The Permanent Council of the German Bishops’ Conference gathered Aug. 24 in Wurzburg. Among the issues to discuss, the instruction by the Congregation for the Clergy on the parishes, which many German bishops did not like. At the end of the meeting, the German Bishops’ Conference said that it would accept the invitation [...]

Pope Francis often says that crises must be turned into opportunities. This is one reason why the new series of Pope Francis’ catecheses during the general audiences on Wednesdays is dedicated to the social teaching of the Church in the time of the pandemic.

This is a significant choice. For Pope Francis, the pandemic [...]

To mark the 160th anniversary of the death of the curé of Ars St. John Mary Vianney, Pope Francis issued last year a letter addressed to all the priests. Read today, that letter also tells something about what Pope Francis is putting into action now.

At the beginning of the letter, Pope Francis [...]

Last week, Pope Francis appointed the layperson Máximino Caballero Ledo as general secretary of the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy, which is a sort of Vatican vice-minister for Finances. There are two ways to look at this decision.

The first: Pope Francis is carrying forward the “professionalization” of the Curia and picking laypeople [...]

Why does Pope Francis feel the need to replace all the members of his private secretariat? At first, Fabián Pedacchio Leániz, who served as Pope Francis’ first secretary since the beginning of the pontificate, left the office at the beginning of the year. Pedacchio had been an official at the Congregation for Bishops since [...]