Rome needs a small miracle to pull off the Vatican’s jubilee

Italian television presenter Giulia Avataneo was elated last year when she found a small, affordable apartment in Rome just 10 minutes from her workplace in a neighbourhood near the Vatican. 

But less than a year after she moved in, the landlord wanted her out again. 

His aim: to convert the flat into a short-term holiday rental for pilgrims coming to Rome for the Catholic Jubilee — a holy year of forgiveness. 

During the jubilee, which starts on Christmas Eve and concludes on January 6 2026, the Vatican will grant plenary indulgences — exemptions from punishment for sins — to penitents who visit designated sacred sites, including at least one of Rome’s four papal basilicas. 

Nearly 32mn pilgrims are expected, adding to pressure on a city already suffering from a residential housing shortage, as flats are turned into Airbnbs for a post-pandemic tourist boom. 

“So many people have experienced the same thing,” Avataneo says of her eviction. “It’s extremely difficult to find affordable long-term accommodation. Everybody is renting short term — for a month or two — because of the jubilee.” 

Even Rome residents with secure housing are dreading the impact of the jubilee on a city where infrastructure and public services — from transport to trash collection — are already stretched to breaking point. 

“It’s like hosting the Olympics,” lamented one resident, “except it’s going to last for an entire year.” 

After the first holy year proclaimed by Pope Boniface VIII in 1300, jubilees were initially held every half century, and from 1450 every 25 years, with occasional delays or ‘extraordinary’ jubilees for special occasions. 

“It has become one of the main ways for the Vatican to remind Catholics that their eyes, minds or hearts should be oriented towards Rome,” says Massimo Faggioli, a theology professor at Villanova University. 

This jubilee comes at a critical juncture for the Vatican. 

Its finances are under severe strain from declining donations and chronic mismanagement. 

Despite Pope Francis’s persistent cost-cutting, the Holy See has been running a yawning budget deficit. 

The Vatican pension fund is also in crisis. 

However, the influx of pilgrims — and the licensing of the jubilee logo for merchandise ranging from wooden wall maps of Rome to “papal” olive oil — will generate new revenues. 

“Right now, the Vatican is running out of money,” said Faggioli. “They need this lifeline like never before.” 

Rome’s secular authorities are racing to ready the city. 

The Italian government has allocated €4.8bn for jubilee-related public works, including a road underpass first planned for the 2000 Jubilee. 

But some of the ambitious works have been deferred. Of the remaining 322 projects deemed ‘essential’, just a handful are complete. 

Though many are being inaugurated in the coming days, much of Rome still resembles a vast construction site. 

“The project went from a huge ambitious plan to redevelop a lot of Rome for the jubilee and was whittled down to ‘what was feasible’,” said Angelica Donati, president of the youth wing of the National Builders’ Association. “It’s a missed opportunity.” 

Employers are being encouraged to embrace working from home to ease traffic. 

But that is no comfort to Avataneo, who must get to an office and now lives so far away that she has to drive — while paying nearly twice her old rent. 

“The Vatican should do more,” she griped. “It’s because of them that the city is becoming unbearable for almost everyone else.” 

But mayor Roberto Gualtieri insists the Jubilee will leave a positive legacy — even if projects are finished after the holy year. 

“Rome would not be what it is without past jubilees,” he says, noting that many of the city’s most beautiful “monuments, fountains, and bridges” were jubilee projects. 

Rome’s contemporary government is also determined to make the best of the occasion. 

“The jubilee exists,” Gualtieri said. “It’s not something you decide to host or not. It exists — and one has to make peace with this.”

Concern for local Church leaders over merger of Raphoe and Derry Diocese by Vatican

There is concern locally among Roman Catholic leaders in Donegal that the Vatican could press on with merging the Raphoe Diocese and the Diocese of Derry.

It follows reports that the Bishop of Derry, Donal McKeown travelled to Rome to meet with Bishops Bishop Robert Francis Prevost to put forward the case for the two dioceses to stay as stand-alone entities.

Bishop McKeown also held talks with Archbishop Paul Gallagher, who works as the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States.

The Apostolic Nuncio of Ireland, Archbishop Luis Mariano Montemayor, is keen to merge the dioceses.

Earlier this year, Archbishop Montemayor told how the Church would be undergoing a reorganisation 

“With pooled resources and combined endeavours, and trusting strongly in the grace of God, we can look to the future with hope and confidence,” he said following the announcement of other mergers in the west of the country.

The Raphoe Diocese has been without a bishop since the appointment this year of Bishop Alan McGuckian SJ as the 33rd Bishop of Down and Connor.

Next April, the Derry Diocese will also become vacant when Bishop McKeown retires.

Currently, the Raphoe Diocese is headed by Diocesan Administrator Monsignor Kevin Gillespie. 

It is understood that, given its presence for the two Diocese to merge, the Vatican has been keen not to appoint a permanent successor to Bishop McGuckian.

There are fears, however, among the Church hierarchy locally about the possible workload given that there are only three Bishops in Northern Ireland and the mooted merger would see the Archbishop Eamonn Martin to administer the amalgamation while also taking care of the Armagh and Dromore dioceses.

Archbishop Martin is believed to be not entirely opposed to the suggestions of merging the diocese, but not at this time.

Of the 51 parishes in the Diocese of Derry, 11 are in County Donegal.

Already, some parishes have merged due to a dwindling number of clerics.

It was announced in the summer that while the parishes of Camus, Clonleigh and Leckpatrick will still have three priests, there will not now be a dedicated parish priest in each. 

