Popes don’t suddenly become perfect, sinless human beings after they’re elected to papal office. Pope Francis says what being elected does do, is make a pope’s responsibilities greater and his prayer list longer. As far as sin’s concerned though, Francis says he’s basically the same person he was before he was elected in 2013. “The Read more
The Australian royal commission is over, but there is still a long way for us to travel so that we might stand together in solidarity committed to justice, truth and healing for all, for the living and for the dead. We are unlikely as a Church or as a society to get this right for Read more
Great shocks to the system often can jar loose utterly new responses from institutions typically given to maintaining the status quo. Other times, the effect can be to reopen debates from the past which, not so long ago, seemed definitively closed. That latter scenario may be unfolding in Australia right now, pivoting on once-intense debates Read more
In the BBC remake of G. K. Chesterton’s Father Brown mystery novels, the intrepid title character sometimes makes use of certain special knowledge when sleuthing crimes. This particular superpower is not the result of radioactive mutation or dark magic. It has to do with his priesthood, but it is not the Holy Spirit, exactly. It Read more
South Korea can be sure of Vatican support in reconciling differences with North Korea. “You are always welcome,” South Korea’s Archbishop Hyginus Kim Hee-jong was told when he asked if President Moon Jae-in could visit. Last month Moon, who is a practising Catholic, sent Archbishop Kim to the Vatican on his behalf. Kim is South Read more
Pope Francis has set the scene for the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) to have the marriages it celebrates validated. This is one of a number of the Pope’s initiatives that aim to bring SSPX into full communion with the Church. A letter from the Vatican to Catholic bishops said they will be allowed Read more
Christian groups in Vanuatu would not support an international reconciliation ceremony which involved Muslims. The reconciliation took place on Sunday. The chairman of the Vanuatu Christian Council, Pastor Allan Nafuki, said they would not support the ceremony and instead plan a march for all Christians in Vanuatu next Friday. The want to send out a Read more
Prisoners at Bihute jail near Goroka in Papua New Guinea have reconciled with Sisters of Mercy. The reconciliation means that the sisters will resume their programs inside the jail. They were stopped earlier in the year after an attack on the sisters’ residence. In April, 12 armed men drove into the Sisters of Mercys’ compound Read more
The Solomon Islands Ministry of National Unity, Reconciliation and Peace which has just completed a week of national reconciliation ceremonies for Solomon Islands own ethnic crisis in 1998, now wants to pursue reconciliation with PNG and Bougainville. Organisers of a week of reconciliation ceremonies held in Solomon Islands say the programme is a first step Read more
The bishop of Bougainville, Bernard Unabali, has called on the people of Bougainville to see reconciliation as means for bringing peace and not just for political reasons. He said this during his speech at Teituno village in the Wisai area of Buin in south Bougainville while witnessing a reconciliation ceremony in May. The reconciliation saw Read more