7+ mon, 2+ week ago (466+ words) While I still have good days and bad, I'm doing much better and seeing light at the end of the tunnel. John Allen on the beach at Nettuno, Italy, April 5, 2025. (Credit: Elise Ann Allen.) ROME " It's been two months now since I announced that I would be taking a professional hiatus due to the aggressive cycles of chemotherapy and immunotherapy I've been undergoing to battle stomach cancer. This 60-day mark seems an apt moment for a quick update on how I'm doing. At the beginning, I'll admit, things were rough. Without the tireless daily support of my wife, Elise Allen, I'm sure I probably would have imploded. Persistent nausea made it almost impossible to eat, with the result that I lost weight and became weaker and more susceptible to chronic exhaustion. There was a real risk of a vicious circle…...

10+ mon, 3+ week ago (107+ words) First conviction for abuse on Vatican grounds. Pope's homophobic statements. Labor unrest in the Vatican. Monsignor faces criminal charges. Mounting crisis in Catholic-Jewish relations. A Crux 2024 retrospective: Last week in the Church with John Allen Jr. For the cost of a cup of coffee at Starbucks, you can help keep the lights on at Crux. Papabile speculation: inappropriate or essential?: Last week in the Church with John Allen Jr. Are Christians safe in Syria after Assad regime's fall?: Last week in the Church with John Allen Jr. US Bishops vs. Trump on deportations: Last week in the Church with John Allen Jr....

3+ mon, 3+ week ago (93+ words) A Peruvian ex-priest has responded to a Crux report which included witness testimony from several anonymous sources describing a history of sexual misconduct and personal differences with Pope Leo XIV on the part of the former priest in question. Crux Now Lima-Peru, 6th August 2025 1. You stated that I was defrocked for sexual misconduct and that I have a "history of sexually inappropriate behavior. The decree from the Dicastery for Clergy indicated canon 1395 51 and 3 as the reasons for my dismissal from the clerical state; this canon states:...

10+ mon, 1+ week ago (547+ words) Ricky Ross of Deacon Blue opens the film "Dignity" in Glasgow, Scotland, on Jan. 17, 2025. (Credit: SCIAF.) LEICESTER, United Kingdom " A new film examining the role of Scotland's Catholic international aid agency was wowed by a popular Scottish pop band. The movie is called "Dignity", which is also a popular song from the 1980s by the band Deacon Blue and was premiered at the Glasgow Film Theatre on Jan. 17. "Deacon Blue's "Dignity' is an iconic Scottish song. Every wedding and celebration finishes with it blaring out. So to include it in the film " a celebration of SCIAF's life-changing work in Zambia " sent tingles down the spine," said James Cave, the SCIAF filmmaker. The Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (SCIAF) is the official relief and development agency of the Catholic Church in Scotland'and a proud member of the Caritas family. Legendary Scottish musician…...

7+ mon, 3+ week ago (1137+ words) A Catholic Church-owned satellite TV channel transmitting throughout Africa, the Catholic Television Nigeria, is now broadcasting wider across the continent. YAOUND, Cameroon " A Catholic Church-owned satellite TV channel transmitting throughout Africa, the Catholic Television Nigeria, is now broadcasting wider across the continent. According to its Director, Father Patrick Alumuku, the channel went continental during the Lenten period and could potentially reach Africa's 281 million+ Catholics. He says the channel will not also broadcast religious news, it will also discuss issues relevant to the African audience, such as agriculture, education, social welfare, and security. "Our content spans education, agriculture, social welfare, and religion," he added. Following are excerpts of the interview" Crux: What actually pushed you into creating this Catholic television, given that we already have a plurality of media organs covering the Catholic Church in Nigeria in Africa? Alukumu: About 20 years…...

2+ mon, 1+ week ago (240+ words) Pope Leo XIV blesses members of the St. Andrew School of Evangelization on August 29, 2025 (Credit: Vatican Media.) Allen: Shifting direction a bit, running and reforming the Roman Curia is also something that you are responsible for. Pope Francis carried out many reforms, he got Predicate Evangelium done, but there is still some unfinished business. What will your approach be to reform? What will you continue, and what might you do differently? Regarding the financial situation of the Holy See, you mentioned previously that it's not as bad as it's sometimes been made out to be. Can you explain why that is? What is the financial situation of the Holy See, and how are you planning to manage it? So, I'm not just changing the message to change the message. After having studied some of these questions over the past couple…...

2+ mon, 1+ week ago (381+ words) Pope Leo XIV at the general audience in the Vatican on Aug. 27, 2025. (Credit: Gregorio Borgia/AP.) Allen: Another potential challenge, something that all of your recent predecessors have prioritized, and I think Pope Francis certainly with a new impetus, is the topic of ecumenism. What will your approach be? Will this be a similar priority for you as pope? Circling back to the topic of artificial intelligence and the crisis you said is coming, what role can the church have in this? Why is it so important, and what role can the church play? The whole issue of labor, work. Human dignity has a very important relationship with the work that we do. The fact that we can, through the gifts that we've been given, produce, offer something in the world and earn a living, which is part of even…...

11+ mon, 3+ week ago (853+ words) (Credit: Associa'o e Fraternidade So Francisco de Assis na Provid'ncia de Deus.) S'O PAULO " After over three years of work to transform a traditional passenger's ship of the Amazon into a hospital boat, Saint John 23 will finally be launched on Dec. 7 and begin to offer healthcare services to riverside communities of the Amazonas state, in Brazil. It is the third vessel of a fleet of hospital ships built and operated by the Franciscan-inspired "Associa'o e Fraternidade So Francisco de Assis na Provid'ncia de Deus" " a congregation that runs dozens of hospitals and clinics all over Brazil. Five years ago, the first one of them, named Pope Francis, was launched and began to operate in Par" state, also in the Amazon region. Later, the hospital boat Saint John Paul 2 joined it. The idea is to provide medical attention to communities that…...

7+ mon, 4+ week ago (595+ words) A deadline for Peruvian President Dina Boluarte to make changes or promulgate a bill that is being criticized as a project against human rights" organizations expires on Apr. 2. Palacio de Gobierno in Lima, Peru. (Credit: Wikimedia.) S'O PAULO, Brazil " A deadline for Peruvian President Dina Boluarte to make changes or promulgate a bill that is being criticized as a project against human rights" organizations expires on Apr. 2. Several nongovernmental organizations, Indigenous" rights" associations, and members of the Catholic Church have fiercely criticized the changes approved by the Peruvian Congress on March 12 to the law 27692, which creates the Peruvian Agency of International Cooperation (popularly known as the APCI law). According to the bill"s opponents, APCI " a government branch in charge of overseeing and orienting international technical cooperation agreements involving State or civic entities in Peru " would suddenly become an overly…...

2+ mon, 1+ week ago (895+ words) Juan Antonio L'pez. (Credit: CELAM.) S'O PAULO, Brazil " One year after the murder of Juan Antonio L'pez, a lay Catholic and environmental activist in Honduras, the Latin American Church keeps asking for justice " and campaigning for the protection of other defenders of the common house who have a price on their heads. L'pez, who was 46 years old, was a critic of an iron oxide open-pit mine in the forest reservation of Botaderos and had been receiving threats. In October of 2023, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights had issued precautionary measures to protect him. A city counselor in Tocoa, Col'n department, he also opposed mayor Ad'n F'nez, who always supported mining in the local natural reserves. F'nez had appeared on a video negotiating bribes with drug dealers days before L'pez's killing. Congressman Carlos Zelaya, brother-in-law of President Xiomara Castro, also appeared…...