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VATICAN CITY, July 1 (Reuters) - Former Pope Benedict says in his memoirs that no-one pressured him to resign but alleges that a "gay lobby" in the Vatican had tried to influence decisions, a leading Italian newspaper reported on Friday. The book, called "The Last Conversations," is the first time in history that a former pope judges his own pontificate after it is over. It is due to be published on Sept. 9. Citing health reasons, Benedict in 2103 became the first pope in six centuries to resign. He promised to remain "hidden to the world" and has been living...

Chinese Catholics continue to question the reversal of Bishop Thaddeus Ma Daqin of Shanghai, who has indicated his support for the government-backed Catholic Patriotic Association, after serving four years of house arrest for publically renouncing his membership in the same group. Cardinal Joseph Zen, the retired Bishop of Hong Kong, has questioned whether Bishop Ma's reversal can be taken seriously. Other Chinese Church officials have said that he made his new statement under pressure. Father Gianni Criveller of the Pontifical Missions observes: "I believe that the question of whether Bishop Ma has written the article or not is misleading, because...

In her book, The Shepherd Who Didn’t Run, on the life of Fr. Stanley Rother, America’s first declared martyr, María Ruiz Scaperlanda details how poor scholarship, possibly stemming from a learning disability, almost derailed Rother’s ordination. Recently Aleteia featured a prayer for struggling students to Saint Joseph Cupertino, another famously weak theologian, and it got us thinking about how God uses the sublimely brilliant, like Aquinas and Augustine, as well as everyday folks who do not feel called to be scholars, for his divine purposes.For instance, look at these three saints who failed numerous academic examinations, but continue to...

The superior general of the Society of St. Pius X said in a June 29 statement that the Society “does not seek primarily a canonical recognition.” “In the great and painful confusion that currently reigns in the Church, the proclamation of Catholic doctrine requires the denunciation of errors that have made their way into it and are unfortunately encouraged by a large number of pastors, including the Pope himself,” said Bishop Bernard Fellay. The prelate’s new statement comes one month after he expressed optimism about an accord between the Vatican and the Society, which was founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre....

BRUSSELS, June 28, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – The Primate of Belgium, who has been in office less than a year, has closed down, for dubious reasons, a priestly fraternity that had been blessed with many vocations. At the end of last year, Jozef De Kesel was named the archbishop of Belgium's main See, Mechelen-Brussels, the successor of the traditionally-minded Archbishop André Léonard. While his predecessor was outspoken concerning pro-life issues and attacks on human sexuality, De Kesel promotes a church "not closed within herself" and that gives "reverence to homosexual people." Now De Kesel has taken yet another step towards the...

Backing from retired pope at event to mark his 65th year as a priest may help Francis gain favour among church conservativesBenedict XVI has endorsed Pope Francis’s ministry in an unprecedented Vatican ceremony featuring a reigning pontiff honouring a retired one on the 65th anniversary of his ordination as a priest. The ceremony in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace served in part to show continuity from Benedict to Francis amid continued nostalgia from some conservatives for the former’s tradition-minded papacy. Francis had invited the entire Vatican Curia, or bureaucracy, to celebrate Benedict’s anniversary, and prelates turned out in...

The Vatican has issued a statement denying an Italian media report that Pope Francis has taken control of a foundation established by Pope Benedict XVI to promote theological studies. The Joseph Ratzinger- Benedict XVI Foundation was set up in 2010, and organize conferences and provide scholarships for theologians. The foundation was endowed by the funds generated by royalties from the many published works of Benedict XVI. However, the Vatican press office pointed out, from its inception the foundation was designed to be controlled by the Roman Pontiff, so that when Benedict XVI resigned and Pope Francis succeeded him, the control...

Moscow, June 27, Interfax - The Russian Orthodox Church reminds the Constantinople Patriarchate about incomparability of democracy traditions with taking decisions at the Council. The discussion started with the words of the Constantinople archbishop who made it clear that all decisions taken by the inter-Orthodox Council on Crete would be compulsory for all Orthodox Churches, including those who did not participate in it. "You come from a democracy. Everyone can vote. Now some people choose not to vote. Does that mean you don't live in a democracy?" Archbishop Job of Telmessos said resuming the results of the session on Friday...

ROME — Leaders of gay Catholic groups on Monday praised Pope Francis for saying that all Christians and the Roman Catholic Church owed an apology to gays for previous mistreatment, even as the groups called on the church to take more concrete steps to repudiate past teachings and condemn anti-gay violence. Streaking across the sky on Sunday night in his papal airliner, returning from a visit to Armenia, Francis also visibly winced, momentarily overcome with emotion, when a journalist, Cindy Wooden, mentioned the recent attack at an Orlando gay nightclub and noted that Christians are sometimes blamed for stigmatizing homosexuals....

Pope Francis has said that the Roman Catholic Church should apologise to gay people for the way it has treated them. He told reporters that the Church had no right to judge the gay community, and should show them respect. The pontiff also said the Church should seek forgiveness from other people it had marginalised - women, the poor, and children forced into labour. The Pope has been hailed by many in the gay community for his positive attitude towards homosexuals. But some conservative Catholics have criticised him for making comments they say are ambiguous about sexual morality. Speaking to...

