Vatican News

New global Catholic rules against sex abuse build on decades of work

Vatican City, May 31, 2019 / 03:05 pm (CNA).- The Vatican’s global norms mandating sex abuse reporting take effect June 1, but two North American archdioceses say their recent decades’ work against clergy sex abuse means they are largely already compliant with the new global requirements for the Catholic Church.

Pope Francis says Catholics, Orthodox bonded by blood of the martyrs

Bucharest, Romania, May 31, 2019 / 09:00 am (CNA).- Pope Francis said Friday that Catholics and Orthodox are bonded by a “shared inheritance” of suffering for Christ from the apostles to modern martyrs.

“How many were the martyrs and confessors of the faith! In recent times, how many, from different confessions, stood side by side in prisons to support one another in turn,” Pope Francis said May 30 during his apostolic trip to Romania.

Pope Francis: The Catholic Church wants to contribute to Romanian society

Bucharest, Romania, May 31, 2019 / 06:13 am (CNA).- The Catholic Church wants to continue to be an active and contributive member of Romanian society, Pope Francis told the president and authorities of the Eastern European country Friday.

The Catholic Church “desires to contribute to the building up of society,” he said May 31, on the first of a three-day trip to the Romanian cities of Bucharest, Bacau, Sumuleu-Ciuc, and Blaj.

Cardinal Parolin says Vatican will issue declaration on McCarrick investigation

Vatican City, May 30, 2019 / 08:36 am (CNA).- Cardinal Pietro Parolin said Wednesday that the Vatican is still investigating the documentation concerning Theodore McCarrick and will issue a declaration upon the investigation’s completion.

Parolin gave no indication of a timeline for the conclusion of the investigation, which he said is “taking up all of the documentation concerning the case.”

Pope Francis responds to heresy accusation, China concerns

Vatican City, May 29, 2019 / 10:05 am (CNA).- Pope Francis said he reacted “with a sense of humor” to the accusation of heresy made against him earlier this month.

“It does not hurt me at all. Hypocrisy and lies hurt me, these hurt me. But such a mistake, where there are even people who have filled their heads with … no, please, you have to take care of them too,” Pope Francis said in a Spanish interview published May 28.

The Holy Spirit makes human words 'dynamite,' Pope Francis says

Vatican City, May 29, 2019 / 04:16 am (CNA).- The Holy Spirit is what gives power, life, and dynamism to evangelization, not good rhetorical skills, Pope Francis said Wednesday.

According to St. Luke – Pope Francis said – the words of men become effective not thanks to rhetoric, but thanks to the Holy Spirit, “which has the power to purify the word, to make it the bearer of life.”

Priest says McCarrick admitted sharing bed with seminarians in letter to Vatican official

Vatican City, May 28, 2019 / 01:54 pm (CNA).- A former priest-secretary to Theodore McCarrick has issued a report that claims to contain excerpted quotes from correspondence between the disgraced former cardinal McCarrick and various church officials.

Pope Francis says Argentine bishop will go to trial for sexual misconduct

Vatican City, May 28, 2019 / 11:06 am (CNA).- Pope Francis has said a preliminary investigation against Bishop Gustavo Oscar Zanchetta has concluded and will now proceed to trial.

Zanchetta, Bishop Emeritus of Orán, had been under Vatican investigation for sexual abuse of seminarians and other sexual misconduct.

Pope Francis: 'I knew nothing about McCarrick'

Vatican City, May 28, 2019 / 10:14 am (CNA).- Pope Francis has said that he did not know anything about accusations of sexual abuse by Theodore McCarrick, the former cardinal and Archbishop of Washington, prior to when the accusations became public in 2018.

Make charity more of an encounter, less of a 'service,' Pope Francis says

Vatican City, May 27, 2019 / 09:32 am (CNA).- Pope Francis told members of a global charitable group Monday that real charity is about encountering Christ in the poor and needy, not merely handing out aid to soothe one’s conscience.

“If we look at charity as a service, the Church would become a humanitarian agency and the service of charity its ‘logistics department.’ But the Church is nothing of all this, it is something different and much greater,” he said May 27.

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