"No trial or storm or typhoon can destroy our resolve". Seven Catholic priests were ordained on Monday amid the ruins of the centuries-old cathedral in the archdiocese of Palo, Leyte province, which was devastated by Super Typhoon Haiyan on November 8.
This is the First Sunday of Advent. Advent is the season of preparation. Only, unlike the shopping sprees we go on, or the other parts of Christmas preparation, like cards and parties and gift wrap, we are not preparing for just one day, or even a week. Advent is the season of preparation for the rest of our lives.
The NHS is calling for an “army of good Samaritans” to check on lonely, elderly neighbours in cold weather, amid fears that too many pensioners end up in hospital because they have been neglected.
The first book printed in what later became the United States of America is expected to set a world record at auction on Tuesday. The Bay Psalm Book is valued not only as an object of extreme rarity, but also as a symbol of a future nation's identity.
Packed with half the rice in Singapore, HMS Illustrious is now steaming as fast as she can towards the carnage left by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. This has been an extremely rapid change of plans for the almost 956 crew and other personnel aboard, many of whom hoped to be home for Christmas.
According to a priest shaking hands after Sunday Mass in St. Joseph's Church, Mendham, the parish has seen the governor's face in the pews before. There is no question that Christie, of half-Irish, half-Sicilian descent, is Catholic. The question is, can Christie be the next Catholic president?
That Obama poster on the wall, promising hope and change, is looking a little faded now. The world's liberals and progressives are searching for a new pin-up to take the US president's place. As it happens, there's an obvious candidate: the head of the -Catholic church. The obvious new hero of the left is the pope.
Filipino Cardinal Luis Tagle says every times he sees images of the massive destruction caused by typhoon Haiyan he’s left speechless. At the same time, Cardinal Tagle says he is consoled by the love and solidarity that is pouring in from all over the world in the wake of this disaster.
The UK government is to give an extra £30m in emergency aid following the devastating Philippines typhoon, Prime Minister David Cameron has announced. The pledge takes British government assistance following Typhoon Haiyan to a total of £50m.
A team of British medical experts and the first consignment of UK aid will leave shortly for the disaster-hit Philippines, David Cameron has said. The Prime Minister said the scenes of devastation caused by Typhoon Haiyan were "heart-breaking" as he announced that a 12-strong team of paramedics and surgeons would help the relief effort.
Death toll could make it country's worst ever natural disaster. Pope Francis on Sunday asked Catholics to provide "concrete help" to the hundreds of thousands of people made homeless in the typhoon-ravaged Philippines, and to include them in their prayers.
The Philippines is used to natural disasters and extreme hardship. After this latest tragedy we'll come back fighting. Such a tragedy is not enough to keep us down. Filipinos are used to hardship, and for those who have survived this terrible disaster they will stand up and come back fighting– although it may be difficult – with the resilience that has always shaped us.
Few people find November pleasant. The Anglo-Saxons called November 'Wind monath', because it was the time when the cold winds began to blow. They also called it 'Blod monath', because it was the time when cattle were slaughtered for winter food. The poet T.S. Elliot called it 'Sombre November'.
Our agency for overseas Aid and Development, CAFOD, hosted its annual Pope Paul VI Memorial Lecture on Friday 18 October, as Fr Agbinkhianmeghe E. Orobator SJ, Provincial of the Eastern Africa Jesuit Province, gave a talk entitled A billion reasons to believe in Africa: The long march from ‘the hopeless continent’ to ‘the spiritual lung of humanity'.
Archbishop Leo Cushley of St Andrews and Edinburgh has called for those ‘in a position of power and influence’ to work towards ‘fair outcomes’ for all those involved with the closure risk Ineos oil refinery as he led prayers for those affected by the crisis.
The Queen described the campaigning work of Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai, who survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban, as “wonderful” when the pair met at Buckingham Palace. Malala, 16, was shot in the head in Pakistan last October after campaigning for the right of girls to go to school without fear, in a part of the country where Islamic fundamentalists were trying to impose a strict form of Sharia.
Three people, including a girl aged eight, died when gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on a wedding party outside a Coptic Christian church in Cairo. At least nine others were wounded in the attack in Giza, officials said. Egypt's Coptic Christian community has been targeted by some Islamists who accuse the Church of backing the army's overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi in July.
“Mary points to Jesus,” he said. “She asks us to bear witness to Jesus, she constantly guides us to her son Jesus, because in him alone do we find salvation. He alone can change the water of our loneliness, difficulties and sin into the wine of encounter, joy and forgiveness. He alone.”
Thursday morning 10 October, the Vatican began a conference on woman, entitled “God entrusts the human being to the woman”, a phrase taken from Blessed John Paul II’s apostolic letter Mulieris Dignitatem (1998). Pontifical Council for the Laity holds a conference with specialists from all over the world, to discuss 'woman' in the 21st Century.
