“Tragically, religious freedom for many is increasingly under assault around the world,” Rep. Michael McCaul said at the International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit, which took place in Washington, DC, last week. Faith leaders from across the world – including Catholics, Muslims, Jews, Hindus and others – gathered at the summit to address the ongoing persecution…
Anglicans and Catholics in the US are continuing to discern “the Spirit at work” in each other, a number of ecumenical experts told OSV News. Over the past several years, the US Catholic Conference of Bishops and the Anglican Church in North America have moved from an initial “meet and greet … to really looking…
Cardinal Zen hospitalised in Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen has been hospitalised in Hong Kong after his health deteriorated upon returning from Benedict XVI’s funeral in Rome. The 91-year-old cardinal wrote on his blog on January 31 that he is receiving treatment in the hospital after experiencing difficulty breathing. Cardinal Zen said that the doctors…
New head for Vatican body overseeing selection of bishops Pope Francis has chosen Chicago-born Bishop Robert Prevost of Chiclayo, Peru, to succeed Canadian Cardinal Ouellet as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. The Vatican announced on January 30 the retirement of Cardinal Ouellet and the appointment…
Following a rampage of a radical Jewish gang in the Christian Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City on the evening of January 26, the Assembly of the Catholic Ordinaries in the Holy Land called on political and religious authorities to bring civil and religious life in Jerusalem back to “greater serenity”. “This is only the latest…
A sacristan was killed and a priest wounded during a suspected terrorist attack January 25 on two Catholic churches in Spain. As reported by Europa Press, according to police sources, the sacristan of the Church of Our Lady of La Palma was murdered and the pastor of St Isidore Church was wounded. Both churches are…
Peru’s bishops pleaded for peace as violent protests against the country’s current president and legislature have claimed the lives of dozens of people. “We deplore the violence that has been unleashed because violence only begets more violence,” the Peruvian bishops’ conference said in a message published January 20. “The death of more than 50 Peruvian brothers and…
When Fr Michael Mithamo King’ori lost his sight as a deacon, he thought his dream of becoming a priest was lost. But nothing is impossible for God, and on January 15, Archbishop Anthony Muheria of Nyeri ordained Fr Mithamo King’ori as the first-ever blind Kenyan Catholic deacon to become a priest. Fr Mithamo King’ori could…
On the feast of St Francis de Sales, the patron saint of journalists, Bishop Francisco Javier Acero, an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Mexico, remembered and asked for prayers for the members of the media who have been murdered in Mexico and for their families. According to the National Human Rights Commission of Mexico,…
Ukraine’s religious leaders renew invitation to Pope to visit Kyiv Ukraine’s religious leaders asked Pope Francis to visit Kyiv, said Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halych, the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. In a meeting with the Pope January 25, members of the Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religions once again extended the invitation to…