As a matter of urgency, the new pope must extend the gift of marriage to all priesthood candidates. Failure to do that will mean, in less than a generation, a priesthood comprised solely of social misfits and emotionally damaged refugees
Flocks and shepherds
As a conclave gathers to elect a pope, many in the Catholic church want change
WANTED: man of God; good at languages; preferably under 75; extensive pastoral experience; no record of covering up clerical sex abuse, deeply spiritual and, mentally,
Shadow of shame: The conflict facing gay priests
I am delighted that my research and I are referenced in this fine article.
By Dani Garavelli
LOOKING back from a distance of more than 20 years, Fr Joe can see that his decision to join the priesthood was motivated
Swiss abbot makes fiery appeal for church reform
By Christa Pongratz-Lippitt
A fiery appeal for church reform by an influential Swiss abbot has attracted widespread attention throughout Europe, and has, moreover, been welcomed by the future president of the Swiss bishops’ conference.
Fifty-year-old Abbot Martin Werlen, leader of
Vatican disciplines Austrian dissident priest
File under … “Oh Snap!”
Apparently someone’s got his white cassock in a twist. The pettiness of these “holy” men is absolutely astounding.
By Philip Pullella
The Vatican has cracked down on a prominent Austrian Roman Catholic priest who has
Marriage would have made me a better priest
One of Ireland’s best-known priests has revealed the anguish the Church’s requirement of mandatory clerical celibacy has caused him.
Fr Brian D’Arcy admitted: “I would have been a much better priest had I married.”
Marriage would have provided “a companion,
The nun who became a sex therapist
Dr Fran Fisher’s latest book blows the lid off the repressed sexuality of convent life. And it’s a subject the former nun knows first hand
By Joanna Moorhead
From nun to sex therapist isn’t an obvious career path but, says
Tom Rastrelli: Priests who lie; the dilemma of sexual orientation and the priesthood
People don’t expect their priests and bishops to lie, but as Michelangelo Signorile’s recent post illustrated, clerics do lie. Some even make a virtue of it. I know this from experience, for I was ordained a Catholic priest on a
Slovenian archbishop fathered two children, reports say
The Slovenian mystery has been solved. Archbishop Uran has been punished by the Vatican not for his involvement in a financial flop but for his infraction of the celibacy rule
The Slovenian mystery has been solved. Archbishop Uran has been
Argentine Bishop Bargallo quits over ‘amorous ties’ row
The Pope has accepted the resignation of an Argentine bishop after the publication of pictures showing him embracing a woman on a Mexican beach.
Bishop Fernando Bargallo, 57, was photographed in the sea, hugging a woman in a bikini.
He