A woman in a home for seniors in Vienna. Catholic experts have called for palliative care to become standard around the world. Photo: Harald Schneider/EPA. By Jo Ann Zuniga Catholic experts have called for palliative care to become standard around the world. A female religious suffering from metastatic breast cancer in the final stages received medication to ease severe pain and thanke...

Pope Francis holds a letter presented by Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, retired bishop of Hong Kong, during his general audience in early January at the Vatican. Photo: Paul Haring/CNS. By Cindy Wooden The Vatican has announced that all of the Catholic bishops in China are in full communion with the Pope for the first time in decades. Pope Francis lifted the excommunications or irregular...

Sebastian Duhau from Diocese of Parramatta. Photo: ACBC. Twenty-two-year-old Sydney-based Sebastian Duhau will soon be making his way to the Vatican as Australia’s youth auditor at the upcoming General Synod of Bishops on Young People, Faith and Vocational Discernment. Mr Duhau, from the Diocese of Parramatta, was nominated and accepted to participate in the General Synod itself, along wi...

Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, President of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, is pictured before a consistory in St Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican on 28 June. Photo: Paul Haring/CNS. By Carol Glatz Responding quickly and appropriately to the problem of abuse must be a priority for the Catholic Church, said Cardinal Sean O’Malley, President of the Vatican’s Pontif...

Pope Francis celebrates the Eucharist during morning Mass in the chapel of his residence, the Domus Sanctae Marthae, at the Vatican on 10 September. Photo: Vatican Media/CNS. By Cindy Wooden Members of Pope Francis’ international Council of Cardinals expressed “full solidarity” with him in the midst of questions about his handling of the clerical sexual abuse scandal and said the Vatican ...

Pope Francis hears confession from a man during a penitential liturgy in St Peter's Basilica at the Vatican in 2014. Photo: L'Osservatore Romano/Reuters. By Carol Glatz The seal of confession is so important and sacred that a priest would be automatically excommunicated under canon law for directly revealing the contents of a confession. The sacramental seal is absolutely inviolable an...

A shaft of light illuminates Pope Francis as he responds to a question from reporter Anna Matranga of CBS News aboard his flight from Dublin to Rome on 26 August. Photo: Paul Haring/CNS. By Cindy Wooden Pope Francis said Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano's long document calling on him to resign is written in a way that people should be able to draw their own conclusions. "I read the statem...

Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the apostolic nuncio to the United States, is pictured at his residence at the Vatican in this 20 October 2011 file photo. Photo: Paul Haring/CNS. By Junno Arocho Esteves A former apostolic nuncio to the United States accused Church officials, including Pope Francis, of failing to act on accusations of abuse of conscience and power by now-Archbishop ...

Pope Francis addresses a joint meeting of Congress at the US Capitol in Washington on 24 September 2015, file photo. The Pope made history as the first pope to address Congress. Photo: Paul Haring/CNS. By Cindy Wooden The world needs leaders who can “put into practice a more just way for all of us to live in this world as sharers in a common destiny”, Pope Francis has said. The Sup...

The Diocese of Rome has formally opened the sainthood process for Chiara Corbella Petrillo, a young Italian wife and mother. Photo: Cristian Gennari/CNS. By Carol Glatz The Diocese of Rome formally opened the sainthood process for a young Italian wife and mother who avoided inducing a premature birth and invasive treatment for cancer while she was pregnant. The diocese described Ch...