Gypsies – traditionally staunch Catholics – are leaving the Church in the UK big numbers. They’re joining a new Christian religion. Called Vie et Lumière in continental Europe, it began among Gypsy Holocaust survivors. The question is why? Why are such loyal Catholics moving away from Catholicism? The UK Gypsies’ and Travellers’ Catholic chaplain, Fr Read more
Rwanda’s genocide of 1994 resulted in over 800,000 deaths. Most were ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus. Their killers were extremist Hutus who were Catholic Church members. They planned, helped with and carried out the genocide. The Rwanda Conference of Catholic Bishops has just admitted and apologised for its role in the massacres. “We apologize for Read more
Seventeen new Cardinals were named on Saturday. They come from all over the world and a range of backgrounds. The Pope Francis has now chosen 44 cardinal electors. That’s about a third of the number allowed by Church Law to choose his successor. Thirteen of his newest Cardinals are under the age of 80. While Read more
A Turkish shepherd and his family’s protection of a Greek Orthodox church is saving it from looting and the weather. The church in northern Turkey’s Giresun province used to serve a large community. It was abandoned following the population exchange between Greece and Turkey. The exchange involved about two million people (around 1.3 million Anatolian Read more
Online interactive Advent calendar fun is one way to get the world involved in a project. Christians across the world are being invited to celebrate the season of Advent through an interactive, multi-lingual online calendar. The website adventword.org goes live on Advent Sunday (27 November) in nine languages including, for the first time, Arabic. It Read more
Syria is a “workshop for cruelty” says Pope Francis. Speaking to Caritas Internationalis, Francis said “I believe the greatest illness of today is cardiac sclerosis,”. He was implying a kind of hardening of the heart that renders a person unable to feel compassion or be moved by another’s suffering. He said Syria is an example Read more
A faith-based international network of organisations is committed to working together to fight for gender justice. When it launched in July last year, Side-by-Side involved 17 churches and Christian organisations. Read more
Hate crimes are increasing in the US. While racial attacks make up the majority of these crimes, American Jews and Muslims are the targets of an explosion in crimes against religion, according to the FBI’s new 2015 Hate Crime Statistics report. Each year the report collates hate crime statistics from law enforcement agencies across the Read more
Environmentally-friendly. These words are more often than not aspirational. Not so in Vatican City, however. The 44.5 hectare state hopes it “can in some way become a good example of a ‘green’ and non-polluting state.” Recycling initiatives were established in 2008. Today there are over 200 household rubbish and recycling containers dotted around the state for Read more
An Anglo Saxon burial ground has been found in Norfolk, England. Researchers think it dates to between the seventh and ninth centuries and is part of an early Christian community. The find includes six plank-lined graves alongside 81 tree trunk coffins. A wooden structure, thought to be a church, is nearby. The graves were dug Read more