Pope Francis received US President Joe Biden Friday, in what was the president’s first official trip to the Vatican since his inauguration. The private meeting is the longest to take place between the Pope and a head of state, lasting an unusually long 75 minutes. President Biden is said to have thanked the Pope for…
After seven hours of debate and prominent opposition in the House of Lords on Friday, the sponsor of a bill that would legalise assisted suicide in England and Wales chose not to take the bill to a vote. More than 60 peers spoke against the bill during the debate. One of the foremost objectors to…
An MP has proposed adding an “Amess amendment” to a bill going through parliament ensuring that Catholic priests can administer the last rites at crime scenes. Mike Kane, a Labour Party representative, is seeking to add the amendment to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. A spokesperson for Kane has stated that the ‘Amess amendment’ would…
Sr Gloria Cecilia Narváez Argoti, a missionary who was abducted in Mali in February 2017 and held for nearly five years before finally being released on October 9 of this year, posted on Twitter thanking God and all those who have made her new-found freedom possible. Sr Gloria said, “I want to lift up my…
Suspected arsonists targeted Scotland’s national shrine to Our Lady of Lourdes in the latest in a series of incidents at Catholic sites. The fire caused damage to Carfin Grotto, which has added to the financial strain on the shrine that welcomed in excess of 70,000 pilgrims a year before the Covid crisis. John P Mallon, the…
The US Supreme Court agreed to consider two legal challenges to Texas’ pro-life heartbeat law, just weeks before it hears oral arguments in another major abortion case. Both the Biden administration and abortion providers had opposed the Texas Heartbeat Act, a law which went into effect September 1 and which restricts most abortions after detection…
Pope Francis appeals that migrants not be sent back to unsafe countries Pope Francis made an appeal for migrants on Sunday, urging the international community to stop deporting migrants to unsafe countries. Speaking from the window of the Apostolic Palace, the Pope asked the Catholic pilgrims gathered in St Peter’s Square to pray in silence…
Filming of vulgar music video in church forces archbishop to apologise Spanish archbishop Francisco Cerro Chaves has asked for forgiveness after the filming of a music video, which included sensual dance scenes, took place within the church. Archbishop Chaves, of Toledo, was also forced to carry out a penitential act Sunday at the city’s cathedral…
A prominent Anglican bishop, once touted as a potential future Archbishop of Canterbury, has entered into full communion with the Catholic Church. The Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, the former bishop of Rochester, England, has joined the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. Early reports indicate that Nazir-Ali could be ordained as a Catholic priest as…
The three seminarians who were abducted from their seminary in Nigeria’s Kaduna state have been released, the chancellor of the local Church confirmed. “Barely 48 hours after their kidnap, our beloved brothers were released by their abductors,” Fr Emmanuel Okolo, chancellor of the Diocese of Kafanchan, said in an October 13 statement. Fr Okolo conveyed…