Shooting Following Burkina Faso Catholic Mass Leaves Six Dead and Church Destroyed

The Tablet Staff After a peaceful Sunday morning church service in the remote town of Dablo, Burkina Faso, a group of 20 gunmen presumed to be jihadists surrounded the church, and shot and killed six worshippers, including a parish priest. According to an eyewitness account shared with Vatican News, the priest, Father Simeon Yamp, was […]

Pope Okays Pilgrimage To Medjugorje, Says Apparitions ‘Need Study’

After nearly two years of studying the pastoral status of Medjugorje, where the Virgin Mary has allegedly been appearing since 1981, the Vatican announced May 12 that Pope Francis has given the green light for priests to lead pilgrimages there but expressed no opinion on the authenticity of the “noted happenings.”

Pope Issues Global Standards for Reporting, Investigating Clergy Abuse

Following February’s Vatican summit to address the Church’s fight against clerical sexual abuse, Pope Francis released a new law on Thursday making it mandatory for all clerics and members of religious orders to report cases of clerical sexual abuse to Church authorities, including when committed by bishops or cardinals.

Venezuela Cardinal Calls Pro-Maduro Violence ‘Immoral’

Cardinal Jorge Urosa, former Archbishop of Caracas, Venezuela, says the local bishops strongly condemn what he called the “immoral” repression perpetrated by the government of Nicolas Maduro, which, according to the United Nations, has seen at least five people killed in the past few days, three of them minors.

Pope Urges Youth to Follow Mother Teresa’s Example

After a brief, whirlwind trip to Skopje, Pope Francis issued a summons to young people and consecrated, telling them to look to Mother Teresa as an example to keep dreaming, and of how big things can come in small packages.

Social Media a Boon to Satanic Groups, Exorcists Say

While much of the secular world reacts with alarm to a new United Nations report warning that up to one million species may be at risk of extinction due to human activity, it’s another kind of global threat that has the organizers of an annual Rome conference especially concerned this year.

Among Three New Books on Papacy, One Stands Out

Each of these three new books on the papacy is informative and interesting. “The Pope: Francis, Benedict, and the Decision That Shook the World” is by the author of the screenplay for a dramatic film with the same title being produced by Netflix. The co-authors of “The Papacy: What the Pope Does and Why It Matters” are a former Baptist who became a Catholic and a literature professor and deacon who spent eight years in a Catholic seminary. Gerard O’Connell, author of “The Election of Pope Francis: An Inside Account of the Conclave that Changed History,” is an associate editor and Vatican correspondent for the Jesuit weekly magazine, America, as well as a reporter on the Vatican for various other English-speaking Catholic news outlets.