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Joaquín Navarro-Valls has died

The former Director of the Press Office of the Holy See, Joaquín Navarro-Valls,  on  5 July 2017, after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 80 years old. Navarro trained as a medical doctor with a specialization in psychiatry, as well as in journalism, moving to Rome in the early 1970’s, becoming a foreign correspondent […]

How Facebook is like church, according to founder Mark Zuckerberg

Its members gather to comfort and encourage one another. They check in on the sick and struggling. They wish each other a happy birthday. Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in Chicago at the first Facebook Communities Summit that the two are similar in the way they create community and bring people together. “As I’ve travelled around […]

Cameroon’s bishops insist Bishop Balla was murder victim, not suicide

The Catholic bishops of Cameroon insist that Bishop Jean-Marie Benoit Balla of Bafia was “brutally assassinated,” rejected the conclusions of an autopsy that found “no trace of violence.” At a July 7 press conference, Archbishop Samuel Kleda of Doula, the president of the nation’s episcopal conference, rejected the results of the autopsy that had been […]

Embezzlement charges against two former officials of Vatican-run hospital

The Vatican has indicted two former officials of the Bambino Gesu Hospital on embezzlement charges. The indictment is the first brought by Vatican prosecutors under new rules designed to promote transparency and accountability in Vatican financial transactions. The Vatican has been under pressure from European banking authorities to prosecute violations of these rules. Giuseppe Profiti […]

Indian minister criticized for demonizing Goan Catholics

A federal minister in India has come under fire for indirectly accusing Catholics and environ-mentalists in Goa for blocking development in the former Portuguese colony which they say harms the environment and local culture. Road Transport, High-ways and Shipping Minister, Nitin Gadkari, said that “a microscopic minority” has been blocking major projects worth more than […]

Conflict with ISIS ally is not a religious conflict, Philippine bishops insist

The Philippine bishops said that the conflict with Maute, an ISIS-affiliated group, is not a conflict with Islam. In May, Maute attacked the city of Marawi, setting fire to Christian buildings and taking hostages at the cathedral. “We believe that the war in Marawi is not religious,” the bishops said in a July 10 statement. […]

Netherlands: hundreds euthanized without patient’s request

New statistics on the use of physician-assisted suicide in the Netherlands show that hundreds of patients were given lethal drugs without a request from the patients. The figures for 2015—the most recent statistics available—show 431 cases in which the patient’s life was ended without an explicit request. The figures also show that 1,693 cases of […]