VATICAN – After moving the Vatican celebration of the World Day of Migrants and Refugees from January to September, Pope Francis wants Catholics to understand how concern for migrants and refugees is part of a much broader Christian concern for people in need.
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VATICAN – As robotics play an increasingly greater role in today's world, their technological capabilities must not outpace ethical concerns, said a number of speakers at the Pontifical Academy for Life's workshop on "Robo-ethics: Humans, Machines and Health."
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VATICAN – The fruitful friendship and dialogue between Jews and Christians must go beyond the world of experts and academia, Pope Francis said.
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VATICAN – When the Vatican Congregation for Clergy developed guidelines a decade ago for handling cases of priests who father children, the first objective was to make it easier for those men to leave the priesthood to care for their children and be real dads, said the prefect of the congregation.
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VATICAN – The day Australian Cardinal George Pell was jailed in Melbourne after being found guilty of child sexual abuse, the Vatican announced his case would be investigated by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
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QUEBEC – The apostolic nunciature in Ottawa, Ontario, confirmed Feb. 26 that it received a first complaint of sexual misconduct concerning Archbishop Luigi Ventura, the Vatican's ambassador to Canada from 2001 to 2009.
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VATICAN – While the four-day Vatican summit on the protection of minors has ended, the work to ensure that laws and concrete actions are in place is just beginning, said Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi.
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VATICAN – The clerical sexual abuse crisis has caused "serious scandal" in the Catholic Church and in society "because of the dramatic suffering of the victims, as well as the unjustifiable lack of attention to them" and attempts by church leaders to cover up the crimes of the guilty, Pope Francis said.
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VATICAN – The hypocrisy of Catholic leaders who claimed to be guardians of morality yet remained silent about clerical sexual abuse has left the church's credibility in shambles, an African woman religious told bishops at the Vatican summit on abuse.
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VATICAN – The Catholic Church should re-examine how "pontifical secret" is applied in clerical sex abuse cases so there is greater transparency in the cases and it is not invoked "to hide problems," said a canon lawyer and Vatican official.
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VATICAN – For the Catholic Church, there is a "line in the sand," which can never be crossed, and that is to not allow anyone who harms or would harm a child to exercise public ministry, said Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley of Boston.
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VATICAN – "Every time I refused to have sex with him, he would beat me," an abuse survivor from Africa told Pope Francis and bishops attending the Vatican summit on child protection and the abuse crisis.
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VATICAN – Opening the Vatican summit on child protection and the clerical sexual abuse crisis, Pope Francis said, "The holy people of God are watching and are awaiting from us not simple, predictable condemnations, but concrete and effective measures" to stop abuse.
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VATICAN – Abuse survivors and support groups were very clear about what they want the world's bishops, religious superiors, the pope and the Vatican to do to protect children and end clerical sexual abuse.
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VATICAN – Pope Francis has confirmed the removal from the priesthood of Theodore E. McCarrick, the 88-year-old former cardinal and archbishop of Washington.
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