The Museum of the Bible has announced that five of its most prized artefacts – valuable fragments in its collection of Dead Sea Scrolls – are forgeries that will no longer be displayed at the museum in Washington DC. Researchers in Germany tested five of the museum’s 16 fragments, bought by the billionaire businessman and museum…
Category: World Report
Barcelona’s Sagrada Família finally has its building permit
Barcelona’s iconic Sagrada Família basilica has agreed to pay €36 million in back payments after going without a building permit for more than 130 years. The church, designed by architect Antoni Gaudí, has been under construction since 1882, but without any official permit. Until now, the building has only been marked on property registries as…
Hypocrisy will impede spiritual growth says Pope
Hypocrisy is the leaven that causes men and women to be self-centred and indifferent to the world around them, according to the Pope. “This leaven is dangerous,” the Pope said in his homily during Mass in the Domus Sanctae Marthae. “It is a leaven that grows inward, a leaven that grows without a future because…
Indian priest linked to bishop’s rape case found dead
A senior Catholic priest considered a prime witness against an Indian bishop accused of rape has been found dead, with his family suspecting foul play. Fr Kuriakose Kattuthara (67) was found dead inside his room in Jalandhar on the morning of October 22, a week after Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar was bailed by the state…
Online Arabic catechetical classes unite Middle East Catholics
A bishop from Lebanon shared at the Synod of Bishops how his online catechesis program in Arabic has helped him unite young Catholics across the Middle East. “Thanks to the web I am able to connect many young people from the Middle East. We’ve also had conversions of young people who have recognised Jesus through…
Abortion movie is changing minds
A well-known social media influencer has become pro-life after watching a movie which details the gruesome reality of late-term abortions. Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer, which was released this month, is an American drama film about Kermit Gosnell, an abortion doctor who killed at least seven infants born alive during abortion procedures. Speaking about the…
Pope Francis: Marriage prep should be more than a few parish meetings
In his general audience today, Pope Francis said that engaged couples require “careful preparation” for the lifelong fidelity that marriage requires. “One cannot say marriage preparation is three or four conferences given in the parish. This is not preparation,” Pope Francis said in St. Peter’s Square today, in a departure from his prepared remarks. “The…
Shun money, wealth and power and follow saints’ examples – Pope
Carrying Pope Paul VI’s pastoral staff and wearing the blood-stained belt of Archbishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador, Pope Francis formally recognised them, and five others, as saints of the Catholic Church. Thousands of pilgrims from the new saints’ home countries – Italy, El Salvador, Spain and Germany – were joined by tens of thousands…
Lebanon pay rise law endangers Catholic schools
The future of Lebanon’s long-standing tradition of Catholic education is at risk because of a controversial law governing teacher salaries. Salary increases for teachers in the private school sector are mandated in a law that took effect in August last year. As a new school year unfolds, school administrators are struggling with how to pay…
Young people call for fathers not pharisees at youth synod
The Catholic Church must be a place of justice and mercy, and its members must be catalysts for change, some young observers have said at the Synod of Bishops in the Vatican. “In order to teach justice and mercy to our young people, the Church must first be a place of justice and mercy for…