St Augustine uses the image of two cities to define the central conflict that runs throughout history between the self-love that constitutes the City of Man and the divine love that forms the City of God. Unsurprisingly, the first Augustinian Pope, Leo XIV, shapes Magnifica Humanitas, his first encyclical, around this image: “Humanity, created by…
At the planned synod conference in Germany, Bishop Peter Kohlgraf of Mainz would like to broaden the thematic horizon. It will be about “addressing questions of passing on the faith and evangelisation,” said the bishop at the Mainz event ‘One Church, Many Paths,’ over the weekend. He hopes that ideas will be formed “that are…
The Rosary from the heart: the key to ending violence Dear Editor, The apparitions of Our Lady of Cuapa, Nicaragua in 1980 were fully approved by the local bishop in 1982. Our Lady appeared to a simple, poor, not very well educated 49 year old man called Bernardo Martinez. He served as a sacristan in…
Pope Leo XIV To make oneself understood to others is the first act of love, says Pope Leo XIV in week four of his Dei Verbum catechesis. Dear brothers and sisters, good morning and welcome! The Conciliar Constitution Dei Verbum, on which we are reflecting during these weeks, indicates in the Sacred Scripture, read in…
Fr Brian Lennon SJ A friend of mine – let’s call her `Lorraine’ – worked as a hospital chaplain. In the course of this she came close to a woman with terminal cancer. But whenever her friend wanted the sacrament of the sick Lorraine could not give it to her because she was not ordained.…
Passau Bishop Stefan Oster rejects key reform demands of the Synodal Path and the planned monitoring of their implementation. In his opinion, implementing the decisions would accelerate the disintegration of the Church in Germany, the bishop wrote in a blog post on February 4. Therefore, he cannot and will not go along with “essential ‘reform…
In a cold winter evening not long ago, through my work, I found myself sitting in a school staffroom with a group of volunteers gathered around a table. It was one of many such evenings I have shared in schools across Galway and further afield over the years. Some had come straight from work, others…
John Allen, the editor-in-chief of Crux whose decades-long career in journalism defined him as one of the authoritative voices on the Vatican and the Catholic Church, has died at the age of 61. Allen passed away in Rome Jan. 22, after battling cancer since 2022. He is survived by his wife, Elise Ann Allen, Crux’s…
Dr Mary McAleese’s Irish Times column recently argues [an argument that she has been making since at least 2018] that infant Baptism “denies babies their human rights” because it enrols them—without their consent—into lifelong Catholic membership with binding obligations and (in her view) a “no-exit policy.” She ridicules the language of “renewing baptismal promises” (since…
A Nigerian bishop urged intensified military action to “eliminate” bandits and their hideouts in the Kainji Game Reserve amid reports of the killing of 50 people between Christmas and New Year’s and traumatizing of children recently abducted from St Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri. Bishop Bulus Dauwa Yohanna of Kontagora recounted multiple attacks on both Christians…