Pope Francis addresses Italian Catholic Action and emphasises the importance of embracing others through reflections on missing, saving, and life-changing embraces. By Francesca Merlo Pope Francis greeted some 50,000 members of Italian Catholic Action in St Peter’s Square on Thursday 25 April as they gathered for their meeting between parents, grandparents, and children.  Speaking of the theme of the meeting, “With Open Arms”, the Pope noted that “embrace is one of the most spontaneous expressions of human experience” and that it is through an embrace that life begins.  For this ..read more

Hungary’s President, Tamás Sulyok, is received in private audience in the Vatican by Pope Francis. By Vatican News Pope Francis on Thursday, 25 April, received in audience Tamás Sulyok, President of the Republic of Hungary. According to a Holy See Press Office statement, Mr Sulyok subsequently met with the Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, accompanied by Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations. During the cordial meeting at the Secretariat of State, the good bilateral relations between the Holy See and Hungary were ev ..read more

Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin discusses key issues roiling the Church during the presentation of the new book, “Five questions agitating the Church”, by noted Vaticanist Ignazio Ingrao. By Vatican News staff reporters Answering the question, “What will happen with the reforms undertaken by Pope Francis?” Cardinal Pietro Parolin insisted on the need for prayer and patience, and said that discernment will indicate, at its own pace, “how to continue and what to make institutional.” Although some people might worry – or hope for – reversals, the Holy See’s Secretary of State said ..read more

Editor’s note: This is part one of a two-part series on the Ceremony of the Red Heifer. Part 2 will be published on April 26, 2024. The parah adumah, or red heifer, is in the news these days. Some Jews and dispensationalist Christians are working to revive an ancient ceremony that they see as a prophecy of the restoration of the Temple and the coming of the Messiah. Many Muslims see this as a threat to Al-Aqsa Mosque, which stands on the Temple Mount. In Catholic tradition, the red heifer ceremony has meaning in that Jesus performed it in his passion and through it revealed the ..read more

In an interview with CBS, Pope Francis calls for an end to the wars in Ukraine, Gaza, and around the world. He says there is room for everyone in the Church pointing out that if a parish priest doesn’t seem welcoming, one can look elsewhere: “There is always a place, don’t run away from the Church.” By Vatican News Referring in particular to the wars in Ukraine, in Gaza and others that continue to ravage the world, Pope Francis said ” Please, countries at war, all of them… Stop the war. Look to negotiate. Look for peace. A negotiated peace is better than a war without end.” The Pope was sp ..read more

Editor’s note: Global Sisters Report, the dynamic online community that reports on and gives voice to Catholic women religious around the world, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. Join us as we take another look at stories and columns published in 2014 with new updates and reporting.  In a sense, Global Sisters Report began at the end: The first year of its publication saw the end of both the apostolic visitation of all women religious in the United States and the doctrinal assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious specifically. Both had been go ..read more

One thing I know: The words I will write here are either both too late — or will be forever alive. The public tributes in the media for Bishop Thomas Gumbleton on the occasion of his death made me stop and think. The articles were perfect: They described his move to the seminary as a young man; they talked about his commitment to the work of God in the positions he held in the  Archdiocese of Detroit; they explained the number of years from his priestly ordination in 1956 to his episcopal ordination in 1968. Most of all, they referred to his work for peace and his special understa ..read more

Rosys (they/them), MATM student, Boston College Clough School of Theology & Ministry Sarah Hansman (she/her), M.Div. student, Boston College Clough School of Theology & Ministry Sarah Morris (she/her), M.Div. student, Boston College Clough School of Theology & Ministry Alyssa Duffner (she/her), M.Div. student, Boston College Clough School of Theology & Ministry Virginia Schilder (she/her), M.Div., ThM student, Boston College Clough School of Theology & Ministry, lay queer Catholic Madison Winn, cisgender, heterosexual, white male, Boston College Master of Theological Stud ..read more

Mosaics by Fr. Mario Rupnik at the main portal of Rosary Basilica at Lourdes. (Image: WikiCommons) A week ago, the editors of the National Catholic Register published an editorial titled “It’s Time to Remove Father Rupnik’s Art”. Their strong stance, they said, was “not an expedient surrender to iconoclasm or ‘cancel culture,’ even though the court of public opinion already has judged him guilty of sexually, spiritually and psychologically manipulating and abusing multiple religious sisters under his authority.” Some CWR contributors, in recent months, have expressed a similar perspective. Mi ..read more

null / Credit: Photographee.eu via www.shutterstock.com ACI Prensa Staff, Apr 24, 2024 / 17:45 pm (CNA). Father Augusto Meloni Navarro, a priest, physician, and former vice president of the World Health Organization (WHO), urged prayers for the soul of Ana Estrada, the first person to undergo euthanasia in Peru. Meloni also emphasized the importance of protecting life and providing palliative care in these kinds of situations. As a Church “we stand in solidarity, we sympathize with every human person in all their circumstances. And, of course, at the moment of transition to a new life, which ..read more