The Vatican will hold a consistory on March 15 to approve the canonization of five men and women, including Blessed Teresa of Kolkata. The meeting, also known as an “ordinary public consistory,” formally ends the process of approving a new saint. Vatican observers expect that Blessed Teresa’s canonization will take place on Sept. 4, the Read more
The Vatican on Wednesday said there is “a lack of political will on the part of the different institutions of the international community” to address attacks on the right of religious freedom. The comments were made during a United Nations Human Rights Council discussion on the Report of the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion Read more
Catholic schools in the United States are falling short in serving the growing number of Latino Catholics, according to a new report released this week. The Boston College report, “Catholic Schools in an Increasingly Hispanic Church,” looks at the disparity between the number of school-age children who are Hispanic – 12.4 million – and the Read more
Like many other halls of fame, the collection of Florence’s cathedral museum, the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, assembles such staggering luminary power that it’s hard not to walk through the building starstruck, with the aesthetic version of a brain freeze headache from consuming too much ice cream too quickly. Here, near the entry, are Lorenzo Read more
Pope Francis has condemned the attack on a home for the elderly and disabled in Yemen that killed 16 people on Friday, including four nuns of the order founded by Mother Teresa of Calcutta. In a message signed by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, Pope Francis called the attack an “act of senseless Read more
Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi described the testimony made by Cardinal George Pell before the royal commission into child sexual abuse as “dignified.” Pell “must be accorded the appropriate acknowledgment for his dignified and coherent personal testimony, from which yet again there emerges an objective and lucid picture of the errors committed in many ecclesial Read more
Thousands of mourners paid their final tributes to Berta Caceres, the indigenous activist killed last week, demanding justice for the renowned environmentalist. Caceres, who was head of the Civic Council of Indigenous and People’s Organizations, was gunned down in her hometown of La Esperanza on Thursday. Mourners shouted “Justice, justice!” “Berta lives!” and “The struggle Read more
Protests erupted in the city of Naples in an attempt to prevent the Catholic Church from gaining control over the jewels of its patron saint, San Gennaro or Saint Januarius. “We’re protecting a centuries-old institution, we will not stand for interference from either the church or the government,” said Paolo Jorio, director of the San Read more
The Vatican denied media reports last week that Pope Francis had accepted an invitation to visit Pakistan later this year. Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said told the Catholic Register that there is “currently no travel program to Pakistan being studied.” Pakistani Shipping Minister Kamran Michael and Religious Affairs Minister Sardar Muhammad Yousaf told reporters Read more
Catholics in Sri Lanka are asking the country’s president to make Good Friday a “mercantile holiday” so Christians working in the private sector can properly commemorate the day. “[Good Friday] is a public holiday but not a mercantile holiday which means Christians working in the private sector do not enjoy the right to fulfill our Read more