A Hungarian bishop has challenged Pope Francis’ appeal for Catholics to open their communities as sanctuaries for refugees from the Middle East. Szeged-Csanád Bishop Laszlo Kiss-Rigo, whose diocese in southern Hungary is experiencing some of Europe’s heaviest migrant flows, denies that most of those arriving are refugees. “This is an invasion,” he said, “they come…

Bishops back Indian strikes India’s Catholic Church supported some 150 million workers on a nationwide strike that shut down factories, banks, traffic and government offices on September 2. “The Church is in solidarity with striking workers because we are concerned about their welfare,” according to Jaipur’s Bishop Oswald Lewis, head of the Indian bishops’ labour office, adding that…

Pope Francis’ visit to Cuba is a sign of his closeness to the nation’s people at a time they “breathe the air of hope” that relations with the US will improve, according to Guantanamo-Baracoa’s Bishop Wilfredo Pino Estevez. “It’s not easy to live at odds with your next door neighbour,” Bishop Pino wrote in a…

Fr Jacques Mourad and about 270 Christians and Muslims taken hostage by jihadi militias in southeast Syria are alive, and are in a “stable and secure” condition, according to local sources, who say Church leaders are conducting negotiations through mediators in an attempt to obtain the captives’ release. The Syrian priest was kidnapped on May…

The Cremisan Valley Wall is “the last nail in Bethlehem’s coffin” according to the Catholic centre for human rights working under the patronage of Jerusalem’s Latin Patriarchate. A 90-page report by the centre, according to the Patriarchate, analyses the implications of the separation wall built by Israeli authorities in the valley, largely on Palestinian land…

At least two American presidential hopefuls have backed Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who has been jailed for contempt of court after refusing to register same-sex marriages. Ms Davis, who served as Rowan County’s deputy county clerk for 25 years to November last when she was elected county clerk, stopped issuing marriage licenses in…

Christians must neither seek refuge in conservatism or fundamentalism as though everything was better in the past nor reject everything that seems old-fashioned thereby “relativising all the wisdom accumulated in our rich ecclesial heritage” according to Pope Francis. Speaking by video message to participants in Buenos Aires at the Second International Congress of Theology, on…

A lawyer representing hard-pressed Christian communities in the Chinese province of Zhejiang has been arrested. Zhang Kai, of Beijing’s Xinqiao Law Firm, had travelled to Zhejiang to work fulltime in assisting communities directly affected by a drive to remove crosses and demolish church properties. Since late 2013, the campaign has affected some 1,200 church properties.…

The Iraqi government has moved to establish a committee with the aim of identifying and countering persecution against Christians in the country. On the orders of Prime Minister Haydar al Abadi, the committee will work to collect details of incidences of persecution from the long-suffering community and formulate concrete security responses to better protect Christians.…

Pope reaches 100th General Audience Pope Francis reached a personal milestone on August 26 when he preached his 100th Wednesday general audience. The Pontiff used the occasion to revisit a topic which has been at the heart of many of his most recent addresses, the family, and specifically this time, prayer within the family. “We all know how important…