On July 9, more than 20 homeless people from Palazzo Migliorie near the Vatican came to the Gemelli General Hospital to pray for and express their gratitude to the Pope. ‘Palazzo Migliori’ is the building where they live and it is a gift from the Pope for people with no home or place to stay. Read more
According to a world-first international study led by Australia’s Monash University, more than five million deaths a year can be attributed to climate change. Scientists at Monash analysed temperature and mortality data from dozens of countries across the world over the first 20 years of this century. While fewer people are dying from cold weather, Read more
Bishop Pablo Virgilio David of Caloocan, an outspoken critic of President Duterte, has been elected as president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines. David, 62, has served as the conference’s vice president for the last four years. He will begin the two-year term as head of the conference on December 1. The bishop Read more
Catholic Bishops of England and Wales are relieved two extreme abortion bills were withdrawn the day they were to be put to the vote in parliament. The bills were included in the UK Government’s flagship Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. If passed in a vote on Monday this week, the proposed New Clause 55 Read more
Pope Francis has chosen Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich of Luxembourg, a Jesuit, to serve as relator general of the Synod of Bishops on synodality. The appointment of Cardinal Hollerich, who also serves as president of the Commission of Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union, was announced by the Vatican July 8. The relator is responsible for Read more
The organization of the universal Catholic Church has a precise hierarchy, but there is no such thing as a “vice pope,” who steps in when the reigning pontiff is traveling abroad, ill or under anesthesia. Although hospitalized since July 4, when he underwent a three-hour surgery on his colon, Pope Francis is still the supreme Read more
For Jehovah’s Witnesses, the pandemic has meant putting principles ahead of personal preferences. “Our preference is to meet together, to hug one another, to greet one another, to see each other’s smiles, but our principles won’t let us do that, not yet,” said Robert Hendriks, US spokesman for Jehovah’s Witnesses. For the second year, the Read more
The number of babies born in Victoria has boomed over the past year, at an average of 5.7 per cent across the state but by as much as 50 per cent in some areas. Births have skyrocketed in particular in the regions, which make up seven of the top 10 baby boom areas. Midwives and Read more
COVID travel restrictions may help slow the virus’s transmission, but seafarers are suffering, Pope Francis notes. He has been offering his prayers and solidarity to those who work at sea and have been prevented from going ashore or have not been able to work. In a video message last month Francis gave a special message Read more
“Some have likened the state of the Church to Shakespeare’s state of Denmark. “It is hardly an exaggeration”, says a Vietnamese-born former boat refugee, a survivor of clergy sexual abuse and Paramatta Bishop, Vincent Long. There’s an “unprecedented momentum for deep reform, the model of the Church based on clerical hegemony has run its course”, Read more