Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin has spoken out against recent incidents of racism in Ireland, decrying intolerance as well as narrow-minded and judgemental attitudes within Church communities. At Dublin’s Pro-Cathedral on Sunday, the Archbishop said racist intolerance is always “an affront to the dignity of those who are its objects.” He said the Church must Read more
Pope Francis has donated ventilators and ultrasound scanners to hospitals in coronavirus-ravaged Brazil. In a Aug. 17 press statement, papal almoner Cardinal Konrad Krajewski said that 18 Dräger intensive care ventilators and six Fuji portable ultrasound scanners would be shipped to Brazil on the pope’s behalf. Brazil has reported 3.3 million cases of COVID-19 and Read more
A strong sign for Christian ecumenism: the Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria, Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, and the Munich Cardinal Reinhard Marx were awarded the 2020 Augsburg Peace Prize for their “unconditional will to live together in peace.” The church leaders reached out to one another on behalf of many Catholic and Protestant Christians, Read more
Liam Greer has been appointed as the general manager of the Palmerston North diocese. Greer, whose family has a five-generation association with the diocese, grew up in Palmerston North, attending St Peter’s College. He has a degree in valuation and property management and worked as a property valuer for a few years. Read more in Read more
Pope Francis called for dialogue between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan on Saturday, urging them not to let a dispute over a dam on the Nile lead to conflict. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which is being built some 15 km (9 miles) from Ethiopia’s border with Sudan, has become a major source of discord between Read more
A group of Francis Douglas students have been told to self-isolate after they visited the Rotorua luge at the same time as an Auckland family who has tested positive for Covid-19. In an alert sent out to parents and caregivers of students at the New Plymouth Catholic boys high school on Thursday, principal Martin Chamberlain Read more
Benedict XVI’s personal secretary Archbishop Georg Gänswein has said that the pope emeritus’ illness is “subsiding.” In an interview with the German newspaper Südkurier, Archbishop Gänswein is reported to have said that Benedict XVI’s “illness is subsiding” and that his medication has been reduced. Benedict XVI has been suffering from facial shingles, a bacterial infection Read more
Life in the eternal city in August is an oppressive affair and ice cream is a delicious way to cool off. With day after day of mid-90s heat and almost no reliable air conditioning, the romani often have but one last refuge: a cup or cone of dense, soft and blissfully cool Italian gelato. Just Read more
Pope Francis on Thursday baptized conjoined twins who had been separated at a Vatican-owned hospital in June. The announcement of the baptism came not from the Vatican but from Antoinette Montaigne, a politician from Central African Republic, where the girls were born with fused skulls on June 29, 2018, in the town of Mbaiki. When Read more
A 141-year-old Temuka church has been granted $25,000 to restore 31 stained-glass windows donated by its original parishioners. The restoration of the 137-year-old windows is part of a more than $2 million project to upgrade and earthquake-strengthen St Joseph’s Catholic Church that was built with limestone taken from Opihi River in 1879 and damaged in Read more