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October 25, 2016
Pope Francis said God’s Kingdom grows through its members showing docility and warned Christians against concentrating too much on structures and organization charts. He was speaking during his morning Mass on Tuesday celebrated in the chapel of the Santa Marta residence.
CAPE TOWN, South Africa – South Africa's withdrawal from the International Criminal Court could encourage a large-scale African exodus from the court and entrench impunity, warned the justice and peace commission of the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference.
VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis met privately with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, urging a peaceful dialogue between the country's government and opposition to resolve the current political and economic crisis, the Vatican said.
VATICAN CITY – Following the authorization and recommendations of Pope Francis, documents housed in the Vatican and Argentine church's archives pertaining to Argentina's "dirty war" will be made available for review, said a joint press statement.
VATICAN CITY – Professing belief in the resurrection of the dead and affirming that the human body is an essential part of a person's identity, the Catholic Church insists that the bodies of the deceased be treated with respect and laid to rest in a consecrated place.
October 26, 2016
REGINA – Two days after the 25th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood, Donald Bolen was installed as Archbishop of the Regina Archdiocese.
OTTAWA – Jeff Durham vows to keep fighting for changes in the law in the wake of the defeat of Cassie and Molly’s Law, a bill named after his murdered unborn daughter and her mother, Cassie Kaake.
OTTAWA – Faith communities are an integral component in the struggle to overcome poverty, faith leaders told a conference on the subject.
ROME – The number of migrants and refugees who have died while making the treacherous journey across the Mediterranean is expected to reach an all-time high in 2016, according to the U.N. Refugee Agency said.
VATICAN CITY – Closing doors to immigrants and refugees is not the answer – in fact, it only helps encourage the crime of human trafficking, Pope Francis said.
VATICAN CITY – Australian police questioned Cardinal George Pell, prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, in Rome regarding accusations of alleged sexual abuse.
VATICAN CITY – Delegations from the Vatican and from Vietnam reported continued progress in discussions between their two countries, a Vatican press statement said.
VATICAN CITY – The extension of Pope Francis' trip to Sweden by one day to accommodate a papal Mass for the nations' Catholics does not detract from the ecumenical power of the trip, but actually highlights the need for Christian unity, said the general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation.
DUBLIN – The retired archbishop of Mandalay, Myanmar, said the Kachin people are "very fearful" and have "little hope of peace" any time soon.
VATICAN CITY – As Catholics and Lutherans prepare to mark the 500th anniversary of the start of the Protestant Reformation, Pope Francis said they should feel "pain for the division that still exists among us, but also joy for the brotherhood we have already rediscovered."
NAIROBI, Kenya – A suspected al-Shabab raid in the border town of Mandera has left at least 12 people dead and has reignited a sequence of bloody attacks on Christians in northern Kenya.
A recent decision to withdraw from Kairos doesn’t in any way diminish the commitment of Canada’s bishops to ecumenism or social justice action, according to the bishops.
October 27, 2016
VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis' recent insistence on "walking ecumenism," the notion that Christians will draw closer to each other as they work together to help the poor, should resonate well with Lutherans and Catholics in Sweden.
OTTAWA – Efforts to silence a University of Toronto professor for refusing to use transgender pronouns are unethical, said Catholic bioethicist Moira McQueen.
With a potentially expensive court decision looming, Montreal's historic Catholic mother church is selling its valuable green space and adjacent parking lot in the city's downtown core.