It is important to hear and to incorporate the voices from cultures and peoples long silenced so that all will truly know the life-giving love of the Triune God. We need to once again start from lived experience and only then move to finding theological words to express those experiences.
Cardinal Fernando Filoni, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, lauded the efforts of the Catholic community in Vietnam during his pastoral visit last week and encouraged them in the path of mission. Cardinal Filoni's dicastery coordinates missionary cooperation throughout the world, and he visited Vietnam after having accompanied Pope Francis' visit to Sri Lanka and the Philippines earlier this month.
Pope Francis lambasted the Vatican's bureaucracy on Monday, saying some within the Church lusted for power and suffered from "spiritual Alzheimer's" in comments likely to outrage his adversaries.The Argentine pontiff used a Christmas speech to cardinals, bishops and priests to list a catalogue of ailments plaguing the very top of the Church.
These studies share an interest in young Catholics, use sound methodologies, and have produced valid and reliable data. However, they have very different goals, frame their analyses in very different ways, draw very different conclusions about today's young Catholics, and have very different policy implications.
For the second time in two years, the Vatican has asked national bishops' conferences around the world to seek input from Catholics at "all levels" about how the church should respond to sometimes difficult questions of modern family life, such as divorce and remarriage.
In our modern world (often hostile to religion), religious families are extremely important centers of living faith. They are “domestic churches” in which the parents are the first heralds of faith (Second Vatican Council). In the home, father, mother, and children exercise their baptismal priesthood in a privileged way.
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila has criticized what he called the Western-dominated international media, accusing it of ignoring major issues of concern to the developing world raised during the recent Synod of Bishops on the Family.
There were moments of profound consolation listening to the testimony of true pastors, who wisely carry in their hearts the joys and the tears of their faithful people. Moments of consolation and grace and comfort hearing the testimonies of the families who have participated in the Synod and have shared with us the beauty and the joy of their married life.
The Extraordinary Synod on the Family is tackling the issue of remarried divorcees head on. The Synod Fathers have been dealing with the issue—which had emerged occasionally in previous discussions—since Wednesday afternoon as they work their way through the Instrumentum Laboris, the Synod’s working document.
It is rumoured that Pope Francis is ready to present his revolutionary take on divorce sooner than expected. What’s the big deal, non-Catholics must be asking? Cardinal Vincent Nichols, leader of Britain’s 4.5 million Catholics, is making noises about how his Church of “sinners” should show “mercy” to divorcees. He says there may have to be a “radical rethink” on the issue.
In this week’s Catholic Herald Bishop Alan Hopes of East Anglia talks about the biggest challenges facing Catholics in the next five years and what it was like to lead British pro-lifers in the biggest showdown with abortion supporters for years. Here is a sneak peak at the interview.
Activists accuse Communist Party of ‘barbaric’ campaign against Christianity after demolition teams and police descend on a church that became a symbol of resistance.
“The holiness and indissolubility of Christian matrimony, often disintegrating under tremendous pressure from the secular world, must be deepened by clear doctrine and supported by the witness of committed married couples,” Pope Francis said.
AMONG the most striking and inspiring images to emerge from the battle-scarred streets of Kiev have been photographs of priests, alone or in groups, standing between protestors and police, offering blessings, tending the wounded and praying over the dead. But who are exactly are these clerics?
Almost a third of children do not know their Adam from their Noah or that David slew Goliah. The Good Samaritan is a stranger and the Nativity just a Christmas play. The latest Bible Society findings prove that the West has erased its Christian heritage from public life.
Catholic universities must give "uncompromising" and "unambiguous" witness to church teaching and defend themselves from all efforts to dilute their Catholic identity, Pope Francis said. Catholic universities, "by their very nature, are committed to demonstrating the harmony of faith and reason and the relevance of the Christian message for a full and authentically human life,"
Women should play a greater role in society and the church, Pope Francis has said, stating that this could be done without sacrificing their essential attention and contribution to their families. Women’s distinctive skill sets and sensibilities make them invaluable not only for building “peace and harmony” in families, but for all of humanity, too, he said.
Baptism brings us into the 'People of God', makes us members of a 'People on a journey', a 'Pilgrim People in history' - Pope Francis asserted, quoting words from the Second Vatican Council during his Wednesday catechesis at the general audience, which was dedicated to the first of the sacraments.
May I take gentle issue with the view expressed by Daniel Kearney in his blog of 2 January that “kids don’t get prayer’? The innocence of children, we are led to believe, reaches directly to heaven, while adult piety, which may win some but certainly loses many of the battles with the ego, usually takes a more circuitous route.
