The situation for Gaza’s Christian community is “worsening hour by hour”. It’s extremely serious says the Palestinian city’s only Catholic priest, Father Gabriel Romanelli (pictured). Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) reports agree. “Our people are constantly suffering. Every time both sides talk about a truce, the intensity of military operations increases” reports an Read more
A New Zealand-based Christian church group are desperately attempting to flee Israel as they feel the vibrations of daily rocket attacks from their hotel. Fifty-four members of the Connection City Church Assemblies of God were on a Holy Land tour when Palestinian Islamist group Hamas launched a surprise attack, killing hundreds and wounding thousands. “I’m Read more
Pope Francis expressed gratitude, Friday, for the cease-fire in the Holy Land. “My thoughts turn to the events taking place these days in the Holy Land,” Francis said, referring to the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. “I thank God for the decision to halt the armed conflicts and acts of violence, and I Read more
Pope Francis has returned a fragment of wood believed to have formed part of Jesus’s manger to Bethlehem after about 1,400 years in Europe. The relic has most recently been at Rome’s Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. It is said “a very large number of pilgrims from all over the world” went to the Basilica Read more
The Good Friday collection for the holy places is taken up in every Catholic parish in New Zealand. Catholics in New Zealand have given more than $840,000 to the upkeep of sacred sites in the Holy Land over the past six years, but contributions to the annual collection are falling. In 2012 the collection raised Read more
Robbing the church at the site of Christ’s Transfiguration has drawn disgusted comments. Leading Holy Land Christians called the burglary at the site “a heinous crime and an act that violates the sanctity of the Holy Sites”. They have asked the police to conduct an investigation. They hope the police will “seriously look into the matter Read more
Restrictions imposed by the Israeli government are preventing Christians from worshipping freely in the Holy Land this Holy Week. Yusef Daher, secretary-general of the Jerusalem Interchurch Center, said the network of Israeli police barriers disrupt the flow and number of people who are able to reach the church of the Holy Sepulchre for Good Friday Read more
As Christians around the world prepare during Advent to celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace, much of the world is at war and preparing for more war – more bombs, more drones, more boots on the ground. From the drug cartel war in Mexico, to the civil war in South Sudan, to the Read more
Three directors of religious studies from New Zealand Catholic schools took an opportunity in January to study the Jewish Holocaust. The Holocaust Centre of New Zealand awarded scholarships to Adele Churchman of Roncalli College in Timaru, Colin Macleod of Kavanagh College in Dunedin and Dan Stollenwerk from St Peter’s College in Auckland. The three visited Read more
A booklet promoting a major pilgrimage complex in Galilee has likened the Legionaries of Christ’s disgraced founder to St Mary Magdalene. The conservative order’s founder, Fr Marcial Maciel Degollado, was a sexual predator, abusing young seminarians and living a double life that included fathering three children by two women from Mexico. He was dismissed from Read more