts thousands of tourists each year. For many, the allure is not its half-ruined castle nor stunning mountain backdrop but rather a curious quirk of history: Trasmoz is Spain’s only excommunicated and cursed village.

“So far, being excommunicated and cursed hasn’t been bad for us,” said Lola Ruiz Diaz, one of the 47 or so people who live all year round in Trasmoz, some 50 miles north-west of Zaragoza. “It’s turned out to be a point in our favour.”

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Vatican reveals it owns more than 5,000 properties

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Real estate holdings published for first time show it owns 4,051 properties in Italy, 1,120 abroad

The Vatican has released information on its real estate holdings for the first time, revealing it owns more than 5,000 properties, as part of its most detailed financial disclosures ever.

The information released on Saturday was contained in two documents – a consolidated financial statement for 2020 for the Holy See and the first ever public budget for the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (Apsa).

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Pope Francis goes to hospital for scheduled surgery on colon

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Vatican says pontiff will undergo operation for diverticular stenosis of the colon

Pope Francis has been admitted to a hospital in Rome for scheduled surgery on his large intestine, the Vatican has said. The news came just three hours after the pope had cheerfully greeted the public in St Peter’s Square and told them he would visit Hungary and Slovakia in September.

The brief statement from the Holy See’s press office did not say exactly when the surgery would be performed at the Gemelli Polyclinic, a Catholic teaching hospital, only that there would be a medical update when the surgery was complete. However, sources indicated that the surgery would be carried out later on Sunday.

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Vatican urges Italy to stop proposed anti-homophobia law

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Law calls into question the church’s ‘freedom of organisation’ and threatens ‘freedom of thought’, letter claims

The Vatican has made an unprecedented intervention urging the Italian government to change a proposed law that would criminalise homophobia over concerns it will infringe upon the Catholic church’s “freedom of thought”.

A letter delivered by British archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Vatican’s secretary of relations with states, said parts of the legislation violated a treaty made between Italy and the Catholic church in the 1920s that secured the freedoms and rights of the church, Corriere della Sera reported.

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UN experts urge Canada and Vatican to hold swift mass graves investigation

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Nine experts call for ‘full-fledged investigations’ after discovery of remains of 215 Indigenous children at former residential school

UN human rights experts have urged the Canadian government and the Vatican to hold swift and thorough investigations into the discovery of unmarked graves at a former residential school in British Columbia.

The unmarked graves of up to 215 Indigenous children were discovered at the Kamloops Indian Residential Schools last week, using ground-penetrating radar.

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Former pope Benedict says ‘fanatical’ Catholics still won’t believe he’s not the pope

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Pope emeritus says some who are unhappy with successor Pope Francis have refused to believe he willingly stepped down

Former pope Benedict has chided conservative Roman Catholics who have not accepted his decision to resign, calling them “fanatical” and reminding them there is only one pope and it is Francis.

Benedict, now 93, became the first pope in more than 600 years to resign instead of ruling for life, saying he no longer had the strength to govern the 1.3 billion-member church.

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‘A door has opened’: Pope Francis appoints first woman to senior synod post

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France’s Nathalie Becquart, undersecretary of synod of bishops, is first woman to hold the rank which gives voting rights

Breaking with tradition, Pope Francis has appointed Frenchwoman Nathalie Becquart as an undersecretary of the synod of bishops, the first woman to hold the post and have voting rights.

The 52-year-old is one of the two new undersecretaries named to the synod, the body of bishops that studies major questions of doctrine and where she has been a consultant since 2019.

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Pope condemns travelling abroad to escape coronavirus lockdowns

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Pontiff uses video address to urge public to ‘take care of each other’

Pope Francis has condemned people who had gone abroad on holiday to escape coronavirus lockdowns, saying they needed to show greater awareness of the suffering of others.

Speaking after his weekly noon blessing, Francis said he had read newspaper reports of people catching flights to flee government curbs and seek fun elsewhere.

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George Pell says ‘some evidence but no proof’ Vatican officials conspired to ‘destroy’ him

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Comments to Italian media are the strongest cardinal has made alleging abuse charges may be linked to Vatican corruption investigation

Cardinal George Pell has told an Italian current affairs program that there is “some evidence but no proof” that figures within the Vatican conspired to “destroy” him, the strongest comments he has made to date that allege the charges against him may be linked to Vatican corruption.

Pell claimed all senior figures within the Vatican who had taken charge of reforming the finances of the Holy See “with very few exceptions, has been attacked by the media on the level of reputation in one way or another”.

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George Pell says he feels vindicated for trying to uncover alleged financial ‘criminality’ at Vatican

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Cardinal says in first interview since return to Rome he didn’t know extent of wrongdoing and ‘it would be better for the church if these things hadn’t happened’

Australia’s highest ranking Catholic cleric and the pope’s former treasurer, Cardinal George Pell, has said he feels a dismayed sense of vindication as the financial mismanagement he tried to uncover in the Holy See is now being exposed in a spiralling Vatican corruption investigation.