Fr Michael McCaughey, the PP at The Three Patrons parish in Derry, became the PP of Clonleigh, but is also the PP in Camus and in Leckpatrick, while Fr Edward Gallagher has been appointed as a curate for the three parishes and Fr Declan Boland was named as a Priest-in-Residence for the Camus, Clonleigh and Leckpatrick parishes.

Archbishop Gallagher urges OSCE to resume the "Spirit of Helsinki"

As the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) prepares to mark the 50th anniversary of its foundation in 2025, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher has expressed the Holy See’s “great concern” over growing divisions among its members that, he said, are obscuring “the very roots “of the organization and affecting its daily work amid escalating global challenges.

 “It is crucial to preserve the Organization, especially at a time when dialogue, de-escalation and détente are necessary,” the Vatican Secretary for Relations with States and other Organizations stressed on Thursday as he addressed the 31st OSCE Ministerial Council in Valletta, Malta.

Representatives of 40 of the 57 OSCE member states, along with cooperation partners from Asia and the Mediterranean regions are taking part in the two-day discussions focused on evaluating the current security landscape across the Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian regions, addressing ongoing challenges, reviewing OSCE operations as well as the appointment of the top four positions in the organization.

Upholding the OSCE’s founding principles 

In his statement, Archbishop Gallagher emphasized the crucial importance of upholding the OSCE’s principles enshrined in the 1975 Helsinki Final Act, its founding document, to address the new challenges facing the world today.

He recalled that that landmark agreement designed to reduce Cold War tensions was based on the understanding “that peace is not merely the absence of war or the maintenance of a balance of power, but rather the fruit of friendly relations, constructive dialogue and co-operation among States in upholding obligations under international law and respect for all universal human rights.”

Divisions and breakdown of  trust between member States

However, he noted, that vision is compromised today by the lack of procedural consensus within the OSCE but” above all, by a growing breakdown of mutual trust between some participating States, an increase in ideological aggression, and a flagrant disregard “ of those principles.

“The Holy See observes with concern the growing fragmentation and divisions that are obscuring the very roots of the OSCE and affecting its daily work.”

War in Ukraine and other geopolitical tensions

Archbishop Gallagher mentioned in particular the ongoing war in Ukraine, alongside broader geopolitical tensions causing fragmentation within the OSCE, and also the prolonged delay in filling leadership positions and the lack of progress on decisions, such as the 2026 Chairmanship.

Recalling that the organization’s “strength and uniqueness lie in its diversity of perspectives that enrich its dialogue and decision-making processes” the Vatican diplomat cautioned against transforming it into a forum “only for like-minded states” and warned that abandoning the pursuit of consensus could lead to its “self-annihilation” or distortion of the “Helsinki Spirit.”  

OSCE’s indispensable role as a forum for dialogue

Concluding, Archbishop Gallagher reaffirmed the OSCE’s indispensable role as a forum for dialogue and negotiation, urging member states to preserve its unique mission and calling for renewed efforts to foster dialogue, de-escalation, and consensus-building, particularly in light of current global tensions.

Salt Lake City diocese separates sacraments for newly baptized children

Salt Lake City’s bishop instructed pastors last month that children baptized above the age of reason should not receive the other sacraments of initiation at the time of their baptism.

While the newly announced policy would seem at odds with canonical norms on the subject, the Salt Lake City diocese has told priests it is enacting only a “temporary” moratorium on observing the Church’s universal law on sacramental initiation, while a “faith formation plan” is developed for the diocese.

Bishop Oscar Solis notified Utah priests in a Nov. 22 memo that children baptized above the age of reason would now be required in the Salt Lake City diocese to enroll in “the faith formation class appropriate for their age,” after baptism.

“When deemed ready, they will enter a two-year preparation process for First Penance, followed by First Communion. Once the child has received their First Communion and participated in a sustained and comprehensive program of religious education with regular participation in the Sunday Mass, they may join the preparation for Confirmation,” Solis wrote.

“At no point should all three sacraments of initiation be administered together at the Easter Vigil or any other time,” the bishop directed priests.

The Utah policy would seemingly run counter to the Church’s universal law on sacramental initiation, which explains that anyone who has attained the use of reason, legally presumed at the age of seven, should receive all three sacraments of initiation — baptism, confirmation, and Eucharist — at the same time, after undergoing the Church’s prescribed rites and periods of formation.

Canon 866 of the Church’s Code of Canon Law explains that, “unless there is a grave reason to the contrary, an adult who is baptized is to be confirmed immediately after baptism and is to participate in the eucharistic celebration also by receiving communion.”

Canon 852 clarifies that when the law speaks of adults with respect to baptism, it has in mind “all those who, no longer infants, have attained the use of reason.”

That benchmark, canon 97 explains, is presumed “with the completion of the seventh year” — on a child’s seventh birthday.

Indeed, the newly translated ritual book for the Order of Christian Initiation for Adults indicates that confirmation is not to be “separated” from baptism except for some “special reason.”

In his Nov. 22 memo, Solis said that he had initially become concerned about Christian initiation in 2017, when “I observed a considerable number of children being initiated into the Church after only one year of sacramental preparation.”

While he wrote that he had initially separated baptism from other sacraments of initiation at Salt Lake City’s Cathedral of the Madeleine, he had decided to “extend the moratorium across the diocese…until such time as a comprehensive faith formation plan is put into place in our Diocese.”

The Salt Lake City diocese has not responded to several requests for comment from The Pillar. 

