FILE – Secretary of former Pope Benedict XVI, Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, holds a mass to mark a one year anniversary of the death of Pope Benedict, in St. Peter’s Basilica, the Vatican, Sunday, Dec. 31, 2023. Pope Francis has appointed the longtime secretary of the late Pope Benedict XVI, who was sent back to his […]
A community of nuns in a 15th century convent in northern Spain has split with the Roman Catholic Church because of a property dispute and doctrinal wrangling that has seen them join up with a renegade priest. The Church has threatened to excommunicate the 16 nuns who live in Belorado, a town of 1,800 on the […]
Before flying to Italy’s southern Puglia region to meet world leaders at the G7, Pope Francis hosted a very different audience at the Vatican celebrating the importance of humour. The pontiff welcomed more than 100 comedians from 15 nations, including US celebrities Whoopi Goldberg, Jimmy Fallon, Chris Rock, Stephen Colbert and Conan O’Brien. Francis told […]
Vatican police have detained a former employee who allegedly tried to sell a 17th-century gilded manuscript describing Bernini’s designs for the altar canopy of St Peter’s Basilica back to the Holy See. Vatican prosecutors said the 18-page manuscript, which apparently contains the first known specifications for the gilding of the baldacchino canopy, had disappeared from […]
ROME (AP) — The Vatican made another big overture to China on Tuesday, reaffirming the Catholic Church poses no threat to Beijing’s sovereignty and admitting that Western missionaries had made “errors” in past centuries in their zeal to convert the Chinese faithful. The Vatican hosted the head of China’s bishops conference for an unprecedented, high-level […]
The Vatican on Friday radically reformed its process for evaluating alleged visions of the Virgin Mary, weeping statues and other seemingly supernatural phenomena, insisting on having the final say in whether the events are worthy of popular devotion. The Vatican’s doctrine office overhauled norms first issued in 1978, arguing that they were no longer useful […]
Gov. Gavin Newsom accused former President Donald Trump of “open corruption” in a speech Thursday at a climate summit of Catholic officials and international leaders, elevating his criticism of the Republican leader in the hallowed halls of the Vatican. The California governor referenced news stories alleging that Trump recently solicited campaign donations from oil executives […]
From May 15-17, 2024, American leaders including California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healy will be attending a global conference on environmental issues. The host? The Vatican. The summit, “From Climate Crisis to Climate Resilience,” will focus on human adaptation, not just trying to mitigate climate change. “We need to embark on building […]
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Israel’s Embassy to the Holy See issued a protest on Monday after a Yemeni Nobel Prize winner accused Israel of “genocide” in Gaza during an event hosted by the Vatican. The embassy said it felt “indignation and shock” over the comments from rights activist Tawakkol Karman made on Saturday evening during […]
Tech giant Cisco Systems has joined Microsoft and IBM in signing on to a Vatican-sponsored pledge to ensure artificial intelligence is developed and used ethically and to benefit the common good. Cisco Systems chief executive Chuck Robbins signed the document, known as the Rome Call, and met privately with Pope Francis, the Vatican said. The […]
ROME (AP) — Tech giant Cisco Systems on Wednesday joined Microsoft and IBM in signing onto a Vatican-sponsored pledge to ensure artificial intelligence is developed and used ethically and to benefit the common good. Cisco Systems chief executive Chuck Robbins signed the document, known as the Rome Call, and met privately with Pope Francis, the […]
ROME (AP) — The Holy See has formally protested to France after a French court ruled that a former high-ranking Vatican official was liable for what the court determined to be the wrongful dismissal of a nun from a religious order. According to French media, the Lorient tribunal on April 3 ruled in favor of […]