Pell made the comments to the Associated Press in his first interview since returning to Rome after his conviction-turned-acquittal on sexual abuse charges in Australia. Pell said he knew in 2014 when he took the treasury job that the Holy See’s finances were “a bit of a mess”.

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Pope says for first time that China’s Uighurs are ‘persecuted’

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Francis mentions plight of Muslim minority in China, alongside Rohingya and Yazidi, in new book

Pope Francis has for the first time called China’s Muslim Uighurs a “persecuted” people, something human rights activists have been urging him to do for years.

In the wide-ranging book Let Us Dream: the Path to a Better Future, he said: “I think often of persecuted peoples: the Rohingya, the poor Uighurs, the Yazidi” in a section where he also talks about persecuted Christians in Islamic countries.

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Vatican enlists bots to protect library from onslaught of hackers

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Apostolic Library, facing 100 threats a month, wants to ensure readers can trust digitised records of its historical treasures

Ancient intellects are now being guarded by artificial intelligence following moves to protect one of the most extraordinary collections of historical manuscripts and documents in the world from cyber-attacks.

The Vatican Apostolic Library, which holds 80,000 documents of immense importance and immeasurable value, including the oldest surviving copy of the Bible and drawings and writings from Michelangelo and Galileo, has partnered with a cyber-security firm to defend its ambitious digitisation project against criminals.

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Mexico asks Pope Francis for apology for church’s role in Spanish conquest

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Mexico’s president says the Vatican should apologise for ‘reprehensible atrocities’ in colonisation 500 years ago

Mexico’s president has written to Pope Francis to ask for an apology for the Catholic church’s role in the oppression of indigenous people in the Spanish conquest 500 years ago.

The request was made in a two-page letter that also asked the Vatican to temporarily return several ancient indigenous manuscripts held in its library, ahead of next year’s 500-year anniversary of the Spanish conquest of Mexico.

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Vatican official accuses Trump administration of exploiting pope

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Pope Francis reportedly declined to meet Mike Pompeo during his visit this week, citing closeness of US presidential election

A top Vatican official has accused Donald Trump’s administration of exploiting Pope Francis in the final stages of the US presidential election campaign.

The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, spoke at a conference on religious freedom on Wednesday organised by the US embassy to the Holy See during his visit to Italy.

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George Pell: why the cardinal is free to travel to Rome despite Australia’s Covid ban

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The cardinal is travelling for official Vatican government business, which means he does not need an exemption

Cardinal George Pell did not need to apply for a travel exemption to leave Australia because he is travelling to Rome for official Vatican government business.

The news that Pell was flying from Sydney to Rome on Tuesday generated criticism online with people questioning why the Australian government – which has banned its citizens from leaving the country as a Covid-19 precaution – granted him an exemption.

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Pope Francis: gossip is ‘plague worse than Covid’ – video

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Pope Francis strays from his prepared text to repeat his frequent complaint about gossiping within church communities and even within the Vatican bureaucracy. Francis did not give specifics during his weekly blessing, but went on at some length to say the devil is the 'biggest gossiper' who is seeking to divide the church with his lies

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Pope appoints six women to top roles on Vatican council in progressive step

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Former Labour minister Ruth Kelly is among the women who will oversee Vatican finances and address its cashflow problems

Pope Francis has appointed six women to oversee the Vatican’s finances including Ruth Kelly, the former Labour minister, in the most senior roles ever given to women within the Catholic church’s leadership.

The appointments mark the most significant step by Francis to fulfil his promise of placing women in top positions. Until now, the 15-member Council for the Economy was all male. By statute, the council must include eight bishops – who are always men – and seven laypeople.

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George Pell appeal: cardinal faces final high court decision – latest news

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Cardinal Pell’s child sexual assault conviction was upheld in the Victorian court of appeal. Now the high court will rule on whether he will stay in jail or walk free. Follow live updates

High court to decide cardinal’s fate

George Pell will not be in the court registry in Brisbane this morning. He is at Barwon Prison and will be informed of the judgment by his legal team.

We are now within 10 minutes of the judgment being delivered in Brisbane. We should have the news for you shortly after that.

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Unsealing of Vatican archives will finally reveal truth about ‘Hitler’s pope’

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Historians can now pore over secret files from the papacy of Pius XII, who has long faced accusations of being a Nazi sympathiser

New light will be shed on one of the most controversial periods of Vatican history on Monday when the archives on Pope Pius XII – accused by critics of being a Nazi sympathiser – are unsealed.

A year after Pope Francis announced the move, saying “the church isn’t afraid of history”, the documents from Pius XII’s papacy, which began in 1939 on the brink of the second world war and ended in 1958, will be opened, initially to a small number of scholars.

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