Login      Register  
Subscription

Synods are not for deal-making, but for listening to Spirit, pope says‍

Before a Synod, bishops must learn what their people want and think and need, not so they can change church teaching, but so they can preach the Gospel more effectively, Pope Francis told the bishops of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Forty-seven bishops from Ukrainian dioceses in Ukraine and 10 othe

Francis calls US Catholic criticism of his papacy an ‘honour’

Pope Francis has spoken in unusually frank terms about the theological divide in the U.S. Catholic Church, calling it an “honour” that some conservative Catholic groups in the country continue to criticize his papacy. In a brief exchange with a journalist aboard his Sept. 4 flight from Rome for the beginning of a three-nation tour […]

Pope to create 13 new cardinals in October

Pope Francis announced he will create 13 new cardi-nals on Oct. 5, choosing prelates from 13 different nations as a sign of “the missionary vocation of the church that continues to proclaim the merciful love of God to all men and women of the earth.” The only Canadian named was 73-year-old Jesuit Father Michael Czerny, […]

Vatican: German synod plans ‘not ecclesiologically valid’

In a letter sent to German bishops, the Vatican has said that plans for a binding Church Synod in Germany are “not ecclesiologically valid.” Plans for a “binding synodal process” were first announced by Cardinal Reinhard Marx, head of the German episcopal conference, earlier this year. CNA reported that draft statues for the planned “Synodal Assembly” […]

Catholic missionaries hit the streets to evangelize

Missionaries from the Institute of the Incarnate Word have been pounding the pavement this September to invite Brooklynites around St Teresa of Avila, Crown Heights, and Co-Cathedral of St Joseph’s, Prospect Heights, to church. The group of 40 religious brothers and sisters, most of them students, came from the Washington D.C. area. They begin each […]

Pope celebrates Madagascar’s ‘living saint’, champion of the poor

Pope Francis on Sept. 8 celebrated a former student of his who is now sometimes called Madagascar’s “living saint” for having changed the lives of thousands of poor people who once lived in garbage dumps. Thousands of former slum dwellers, many of them children, gave the Pope an ecstatic welcome, leaving him seemingly overwhelmed by […]