This Letter is devoted to the question of the Catholic Church in China. The question is important because the historic "secret agreement" between the Holy See and China to regulate the relations of the Church to the Chinese Communist government — especially regarding the selection of bishops for the Church — signed on September 22, [...]
Top Ten from 2019 We bring you in the January issue of Inside the Vatican the incredible story of a beautiful Russian opera soprano, Svetlana Kasyan. (To obtain a copy of the print edition, call our US office at 1-800-789-9494). We have come to know Svetlana personally since she sang at a Concert for Peace in [...]
#9 Vincent Guo Xijin Bishop in China “I am ready to face the persecution” Until 2018, Bishop Guo was the ordinary of the Diocese of Mindong, located in the southern province of Fujian. However, with the signing of the “provisional agreement” between the Vatican and China in September of 2018, which resulted in Pope Francis lifting [...]
Epiphany celebrates Jesus’ first appearance to the Gentiles, as represented by the Magi, while the Eastern Churches commemorate the Baptism of Christ, where the Father and the Holy Spirit give combined testimony to Jesus’ identity as the Son of God. Is 60:1-6; Eph 3:2-3a, 5-6; Mt. 2:1-12 Homily starter anecdote “Because you never know what’s going [...]
Pope Francis on Saturday en route to Rome following his visit to Myanmar Bangladesh held his traditional in flight press conference. Among the topics of discussion were the Rohingya people, nuclear arms, globalization and future travel plans. Greg Burke: Thank you, Holy Father. First of all, thanks. You have chosen two interesting countries to visit. Two [...]
...and in Beijing, the gesture is “noted.” The full text of a controversial recent papal interview Pope Francis gave his first-ever interview on China and the Chinese people on January 28 to Asia Times columnist and China Renmin University senior researcher Francesco Sisci, which follows. In the historic one-hour interview at the Vatican the Pope urged [...]
October 7, 2015, Wednesday — Mortality "Every life is sacred, every human person is endowed with an inalienable dignity, and society can only benefit from the rehabilitation of those convicted of crimes." —Pope Francis, on Thursday, September 24, in his address to the U.S. Congress during his visit to America; he called for the "global abolition" [...]
“It is increasingly intolerable that financial markets are shaping the destiny of peoples rather than serving their needs, or that the few derive immense wealth from financial speculation while the many are deeply burdened by the consequences.” —Pope Francis, June 16, address to a conference in Rome sponsored by Catholic Relief Services, the University of Notre [...]
“The greatest missionary is the Bible in the mother tongue. It needs no furlough and is never considered a foreigner.” —William Cameron Townsend (1896-1982) Prominent Christian missionary in South America and founder of the Wycliffe Bible Translators and The Summer Institute of Linguistics Here, Bodmer Papyrus XXIV, Page 24 (K), late 3rd – early 4th [...]
Pope Francis is 77, but he keeps adding new trips to his agenda. Most recently, he announced he will visit Albania in September, after a trip to Korea in August. He will then visit Sri Lanka and the Philippines in January, and (barring a surprise) the US in September 2015. But... China? When Pope [...]
