ldquo The accountability of bishops is a source of great concern rdquo to the 17 members of the Commission for the Protection of Minors established by Pope Francis in March 2014 Cardinal Sean O rsquo Malley the president of this body told reporters at a Vatican press briefing February 7 ldquo
Gerard O’Connell
Gerard O’Connell is America’s senior Vatican correspondent and author of The Election of Pope Francis: An Inside Story of the Conclave That Changed History. He has been covering the Vatican since 1985.
Posted inDispatches
Pope Asks Bishops and Religious Superiors to Cooperate Fully with Commission for Protection of Minors
In a new and important initiative aimed at protecting minors from sexual abuse in the Catholic Church eliminating all such abuse and assisting the victims of past abuse Pope Francis has sent a letter to the Presidents of the Bishops Conferences and the Superiors of the Institutes of Consecrated Li
Posted inSigns Of the Times
Pope Francis Sends Pallium Home
Pope Francis has decided that the public ceremony of investiture of metropolitan archbishops with the pallium will henceforth take place in the prelates’ home dioceses, not in the Vatican as has been the case under recent pontiffs.He believes that in this way the ceremony “will greatly f
Posted inVatican Dispatch
Francis’ Spiritual Reform
Mandated by the cardinals in the pre-conclave meetings to reform the Roman Curia, Pope Francis is taking his task very seriously and moving in a more radical direction than anyone had expected. His aim is not simply structural reform of the Vatican offices, though that is part of it; his primary goa
Posted inDispatches
‘Archbishop Romero is a Martyr of the Church of Vatican II’
Archbishop Oscar Romero ldquo is a martyr of the Church of the Second Vatican Council In killing him they wanted to hit the Church that flowed from the Second Vatican Council rdquo Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia the postulator of his cause for beatification told a press briefing in the Vatican on
Posted inDispatches
Pope Recognizes that Archbishop Romero is a martyr
El Salvadoran archbishop ‘was killed in hatred of the faith’ on March 24, 1980
Posted inVatican Dispatch
The Pope in the Poncho
Under heavy rain Francis spoke from the heart to survivors of Typhoon Haiyan.
Posted inDispatches
Pope Decides Pallium Will Be Given to Metropolitan Archbishops in Home Dioceses
Pope Francis has decided that the public ceremony of investiture of the Pallium on Metropolitan Archbishops will henceforth take place in the prelates rsquo home dioceses and not in the Vatican as has been the case under recent pontiffs He believes that in this way the ceremony quot will greatly f
Posted inSigns Of the Times
Pope Urges Government Response To Poverty as ‘Moral Imperative’
Beginning the second leg of his South Asian journey, Pope Francis did not mince words when he addressed government and church leaders of the Philippines on Jan. 16. A day after his triumphal arrival from Sri Lanka, he called on them to combat and eliminate “scandalous” social inequalitie
Posted inVatican Dispatch
Francis Chooses Electors
Pope Francis is engaged in a slow but determined process to remake the College of Cardinals and renew the electors who will choose his successor. His aim is to increase the college’s universality by affirming the churches on the peripheries, to correct present imbalances and to ensure there is