When Pope Benedict's successor is chosen, the civil war between conservatives and liberals will resume with ferocity. Pope Benedict's resignation has brought about a brief truce in the civil war that rages through the Catholic church worldwide, but hostilities will resume as soon as his successor is chosen.
While saying farewell the night before he died, Jesus told those with him that he "had other sheep that are not of this fold" and that those with him at that particular moment were not his only followers. Very importantly, he also said that he longed for unity with those others just as urgently and deeply as he longed for unity with those in the room with him.
When the Nordic Bishops’ Conference met in Iceland last September, it noted an exciting new trend. The Catholic Church is growing in Scandinavia and is showing signs of vitality in several ways, one of which is the growing number of vocations both to the secular priesthood and to religious orders.
I praised God for the Church’s lookout for the uns — the un-documented, un-employed, un-housed, un-fed, un-healthy, un-born, un-wanted, misunderstood, un-justly treated — and prayed that our beloved country might work for a culture where that dreaded prefix — un — might be no longer.
Representation in Venice is as important for nations as for artists. A pavilion at the Biennale is a sign that a state, no matter how troubled or politically backward, has joined the Western cultural consensus. It’s six years since the first whispers of a plan for a Vatican pavilion at the fifty-fourth Biennale followed the appointment in 2009 of the art-loving Gianfranco Ravasi as President of the Pontifical Council for Culture.
Migration is in fact “a striking phenomenon because of the sheer numbers of people involved, the social, economic, political, cultural and religious problems it raises, and the dramatic challenges it poses to nations and the international community”, for “every migrant is a human person who, as such, possesses fundamental, inalienable rights that must be respected by everyone and in every circumstance”
How do Catholic clergy deal with the church's requirement for celibacy? Desmond Zwar spoke to four men about living a life where there should be no sex
Nothing captures that better than his own words: “Canterbury is much more than a functional building. It is an effort to make sense of the cosmos and reach out to its maker. Whether or not you want to talk about God, you can’t help but stand back and admire what humans can achieve in pursuit of transcendence.”
Pope Benedict XVI has condemned "unregulated capitalism" for contributing to world tension, in a new year address to worshippers. The Pope also thanked the world's peacemakers and said humanity had "an innate vocation for peace".
A new book that draws on documents in the Vatican Secret Archive tries to debunk some of the darkest stories about the much-maligned Borgias. They have become a byword for incest, corruption and decadence, the subject of dozens of books, plays, films and an acclaimed television series.
Christmas is marked on the 25 December. The Holy Family, Mary and Joseph with the baby Jesus. Christmas is a Christian holy day that marks the birth of Jesus, the son of God.Jesus' birth, known as the nativity, is described in the New Testament of the Bible.
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.
The message read: "Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter. Thank you for your generous response. I bless all of you from my heart." A spokesman said earlier the pontiff would "reach out to everyone" with accounts in eight languages.
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.
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.
POLITICIANS will fail a “fundamental test of civilised society” if they do not find a solution to funding care for the elderly, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales had warned.
The media has depicted the Church of England as being on the verge of collapse because of the rejection of a General Synod Measure permitting the appointment of women as bishops. It was seen as a triumph of obscurantism over progress, a refusal to recognise the right of women to equal treatment with men. But there is more to it than that.
Even friends of an Established church like myself – though I’m a Catholic – should think twice about the wisdom of the idea after the naked political interference in the affairs of the CofE in the Commons. The Speaker, who is non-religious/agnostic, was among the most overt in encouraging MPs to overturn the church’s decision not to approve women bishops.
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.
The general synod of the Church of England has voted against the appointment of women as bishops. The decision came at the end of a day of debate by supporters and opponents - and a 12-year legislative process.
