International

Fight fires to save the Amazon, pleads Pope

Pope Francis has called for a joint effort by the international community to stop the fires raging in the Amazon rainforest and protect a region he describes as a “vital lung” of the world. Speaking after praying the Angelus in St Peter’s Square, the 82-year-old Latin American Pope pointed to the global concern for the […]

Retired Pope responds to criticism of his reflection on abuse crisis

Responding to criticism of notes he published about the roots of the clerical sexual abuse crisis, retired Pope Benedict XVI said the fact that the critiques barely mentioned God proved his point. “As far as I can see, in most reactions to my contribution, God does not appear at all,” which is “exactly what I […]

The Real Presence: What do Catholics believe and how Church can respond

Do Catholics believe that the Eucharist is truly the body and blood of Christ? A Pew Research Centre survey released on Aug. 5 found that nearly 70% of Catholics believe that the bread and wine used for Communion during Mass are “symbols of the body and blood of Jesus Christ,” while about 30% believe that […]

Huge decline in religious studies in British Schools

Religious studies has shown a large decline at GCSE, with less than half of secondary schools now offering the subject. According to a new report conducted by academics at Liver-pool Hope University and backed by Culham St Gabriel’s, a trust that supports excellence in religious education, the numbers of schools participating in GCSE Religious Studies […]

Lay Catholics Must Be More Attentive to Financial Abuse

Sexual abuse isn’t the only scandal confronting the Catholic Church. There is a growing recognition that financial abuse is more prevalent than most Catholics think. Look no further than the case of the disgraced former bishop of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia: Bishop Michael Joseph Bransfield. Once a little-known leader in the Church, Bishop Bransfield burst into […]

Iraqi archbishop reflects on Christian community five years after ISIS takeover

Five years on from the conquering of Christian communities in Iraq by the so-called Islamic State, Christians in the country remain at the “point of extinction,” Chaldean Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil said. “The ISIS attack led to the displacement of more than 125,000 Christians from historical homelands and rendered us, in a single night, […]

Pope consoles priests rattled by sins of few

Pope Francis has written a letter to the more than 400,000 Catholic priests worldwide encouraging them during the tribulations from the sexual abuse crisis. The letter is meant to give priests, many of whom feel disheartened because of the horrendous crimes of abuse committed by a small percentage of their fellow priests, hope in these […]

War of the Word: top scholars battle over Bible translations

An academic war of words has broken out among leading Catholic scholars over the Revi-sed New Jerusalem (RNJB) translation of the Bible. The world-renowned historian, Professor Eamon Duffy, of Magdalene College, Cambridge, criticised the RNJB as guilty of “flaccid” waffle and “casual inaccuracy” after another senior academic proposed it should be used for a revised […]

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Youth taught to use social media to become Good Samaritans

Pakistan’s oldest priest passes away at 97