The shrine at Lourdes, France, where the Virgin Mary is venerated as ‘Our Lady of Lourdes,’ following several apparitions reported in 1858.
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The Vatican plans to set up an ‘observatory’ to investigate apparitions of the Virgin Mary. A scholar of global Christianity explains why this is a major shift in how apparitions are authenticated.
Mary is often depicted weeping, a reminder of the ‘Seven Sorrows’ the Bible recounts her suffering.
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Marco Bellochio’s series is the latest interpretation of a murder that continues to haunt Italy.
Last week, Pope Francis repudiated a 500-year-old-decree justifying colonialism. This image is from last summer: at Lac Ste. Anne, Alta., in Canada.
(AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
The Vatican has repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery, a 500-year-old decree used to justify settler colonialism. Scholar Veldon Coburn explains this symbolic victory and what still needs to happen.
Pope Francis at Martyrs Stadium in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, in February 2023.
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Pell, often described as a conservative Catholic, was jailed for child sexual abuse in Australia in 2019 but maintained his innocence and was acquitted the following year.
Pope Francis.
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A scholar of philosophy and foreign policy explains why Cardinal Zen poses a threat to the Chinese Communist Party as a competing source of political authority.
Pope John Paul I greets the crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican in August 1978.
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Popes’ roles have changed over time. Some periods produced plenty of saintly popes, while others are notorious for the opposite.
Gerald Antoine, Northwest Territories regional chief and Assembly of First Nations lead delegate to Rome, is flanked by Natan Obed, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, left, and Cassidy Caron, Métis National Council president, in St.Peter’s Square in Rome, after their meeting with Pope Francis on April 1.
(AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
As a theologian who studies church apologies for historical wrongs, I understand why the Pope was moved to speak this week, but I hope this was not his definitive apology.
Pope John Paul I, who was pope for about a month before his death, has moved one step closer to sainthood.
AP Photo/Claudio Luffoli
Pope Francis formally opened a two-year process called a “synod on synodality” for the Catholic Church on Oct. 10.
People pray for the victims of child sex abuse during a special service at a Catholic church outside Paris on Oct. 5, 2021. A new French report estimates that more than 200,000 children were abused by clergy since 1950.
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A French report on the scale of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy is the latest revelation in the crisis, but its roots go back decades – or more. Here are a few of our many related articles.
When Pope John Paul II was beatified, Zimbabwe’s ruler, Robert Mugabe, was in attendance and given Communion.
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Biden is not the first public figure to whom the Catholic Church wants to deny Communion. Over the centuries, the Church has often come under criticism for either denying or giving Communion.
The Vatican has warned U.S. bishops not to deny Communion to President Biden.
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A debate over whether President Biden’s views on abortion disqualify him from taking Communion serves to expose a rift between US bishops and the pope, and is a threat to the church itself.
President Joe Biden’s progressive values jar with the conservatism of some Catholic bishops.
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