But after The Pillar contacted the diocese this week, Solis distributed to pastors a document entitled “Authority for Moratorium on OCIA Adapted for Children and Separation of the Sacraments of Initiation.”

That text, which was a recitation of several canonical and liturgical norms appended with notes, stressed that “the moratorium is a pause, not a termination of administering all three sacraments together.”

Splitting preparation for the sacraments of initiation conferred on children, the memo suggested, “allows time for greater comprehension and consent.”

While canon law requires that children who are baptized at seven or older receive the sacraments of initiation at the same liturgy, there are parishes in various parts of the U.S. which do not confer Eucharist or confirmation on such children, requiring instead additional sacramental preparation ahead of continued sacramental initiation — although there is no data available to indicate how widespread that practice is.

The Salt Lake City policy would appear to be the first diocesan affirmation of that practice, despite the universal canonical norm on the subject.

Stakes high as verdict looms in Vatican’s ‘good faith’ London trial

While all eyes in the Vatican financial world remain fixed on appeals underway in the city state’s courts, the High Court of England and Wales in London is due to issue a verdict that could seriously tip the scales of international opinion, if not justice, in the Church’s financial scandal.

Lawyers for Raffaele Mincione — the investment manager who in 2018 sold the Vatican Secretariat of State a London property as the closing deal of a multi-year business relationship — expect a verdict any day in his lawsuit against the secretariat.

A victory for Mincione in London would be a much needed boost for the businessman, who has seen millions of euros of his assets frozen as a result of the Vatican City legal process against him.

And a favorable verdict for Mincione could cost the Holy See millions, and pile enormous pressure on the appeal court in the Vatican as it considers his bid to overturn his conviction for financial crimes.

Even before charges were formally filed in Vatican City against the defendants, the sprawling financial scandal surrounding the Secretariat of State’s investment in a London property had already made it to court.

Raffaele Mincione, the secretariat’s former investment manager, filed suit against the Vatican state department in June 2020, petitioning the High Court of England and Wales for declaratory relief against the Secretariat of State, and asking judges to rule he “acted in good faith” in his dealings with the Vatican, managing hundreds of millions of euros in investments for the secretariat over a period of years and selling them a London building at 60 Sloane Ave. in 2018.

That suit followed Mincione receiving word he was under criminal investigation in Vatican City, and after Vatican media accused him of using the Secretariat of State’s money for “speculative and self interested” investments.

Procedural motions in the London case continued in the background as the sprawling financial crimes trial opened in Vatican City the following year, before closing in 2023, convicting Mincione alongside 8 others.

Mincione was eventually cleared by the Vatican court of embezzlement and fraud, but he was convicted on the grounds that the money he invested for the Secretariat of State could not be used for that purpose under Vatican law. He was handed a sentence of five years in prison and made part of a group liability among the defendants for hundreds of millions of euros in damages.

He was specifically convicted of participating in the illegal misappropriation of Vatican funds in the deal which placed some 200 million euros under the investment manager’s control on the Secretariat of State’s behalf.

According to Vatican judges, Mincione was legally culpable as the beneficiary of the misused Vatican money — and should have, as a matter of professional due diligence, sufficiently familiarized himself with Vatican City law and realized he was participating in an illegal operation.

Mincione, for his part, has insisted that he signed contracts which were legal under the jurisdictions under which he was operating and produced in court letters signed by successive Secretaries of State asserting the investment with him was legal under Vatican law.

Vatican lawyers argue that those assertions were the result of deliberately misleading advice from secretariat officials, including Cardinal Angelo Becciu, and that Mincione should have known that.

In both the Vatican City and the UK trials, Mincione has argued he acted in good faith in his dealings with the Vatican — including a 2018 separation agreement which transferred ownership of the London building at 60 Sloane Avenue to the Secretariat of State’s designated proxy, Gianluigi Torzi, who was also convicted in Vatican City of financial crimes in the case.

The businessman has faced questions over his own business dealings with Torzi, and the sequence of events which led him to invest Vatican money in debt products sold by Torzi — deals which Mincione has said led him to lodge criminal complaints against him.

Torzi, in turn, used his companies to lend Mincione tens of millions of euros during the same period.

In an extended interview with The Pillar last year, Mincione recounted his version of his dealing with the Vatican, saying the Secretariat of State had approached him via intermediaries to manage a proposed investment in Angola, favored by then-sostituto Cardinal Angelo Becciu.

When Mincione found that investment unworkable, he said, he offered to walk away from the deal but was asked by the Vatican to propose other investment opportunities for its money — according to Mincione, he acted in good faith and abided by all the contracts he signed, and said that the Vatican’s representatives and officials instead acted in increasingly bizarre ways, leading to losses.

Earlier this year, the London court heard from Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, Cardinal Angelo Becciu’s successor as sosituto, who ordered the separation from Mincione in 2018. Peña Parra told the court that the secretariat had been the “victim of serious fraud.”

However, the sostituto — whose own conduct has come under repeated scrutiny during the various trials — also conceded that in executing the separation and dealing with attempts by Torzi to extort the Vatican as part of the process, he had knowingly authorized the payment of “completely fictitious” invoices.

“I was not honest,” the archbishop said in the London court. “I accept that.”

The UK judges will also likely consider that archbishop has previously been scathing about the way in which his own department was run, while himself admitting in Vatican court to have ordered extra-legal retaliation against banking officials who refused to lend the secretariat large sums of money at favorable rates.

