News in Activities

In sign of a stronger bond, Kerry visits Vatican

Secretary of State John Kerry, whose political career has at times put him publicly at odds with Catholic Church leadership, traveled to the Vatican in a visit that demonstrated a reinvigorated relationship between the world’s most powerful country and one of its most powerful institutions. The meeting – which the former altar boy deemed “a thrill” – marks a new, deeper alignment between Washington and the Vatican. 

Help suffering Syrian refugees stay in the region says Catholic leader

Bringing refugees from Syria to the West is not the answer to the crisis, according to the leader of Catholics in the disaster-stricken country, who says more can be done to help displaced people both there and elsewhere in the Middle East.

Some 50 new Catholic churches have been built in the Czech Republic since the 1989

Some 50 new Catholic churches have been built in the Czech Republic since the 1989 collapse of the communist regime, mainly in Moravian regions with a higher share of believers, and another ten are being planned or under construction, daily Lidové Noviny (LN) writes today.

A now global crisis - Threats to religious freedom

Since taking on my role in 2012 as the first ever UK Minister for faith, I have made the issue of religious freedom a personal priority. The threat to religious freedom, I believe, has become a global crisis. As a result, the UK government has elevated it to a key priority in our human rights work.

Amid violence, South Sudan Catholics outline steps to peace

Voicing “anguish and dismay” at the deteriorating situation in South Sudan, a Catholic bishop shared his diocese’s ten proposals to help stabilize the country after the outbreak of violence in mid-December.

Rape victim meets attacker to forgive him

A rape victim has met her attacker in prison to tell him she has forgiven him - and called it a "great" experience to seek "peace and forgiveness together". Katja Rosenberg, 40, from London, said she felt she could forgive soon after the 2006 rape, believing things must have gone wrong in her attacker's life. "You wouldn't ever do that if you felt happy," she told BBC Radio 5 live.

USA Today to Obama Admin: Leave Little Sisters Alone

The publication's editors argue the administration's move is “a political loser,” “constitutionally suspect” and “ultimately unproductive.” The editors of USA Today have urged the Obama administration to stop trying to require the Little Sisters of the Poor to abide by the federal contraception mandate in violation of their religious beliefs.

Vatican encourages renewed missionary zeal in Catholic schools

 “Today, due to the advanced process of secularization, Catholic schools find themselves in a missionary situation, even in countries with an ancient Christian tradition,” reads the congregation's “Educating To Intercultural Dialogue in Catholic Schools.”

Canterbury and Rome prepare for cricketing showdown

 The Church of England has agreed to play a cricket match with the newly formed “Vatican cricket club”, with Lord’s cricket ground as the planned venue. The announcement was made today at a press conference hosted by Archbishop David Moxon, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s representative in Rome.

Pope names 16 new cardinals, from 12 countries and all continents

Pope Francis will create 16 new cardinal electors on February 22, and give red hats to 3 who are over the age of 80 that cannot vote in a conclave. Five are from “the peripheries”. His first consistory shows he is beginning a process to limit significantly the number of electors from Europe and the Roman Curia. 

Liberation Theology is back as Pope Francis holds capitalism to account

Amid accusations of Marxism, Pope Francis has turned the Vatican into the spearhead of radical economic thinking. Unfettered global capitalism has met its match at last. Ever since Bishop Bergoglio picked St Francis of Assisi to be his guiding inspiration and lead a "church for the poor", all his actions have been in the same direction.

Philippines: SumisipTown on 'red alert' after New Year’s Eve blast

 Authorities have placed the town of Sumisip in Mindanao's Basilan province on "extreme red alert" after a bomb exploded down the street from a Catholic church, killing seven people and wounding five others on New Year's Eve.

How Wealth Reduces Compassion

Research suggests the opposite is true: as people climb the social ladder, their compassionate feelings towards other people decline. Berkeley psychologists Paul Piff and Dacher Keltner ran several studies looking at whether social class (as measured by wealth, occupational prestige, and education) influences how much we care about the feelings of others. In one study,

The Church in 2014: What we can look forward to

What will follow one of the most eventful years in Church history? New Cardinals. Vatican reform.  Canonization of two popes. Papal trip to the Holy Land. Divorced and remarried Catholics.

Rowan Williams criticises Duncan Smith's attack on food banks

The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has rebuked the Works and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith for his recent attack on the food bank charity, the Trussell Trust. Dr Williams, who is patron of the Cambridge City Food Bank reportedly said Mr Duncan Smith's criticism of the charity was "disturbing" and amounted to an attack on its volunteers.

Claretians in South Sudan

Juba, South Sudan. South Sudan, the "world's youngest country" - which attained its independence in July 2011 – lives in a bloody conflict that faces the main ethnic groups in the territory. So far the official media speak of 600 people dead, but it is feared that their number could be even higher

Time Magazine's Man of the Year is Pope Francis

There are two Popes. One is Francis as he actually is: spiritual shepherd of the Catholic faithful, the man chosen to defend and articulate the beliefs of the Church. The other is Francis as the liberal establishment would have him be: a crusading humanist on the verge of making the Catholic Church socially acceptable at Manhattan dinner parties. Guess which Pope Francis Time Magazine just made Man of the Year?

Pope Francis, The People’s Pope

 He took the name of a humble saint and then called for a church of healing. The first non-European pope in 1,200 years is poised to transform a place that measures change by the century.

Pope blesses sculpture of Jesus as a homeless man

The liturgy that got lost in translation

German bishops are leading a move to ditch the latest version. This past Sunday, the First Sunday of Advent, was to be the day on which German-speaking Catholics would begin using a new translation of the liturgy. However, the German bishops recently announced that they would not introduce the new version because of wide opposition to the translation’s sins against the German language.