After years of prayerful waiting, Catholics in Indonesia’s Papua finally have what they want — a bishop from their own ranks. Nearly 70 percent or about 3 million of the total 4.3 million population of this underdeveloped province are Christians. Around 675,000 are Catholics. Additionally, there are around 90,000 Catholics in West Papua out of Read more
One of the issues for today’s religious, is that many men and women in religious life can be tempted to focus on the decline in numbers of vocations in their orders. Francis made the comments to an online conference on religious life in Latin America. Urging the religious to renounce the criterion of declining numbers Read more
Other than sex, nothing is more heatedly debated by Catholics than the liturgy. Everyone has strong opinions based on years of personal experience. In the 1960s and ’70s, Pope Paul VI implemented revolutionary liturgical reforms laid out by the Second Vatican Council, but after his death in 1978, the Vatican put a stop to the Read more
After growing up Baptist, Nate Tinner-Williams became a Roman Catholic in December 2019. Now, after a move to New Orleans, he is planning to enter the seminary of the Josephites, an order of brothers and priests who have ministered specifically to the African-American community since 1893. In the meantime, he has devoted himself to developing Read more
It is just on year since Francis offered an inculturated Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica for Congolese immigrants. The Mass marked the 25th anniversary of the foundation of the Congolese Catholic Chaplaincy of Rome. The Mass included traditional Congolese music and the Zaire Use of the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite (Zaire Use). An Read more
Pope Francis said tell me: what’s the difference between having feathers on your head and the three-peaked hat worn by certain officials in our dicasters?” he said to applause, referring to the three-pointed red birettas worn by cardinals. Francis described how upset he became when he heard a snide comment about the feathered headdress worn Read more
The opening days of the Amazon Synod have been marked by the familiar polar tensions at the heart of the Catholic Church: between center and periphery, universal and local; between the demands of the law and the pastoral needs of a particular people. But now there is something new, something that is tilting the balance Read more
With the upcoming Amazon Synod, some people are only focused on whether it will recommend that the priesthood be opened to the ordination of married men, but there is a lot more at stake. True, the synod will discuss the possibility of ordaining married men because there is a shortage of priests to serve such Read more
Battle lines have been drawn for October’s highly anticipated Vatican summit on the Amazon region, where the proposal to give isolated communities access to the sacraments by ordaining married men has led to uproar — frustrating some of the meeting’s organizers for distracting from other pastoral concerns at stake in the region. Father Michael Czerny, Read more
Cultures recognize God but they also recognize that God makes use of culture to speak to us. In an interview with La Croix Africa, Father Léonard Santédi (pictured) explains the concept of inculturation. La Croix Africa: What is inculturation? Father Léonard Santédi: Inculturation is an encounter between life and the Christian message and culture, understood Read more