Posts Tagged ‘unity’

Four days in Bahrain – papal visit highlights

Monday, November 7th, 2022
Bahrain

The Pope’s 39th Apostolic Journey was to Bahrain last week.  It was his first visit to Bahrain and second to the Gulf. He was aiming to further solidify his outreach to the Muslim community and to offer support to Bahrain’s small Christian minority. Pope Francis and the King Francis’s first official engagement was a courtesy Read more

Eucharist, sacrament of unity and source of division

Thursday, July 14th, 2022
Eucharist

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

Keeping it together: Progressive and conservative Catholics need unity

Monday, June 14th, 2021

Earlier this month, more than a hundred Catholic parishes in Germany carried out priestly blessings of same-sex couples in defiance of the Vatican and the German bishops. The ceremonies were, in part, a response to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s recent instruction forbidding such blessings and reiterating the Church’s traditional teaching regarding Read more

Can the US church manage the synodal path?

Thursday, May 27th, 2021
managing the synodal path

Pope Francis’ decision to postpone and widen the planned 2022 synod is extraordinary and invites everyone to stop and take a deep breath. The planned subject — “For a synodal Church: communion, participation and mission” — remains the same but the new means adopted are now more intrinsically suited to such a topic. The Synod Read more

Preserving unity is every Christian’s duty

Thursday, September 19th, 2019

Every Christian must preserve the communion of the Church; it does not mean uniformity but rather a way of living with differences. So says Father Sylvain Brison, ecclesiologist, assistant professor at the Faculty of Theology of the Catholic Institute of Paris. Brison unpacks the pope’s comments about schism in the Church with Anne-Bénédicte Hoffner. Are we Read more

Spirit creates movement within Church, leads to unity: Pope

Tuesday, May 12th, 2015

Pope Francis has said the Holy Spirit creates movement within the Church, which at first sight might appear to be confusion. Preaching at a Mass on May 8 at his Santa Marta residence, the Pope said if this movement of the Spirit is welcomed with prayer and a spirit of dialogue, it always generates unity Read more

Man carrying a cross from Stewart Island to Kerikeri

Friday, September 12th, 2014

Ryan Craig is walking with a purpose. The Oamaru man is trekking the length of New Zealand carrying a cross to spread a message of forgiveness and unity. The walk will coincide with the double centenary of the first message preached by missionary Samuel Marsden. “I have a heart for this nation and seeing unity Read more

Unity theme of #2PopeSaints

Tuesday, April 29th, 2014

[Sunday]’s canonisation of Saint John XXIII and Saint John Paul II drew 800,000 people to Rome. I spoke with a small fraction of the massive crowd that filled the streets near the Vatican, but every one of them agreed: Two popes, two saints, two more reasons to be happy. Much of the commentariat – and Read more

Awatere Catholics and Protestants share church

Friday, October 11th, 2013

Since the 6.6 magnitude Grassmere quake on August 16, Catholics and Protestants in the Awatere have been worshipping in the same place. That’s because the Anglicans and Presbyterians had their St Andrew’s Awatere Christian Joint Venture Church, in Seddon, destroyed by the jolt. And, in the spirit of Christianity, the Catholic community opened their doors Read more

Archbishop Chong outlines Church’s role in Fiji

Friday, June 21st, 2013

Three days after taking office Archbishop Chong has been speaking about the Catholic Church’s role in Fiji. He says the church should not get involved in party politics, but rather communicate through God’s values of love, peace and justice. Chong said the church could help society in a teaching role; helping to form the mind Read more