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Pope’s Ukraine envoy to meet Chinese premier on Wednesday

September 12, 2023

ROME – An Italian newspaper reported Tuesday morning that Pope Francis’s personal envoy for the conflict in Ukraine, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, will depart today for Beijing, where he is expected to meet Premier Li Qiang, considered China’s second most important official after President Xi Jinping. Zuppi’s trip to Beijing has been widely anticipated, coming after

Pope dismisses critics of Synod as ‘ideological’ with an ‘incapacity for dialogue’

September 04, 2023

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE – Pope Francis warned against the influence of what he called “ideology” on an upcoming Synod of Bishops at the Vatican, indicated that his future travel plans may be curtailed given considerations of health and limitations on movement, and also distanced himself from climate change extremists. The pontiff also largely rejected

Pope Francis kicks off ‘hot autumn’ at the Vatican

September 04, 2023

ROME – As summer winds down in Rome and the city fills up with reluctant vacationers getting back to the grind, Pope Francis has kicked off what promises to be a true autunno caldo, or “hot autumn” at the Vatican. For Francis, this autumn promises to be one of his busiest yet, with two international trips,

Pope’s Ukraine war envoy says world’s challenges can only be solved through ‘multilateralism’

August 28, 2023

ROME — Pope Francis’s personal envoy for the war in Ukraine has said that multilateralism, meaning cooperation among various states and international actors, is the only way to face contemporary challenges, but also warned that such an approach today is “in great difficulty”. In diplomatic jargon, “multilateralism” is generally understood to mean an alternative to

Pope to update environmental teachings in Laudato Si’ to cover extreme weather

August 23, 2023

Pope Francis is writing a second part to Laudato Si’ – his landmark papal encyclical on the environment – to address weather catastrophes such as extreme heat waves, floods and wildfires. The Holy Father revealed that an extended version of the 2015 encyclical on the “the care of our common home” was in the pipeline during off-the-cuff

Synodality: a new perestroika?

August 07, 2023

It is notoriously risky to compare two large historical movements, especially recent or contemporary ones, and to claim to detect similarities between them: quite simply, like is not being compared with like. That said, present debates might benefit from a quite different perspective: a comparison between the current enthusiasm for “synodality” within the Catholic Church and the

Instrumentum Laboris or Instrumentum Deceptionis?

July 10, 2023

The Catholic Church is indeed in serious need of renewal. But when has the Church not been? The task for each generation is one of discernment. Discernment is both a facet of common sense, but like so many aspects of the life of faith, it has a spiritual or supernatural dimension too. St Paul reminds

Sciaf chief appointed to lead Caritas six months after mass sackings

May 16, 2023

The executive director of Sciaf, the overseas aid agency of the Scottish bishops, has been elected as head of Caritas Internationalis six months after the Pope sacked the leadership team amid allegations of bullying and harassment. Alistair Dutton, a former Jesuit novice who has worked for Sciaf since 1996, was chosen to serve as Secretary