The once-powerful cardinal was found guilty on Saturday by a three-judge Vatican panel of embezzlement and fraud in a high-profile corruption case that rocked the Holy See’s hierarchy for the past three years.
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(ANALYSIS) The speculation over whether Pope Francis’ age — he turns 86 on Dec. 17 — will cause him to resign has increasingly become a story, first in the Italian press, and subsequently around the world. It is something that will preoccupy reporters throughout the summer.
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Over the last 20 years, Serbia has been slowly improving its relationship with the Holy See. Last fall, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Secretary of the Holy See for Relations with States, visited Serbia. During his visit, he met with the country’s president and prime minister as well as recently-elected Patriarch Porfirije of the Serbian Orthodox Church, telling the Serbian press that “Pope Francis is open for all invitations.”
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The humanitarian activist and religious freedom fighter Cardinal Zen, who had previously served as bishop of Hong Kong from 2002 to 2009, was detained, along with four others, in connection with his role as administrator of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund, which supported pro-democracy demonstrations by paying for the legal and medical fees of protesters.
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(ANALYSIS) The focus the past few weeks has been on Germany and the involvement of Benedict XVI in the handling of some abuse cases, decades before he became a key church official in Rome and, eventually, pope. This was also long before the church adopted stricter policies on how to handle cases of clergy sexual abuse.
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Zen, who recently returned to Hong Kong from a trip to the Vatican, has no higher authority on Earth to appeal to in his fight to save his country’s church from infiltration by the Chinese Communist Party.
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The Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, a bipartisan Congressional caucus, held a panel on July 30 to discuss the imprisonment, torture and believed death of Catholic Bishop James Su Zhimin. Su’s treatment by the Chinese Communist Party is representative of other violations of religious freedom in the country, and panelists believe it is time for the Holy See to cut ties with the country.
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(OPINION) Let’s start with a loaded question. But it’s a questions that journalists really need to ask, because of trends during recent events in Catholic life. Is the Vatican’s press office helping to push a progressive agenda that could forever change the Catholic church?
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