In an international forum on economic growth and environmental sustainability, Catholic leaders and experts in the field argued that rather than being opposed, the two go hand-in-hand, and can lead to greater prosperity all-around. “Protecting the environment need not compromise legitimate economic progress,” Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington said May 20.
Saigon — nearly no one calls it by its official name — has come a long way in forty years. In 1986, after years of socialist deprivation, the Communist Party announced doi moi, a series of reforms that loosened the state’s grip on the economy and created a system of “market-oriented socialism.” As Vietnam reopened to the world, foreign investment arrived. The economy boomed and many people were lifted out of poverty
"We welcome the most recent step the United States and its international partners has taken with Iran. We encourage our nation to continue down this path. Now is the time for dialogue and building bridges which foster peace and greater understanding."
The UK is one of the least religious countries in the world, according to a new study, but two thirds of the global population consider themselves to be religious. Click on the map inside to find out which countries are the most religious.
The two largest political parties in the United Kingdom have pledged to support persecuted Christians in manifestos released this week ahead of May’s general election. The Labour Party on Monday committed itself to establish a “Global Envoy for Religious Freedom” as well as a multi-faith advisory council on religious freedom within the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
When attempting to make sense of geopolitical conflict, it is often too tempting to apply simplistic ideological labels, such as Sunni versus Shia, Islam versus the West, or democracy versus communism, as if it was predetermined that certain races, civilizations and ideologies were naturally irreconcilable.
Authorities in northwestern China’s Qinghai province are blocking young Tibetan monks visiting home for the Lunar New Year from returning to their monasteries, demanding instead that they give up their robes and attend government schools, sources said.
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Set to finish his encyclical on the environment next month, Pope Francis said during his daily Mass at the Vatican on Monday that Christians who fail to safeguard nature do not care about God's handiwork. Pope urges faithful to protect the environment God created. Says Christians have a 'responsibility' to care for the earth by helping it 'grow according to its laws'.
Pope Francis called for the abolition of the death penalty as well as life imprisonment, and denounced what he called a "penal populism" that promises to solve society's problems by punishing crime instead of pursuing social justice.
Remember “mission accomplished”? President George Bush, standing on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln proudly declaring victory in Iraq. That was more than 11 years ago – and since then not a single day has passed without blood having been shed in that region.
A shared history of 300 years could be washed away if Scotland votes for independence. What was the complex identity the United Kingdom created – and should we mourn its loss? Why would this shared history be so easily washed away? In her introduction, Colley directed us away from the notion that nations were characterised by cultural and ethnic homogeneity – of “blood and soil” – and towards Benedict Anderson’s definition of a nation as an “imagined community”: ethnically and culturally diverse, but artificial and problematic.
Globalization -- this complex process of unequal relationships has many faces. One of the most visible is labor migrating across international borders in search of satisfactory employment.
Lord Falconer's Assisted Dying bill, which would allow doctors to hasten the death of terminally ill patients thought to have under six months to live, passed its second reading in the Lords on Friday despite vigorous campaigning by faith leaders, and now passes to committee stage.
The Middle East's Christian Diaspora. The Christian population of Iraq, which has its roots in the ancient Assyrians who embraced Christianity in biblical times, numbered 1.3 million before 2003. Over the next decade, nearly a million Christians fled to neighboring countries. Many who became refugees fled to the West if they could.
“In keeping with a long, shadowy, legacy of antipathy, justices who happen to be Catholics… are branded and bullied by a group who only succeed in providing the latest example of a prejudice that has haunted us for centuries,” Cardinal Dolan said in his July 3 column for Catholic New York
"Families are the home Church where Jesus grows," Francis said. "He grows in the spouses' love and in the children's lives. For this reason, the enemy attacks the family so much. The devil does not want it. He tries to destroy it, to prevent love from becoming free....
The Queen sent a message to the Church of Scotland on Saturday, recognising the role it can play in helping to heal divisions opened up by the increasingly bitter debate over Scottish independence.
Pope calls on the world’s governments to bring in an ‘ethical mobilisation’ to help the poor and redistribute wealth. Says governments should promote an 'ethical mobilisation' of solidarity with those less well off. Made his comments in an address to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
For the better part of the last two weeks, the international campaign in the media for the World Powers to assist the Nigerian Government to take swift, decisive and effective measures to rescue the over two hundred young school girls kidnapped on gun points by the dreaded armed Islamic Insurgents Boko Haram has heightened.
