On his second day in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Pope Francis told Catholics to go beyond ethnic and regional divides in fostering peace, stressing forgiveness and conversion to overcome the violence and divisions currently tearing apart the country with Africa’s largest Catholic population.
The “spiral of death” that has materialized in the Holy Land in recent days threatens the little remaining trust that exists between Israelis and Palestinians, Pope Francis said.
On Tuesday, Pope Francis will set out on his fifth trip to Africa, bringing a much-needed message of peace and consolation to people ravaged by years of conflict in the war-torn nations of the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan.
When people think of leprosy, they likely imagine an ancient disease far removed from modern life.
Pope Francis has offered his prayers and support to all those who were affected by the recent mass shooting in Monterey Park, California, where 11 people were killed.
When Father Michael Mithamo King’ori lost his sight as a deacon, he thought his dream of becoming a priest was lost. But nothing is impossible for God, and on Jan. 15, Archbishop Anthony Muheria of Nyeri ordained Father Mithamo King’ori as the first-ever blind Kenyan Catholic deacon to become a priest.
A Moroccan national is under arrest after a horrific attack in several Catholic churches in the southern Spanish city of Algeciras, killing one person.
As the persecution of Christians in Nigeria continues, a member of the U.S. government’s international religious freedom watchdog has urged the State Department to designate Nigeria a “Country of Particular Concern” and recommended the appointment of a Special Envoy for Nigeria and the Lake Chad Basin.
While news agencies and Catholic social media denizens these days gorge themselves on the Vatican’s mounting “Battle of the Books,” seeing who can craft the most sensational headlines or tweets about several controversial new volumes making the rounds, other outfits are, thankfully, still concerned with things that actually matter.
Public criticism by cardinals and bishops is annoying — “like a rash that bothers you a bit,” Pope Francis said — but differences need to be aired and criticism can be helpful, he told the Associated Press.
