The Catholic Bishops of New Zealand have set aside a week in September for Social Justice Week. In 2016 it runs from 11-17 September. In 2015 the number of persons living in a country other than where they were born reached 244 million for the world as a whole, a 41 per cent increase compared to Read more
A former president of Ireland has said that an entrenched clericalism in that country used to view any opposition to itself as militant secularism. Speaking in an interview on the Crux website, Mary McAleese said Ireland had, at least in part, been dissuaded from anti-immigrant movements because of its rich Christian culture. She was asked Read more
American Catholic bishops joined various faith groups in calling on the US Supreme Court to give temporary relief to undocumented persons in the country who are eligible for deportation. “Courts have repeatedly recognized that there is a public interest in maintaining stable families and communities,” the bishops said in an amicus brief filed on March Read more
US presidential hopeful Donald Trump has labelled Pope Francis’s questioning of his Christianity as “disgraceful”. Francis was asked in a press conference on a papal flight from Mexico for his reaction to Mr Trump’s proposal of a US-Mexico border wall, and what he might say to US Catholics supporting Mr Trump. Francis said that he Read more
Pope Francis has prayed at the US-Mexico border, blessing people gathered across the Rio Grande River in Texas. On Wednesday, the final day of his visit to Mexico, Francis went up a ramp overlooking the river and the border, to a makeshift memorial representing migrants killed in their attempts to reach the US. Shoes of Read more
US presidential hopeful Donald Trump has criticised Pope Francis for planning to visit the border between the US and Mexico this week. On a Fox Business Network show, last week, Mr Trump was asked what he made of Pope Francis being at the border, standing with migrants. “So I think that the Pope is a Read more
The first pope in history to address a joint session of Congress, Pope Francis, defended the human right of masses of oppressed and poor people to immigrate. “We must not be taken aback by their number, but rather view them as persons, seeing their faces and listening to their stories, trying to respond as best we can Read more
In an historic address to a joint session of the US Congress, Pope Francis challenged US lawmakers and the nation to heal the “open wounds” of the world. The 45-minute address by Pope Francis on September 24 was the first time a Roman Pontiff had addressed this body of US lawmakers. The Pope’s speech featured a Read more
Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York has hit out at US presidential hopeful Donald Trump’s comments on immigration. In an op-ed piece for the New York Daily News, Cardinal Dolan likened Mr Trump’s views to a “virulent strain” of American “nativism”. “Nativists believed the immigrant to be dangerous, and that America was better off without Read more
An Italian priest has posted a notice on the door of his church telling racists they are banned from the premises. “Racists are not allowed in this church,” read the notice posted by Fr Gianfranco Formenton of Sant’Angelo parish in Mercole, Umbria. The notice adds: “For I was a stranger and you did not take Read more