Login      Register  
Subscription

Pope Francis trades popemobile for a rickshaw

Pope Francis waved to crowds from the backseat of one of Bangladesh’s typical bicycle pulled rickshaws en route to a meeting of interfaith leaders at the residence of Dhaka’s archbishop. Bangladeshi dancers serenad-ed him as he made his way to the stage for the event, where he was to meet with Rohingya refugees from Myanmar. […]

Abducted Bangladeshi priest freed

A Bangladeshi Catholic priest who was abducted in the north-east on Nov 27, ahead of the visit of Pope Francis to the country, was found alive in Sylhet city on December 1. Fr Walter William Rozario is said to have fled from his kidnappers and got in touch with his family, his elder brother Bimal […]

Vietnam bars another priest from leaving country

Father John Luu Ngoc Quynh from the Redemptorist Community in Hanoi was stopped by security officials at Noi Bai Airport on Dec. 5 and prevented from traveling to France, the community said in a statement. He is the second Redemptorist priest to be prevented from leaving the country this year. Father Quynh was invited to […]

Why would a Saudi Prince pay $450m for a painting of Christ?

The news that the buyer of Salvator Mundi, the most expensive painting ever sold, is the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman. The painting is destined to hang in the Louvre Abu Dhabi. But Salvator Mundi is also an interesting painting for Prince to buy for several reasons. Firstly, Saudi Arabia is not […]

Pope exhorts Myanmar monks to dialogue – compares Buddha and St Francis of Assisi

Meeting with Myanmar’s Buddhist leaders in Yangon, Pope Francis again pleaded for interreligious dialogue. Repeating what he had earlier told 150,000 faithful at a papal mass, he emphasized that religions need to work to “heal the wounds” of a still divided nation. In a meeting at the Kaba Aye Pagoda in Yangon on November 29, […]

Number of Americans who view Christmas as religious keeps eroding

In a telephone survey of 1,503 U.S. adults conducted on Nov. 28 – Dec. 4 for the Pew Research Centre, 55% said they mark Christmas as a religious holiday. The figure in 2013, when Pew last asked this question, was 59%. “Nine in 10 U.S. adults say they celebrate the holiday, which is nearly identical […]

In western Kenya, growing sect confuses some local Catholics

As the drumbeats grew louder at the Jerusalem Church, members of the Legio Maria movement bowed in unison before they began speaking in tongues, praying and singing. Their “cardinal,” Raphael Midigo, dressed in a purple gown, appeared from behind a curtain near the pulpit and began to pray for the sick, the blind, deaf, disabled, […]

Breast cancer risk skyrockets with longtime hormonal contraception use: new study

Ingesting hormonal contrace-ption for 10 years increases the risk of breast cancer by 38%, according to a new study in The New England Journal of Medi-cine. “This is the first study that had shown intrauterine devices with hormones having associa-tion with breast cancer in large numbers,” Dr David Agus, a University of Southern California physician, […]