Controversy has enflamed WYD preparations as conservative Catholics get the wrong end of the evangelisation story. Regardless of his impending cardinal appointment, Bishop Robert Barron has made it clear to Américo Aguiar that he intends to evangelise during his visit to Lisbon. Aguiar, a youthful 49-year-old auxiliary bishop of the Patriarchate of Lisbon, is the Read more
Doing nothing to overcome the divisions among Christians means allowing tensions to fester and even feed conflict, Pope Francis said. During a meeting on 6 May with members of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Pope Francis said “Ignoring the divisions among Christians, whether out of habit or out of resignation, means tolerating that Read more
The heart of the Gospel is the proclamation of the Reign of God, in the person of Jesus himself, the Emmanuel, God-Is-With-Us. In him, God brings his project of love for humanity to fulfillment, establishing his lordship over creatures and sowing the seed of divine life in human history, transforming it from within. Certainly the Read more
The world’s richest man, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (pictured), says Tuesday was “the best day ever” after he flew into space in his rocket and capsule. The venture has reinforced his commitment to tackling the climate crisis, and using New Shepard (his rocket) as a stepping stone towards colonising space for the benefit of Earth. Read more
Pope Francis said on Wednesday that he was “delighted” to learn that a Muslim group had overseen the translation of his latest encyclical into Russian. In a message released by the Holy See press office on March 3, the pope said it was “a beautiful and joyful surprise” to hear that the encyclical Fratelli tutti Read more
The Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, in collaboration with the Dicastery for Communication, has launched a website dedicated to Pope Francis’ latest Encyclical: ‘Fratelli tutti’. The site is currently developed in three languages: English, Spanish and Italian. Further languages will be available soon. It contains numerous resources in other languages, including French, Portuguese, Read more
The Pope’s new work, Let Us Dream, about which Austen Ivereigh, his collaborator, writes movingly in this week’s Tablet, was published on 1 December. So, with the caveat that the final work may be different from the excerpts I have read, it strikes me that it is characteristic of Francis’ best and least good aspects. Read more
A friend of mine, who had spent many years establishing a successful printing business in the Midwest, opened his local newspaper to find a story about a fancy redevelopment project that the city had proposed in his neighbourhood. How nice, he thought, until he realized that planning officials were going to put the project on Read more
With so much of humanity sickened in soul and body by greed, self-centered indifference to suffering, inequality, polarization and violence, Pope Francis has wonderfully seized the moment by giving to our wounded world the balm of his new inspiring and challenging social encyclical letter titled Fratelli Tutti. Pope Francis warns that humanity is largely going Read more
In a written statement covering a range of ethical concerns, the French bishops permanent council urges Catholics to express their opposition to changes to France’s bioethics laws. The proposed reforms have just passed the National Assembly on first reading and should be passed into law by early next year. They will allow assisted procreation to Read more