Catholic Church: The most important stories from the Vatican in 2023
CLAIRE GIANGRAVÉ, of Religion News Service, takes a look at a year in which Pope Francis has continued to push for changes in the church, braving daunting opposition and several medical scares…
Mourners call Australian Cardinal Pell victim of injustice
Sydney, Australia AP Mourners at the Sydney funeral for Australian Cardinal George Pell, who was once the most senior Catholic convicted of sex abuse, remembered him Thursday as a victim of campaign to punish him regardless of his guilt. Meanwhile, a few hundred protesters yelled slogans from the street denouncing Pell, a staunch conservative who […]
Police ask court to ban protest at cardinal’s Sydney funeral
Canberra, Australia AP Australian police plan to ask a judge to ban gay rights protesters from demonstrating outside the funeral of Cardinal George Pell in Sydney on Thursday due to public safety concerns. Pell, who was once considered the third-highest ranking cleric in the Vatican and spent more than a year in prison before his […]
Cardinal Pell will be interred in Sydney crypt in February
Sydney, Australia AP A once high-ranking Australian cardinal who spent more than a year in prison before his child abuse convictions were quashed on appeal will be interred on 2nd February after a requiem Mass at Sydney’s St Mary’s Cathedral, the church said Tuesday. Cardinal George Pell answers a journalist’s question during an interview with […]
Pell’s secret memo casts shadow at cardinal’s funeral
Vatican CityAP The Australian cardinal who decried the papacy of Pope Francis as a “catastrophe” was given a funeral Saturday and hailed by some fellow churchmen at St Peter’s Basilica, with the pontiff imparting a final blessing for the once high-ranking Vatican prelate. Cardinal George Pell, 81, died on 10th January, shortly after undergoing hip surgery in a Rome […]
“Catastrophe”: Cardinal Pell’s secret memo blasts Francis
Vatican City AP Pope Francis will deliver a final send-off for Cardinal George Pell during a funeral Mass on Saturday, the Vatican said, as revelations emerge of the Australian prelate’s growing concern about what he considered the “disaster” and “catastrophe” of the papacy under Francis. The Vatican on Thursday said the dean of the college of cardinals, […]
Pope praises Pell for persevering in times of personal trials
Vatican City Reuters Pope Francis on Wednesday praised late Australian Cardinal George Pell for persevering in trying times, a reference to when he spent more than a year in prison on child sexual abuse accusations before he was fully acquitted. Francis, in an Italian-language message sent to the dean of the College of Cardinals, also […]
Updated: Australian Cardinal George Pell, acquitted of child sexual assault, dead at 81
Last updated: 8:15am, 12th January, 2023 (AEST)Rome, ItalyReuters Australian Cardinal George Pell, a leading Roman Catholic conservative and former top Vatican official who in 2020 was acquitted of sexual abuse allegations, died on Tuesday at the age of 81, his private secretary said. Fr Joseph Hamilton told Reuters that Pell died in a Rome hospital […]
Essay: Can Pope Francis survive the scheming of “the schismatics”?
PHYLLIS ZAGANO, senior research associate-in-residence and adjunct professor of religion at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, says there are some among the cardinals who hope the synod on synodality will “simply go away”…
Cardinal calls for Vatican reprimand over sexuality remarks
Rome, ItalyAP Cardinal George Pell has called for the Vatican’s doctrine office to intervene and reprimand two leading European Catholic churchmen who called for changes in Catholic teaching on sexuality and homosexuality. Pell, who was convicted and then acquitted of sex abuse charges in his native Australia, said he understood the secular pressures in Germany […]