Pope Francis has ordered a Belgian Catholic charity to stop offering euthanasia in its psychiatric hospitals. In May, the Brothers of Charity group announced it would allow doctors to perform euthanasia at its 15 psychiatric hospitals in Belgium, one of only two countries – along with the Netherlands – where doctors are legally allowed to […]
Top Vatican official wrapped up in hospital embezzlement scandal
The scandal was remarkable even by Vatican standards: The president of the “pope’s hospital” for sick children had taken nearly a half-million dollars in hospital donations and used them to spruce up the penthouse apartment of the Vatican cardinal who had appointed him. On Thursday, the Vatican tribunal indicted Giuseppe Profiti and the hospital’s former […]
Pope Francis’ right-hand man charged with sexual assualt
Cardinal George Pell, one of Pope Francis’ top advisers, took a leave of absence as the Vatican’s financial czar on Thursday to fight multiple criminal charges in his native Australia that allege he committed sexual assault years ago. Pell appeared before reporters in the Vatican press office to forcefully deny the accusations, denounce what he […]
Former secretary of two popes reveals their secret lives (wow!)
St. John Paul II discussed stepping down as pope with his aides but was advised against it in the interest of the Catholic Church, his former secretary said in a book recently published in the pope’s native Poland. A book of interviews with the Polish Rev. Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki, “Secretary of Two Popes,” released last month, […]