Before washing the feet of 12 prisoners, Pope Francis told them and hundreds of inmates to remember that Jesus constantly stands before them with love, ready to cleanse their sins and forgive them. “Jesus takes a risk on each of us. Know this: Jesus is called Jesus, not Pontius Pilate. Jesus does not know how…
A top official with Catholic Relief Services, visiting northern Iraq, said new life is evident for those who suffered the injustices and atrocities of the so-called Islamic State invasion of their ancestral lands but some grave challenges remain. “I see the hope of the Resurrection, while still the experience of the Cross is the reality…
A new poll shows that 73% of respondents who identified as Catholic said they would be attending church for Easter, with 53% of all Americans saying they planned to attend church services on Easter Sunday. Among respondents who said they were practicing Catholics, 95% said they planned to go to Easter Mass. For Good Friday,…
Clergy urged: spread Good News to ‘new culture’ of youth If Jesus and his truth are to become truly present in today’s world, priests must do what Jesus did and be “street preachers”, going out to encounter and accompany sinners with tenderness and compassion, Pope Francis told the world’s priests. Jesus “could have been a scribe or a doctor of the law, but he…
Pope Francis has said today that the Eucharist is key to living an authentic Christian witness, and that those who leave Mass unchanged, continuing to gossip or hold onto unholy habits, have missed the point. “While the Mass ends, the commitment for Christian witness opens. We leave the church to go in peace to bring…
Fifty years after Rev. Martin Luther King Jr’s assassination “we need to ask ourselves if we are doing all we can to build the culture of love, respect and peace to which the Gospel calls us,” the U.S. bishops’ Administrative Committee have said. On April 4, 1968, James Earl Ray gunned down the civil rights…
Hannah Brockhaus On Thursday the Holy See stated that a reported interview between Pope Francis and an Italian journalist, which claims the Pope denied the existence of hell, should not be considered an accurate depiction of Francis’ words, but the author’s own “reconstruction.” A recent meeting between Pope Francis and Italian journalist Eugenio Scalfari,…
Young Catholics joined the tens of thousands of students from across the country who participated in a massive demonstration along Washington’s Pennsylvania Avenue protesting gun violence called ‘March for Our Lives’. The event was organised by survivors and friends of those who died at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, where 17…
Bishop Jose Ronaldo Ribeiro of Formosa was arrested and charged, along with four diocesan priests, of stealing about €492,000 of diocesan money. Two days after the arrest, Pope Francis appointed Archbishop Paulo Mendes Peixoto of Uberaba to serve as apostolic administrator of the diocese. Prosecutors in the state of Goias allege Bishop Ribeiro and the…
Aborting a child with a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome is a gross violation of human rights and anti-discriminatory commitments, and can be considered genocide, according to a Vatican spokesperson at a UN panel. “Here at the United Nations there is much sincere talk and normally passionate action to fight against unjust discrimination,” said Archbishop…