A Japanese museum has found a scroll written by the country’s early Christians. According to “The Mainichi” newspaper, an inscription on the scroll reads “1592 years since His Birth,”. This has suggested to historians that this was the year the scroll was created. Carbon dating has dated the scroll as having been created prior to Read more
World
World Youth Day 2019: pope’s itinerary published
Thursday, November 29th, 2018The pope’s itinerary for World Youth Day 2019 has been published. Among his various engagements, he will visit young people not able to attend the festivities: some in jail and with some living with HIV. Pope Francis will also dedicate the altar of Panama’s newly renovated 400-year-old cathedral, meet with bishops from Central America and Read more
Church members jailed after singing Amazing Grace
Thursday, November 29th, 2018Church members of the CityWell United Methodist Church and others from the US state of North Carolina community sought to physically block the arrest of an immigrant, Oliver-Bruno. They surrounded a government van and refused to move, singing Amazing Grace and chanting, “Let your people go!” Read more
Liturgical musicians should animate the assembly’s song, not replace it
Monday, November 26th, 2018
Liturgical musicians should be “animators of the song of the whole assembly,” not replace it, says Pope Francis. Speaking at the weekend’s international meeting of choirs in Rome on “Music in the Liturgy and in the Catechesis for the New Evangelisation,” Francis said liturgical and sacred music can be a powerful instrument of evangelisation. This Read more
Catholic nuns denounce culture of silence and secrecy
Monday, November 26th, 2018
Catholic nuns throughout the world are denouncing the culture of silence and secrecy surrounding sex abuse in the Church. The Rome-based International Union of Superiors General, which represents more than 500,000 sisters worldwide, is urging nuns who have been abused to report the crimes to police and their superiors. They have promised to help nuns Read more
Short-change Catholic funerals for priests accused of sex abuse
Monday, November 26th, 2018
Catholic funerals for priests who die while facing accusations of sexual abuse are now subject to new rules in Ireland. The National Board for Safeguarding Children’s guidelines to church authorities include ways to discreetly conduct the funerals of clerics who had allegations made against them. Some dioceses have added to these guidelines. They say funerals Read more
Pope names organisers of 2019 protection of minors meeting
Monday, November 26th, 2018
The names of the organising committee for the Vatican’s upcoming meeting about the protection of minors in the Church has been announced. Greg Burke, Director of the Holy See’s Press Office, says next February’s “unprecedented” meeting shows “Pope Francis has made the protection of minors a fundamental priority for the Church”. The meeting is not Read more
Aggressive nationalism fuelling hatred against religion
Monday, November 26th, 2018
Aggressive nationalism is fuelling the rise in violence and intimidation against religious minorities, and Islamophobia and anti-Semitism are on the rise in the West. Furthermore, the West is failing to convert words of concern into action, a report by Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need says. John Pontifex, editor-in-chief of the biannual Religious Read more
American killed on Indian island was not a missionary
Monday, November 26th, 2018Indian police and church officials say the American killed on an isolated island was trying to convert tribal people to Christianity. John Allen Chau’s body was found last week on a beach of North Sentinel Island in the Bay of Bengal with arrow wounds. Dependra Pathak, director general of police of the Andaman and Nicobar Read more
Estimated 85,000 children starved since war began
Monday, November 26th, 2018An estimated 85,000 children under the age of five may have died from extreme hunger or disease since the war in Yemen escalated, according to new analysis by Save the Children. Using data compiled by the UN, Save the Children evaluated mortality rates for untreated cases of Severe Acute Malnutrition. Read more