The Vatican’s top finance man Fr Juan Antonio Guerrero has warned that in economic matters Vatican finances must serve Church’s mission and not the other way around. “As the pope has often repeated, it is not for us to serve the economy, but for the economy to serve us,” said Father Guerrero at a symposium Read more
The church is experiencing widespread calls for reform and has responded with platforms for listening and reflection through the 2023 Synod of Bishops in Rome. Many calls for reform have stressed the need to address changes in the church’s culture. However, the history of organisational and cultural change underscores leadership as being the most important Read more
The front line of the Church’s work is the Christian people whose lives are leaven in the dough of all the ordinary circumstances of ordinary life. The purpose of ministries within the Church is to provide nurture and formation for that mission. It is the mission that matters. Part I – Ministries For some years Read more
With a few months to the first session of the long-awaited Australian Plenary Council (PC2020), we are finally headed down the home stretch. The initial phase of listening drew nearly 220,000 people across Australia and 17,500 individual and group submissions. These submissions were distilled into the six national theme papers and then further distilled again Read more
In a pastoral message released in December, Cardinal Gerald Lacroix of the Archdiocese of Quebec announced a dramatic transformation in how the Catholic Church in the province should understand itself. Faced with declining resources and a faithful but increasingly small cohort of weekly Mass attendees—between 2 and 11 percent of the province, according to The Read more
While TikTok may seem like a frivolous app, teenagers and 20-somethings play with on their phones, the platform — which is relatively new to the U.S. market — has already shown the power to make change “IRL.” The video-centric app is credited with popularizing the runaway hit “Stunnin’” by Curtis Waters. In another instance, it Read more
The Takirua 2020: Shaping the Mission conference planned for Wellington from 24 to 26 April has been postponed till later this year because of uncertainties caused by the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic. The decision to postpone has been made before setting a new date, to provide clarity and certainty for people around the April dates in the face Read more
The example of St Paul and his mission to Greece is a reminder to Christians to approach those of other cultures as people who know the love of God not as non-believers worthy of hostility and contempt. He is encouraging Christians to create bridges of hope rather than hostility. The comments were made by Pope Read more
We know what to do for someone who comes to church, but we don’t know how to get someone to come to church. We know how to be Christian when we are poor, under-educated, and culturally marginalized, but we struggle to be Christian when we are affluent, educated, and have a full place in the Read more
In my hometown, there is a lifesaving parish called St. William. Every week, the single Sunday liturgy in the modest church building in an impoverished neighborhood is filled to capacity with a passionate mix of young and old; black, white, and brown; and religious and lay from dozens of zip codes. St. William is a Read more