Scottish Catholic Observer

Pope Benedict XVI has condemned a bomb blast outside a Christian church in Egypt that killed 23 people on New Year’s Day, calling it a ‘vile gesture.’ The Holy Father spoke out against the attack after his weekly Angelus blessing on Sunday January 2, the day after his World Day for... read more

Cardinal Keith O’Brien led a last-minute bid seeking assurance from First Minister Alex Salmond that Scottish Government’s international aid budget will be saved from cuts this week. Along with the heads of the Church of Scotland and the Scottish Episcopal Church, the cardinal wrote to the First Minister to warn that... read more

Archbishop Faustino Sainz Muñoz, the Vatican’s Apostolic Nuncio to Great Britain, announced his retirement at a thanksgiving Mass for the Papal visit at St Mary’s Cathedral in Edinburgh. The Mass, arranged by the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland to mark the unprecedented success of Pope Benedict XVI’s September trip to the UK,... read more

Cardinal Keith O’Brien has called for an independent inquiry to be set up by the Scottish Parliament into the 2001 conviction of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi for the Lockerbie bombing. The move comes a year after the Scottish Government released Mr Al-Megrahi from jail on compassionate grounds, a decision that had... read more

Haitian President Rene Preval  confirmed that an outbreak of cholera caused the deaths of at least 169 people and severe diarrhoea and dehydration in 2000 others in central Haiti within 72 hours. The confirmation came after clergy in rural communities in the Antibonite department started seeing the illness and reported their... read more

Scottish and Australian pilgrims led jubilant celebrations in Rome following the Canonisation of Mary MacKillop. Mother MacKillop, or St Mary of the Cross as she is now known, was born in Melbourne to Scottish immigrant parents. She is now Australia’s first saint following her Canonisation by Pope Benedict XVI in Rome... read more

CONCERN over the real threat of the disappearance of Christians from the Middle East has been a recurrent theme at the Synod of Bishops focusing on the region at the Vatican. The synod—which ends on Sunday—also heard there was a need for a common date for Easter among different denominations. Concern for Christians Christians, who were present... read more

THOUSANDS of Australians have headed to Rome for Mary MacKillop’s Canonisation this Sunday. The largest group of Christians ever to leave Australia’s shores for a religious event includes priests, nuns, first-time travellers, families, children and many elderly people on their last overseas trip. However there is also huge interest all over... read more

THE Vatican’s spokesman has called on the world to make the death penalty a punishment of the past. Rejecting the practice in all of its forms, Fr Federico Lombardi said that mankind has moved beyond any necessity to kill. During his weekly appearance on Vatican television, Fr Lombardi voiced his abhorrence... read more

THE nun who is soon to become Australia’s first Catholic saint was briefly excommunicated by the church in part because she exposed a paedophile priest, a new documentary has claimed. Blessed Mary MacKillop, who will be canonised by Pope Benedict XVI later this month, is known as a tireless educator and... read more