In a new document, Pope Francis has called for renewed efforts to strengthen marriages, while being compassionate and close to people in their frailty. The 325-paragraph document, Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love), draws together almost three years of consultation with Catholics around the world, including synods in 2014 and 2015. Among the many topics Read more
On a spring day about five years ago, when I was rector of Mundelein Seminary, Francis Cardinal George spoke to the assembled student body. He congratulated those proudly orthodox seminarians for their devotion to the dogmatic and moral truths proposed by the Church, but he also offered some pointed pastoral advice. He said that it Read more
Four Kiwis who went to last year’s synod on the family have welcomed Pope Francis’s wide-ranging new apostolic exhortation on marriage and the family. In a statement released through the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference, Cardinal John Dew, Bishop Charles Drennan, Dr John Kleinsman and Sharon Cole spoke on Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love). Read more
Pope Francis’s exhortation “Amoris Laetitia; On Love in the Family,” which is scheduled to be released on April 8, will be a call to “dialogue,” according to a “reading guide” released by the Vatican. The guide, issued by the Vatican’s office for the Synod of Bishops, says that the exhortation will be “first and foremost Read more
An estimated 29,000 New Zealanders are completely alone. While most have at least one or two people they are close to, one per cent of Kiwis aged 15 or over say they have no supportive family or friends, according to research from Statistics NZ. The New Zealand General Social Survey (NZGSS), conducted over a year, asked almost 9000 Read more
Over the past year we have all heard enough about Bruce Jenner than we really would have liked. To be honest I didn’t think anyone in that family could get more publicity than the Kardashians already did and I had had my fill of them (please note the name Kardashian is in autocorrect in Word, Read more
Pope Francis has invited a group of divorced and remarried Catholics to a private audience, ahead of the expected release of a document on family life. Sixty members of the Italian group L’anello perduto (“The Lost Ring”) had sent a letter to the Pope to share their experience of divorce. “In separation we have suffered Read more
Pope Francis’s council of nine cardinals has formally presented the Pontiff with their final proposals to set up two major new offices in the Roman Curia. The two new Vatican offices proposed are “Laity, Family and Life” and “Justice, Peace and Migration”. Pope Francis will make the final decision on these proposals. The cardinals are Read more
Pope Francis’s apostolic exhortation on family life will be published in March, a Vatican official says. Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, said this in an interview with a Portuguese Catholic agency. Archbishop Paglia said the document will “show that the Church is close to families in all stages of Read more
Interactive Bible studies in Fiji are helping to break the silence over gender violence. The House of Sarah, part of the Anglican Diocese of Polynesia, is running workshops looking at how scripture can help end violence against women. House of Sarah’s gender specialist, Tupou Vere, says they’ve found the workshops a useful way to discuss Read more