The Irish and UK Catholic Church are stepping up their fight against climate change with an expanding array of initiatives that turn papal words into measurable action. Their commitment was on full display at the ‘Raising Hope for Climate Justice’ international conference, held in Castel Gandolfo just outside Rome from October 1–3 to mark the tenth anniversary…
They keep telling me that I have to be neutral about Gaza. Come with me to Gaza, talk to my people who have lost everything and then tell me that I must be neutral…” With these words, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, once again took a clear stance, reinforcing the Catholic Church’s opposition…
A parish priest in the Gaza Strip talks about his pastoral work among the war In the background happy cries are heard of children dancing to the sound of very rhythmic music. Then suddenly sounds of gunfire and shouts “is our daily surrealism,” Fr Gabriel Romanelli, the Catholic parish priest of the Gaza Strip,…
The Augustinian mission in Nigeria brought widespread education that was essential for human development, Luca Attanasio hears Pope Leo XIV, besides a deep rootedness with South America, has a special bond with Africa developed through his many visits to the Augustinian missions on the continent both as Prior General of the Order (2001-2013) and as…
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…