Gerard Henderson has produced a rounded and at times fascinating portrait of B. A. Santamaria. His broad conclusion is that Santamaria was a compelling, skilled and persuasive man who was enormously devoted to his causes.
Peter Singer and Anthony Fisher faced off in a debate over euthanasia on Thursday night.
Sydney University Catholic Society/YouTube
The Catholic Church’s calls to protect children are falling on deaf ears after years of abuse scandals.
Pope Francis and UN head Ban Ki-Moon, who met at the Vatican to discuss climate change, hope to influence this year’s crucial Paris climate talks.
EPA/L'OSSERVATORE ROMANO/AAP
Pope Francis is set to release an encyclical on climate change next month, which he hopes will influence this year’s Paris climate talks as well as continuing his work on behalf of the world’s poorest.
The Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, has been charged with concealing child sexual abuse in the 1970s.
AAP/David Maruiz
Philip Wilson, the Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide, is the most senior clergyman in the world to face a charge of concealing sexual abuse in the church.
Religious institutions have consistently struggled to respond to child sexual abuse cases appropriately.
L'Osservatore Romano/EPA
Speaking with: Tim Jones on child sexual abuse within religious institutions
The Conversation21.6 MB(download)
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse reconvened this week. Announced in 2012, the commission was established due to growing concerns over consistently inadequate responses…
Will there be brotherly love in Philadelphia next September?
Giampiero Sposito/Reuters
In late November, the Vatican confirmed that Pope Francis is going to visit the United States of America for the World Meeting of Families that will take place in Philadelphia at the end of September 2015…
The Extraordinary Synod on the Family, convened by Pope Francis in Rome from October 5 to 19, was intended to open up an honest and wide-ranging debate about the Catholic Church’s teaching and pastoral…
They are listening but whose side are they on?
Max Rossi/Reuters
An extraordinary two weeks in Rome ended Saturday with a standing ovation. Pope Francis had invited 191 bishops and clergy to the Synod on the family to speak their minds on issues such as divorce, premarital…
The extraordinary synod of bishops on family is meeting for two weeks at the Vatican.
EPA/L'Osservatore Romano
A report of debate from the first half of the extraordinary synod of Catholic bishops meeting in Rome has been described as a “pastoral earthquake” and a “seismic shift in Rome” for praising gay relationships…
Pope Francis has urged the world to avoid the greed of unchecked capitalism.
Yonhap/AAP
Pope Francis has emerged as one of the most important voices on the global stage about the need for a stronger moral dimension in economic policies. This has caused some upset in business and financial…
Throughout his recent royal commission appearance, Catholic cardinal George Pell focused on the ‘choices’ that victims of abuse make.
AAP/Paul Miller
Cardinal George Pell’s appearance at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will do little to rehabilitate his image in the eyes of clergy abuse victims. Via video link…
Pope Francis flew over China on his way to South Korea late last week, where the Catholic Church has seen rapid growth in the last decade. Papal custom is to send a telegram to the leaders of nations over…
What is distinctive about the Catholic Church that might have fostered child abuse?
David Goehring
The statistics attached to the Interim Report of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse have confirmed what many people suspected – that while child abuse has been widespread…
Pope Francis argues that the poor are at the heart of the Gospel and it’s the communists who have ‘stolen the flag’.
EPA/Nicola Lanese
A blog in The Economist recently accused Pope Francis of following the founder of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Lenin, in adopting an “ultra-radical line” on capitalism. The blog, “Francis, capitalism and…
George Pell isn’t a personal devotee of new media, but he sees their value for spreading the word.
AAP/Paul Miller
Imagine you were playing with your phone while you waited for the World Cup final to get underway and you suddenly saw a photo of the Pope Emeritus eating popcorn with the current Pontiff on your timeline…
You wanted a gay rights cake? Why didn’t you come to me?
Anthony Upton/PA
The recent furore over a Northern Ireland bakery’s refusal to make a cake bearing the iced message “support gay marriage” is just the latest in a series of incidents in which conservative Christians have…
Children at “the Home” in Ireland, 1924 (Connaught Tribune, 21st June 1924)
@Limerick1914
Yet another horrific story of historic abuse has emerged in Ireland. In what has become a disturbing pattern, it was mostly the international media who reported that the remains of 796 children and babies…
The idea may seem ‘old-fashioned’, says Pope Francis, ‘But look out because the devil is present! The devil is here … even in the 21st century!’
EPA/Maurizio Brambatti
Pope Francis’ discussion of the devil (or Satan) has been greeted with surprise by many. Why would a “progressive” Pope speak about an “old-school”, passé topic like the devil? Has not the Catholic Church…