Author: Frances D’Emilio
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Pope, citing pandemic effect, cuts pay for cardinals, others
VATICAN CITY • Trying to save jobs as the pandemic pummels Vatican revenues, Pope Francis has ordered pay cuts for cardinals and other clerics, as well as nuns, who work at the Holy See. In a decree published online Wednesday by the Vatican’s official newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, Francis said that starting in April cardinals’ salaries…
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Italian premier resigns, blames deputy for political crisis
ROME • Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte resigned Tuesday, blaming the collapse of his 14-month-old populist government on his rebellious, anti-migrant Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who triggered a political crisis to try to force early elections. Addressing the Senate, Conte blasted Matteo Salvini for setting in motion a “dizzying spiral of political and financial instability” by…
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Italy judge rules to free captain of migrant rescue boat
ROME • The sea captain who rammed a police boat while bringing 40 rescued migrants to an Italian port she’d been warned to stay out of must be freed from house arrest, a judge ruled Tuesday in a decision that angered the Italian government minister who had declared the defiant mariner an outlaw. Carola Rackete,…
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Rap concert stampede in Italy leaves 6 dead, over 50 hurt
CORINALDO, Italy — A stampede at a rap concert in an overcrowded Italian disco killed five teenagers early Saturday along with a woman who had brought her young daughter to the event, authorities said. Fifty-three people were reported injured, including 13 in very serious condition. Video broadcast on Italian state TV RaiNews24 showed scores of…
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Pope pays tribute in Sicily for priest slain by mafia
PALERMO, Sicily • Pope Francis appealed to Mafiosi to renounce their quests for power and money as he visited Sicily on Saturday to honor a priest slain by mob henchmen for trying to protect youths from the evil clutches of organized crime. The daylong trip by Francis to the Mediterranean island where the Cosa Nostra…
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Vatican in ‘shame and sorrow’ over Pa. abuse
VATICAN CITY • The Vatican expressed “shame and sorrow” Thursday over a scathing Pennsylvania grand jury report about clergy who raped and molested children in six dioceses in that state, calling the abuse “criminally and morally reprehensible” and says Pope Francis wants to eradicate “this tragic horror.” In a written statement using uncharacteristically strong language…
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UN: Up to 245 missing after 2 Mediterranean shipwrecks
ROME — Two wrecks of migrant ships in the Mediterranean have claimed as many as 245 lives, including those of at least five children, according to survivor accounts given to U.N. agencies and authorities in Sicily, where dozens of rescued migrants were taken. Survivors of one wreck, some of them hospitalized in Pozzallo, Sicily, where…
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Pope allows all priests to absolve ‘grave sin’ of abortion
VATICAN CITY — Saying nothing is beyond the reach of God’s mercy, Pope Francis told Catholics worldwide he is allowing all priests to absolve the faithful of abortion — women and health workers alike — even while stressing that it is a grave sin in the eyes of the church to “end an innocent life.”…
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Italy investigates quake buildings, checking for code fraud
AMATRICE, Italy — Italian authorities are vowing to investigate whether negligence or fraud in adhering to building codes played a role in the high death toll in last week’s earthquake in Italy. They also called for efforts to ensure organized crime doesn’t infiltrate lucrative construction contracts to eventually rebuild much of the picturesque towns leveled…
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Aftershocks rattle Italian quake zone; toll rises to 250
PESCARA DEL TRONTO, Italy — As the search for survivors ground on, Premier Matteo Renzi pledged new money and measures Thursday to rebuild quake-devastated central Italy amid mounting soul-searching over why the seismic-prone country has continually failed to ensure its buildings can withstand such catastrophes. A day after the deadly quake killed 250 people, a…