The Vatican reminded world leaders there is no international right to abortion at a global summit in Istanbul last month. The Holy See rejected European proposals to create a new right to abortion under the Geneva Conventions, also known as international humanitarian law or the laws of war. The “Holy See emphasizes that there is […]
The Vatican accused a UN committee of intolerance against Christians and interfering with the free exercise of religion in a scathing reply to a UN committee released to the press last Friday. The Vatican’s official response to explosive comments made by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child earlier this year, which told […]
New possibilities opened up for plaintiff lawyers last week when a U.N. committee told the Vatican that clergy sex abuse is torture. Whether an instance of clergy sex abuse is torture “is a factual determination to be made on a case by case basis,” said a member of the U.N. committee against torture on Friday. […]
U.N. experts backtracked last week after taking heat for accusing the Pope of torture because of Church teaching on abortion. “It seems like we are being cross-examined!” exclaimed humorously the chair of the Committee, U.S. based law professor Claudio Grossman at the sight of swarms of reporters at a press briefing in Geneva on Friday […]
The Vatican Ambassador to the UN told UN leaders last week that “children do not belong to the state.” Archbishop Francis Chullikatt told a gathering of UN delegates and NGO representatives celebrating the International Day of Families that children also do not belong “to any special interest group whose agendas are actually inimical to the […]
The Vatican had strong words for U.N. experts who accused the Catholic Church of torture because of its teaching on abortion. “The Holy See condemns the torture of anyone, including those tortured and killed before they are born,” said Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, Apostolic Nuncio at the United Nations in Geneva. For the second time this […]
During hearings that one participant described as “surreal,” United Nations representatives this week suggested that the Catholic Church’s opposition to abortion in the case of rape and incest constitute a violation of the UN Charter Against Torture. The Vatican was called before a two-day hearing in Geneva so a UN committee could question whether its […]
The Vatican accused a UN committee of interfering with Church doctrine and violating religious freedom after it was asked to change its teaching on abortion and homosexuality. The Church should change its teaching on abortion, according to a UN committee that monitors the rights of children. The Church should no longer automatically excommunicate those who […]
Here is the schedule for the papal prayer vigil [as of Friday evening]. 5:45 pm (Rome time) — About 50 priests will begin hearing confession in designated areas under the Bernini colonnades. Pope Francis has asked that the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession) be made available throughout the evening because “true peace springs from a heart that […]
Researchers who justify the killing of human beings at the embryonic stage “demean” themselves and diminish their own humanity, an American ethicist told LifeSiteNews.com at the Vatican’s stem cell conference last month. By willingly participating in an evil, even to bring about a great good like cures for diseases, “You demean yourself, you make yourself […]
Today the Vatican announced that its ability to process credit card transactions, interrupted since January 1 by a decision of the Bank of Italy, had been restored. The renewed access to international financial networks comes one day after Pope Benedict announced that he will step down from his office as successor of Peter on February […]
On the British tabloid Daily Mail Online, there recently appeared an article by Chris Rogers and Marshall Corwin concerning the six alleged seers of Medjugorje. Rogers and Corwin write a fairly simple article that recounts some basic history of Medjugorje. It also mixes the authors’ own experience with Medjugorje and the alleged seers. I would […]
In many respects, what is going on in Rio de Janeiro right now during the UN Conference on Sustainable Development is nothing other than the proverbial “blind leading the blind”. As countries hurry to make politically expedient and alarmist statements about climate change, the green economy and reproductive rights, very few delegations exhibit the poise […]
For part one, please click here. Overview of Normae S. Congregationis: The original copy of NC comprised a total of four pages in Latin. It was signed by Francis Cardinal Seper, then Prefect of the CDF. It was undersigned by Fr. Jerome Hamer, O.P., then Secretary of the CDF. The document as a whole provides […]
A couple of months ago I openly questioned Andrea Tornielli’s publishing the Latin text of the Vatican’s document Normae S. Congregationis (NC).[i] This past week, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) published not only the Latin text of the document, but also issued a translation in the major European languages.[ii] As the […]
No cardinal is under suspicion of being the mastermind behind the “Vatileaks” affair which is rocking Rome, Father Federico Lombardi, S.J., the Pope’s spokesman, told journalists in the Vatican Press Office shortly after noon today. Nor has the Pope constituted a special team of lay investigators, led by a woman, to look into the case […]
The Vatican called it a reform but it’s actually a “war against nuns,” an unprovoked “crackdown” on the dwindling ranks of America’s 55,000-plus religious sisters by a power-hungry pope and his ungrateful bishops. Rather than thanking the aging sisters for their years of service to the oppressed, the patriarchal Catholic power structure is punishing them […]
Don’t ever let anyone tell you that the Catholic Church is “anti-science” or against stem cell research. Actually, she is very much in favor of stem cell research, so long as tiny human beings are not created, used and destroyed in the process, and now she’s putting her money where her mouth is with regard […]
Yesterday evening came a surprise announcement: Ireland will close its Embassy to the Holy See in a move the Irish governement says is needed to cut government costs. The Irish embassy to the Holy See, located on the Janiculum Hill near to the residence of the American Ambassador to the Holy See and near the […]
There’s a widespread impression that the international financial system which the United States and its friends put in place after World War II is breaking down. The old system may of course be patched up and limp along for some time to come, but sooner or later something else will take its place. What that […]
The important piece of news out of Rome today is that the Vatican has allegedly called for a “central world bank” in reponse to the continuing speculation and instability in the world financial system. I say “allegedly” because the text in which this call appears is not by Pope Benedict, but by a Vatican office, […]
The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace issued a document today titled, “Toward Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of Global Public Authority.” Commenting on it is Catholic League president Bill Donohue: There has been much hyperventilation from some quarters over the release of this document. All of it is unwarranted. […]
The greatest fear now is… the weather. Because the weather reports on Friday afternoon in Rome say that there will be light rain Saturday night, and light rain showers on Sunday morning. And if there is rain, everything about this historic beatification, which is shutting down all auto traffic in the entire area around St. […]
