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Church services in the forest and help for refugees: Priests are close to the people

Two years of civil war, which has gradually intensified, have shaped the face and pastoral approach of priests, consecrated persons, catechists and pastoral workers in many dioceses of Myanmar, especially in the areas most affected by the conflict between the army and the People’s Defense Forces rebel groups, which have joined forces with the ethnic […]

Amid row over same-sex blessings, Pope laments ‘splitting into groups’ in the Church

Pope Francis on the feast of the Epiphany lamented the sharp division among Catholics of differing views, saying believers must imitate the three wise men in putting God at the centre of their lives, rather than their own ideas of the faith. Speaking to attendees of his Jan. 6 Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, the […]

Martin Scorsese says new Jesus film aims to ‘take away the negatives’ of organised religion

Adaptation of book by Shûsaku Endô, who wrote the source novel for 2016’s Silence, is understood to be set mostly in the present day Martin Scorsese is to follow up his triumphant true-crime epic Killers of the Flower Moon with an 80-minute film about Jesus designed to “take away the negative[s] … associated with organised religion”. In […]

Top Ukraine prelate says Vat doc on same-sex blessings applies only to Latin church

Amid a broad spectrum of reactions unleashed by Fiducia Supplicans, a new Vatican document permitting non-liturgical blessings of same-sex couples, Ukraine’s Greek Catholic Church has become the first eastern communion to declare explicitly that the document does not apply outside the Latin Church. “On the basis of canon. 1492 of the CCCC this Declaration concerns […]

Surrogacy is an Injustice to All Involved, Bishop Barron Says in Support of Pope Francis

Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth, issued this reflection in support of the Holy Father’s recent remarks to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See, which included a specific mention of the harms of surrogacy. “Pope Francis strongly condemned […]

African bishops’ conferences unite against blessing same-sex couples

The episcopal conferences of Africa are united in the belief that “the extra-liturgical blessings proposed in the declaration Fiducia Supplicans cannot be carried out in Africa” without creating scandal. Cardinal Fridolin Ambogo of Kinshasa, the president of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) summarized the stands taken by the different bishops’ conferences of […]

Security denied, function to honor Kandhamal martyrs postponed

The Catholic Church has postponed a function to celebrate the Vatican recognition of the Kandhamal martyrs after the civil administration denied security. More than 10,000 people were expected to attend the January 9 function at Raikia to honor 35 Servants of God who were martyred for their faith during the 2008 anti-Christian violence in Kandhamal, […]

Manipur, Archbishop of Imphal: ‘At Christmas God unites us beyond any tribe, language or culture’

“We are approaching Christmas” and “traditionally we look forward to this great celebration”, but “this year several parishes in our archdiocese will not be able to carry out Christmas liturgies or gather families and loved ones as happened in the past due to ethnic violence.” For this reason the Church invites us to “refrain from […]