Austrian Church Denounces Kurz’s “Dismantling of Welfare State”

Last updated on: March 12, 2018 at 10:20 am By Cameron Doody

Embed from Getty Images What did Pope Francis and Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz talk about in their audience last Monday in Rome? According to the press release issued by the Vatican press office, the two leaders discussed both Austria’s “contribution with the European Union and the need for solidarity between peoples” as well as “various current international issues, including peace, nuclear disarmament and migration”. The touchstone of the talks, however, was “the promotion of the common good of society, especially... Read more

Vatican Turns to Young People to “Hack” Social Problems

Last updated on: March 8, 2018 at 2:22 pm By Cameron Doody

120 young people from 57 universities on five continents around the world will come together at the Vatican from today for the Holy See’s first ever hackathon: a competition in which multi-disciplinary teams made up of software developers, graphic designers, program managers and the like square off against each other in a race to develop technological solutions to common problems. In this case, the 36-hour VHacks event “seeks to use technological innovation to overcome social barriers and embrace common values”,... Read more

German Diocese to Take Brave Step of Massive Parish Closings

Last updated on: March 8, 2018 at 2:05 pm By Cameron Doody

The Diocese of Trier in Germany will reduce its number of parishes from 172 to 35 by the year 2020, according to an announcement made by Bishop Stephan Ackermann on February 16. The reorganization of the local Church in the Moselle wine region in the western part of the country comes after other dioceses in Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, Ireland, the Netherlands and numerous other European countries have made similar plans to more than halve the number of local churches that... Read more

Italian Church Scrambles to Stop Racist Salvini

Last updated on: March 1, 2018 at 12:52 pm By Cameron Doody

Embed from Getty Images Swift and harsh have been the Catholic reactions to the spectacle of Matteo Salvini, head of the racist Northern League party, swearing on the Bible and a rosary to apply “the teaching in the sacred gospels” should he win the Italian general election on March 4. The archbishop of Ferrara, Gian Carlo Perego, has even gone so far as to accuse Salvini of a “serious exploitation of two important symbols, fundamental to the Christian experience”, and... Read more

Intercommunion: The Humbling of the German Bishops

Last updated on: February 26, 2018 at 9:39 am By Cameron Doody

Embed from Getty Images It is highly significant that the two main outcomes of the German bishops’ fall assembly last week to have filtered into the English-speaking media should have been their proposal that Protestant spouses of Catholics be allowed to receive Communion, on the one hand, and their “regret” for what the rest of global Catholicism sees too often as the German Church’s excessive hunger for “funding and wealth”, on the other. The German bishops’ search for both intercommunion... Read more

“Rosary to the Borders” Sickness Spreads to France

Last updated on: February 22, 2018 at 7:05 pm By Cameron Doody

Embed from Getty Images Two opposing sectors of the French Catholic Church have organized activities for the coming weeks and months which are attracting attention for the bellicose nature of the rhetoric used to advertise them. One, an ultraconversative “Rosary at the Borders” event on April 28 in which, in the model of events already held in Poland, Ireland, Italy, and Croatia, participants will pray that the country not be “overtaken by hostile and conquering hordes” (read: migrants and refugees).... Read more

Catalan Bishops Reaffirm “Moral Legitimacy” of Independence Push

Last updated on: February 19, 2018 at 10:08 am By Cameron Doody

Embed from Getty Images In the midst of the political paralysis brought on by the Spanish central government’s ongoing intervention of Catalonia, the region’s bishops have reaffirmed the “moral legitimacy” of the Catalan drive towards independence. In a new Lenten letter released February 16, the prelates of the provinces of Tarragona and Barcelona also call attention to what they label a “political problem of the highest order” in Catalonia and urge the Spanish authorities to commit to a “calm reflection”... Read more

Czechs Call on Pope to Sack Cardinal Duka

Last updated on: February 15, 2018 at 7:15 pm By Cameron Doody

Embed from Getty Images A group of Czech Catholics has called on Pope Francis not to extend the tenure of the Archbishop of Prague, Cardinal Dominik Duka, past the 75th birthday of the prelate on April 26. The organizers of the initiative presented the text of their letter to the Pontiff this Wednesday in a protest in front of the Archbishop’s Palace in the heart of the Czech capital. “We are greatly worried about the future direction of the Catholic... Read more

Cardinal Marx Breaks New Ground in Care for Gay Catholics

Last updated on: February 12, 2018 at 7:16 pm By Cameron Doody

Embed from Getty Images Catholic blessings of gay relationships may not be appropriate in each and every situation not because homosexuals don’t deserve this grace of God in their lives but because, like people of every sexual identity, they may in fact need more from the Church at the particular crossroads they find themselves in. By advancing this argument, the president of the German Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, has broken new ground in the Church’s treatment of gays and... Read more

Old Rite Wreaks Havoc at Mariawald

Last updated on: February 5, 2018 at 3:12 pm By Cameron Doody

By Cameron Doody and Hendro Munsterman Pundits on the far right skewed it as the revenge of the “current vindictive regime installed in Rome”. “What two world wars could not destroy, Bergoglianism could”, they said. But the Mariawald monastery in Germany, whose closure was announced two weeks ago now, turns out to have been a victim not of the “savagery” of either Pope Francis or the Vatican but of an ageing community and “internal tensions” brought about by the reintroduction... Read more