Austen Ivereigh

It is extremely unusual for the Vatican to make a statement on the clerical sex abuse crisis The one read out by the Pope s spokesman Federico Lombardi on Vatican Radio yesterday is a sign that Rome feels it can no longer resist the accusation that it is maintaining a wall of silence on the issue

Two recent addresses help to clarify Pope Benedict XVI s personal ordinariate scheme for groups of Anglicans wishing to enter into communion with Rome nbsp Speaking in Canada the president of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith CDF Cardinal William Levada said groups of Anglicans e

Some 100 traditionalist Anglican parishes in the US have voted to take up Pope Benedict s offer to be received corporately via the ordinariate scheme The Anglican Church in America ACA website says the decision was taken 3 March The Daily Telegraph has good coverage here That means America nb

My client is not in a hurry the great Catalan architect Antoni Gaud iacute 1852-1926 used to say when people asked him when his Sagrada Familia cathedral would be finished It looks now as if his client is chivvying things along News from Rome is that Pope Benedict will consecrate this work o

Israel rsquo s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that two religious sites in the West Bank will be added to the country s national heritage list The Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron and Rachel s Tomb in Bethlehem will now be included in a 107m Israeli restoration plan Anyone unfam

Look at the statements and homilies made by some of the Irish bishops yesterday following their two-day meeting with Pope Benedict XVI and one thing will be perfectly obvious they just don t understand the problem There is plenty there about sin and repentance God s loving and healing mercy and

There were 1 16 billion baptised Catholics in the world in 2008 up 1 7 19m on the previous year and making up 17 4 of the world s population nbsp according to the latest Annuario Pontificio nbsp In the same period the world s population went from 6 6bn to 6 7bn The Catholic share of tha

It has been a week of movement in the often arcane world of Anglican traditionalists seeking a home in Rome The Australian branch of Forward in Faith — the main association of Anglo-Catholic priests — has become the first group within the Anglican Church to vote to accept the Pope s ordinariate o

A top-secret Vatican delegation which everyone seemed to know about was in the UK last week to plan the details of the papal visit expected 16-19 September There ll be no official announcement of the itinerary until at least March but this is what has been sketched in Thurs 16 Pope received by

We do not know how to deal with death Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster told a congregation of the sick yesterday But he added fear cannot be our guide He sees fear of death and of the pain and indignity which precede it as the real reason for the current drive to legalise assisted