RTÉ aired two documentaries in January looking at the decline of the Catholic Church in Ireland: “The Last Priests in Ireland” and “The Last Nuns in Ireland.” But signs of hope can still be discerned amid the decline after years of church turbulence.
Is hell empty? Pope Francis hopes so. Among the thinkers of the past century who speculated it could be so was Hans Urs von Balthasar, a favorite of the past two popes and a prominent theologian of his time.
In just three months at the helm of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Victor Manuel “Tucho” Fernández has rapidly changed what was once the Vatican’s most formidable department.
After failing to administer the lethal injection to Kenneth Eugene Smith in 2022, the state of Alabama is facing pushback from advocates affiliated with the Rome based Sant’Egidio on its decision to instead use nitrogen hypoxia, the first execution of its kind in the U.S.