Pope Francis has tapped a South Korean bishop to lead the Vatican office responsible for the world’s 400,000 Catholic priests, in the second major appointment of an Asian prelate to the Holy See during his papacy. Monsignor Lazarus You Heung-sik, currently the bishop of Daejeon, replaces the retiring Cardinal BeniaminoContinue Reading
Rome: Of the more than 76,000 people known to have died of COVID-19 in Italy the past 11 months, more than 200 were priests, according to the Catholic newspaper, Avvenire. Already four priests have died since the start of 2021, the newspaper said Jan. 6, adding that the cumulative tollContinue Reading
Rome: Forty-three Italian priests died in November after contracting the coronavirus, as Italy experiences a second wave of the epidemic. According to L’Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian bishops’ conference, 167 priests have lost their lives due to COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic in February. One Italian bishopContinue Reading
By Gerard O’Connell Vatican City, August 4, 2019: Pope Francis has written a letter to the more than 400,000 Catholic priests worldwide encouraging them during the tribulations from the sexual abuse crisis. The letter is meant to give priests, many of whom feel disheartened because of the horrendous crimes ofContinue Reading
By Santosh Digal Manila: The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) discourages Catholic priests to carry firearms. These recent days, the news has reported a good number of Catholic priests asking for a permit from the Philippine National Police (PNP) that they are allowed to carry firearms as, duringContinue Reading
Berlin: Creating quiet a stir across Germany, a group of top ranking retired Catholic priests have written an open letter, requesting to put an end to celibacy. These 11 priests who were annointed in 1967 in Cologne have tried to throw light on the isolation faced by many priests. “WeContinue Reading
Idukki: The Syro-Malabar Church has welcomed the new decision by Pope Francis to extend the power of forgiving abortion to the Catholic priests as well. The Church, which considers abortion as a major sin, does not allow its clergy to forgive it as part of routine confessions. But Pope Francis,Continue Reading
Vatican City: Pope Francis is allowing Catholic priests to absolve the “horrendous crime” of abortion, extending special permission he granted clerics last year for the Holy Year of Mercy. “I want to insist as firmly as I can that abortion is a grave sin because it puts an end toContinue Reading
Roman Catholics are rapidly increasing in larger cities across China, but efforts to train more priests have been held back by the lack of applicants for seminaries, according to the Shanghai-based China Daily newspaper. Zou Yunlong, a 32-year-old student at the National Seminary of the Catholic Church in Beijing, toldContinue Reading