Christmas this season in the Holy Land will be celebratory, despite ongoing blood-shed and war, the patriarchs of the Holy Land said, as Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa encouraged pilgrims to come back to the birthplace of Jesus. “Pilgrimage is now absolutely safe...
Pope Francis affirmed his intention to attend next year’s celebration marking 1,700 years since the first Council of Nicaea, in Iznik in north-west Turkey. “I am thinking of going there,” the Pope told participants at the Vati-can’s International Theological...
Catholic Church leaders in the U.S., Rome, and the Middle East have expressed cautious “hope” that the new regime in Syria will respect Christian communities after a lightning offensive by Islamist rebel groups toppled the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. Bishop...
Members of the Rapid Su-pport Force (RSF) seized Bishop Yunan Tombe Trille Kuku Andali of El-Obeid, subjected him to a beating and threatened to execute him as he travelled back to his diocese from a meeting in Juba, the capital of South Sudan. He had attended a...
A pair of former Vatican officials has been found guilty of embezzlement and abuse of office as part of a long-running investigation into financial irregularities at a prominent choir there. Monsignor Massimo Palo-mbella, who previously directed the Sistine Chapel...
