The Villaregia Missionary Community has established a new presence in Ghinnir, in Ethiopia’s East Bale, seeking to reach communities where the Catholic Church has a limited presence. According to a report on September 29 by Agenzia Fides, the Villaregia Missionary Community has been visiting communities in East Bale where they have been raising awareness about…
Pope Leo XIV sent a condolence message to Holy Family Parish in Gaza after an Israeli missile strike killed five people, including Christian mother Maysa Khader Ibrahim Abu Daoud and her daughter, Mary Hafez Michel Najjar, Fr Gabriel Romanelli said in an October 4 video update. Reading the pope’s note, Fr Romanelli said Pope Leo…
Ten years after Pope Francis sent shock waves through the Catholic Church with his outreach to divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, Pope Leo XIV is inviting church leaders to Rome next week to understand how Francis’s document has been implemented. Vatican officials last week stressed that Francis’s 2016 text Amoris Laetitia (“The Joy of Love”) …
Many of the far-right’s views on Christian teaching and the place and role of Christian faith in public life are not an “authentic expression of Christianity,” Pope Leo XIV said last week. The pontiff was answering a question from Ludwig Ring-Eifel of KNA, a major German Catholic newspaper, during the in-flight press conference en route…
Scotland’s Catholic bishops are responding to a renewed political effort to decriminalise abortion in their country, condemning a Green Party push to treat abortion as “health care” and calling on legislators to invest in measures that actually protect and support mothers. Last week, the Green Party called on the current Scottish government to act on…
Confirmation preparation begins again: dates are set for spring 2027, enrolment is under way and preparation Masses are taking place. We readily associate the gifts of the Holy Spirit such as right judgement, courage, understanding and wisdom with young people navigating life’s choices. Yet we can easily overlook another gift: Wonder and Awe in God’s…
The apparition at Knock is a composite image and representation of what takes place at every Mass. Knock serves as a tool of catechesis, reminding us of what the Mass consists. The major elements of the apparition that we have touched upon in ten articles over the last while are to be found in every…
St Bernadette Soubirous is usually depicted in statues around the world as the confounded peasant girl on her knees at the grotto in rural France. Without a doubt, those apparitions at Lourdes forever changed the life of the 14-year-old girl. In his homily at Mass on September 27 at the Prairie of the Sanctuary of…
In Paris on September 25 last, Pope Leo said to thousands of young people gathered in the Stade de France: “You are the saints of France! The Church in France needs you! She prays for you; she awaits you. Do not be afraid of this call!” I believe that nobody would dare describe themselves as…
Q: The priest of my parish says it’s not appropriate to hold hands or lift your hands up during the Our Father at Mass. Is this true? And if so, why do so many people continue to do it? A: While in my opinion holding hands during the Our Father at Mass is hardly the…
Fr Barry White
Fr John McCarthy