With much of Latin America in the throes of months of social and political unrest, the continent’s bishops have turned to the “Empress of the Americas” to lend a hand in the effort for peace.
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With much of Latin America in the throes of months of social and political unrest, the continent’s bishops have turned to the “Empress of the Americas” to lend a hand in the effort for peace.
On Dec. 11 top Vatican officials hailed Swedish teen Greta Thunberg, recently named TIME Magazine’s “Person of the Year” for her environmental advocacy, as a “great witness” of Church teaching on care for creation and the human person.
John Miniero, a retired baker who proudly displays a homemade nativity scene outside his home in Dyker Heights, knows what Christmas should really be about: the birth of Jesus.
In a new interview, Syrian President Bashar al Assad responded publicly to a letter he received from Pope Francis over the summer voicing concern about civilian casualties in the country’s ongoing civil war.
Mary, conceived without sin, is a “masterpiece” who reflects “the beauty of God who is all love, grace and self-giving,” Pope Francis said on the feast of the Immaculate Conception.
According to a range of scholars at a Pan-African Congress on Theology, Pastoral Life, and Society, the pope’s metaphor for the Church as a “field hospital” provides particular resonance for the African continent – and, they say, must guide pastoral practice in the realms of education, liturgy, and the laity.
A little more than four years after Pope Francis published one of his most provocative documents, not to mention perhaps his most political, in the form of his eco-encyclical Laudato Si’, the pontiff appears increasingly disappointed in the way the environmental manifesto been received.
The pontiff walked his own talk by having his “charitable right arm,” Polish Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, bring 33 migrants from Afghanistan, Cameroon and Togo who had been stranded on the Greek island of Lesbos, back to Rome under Vatican patronage.
They’re often the first people he greets when holding an audience, so it came as no surprise Dec. 3 when Pope Francis released a message for the World Day of Persons with Disabilities, calling for them to be fully integrated in society, not only through legislation but a much-needed change in mentality.
Despite rising extremism, two missionary priests in Southeast Asia believe that anti-Christian persecution has “strengthened the prophetic role of church.”