Peña Parra’s decision to terminate the secretariat’s investment with Minicone early resulted in massive contractual penalties for the Vatican, costing it millions, and his own narrative of events given during the London trial also significantly diverges from previous public statements from Vatican officials about their dealings with Mincione.

The Vatican parted ways with Mincione in 2018, with the secretariat forfeiting the balance of its investment with the businessman, while paying millions in penalties for early withdrawal of their investment, in exchange for ownership of a London property development.

Arguing that Mincione pulled a “bait and switch” on the Vatican, the Secretariat of State’s UK lawyers told the court that the Vatican had to go along with his investment proposals because the money they had out for investment “had been secured through lines of credit which needed to be serviced.”

According to their argument, Mincione exploited the fact that the Secretariat of State was looking to invest 200 million euros of borrowed money on which they needed to generate a return quickly. of someone else’s money and the meter was running, so they had to act fast.

The Vatican’s lawyers said the Secretariat of State “borrowed the money by taking credit lines from two banks (Credit Suisse and Banca Svizzera Italiana), with securities deposited as collateral.”

The origin of the money, coming in the form of credit lines borrowed against assets on deposit with Credit Suisse and BSI and illegally obscured on departmental ledgers, was first reported in 2019.

However, those reports were previously repeatedly denied by senior Vatican officials, including Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who called them “false,” “misleading,” and “shameful.”

While there is no way of predicting how the UK judges will find in the case, a decision in Mincione’s favor would likely have significant repercussions internationally.

In addition to his appeal in Vatican City, Mincione and his companies have also launched suits in other jurisdictions seeking similar declarations and fighting to unfreeze his international assets, frozen on request of Vatican prosecutors.

The High Court of England and Wales is well used to handling complex financial cases, more so than the Vatican City tribunal which convicted Mincione, and may come to a different conclusion in the case.

If they do, the English court could consider awarding Mincione substantial damages against the Vatican, a judgement enforceable against the Holy See’s considerable asset portfolio in the United Kingdom. Should that happen, it could render his conviction in Vatican City a pyrrhic victory, and a costly result for the Secretariat of State.

Also of likely concern to the Vatican, a contrary decision in London could find respected foreign judges pour scorn on the city state’s judicial process — as has happened in the past — calling into question not just Mincione’s conviction but casting doubt over other seemingly more clear-cut cases of corruption in the case, like that of Cardinal Becciu.

Earlier this year, Mincione’s legal team filed a complaint with the office of the Special Rapporteur on independence of judges and lawyers at the United Nations, alleging violations of due process in the more than three years-long investigation and trial.

As the Vatican City court of appeals considers appeal claims filed by Mincione and the other defendants in the financial crimes trial, the imminent verdict in London could weigh heavy on the judges’ eventual deliberations — but even more so on the Secretariat of State.

Bishops Concerned Over Derry/Raphoe Merger Plan

Bishop Donal McKeown of Derry flew to Rome in recent weeks to meet the head of the Dicastery for Bishops, Bishop Robert Francis Prevost O.S.A.(Augustinian) to petition for a change in Vatican policy towards plans to merge the dioceses of Derry and Raphoe.  

It is believed that Bishop McKeown went to press his case that the Diocese of Derry should not be amalgamated with the Diocese of Raphoe (mostly Donegal) at this point in time. 

It is also believed he spoke with Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States.

The Irish Catholic understands that the current Nuncio, Archbishop Luis Mariano Montemayor wants the Diocese of Derry to merge with the Diocese of Raphoe as part of the Vatican’s policy to reduce the number of dioceses in Ireland to make a leaner more streamlined Irish Church.

The Diocese of Derry will fall vacant next April on the retirement of Bishop McKeown, and with no Bishop currently in Raphoe, the Vatican sees this as an opportunity to unite the two dioceses.

However some members of the hierarchy don’t agree with the move.  

With only three bishops in the North of Ireland, it is believed that Bishop Alan McGuckian who is newly appointed to Down and Connor, succeeding the late Bishop Noel Treanor, has a huge workload and a relatively short number of years to do it before he too is due to retire.

With no Derry bishop, Archbishop Eamonn Martin would be left alone to administer the amalgamation of the two dioceses while also looking after the dioceses of Armagh and Dromore, with only one auxiliary, Bishop Michael Router.  

It is believed that Archbishop Martin feels that there is a huge amount of work to be done on Catholic Education issues in the North and Legacy issues regarding the Troubles and his time to attend to these issues will be heavily restricted.  

It is believed that the bishops are not ultimately opposed to the merger, but not at this juncture.

The Church of Ireland has a diocese of Derry and Raphoe.

Bishops’ Conference to downsize

Downsizing seems to be the order of the day in Maynooth recently, and it’s not just for the bishops as the Nuncio tries to amalgamate dioceses that become vacant.

New House in St Joseph’s Square in front of the main St Patrick’s College building has been sold to Maynooth University and it is understood the tenants have been asked to vacate the premises.

With the winter meeting of the Bishops’ Conference taking place in Maynooth this week it is believed that the Commissions and Agencies of the Bishops’ Conference are being downsized from five to three.  

The Irish Council for Prisoners Overseas is being separated out.

There is also a paring back in Communications as Veritas completes the wind down of its operations but also a streamlining of the communications section of the Bishops’ Conference, with less emphasis on external PR  and a pivot to more communications with the dioceses.

Dublin to get diocesan pastoral council

A deanery meeting is to be held in Dublin diocese this week to set up a diocesan pastoral council and another special deanery meeting is planned later in the month to nominate people to the council.  

