Letter from London Jonathan Luxmoore In a gallery of The British Museum, light plays on an array of medieval crosses, reliquaries and manuscripts, as an audiovisual display reenacts one of English history’s most notorious crimes. At the centre, three stained-glass windows, painstakingly transferred from Canterbury Cathedral, convey images from the fabled afterlife of St Thomas…
John Lavenburg When Dr Fonie Pierre looks around the streets of Les Cayes the word that comes to her mind is “desolation”. “No businesses are open. People are in streets. There is no shelter,” Ms Pierre, head of the Catholic Relief Services Les Cayes office told Crux. “There are needs for food, water, every basic need.”…
Nearly 40,000 Catholic pilgrims journeyed on foot, by bicycle, and on horseback to arrive at the Marian shrine of Jasna Góra in Czestochowa, Poland this summer. The traditional walking pilgrimage to venerate an icon of the Black Madonna of Czestochowa housed in the shrine dates back to the 17th century. Among the pilgrims to make…
Pope Francis saddened by attack which killed nuns in South Sudan Pope Francis has sent his condolences after a violent attack on a group of Catholic religious sisters and others in South Sudan left five dead last week. “His Holiness Pope Francis was deeply saddened to learn of the brutal attack on a group of…
Faith leaders concerned over online censorship of religious speech YouTube’s blocking of a theologian’s talk on the Christian view of sex as a “content violation” raises serious concerns that “religious speech is being censored online”, San Francisco’s archbishop and Focus on the Family’s president said in a Wall Street Journal op-ed they co-wrote. “Today’s sexual…
Young woman takes off on round-the-world record bid Pilot Zara Rutherford, 19, has taken off at the start of a three-month bid to become the youngest woman to fly solo round the world. She departed from Kortrijk-Wevelgem Airport in western Belgium in her Shark ultralight, the world’s fastest microlight aircraft. “Growing up, I loved aviation…
Dear Editor, – I cannot be alone in finding the shadow boxing between Church and State over the issue of First Holy Communion and Confirmation amusing. The bishops are acting responsibly within their competence and are also acting with due regard for the common good. It is unprecedented for a democratic government to try to…
The Catholic actor who portrays Jesus in the hit crowd-funded series The Chosen has revealed how handing his life over to providence lifted a weight from his mind. The show now has 250 million views online, but it is success that Jonathan Roumie does not take for granted. He met the Pope at the Vatican…
Actor Shia LaBeouf has been cast as Padre Pio for a film which will focus on the life of the Italian saint. Veteran actor Willem Dafoe is also set to receive a role in the movie. A former Disney Channel star, Mr LaBeouf, 35, recently appeared in a video with a group of Franciscans, as…
Mayo-born Fr Michael Murtagh was “thrilled” by his county’s win over Dublin in the All-Ireland semi-final, which he attended in Croke Park. Based in the Dublin parish of Ballyroan, Fr Murtagh admits to a bit of banter with parishioners before and after the game. “I’ve two bears in the church,” Fr Murtagh explained. “I got…