“I am a poor priest and my only richness is Christ,” are the words that his Italian biographer, Mimmo Muolo, retains of Cardinal-designate Ernest Simoni, hero of the Gospel under the Albanian Communist regimes, who endured condemnation to death and was a slave labourer for almost 30 years. Father Ernest Simoni is the only non-bishop on Read more
It has been called “the most influential painting ever” and “the world’s most coveted masterpiece”. It is also the most frequently stolen. And now, after a four-year restoration to clean away six centuries of dirt and varnish, the Ghent Altarpiece looks the way it did originally – electric, radiant, gorgeous and glorious. The altarpiece, also Read more
A young boy, 10 years old or so, faces the camera. Like many young boys, he is happy to be interviewed. This is war-torn Iraq, however, so he tells of the day ISIS came to his village. He starts to recount, horror after horror, what took place. It is hard to accept that one so Read more
As representatives from the Society of Jesus gather in Rome from all over the world for their General Congregation, there is a relatively new ministry that they can be very proud of — the Jesuit Refugee Service. This program was initiated by Fr. Pedro Arrupe, the Jesuit superior general, who had seen the devastating impact Read more
There are many moments – the loss of a job, finding out you have cancer, a child’s walk home from school in a dangerous neighbourhood – when faith in a loving God watching over you can provide comfort and hope, several studies have found. But are there times when too much control can be ceded Read more
Not long ago Time magazine ran a cover story about Internet trolling with the alarming but not inaccurate cover blurb “We’re losing the Internet to the culture of hate.” Trolling and other antisocial behaviors are widespread online. They can even be found in devout Catholic circles, though outright trollery and the “culture of hate” are Read more
Though perhaps not yet a “superstar” saint, Blessed Chiara Luce Badano’s story is rapidly building a following, especially among younger Catholics today, in part because her selfless acceptance of suffering provokes both curiosity and esteem among post-modern types. This coming October 7 is the 25th anniversary of the death of an amazing young adult Christian Read more
It’s a boy! A five-month-old boy is the first baby to be born using a new technique that incorporates DNA from three people, New Scientist can reveal. “This is great news and a huge deal,” says Dusko Ilic at King’s College London, who wasn’t involved in the work. “It’s revolutionary.” The controversial technique, which allows parents Read more
In his homily at the requiem mass for Fr Jacques Hamel, Pope Francis characterized the murderers’ act as “Satanic.” Yet Protestants and Catholics have significantly different conceptions of the figure of the Devil. La Croix journalists, Marie Malzac and Gauthier Vaillant, discuss these notions with Fr Jean-Pascal Duloisy, exorcist for the dioceses of the Île-de-France Read more
More than 40 years ago, archaeologists discovered what appeared to be a hunk of scroll at the site of En-Gedi, an ancient Jewish community in modern-day Israel. The fragment was charred and crushed, and every touch seemed to hasten its disintegration. The Israel Antiquities Authority, which houses many artifacts from the region, locked the scroll Read more