Monsignor Giacinto Marcuzzo, Bishop of Nazareth and vicar of the Latin Patriarchate, has defended Abu Mazen’s request to the UN, for Palestine to be recognised, a request which “according to us is valid and justified.” At the UN “we feel let down by the United States. President Barack Obama, who had shown courage, clear thinking Read more
The Dead Sea Scrolls written two thousand years ago and found decades ago in desert caves, went online for the first time time in a project launched by Israel’s national museum and Google. Five of the most important scrolls have been made available by the custodians of the manuscripts, who have been previously criticized for Read more
The New Zealand Tyburn convent is included in a newly released film by Michael Luke Davies, a former West End fashion and beauty photographer. The film project entitled Tyburn Convent Gloria Deo, involved some five months of filming in Britain, Ireland, Italy, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Australia and New Zealand, and a process of editing that Read more
Italy’s powerful Catholic Church issued a blistering attack on the ruling political class on Monday, saying the country needed to “purify the air” caused by sex and corruption scandals that have given it a bad name around the world. A speech by Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco to fellow bishops stopped just short of asking for the Read more
In difficult times many people look to religious authorities for help and guidance; and religious authorities, in turn, rarely miss an opportunity to comment on current events. While Pope Benedict said he had not come to Germany “primarily to pursue particular political or economic goals, as other statesmen rightly do but, rather, to meet people and Read more
A cable, signed by U.S. Ambassador Miguel Diaz, states that Cardinal Law told the embassy’s deputy mission chief that he discussed bilateral relations and the president’s visit directly with the Vietnamese. The WikiLeaks release of State Department cables revealed that American Cardinal Bernard Law is actively working in Vatican-Vietnam relations. His “personal involvement” helped confirm Read more
The Diocese of Phoenix has recently announced that communion under both kinds will be restricted to special feast days and other important occasions (e.g, the Chrism Mass, Holy Thursday, the Feast of Corpus Christi, retreats, spiritual gatherings, weddings, and more). The news release explains that from 1975, the United States, United Kingdom and Oceania were given Read more
A French court fined two Muslim women on Thursday for wearing full-face veils in public, the first time a judge has imposed punishment under a “burqa ban” law that has become a legal and cultural battleground across Europe. One of the women pledged immediately to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights to overturn Read more
James Fulton Engstrom was considered stillborn one year ago after his mother’s healthy pregnancy and “a beautiful, short labor.” James was without a pulse for the first 61 minutes of his life. It was only when doctors at OSF St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria were ready to call the time of death that his Read more
Senator Nick Xenophon has indicated he might not have used parliamentary privilege to name a priest accused of raping John Hepworth, now an Anglican Bishop, had he known the man was about to take leave. Adelaide Catholic priest Monsignor Ian Dempsey said it was “totally unfair and unjust” of the independent SA senator to use Read more