Mother Teresa had conversations with and visions of Jesus before forming the Missionaries of Charity – but not even her friends were aware of this. It wasn’t until after her death, for the vast majority of people, that this part of Mother Teresa’s spiritual life was uncovered. “It was a big discovery,” a friend of Read more
Muslim women don’t usually go to mosques, which are traditionally male-only. This is slowly changing – and in some cases, women voices are being heard very clearly. When the call to prayer rang out on Friday at Mariam Mosque in Copenhagen, history was being made for the voice was that of a woman. Women also Read more
Cardinal Raymond Burke, a traditionalist American prelate who has worked in senior positions in Rome for most of the past decade and has consistently opposed the Pope’s reforms ever since Francis was elected in 2013, says he’s not the Pope’s enemy. Francis eventually moved Burke out of key Vatican jobs and into a more ceremonial Read more
Pope Francis wants the laity to be much more involved in the administration of the Church in Rome, not just priests and bishops. According to Bishop Kevin Farrell, who is the first prefect of the newly created Vatican Department for the Laity, the Family and Life, the Roman Curia, Francis would like to see lay Read more
Sexual abuse claims that have not been substantiated make it impossible for alleged perpetrators to litigate the claims against them. A group for clergy sex-abuse victims made false statements “negligently and with reckless disregard for the truth” against a St. Louis priest to try to convict him on abuse charges, a federal judge has ruled. Read more
Non-violence: A Style of Politics for Peace. This is the theme Pope Francis has chosen for the next World Day of Peace, to be celebrated on January 1, 2017. Pope Francis has talked about the worrisome surge of violence that has taken over the world. On his trip to Poland in July he said the Read more
The burkini ban controversy continues in France. A French court on Friday (Saturday NZ Time) suspended a ban on full-body “burkini” swimsuits imposed by a Mediterranean resort that has angered Muslims, feminists and civil liberties campaigners. The Council of State’s ruling against Villeneuve-Loubet is expected to set a precedent for the dozens of other French towns Read more
Filipino Christians are afraid to go to Mass because of perceived threats from Islamist radicals. “Before, the Philippines was a dream place for inter religious dialogue between Christians and Muslims … but now people are frightened even to go to Mass”, said Fr. Sebastiano D’Ambra, an Italian missionary in Italian missionary living in Mindanao in Read more
Moroccos King Mohammed VI has invited Muslims, Christians and Jews to combat jihadist “fanaticism and hatred” together. In his letter, he thanked the Pope for his words on terrorism during his recent visit to Poland. The Pope had spoken against identifying fundamentalist violence with the Islamic religion. The King – who is also a Shiite-Muslim leader Read more
A sex education guide from the Vatican seeks to avoid approaches that teach either too much about human sexuality to impressionable youth or too little. The move by the Pontifical Council for the Family came amid the frenzy of World Youth Day, which gathered millions of young people in Krakow, Poland at the end of Read more