Pope Francis will be making his first visit to the U.S. next year. He’ll be attending a big convocation in Philadelphia. Go to www.worldmeeting2015.org and open the colorful web page announcing the Catholic World Meeting of Families. The theme is “The Family Fully Alive.” And right next…
U.N. anti-torture committee member Felice Gaer’s statement to a Holy See delegation equating opposition to abortion and torture is part of a growing trend to exclude Catholics and other pro-life advocates, one critic says. “That our country’s own representative at a United Nations committee would…
A U.N. anti-torture committee’s report on the Holy See recognized Church efforts to combat sex abuse, but some problems in the committee’s approach risk undermining international treaty agreements, observers said. “It is encouraging to see the Committee Against Torture affirm and praise the important reforms…
A U.N. committee member who insinuated that the Catholic position against abortion violates an anti-torture agreement signed by the Holy See should recuse herself or step down on account of bias, several critics have said. Ashley McGuire, a senior fellow with the U.S.-based Catholic Association,…
Reading the AP coverage this morning of the ongoing hearings in Geneva regarding the Vatican and torture, the story this morning explains that the Holy See yesterday provided some additional information on what’s happened in the last 12 years — the culture change within the…
It’s no secret that pro-abortion NGOs and diplomats from some nations that legalize abortion don’t want The Vatican involved at the United Nations and have undertaken campaigns to revoke its UN status, in large part because of its pro-life views. Now that effort is taking…
The Vatican on Tuesday for the first time detailed how it has handled more than 3,400 cases of sexual abuse reported since 2004, vowing to learn from its mistakes and potentially opening itself to more lawsuits by accepting that such abuse could fall under a…
The Vatican told critics of its sexual abuse record on Tuesday that it had developed model child protection policies over the last decade and that its accusers should not stay “fossilized in the past” when attitudes were different. Addressing the United Nations Committee on Torture,…
A U.N. committee on torture grilled the Vatican on the Catholic Church’s child sexual abuse crisis on Monday, urging a permanent investigation system to end a “climate of impunity” prevailing for decades. In a two-hour hearing in Geneva, the Committee Against Torture launched a barrage…
GENEVA — The Vatican has dismissed more than 800 priests for sexual abuse of children in the past decade and paid billions of dollars in compensation, senior Vatican officials told a United Nations panel on Tuesday, presenting the Roman Catholic Church as a model of…
