Dispatches

Yesterday in Northern California Apple filled in some of the details on its new Apple Watch And according to the Guardian its 18 karat solid gold edition can be yours for the low low price of 17 000 It rsquo s hard to argue with that isn rsquo t it I mean did you see the gold-encased iPhones

The Catholic Bishops rsquo Conference of England and Wales one of two Conferences in Britain has issued an outspoken open letter that discusses key issues in the forthcoming UK parliamentary election May 7 They cited immigration a hot-button topic in the national political conversation here a

The Vatican has thrown its weight behind an important new Latin American Church transnational network REPAM created to protect the peoples and respond to the challenges to them and to the natural environment in the Amazon region that stretches across nine countries of that continent nbsp Cardinal

When it comes to the Synod questionnaire there rsquo s one more question to consider What rsquo s everyone else in the rest of the world doing What other treasures or long-abandoned mine shafts are out there to find I spent the last few days looking around Here rsquo s what I found The Pacific

Another highly significant U.S. appointment from Pope Francis

When you first see the full 46-question survey from Rome you can rsquo t help but wonder whether the leaders of the church actually want to hear from anyone And I mean anyone mdash people in the pews professional church folk clergy religious even other bishops Because as we talked about yest

Last Friday I wrote an overview about the surveys that all the dioceses of the world are doing right now in preparation for next October rsquo s Synod on the Family For perhaps the first time ever a pope has invited the entirety of the faithful to be an essential part of the church rsquo s discern

Vatican watchers suggest the leak intended to discredit Pell

Pope Francis has appointed Charles Scicluna the Vatican rsquo s former chief prosecutor of clergy who abuse minors as archbishop of Malta The Vatican made the announcement on Feb 27 though the news had been broken some days earlier by the press in Malta The 55-year-old Toronto-born Maltese prelat

Earlier this week the National Catholic Reporter did a story on the surveys being conducted by all the dioceses of the United States in prepartion for October rsquo s Synod on the Family Again this is all part of the two year consultation process that Pope Francis began over a year ago to discuss