Europeans are resisting having children due to a culture of comfort, with declining birth rates leading to increased migration, Pope Francis said in an interview. In a wide-ranging interview with a journalist from Portuguese radio station Renascença, the Pontiff said he wasn’t pointing his finger “at anyone in particular”. “When there is an empty space, people Read more
One reason you can tell Pope Francis is a political and rhetorical genius is that he is able to tell the Christian story (arguably the most-told story in the Western world) as if it were new again — and not just new, but radical. Disruptive, even. He’s spent a lot of the last year turning Read more
Four New Zealanders will be attending the Synod on Marriage and the Family. NewstalkZB reports that the church describes the selection of 4 New Zealanders as a significant number for a small country, especially one with a small Catholic population. The Archbishop of Wellington, Cardinal John Dew, and Palmerston North’s Bishop Charles Drennan will be Read more
Some 500 activists wanting women’s ordination will gather for a meeting in Philadelphia one week before Pope Francis arrives in the city. The US-based Women’s Ordination Conference (WOC) is hosting the Women’s Ordination Worldwide meeting from September 18-20. The gathering will assess the place of women in church and society and develop plans to advance Read more
When Pope Francis makes his first trip to the United States this month, he will act on a grand stage much as previous popes have done. There will be a private meeting with the president and public Masses in Washington, D.C.; New York; and Philadelphia. He will address the United Nations. Two aspects of his Read more
One of the most arresting images published this year is of Pope Francis crossing a cobbled courtyard to enter the ornate Apostolic Palace in Vatican City. He wears the white papal vestments, accompanied by a cardinal, with a ceremonial Swiss guard nearby. He walks across red carpet from his car. But his conveyance is out of Read more
Congress and the United Nations rolling out their red carpets, nuns working overtime to bake communion hosts, prison inmates carving a walnut throne, tickets for events snapped up in seconds: America is gearing up for pope-mania. Pope Francis is expected to be greeted with huge crowds and across-the-board reverence when he tours Washington, New York Read more
Pope Francis has reportedly voiced a desire to canonise Blessed Teresa of Calcutta during the upcoming Year of Mercy. Fr Caetano Rizzi, who works in the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints, said the Pope “wants to beatify and canonise men and women that were a sign of mercy for the world in this Read more
Baptized as Roman Catholics and educated by Jesuits, Fidel and Raul Castro turned against the Church by declaring Cuba an atheist state, chasing out priests and shutting down religious schools after seizing power in a 1959 revolution. In their old age, however, they have brought the Church in from the cold and are gracious and Read more
Pope Francis, Friday, likened a person who gossips to “a terrorist who throws a bomb,” telling his followers that sowing divisions is a sickness within the Catholic Church. Speaking during his homily at his Santa Marta residence, Francis criticized people who think gossip is harmless. “Gossiping is like terrorism because the person who gossips is Read more