News in Activities

Cardinal Keith O'Brien – the flawed, outspoken Catholic leader who died on Monday 19 March.

Ordained in 1965, the young Fr O’Brien worked in parishes before becoming spiritual director at St Andrew’s College, Drygrange, a seminary that closed in 1986, and then Rector at St Mary’s College, Blairs, another seminary that has since closed. He was installed as Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh in 1985 and appointed to the College of Cardinals in 2003.

Murdered gendarme hailed as hero of selfless service

Paying tribute to our martyrs through love

Christians are obliged during Lent to honor those who have suffered as a result of gross rights violations. During this season of repentance for Christians, there is a need to really reflect on Jesus' passion and death. He has become a paragon of selflessness and genuine love. He challenges everyone to a supreme sacrifice.

Leading Vatican Observer claims "Francis revolutions almost over".

Massimo Franco, the political editor of Corriere della Sera and widely respected commentator on the Vatican, said this week (Wednesday) that he believes the “revolutionary appeal of Pope Francis is almost over”. There was, Franco said, growing resentment over the contrast between Francis’ easy and direct contact with ordinary people and his less happy and often fractious relationship with his “ecclesiastical army”.

Indian Catholics should not let Lent divide them

When yes means yes

It really has been a turbulent time for sexual politics this past six months. Weinstein is but the tip of the iceberg. We have the #MeToo movement, and a growing list of prominent peopleaccused of various degrees of sexual misconduct, though it is often hard to distinguish these degrees and so gain a proper perspective and sense of proportion.

Esercizi spirituali, la sete di Dio tra Ionesco e “Il piccolo Principe”

L’invito è quindi a rallentare il «nostro passo» e prendere «coscienza dei nostri bisogni». A riporre in Dio la nostra sete «di relazioni, di accettazione e di amore», «un patrimonio biografico», afferma il teologo portoghese, che è presente in ogni essere umano dall’infanzia alla vecchiaia e che «siamo chiamati a riconoscere e ringraziare».

Philippine Senate approves National Bible Day observance

Indonesian TV celebrity guided by Catholic values

Popular Indonesian television presenter Daniel Mananta has put his Catholic faith into practice in a far-flung corner of the sprawling archipelago. The TV celebrity was impressed by the way local Catholics would walk many kilometers to attend services in the run-down chapel in Ruteng Diocese. "I was touched by the experience and wanted to fix the church," said Mananta, 36, the first of two brothers from a family of retail merchants. 

The Power of Pastoral Care

Pastoral care does include patterns of regular visiting, the encounters around baptisms, weddings and funerals and so forth. But it is by no means confined to this and fundamentally needs to take seriously that clergy are not chaplains to a gathered community but priests for a parish.

Message for the XXVI World Day of the Sick

To Mary, Mother of tender love, we wish to entrust all those who are ill in body and soul, that she may sustain them in hope.  We ask her also to help us to be welcoming to our sick brothers and sisters.  The Church knows that she requires a special grace to live up to her evangelical task of serving the sick.

A Late-Night Counsel to the Bold and the Beautiful

We must not bludgeon those who cannot see what we see; we must gently guide to them the truth we see, and win them over not only by clarity of argument but also by force of charity. Truth without charity becomes ideology in the eye of those looking on from outside. We have had enough of ideology, surely.

Vatican delegation visits Vietnam

The source said Vatican delegates also worked with Vietnamese officials on the possibility of establishing educational centers run by the Catholic Church in the country. Religious organizations are now only allowed to manage nursery schools.

Organ petition to cardinal Sarah close to 10,000 signatures

Nearly 10,000 people have signed the online petition set up by the Association of Italian Organists and addressed to the head of the Congregation for Divine Worship, Cardinal Robert Sarah. It calls on “the whole cultural world” to express regret for “the presence of the surrogate of an authentic musical instrument within the most important home of Catholicism”. 

A fragile joy returns to Iraq: Iraqi Christians return to Nineveh plains after the defeat of IS

Mosul and the villages of the plain of Nineveh are liberated from Daesh. But while the foreign fighters have fled, most of their Iraqi collaborators have merely shaved off their beards and melted back into the local population. The atmosphere in the whole country is thick with fear and insecurity.

Pope to Davos Economic Forum

Pope Francis in a message for the opening of the World Economic Forum in Davos, says it is vital to safeguard the dignity of the human person, in particular by offering to all people real opportunities for integral human development.

Marawi bishop visits desecrated cathedral for first time

After several failed attempts, the prelate of Marawi was able to visit his desecrated cathedral this week, almost three months after the five-month conflict in the southern Philippine city ended.

Holiness is for everybody

Jesus’ invitation to the kingdom—to a personal relationship with God here and now—was in no way restricted to the special few. In the parable, when the original guests declined, the host ordered: “Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in” (Luke 14:23). The invitation was not restricted to the already righteous: “It is not the healthy who need a physician but those who are sick” (Matthew 9:12).

Building the Family of God: what do young people look for in church?

Just-completed surveys of young Africans and young Americans have highlighted the challenges facing the Church’s Youth Synod taking place in October this year, and the contrasting views and experiences that young people will bring to the synod, entitled “Young People, Faith and Vocational Discernment”.

Pope to Diplomatic Corps: Uphold human rights, defend family

Speaking to members of the Diplomatic Corps on Monday, Pope Francis devoted this New Year's address to the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights which was adopted 70 years ago. The Pope told the dignitaries gathered that from a Christian perspective, there was a significant relationship between the Gospel message and the recognition of human rights in the spirit of those who drafted the document.