Rare move comes after years of criticism from Strickland, a strong supporter of former US president Donald Trump
Pope Francis has dismissed a bishop in Texas, Joseph Strickland, one of his fiercest critics among US Roman Catholic conservatives, the Vatican has said.
It is very rare for a bishop to be relieved of his duties outright. Usually bishops in trouble with the Vatican are asked to resign before submitting a resignation, which the pope accepts.
Continue reading...Ulma family including unborn child all beatified for their actions to help Jews during second world war
The Vatican has beatified a Polish family of nine – a married couple and their small children – who were executed by the Nazis during the second world war for sheltering Jews.
During a ceremonious mass in the village of Markowa, in south-east Poland, the papal envoy Cardinal Marcello Semeraro read out the Latin formula of the beatification of the Ulma family signed last month by Pope Francis.
Continue reading...Prayer will instead be said in his suite after chief surgeon says Francis should avoid strain on abdomen
Pope Francis’s recovery from surgery is going well but doctors have advised him not to deliver his Sunday blessing from a hospital balcony to avoid strain on his abdomen, his surgeon said.
Briefing reporters at the Gemelli hospital on Saturday, chief surgeon Sergio Alfieri also said the 86-year-old had agreed with doctors to stay there for at least all of next week.
Continue reading...Pope Francis offers help repatriating Ukrainian children from Russia as Volodymyr Zelenskiy meets select leaders in Italy
Volodymyr Zelenskiy asked Pope Francis on Saturday to back Kyiv’s peace plan, and the pope indicated the Vatican would help in the repatriation of Ukrainian children taken by Russians.
The Ukrainian president was in Rome for a one-day whistle-stop visit, also meeting Italy’s president, Sergio Mattarella, and the prime minister, Giorgia Meloni.
Continue reading...Sebastien Lai, son of Jimmy, also criticises Vatican over failure to hold China to account over human rights abuses
The British son of the jailed Hong Kong media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai has criticised Britain and the Vatican for failing to speak out strongly against the crackdown on dissent in the Chinese territory.
At a Washington event about the human rights situation in Hong Kong, Sebastien Lai said self-censorship in the former British colony was the anticipated result of the national security crackdown there, but the “hypocrisy” of some governments trying to trade with China was unexpected.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...Doctors say 86-year-old has shown marked improvement and has been treated for bronchitis
Pope Francis has had a marked improvement in his health and could be discharged from hospital “in the next few days”, doctors treating the 86-year-old said on Thursday.
The pontiff was taken to Gemelli hospital in Rome on Wednesday afternoon after complaining of breathing difficulties and chest pain in recent days.
Continue reading...Image of man battling serpents is confirmed as preparation for renaissance artist’s masterpiece
A 16th-century drawing of a nude man, seen from behind, has been identified as a study by Michelangelo for his monumental masterpiece, the ceiling fresco of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican.
The red chalk drawing has been linked to one of the figures battling serpents on the Worship of the Brazen Serpent painting. It is thought to date from 1512, shortly before Michelangelo painted that final section of one of the world’s most famous works of art, which he had started in 1508.
Continue reading...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”.
Continue reading...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.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...Un-redacted report released in 2020 revealed how archbishop failed to take proper steps to act on complaints about dangerous priests
The child sexual abuse royal commission in 2020 released a bombshell un-redacted report examining the failings of George Pell during his time as an assistant priest, bishop, auxiliary bishop and cardinal in Australia.
The report found he both knew about child abuse, particularly within the Victorian diocese of Ballarat, and failed to take proper steps to act on complaints about dangerous priests.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup
Continue reading...Conservative politicians remember Pell as a ‘saint’ and a ‘martyr’, while others prefer to acknowledge victims of child sexual abuse in the Catholic church
The death of Cardinal George Pell has prompted dramatically polarised reactions, with church officials praising his service while others shared messages of support for victims of sexual abuse in the Catholic church.
The former prime minister Tony Abbott called Pell “a saint for our times”, saying in a statement the cardinal’s overturned convictions on charges of child sex abuse was “a modern form of crucifixion … a kind of living death”.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup
Continue reading...Emanuela Orlandi case has triggered several theories but never yielded any concrete answers
The Vatican has reopened an investigation into the disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi, a case that has gripped Italy for almost 40 years and embroiled the powerful Holy See.
Emanuela was 15 when she vanished on 22 June 1983 while making her way home from a flute lesson in Rome. The Orlandi family lived in Vatican City, where her father was a lay employee in the papal household.
Continue reading...Tens of thousands gather to see Pope Francis bury his predecessor
An estimated 100,000 Catholics have descended on St Peter’s Square for the funeral of the former pope Benedict XVI.
Benedict died on Saturday, aged 95, almost a decade after becoming the first pope in 600 years to resign. He will become the first former pontiff in the modern history of the Catholic church to be buried by an incumbent pope, Francis, who arrived outside St Peter’s Basilica in a wheelchair on Thursday.
Continue reading...Benedict’s body displayed in chapel of the Vatican monastery and will lie in state at St Peter’s Basilica
Thousands of people are expected to pay their respects to former pope Benedict XVI, who died on Saturday, in the days leading up to his funeral this week.
Benedict’s body was displayed on Sunday in a chapel of the Vatican monastery where he lived, and will lie in state at St Peter’s Basilica from Monday until Thursday. His funeral in St Peter’s Square will be a simple, solemn and sober ceremony in keeping with his wishes, the Vatican said.
Continue reading...This live blog has now closed, you can read more about the death of Benedict XVI here
The UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, says he is saddened to learn of Benedict XVI’s death.
His visit to UK in 2010 was a “historic moment for both Catholics and non Catholics”, he adds.
Today I join with the church throughout the world, and especially with the Holy Father, Pope Francis, and all in the Catholic Church, in mourning the death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.
In Pope Benedict’s long life and ministry of service to Christ in His Church he saw many profound changes in the church and in the world. He lived through the Nazi regime in Germany and served briefly in the Second World War. As a younger theologian and priest he witnessed first-hand the discussions of the Second Vatican Council. As a professor and then as an Archbishop he lived in a divided Germany but saw too the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of his homeland.
Continue reading...Three 2,500-year-old pieces will be ‘donated’ to Greece’s Archbishop Ieronymos II amid wider conversation about future of Parthenon marbles held by Britain
Pope Francis has decided to return to Greece three 2,500-year-old pieces of the Parthenon that have been in the papal collections of the Vatican Museums for two centuries.
The Vatican said in a brief statement that the pope was giving them to Archbishop Ieronymos II, the head of the Greek Orthodox Church and Greece’s spiritual leader, as a “donation” and “a concrete sign of his sincere desire to follow in the ecumenical path of truth”.
Continue reading...Pavone had been investigated for placing an aborted foetus on an altar and posting a video of it online
The Vatican has defrocked the anti-abortion US priest Frank Pavone for what it said were “blasphemous communications on social media” as well as “persistent disobedience” of his bishop.
A letter to US bishops from the Vatican ambassador to the US, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, said the decision against Pavone, who heads the anti-abortion group Priests for Life, had been taken and that there was no chance for an appeal.
Continue reading...