The French government urged “extreme vigilance” in the face of a “very high” terrorist threat to religious demonstrations and places of worship on the solemnity of the Assumption, one of the most holy days in the Catholic calendar. Gérald Darmanin, the French minister of the interior, warned regional officials in a Tuesday message through the…
Vatican peace envoy Cardinal Matteo Zuppi spoke last week with a Chinese government official about the Russia-Ukraine war. The phone conversation was the most recent step in the Vatican’s continued diplomatic efforts to promote lasting peace in the region. Cardinal Zuppi’s August 14 phone call with Li Hui, China’s special representative for Eurasian affairs, followed…
In Scotland, the bishops’ conference has submitted evidence to the Scottish Parliament Health, Social Care and Sport Committee on a proposal to legalise assisted suicide. Liam McArthur, a member of the Scottish Parliament, introduced the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill earlier this year. It would allow terminally ill adults in Scotland to…
Sr Agnes Sasagawa, a Japanese nun whose purported visions of the Virgin Mary under the title of Our Lady of Akita included stark warnings for humanity and instructions to pray the rosary and repent of sin, died August 15 at age 93. Sr Sasagawa was a convert from Buddhism. A parish priest in Akita, Japan,…
Many people in Venezuela are currently paying particular attention to what the Pope and representatives of the local church are saying. While the position of the Venezuelan Church leaders is clear, Francis is being diplomatic. For more than a week now, Venezuela has been experiencing another serious national crisis following the announcement of President Nicolas…
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva cut the diplomatic ties between the two countries with the mutual expulsion of their ambassadors to Managua and Brasilia, carried out over the past week. Long-time allies who take part in international left-wing organisations like the São Paulo Forum – that gather…
David Solomon, a longtime professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame and founder of what is now the de Nicola Centre for Ethics and Culture, recently entered the Catholic Church, according to a former student writing for Word on Fire. Solomon, who arrived at the university in 1968, came into the Catholic Church earlier…
Poland’s most popular shrine could receive a record number of pilgrims in 2024, according to local media. The shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa, at Jasna Góra Monastery in southern Poland, received as many as 4.5 million pilgrims a year before the COVID pandemic, when annual visitors dropped below 1 million. But pilgrim numbers have bounced back since…
Catholic pro-life doctor Dermot Kearney is celebrating after a young mother gave birth to a healthy baby boy following abortion pill reversal treatment. When the policy of allowing home abortions by taking pills was introduced in March 2020, many women expressed regret after taking the first of two pills, mifepristone, and searched for a reversal…
A Catholic priest has said that “violence is never the answer” after further scenes of unrest and anti-immigration protests took place across the UK. The violent scenes in several towns and cities, including Middlesbrough, Rotherham, Bolton, Belfast, Liverpool and Southport, were sparked by the killing of three young girls in Southport at a Taylor Swift-themed…