Browsing News Entries
EU court requires nations to accept same-sex marriages (CNA)
Posted on 12/3/2025 04:12 AM (CatholicCulture.org - Catholic World News)
The court ruling does not require EU nations to accept same-sex marriage, but to recognize as married those couples who have formed a union in another EU state. The ruling was made in a case involving a Polish homosexual couple who entered into a legal marriage in Germany; the court ruled that Poland must recognize their union.
Along with Poland, several other EU states do not recognize same-sex marriage: Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, and Slovakia.
Vatican halves 2024 budget deficit, according to new financial statement (Pillar)
Posted on 12/3/2025 04:12 AM (CatholicCulture.org - Catholic World News)
The Holy See’s budget as a whole had a surplus of 1.6 million euros ($1.9M) because of donations and investments.
Vatican employees skeptical of Holy See budget figures (Pillar)
Posted on 12/3/2025 04:12 AM (CatholicCulture.org - Catholic World News)
The Association of Vatican Lay Employees reacted to the financial report “with skepticism and even greater uncertainty about their fate.” The group argued that a surge in donations and the sale of real assets had produced artificial gains over the past year, camouflaging long-term budgetary shortfalls. “The structural problem remains unresolved,” the group insisted, expressing particular concern about an underfunded pension program.
'We need less Herod, trapped in fear,' Cardinal Tagle tells Asian Catholic leaders (Fides)
Posted on 12/3/2025 03:12 AM (CatholicCulture.org - Catholic World News)
Cardinal Tagle was the keynote speaker at the Great Pilgrimage of Hope, a gathering held in Penang, Malaysia, and organized by the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences. Ten cardinals, 104 bishops, and some 900 lay leaders took part in the gathering.
Amid fragile truce, 2 million people in Gaza have nothing, parish priest says (Aid to the Church in Need)
Posted on 12/3/2025 03:12 AM (CatholicCulture.org - Catholic World News)
The priest told Aid to the Church in Need that “the world should know that there are over two million people here who have nothing and need everything.” The parish continues to house 450 people.
Retired German bishop joins critics of conference document on sexuality (CNA (German))
Posted on 12/3/2025 03:12 AM (CatholicCulture.org - Catholic World News)
Bishop Gregor Maria Hanke said that he had reviewed a draft of the document “very critically.” The final product, he said, conveys the impression “that we no longer truly believe what we should proclaim about humanity as God’s creation and image.”
Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne has also expressed dissatisfaction with the document, as have Bishops Stefan Oster of Passau and Rudolf Voderholzer of Regensburg.
USCCB expresses prayers, solidarity for Nigerian Catholic school kidnapping victims (USCCB)
Posted on 12/3/2025 03:12 AM (CatholicCulture.org - Catholic World News)
“This Advent, we offer our prayers for our Nigerian brothers and sisters, in Niger state and elsewhere, who have been violently separated from their loved ones, and who await their return,” Bishop A. Elias Zaidan wrote in his letter to Bishop Bulus Dauwa Yohanna. “Together, we pray for peace, security, and solidarity among all Nigerians, and for the particular care and protection of the nation’s young people.”
Vatican diplomat voices reservations about UN's political declaration on human trafficking (Holy See Mission)
Posted on 12/3/2025 03:12 AM (CatholicCulture.org - Catholic World News)
Msgr. Marco Formica, counselor at the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations, expressed reservations about the document’s references to surrogacy, “sexual and reproductive health-care services,” and gender. The document, the 2025 Political Declaration on the Implementation of the United Nations Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons, was adopted by the UN General Assembly on November 24.
European bishops' conferences discuss Christian-Muslim dialogue (CCEE)
Posted on 12/3/2025 02:12 AM (CatholicCulture.org - Catholic World News)
Cardinal Michael Fitzgerald, M Afr, delivered the keynote address. Themes of the meeting included “Christian-Muslim Relations in Germany” and “Interreligious Dialogue and Youth.”
Nostra Aetate, issued in 1965, is the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions.
Italian prelates commemorate 60th anniversary of lifting of 1054 excommunications (Vatican News (Italian))
Posted on 12/3/2025 02:12 AM (CatholicCulture.org - Catholic World News)
Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi (president of the Italian Episcopal Conference), Patriarch Francesco Moraglia of Venice, and Metropolitan Polykarpos (the Greek Orthodox primate of Italy) took part in the commemoration.