By Debora Donnini Rome: On March 9, Pope Francis appointed Spanish biblical scholar, Sister Nuria Calduch-Benages, as secretary of the Pontifical Biblical Commission. She expressed her surprise and gratitude in this interview with Vatican News. Sister Nuria has dedicated her life passionately to the study of the Bible. She teachesContinue Reading
Vatican City: The Vatican decreed March 15 that the Catholic Church won’t bless same-sex unions since God cannot bless sin. The Vatican’s orthodoxy office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, issued a formal response March 15 to a question about whether Catholic clergy have the authority to blessContinue Reading
Colombo: Sri Lanka will soon ban the burqa or face veil, a Cabinet Minister said on Saturday, as he announced the Rajapaksa administration’s latest policy decision impacting the minority Muslim community. Public Security Minister Sarath Weerasekara said authorities would henceforth use the controversial Prevention of Terrorism (PTA) law — thatContinue Reading
Bonn: A third of all German Catholics are considering leaving the Church, according to a new survey. The representative study, unveiled March 11, was conducted by the Erfurt-based opinion research institute INSA Consulere on behalf of the Catholic weekly newspaper Die Tagespost and the Protestant news agency Idea. It confirmsContinue Reading
Vatican City: A new letter from the Vatican Secretariat of State has banned the private celebration of Masses at side altars in St. Peter’s Basilica, effective March 22. The regulation might seem tailored to meet COVID restrictions, as Italy prepares to tighten its pandemic measures once again. However, the newContinue Reading
Vatican City: The president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, Cardinal Kurt Koch, has supported a suggestion that Catholics and Orthodox work to agree on a common date to celebrate Easter. A representative of the Patriarchate of Constantinople to the World Council of Churches (WCC) said a common EasterContinue Reading
Washington: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that he would look into the case of an 83-year-old Catholic priest, held in India on allegations he was linked to Maoists. Responding March 10 to a request from a member of the House of Representatives, Blinken asked for more informationContinue Reading
Madrid: A 10-year-old girl in Spain fulfilled her childhood dream of becoming a Catholic missionary from her hospital bed shortly before dying from a brain tumor this week. Teresita Castillo de Diego died March 7 in Madrid after three years of fighting a brain tumor. Fr. Ángel Camino Lamela, anContinue Reading
World peace depends much on the promotion of equal respect and advancement of men and women in and by media. That was the view expressed by Mgr Janusz Urbanczyk, Permanent Representative of the Holy See to the United Nations during a meeting of the Organization for Security and Co-operation inContinue Reading
Twitter has deactivated an account bearing the name of Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, Archbishop of Yangon, Myanmar. But it was Cardinal Bo himself who asked the social network to delete the account, as it was wrongly attributed to the archbishop. Cardinal Bo’s secretary confirmed to Fides, the information service ofContinue Reading