ROME (CNS) — Back in 2023, a Vatican archivist discovered a letter to Pope Pius XII’s personal secretary from a Jesuit priest in Germany, who was active in the resistance against the Nazis, reporting that thousands of Poles and Jews were being incinerated daily in a Polish concentration camp. It was “a unique case” with…
WASHINGTON – “I call for intense prayers for the success of these negotiations,” said Bishop A. Elias Zaidan, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace, on the news of an agreement between the U.S.-led Gaza Board of Peace and Hamas. Bishop Zaidan’s statement follows: “I am heartened by…
WASHINGTON – Following Pope Leo XIV’s historic, 10-day apostolic journey to Africa in April and his call for peace, reconciliation and interreligious dialogue, Catholics in the United States have an opportunity to support those efforts through the Solidarity Fund for the Church in Africa. The fund was created nearly two decades ago by the U.S. Conference…
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Today’s lush and immaculately manicured Vatican Gardens were once just a sprawl of mosquito-infested swamps, clay hillsides and hardy grape vines. The wild, unpopulated landscape on the fringes of early Rome slowly shifted as it changed to accommodate historical events over the course of 2,000 years: the martyrdom and burial of…
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Confronting a rebel archbishop’s accusations and acts of defiance was the heaviest cross St. Paul VI had to bear in his pontificate, said a 2018 book based on never-before published notes and documents. After years of correspondence and efforts at convincing Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, founder of the traditionalist Society of St.…
ROME (CNS) — Cardinal Robert W. McElroy of Washington said his decision to remove a high-profile priest as an archdiocesan exorcist was driven by the public way he exercised his ministry, not by his specific beliefs about UFOs. Following comments on social media linking UFOs to demonic activity, Msgr. Stephen Rossetti was removed in early…