“If we received a sacrament in order to serve, how then, called to serve, could we say no?”, ask couple, 44 and 42, parents of two children
“While COVID-19 remains a clear and present danger, climate change is no less of a pressing crisis”, religious warn in letters to UK, EU and African Union
In just-released memoir ‘A Catechism of the Heart: A Jesuit Missioned to the Laity’, Benjamin Brenkert laments order’s betrayal of his dream to be the first openly gay priest in good standing
Mother Mechthild Thürmer says of run-in with law over granting sanctuary in her Bavarian abbey: “I have no choice, I have to help, I have to help, as much as I can”
Holy See culture minister Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi denounces racial prejudice as “negation of relationship”, “social and spiritual denialism” of diversity
Preacher to the Papal Household Raniero Cantalamessa alerts “Religion and the gospel risk becoming a pretext for interests that do not promote concord and unity”
Bishops plead with President Trump, Attorney General William Barr: “Witness to the dignity of all human life: stop these executions”
In message to Passionists for 300th anniversary, Francis warns “human manipulation” to blame for “worrying… pain and decay” of natural world
Victims’ only crime was that “of dreaming”, denounces superior general Sister Neusa de Fatima Mariano as Vatican paper ‘L’Osservatore Romano’ deplores “endless” migrant “massacre”
“We need to start or keep looking at the Common Home from a woman’s perspective”, insists professor Sister Alessandra Smerilli, warning “dominant” male view “distorts reality”
“I now feel an even greater urge to be a witness of peace, brotherhood and forgiveness”, Father Pierluigi Maccalli says after surviving imprisonment by Islamist radicals
Hans Zollner SJ says Vatican “control, supervision and, if necessary, intervention” of new Church societies and institutes necessary to prevent abuses of power
Father Tony Flannery puts lie to claim Vatican did “everything possible” to dialogue with him before September ultimatum over his support for women priests, LGBT+ people
“It is legitimate for a State… to impose measures that are for the benefit of all”, claims Archbishop of Poitiers Pascal Wintzer
“Power in the Church is in priestly hands, and we women have no right to it as long as we are denied the priesthood”, denounces academic Isabel Gómez Acebo
Pushing back against president’s allegations of “fraud”, sisters say his “reckless attempts to disenfranchise millions… are shameful and will not be tolerated”
Doris Wagner Reisinger says simultaneous Catholic emphasis on conscience and obedience is a “strange logical contradiction” that fosters abuse
Giovanni D’Ercole of the Ascoli Piceno diocese announces plan “to accompany the Church’s journey in a more intense way in meditation, contemplation and silence”
Constance Vilanova pins blame for aggressions against female religious on “clericalism” which treats priests like “princes”
“It is striking the lack of imagination of the traditionalist sector of the Church in labelling as communist everything that does not fall within the dogmas of economic neoliberalism”
The Old Continent again records the global Church’s largest fall in number of priests, major seminarians and women religious
Pope’s call for equal rights in society for men and women sounds “hollow and brittle” in the absence of gender equality in the Church, denounce nun, academic, youth leader and theologian in training
“Resilience for the sake of life! This motto accompanied and encouraged me day after day and gave me the strength to carry on”, reveals Father Pierluigi Maccalli
Instead of being “instrumentalised by male-centred Church”, religious sisters especially “should take on leading roles”: staff member of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue Fr. Michael Weninger
The Sisters Servants of Divine Providence of Catania respond to Francis’ call in ‘Fratelli tutti’ to offer hospitality to those fleeing wars, persecutions and natural catastrophes
“When I do an action regarding nuclear weapons, it relates to poverty, to contamination, to climate disaster, to all of it”, declared the nun, who was arrested multiple times and spent years in prison for her protests
Vatican official gives thanks for release of Fr. Pierluigi Maccalli, kidnapped two years ago by jihadist insurgents: “Missionaries are always close to the people; they do not flee even during difficult situations and give their lives for the Gospel”
The bishops of the German state of Bavaria are standing behind an abbess who is being prosecuted for sheltering asylum seekers.