By Jonathan Liedl Rome Newsroom, Jan 3, 2024 / 18:20 pm Amid significant confusion about the Vatican’s recent guidance on same-sex blessings, the document’s architect has lashed out at those advancing the most liberal interpretation: Catholic leadership in Germany. Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine …

By Jonathan Liedl Vatican City, Dec 25, 2023 / 08:33 am On the birthday of the Prince of Peace, Pope Francis called for an end to war in the Holy Land and throughout the world as well as the arms trade that fuels it. Delivering his annual “urbi et orbi” Christmas …

By Jonathan Liedl Rome Newsroom, Dec 18, 2023 / 15:22 pm The Vatican has issued new guidance on the topic of blessings of same-sex attracted people, stating that Catholic priests can bless same-sex couples as an expression of pastoral closeness without condoning their sexual relations. The ruling, which also applies to …

By Jonathan Liedl Vatican City, Nov 28, 2023 / 13:34 pm Pope Francis has stripped one of his top American critics, Cardinal Raymond Burke, of his Vatican housing and salary privileges, the Associated Press is reporting. According to the AP report, which is based on conversations with two anonymous sources briefed …

By Jonathan Liedl Vatican City, Oct 28, 2023 / 19:04 pm The Vatican’s nearly monthlong Synod on Synodality assembly, convened by Pope Francis, concluded this evening with members approving an ambitious text calling for greater “co-responsibility” among all believers in the evangelizing mission of the Church — and proposing concrete reforms …

By Jonathan Liedl Vatican City, Oct 11, 2023 / 15:40 pm Participants in the Synod on Synodality have asked “for greater discernment on the teaching of the Church on the subject of sexuality,” a Vatican spokesman said at a press briefing today. The revelation seems to be at odds with synod …

By Jonathan Liedl Vatican City, Sep 30, 2023 / 07:53 am Pope Francis created 21 new cardinals from across the world at a Saturday morning consistory in St. Peter’s Square, reflecting on how the geographic expansion of the Church’s leadership represents a fulfillment of the promise of Pentecost. “You new cardinals …

By Jonathan Liedl Rome Newsroom, Aug 7, 2023 / 09:15 am Spiritual worldliness is one of the most dangerous temptations facing priests and the Church because it “reduces spirituality to appearance” while disconnecting it from the Gospel, Pope Francis warned in a recently released letter to the priests of Rome. “[Spiritual …

By Jonathan Liedl Rome Newsroom, Aug 1, 2023 / 09:48 am The incorrupt body of St. Benedict the Moor, a 16th-century son of slaves who joined the Franciscans and would become the patron saint of African missions, has been all but destroyed after a wildfire engulfed the Sicilian church where he …

By Hannah Brockhaus, Jonathan Liedl Vatican City, Jul 26, 2023 / 05:51 am Pope Francis on Wednesday appointed Bishop Thomas Zinkula of Davenport to lead Iowa’s Metropolitan Archdiocese of Dubuque. Zinkula, 66, has led the Davenport Diocese in southeast Iowa since 2017. The Archdiocese of Dubuque has been run by an apostolic …