This comes as the diocese implements its pastoral strategic planning resource for 2025 to 2027.  

The structure being put in place is 197 parishes will fit into 53 parish partnerships, with the term ‘clusters’ being dropped. If a parish is no longer viable it will at least be part of bigger partnership and find resources there.

The plan is very much being guided by Fr Gareth Byrne, VG and Moderator of the Diocesan Curia and Chairperson of the strategies implementation group. 

In the plan’s introduction he writes: “We will pray together, reflect together, plan together for its implementation in parish and partnerships of parishes across the Archdiocese.  We will need to take co-ordinated action together, encouraging and supporting each other, continually opening our hearts to renewal and new beginnings.”

Some of the objectives of the plan include a review of priestly ministry and how to be more co-responsible and how the parish would function with one priest, promotion of parish pastoral councils, grow team-based ministries in parishes and establish a funeral ministry and prepare parishes to conduct funeral liturgies in the absence of a priest.

Another Strategic Planning Resource meeting is due to take place in January.

‘Church should be bridge between prisoners and society’, Bishop Hayes

“The Church should be a bridge between marginalised people and the community”, Bishop of Kilmore Martin Hayes, who is also the Bishops’ Conference Liaison Bishop to the Irish Prison Service has said. Some of these marginalised people “often forgotten” by society are prisoners.

“Of course, we have to acknowledge the fact that they would have committed serious crimes and have caused hurt to people,” the bishop said. 

But when they are in isolation, paying for their crimes, “key personnel” like the prison staff and the prison chaplains, get involved to work as a link.

The prison chaplains “represent us, they represent the wider community, and they represent our desire to reach out to the prisoners. When prisoners are reached out to, under the cause of mission, it can help them to identify their own spirituality and find a source within themselves to sustain them in their isolation.”

Conversely, Bishop Hayes also believes the Church should be a voice for the prisoners, a representative of the marginalised to the community. When visiting prisons, the bishop takes “the opportunity to meet with the staff, with the chaplains, and when I can and when it’s appropriate, to meet and sit with prisoners to chat with them and listen”.

A busy routine usually prevents the community from ‘seeing’ marginalised people, and these people often get forgotten, “but it’s our obligation as the Church, we have the opportunities to highlight those causes,” the bishop said. As a community, “we need to be urging our politicians and services to do better… So people can rehabilitate without being overly preoccupied with the conditions that they’re living in.”

Nun arrested over alleged links to Italy’s most powerful mafia gang, the ‘Ndrangheta

A Catholic nun has been arrested by Italian police on suspicion of assisting a mafia network.

One of a group of 25 people arrested in the police operation, Sister Anna Donelli is alleged by prosecutors to have taken advantage of her role as a prison volunteer to act as a contact between jailed members of the so-called ‘Ndrangheta mafia gang and members of the gang on the outside, reports the Daily Telegraph. 

The gang is engaged in extortion and drug trafficking.

The Telegraph notes that the 57-year-old Sister volunteered at San Vittore prison in Milan and earlier this year won a civic award in recognition of her work in jails and in deprived areas of the city.

According to the Telegraph, investigators allege: “On many occasions, she acted as an intermediary, taking advantage of her religious work which allowed her full access to prisons.”

During a phone call that was intercepted as part of the operation, one of the arrested individuals allegedly told a contact: “If you need something inside, she’s one of ours.”

Police allege that the 25 people arrested were part of an attempt by the ‘Ndrangheta to expand criminal activities to the northern city of Brescia in the wealthiest part of the country, the Telegraph reports. Police confiscated assets worth more than €1.8 million (£1.5 million).

Based in Calabria in the southern end of Italy, over the past few decades the ‘Ndrangheta has established a presence not only in other parts of Italy but across the world, from South America to Australia. Much of its power and wealth is based on cocaine trafficking.

The gang’s unusual name, which derives from a Greek word for virtue or heroism, is linked to the history of the region. During ancient times Calabria was colonised by the Greeks, and to this day some of the region’s inhabitants still speak a Greek dialect known as Griko.

The ‘Ndrangheta is now considered to be the most powerful of Italy’s four mafia organisations.

The arrest operation was the culmination of an extended operation that began in 2020. Those under arrest are accused of a range of crimes including mafia association, vote buying, illegal possession of weapons, money laundering, loan sharking, drug dealing and false invoicing, reports the Telegraph.

Two of the arrested have political links. One is a former councillor for Brothers of Italy, the Right-wing party led by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

The other is a former member of the League, a party which is part of the national coalition government and led by Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini.

The arrested group is alleged to be connected to the issuance of €12 million worth of invoices for nonexistent transactions that enabled complicit businesses to lower their income and thus evade taxes, the Telegraph reports. 

In return, those businesses allegedly paid a commission to the gang.

The ‘Ndrangheta hit the headlines in November 2023 when more than 200 members of the gang were sentenced to a total of 2,200 years in prison. 

The sentencing came at the end of the Italy’s biggest trial for more than 30 years.

Mercedes-Benz presents Pope Francis with new modified G-Wagon ‘popemobile’

Pope Francis was handed the key to a new Mercedes-Benz “popemobile” on Wednesday by the CEO of the German luxury car brand.

Ola Källenius, the CEO of Mercedes-Benz, presented the pope with a white and chrome key fob inside a white box after showing off the new open-air vehicle in a parking lot inside Vatican City on Dec. 4.

The modified G-Wagon features a rotating heated seat and a heated hand rail to keep the pope warm while greeting pilgrims during winter rides around St. Peter’s Square.

