Catalan leader Jordi Cuixart holds a banner in front of the Lledoners prison after the Spanish government announced a pardon for those who participated in Catalonia's failed 2017 independence bid, in this photo taken June 23 in Sant Joan de Vilatorrada.

Pope accepts resignation of outspoken Spanish bishop

Accountability
Vatican
Aug 23, 2021

Pope Francis accepted the resignation of a Spanish bishop who had made controversial statements in favor of Catalan independence. The Vatican announced the resignation Aug. 23 of Bishop Xavier Novell Gomà of Solsona. 

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Pope Francis greets a person with a rosary during his general audience in the Vatican's Paul VI hall Aug. 18, 2021. The pope continued his series of talks on St. Paul's Letter to the Galatians. The pope said the law was meant to teach the path toward true

God's law meant to bring freedom, not lifelong 'servitude,' pope says

Theology
Vatican
Aug 18, 2021

The purpose of the law in Christian life is not to forcibly subjugate others, but to teach men and women the way to obtain true freedom in Christ, Pope Francis said during his weekly general audience. The "function of the law is certainly positive but limited in time," the pope said Aug. 18 to those gathered in the Paul VI audience hall at the Vatican.

Activists from the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, a coalition of nongovernmental organizations opposing lethal autonomous weapons, protest at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin March, 21, 2019. (CNS photo/Annegret Hilse, Reuters)

'Killer robots' pose threat to innocent civilians

Vatican
World
Aug 6, 2021

The use of "killer robots" and other lethal autonomous weapons systems violate international treaties because innocent civilians could be erroneously targeted, the Vatican said during a U.N. meeting in Geneva.