Christopher R. Altieri, Author at Catholic Herald

Christopher R. Altieri

Why Catholics and Mormons are setting aside their differences

March 21, 2019

Russell Nelson, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), visited the Vatican last week and met Pope Francis. After the meeting, Nelson told journalists: “The differences in doctrine are real – and they’re important – but they’re not nearly as important as the things we have in common.” He went on

Will opening the Pius XII archives change the debate about the wartime pope?

March 14, 2019

The Holy See announced last week that the Vatican Secret Archives will open files related to Pope Pius XII’s pontificate. The news caused quite a stir in the press, owing in large part to the controversy surrounding the man who reigned from 1939 to 1958 – through the Second World War and well into the post-war settlement.

Bishop under investigation for sexual misconduct is on spiritual retreat with Pope Francis

March 11, 2019

The Catholic Herald has learned that a bishop currently under investigation for sexual misconduct and financial mismanagement, including claims he had naked selfies and gay pornography on his phone, is on retreat with Pope Francis and other senior members of the Roman Curia. The bishop is Gustavo Zanchetta, emeritus of Orán, Argentina, and currently Assessor

Explainer: Why Pope Francis wants to overhaul canon law on child pornography

March 08, 2019

Pope Francis recently announced he wants to broaden the definition of child pornography in canon law, to include any and all material depicting subjects under the age of 18. Pope Francis made the announcement on February 24, during his closing address to participants in the four-day meeting on child protection that took place last month

What the convictions of two cardinals tell us about the abuse crisis

March 08, 2019

Two senior churchmen have been convicted of criminal wrongdoing in secular jurisdictions, in connection with the ongoing crisis of clerical sexual abuse and coverup. Cardinal George Pell of Australia has been found guilty of sexually assaulting two altar servers – both boys – in the Melbourne cathedral sacristy in the mid-1990s, when he was archbishop

When a bishop resigns, the faithful have a right to know why

March 07, 2019

“Transparency” was one of the buzzwords over the four days of February 21-24, during which 190 people gathered in the Vatican to discuss child protection in the Church. So it was hard to avoid the impression the Vatican scored a bit of an own goal on Friday last week, when it announced the resignation of

Things went from bad to worse at the Rome abuse summit

February 28, 2019

Now that the four-day meeting on child protection in the Church is over and done, the question is: what next? For an answer to that, you’ll need a soothsayer, not a journalist. The most anyone can do is see where we are and where we’ve been, in order to see where we might be going.

The Church needs transparency. These two cases show it has a long way to go

February 25, 2019

(ROME — 25 February 2019) Even before the thing began — whatever the thing was that happened over four days last week and into Sunday here in Rome — the pieces didn’t quite fit. At the Monday presser presenting the three days of working sessions and two liturgies that were to serve as capstones to the

As the abuse summit closes, what has changed?

February 25, 2019

(ROME — 24 February 2019) The Vatican’s four-day “summit” on child protection ended on Sunday, with little to show. The three days of the meeting’s working sessions began with a call from Pope Francis for “concrete, effective measures” to combat the clerical sexual abuse of minors, and ended with what essentially came to more promises.

What was missing from the Pope’s closing remarks at the abuse summit

February 24, 2019

Pope Francis this morning delivered his concluding remarks to participants in the four-day meeting on child protection that began last Thursday here at the Vatican. It’s a speech that makes interesting reading for several reasons, not least of which is the organisation of its substance: Francis is a dozen paragraphs in – some of them

If you read just one speech from the abuse summit, make it this one

February 23, 2019

(ROME — February 23rd, 2019) There’s one speech you need to read from the Saturday sessions of the Vatican’s child protection meeting — a day dedicated to the theme of transparency — and veteran Vaticanologist Valentina Alazraki of Mexico’s Noticieros Televisa delivered it during the afternoon session. It was the last working session before Vespers

Abuse summit day two: How to hold bishops to account

February 22, 2019

(ROME – February 22nd, 2019) “Accountability”: that was the theme chosen for Day 2 of the meeting for the protection of minors taking place this week at the Vatican. An address by the Archbishop of Mumbai, Cardinal Oswald Gracias, set the tone for the day. His Eminence focused primarily on bishops’ accountability to each other

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