Prince Charles says Christians from the Middle East have shown “inspiring faith and courage” in the face of oppression and persecution. Making a plea for peace and saying “extremism and division” are not inevitable, Charles said he had been privileged to have met many people “with such inspiring faith and courage” who were battling oppression Read more
Locking baby Jesus in a cage and corralling the wise men into an area marked “deportation” is not what you’d expect a nativity scene to look like. Yet this year’s nativity scene at St Susanna’s parish in Massachusetts shows exactly that scene. Set beneath a sign that asks the question “Peace on Earth?”, the scene Read more
Civilisation will collapse unless we make some urgent changes, Sir David Attenborough told delegates from almost 200 nations at the UN Climate Summit (COP24) taking place in Katowice, Poland. “Right now, we’re facing a man-made disaster of global scale,” Attenborough said on Monday, just two months after a UN report underlined the need to keep Read more
Pope Francis and Palestine’s president Mahmoud Abbas, who met on Monday at the Vatican, discussed a number of topics including Christian persecution, the status of Jerusalem and a two-state solution for the conflict between Israel and Palestine. The Vatican says the good relations between the Holy See and Palestine were noted during the meeting, “as Read more
Pope Francis’s custom-built 2018 Lamborghini Huracan coupe is up for sale again. The car – autographed by Francis is currently featuring on an online fundraising platform, because the final bidder for it when it was initially auctioned by Sotheby’s in Monaco in May did not finalize the transaction and the promised $800,000 sale fell through. Read more
The Catholic News Service’s well-intentioned Tweet celebrating the Jewish festival of Hanukkah fell flat when the wrong image was chosen to go with it. Wishing a “Happy Hanukkah to those who celebrate!” the Tweet’s accompanying image shows Roman soldiers carrying the spoils of the war, from the destroyed Temple of Jerusalem. Hanukkah celebrates the rededication Read more
President George H.W. Bush was a ‘courageous man, dedicated leader and selfless public servant’ Cardinal Daniel DiNardo said this week when offering prayers for the late president and his family. DiNardo’s archdiocese encompasses the district Bush represented in Congress. “President Bush’s career in the public eye – from the Lone Star State to the global Read more
Closed churches – empty and unused – and what to do with them, is a vexing problem. Sacrilegious redevelopment has become an especially pressing issue to the Vatican because thousands of Catholic churches around the world have closed during the past two decades. Some have been turned into discos, gelaterias or have been demolished. Last Read more
God has given everyone a guardian angel so that “he may help us in life,” Francis told a group of young oncology patients from Poland when he met with them at the Vatican on Friday. “Become accustomed to talking to your angel so that he may take care of you, give you encouragement and always Read more
A ring that may have belonged to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor who oversaw Jesus’s trial and crucifixion, has been identified by experts in Israel. Initially, the ring, which was found 50 years ago at the Herodian palace near Bethlehem, wasn’t given much attention. According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, it was discovered, along with Read more