Voices

Gerard O’Connell is America’s Vatican correspondent and author of The Election of Pope Francis: An Inside Story of the Conclave That Changed History. He has been covering the Vatican since 1985.
Dispatches
In a new and important initiative aimed at protecting minors from sexual abuse in the Catholic Church eliminating all such abuse and assisting the victims of past abuse Pope Francis has sent a letter to the Presidents of the Bishops Conferences and the Superiors of the Institutes of Consecrated Li
Signs Of the Times
Pope Francis has decided that the public ceremony of investiture of metropolitan archbishops with the pallium will henceforth take place in the prelates’ home dioceses, not in the Vatican as has been the case under recent pontiffs.He believes that in this way the ceremony “will greatly f
Vatican Dispatch
Mandated by the cardinals in the pre-conclave meetings to reform the Roman Curia, Pope Francis is taking his task very seriously and moving in a more radical direction than anyone had expected. His aim is not simply structural reform of the Vatican offices, though that is part of it; his primary goa
Dispatches
Archbishop Oscar Romero ldquo is a martyr of the Church of the Second Vatican Council In killing him they wanted to hit the Church that flowed from the Second Vatican Council rdquo Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia the postulator of his cause for beatification told a press briefing in the Vatican on
Dispatches
El Salvadoran archbishop 'was killed in hatred of the faith' on March 24, 1980
Vatican Dispatch
Under heavy rain Francis spoke from the heart to survivors of Typhoon Haiyan.
Dispatches
Pope Francis has decided that the public ceremony of investiture of the Pallium on Metropolitan Archbishops will henceforth take place in the prelates rsquo home dioceses and not in the Vatican as has been the case under recent pontiffs He believes that in this way the ceremony quot will greatly f
Signs Of the Times
Beginning the second leg of his South Asian journey, Pope Francis did not mince words when he addressed government and church leaders of the Philippines on Jan. 16. A day after his triumphal arrival from Sri Lanka, he called on them to combat and eliminate “scandalous” social inequalitie
Vatican Dispatch
Pope Francis is engaged in a slow but determined process to remake the College of Cardinals and renew the electors who will choose his successor. His aim is to increase the college’s universality by affirming the churches on the peripheries, to correct present imbalances and to ensure there is
Dispatches
In a wide-ranging press conference on the flight from Manila to Rome Pope Francis spoke about corruption in Governments and the Church the need for prudence with freedom of expression why he didn rsquo t meet the Dalai Lama recently and the Church rsquo s position on birth control nbsp He talke