My St Christopher medal comes with me everywhere, Pope Francis says. He told the Italian army’s Transports and Materials Corps last Thursday that he was delighted they shared a devotion to the martyr St Christopher – he carries him everywhere and the Corps has had him as their patron since 1954. “I always carry a Read more
All Saints in Nelson has started a community-focused initiative that takes the church outside the building. On Sunday morning, instead of attending their regular church service, the congregation shared breakfast of bacon sandwiches and coffee before being anointed with oil and the words from Matthew 10, “freely you have received, so freely give”. And with Read more
On Saturday, Pope Francis laid out a template for living the faith in the deeply secular culture of Belgium. Belgium is consistently rated as one of the world’s most secular societies, but Francis insisted that doesn’t mean we can stop trying to follow our template of service, mission and joy. “We have moved from a Read more
In East Timor, a country that is 98% Catholic and where priests are referred to as Amu – meaning ‘lord’, Pope Francis delivered a strong message of service, urging bishops and priests not to seek power or social prestige in their roles. Francis sounded warnings against the dangers of arrogance and power in religious leadership. Read more
“Until the Holy Father has a woman proclaiming the gospel in St Peter’s at a Mass he celebrates, the Church really doesn’t have the right to say women are to be recognised as equal and to be held as equally human to men” said Phyllis Zagano PhD, a Senior Research Associate in Residence at Hofstra Read more
We are here to crown a King, and we crown a King to serve. What is given today is for the gain of all. For Jesus Christ announced a Kingdom in which the poor and oppressed are freed from the chains of injustice. The blind see. The bruised and broken-hearted are healed. That Kingdom sets Read more
Pope Francis is urging 20 Italian Bishops to seek ways to revitalize their pastoral care in areas facing depopulation, marginalization, and economic difficulty. The pope is asking Bishops to overcome “nostalgia for the past” and take bold steps to be a consoling presence in places where hardship is abound. Parishes, he added, should become training Read more
One of the buzz-phrases of Catholic theology – cited in virtually every document from the Vatican – is that the liturgy, and especially the Eucharist, is ‘the source and summit’ of the Christian life. The origins of the phrase are complex, but it enters mainstream Catholic discourse with the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy in Read more
“Holiness transcends denominational boundaries”, said Pope Francis while meeting a delegation of the Salvation Army. The pope was quoting a comment made by former Salvationist leader General Andre Cox during a 2014 papal audience. During the audience, Francis also recalled the first lesson he ever received in ecumenism. He was four years old and met Read more
Pope Francis appeared to take aim at Cuba’s communist regime in comments at a Mass at Havana’s Revolution Square on Sunday. The Pontiff told the crowd that “service is never ideological”. Speaking in a plaza dominated by a towering portrait of revolutionary Che Guevara, the Pope told the crowd they should “serve people, not ideas”. Read more