The Old Continent again records the global Church’s largest fall in number of priests, major seminarians and women religious
New Archbishop of Zaragoza laments Church’s “clumsiness” in reforming itself: “The Church is like a Titanic and she needs time to make the reforms she has to make”
The Cologne archdiocese in Germany is planning to slash the number of its parishes from 500 currently to 50 or 60 in ten years.
An Irish priest has warned that the COVID-19 pandemic has placed a “huge question-mark” on the Church’s financial viability.
A nun has blasted clericalist priests, reminding them that “‘to be holy’ cannot mean uptight, superior, arrogant, contemptuous of women, hypocritical…”.
An Irish cleric has called for a “a radical reappraisal and an honest dialogue about what has gone wrong with vocations of priesthood” in order to turn around the “abysmal” vocations slide.
Bishop Giuseppe Marciante of Cefalù, on the Italian island of Sicily, has entrusted the “participation in the pastoral care of the parish of St Paul the Apostle” in the town of Isnello to a “Family Pastoral Service Team” that includes laypeople.
The German Church is at loggerheads over Bishops’ plans to reform seminaries, with a debate between a theologian and a prelate responsible for the proposals the latest show of tension over the issue.
Is the dream of authentic and effective lay-clerical co-responsibility in the Church over? That’s the question many Catholics must be asking themselves after the publication Monday of a document that shores up clericalism as the Church’s modus operandi.
A theologian has proposed a solution to the shortage of priests: that the Church recognise the “wealth of vocations” of all the baptised.
A pioneering German layman is taking on the role of ‘pastor’ of a parish, saying that his appointment to a role usually reserved for priests “is only the beginning of new paths we are taking” in the Church.
The head of Germany’s highest lay body has urged the ordination of married male and female priests to halt what he has called the “catastrophe” of the slide in vocations to the priesthood.
A theologian has accused the German Bishops of perpetuating clericalism with their new priestly training plans.
A layman has taken joint charge of a parish in the German diocese of Münster as an auxiliary bishop there has admitted “there are simply not enough priests” to take on the duties of pastor.
Theologians have blasted “naive and clueless” German Bishops over their proposed changes to seminarians’ training.
The German Bishops are pledging “courageous changes” in the Church to stem the hemorrhage of Catholics.
The role of bishops is at stake in a Vatican intervention to stop German parish mergers, a canon lawyer and theologian has warned.
“It is not for anyone to deny us vocations just because we are women”, German laywomen have warned bishops.
A German diocese is experimenting with new non-priest-centred parish models.
The Vatican has been accused of a “petty and embarrassing” intervention in parish mergers in a German diocese.
Pope Francis on Sunday, during the Regina Caeli, highlighted that this May 3 marks the World Day of Prayer for Vocations.
In a message made public today for the World Day of Vocations in May, Pope Francis has encouraged the Church not to be overwhelmed by life’s “tempests of difficulty, doubt and fear”, but instead to “take heart, do not be afraid!”.
An Irish diocese is preparing for life without priests, and warning that by 2035, just fifteen years away, between just five to seven priests will be serving the diocese’s 22 parishes.
A missionary has warned that the cancellations of public Masses all over the world due to the coronavirus threat will soon become a permanent reality, thanks to the lack of priests.
An abbot has lamented that “today there are too many monasteries in Switzerland”, and that “in the next 10 years, several of these monasteries will need to close”.
Poland is in the grip of a “true vocations crisis”, but the country is still home to one-in-four new priests in Europe, statistics have shown.
The Primate of All Ireland has admitted, on married priests, that “I am very much open to the idea of this, and I think Pope Francis is too”.
“Something is very wrong”; “the clock is ticking”. These are some of the latest reactions as the “crisis point” in the Irish Church reaches an apocalyptic level.
An Italian theologian has levelled accusations of a “serious distortion of the truth” at the ultraconservatives trying to blackmail Pope Francis with accusations of heresy if the pontiff allows optional celibacy for priests.
Is Church reform finally coming to Ireland? A new bishop has said he supports a “national gathering” for “deep reflection” on the Church’s future.