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.
Archbishop Patrick C. Pinder of Nassau, Bahamas, celebrated Mass Sept. 8 for evacuee families and Catholic school staff members a week after Hurricane Dorian slammed into the islands.
For decades, the Catholic writer G.K. Chesterton has enjoyed greater popularity in the United States than in his homeland of Great Britain – and now an American university’s UK campus will showcase the writer’s own collection.
Sister Helen Prejean has some advice for Pope Francis, who, six years into his papacy, still encounters resistance to his efforts to shake up the Catholic Church: “Be patient – it takes time!”
