Tag: Catholicism

Archbishop Silvano M. Tomasi, left, Apostolic Nuncio, Permanent Observer of the Holy See (Vatican) to the Office of the United Nations in Geneva, shakes hand with Claudio Grossmann, right, Chairperson of UN Committee against Torture, prior the UN torture committee hearing on the Vatican, at the headquarters of the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in the Palais Wilson, in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday, May 5, 2014. The UN Committee Against Torture hears the Holy See for the first time to consider whether the church's handling of child sexual abuse complaints has violated its obligations against subjecting minors to torture and to hear the Vatican on its efforts to stamp out child sex abuse by priests. (AP Photo/Keystone, Salvatore Di Nolfi)

UN panel slams Vatican on priest sex-abuse scandal

JOHN HEILPRINNICOLE WINFIELD · May 23, 2014 7:34 pm

Pope’s Mideast trip will test diplomatic skills

Nicole Winfield · May 23, 2014 12:57 pm

In this photo taken Sunday, May 18, 2014, Father Ibrahim Shomali, the parish priest of Beit Jala and leads meditating efforts between local Christians and Palestinian Christian emigre families who abandoned their homes, in order to keep Christian properties among Christians, stands at the Annunciation Latin Church, in the West Bank town of Beit Jala. Pope Francis will be arriving this weekend to the land where Christianity was born, and where Christians are disappearing. The Christian community in the Holy Land is one of the oldest in the world. But it has dwindled to around 2 percent of the population today, as economic hardship, violence and the bitter realities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have sent them searching for better opportunities overseas. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

Christian exodus shadows papal visit to Holy Land

Daniel Estrin · May 21, 2014 9:40 am

Rene Bruelhart, director of the Financial Information Authority, meets the journalists at the Vatican. Monday, May 14, 2014. The Vatican has seen a spike in the number of suspicious financial transactions being reported as its troubled bank goes through its books to review accounts. The Vatican's financial watchdog agency released its annual report Monday. The report showed that there were 202 suspicious transactions reported to the Financial Information Authority in 2013 compared to only six a year earlier and just one in 2011. Five of those 202 were referred onto Vatican prosecutors for possible investigation. Authority Director Rene Bruelhart said the spike doesn't mean that more illicit activity is taking place. He said it just means that new laws and procedures are being implemented and are working to flag potentially problematic transactions that may require further investigation. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Vatican says bank needs ‘corrective measures’

Nicole Winfield · May 19, 2014 3:04 pm

In this Monday, May 12, 2014 photo, a welcome poster with a picture of Pope Francis is posted at a street near the Church of the Nativity, one of the stops of Pope Francis during his upcoming visit in the Holy Land at the end of this month, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem. Israel's internal security agency said it fears there could be more anti-Christian vandalism attacks, and local Vatican officials have urged Israel to safeguard Christian holy sites ahead of the pope's visit at the end of the month. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

Pope’s trip to Holy Land stirs diplomatic dilemmas

DANIEL ESTRINDANIELA BERRETTA · May 16, 2014 12:22 pm

Thirteen new priests lay on the ground during a ceremony in which Pope Francis ordained them, in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Sunday, May 11, 2014. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope to priests: forgive, don’t shut out sinners

Washington Examiner · May 11, 2014 11:26 am

FILE -- This file photo taken on June 21, 1963, shows Pope Paul VI portrayed after his election, with white Pontifical robe and pectoral cross. Pope Francis has approved a miracle credited to the intercession of Paul VI and set the date for the late pontiff's beatification for Oct. 19, the Vatican said Saturday. Francis had authorized the beatification, the last formal step before possible sainthood, a day earlier, the Vatican said. Paul VI, who reigned as pontiff from 1963-1978, made landmark progress in improving Catholics' relationship with other Christians. His papacy is also remembered by his decision, after years of study, to ban contraception for Catholics, in a 1968 encyclical, "Humanae Vitae" ("of human life"). (AP Photo/Luigi Felici)

Pope OKs miracle for Paul VI in sainthood process

Frances D'emilio · May 10, 2014 1:27 pm

FILE- In this March 20, 2013, file photo provided by the Vatican paper L' Osservatore Romano, Pope Francis, right, meets Bartholomew I, the first ecumenical patriarch to attend the installation of a Pope since the Catholic and Orthodox church split nearly 1,000 years ago, at the Vatican. Bartholomew I, spiritual leader of 250 million Orthodox Christians, said a meeting with Pope Francis in Jerusalem in May 2014, will help move the two churches closer to ending their nearly one-thousand-year divide. (AP Photo/Osservatore Romano, File)

Orthodox patriarch eyes unity in visit with pope

Desmond Butler · May 9, 2014 5:08 pm

Pope demands ‘legitimate redistribution’ of wealth

Pope demands ‘legitimate redistribution’ of wealth

Nicole Winfield · May 9, 2014 11:58 am

FILE - In this Monday, May 5, 2014, file photo, the Vatican's United Nations ambassador in Geneva, Archbishop Silvano M. Tomasi, arrives prior to the U.N. torture committee hearing on the Vatican, at the headquarters of the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in the Palais Wilson, in Geneva. Tomasi revealed comprehensive statistics for the first time Tuesday on how the Vatican has disciplined priests accused of raping and molesting children, saying 848 priests have been defrocked and another 2,572 given lesser sanctions over the past decade. (AP Photo/Keystone, Salvatore Di Nolfi, File)

Vatican: 848 priests defrocked for abuse since ’04

JOHN HEILPRINNICOLE WINFIELD · May 6, 2014 11:10 pm

Archbishop Silvano M. Tomasi, Apostolic Nuncio, Permanent Observer of the Holy See (Vatican) to the Office of the United Nations in Geneva, delivers his statement during the UN torture committee hearing on the Vatican, at the headquarters of the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in the Palais Wilson, in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday, May 5, 2014. The UN Committee Against Torture hears the Holy See for the first time to consider whether the church's handling of child sexual abuse complaints has violated its obligations against subjecting minors to torture and to hear the Vatican on its efforts to stamp out child sex abuse by priests. (AP Photo/Keystone, Salvatore Di Nolfi)

At UN, Vatican sex abuse compared with torture

John Heilprin · May 5, 2014 8:25 pm

Pope Francis has stepped up efforts to clean up the church's sex scandal. AP Photo

Washington Secrets

U.N. calls Vatican’s anti-abortion canon ‘psychological torture’ of women

Paul Bedard · May 5, 2014 4:00 am