From a dark past of once allowing and ordering the censoring, banning and burning of the Talmud and other Hebrew texts, the Vatican has deepened its decades of fruitful dialogue and cooperation with Jewish leaders with a new interfaith study programme. Some 20 Jewish and Christian scholars began a three-month hybrid course in mid-July at…
Pope Francis promised reporters traveling with him to the Gulf nation of Bahrain that his November 3-6 visit would be an “interesting trip.” Thanking the more than 65 reporters, photographers and television-camera operators on the plane with him from Rome, the Pope added that he hoped the trip would include “good news”. However, he said, the…
Pope Francis’ plans to visit the central Italian city of L’Aquila and its basilica August 28 fuelled speculation of a possible announcement of his resignation, which he has firmly denied. L’Aquila’s basilica is the burial place of St Celestine V, who issued a decree declaring the right of a pope to voluntarily resign, and then…
More than 4 million people have fled Ukraine in the past five weeks, and half of them are children, said two UN agencies. “Children make up half of all refugees from the war in Ukraine,” UNICEF said March 30 in a media release that included data from UNHCR, the UN refugee agency. UNICEF estimated that…
Even though Pope Francis will not attend the 26th UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow in person, the Vatican delegation and the Catholic Church will be “everywhere” during the two-week summit – from the highest-level private negotiations to the sidelines with grassroots “social action” and community-led events, said two delegates. And most importantly, Church representatives…
Letter from Rome Of the many momentous or menial tasks women religious perform, one of the better-kept secrets has been the role of four Sisters of the Holy Child Mary who were part of a global effort to make a complete map and catalogue of the starry skies. Nameless nuns Until a few years ago,…
Notebook Getting vaccinated is “an act of love,” Pope Francis said in his latest urgent appeal, after more than a year of insisting Covid-19 vaccines be equitably available worldwide for everyone to get inoculated. Nonetheless, some Catholics have been wondering if they should seek a religious exemption from an immunisation requirement with vaccines tested or…
Letter from Rome It was quite fitting for a Catholic actor and a Christian director of a new streaming series on the life of Jesus to meet Pope Francis on the feast of St Clare of Assisi, patron saint of televisions and screens. Jonathan Roumie, who portrays Jesus, and Dallas Jenkins, the series’ director, creator…
The new series of laws and provisions set out in the revised section on crimes and penalties in the Code of Canon Law will help the Catholic Church in its efforts at safeguarding, said two canon lawyers. Pope Francis promulgated the new changes in ‘Book VI: Penal Sanctions in the Church’, and they will go…
Letter from Rome The Gospel of Matthew never details how many Magi came from “the East,” but it makes it clear they travelled to pay homage to “the newborn king of the Jews” and “offered him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh”. Beyond their great monetary value, scholars say, the gifts had deep symbolic significance:…