Bishops and other members of the Catholic Church in Spain called for prayers and offered reflections in light of the euthanasia of 25-year-old Noelia Castillo Ramos following a two-year legal battle by her family to try to obtain treatment for her psychiatric issues rather than having her death induced. Since it became known that Castillo…
On March 19, Pope Leo XIV announced a meeting for this coming October to discuss one of his immediate predecessor’s most controversial documents: Amoris Laetitia. Officially a post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation released in May of 2016 after two major synod assemblies on various aspects of family life in the 21st century, the 256-page Amoris Laetitia presented…
The Finnish Supreme Court has convicted parliamentarian Päivi Räsänen on one charge related to her expression of her Christian beliefs on marriage and sexual ethics. In the 3-2 decision, the court said Räsänen’s criminal conviction over the distribution of a 2004 pamphlet alongside her Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola was for “making and keeping available to…
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced a new policy to protect women in sports, under which only “biological women” — and not “biological men” who self-identify as women — will be permitted to compete in the women’s category. The new policy, announced on March 26, will take effect starting with the 2028 Los Angeles…
Ukrainians in Ireland are preparing for the greatest feast of the liturgical year—Easter—to celebrate the Resurrection of Christ, when Life conquers death and light overcomes darkness. Far from their native homes, driven from their homeland by war, Ukrainians do not lose hope and faith in the victory of their country. “We prepare for Easter through…
A man has been arrested by police in connection to an attack on the March for Life in Lisbon, Portugal, on March 22 when an improvised explosive device was thrown into a crowd of attendees. According to a statement by the Public Security Police (PSP), at the time of the attack around 500 people were…
The Catholic aid organisation Aid to the Church in Need is warning of a renewed escalation of violence in Nigeria. There has recently been a series of attacks in the north-east of the African country, the organisation announced on March 26 in Munich. It quoted its project partner Joseph Bature Fidelis, a priest from the…
Easter Sunday is the Church’s greatest feast day – a day in which we celebrate Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the dead. It is the “feast of feasts” and the “solemnity of solemnities.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “Beginning with the Easter Triduum as its source of light, the new age of the Resurrection…
“The Christian life is not meant to be lived alone,” writes Fr Barry White When Friends premiered in 1994, with The Rembrandts’ “I’ll Be There for You,” it captured a recognisable season of life. At its centre are six flawed, funny friends—Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Ross, Chandler, and Joey—growing into adulthood together. The series is less…
Shortly after my ordination, doing replacement work in a parish, I found myself in a rectory with a saintly old priest. He was over eighty, nearly blind, but widely sought out and respected. One night, alone with him, I asked him this question: “If you had your priesthood to live over again, would you do…
Fr Barry White
Fr Ronald Rolheiser