When Pope Francis told the Vatican’s communications department in 2017 the digital world should be a primary vehicle for spreading the gospel, he certainly couldn’t have predicted a global pandemic that would leave the online realm as one of the only means for doing so.
Despite regulations established by civil and ecclesiastical authorities to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, many priests in remote areas of Ireland are feeling pressure to celebrate funeral Masses. In rural parishes, funerals are “big occasions for the community,” according to Father Brendan Hoban, co-founder of the Irish Association of Catholic Priests.
Pope Francis, addressing the U.S. Congress in 2015, spoke of four exceptional Americans to be emulated during our challenging times.
At a time when our lives are looking more and more like a Google calendar packed with live streamed Masses, online classes and work from home, stresses — and separation anxiety — are at an all-time high.
Following a particularly deadly week for Italians inflicted with the COVID-19 coronavirus, Pope Francis Sunday urged Christians everywhere from different confessions to unite in shared moments of prayer, including several he will be leading at the Vatican.
While Catholics in the U.S. continue to grapple with fallout stemming from the clergy abuse scandals, new polling suggests that Catholics have a higher opinion of the Church than they did this time last year.
As many of the restrictions imposed early on by Italy to fight the COVID-19 coronavirus begin to be adopted elsewhere, the number of Catholics unable to get to Mass, or at least strongly discouraged from leaving the house to do so, is growing.
In the last presidential election, some political pundits referred to the “Catholic vote,” one that predicted Donald Trump’s rise to the presidency, and one that aligned in 2016 with the voting constituency that landed him the White House: overwhelmingly white and politically conservative voters.
Victoria Edwards, a parishioner of Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Glendale, received her first piece of Catholic jewelry — a gold chain with an angel hanging from it — before she was even born. The necklace, a gift from her grandmother in 1995, is an artistic expression of faith.
“Catholic men building a bridge back to faith” is the mission statement for the almost 2 million members from around the world who unite under three words: Knights of Columbus.
