An issue that refuses to hide its face is the continuing fall in the number of priests serving our parishes. We should be considering this question as a matter of some urgency if we are to maintain our present diocesan structures at anywhere near their present level, let alone seek to become a Missionary Church. Read more
It took a little more than a day for Father Justin, an artificial intelligence (AI) avatar posing as a priest, to be defrocked. Defrocking Justin After Catholic Answers, a site devoted to evangelising for Catholicism, introduced the character to answer questions about the faith, Catholics on social media called the character a “scandalising mockery of Read more
More than 1.5 million couples globally have transformed their marriages after attending The Marriage Course, a marriage boot camp. Recently, fifteen couples marked the end of their transformative journey as they received blessings and celebrated the culmination of the seven-week course at Ryde Gladesville Catholic Parish near Sydney, Australia. Led by parish priest Fr Greg Read more
Last week the Orthodox Church sacramentally ordained a deaconess for the first time in modern times. Archbishop Serafim of Zimbabwe ordained Angelic Molen (pictured right) as a deaconess on Maundy Thursday (2 May) in Harare. Molen “will do what the deacon does in the liturgy and in all sacraments in our Orthodox services” Serafim says. Read more
I will be 80 years old in June. As a young child in the Methodist Church, I was certain I was called to ordained ministry. At Duke University, I majored in religious studies and then served as pastoral assistant and director of religious education in a small church in upstate New York. Then, in the Read more
The White House has awarded Jesuit priest Father Greg Boyle the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Boyle is the founder of Homeboy Industries – a prominent ministry dedicated to rehabilitating gang-affiliated youth. A new ministry Immediately after his 1980 ordination, Boyle set about finding ways to give a second chance to ex-gang members and former prisoners. Read more
The Catholic Church in New Zealand is issuing a call for feedback regarding its role and response in the ongoing Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. Te Rōpū Tautoko, the body established to manage the Church’s dealings with the Royal Commission, has initiated an anonymous electronic feedback process that is accessible from anywhere Read more
Pope Francis said seminarians and religious men and women need well-rounded formation throughout their lives, not only at the onset of their religious training. In his prayer intention for the month of May, released on April 30 by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, the pope described each vocation as a “diamond in the rough” needing Read more
The synodal process within the Catholic Church demands a profound call to love that resonates at the very heart of Synodal discussions and decisions. This period of reflection and dialogue, aimed at rejuvenating and reforming the Church, must fundamentally be rooted in love. Central to this journey is the challenge to embody the greatest commandment—love. Read more
In an October 2023 interview, Cardinal Robert McElroy of San Diego and Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago said that the General Assembly of the Synod on Synodality raised the question of “reimaging” or “revisioning” the diaconate as a whole. It is precisely such a “revisioning” that many historians and theologians of the diaconate have been Read more