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German churches pray, provide aid as European flooding death toll climbs

German Catholic churches offered spiritual and financial support to survivors of devasta-ting flooding in two regions of the country. At Masses July 18, bishops, priests and parishioners prayed for those who died, emergency workers who continued to clear mud-lined streets and residents seeking to salvage what they could from damaged and destroy-ed homes, the German […]

The nine questions that sealed the fate of the Latin Mass

Pope Francis rolled back what some considered his predecessor’s olive branch to traditionalist Catholics by severely restricting celebration of the old Latin Mass. The move essentially reversed a liberalization of the older rite decreed by Pope emeritus Benedict XVI in 2007. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s doctrinal watchdog agency, sent […]

The beginning of the end of the Francis papacy?

Pope Francis seems to be recovering nicely from his July 4 surgery, when the 84-year-old pontiff underwent a three-hour procedure for diverticular stenosis. A Vatican spokesman says he will remain “a few more days in order to optimize his medical and rehabilitation therapy.” But even with the best prognosis, age is catching up to Francis. […]

Facebook’s Next Target: The Religious Experience

The social media giant had a proposition, Sam Collier, the pastor, recalled in an interview: to use the church as a case study to explore how churches can “go further farther on Facebook.” For months Facebook developers met weekly with Hillsong and explored what the church would look like on Facebook and what apps they […]

Synod of Bishops publishes list of commission members

The Vatican released the names of members of two commissions charged with assisting the leaders of the Synod of Bishops’ general secretariat in reviewing documents, drafting resources and developing best practices. According to the synod we-bsite, the theological commission and the methodology commission will include religious and lay experts from around the world. The theme […]

Former Anglican priest says God helped him find way to Catholic priesthood

For Father Stephen Hilgen-dorf, it has been a long journey from his role as a priest in the Anglican tradition. It included a desire to be in full communion with the Catholic Church that was so strong he was willing to give up ministry altogether. But God had other plans for him. He and his […]

For Iraqi Christians, scenes of both horror and hope

As Iraqis sort through the rubble of the latest terrorist attack Tuesday, an attack on a busy market in downtown Baghdad that left at least 30 people dead, one Catholic priest in Iraq says it’s important not just to focus on the horror of life in the country but also the hope. As it happens, […]

A thousand churches may collapse in Russia in the next ten years

The register of damaged and ruined church buildings of Russia has almost 4 thousand objects already, the website of the Moscow Patriarchate reported on July 1. At the same time, it was noted that, according to the total estimates of the diocesan tree keepers, about a thousand churches have a high risk of collapse in […]