Pope Benedict XVI has created a new canonical structure that opens the door to what could amount to a half a million Anglicans and some 60 of their bishops entering into full communion with Rome.
Cardinal Bertone: It’s time to reach out to priests “put to the side”
The Year for Priests is also for those men who have left priestly ministry, according to Benedict XVI’s secretary of state. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone made this observation in the L’Osservatore Romano, in an interview that also explains how the Year for Priests became a reality.
Rollback of Vatican II dismissed
The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, has dismissed fears that Pope Benedict XVI plans to roll back major ecclesial changes introduced by the Second Vatican Council.
US diocese in abuse scandal files for bankruptcy
The diocese of Wilmington, Delaware, filed for bankruptcy on Sunday, just hours before it would have faced the first in a long series of lawsuits over clergy sexual abuse.
Leading writer voices doubts about encyclical
The leading American Catholic writer, George Weigel, has told Polish Catholics the Pope’s new encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, fails to present Benedict XVI’s real views and urged them to remain faithful to the procapitalist teachings of their countryman, the late John Paul II.
Missal translation courts disaster, says bishop
A leading American bishop has launched a fierce attack on the new English translation of the Roman Missal, as the US bishops’ conference prepares to vote on the acceptability of the missal when it meets in Baltimore.
Report highlights ‘endemic’ abuse of Irish children
A report into the treatment of children in residential care in Ireland has listed a catalogue of “endemic” sexual and physical abuse by members of religious orders, carried out with the full knowledge of their congregations.
Scrap diplomatic corps says Martini
Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini has called for a dismantling of the Vatican diplomatic corps, the convening of an ecumenical council to deal with Catholics who are divorced and remarried, and a major overhaul of the Sacrament of Penance.
Rebuke for lobbyist over Pius XII cause
The Vatican has rebuked Fr Peter Gumpel, one of the leading proponents of the beatification of Pope Pius XVI, after he suggested that Pope Benedict XVI had stalled the wartime pope’s cause after Jewish groups warned him it would irrevocably ruin Catholic-Jewish relations, writes Robert Mickens.
Lords defeat assisted-dying immunity proposals
Members of the House of Lords have voted against a move to grant immunity from prosecution to those taking terminally ill people abroad to die.
