Fifteen years after it was damaged by an earthquake, the Chapel of St Nicholas in the lower Basilica of St Francis in Assisi is restored and open once again to the public. The restorers say they now have proof that the medieval master Giotto painted the frescoes in the Assisi chapel. Continue reading
Catholic clergy and people in Nigeria are at a point of “near desperation” after the a suicide-bomb attack on a church during Mass, according to the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference. Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama wrote about “seeing children, women and men bombed out of existence”. The October 28 bomb, the latest in a series Read more
Persecution of Christians belonging to evangelical denominations in Asia has increased by three or four times in the last 10 years, according to the Gospel for Asia ministry. Its president says people who have not experienced persecution firsthand “cannot fully understand what it means to receive threats against your life, to have your house destroyed, Read more
The Catholic bishops of Uruguay have backed away from a statement that Catholic legislators were subject to excommunication if they voted in favor of legal abortion. Bishop Heriberto Bodeant Fernández of Melo, the secretary-general of the bishops’ conference, told a Radio Carve interviewer that the penalty of automatic excommunication applies to those who are directly Read more
While other stations are being forced to regroup, WSFI organizers say Catholic radio is “estimated to be growing at about a million listeners a month because of the powerful impact it is making on listeners’ lives.” Economic downturns are not only hard on the pocketbook; they are hard on the soul. That’s where Catholic radio Read more
Authorities for French-language Catholic education in Belgium have applied for state permission to give lessons on Islam in their schools where a large number of pupils – sometimes the majority – are Muslims. Catholic schools have been legally barred from doing this for the past 10 years, with one exception for a school in Liege Read more
The United States does not have a Protestant majority for the first time since being founded by the Puritans as ever-growing numbers of Americans say they have no religious affiliation, according to a new study. The country is now only 48 per cent Protestant, with one in five of the population saying they no longer Read more
The majority of Christians in Britain say they would not be offended by jokes about Jesus even if they were intended to be insulting, according to a poll. Meanwhile three quarters of believers agree that freedom of speech should not be restricted even if it offends people with deeply-held religious convictions. The finding emerged from Read more
Church groups need to recruit young women to perform voluntary work traditionally done by older women, leaders say. Lutheran Women SA president Joan Zilm said older women performed crucial everyday tasks in congregations and women’s groups contributed significantly to congregation and district budgets. “If women weren’t there to do those things I wouldn’t say the Read more