Elise Harris The Vatican announced today that to help with the process of healing in Chile, Pope Francis will send Archbishop Charles Scicluna and Msgr. Jordi Bertomeu to the diocese of Osorno, and will issue a pastoral letter on the nation’s abuse crisis. A May 31 statement from Vatican spokesman Greg Burke said in…
A papal foundation is tackling modern-day slavery as reports have surfaced that hundreds of trafficked victims have died building facilities that will be used to host the football World Cup in Qatar in 2022. In October 2017, during an encounter Pope Francis had with the Pontifical Scholas Occurrentes foundation, Argentine Guillermo Whpei, President of the…
A Virgin Mary statue at a Hispanic Catholic church in southeastern New Mexico is drawing visitors from around the region because it appears tears are flowing from the statue’s face. Visitors of the bronze statue located inside the auxiliary building of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church said the statue wept. “There were tears coming down…
Veterans taking part in the 2018 Warriors to Lourdes pilgrimage to France said the journey has positively influenced their lives and benefited those around them. Maj. Jeremy Haynes, a first-time spiritual pilgrim and Lourdes visitor, said he is a changed man since visiting the shrine, where Mary appeared to St Bernadette Soubirous in a series…
Church social action charity Caritas has rushed to distribute thousands of face-masks and provide eye drops to people living in Indonesia’s Semarang Archdiocese following a series of volcanic eruptions. Considered one of Indonesia’s most active volcanoes, Mount Merapi, in central Java, has seen at least nine eruptions over the last month, sending steam and ash clouds…
In the aftermath of Iraq’s elections, Christians want to see a government formed that is free from the sectarianism that has torn apart the country, and they want Iran’s influence to diminish. Both issues have played a huge role in politics since the 2003 US-led invasion. Fr Emanuel Youkhana, a priest of the Assyrian Church…
Ethical intervention in economy needed – Pope and Patriarch Pope Francis and ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople called on Christians to work together to build a culture of solidarity in the face of growing economic inequality and a lack of respect for the human dignity of the poor and of migrants. The two leaders met privately on May 26 before addressing an international…
Elise Harris Pope Francis said today that Confirmation is the sacrament in which Catholics are marked with a seal that solidifies their belonging to Christ through the Holy Spirit, adding that this is God’s invisible gift to each person who receives the sacrament. Referring to how candidates for Confirmation are told to “receive the…
Everyone should have access to essential health services and no one should have to fall into poverty to obtain needed care, a Vatican representative said. “For many poor communities, families and individuals, access to the much-needed health care services remains an unachieved objective,” said Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic, Vatican observer to U.N. agencies in Geneva. “We…
An Australian archbishop has become the most senior Church cleric to be convicted of covering up child sex abuse, and faces up to two years in prison. Archbishop Philip Wilson of the Diocese of Adelaide will be sentenced next month after being found guilty of the crime in Newcastle Local Court in Sydney. He pleaded…