After the stunning defeat of Theresa May’s exit deal, Scotland is looking anew at independence, and the U.K. government fears economic disaster.
Europe
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Swiss Guard replaces metal helmets with 3D-printed plastic headgear
The Swiss Guards used the new helmets during a special ceremony Jan. 22 at the Vatican commemorating the 513th anniversary of their foundation.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
While U.S. fixates on the border wall, populist world leaders still turn migrants away
The U.N.’s International Organization for Migration reports that for the fifth consecutive year more than 4,500 people are believed to have died or gone missing on migration routes around the world in 2018.
Posted inFaith, News
Cardinal on trial in France’s biggest church sex abuse case
The case poses a new challenge to the Vatican, amid growing demands in overwhelmingly Catholic France for a reckoning with decades of sexual abuse by the clergy.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
Theresa May fumbles toward a no-deal Brexit
The British state continues to make preparations for the growing possibility of a no-deal exit, an outcome sufficiently plausible that it is spending large sums recruiting new staff and renting warehouse space for key supplies, such as E.U.-produced medicine, that may abruptly prove hard to come by.
Posted inArts & Culture, Film
A Catholic queen is surprisingly woke in ‘Mary Queen of Scots’
The messages of “Mary” that can be applied to our own age are received early, and often.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Bishops: Ukrainians have ‘sacred duty’ to defend against Russian forces
In a message marking the anniversary of their country’s December 1991 referendum on independence from the Soviet Union, Ukrainian Catholic bishops said Ukrainians had a “right and sacred duty” to defend themselves against “Russian aggression,” but should also avoid yielding to alarm and panic.
Posted inArts & Culture, Film
Bawdy film about Polish priests divides audiences
“Tragic characters like these, who seem tangled in sin, are always a call to conversion,” said one Polish primate.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Ukrainian Catholics fear new war after naval clashes
Catholics in Ukraine said people fear a full-scale war with Russia, after a naval confrontation prompted the imposition of martial law in Ukraine’s eastern regions.
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Pope Francis’ efforts to clean up Vatican finances rewarded by the E.U.
The Vatican today announced the approval of its application to a payment-integration initiative of the European Union for simplification of bank transfers in the euro currency.