Pope Francis’s landmark agreement with the Muslim world, signed earlier this year during his visit to Abu Dhabi, was heralded at the annual prayer service on the eve of the United Nations General Assembly as “an antidote to hatred, violence, extremism and blind fanaticism.”
Cardinal George Pell, the most senior Catholic cleric to be convicted of child abuse offenses, has lodged an application with Australia’s High Court to appeal his guilty verdict.
A second Florida-to-Bahamas round-trip humanitarian cruise was set to sail the weekend of Sept. 14, weather-permitting, carrying supplies, transport specialty personnel, power generators and volunteers.
For centuries, tourists visiting Paris have stopped along the banks of the Seine to gawk at the Cathedral of Notre Dame. Now, they pause to consider what could have happened – what almost did happen – five months ago, when a fire nearly brought down the 850-year-old landmark.
The Holy See Press Office announced that the pope’s apostolic journey will take place from Nov. 19-26. He will first spend four days in Thailand before heading to Japan.
Dialogue and encounter have been two of the popular buzzwords of the Francis papacy, but for one of the pontiff’s major interreligious interlocutors, they are more than mere maxims, they are a way of life.
Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith has finally won a concession from Sri Lanka’s government after widespread criticism of the investigation into the deadly Easter Sunday attacks.
During his Sept. 4-10 visit to the 3 M’s of the Indian Ocean — Mozambique, Madagascar and Mauritius — Pope Francis saw firsthand three nations full of inequalities: the first two, marred by violence and poverty, and the third, considered the most developed country in Africa.
In response to a question about his recent declaration that he’s honored when “Americans are attacking me,” Pope Francis said September 10 that while he prays to avoid a schism in the Catholic Church, he’s not afraid of it either, because such rifts have occurred throughout history.
During the eight hours Pope Francis spent in Mauritius, a multiethnic island nation in the Indian Ocean about 1,200 miles off the coast of Africa, he urged the inhabitants to remember their immigrant roots and to integrate those who are arriving as they were welcomed by their ancestors.
