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Northern Kerala gets first basilica

Thousands of people were present when the Vatican raised an 18th century shrine in Mahe as a basilica, marking a historic milestone in Kerala’s northern region. During a Mass on February 24, Bishop Varghese Chakkalakal of Calicut on February 24 announced that the Vatican has given the new status to St. Teresa’s Church in Mahe […]

Discalced Carmelite appointed Kurnool’s sixth bishop

Pope Francis on February 27 appointed Father Johannes Gorantla as the sixth bishop of Kurnool diocese in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. This appointment was made public at noon in Rome and its corresponding time in India on the bishop-elect’s 50th birthday.

Vietnamese communist takes ‘road to Damascus’ to become Catholic

Ho Ca Dau is taking catechism classes to be baptized into the Catholic Church after having helped persecute Christians for nearly a decade, treating them as enemies of communism. The 27-year-old from the Bru-Van Kieu ethnic group believes his conversion is akin to that of St. Paul, who “persecuted Christians but fell to the ground […]

Assam Christians criticize state government’s “misguided, misleading” plans

Christian Churches in Assam, northeastern India, have criticized the state government’s “misguided and misleading” statement equating healing with proselytization. The Assam Christian Forum (ACF), an umbrella body of all Churches, has also rejected a radical Hindu group’s demand for the removal of Christian symbols from missionary schools in the state. The group, Kutumba Surakshya Parishad […]

Argentine bishops renounce government-funded stipends

In Pope Francis’s native Argentina, the usual financial challenges faced by the Catholic Church around the world are being compounded by a historic decision by the country’s bishops to reject the stipends the national government has been paying to Catholic clergy and seminarians since 1979. The decision to stop accepting the stipends was made by […]

Religious people coped better with Covid-19 pandemic, research suggests

Two Cambridge-led studies suggest that the psychological distress caused by lockdowns (UK) and experience of infection (US) was reduced among those of faith compared to non-religious people. People of religious faith may have experienced lower levels of unhappiness and stress than secular people during the UK’s Covid-19 lockdowns in 2020 and 2021, according to a […]

Vatican’s abuse expert says ending priestly celibacy could prevent a ‘double life’

One of the Catholic Church’s leading doctrinal officials has reiterated his unusual call for the global institution to consider ending its millennia-long requirement that priests remain celibate, saying that allowing priestly marriage could be a means of preventing clerics from living dangerous double lives. In an exclusive interview with National Catholic Reporter on Jan. 24, […]

Theologian: Pope is a great advocate of the diaconate for women

Italian theologian and religious Linda Pocher has con-firmed that Pope Francis is in favour of the diaconate of wo-men. As reported by the Spanish portal “Religion Digital” (Friday), the Pope is “very much in favour of the diaconate for women”, according to the Don Bosco sister, who teaches Christology and Mariology in Rome. The Vatican […]