Helping poor and jobless people is one of the ways the Catholic Church is planning to help resolve the post-pandemic fallout, Vatican official Father Augusto Zampini says. Helping these people is not a form of socialism, it’s Church teaching. Zampini says the Church’s advocacy for the poor has resulted in some people accusing it of Read more
In his Monday press conference, Dr Ashley Bloomfield, the director-general of health, addressed the concern that has been expressed over the weekend by church leaders and others about church gatherings still being capped at a maximum of 10 people. Bloomfield defended limits on the size of faith-based gatherings. Allowing churches to have larger gatherings was Read more
A Kenyan bishop said testing potential coronavirus vaccines on his countrymen could disrespect human dignity, and amount to a breach of the country’s constitution, especially if Kenyans are not fully informed of the risks involved in testing new drugs. “Whereas the Covid-19 pandemic is a grave matter at hand, it should not in any way Read more
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on religious leaders to join together in countering “inaccurate and harmful messages” as the world fights the COVID-19 pandemic. In a May 12 video meeting on the role of faith leaders in addressing the challenges of the current health crisis he pointed out how “extremists and radical groups are Read more
Pope Francis is being accused of “blasphemy” and “sacrilege” by some Catholics for participating in an interfaith prayer Thursday with Muslims, Jews and Christians, calling on God to end the coronavirus pandemic. The Abu Dhabi-based multifaith Higher Committee on Human Fraternity formed after the pope’s historic visit in 2019 to the Arabian peninsula. Its nine Read more
Asia’s fortune hunters, career-focused students and professionals are set to abandon their dreams of life in the developed cities of the Western world as Europe and the United States struggle to ward off the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. Many admit that Asia’s honeymoon with the West has come to an end as Asian nations are predicted Read more
The number of refugees in the world may decline this year, but not for a good reason. Today, there are about 70 million forcibly displaced people worldwide, of whom 41 million are internally displaced in their own countries and 26 million are refugees, forced to flee their homelands. Refugees and displaced persons live under conditions Read more
Salman lives in the West Bank with her husband, Steve Sosebee—founder of a medical relief NGO called the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund—and two children, aged two and 13. Salman spoke to TIME about what the holy month of Ramadan has been like under lockdown in the Palestinian territories. We live in the Holy Land, in Read more
Pope Francis will stop livestreaming daily Mass from the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta guesthouse on 19 May as public Masses are set to resume in Italy this weekend. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni says on 18 May, Francis will celebrate his daily morning Mass at the tomb of St. John Paul II inside St. Peter’s Basilica. Read more
US bishops are concerned about disparities in COVID-19 infection and death rates, especially among Afro-Americans. “Our hearts are wounded for the many souls mourned as African American communities across the nation are being disproportionately infected with and dying from the virus that causes COVID-19,” the said in a press statement on behalf of four U.S. Read more