Embed from Getty Images Chaos reigns in the German state of Bavaria just days before a controversial new law comes into effect mandating that a Christian cross be displayed in all state offices. Not only is there great confusion on exactly what constitutes a state office and exactly what form the cross should take, but the Bavarian Interior Ministry has admitted that it won’t be carrying out checks to make sure the order is enforced. At the end of April,... Read more
Embed from Getty Images The leaders of Bulgaria’s three biggest political parties have drafted a bill on religious affairs that, if passed, would spell disaster for the country’s minority Catholic and Protestant Churches. Not only would the new law cut off State subsidies to confessions such as these that represent less than 1% of the population, but both funding from overseas and permissions for foreigners to celebrate religious services would be suspended as well, leaving the Catholic Church “in a... Read more
Embed from Getty Images The war for Catalonian independence continues to take a heavy toll on the Churches in Barbastro-Monzón and Lérida. The fight over 111 pieces of artwork claimed by the first of these dioceses – in Aragón – but currently held in the second – in Catalonia – has stepped up in intensity, with lawyers for the diocese of Barbastro-Monzón accusing the Bishop of Lérida, Salvador Giménez, of acting “scandalously and immorally” and even of mounting an ecclesiastical... Read more
By Cameron Doody and Hendro Munsterman The leader of The Netherlands’ largest Catholic diocese has sprung to the defense of Pope against the attacks on Francis of his countryman, Cardinal Wim Eijk. Writing in the pages of the Nederlands Dagblad, Bishop Gerard De Korte of Den Bosch has declared that “Pope Francis doesn’t sow confusion, but gives space for ongoing dialog”. The motive of Cardinal Eijk’s extraordinary comparison of the ministry of the Bishop of Rome with the coming of... Read more
Embed from Getty Images Just days after the Archbishop of Hamburg, Stefan Hesse, affirmed that Pope Francis has given a “clear wink” to the possibility that Protestants can be admitted to Communion, Cardinal Walter Kasper has claimed that the Second Vatican Council and Pope John Paul II already gave a green light to the participation of these non-Catholic Christians in the Eucharist. “In my opinion, there is room for a continuation of the discussion”, said the 85 year old German... Read more
Embed from Getty Images Cardinal George Pell continues on his “leave of absence” from his post as Prefect of the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy to fight charges of historical child abuse in his native Australia. And the Vatican has done more than simply keep silent. “Stunning” step though this is – “the fact that the Vatican has made no protest at the prospect of a prince of the Church standing trial before a civil magistrate” – signs are that... Read more
Embed from Getty Images Pope Francis offered May 1 another chapter of his magisterium on the opportunities and responsibilities for Catholic media in the twenty-first century. In a speech on the feast of St. Joseph the Worker – International Workers’ Day for the non-Catholic world – the Pope encouraged journalists to unpack current affairs in all their “thickness”, to avoid “light” news meant for “easy consumption” and to always “reconstruct the contexts and explain the causes” of the stories they... Read more
Embed from Getty Images The acquittal on rape charges of five men who sexually assaulted an 18 year-old girl in Pamplona in 2016 has set off a wave of protests in Spain over what millions of people are calling the country’s antiquated and sexist justice system. But while not one Spanish bishop has yet pronounced on the “Wolf Pack” case (after a WhatsApp group established by the guilty men, La Manada), the Carmelite nuns of Hondarribia have been praised for... Read more
The Catholic Church in the south Austrian state of Carinthia has distanced itself “with vigor and decisiveness” from the “extremist and fascist” rallies to be held around the Mass to be said May 12 in the border town of Bleiburg in memory of the thousands of Nazi-allied Croatian troops and civilians killed by Yugoslav Partisans in 1945. In a joint statement with state authorities, the diocese of Gurk-Klagenfurt set out a series of requirements – including a “prohibition of political... Read more
October this year marks the 100th anniversary of the independence of the Czech Republic from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Czech bishops, however, have signalled their intent to withdraw from the celebrations of such a momentous event – or at least in Brno – as part of their protest against a “blasphemous” and “unacceptable” play slated to be performed in the May theatre festival in the Czech Republic’s second-largest city. In a statement published Thursday 19 on its website, the Czech... Read more
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