In a show of solidarity with their Catholic neighbours, Muslims all over France attended Mass on Sunday, five days after a murderous claimed attack on a Catholic priest in Normandy. France’s Muslim council, the CFCM, urged Muslims to show “solidarity and compassion” over Father Jacques Hamel’s murder. “We are all Catholics of France,” said Anouar Read more
The world is at war, but it’s not at heart a religious conflict, Pope Francis says. He was speaking, ahead of his visit to Poland, to reporters seeking his comments on the murder of a Catholic priest by French jihadists on Tuesday. As soon as the plane took off from Rome enroute to Krakow, Vatican Read more
In the space of a week, Pope Francis reduced the responsibilities of Cardinal George Pell and rebuffed an initiative by Cardinal Robert Sarah. … Pope Francis [also] did a pretty good number on Australian Cardinal George Pell by once more drastically reducing his powers as prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy (SFE). The pope Read more
When Pope Francis arrives in Poland today to meet with an expected 2 million young people from around the world, he’s going with a firm idea of the dreams, fears and challenges so many of them face. He knows what lies inside the hearts and minds of today’s youth. This is not because of any Read more
In what Cardinal John Dew called “an act of mercy” dozens of new pairs of shoes, vouchers and socks were piled on Wellington’s Sacred Heart Cathedral steps on Sunday. “We have asked people to ‘be an act of mercy’ and they have responded with great generosity for those who can’t afford to put shoes and Read more
The Vatican is striking back at critics of Pope Francis’s document on family life, titled “Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love)”. Wednesday’s L’Osservatore Romano carried a front page essay by Italian Catholic historian and politician Rocco Buttiglione. He insisted that the document is in line with teaching by previous popes on divorced and civilly remarried Read more
An Australian archbishop hopes the Church will not miss the evanglisation opportunity afforded by the popularity of Pope Francis. In an interview on the Crux website, Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher said Francis is “ . . . making lots of people quite distant from the Church suddenly listening and now interested”. The archbishop said many Read more
From the moment Pope Francis was elected on March 13, 2013 it was clear that a huge gap separated him from the so-called Catholic traditionalists – on liturgy, ecclesiology, ecumenism, moral theology and the Church’s social doctrine. Despite their constant attacks against him, the pope showed a remarkable restraint towards the traditionalists – and not Read more
Religious leaders around the world have condemned terrorism and expressed solidarity with France after the attack in Nice in which scores of people died. The religious voices included Christian figures such as Pope Francis and prominent Muslims including the Grand Mufti of Egypt, Shawqi Allam. A truck drove through crowds celebrating Bastille Day (July 14) in Nice. Pope Francis Read more
Pope Francis has expressly told the Vatican’s liturgy chief that the extraordinary form of the Mass should not be the norm. Francis met with Cardinal Robert Sarah, the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, on July 10. This followed comments by the cardinal at a liturgy conference in London last week. Cardinal Sarah invited Read more