Vatican News

New York bishop to lead Diocese of Columbus

Vatican City, Jan 31, 2019 / 07:21 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis accepted the retirement of Bishop Frederick Campbell of Columbus, Ohio, Thursday, appointing Bishop Robert J. Brennan, auxiliary of Rockville Centre, to lead the diocese.

“I am already praying fervently for the Church of Columbus every day,” Bishop Brennan said in a statement Jan. 31. “I look forward to walking the journey with you as your pastor sharing the ‘Joy of the Gospel’ and the ‘Splendor of Truth.’”

Pope Francis says he loves to pray the Way of the Cross

Vatican City, Jan 30, 2019 / 04:12 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Everyone should pray the Stations of the Cross, Pope Francis said Wednesday, revealing that he always has with him a pocket-size book of “Via Crucis” meditations to pray with when he has a spare moment.

“Walking with Mary, behind Jesus carrying the cross, is the school of Christian life: there you learn patient, silent, and concrete love,” he said at the general audience Jan. 30.

Priest steps down from CDF following accusations of sexual harassment in confession

Vatican City, Jan 29, 2019 / 04:27 am (CNA/EWTN News).- An Austrian priest and theologian has resigned from his position at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, amid charges that he made sexual advances toward a woman in the confessional several years ago.

The priest maintains his innocence.

Fr. Hermann Geissler, 53, has been an official within the CDF since 1993, and in 2009 became the head of the congregation’s teaching office.

Pope says he is against making priestly celibacy optional in the Latin rite

Aboard the papal plane, Jan 28, 2019 / 06:35 am (CNA).- Pope Francis said Monday he is opposed to the idea of optional priestly celibacy in the Latin rite, and he would consider it only for very remote places if a serious need existed.
 
“Personally, I think that celibacy is a gift to the Church,” the pope said Jan. 28. “I would say that I do not agree with allowing optional celibacy, no.”
 

Pope Francis: Heal the 'wearied hope' within a wounded Church

Panama City, Panama, Jan 26, 2019 / 07:54 am (CNA).- Pope Francis said Saturday that he recognized the weariness felt in the priesthood and in religious communities due to the sins that wound the Church today.

“Weariness of hope comes from seeing a Church wounded by sin, which so often failed to hear all those cries that echoed the cry of the Master: ‘My God, why have you forsaken me?’” Pope Francis said in a homily in Panama Jan. 26.

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