World News

The Vatican said Wednesday that the canonical trial of Fr. Marko Rupnik is still in process, after rumors emerged this week that the disgraced former Jesuit had been acquitted.Fr. Marko Ivan Rupnik. Centroaletti via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Two online publications reported on Monday that Rupnik had...

Remember the Shake Weight? Remember the Abdominizer? Remember the Ab Roller, ThighMaster, Bowflex Xtreme?Once we believed all we had to do was buy this stuff, set it up, and inevitably proceed to become ripped, buff, jacked, swole, or achieve buns of steel, possibly for only five easy payments of $1...

The criminal trial of 76-year-old Australian Bishop Christopher Saunders on historic sexual abuse charges began this week, with the bishop facing the prospect of lengthy incarceration if convicted.Bishop Christopher Saunders. Pillar file photo.Saunders, who served as Bishop of Broome, Western Austra...

Twenty-six priests in Germany’s Archdiocese of Munich and Freising have reportedly written to Cardinal Reinhard Marx, saying that his request that they follow national guidelines on blessings has presented them with a loyalty conflict, because the Vatican has criticized the guidance.Cardinal Reinhar...

The U.S. Department of Justice has filed to revoke the citizenship of a Capuchin priest from Mexico who was convicted of sexually abusing minors while working in a parish in Washington, D.C.If the federal government’s case against 53-year-old Fr. Urbano Vazquez Ortega succeeds, he will likely be dep...

Hey everybody,Ed Condon’s on vacation, so I’m afraid you’ve got me for the Friday Pillar Post.And so that you know, next week will be a tricky one for us. Ed continues some time away with his family, Michelle will be away with hers, and I’ll be at Cub Scout camp for just a couple days with my younge...

Archbishop Hubertus van Megen formally took up the role of apostolic nuncio in Germany Thursday, when he presented his credentials to President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin.German bishops await the opening Mass of the bishops’ conference’s spring plenary assembly on Feb. 23, 2026, at Würzburg C...

A Scottish bishop has expanded the availability of Traditional Latin Masses in his diocese, ahead of an illicit episcopal consecration by a local traditionalist group.Bishop Hugh Gilbert, O.S.B., of Aberdeen, Scotland. Credit: Screenshot from @DioceseofAberdeen-Scotland YouTube channel.Bishop Hugh G...

The United States is caught up in a mystery of explosive proportion, amid a multi-state outbreak of a parasite which causes intense…digestive discomfort.That’s as far as we’re going to explain it here at The Pillar — there’s no need for specifics. If you’ve got the parasite, after all, you know the...

Rumors began circulating in Rome Monday that the canonical trial of former Jesuit Fr. Marko Rupnik had come to a conclusion, without a conviction on the unspecified canonical crimes now being litigated through the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.Fr. Marko Rupnik. Pillar file photo....

A new report highlights the growing mental health challenges that seminarians face and the need for better psychological care in seminaries. The report, from the University of Notre Dame’s McGrath Institute for Church Life, also calls for bishops to focus on the quality of seminarians, rather than t...

Pillar paid subscribers can listen to Ed read this Pillar Post here: The Pillar TL;DRHappy Friday friends,I am supposed to be going on vacation this evening, through at least next week. I say supposed to be because the plans are a bit up in the air right now.My version of a break consists of repairi...