The group of teenage pilgrims traipsing through Lisbon during this week’s big meeting of Catholic youth from all over the world seemed to have taken to heart Pope Francis’ call for them to shake things up. It would be better, one girl said, if the church were “more inclusive of all relationships, gay rights and Read more
Teenage Christianity can be so anxious that it can hardly be called “Faith.” At least, that was my youthful experience. Being Cristian was a serious business. I was so busy with self-correction that I often missed the beauty of Jesus in my life. It seemed that every church I attended wanted to warn young people Read more
On the stage in the Garden of the Empire Square in the Belém district of Lisbon , Mariia, 31, Natalia, 33, and Oksana, 28, sing a patriotic song in Ukrainian, holding the blue and yellow flag, in the admiring silence of the assembly. They come from Ternopil, in the western part of their country devastated Read more
“There is space in the Church for everyone… Everyone, everyone, everyone!” Pope Francis encouraged the half-a-million young people who warmly received him on Thursday evening at Lisbon’s Edward VII Park to repeat this word numerous times. The Pope appeared revitalized and invigorated by the contagious enthusiasm of the girls and boys who, together with their Read more
Last month, a group of University of Auckland researchers released a report on social cohesion in Aotearoa New Zealand. A media release accompanying the report stated that social cohesion is under threat in this country. “[The] challenge of social cohesion is becoming increasingly critical, and more research and policy development is needed to help sustain Read more
Belfast is in many ways still a deeply divided city, but last week young people from Catholic and Protestant communities – who live apart and go to religiously segregated schools – played music together at Belfast Summer School of Traditional Music, as part of the week long Belfast TradFest. From the sound of bagpipes echoing Read more
Ten years ago on the flight back from his first World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro, Pope Francis spoke these five simple words that reverberated around the world: “Who am I to judge?”. Then a relatively new pontiff, this was his comment in response to a reporter who inquired about a “gay lobby” in Read more
Junaid Javed, a Catholic living in Pakistan, was looking forward to his appointment to collect a visa to travel to World Youth Day – WYD – with his wife, Sunaina. But to his dismay, the Portuguese embassy returned his passport without a visa July 24, making him one of a rising number of people prevented Read more
In text messages released this past May, the former Fox News host Tucker Carlson described watching an online video of some Trump supporters beating a protestor around the time of the January 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. “It was three against one, at least … jumping a guy like that is dishonourable, obviously. “It’s Read more
The recent television reporting of exorcisms and potential abuse by a fringe religious group in the Diocese of Christchurch is deeply disturbing on several levels. Poor Church communication is in the spotlight. The nub of the issue is why a fringe group, that does not belong to the mainstream of the Church and does not Read more