Thousands of Catholics joined in climate strikes on Friday, following the lead of 16-year-old Greta Thunberg, the Swedish climate activist who ignited the global movement, but also that of 82-year-old Pope Francis who has made environmental concerns a centerpiece of his papacy.
Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, has urged those considering allowing priests in the Latin rite to marry in order to help solve a crippling shortage, to proceed with caution, saying marriage has not curbed shortages in his own rite.
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.”
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.
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.
A young Madagascar girl sat nervously on the side of a humble stage, sporting a white dress, light pink sweater and green sandals – a colorful, seemingly new ensemble perhaps bought with considerable sacrifice by her parents for the occasion.
Madagascan President Andry Rajoelina, a Catholic, and his wife, Mialy, sat near the front of the crowd as Pope Francis preached about the Gospel call to solidarity and the joy that comes from putting faith before power or possessions.
