London pop band Ooberfuse have been chosen to sing and record in English the official youth anthem of World Youth Day 2013. This English version of the WYD Rio 2013 is great, youthful, faithful, joyful. Congratulatios Ooberfuse. Hope Cherrie Anderson's voice will encourage many to "Go, be missionaries".
In his address, Lord Williams said: ''Religion has always been a matter of community building, a matter of building relations of compassion, fellow-feeling and, dare I say it, inclusion. ''The notion that religious commitment can be purely a private matter is one that runs against the grain of religious history.''
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.
More than 900 sixth form students from schools across the North-East are attending the two-day conference at Carmel RC College, in Darlington, hosted by world-renowned philosopher and theologian, Dr Peter Vardy, and his wife, Charlotte.
In celebrating the lives of her saints, rarely does the Church bestow more than one feast day on the same person. Even more rarely does she celebrate specific events in the lives of those saints other than the day of their birth into eternal life (the die natale). Therefore, today's celebration – the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, Apostle – is one that deserves our contemplation.
Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles told an interfaith prayer breakfast that freedom of religion comes from God and that no one, court, legislature, or government agency, can take it away.
Christians’ rights of conscience are being sacrificed on the altar of “obsessive political correctness” contrary to the values of a democratic society, two European human rights judges have claimed.
The battle has been almost universally one way as the rights of Christians, in terms of the ability to practise their faith in the public sphere, have been eroded to the point where they have virtually no protection. The cases that I have been instructed in are alarming- and it’s not just the “little people”: health workers or junior civil servants.
Be bearers of the message of Christian unity. Pope addresses 45,000 young members of the ecumenical Taizé community. Dear young friends, Christ does not remove you from the world. He sends you there where His light is missing, so that you may bring it to others. Yes, you are all called to be small lights to those around you.
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.”
The 35th European Youth Meeting sponsored by the Taizé Community begins on Friday, 28 December, in Rome. More than 40,000 youth are expected for the traditional “Pilgrimage of Trust on Earth” which will last for six days.
"Bishop Ma's suppression is a blight for all citizens", writes Shi Feng from Shanghai, China. I witnessed the historic moment on July 7 when Auxiliary Bishop Thaddeus Ma Daqin of Shanghai pledged to defend his faith.
On the Sunday after the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord, Christmas, we consider the family. Now when we hear the title of the celebration, the Feast of the Holy Family, we are inclined to just dismiss the possibility that our families can be like the Holy Family.
The Testament of Mary - review. Perhaps Mary is too well known? After all, her life is recorded in one of the two great originating books of the Judaeo- Christian tradition. The question for the wary reader approaching Tóibín’s novel is whether it is an atheist’s demolition job or an attempt to deepen our religious understanding of the birth, the death and the resurrection.
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.
Claretian Publication Macao comes online with a free audio recording of the News Testament from our own Christian Community Bible. A wonderful gift recorded with great generosity and patience by Paul Ginivan.
Bishop Tawadros has been chosen as the new pope of Egypt's Coptic Christians, becoming leader of the largest Christian minority in the Middle East. His name was selected from a glass bowl by a blindfolded boy at a ceremony in Cairo's St Mark's Cathedral. Three candidates had been shortlisted.
On Sunday, Oct.21, the Catholic Church will canonize its first ever Native American saint, Kateri Tekakwitha. Sometimes known as Lily of the Mohawks, she died more than 300 years ago, but is thought by some to have performed a miracle as recently as 2006.
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".