The fully electric, white SUV is emblazoned with Francis’ coat of arms, has black detailing, and has chrome rims. Two small Holy See flags wave from the front hood.

The license plate of the papal ride is “SCV 1,” which is the Italian acronym for Vatican City State.

Mercedes-Benz has provided vehicles for the Vatican for 94 years. During the last 45 years, the pope has used “popemobiles” based on the Mercedes-Benz G-Class. 

“With the new popemobile, Pope Francis is the first pontiff to travel in an all-electric Mercedes-Benz during his public appearances. This is a great honor for our company and I would like to thank His Holiness for his trust,” Källenius said in a Dec. 4 press release.

Pope Francis has been using full or partially electric cars for several years. 

In 2023, the Vatican also announced a partnership with auto manufacturer Volkswagen to introduce an all-electric, zero-impact car fleet in the Vatican by 2030.

Bishop ‘disturbed’ by Justin Welby’s ‘head to roll’ final Lords speech

The Archbishop of Canterbury has been accused of making light of serious safeguarding failures after referencing a 14th century beheading in his final House of Lords speech before he quits amid a Church of England abuse scandal.

Justin Welby indicated the fallout of the Makin Review into failures in handling allegations about John Smyth – thought to have been the most prolific serial abuser to be associated with the Church – required “a head to roll”.

Mr Welby, who was making his first public comments since announcing his resignation almost a month ago, went on to reference the decapitation of a centuries-old predecessor, to which there was some laughter in the chamber.

Making his valedictory speech in the House of Lords on Thursday, Mr Welby said: “The reality is that there comes a time if you are technically leading a particular institution or area of responsibility where the shame of what has gone wrong, whether one is personally responsible or not, must require a head to roll.

“And there is only, in this case, one head that rolls well enough.

“I hope not literally. One of my predecessors in 1381, Simon of Sudbury, had his head cut off and it was then the peasants – the revolting peasants at the time – who played football with it at the Tower of London.

“I don’t know who won. It certainly wasn’t Simon of Sudbury.”

When he revealed on November 12 that he was quitting, Mr Welby said he was stepping down “in sorrow with all victims and survivors of abuse”.

It followed days of pressure after the independent Makin Review concluded that Smyth might have been brought to justice had Mr Welby formally reported him to police in 2013.

Mr Welby initially declined to resign when the report was published, saying he had “no idea or suspicion of” Smyth’s abuse before 2013 but acknowledging the review had found that after its wider exposure that year, despite being told police had been notified, he had “personally failed to ensure” it was “energetically investigated”.

In his resignation statement five days later, he said he was taking “personal and institutional responsibility for the long and retraumatising period between 2013 and 2024” and spoke of his “profound sense of shame at the historic safeguarding failures of the Church of England”.

Across five decades in three different countries and involving as many as 130 boys and young men in the UK and Africa, Smyth is said to have subjected his victims to traumatic physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual attacks, permanently marking their lives.

Smyth died aged 77 in Cape Town in 2018 while under investigation by Hampshire Police, with the review noting how he was “never brought to justice for the abuse”.

Speaking in the Lords on Thursday, Mr Welby said safeguarding in the Church of England is “a completely different picture to the past”, but that it was “clear” he had to quit following the review.

He told peers in the Lords: “The reality is that the safeguarding and care of children and vulnerable adults in the Church of England today is – thanks to thousands and tens of thousands of people across the Church, particularly in parishes, in parish safeguarding officers – is a completely different picture to the past.

“However, when I look back at the last 50 or 60 years, not only through the eyes of the Makin Report, however one takes one’s view of personal responsibility, it is clear that I had to stand down, and it is for that reason that I do so.”

Following the speech, the Bishop of Newcastle said she was “deeply disturbed” by parts of it, and was critical of the reaction of some other bishops in the chamber.

Dr Helen-Ann Hartley was the only bishop to call publicly for Mr Welby’s resignation in the days following the Makin Review’s publication last month.

In a statement on Thursday, she said: “I am deeply disturbed by the language of ‘a head had to roll’ used by the Archbishop of Canterbury in his speech in the House of Lords this afternoon.

“It was, in my view unwise to say at the very least. To make light of serious matters of safeguarding failures in this way yet again treats victims and survivors of church abuse without proper respect or regard.

“I was disappointed too to see other Lords Spiritual laughing at the jokes that were being made.

“I have this afternoon had several messages from across my diocese expressing dismay at the Archbishop’s speech and the response of the other Lords Spiritual (with the exception of the Bishop of London’s response).”

Bishop of London Dame Sarah Mullally sat expressionless, with her head bowed and arms folded for much of the speech.

Lambeth Palace confirmed on Wednesday that the King had agreed Mr Welby’s last day in post will be January 6.

He will not be taking part in any public Christmas services – including not giving the traditional December 25 sermon from Canterbury Cathedral.

Lambeth Palace said he would instead be spending the festive period privately with family.

People who have held the role of Archbishop of Canterbury usually get life peerages on retirement but it is unclear what will happen in the case of Mr Welby.

Vatican launches virtual College of Cardinal 'dashboard'

Anyone interested in Catholic Church can now see a detailed, interactive breakdown of the body that will elect the next pope.

The Vatican launched a "dashboard" for the College of Cardinals Dec. 5, allowing users of the web page to see a comprehensive list of the church's cardinals and sort them by age, rank, country of origin, electoral status and religious order. Initially it was available only in Italian.

