ROME—It all started with the usual complaints from disgruntled neighbors: funny smells, slamming doors, loud music, the sound of squeaky beds and laughter late into the night. In almost any other situation anywhere in the world, the angry neighbors would have confronted the noisy tenant, maybe left a mean note on the door or complained to the landlord and the matter would be settled.
But this particular dispute occurred in one of the most prestigious addresses in Rome, the so-called Ex Sant’Uffizio Palace, in the very apartment owned by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith where Joseph Ratzinger lived for decades before becoming Pope Benedict XVI. The palatial ochre-colored building is home to dozens of high-ranking cardinals who live within walking distance of their jobs at the Roman Curia in Vatican City next door. Continue reading
Australia’s highest-ranking Roman Catholic clergyman, Vatican treasurer Cardinal George Pell, has been charged by Australian police over sex allegations from “multiple complainants.” The Vatican has released a statement of support for Pell, citing his “honesty.”
The southern Dutch town of ’s-Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch for short) has been chosen to host the Netherlands’ “Pink Saturday” on June 24. The capital of the historically Catholic province of North-Brabant will welcome LGBT persons from all over the country and beyond with a first-ever event: an ecumenical prayer service for participants to be held in the Catholic cathedral of Saint John the Evangelist in the presence of Bishop Gerard de Korte.
“In his new Netflix series, 
(RNS) The Vatican’s point man on family issues and a U.S. cardinal who is close to Pope Francis have both blurbed a new book by a Jesuit priest and popular author that calls on the Catholic Church to be more respectful and compassionate toward gay people.
“Marie Collins, an Irish survivor of clerical sex abuse, resigned Wednesday from Pope Francis’s child protection panel, accusing senior Vatican officials of “shameful” blocking of reforms approved by the pontiff. Collins’s departure and her depiction of high-level obstruction of change is an embarrassing blow to the pontiff’s attempts to demonstrate that the Church is effectively combating a scourge that has profoundly damaged its image over recent decades. The 70-year-old, who was raped by a hospital chaplain at 13, explained her decision in an article for the National Catholic Reporter (NCR). As a survivor I have watched events unfold with dismay,” she wrote. Her resignation happened days after Francis came under fire for reducing sanctions imposed on some paedophile priests in line with his desire for the Church to be more merciful across a range of issues.” –
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One of the most well-known Jesuit priests in the United States tweeted his support of boys using the girls’ bathroom and vice versa.