Nicaraguan police burst into the Matagalpa diocesan headquarters in the early hours of Friday morning and removed an outspoken bishop who had been under house arrest for more than two weeks. Police raided the curia before dawn on 19 August and took Bishop Rolando Álvarez, according to a social media statement from the Diocese of Matagalpa. It said Bishop Álvarez’s whereabouts are unknown.
The Pope has set the date for the beatification of John Paul I on 4 September. The Vatican announced on Monday that Pope Francis will celebrate a Mass in St Peter’s Square at which John Paul I, his predecessor-but-two, will become “Blessed”. The rite of beatification will be read by Bishop Renato Marangoni of Belluno-Feltre in northern Italy, John Paul’s home diocese.
Pope Francis has joined the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in a video message to the people of South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, on the date they had planned to make an ecumenical pilgrimage to the region. In his message sent on Saturday, 2 July, the Pope told the people of the two countries that “words at this time are not enough to convey the closeness I would like to express to you and the affection I feel to you”.
The Catholic Church in Ireland is “moving from maintenance to mission” and needs to renew and refresh itself, according to the head of the Irish Church, Archbishop Eamon Martin. Speaking to The Tablet after the closing liturgy for the national pre-synodal assembly at the sixth century monastic ruins of Clonmacnoise, Archbishop Martin said: “We are only at the beginning of something here.
Pope Francis has named a priest who waited years before obtaining a government permit for his priestly ordination as bishop of Vietnam’s largest diocese. Pope Francis had named Father Dominic Hoang Minh Tien, who serves as parish priest of Son Loc Cathedral and representative of the apostolic administrator of Hung Hoa Diocese, as residential bishop of the diocese.
Bishop Alan Hopes has written a Pastoral Letter to everyone across the Diocese of East Anglia to mark the start of the worldwide Synodal Church process – in which the least as well as the greatest has the opportunity to be heard.
The US bishops’ decision to draw up a document expected to disapprove of allowing Joe Biden to receive the sacraments is seen by some as an attack on a Democrat President. But a theologian argues that behind it is an attempt to address a crisis of eucharistic faith in American Catholicism.
Pope Francis is making his first foreign trip since undergoing intestinal surgery in July, a four-day visit to Central Europe that will not only test his health but also provide one of the most awkward moments of his papacy — a meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the sort of populist, right-wing leader Francis typically scorns.
Two missionary priests from the Sant’Egidio Community will soon take over a pastoral mission to the poor at St Merry, the disputed church in central Paris where a 45-year-old experiment in lay-clerical equality was abruptly shut down by Archbishop Michel Aupetit last February.
Pope Francis has appointed François-Xavier Bustillo, a Spanish-born Franciscan, as the new bishop of Ajaccio, which includes the entire French island of Corsica.The 52-year-old priest has been guardian of the Conventual Franciscan (Grey Friars) convent at the famous French Marian Shrine of Lourdes and the episcopal delegate for the protection of minors and vulnerable people since 2018.
The Catholic Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean (CELAM), a major player in the formation of liberation theology, is planning an unprecedented "ecclesial assembly" to discuss issues affecting the 377 million Catholics in the region.The gathering is scheduled to take place in Mexico City from Nov. 21-28 and will involve bishops, priests, religious, and lay men and women.
Within the Vatican Council itself, and especially at fringe meetings often attended by hundreds of bishops, Küng and a group of like-minded German and Dutch scholars provided the theological basis for substantial reform of the Church. They also assisted bishops with the preparation of their Council speeches. All this proved to be highly influential in the content of the Council’s decrees.
Pope Francis’ visit to Iraq (March 5-8, 2021)[1] will bring to the attention of Christians around the world and of the international community the issue of the survival of Christian communities in Middle Eastern regions that, because of wars, tribal conflicts and poverty, risk disappearing forever. These are very ancient communities, many of apostolic foundation.
Pope Francis has called for the Church in Italy to hold a national synod, a move that will put pressure on bishops across the world to follow suit. During a meeting with a group of catechists from the Italian Bishops’ Conference in the Vatican, the Pope said the “process” for a national synod “must begin” and should start “community by community, diocese by diocese”.
Tributes to a “gentle, caring and warm-hearted pastor” greeted the news that the Archbishop of Glasgow, Philip Tartaglia, has died suddenly at home in the city. Archbishop Tartaglia had tested positive for Covid-19 shortly after Christmas and was self-isolating, but it is not yet known whether the virus was implicated in his death.
Bishop Mario Grech is the new secretary general of the Synod of Bishops. Born in Malta in 1957, he was appointed Bishop of Gozo in 2005 by Benedict XVI. From 2013 to 2016 he was president of the Episcopal Conference of Malta. On October 2, 2019, Pope Francis appointed him pro-secretary general of the Synod of Bishops.
During a late summer press conference on upcoming celebration to the 800thanniversary of the Rule of Saint Francis, an Italian bishop quite casually mentioned in passing that Pope Francis will "soon be issuing an encyclical on human fraternity". The bishop was Domenico Pompili. He heads the Diocese of Rieti, a suffragan see of Rome.
Dom Pedro Casaldáliga Plá, a Catholic missionary and an iconic voice of liberation theology, died on the morning of August 8, Saturday, at the age of 92. He was the Bishop Emeritus of the Prelature of São Félix do Araguaia and famous for his defense of the rights of the indigenous people of Brazil.
The vitality of the Church and, above all, the faith that animates her pastors and her faithful cannot be measured by numbers and statistics. Only God knows the mysterious and unique relationship that unites him to people who profess themselves Catholic. This is what constitutes the essence of the faith.
Millions of people around the world joined Pope Francis online, on television and radio, as he led prayers for an end of the COVID-19 virus on a rainy Friday evening, from the steps of St Peter's Basilica.
