Vatican Dispatch

Conservative but not clericalist

any body that can muster 500 priests and deacons is a force to be reckoned with, and the confraternity of catholic clergy, which does just t...

Gertrude Clarke

Cardinal Zen arrested by China for alleged 'collusion with foreign forces'

cardinal joseph zen has been arrested by the authorities in hong kong, according to local media reports. the 90-year-old former catholic bis...

Raphael: A Renaissance genius

raphael was, as kenneth clark put it, “one of the civilising forces of the western imagination”. for many of us, he is best known as the pai...

Gertrude Clarke

The restoration of two Bentley churches

in the 19th century, the “potteries” in notting dale, west london, were an area of considerable degradation, with many poor irish catholic i...

Pope Francis is correct: all war is unjust

in patrick o’brian’s novel desolation island, captain jack aubrey explains to ship’s physician stephen maturin why aubrey has doubts about h...

Fighting for faith

mark wahlberg’s early-morning routine would shame the divine office of a medieval cistercian monk. he gets up at 2:30am and then spends 15-2...

Promotion for Bishop of Plymouth as Pope appoints him to two Welsh dioceses

the pope has appointed bishop mark o’toole as archbishop-elect of cardiff and bishop-elect of menevia. a londoner, bishop o’toole has been b...

Pope names new Archbishop of Paris

pope francis has named archbishop laurent ulrich as the new catholic archbishop of paris. ulrich, the archbishop of lille, northern france, ...

Vatican clears Polish cardinal of negligence after abuse probe

the vatican has ended an investigation into allegations that polish cardinal stanisław dziwisz failed to investigate claims of clerical sex ...

Hannah Brockhaus

Pope Francis shares 'apprehension' over German synodal path, says senior Vatican cardinal

a top cardinal at the vatican has confirmed pope francis’ apprehension about germany’s “synodal path,” cardinal kurt koch  said that cr...