Christian genocide has led to the murder of about 6,000 Nigerians since January. Most of the dead are women and children. Hard on the heels of the murder of 238 Christians in Plateau State the weekend before last, a church, hospital and some 17 houses were torched in a central Nigerian village during an hour-long Read more
Seriously ill Catholics in state-funded palliative care are at risk of being deliberately killed, a British bishop says. Bishop Philip Egan’s pastoral message followed a report which concluded 650 people died at a hospital within his diocese between 1989 and 2000 after they were given large doses of painkillers without medical justification. Egan said he Read more
Creative worship has seen traditional liturgies evolving into Holy Spirit-driven, multisensory events where fog, concert lights, prophetic paintings and aerialist performances, aim to help usher churchgoers into “incredible” encounters with God. “We’ve had some incredible experiences with fog,” the pastor of operations at one church says. However, some “worship experts” and longtime Christians are concerned Read more
Pope Francis will join other Christian church leaders tomorrow in Bari, southern Italy. They are gathering for ecumenical reflection and to offer prayers for Christians suffering in the Middle East. Read more
A Rosary-Coast-to-Coast event will surround the United States in active prayer on 7 October. The RosaryCoastToCoast website opens with a “clarion call to arms”: “We are at war. A war without borders. No one is exempt. The bloodless battle affects us all… No man is exempt. No woman excused. The fight has come full force.” Read more
German archbishop Hans-Josef Becker will let Protestant spouses of Catholics living in his diocese receive holy communion “in individual cases.” He presented his interpretation of the German bishops’ conference “pastoral guidance“at a meeting of the Council of Priests of the Archdiocese of Paderborn last week. He says he told his presbyteral council that the pastoral Read more
The Pope’s views on homosexuality and women should change, says former Irish President Mary McAleese. Focusing on homosexuality, she says she cannot go to the World Meeting of Families when the Pope visits Ireland in August, as it does not include LGBTI people. In her view, the Church’s “evil” teaching on homosexuality gave rise to Read more
The Vatican has announced that Pope Francis has accepted resignations from Bishop Alejandro Goic Karmelic of Rancagua and Bishop Horacio del Carmen Valenzuela Abarca of Talca. The Chilean bishops failed to protect children from paedophile priests. Goic has served as head of the Chilean church’s child protection commission. The extent of clerical paedophilia in Chile Read more
Canada’s London, Ontario Diocese has cut funds earmarked for victims of clerical abuse wanting proof of evidence-based counselling from their psychological sessions. At least 21 priests have been convicted, charged or sued for sexual offences in the diocese. The diocese has paid counselling bills for years because, when it first started settling lawsuits against its Read more
Bishop Peter Comensoli has been named as the new Archbishop of Melbourne. Comensoli will be installed as archbishop on 1 August. He has been the Bishop of Broken Bay in New South Wales for the past three years. When he is installed, he will take over from recently-retired Archbishop Denis Hart at Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Read more