If you are looking for a way to idle away a couple of hours (or more if you are really keen), in your internet search engine type in an entry that goes something like, “the Resurrection of Christ in Western Art.” There will, of course, be many, many entries, however, they will have substantial similarities Read more
The United States’ youngest bishop, Bronx priest Joseph Espaillat, doesn’t always answer his phone. His tendency to let it ring unanswered is rather well known these days. Sometimes – perhaps inevitably – he misses important calls. “Four times, this call from Washington, D.C. And I was just like, ‘I’m not picking this up. I don’t Read more
The Catholic Church in the Philippines registered more than 1.6 million baptisms in 2020, the highest number in the world. The figures come from the 2022 edition of the Annuario Pontificio (Pontifical Yearbook) and the 2020 Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae (Statistical Yearbook of the Church), compiled by the Vatican’s Central Office of Church Statistics. The yearbook Read more
Pope Francis deserves our admiration, prayers and support for his tireless efforts to promote peace and goodwill among nations, peoples and religions, and for constantly reminding us that everything and everybody in the universe are interconnected. His intense advocacy for the health of our planet, his concern for the poor, and his courageous stance to Read more
To be raised among the ancient biblical myths was to live in a world that melded the material, spiritual, and imaginative. Rich with poetic metaphor, these stories have stimulated the imaginations and moral consciousness of the Jewish people for thousands of years. In traditional Jewish culture, myth once served many functions. The rituals commemorating the Read more
A short text message and some creative thinking have opened the door to an entirely lay-led Zoom Liturgy of the Word. The move in the former Newtown and Island Bay parishes, now Wellington South parish, helps the community keep connected when parishioners are unable or anxious about coming to Mass. Essentially as a service of Read more
Pope Francis on Wednesday kissed a battered Ukrainian flag that he said was brought to him from the “martyred” Ukrainian city of Bucha as he denounced the “massacre” there and called again for an end to the war. Francis held the flag as he welcomed a half-dozen Ukrainian refugee children up to the stage of Read more
Anyone attending a Catholic liturgy for the first time is struck by the number of gestures, images, and items of clothing that one just never sees anywhere else. Some of the leaders might be resplendent in silks with gold embroidery – straight out of a painting by Benozzo Gozzoli who lived between 1421-1497. In some Read more
People leaving war-torn countries, like Ukraine, for a new life in New Zealand all bring one thing with them – hope, an immigration industry veteran says. New Zealand’s history of helping out people amid violent conflicts include Polish refugees in the 1940s, Vietnamese and Cambodian people in the 1970s and 1980s, and people from Somalia Read more
Pope Francis has given Russia’s President Vladimir Putin the edge of his tongue for launching a “savage” war. Rather than use the Russian president’s name, Francis instead referred to Putin as “some potentate” who had unleashed the threat of nuclear war on the world in an “infantile and destructive aggression” under the guise of “anachronist Read more