May 15, 2017, Monday "What united Orthodox and Catholics in those years was far more important than that which divided them, for they were united by love of Christ.”— Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev, "Foreign Minister" of the Russian Orthodox Church, in his address on May 11 to the "World Summit of Christian Leaders in Defense [...]
May 15, 2017, Monday "I saw that American leaders wanted to cooperate with Russia.”—The influential Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev, the Oxford-educated "Foreign Minister" of the increasingly powerful Russian Orthodox Church, in an interview published today on the website of the Russian Orthodox Moscow Patriarchate. The interview follows Hilarion's four-day trip to Washington D.C. to participate [...]
Pope Francis’s plane touched down at Monte Real Air Base shortly before 4:30pm local time in Portugal. The sky was threatening for much of the afternoon – not in the way it is always threatening a little rain in the height of springtime a thousand feet up and twenty-odd miles off the Atlantic coast – but [...]
The life of every Christian is a journey and a process during which to deepen the faith. Speaking during the homily at morning Mass at the Casa Santa Marta, the Pope reflected on the liturgical reading of the day in which St. Paul tells the story of Salvation leading up to Jesus. During the course of [...]
Catholics from around Scotland will mark the centenary of the first Fatima apparitions this weekend at their national Marian shrine. Scottish Catholics will gather at Carfin Grotto on Saturday 13th May 2017 to join Catholics around the world in celebrating the 100th anniversary since the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared several times to three shepherd children in [...]
May 10, 2017, Wednesday "I will go to Fatima on a pilgrimage, to entrust to the Virgin the temporal and eternal destinies of humanity.”—Pope Francis today at his May 10 Wednesday General Audience, referring to his upcoming trip on Friday to Fatima, Portugal, to canonize two of the shepherd children who were witnesses to the apparitions [...]
Pope Francis during his Wednesday General Audience continued his catechesis on Christian hope, highlighting Mary the Mother of Hope. On the eve of his Apostolic visit to Fatima, Pope Francis on Wednesday, described Mary as the Mother of Hope adding that she was a woman of courage, perseverance and obedience. Speaking to the thousands of pilgrims [...]
“Let us receive the Holy Spirit with docility!” This was Pope Francis’ message during his Tuesday morning homily during Mass celebrated in the Vatican’s Santa Marta residence. Joining the Pope at Mass were the Sisters who work in the Santa Marta residence. They were celebrating the feast day of their founder, Saint Luisa di Marillac. The [...]
Watch out against the sin of resisting the Holy Spirit and always be open to the surprises of God. This was the exhortation of Pope Francis in his homily at Mass, Monday morning, in the chapel of the Casa Santa Marta residence in the Vatican. He was commenting on the episode of the Acts of the [...]
“The first time the name ‘Saul’ appears,” he said, “is at the stoning of Stephen.” Saul, he observed, was a “young man, rigid, idealistic,” and he was “convinced” of the rigidity of the law. Even now there are people in the Church who use rigidity to cover-up their own sins. That was the warning of Pope [...]