Vatican News

What the Church has done about sex abuse

Vatican City, Mar 4, 2016 / 06:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The movie Spotlight’s Best Picture win at the Academy Awards has brought renewed attention to the Catholic sex abuse scandals that broke in 2002. But while the Church’s failures are well-known, it is also true that the Catholic Church has made more progress than any other body on this issue.

Pope Francis will hear confessions on Friday at St. Peter's

Vatican City, Mar 2, 2016 / 02:46 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The office of Pontifical Liturgical Celebrations has announced that Pope Francis will hear confessions from the faithful at St. Peter’s Basilica on Friday, March 4.

At 5:00 p.m., the Holy Father will preside over the Rite of Reconciliation with individual confession and absolution of penitents, the Vatican office said.

Pope Francis: The Church doesn't need 'dirty money'

Vatican City, Mar 2, 2016 / 10:37 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Wednesday, Pope Francis issued a harsh condemnation of those who exploit others and then donate to the Church, telling them their “dirty money” isn’t wanted.

Taking his cue from the first chapter of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, Pope Francis said March 2 that God doesn’t like “the blood of bulls and lambs, especially if the offering is done with hands dirty with the blood of their brothers.”

Vatican gives free health care to Rome's poor

Vatican City, Mar 1, 2016 / 12:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Poor and homeless men and women will now be able to turn to the Vatican for medical treatment, the latest initiative to offer care for those persons living on the streets of Rome.

Located near the colonnade, the new “clinic for the poor” opened Monday, offering free services to those unable to afford basic medical care.

Vatican paper lauds Spotlight as brave, not anti-Catholic

Vatican City, Feb 29, 2016 / 01:28 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The film Spotlight, which won the Oscar for best picture on Sunday, is a courageous movie that is not anti-Catholic, the Vatican daily L’Osservatore Romano said in two articles dedicated to comment on the Oscars.

Pope to Oriental Orthodox leader: Ecumenism of martyrs calls us to unity

Vatican City, Feb 29, 2016 / 01:04 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Today's martyrs have become “the seed of Christian unity,” Pope Francis said Monday during an audience with the leader of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and his delegation.

“The ecumenism of the martyrs is a summons to us, here and now, to advance on the path to ever greater unity,” the Pope said at the Feb. 29 meeting at the Vatican with Abune Mathias, Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox.

Cardinal Pell: I was not a part of Church's 'indefensible' cover up

Vatican City, Feb 29, 2016 / 09:48 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On the first day of his video testimony to Australia's Royal Commission investigating institutional responses to child sex abuse cases, Cardinal George Pell said that while the Church has made “enormous mistakes” in the handling of abuse cases, he had no role in covering them up.

“Let me just say this as an initial clarification: I'm not here to defend the indefensible,” Cardinal Pell said during the hearing.

Pope Francis: It's never too late for conversion

Vatican City, Feb 28, 2016 / 06:46 am (CNA/EWTN News).- God's patience towards sinners is without limit, yet the time for conversion is now, Pope Francis said during his Sunday Angelus address at the Vatican.

“It is never too late to convert, but it is urgent, it is now! Let us begin today,” said the Pope Feb. 28 to the crowds in St. Peter's Square.

Pope Francis prayed at Vatican employee's coffin before meeting new president of Argentina

Vatican City, Feb 27, 2016 / 10:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Before meeting with the president of Argentina Saturday, Pope Francis stopped by the funeral of Miriam Wuolou, a Vatican employee who died last week along with her unborn child, to pray and leave a bouquet of white roses.

“Before the celebration the Holy Father went into the church to stand in prayer and in memory of the deceased, demonstrating his affection and his respect,” Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi SJ said Feb. 27.

Is a Catholic concept of mercy at the heart of true Islam?

Vatican City, Feb 27, 2016 / 09:23 am (CNA).- Professor Saeed Khan, an expert in Islam, has said that mercy is central to the Muslim faith – a mercy with roots in Catholicism and which is opposed to the misguided, fundamentalist interpretations of some extremist groups.

Mercy is “the core of Islam,” Saeed Khan told CNA in a Feb. 25 interview, adding that the Muslim concept of mercy “is actually an expansion of Catholic notions of mercy.”

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