The dashboard, created with Microsoft Power BI -- an AI tool designed to visually organize data -- was published on the Vatican press office's public website just two days before Pope Francis was scheduled to create 21 new cardinals Dec. 7.

The page allows users to see a map of where current cardinals are from, as well as the percentage of cardinals from each region who are under the age of 80 and eligible to vote in conclave. 

As of Dec. 5, for example, 47.8% of cardinals from Europe are eligible to vote in a conclave while 100% of cardinals from Oceania are eligible electors.

Cardinals lose their right to vote in a conclave on their 80th birthday or when they lose the rights and privileges of a cardinal, as was the case with Cardinal Angelo Becciu, former prefect of the Congregation for Saints' Causes, who was convicted by a Vatican court for financial malfeasance related to when he was substitute for the Vatican Secretariat of State.

Beyond age, rank and geographical distribution, users can also sort cardinals by precedence, which is based on the timing of their appointment as cardinals and their seniority within their rank and dictates matters such as seating arrangements and the order of liturgical processions. 

The College of Cardinals is divided into three ranks -- cardinal bishops, priests and deacons -- which reflect a cardinal's responsibilities or seniority within the church's hierarchy.

Previously, the Vatican website only offered separate lists of cardinals, organized alphabetically by name, by country, by age or grouped according to the pope who appointed them.

According to the Vatican statistics, which include the 21 soon-to-be cardinals, there are 253 members of the College of Cardinals, 140 of whom are eligible to vote in a conclave.

New appointments revive dispute in India’s Syro-Malabar Church

The decades-old liturgy dispute in an Eastern rite Indian archdiocese resurfaced on Dec. 3, when parishioners blocked the entry of newly appointed priest administrators at three parishes.

The parishioners gathered outside the main gates of the parishes in Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese in southern Kerala. They did not allow the administrators, appointed by apostolic administrator Bishop Bosco Puthur, to enter the church premises.

The archdiocese is the seat of Major Archbishop Raphael Thattil, the head of the second-largest Eastern Rite Church in India.

The newly appointed administrators came to take charge with police escort on Dec. 3.

Father Kurian Bharanikulangara, appointed to St. Mary's Forane Church in Tripunithura, was prevented from entering its premises.

However, before leaving, the priest stuck a notice outside the church, claiming he had taken charge.

Similar unruly scenes were witnessed in Martin De Porres church in Palarivattom and Velankanni Matha church in Mathanagar. 

The parishioners shouted slogans against Puthur, accusing him of creating fresh unrest during the advent season by appointing administrators over parish priests.

The dispute stems from liturgical rubrics. The archdiocesan priests and Catholics refuse to accept the rubrics of the Church's Synod-approved Mass, which asks the celebrant to face the altar during the Eucharistic prayer. They want to continue celebrating Mass with priests facing the congregation throughout the Mass.

Among the 470 priests in the archdiocese, home to more than half a million Eastern Rite Church followers, less than 20 support the Synod-approved rubrics.

The simmering dispute has seen group clashes, court cases, police interventions, the burning of effigies, and the closure of its headquarters, St. Mary’s Basilica, in Ernakulam. 

Father Jose Vailikodath, spokesperson of the Archdiocesan Protection Committee, a body of priests, said Bishop Puthur was trying to force them to accept the synod-approved Mass.

The action of the apostolic administrator “violated provisions of civil and canon laws,” he added. 

Vailikodath also blamed Major Archbishop Thattil for the current fiasco.

“They [Thattil and Putur] are trying to take over the parishes through force,” the priest claimed.

The parishioners have challenged the latest appointments of administrators in a local court. 

"We have approached the civil court," said Riju Kanjookaran, spokesperson of the Archdiocesan Movement for Transparency. This body of priests, religious, and laity has been spearheading the protests against the implementation of the uniform mode of Mass since 2021.

“The faithful will not accept the administrators trying to implement the disputed Mass," he added.

The dissenting priests also refused to accept the annual diary from the Archbishop’s House as they continued with their boycott of Puthur and his curia.

Though the liturgy dispute is over five decades old, it was revived in August 2021 when the Synod of Bishops, the top decision-making body of the Syro-Malabar Church, ordered its 35 dioceses in India and abroad to adopt the uniform mode of Mass for greater unity.

Barring the Ernakulum-Angamaly archdiocese, others complied with the order effective November of that year.

Archdiocesan officials, including Puthur, did not respond to calls.

Fresh calls to abolish bishops’ bench over CofE abuse scandals

Labour peer Harriet Harman will reportedly table an amendment to the hereditary peers bill which would abolish reserved seats for Anglican bishops in the House of Lords.

The National Secular Society understands Harman will table an amendment to extend the bill, which aims to abolish hereditary peers in the House of Lords, to the 26 Church of England bishops who are given seats as of right.

Earlier this year, the NSS worked with a cross-party group of MPs to similarly amend the bill. Labour whipped MPs to vote against the amendment, which was defeated. 

The bill has now reached the House of Lords where new amendments can be tabled. The bill will have its second reading in the Lords on Wednesday.

Harman's potential amendment comes as new polling suggests only one in five Brits support the bishops' bench. Calls for the resignation of bishops criticised in the Makin review into child sex abuse allegations in the Church of England and other scandals are also growing.

Survivor: Archbishop of York's actions "very, very underhand"

Stephen Cottrell, the archbishop of York, will temporarily take over Justin Welby's duties as archbishop of Canterbury in January. Welby resigned after the Makin review revealed he failed to adequately respond when informed of John Symth's abuse in 2013.

