News in Church Issues

To Believe is to be Vulnerable – The ‘disadvantages’ of being a believer

Furniture and art from Downside goes to auction

Furniture, sculpture and paintings from the vacant monastery at Downside Abbey in Somerset are to be auctioned this week. The sale on 20 and 21 July at Dominic Winter Auctioneers, near Cirencester, includes tables from the monks’ refectory, antique bookcases and devotional items, many of them gifted by alumni of Downside School down the years.

The Apostolic Constitution ‘Praedicate Evangelium’ on the Roman Curia

Pope Francis, taking up an expression contained in No. 30 of his November 24, 2013, apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (EG), sees the Church in a “missionary conversion” that commits her to a renewal “according to the image of Christ’s own mission of love” and urges her to bring to people “the supernatural gift of faith” as the light that directs their journey at a time when they are particularly in need (Preamble, No. 2).

Half of the world's population not able to practice faith freely, say US lawmakers

 The House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations hosted the July 18 hearing titled, "The Dire State of Religious Freedom Around the World" and lawmakers identified several countries where religious freedom is "under serious assault." The hearing was chaired by Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, and a Catholic.

PRAYING FOR BOTH – THE WEAK AND THE STRONG

When Jesus instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper, he held up bread and wine as two elements within which to make himself especially present to us. Since that time, now more than 2000 years ago, Christians celebrating the Eucharist have used the same two things, bread and wine, to ask Christ to bless this world and to bring God’s special presence to our world. Why two elements? Why both bread and wine? What reality does each represent?

The Crisis of the Liberal-Democratic Model

Public Theology and the Word of the Church in Pluralist Societies

The People of God as Temple

Priestly Loneliness and Disquietude: A structural problem?

Loneliness is not in itself an evil. It shows, in fact, the truth of the human being as a creature in need of the Absolute. The suffering this involves, if accepted as the truth about oneself and not as a curse, can allow one to experience solid and deep relationships. First and foremost there is the relationship with the Lord, because one has come to recognize that without Him life becomes unbearable and meaningless.

Zuppi leaves Kyiv with promise ‘to protect the lives of children’

The Pope’s special envoy for peace in Ukraine promised that “the Church will do everything possible to protect the lives of children” as civilians were caught amid intensified fighting in the south of the country.

A Bridge to Walk: An interview with Msgr. Stephen Chow, Bishop of Hong Kong

 A Provisional Agreement between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China regarding the appointment of bishops has been active since 2018. There are dioceses but not all have their bishops. Of all the dioceses on the Mainland, about one third are waiting for their respective episcopal appointments. 

Head of Chaldean Catholic Church makes first pastoral visit to UK

 The Patriarch of Babylon, Cardinal Louis Raphaël Sako, celebrated Mass in Ealing Abbey on Sunday as he made his first pastoral visit to the UK. The patriarch, who heads the Chaldean Catholic Church, was making a ten-day visit at the invitation of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, with an itinerary coordinated by the Iraqi embassy and the charity Fellowship and Aid to the Christians of the East 

Would you leave your parish because of the priest?

When I was growing up, my family belonged to a vibrant, close-knit parish community. It was a parish with a lot of history—my dad grew up there, and many other families had also been members for decades. My siblings and I were baptized there, made our first communions there, and dutifully attended Sunday school there week after week.

Handing on the Faith to New Generations: 10 Challenges for Education

This article reflects on the social conditions that can facilitate the handing on of the faith to new generations. What nutrients are needed in the new soil of today’s childhood and youth for them to embrace the faith of our ancestors? What dispositions will we need to cultivate in each growing person so that the incarnate Jesus will find a crib in which to be born? 

German Church could lose a third of property

Does Populism Exist in the Church?

One only has to take a look at the media and its coverage of current events to see that in this 21st century the virus of populism has spread far and wide, settling in virtually all corners of the globe. It stirs conflicts, waves flags, undermines institutions. It destabilizes governments and breathes life into ridiculous conspiracies.

The Latin American Church’s Synodal Conversion: Walking together from blindness to light

This article will present the Latin American experience of synodal paths in recent years and the associated spiritual accompaniment, starting with the discernment that allows us to follow the Lord more closely. Ours is an experience full of limitations and fragility, but also endowed with parrhesia and courage to boldly  seek new synodal paths for the Church of the present time.

How Pope Francis Sees Education

Francis considers schools as being free of geographical boundaries and walls.[1] He calls each school “a platform for drawing close to children and young people” (CV 221). Indeed, a school is not an end in itself;  it is a platform, a support area that serves as a base for other operations. Schools  are also “privileged places of personal development” (ibid.).

The European Soul and Prophetic Reception: Francis’ trip to Hungary

Hence Francis’ appeal, “Please: let us open the doors!” It is sad and hurts to see “the closed doors of our indifference toward the underprivileged and those who suffer; the doors we close toward those who are foreign or unlike us, toward migrants or the poor.” 

Deliverance From Evil: The Lord’s Prayer and Psalm 22