Eleven Anglican Sisters will be received into the Catholic Church via the ordinariate, it emerged this week. The Sisters, from the Community of St Mary the Virgin in Wantage, Oxfordshire, will be received into the Church by Mgr Keith Newton, leader of the ordinariate in England and Wales, on New Year’s Day.
The transition to the new English missal has gone better than many of us expected. After a month or two of awkward and hesitant liturgical exchanges, the people in the pews seem to have gotten used to the new texts. By now the responses mostly come automatically, as ritual texts should.
Globalization's consequences: A pluralist Church must cast off defunct Eurocentrism. The Roman Catholic Church is the largest Christian denomination, with more than a billion members worldwide. Its Latin Rite (there are several others) is the only organized branch of Christianity to expand substantially beyond Europe.
Pope Benedict XVI has sent today his first tweets. We think it is an important day in history, when for the first time a Pope enters in this world-media network where millions of young people move and relate. "Dear friends,..." he tweets.
During a recent book launch in Rome, a noted theologian said that China will be home to the majority of the world's Christians within the next two decades. “Interfaith dialogue is something that China, which will have the world's largest Christian population in 20 years, lives with every day,” said Harvey Cox during the presentation at the Gregorian University.
The leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales has warned George Osborne against a “foolish” attempt to use marriage as a “political football”.
In October 1962, in Rome, CAFOD, the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, was established by the Bishops of England and Wales. The Bishops gave CAFOD a mandate to work for justice and human development as a tangible expression of the solidarity and compassion of the Catholic community with our brothers and sisters in some of the world’s poorest communities.
I am traveling in the United States, a country where one of the fastest growing religious identifications is “former Catholic” and where over the past few years the number of people who describe themselves as having no religion has topped one in five. Many of those, of course, are former Catholics.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has created a new website dedicated to encouraging education, prayer and public action to protect religious freedom at home and abroad.
The Catholic Church’s commitment to dialogue and a growing common witness with others churches and ecclesial communities must also serve the new evangelization. Authentic dialogue promotes the conversion of heart that opens us to a relationship with others where the message of the Gospel can be more clearly expressed and more fruitfully received.
Dr Rowan Williams has told Pope Benedict XVI and the Synod of Bishops that evangelisation is not a project, but the natural “overflow” of an experience of Christ and his Church that transforms lives, giving them meaning and joy.
We’re finally here! After months of travelling, shooting, scripting and editing, our newest Salt+Light series is now live for the whole world to see. Last night, we launched the premiere of our NEW 15-part series.
Evangelisation is not the work of a small number of specialists but of the entire People of God under the guidance of their pastors. Each member of the faithful, with and within ecclesial communion, must feel the responsibility to announce and bear witness to the Gospel".
Cormac Murphy-O’Connor tells Cole Moreton and Edward Malnick that the Catholic Church is in rude health and he is still, aged 80, its faithful servant Cormac. Murphy-O’Connor could have been wearing ermine and sitting in the House of Lords by now.
Once a central part of Catholicism, Confession has declined almost to vanishing point. Researching a book on confession these past two years, I have found it difficult to ascertain reliable figures. Questionnaires on religious practice in the UK and Europe no longer even itemise the rate of attendance.
This week, four Christians will argue in court that they face discrimination in Britain because of their faith. Discriminated: A woman who was asked to remove her cross while working as a nurse is taking her case to the European Court of Human Rights to argue that she has suffered discrimination as a result of her faith.
The Education Secretary talks about the bishops, free schools and his admiration for the Pope. “Education Secretaries come and go,” he says, “but the Catholic Church’s role in education is global and enduring.”
Below is a great article from Catholic News Service about 15 year-old Gold medalist Katie Ledecky. Kate won Gold in the 800 meter freestyle on Friday! She says a Hail Mary before every race, and loves attending Mass every Sunday. As the article below indicates, she's one of Catholic America's shining stars!
The Education Secretary Michael Gove has said he has no plans to relax the rule which means that no more than half of places in free schools may be reserved for Catholics, regardless of demands from Catholic parents hoping to take advantage of the new scheme.
Thirty years ago, its 400 pupils were all Catholics, many of them first or second-generation Irish. Now all but 10 per cent are Muslims, yet their parents are apparently happy for them to sit through lessons taught by a largely Christian staff and taken from a Catholic syllabus. “What can I say?” exclaims 72-year-old Fr Kelly. “It’s their choice. We make no imposition on them to change their religion.”
