Despite stating at the outset that he didn’t like travel and didn’t plan to do much of it, during the first six years of his pontificate Pope Francis made close to 30 international trips, including visiting virtually every country of Latin America.
International News
Pope In Bulgaria, Macedonia May Deliver Big Things In Small Packages
When Pope Francis sets off for Macedonia and Bulgaria this weekend, it could well be a classic case of big things coming in small packages.
At Rome’s American Seminary, Scandals Aren’t Deterring Future Priests
A genuine crisis – not a self-invented melodrama, but an honest-to-God existential threat – is a funny thing, in that often it produces wildly contrasting effects in people. Among some it can generate burning anger and resentment, in others confusion and despair, and in still others only shrugs and ennui.
Sri Lanka Cardinal Warns That if the State Doesn’t Act, the People Will
After attacks that took the lives of more than 250 people on Easter Sunday, the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka is working on becoming a beacon of hope. Yet according to the local cardinal, if civil authorities don’t find the perpetrators and put them on trial, they risk the community taking justice into its own hands.
Letters From Zones of Anti-Christian Violence Speak of Hope
According to the international papal charity Aid to the Church in Need, 2019 is already one of the bloodiest for Christians in modern history, with violent attacks in the Central African Republic (CAR), southern Philippines, Nigeria, India and Sri Lanka.
U.S. Religious Freedom Body Wants China Sanctioned for Human Rights Abuses
In its 20th annual report, released on Monday, the Commission offered a bleak picture of oppressed conditions for practicing faith for believers of all stripes in the world’s most populous country.
Refugees At The Border Receive $500,000 In Aid From Pope Francis
Pope Francis has donated $500,000 to migrants at the U.S. border. The funds will be distributed to 16 Mexican dioceses and religious groups working to provide food and safety to those displaced by immigration.
Sri Lankan Cardinal’s Focus Isn’t Rebuilding Churches But Lives
For Cardinal Malcom Ranjith of Colombo, where Sunday’s Easter attacks took place, his focus is not so much on rebuilding churches but lives. His priority is to be there for his people. Where words fall short, gestures are the only comfort he’s able to give.
Benefit Concert For Notre Dame Cathedral To End With Resurrection Piece
An organist from Notre Dame Cathedral – performing an April 26 benefit concert in Washington for the reconstruction of the iconic Parisian church – will end his program, fittingly, with a piece about Christ’s resurrection.
Chilean Prelate Denies Communion to Faithful Who Kneel Down
Though far away from the center of the action in Rome, Bishop Celestino Aos, the temporary head of the embattled Archdiocese of Santiago, Chile, has a tough job. He’s replacing a cardinal being investigated for cover-up of clerical sexual abuse, whose predecessor is also being questioned by local prosecutors.During the Easter season, Bishop Aos might have made his own job even harder when on Holy Thursday during the Chrism Mass he was filmed denying communion to at least two faithful who were kneeling down.