But a survivor of abuse has now called for Cottrell's resignation following his role in a separate abuse scandal.

In the 1980s, Matthew Ineson, then a teenager, was raped by Church of England priest Trevor Devamanikkam. In 2013, Ineson disclosed the abuse to then archbishop of York John Sentamu and other senior CofE clergy.

Ineson received a one-line letter in response from Sentamu: "Thank you for copying me into the letter which I have read, please be assured of my prayers and best wishes during this testing time." Ineson said Sentamu did "absolutely nothing".

Last year, an independent review commissioned by the CofE confirmed Ineson had been sexually abused by Devamanikkam. It found Sentamu and other bishops had failed to act on Ineson's disclosures.

In 2023, Sentamu, then in the Newcastle diocese, was suspended by the bishop of Newcastle for rejecting the findings of the review and refusing to apologise for his inaction.

"Safeguarding is very important but it does not trump church law", he said. Sentamu sits by rights in the Lords.

In October, Welby and Cottrell wrote to the bishop of Newcastle, Helen-Ann Hartley, seeking Sentamu's reinstatement. Ineson said he felt "used" by Cottrell, who had 'gone behind his back', and described his actions as "very, very underhand".

Hartley described the letter as "coercive". Separately, she accused bishops who failed to condemn the Church's coverup of abuse of "careerism".

General Synod member and Anglican priest Robert Thompson, who spoke at this year's NSS conference, has called for all bishops named in the Makin review to surrender their seats in the Lords pending further investigation. These include Justin Welby; former archbishop of Canterbury George Carey; and the bishop of Lincoln, Stephen Conway.

Nicky Morgan: Time to debate bishops' bench "very firmly has come"

Former culture and education secretary baroness Nicky Morgan said it would be "quite difficult" for those criticised in the Makin review to continue in their position, and the time to debate the bishops' bench "very firmly has come".

Morgan, herself an Anglican, said she was "horrified" by Ineson's story. Anyone who had "betrayed the trust" of a survivor should reflect on their position, she said.

Former conservative MP and culture secretary Nadine Dorries, who was sexually abused by an Anglican vicar as a child, has also called for the abolition of the bishops' bench.

She said she was treated like a "contagion" by bishops when she informed them of her abuse. Dorries described them as "completely out of their depth" and as having "no idea" how to handle complaints of abuse.

Alleging bishops were attempting to "cover up" abuse, she called the attempt to reinstate Sentamu "just shocking". Bishops have "let people down badly", she said, and resignation is their "only option".

NSS: 'Church's waning morality authority now in tatters'

National Secular Society spokesperson Alejandro Sanchez said: "We welcome the growing momentum to abolish the bishops' bench.

"Whatever remained of the Church's waning moral authority is now in tatters. Any argument that Anglican bishops bring a unique ethical insight to our legislature is entirely untenable.

"Guaranteed representation for one denomination of one faith has no place in a modern, pluralistic democracy like ours. If clerics wish to participate in our political life, they are welcome to do so – on the basis of equality, not privilege."

Hungarian bishops acknowledge ‘disappointment’ at mounting scandal

Hungary’s bishops publicly acknowledged a series of recent Church scandals on Wednesday.

“The scandalous news concerning our Church in recent months has caused many to feel uneasy and disappointed … for sins committed, we must pray, fast and make atonement,” said a statement published on the Hungarian Catholic Bishops’ Conference news service Magyar Kurír on 4 December.

“The Catholic Church stands with the victims and communities affected. We pray for them and support their healing.”

Although the statement did not name specific events, it followed a series of widely publicised sex scandals and paedophilia allegations in the Archdiocese of Kalocsa-Kecskemét since September, which have also implicated the central administrative structures of the bishops’ conference. 

The storm around the archdiocese began to break on 6 Sepetmber with the public disgrace of one of its priests, Fr Gergő Bese, a prominent social media influencer closely identified with the governing Fidesz party via its satellite KDNP (Christian Democratic Peoples’ Party). 

Fr Bese had been a vocal supporter of Fidesz’s anti-LGBT agenda, but was found to be living a double life as a participant in gay pornographic films. He was put under disciplinary suspension. 

While Bese’s activities involved only consenting adults, the disclosure prompted further revelations about other forms of sexual misconduct in the archdiocese involving minors. 

Two priests, identified only as Gábor R and Robert H, who both also have strong personal ties to Hungary’s ruling parties, face prosecution in the secular courts on charges of child molestation. 

In 2023, Gábor R was subjected to a full canonical process by church authorities, during which he admitted the offences, and was removed from ministry. 

Speaking to the Hungarian outlet Válasz Online, the Archbishop of Kalocsa-Kecskemét Balázs Bábel said public awareness of the prosecutions has caused a chain reaction with complainants coming forward with allegations about other clergy. 

“In recent months, the archbishop’s office has received many more reports than before,” he said. 

Several other priests of the archdiocese have been suspended while investigations proceed. 

Although the scandal only directly concerns the Archdiocese of Kalocsa-Kecskemét, allegations of serious impropriety in handling communications about the affair forced the resignation of the secretary of the national bishops’ conference, Fr Tamás Tóth, on 25 October. 

“The scandal is nationwide, the outrage knows no diocesan boundaries,” observed the religious affairs commentator János Reichert.

The same day the bishops’ published their statement, Pope Francis received Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at the Vatican. 

Their discussions covered “the commitment of the Catholic Church to the promotion of the development and wellbeing of Hungarian society”, according to a statement from the Holy See.