I would like to make, as a parish priest in trenches, a few remarks concerning the Pope’s recent statements in Rome at a gathering of priests and seminarians. Others have admirably remarked on his troubling remarks on marriage and cohabitation. I will not add to those. But I would like to focus on two other reported remarks the Pope made about priests to the effect that some of us are cruel, are putting our noses into people’s moral life and possibly that he even called some of us animals. And while most of these remarks, recorded and widely reported, were...

On 16 June, it was reported that the courageous prelate from Spain, Cardinal Archbishop of Valencia, Antonio Cañizares Llovera, was being investigated by the government of the Spanish Province of Valencia for his purportedly abusive remarks about the increasingly disintegrating pressure on the traditional family exercised by applied gender theory and the so called “gay empire.” The report said: The government of the Spanish province of Valencia has opened an investigation against the Cardinal Archbishop of Valencia, Antonio Cañizares Llovera, following numerous complaints over a sermon in which he denounced the influence of the “gay empire” on society. If prosecuted...

New policy, which includes church workers and volunteers, intended as ‘safety net’ against allegations of sex abuse, but critics say move is ‘too little, too late’Catholic priests in Montreal will be banned from being alone with children to provide a “safety net” against allegations of abuse. Archbishop Christian Lepine has issued a decree to implement the policy, which also covers lay workers and volunteers. According to the decree, the move was to “ensure the safety and integrity of the people to whom we bring the Gospel message and offer our pastoral care”. But, it added, it was also “to preserve...

Rome, Italy, Jun 25, 2016 / 06:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- What is Benedict XVI's own view of his historical resignation? What has the fall-out been from his secretary Archbishop Georg Gänswein's controversial remark on an “expanded petrine office”? What about the “Prophesy of Malachy,” which allegedly sees Francis as the last pontiff? In a recent and candid conversation, veteran journalist and EWTN Rome correspondent Paul Badde sat down with Archbishop Gänswein, who gave his take on these and a number of other questions. The German archbishop currently serves Pope Francis as Prefect of the Papal Household, and has also maintained...

The leaders of the Sisters of Loreto were called to Rome to talk about issues of doctrine and morals.Then the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary were called.Now I read at panicky Fishwrap (aka National Schismatic Reporter) that the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet are next. A copy of the subsequent letter sent by leadership to Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet sisters was obtained by Global Sisters Report. It says that all CSJ Province Leadership Teams received the same letter from CICLSAL and quotes from it on five matters “voicing the following concerns“:• Your desire to...

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Pope Francis hailed Armenia's steadfast Christian heritage on Friday as he arrived in the former Soviet republic for a three-day visit to commemorate the centenary of the Ottoman-era slaughter of Armenians that the pope himself has called a "genocide." In a largely Orthodox land where Catholics are a minority, Armenians seemed genuinely honored to welcome a pope who has long championed the Armenian cause from his time as an archbishop in Argentina and now as leader of the 1.2-billion strong Catholic Church. Small groups of residents lined his motorcade route, and a gaggle of schoolchildren wearing...

The Halton Catholic school board voted four to one Tuesday night to adopt a policy update on disciplining students for “homophobia … and harassment on the basis of sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation” which critics say will see students suspended or expelled for stating Catholic teaching on homosexuality and gender theory. The vote itself was a procedural violation since trustees had already voted down the “progressive discipline” policy update last month by a vote of 4 to 3. Trustee Anthony Danko argued vehemently at the June 21 meeting — to no avail — that to reintroduce the policy in...

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople celebrated the Divine Liturgy of Pentecost on June 19 to open the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church. In recent weeks, four of 14 autocephalous Orthodox churches chose not to send delegations to the council. “Our Orthodox Church has the supreme gift and blessing of possessing the treasure of truth and preserving intact the gift of the All-Holy Spirit, which 'has filled the whole world' (Wis. 1:7), and it is obliged to give the contemporary world a testimony of love and unity, and to reveal the hidden hope that lies within it,” he...

A historic gathering of Orthodox Churches has opened on the Greek island of Crete, despite the absence of four denominations including the Russians. The Holy and Great Council had been billed as the first meeting of fellow Church leaders since 787 AD. The Russians decided to stay away after the Churches of Antioch, Bulgaria and Georgia refused to take part after disputes about the meeting. The council, which began on Sunday, has been 55 years in preparation. It will run until 27 June. On Sunday morning, clerics attending the council celebrated Orthodox Pentecost in the Cretan town of Heraklion, the...

When, minutes after the election of Cardinal Bergoglio as Pope, this venue published the most widely read piece in its history, a forecast of the future pontificate based on past experience, this page was brutally criticized for it. The experience of Cardinal Bergoglio as Archbishop of Buenos Aires had provided more than enough information on his personality, his theological inclinations, his idiosyncrasies. That is, nothing done by him in the past three years has been a surprise to those who knew him. It was all foreseeable: Saul does not become Paul without a Damascene conversion, and it must be admitted...