Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, Archbishop of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is undoubtedly one of the most outstanding personalities on the African ecclesiastical scene. Since October 2020 a member of the C9 – the Council of Cardinals set up by Pope Francis in September 2013 with the task of helping him in the governance of…
Pietro Parolin is a diplomat of great caliber. His star in the diplomatic service of the church and in the development of realpolitik and pragmatic strategies has been shining for many years. Just to give an example, in 2006, Inside the Vatican magazine named Parolin one of the ‘Top Ten’ of the year, citing his…
In Gaza ‘the situation is shameful, catastrophic, we have to say it… the dignity of those 2.3 million people, is not taken into the slightest consideration. We cannot think that they are all colluding with terrorism and crime’. This sentence, is just the latest in a long series of sharp accusations that the Latin Patriarch…
In January 2022, as a way of actively participating in the Synod process on synodality, Cardinals João Braz de Aviz (Prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life) and Mario Grech (Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops) sent a joint letter to all the general governments that are members of the USG (Union of Superiors…
There is still much uncertainty in Syria. A month and a half after the ousting of Bashar al Assad and the seizure of power by Abu Mohammed al-Jolani and his Islamist rebel group Haiat Tahrir al-Sham (Hts), on the one hand scepticism seems to prevail, the fear of a leap backwards towards an imposition of…
Tigray, is in the northernmost region of the vast African country, Ethiopia, bordering Eritrea. On November 2, 2020, in the midst of a global pandemic, a fratricidal war broke out. When the Tplf (Tigray People’s Liberation Front) organised and held an electoral round in the region without Addis Ababa’s permission and took possession of regular…
Luca Attanasio speaks with the theologian and lecturer “The Church is a woman,’ Pope Francis had said exactly one year ago in his audience to members of the International Theological Commission. “And one of the great sins we have had,” he had added, “is ‘masculinising’ the Church. In a concrete attempt to reduce the prevailing…
Catholics and more generally Christians in the Holy Land have long since begun to raise the tone of condemnation of Israel’s brutal methods against the unarmed civilian population. Very harsh, in this vein, is the position of the Holy Land Justice and Peace Commission: “As Catholics of the Holy Land who share Pope Francis’ vision…
The Daughters of St Paul, often known as the Pauline Sisters, celebrate the charism and genius of Sr Thecla Merlo, who collaborated with Fr James Alberione in the founding of their order. She was a unique person in the history of the universal Church, as well as in the world of communication and publishing. And…