This year’s Time 100 Most Influential People includes Catholic nun Sister Norma Pimentel, known for her work assisting migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border near Brownsville, Texas. A member of the Missionaries of Jesus congregation, Pimentel is executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, where she ran a large shelter for migrants who Read more
World
Industrial designers create new ‘Human-God Interfaces’
Monday, September 28th, 2020A joint project between Industrial Designers studying at the University of Wuppertal, Germany, and the Catholic Educational Institution in Bonn is bringing (sort of) high tech to the Catholic Mass. The Catholic faith hasn’t really upgraded since the Second Vatican Council, at which time they swapped development environments and communication protocols from Latin to the Read more
First Shakespeare in Spain? Bard’s last play found at seminary
Monday, September 28th, 2020It was hidden away for centuries in the archives of a seminary in Spain, a rare edition of a Shakespeare play experts believe may be the earliest copy of his work to reach the country. Published in 1634, “The Two Noble Kinsmen” is a tragicomedy about love, enmity and madness written by Shakespeare in collaboration Read more
The Priestly Society of Saint Pius X, fifty years of opposition
Monday, September 28th, 2020Fifty years after Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (1905-1991) founded the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), the ultra-traditionalist religious order that opposes the Church reforms stemming from the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) is still attracting vocations. It has 162 communities (or priories) in some 40 countries throughout the world and boasts of 675 priests. The Read more
Communion on the tongue a health hazard
Thursday, September 24th, 2020
Catholics who demand Communion on the tongue despite Covid-19 restrictions are selfish, Fr Liam Power from Waterford, Ireland says. They don’t seem to “respect the danger this represented to others.” They are also a cause of “very serious embarrassment for priests, many of whom are elderly,” he says. Although the number of people wanting to Read more
Pope warns of sick, closed-in Church
Thursday, September 24th, 2020
Pope Francis says a closed-in Church system is a sick Church subject to evil and disease. It is better for the Church to be “outgoing” like God, and offer salvation to all, he says. Comparing God to the owner of a vineyard who goes out again and again looking for workers, he told the congregation Read more
US archbishop told – follow science, don’t risk lives
Thursday, September 24th, 2020
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi encourages San Francisco’s Catholic archbishop to follow science instead of pushing for fuller in-person gatherings for Mass and worship. Pelosi, a practising Catholic, says Archbishop Salvatore Joseph Cordileone should not be putting people’s lives at risk. “With all due respect to my archbishop, I think we should follow science on Read more
Put catechesis on hold, rethink Christian formation
Thursday, September 24th, 2020
It is important for the Church to rethink catechesis and Christian formation, says Quebec Cardinal Gerald Lacroix. He has asked parishes in the Archdiocese of Quebec to “pause” their catechetical programs and use the time to think of the future. Lacroix says the last few months have given the Quebec church an “unhoped-for opportunity” to Read more
Youth homelessness on the rise
Thursday, September 24th, 2020
Catholic charities in the UK are warning that that youth homelessness is on the rise. Young people are leading a significant rise in the number of people sleeping rough and facing homelessness in various ways. “If you care about homelessness, youth homelessness should be at the top of your agenda,” the chief executive of the Read more
Speedy ceremonies risk reducing sacramental acts to commodities
Thursday, September 24th, 2020
Parishes risk reducing sacramental acts to commodities when they bow to pressure to rush through First Communion and Confirmation ceremonies. “Some efforts, often well intentioned, run the risk of reducing the administration of sacramental acts almost to the level of a supermarket in which you can drop in and ‘get the sacrament done.’ “This would Read more