Seminarian Daniel O’Kelly is preparing to go to Rome to finish his studies soon, but before he leaves, he has a special gift for the parishioners of St Catherine’s Laboure Gymea in Sydney, Australia. During a brief Advent placement at St Catherine’s in 2022, Daniel’s dedication to the church was evident. Returning for his long-term Read more
MasterChef Spain’s 11th season saw a Dominican friar stirring both people and food in the famous culinary show. Throughout the competition, Fr Marcos García showed up in his Dominican habit, with his rosary, offering blessings. In the past, the Church built institutions, he says. Now we have to go to people, to have a Church Read more
You will know that we are Christians by our love, but you will know that we are Catholics by our fights. Sadly, one of the things Catholics fight over is the Eucharist. In his June 29 apostolic letter to the Catholic people, Pope Francis decries this division while describing the Eucharist as the sacrament of Read more
Like most of his fellow Italians, Mattia Nanetti, 25, from the northern city of Bologna, grew up with the teachings and sacraments of the Catholic Church in parochial school. Even his scouting group was Catholic. But in September 2019 he decided the time had come to leave the church behind. He filled out a form Read more
A controversial Catholic priest in San Francisco criticized his parishioners for putting ‘safety’ over ‘sanctity’, skipping Mass to ‘avoid the remote possibility of dying from COVID-19 and claimed the news reports about the global virus as ‘largely unreal.’ Father Illo, of the Stars of the Sea Parish, made the remarks on July 26 in a Read more
The Catholic Church wants to change its way of doing catechesis and its way of looking at catechism. On June 25 The Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelisation released a new Directory for Catechesis. Previously catechesis was the responsibility of the Congregation for the Clergy. The new directory underlines that every baptised person is Read more
Pope Francis is calling online Masses and spiritual communion “dangerous”. His concern is that detached from the church, God’s people and the Sacraments, the COVID-19 lockdown may cause people to live the faith only for themselves. After dedicating Sunday’s Mass to expectant mothers, whose needs are in his prayers during the pandemic, Francis focused his Read more
About four weeks ago, facing imminent gathering bans, my partner and I eloped with 20 hours’ notice, marrying in Central Park with our priest and two close friends, standing 6 feet away, serving as witnesses. The decision, I’ll admit, had something to do with the way that life has changed here in New York, indoors, Read more
Catholics have stopped administering several sacraments in the Democratic Republic of Congo to help prevent an Ebola virus outbreak from spreading. Baptisms, confirmations, ordinations and anointing of the sick have been suspended until further notice in the country’s northwestern regions hardest hit by the outbreak. So far, at least 25 people have died since the Read more
There are plenty of things for which I thank God: good friends, the health of my children, the glorious tenth anniversary of Summorum Pontificum. Another is the fact that my wife and I were never made to attend a Catholic marriage preparation course. If we had been members of a parish where the mind-numbingly dull half-year Read more