On Christmas Day Pope Francis prays for world peace and gives his "Urbi et Orbi" blessing Pope Francis has appealed for peace and for a world in which children across the globe may be able to hope for a future of justice, security and joy. The Pope's words came on Christmas Day as he addressed the city and the world during his traditional [...]
The Vatican Secretary of State on Monday described the tone of his two-hour meeting with Metropolitan Hilarion, chairman of the Department of External Church Relations of the Patriarchate of Moscow, as “very constructive”. Cardinal Pietro Parolin is on a four-day visit to Russia during which he is scheduled to meet the Russian Patriarch Kirill and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday [...]
Men and women of goodwill across the globe on Thursday responded to Pope Francis' call to join in prayer to participate in the “One Minute for Peace” initiative. The Pope's appeal for prayers and international participation in the initiative came during his Wednesday General Audience when he recalled that the initiative represents a short moment a [...]
May 1, 2017, Monday Reading today, I came across a brief passage from the conversation between Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and German writer Peter Seewald, part of a book which was published in September 2016 as Last Testament. (Here is a link to the book, the passage in question is from pages 240-241.) It is a [...]
Pope Francis is currently on an Apostolic journey to Georgia. He flew into the nation's capital Tbilisi on Friday 30th of September and his third and last appointment of the day took place at the Chaldean Catholic Church of Simon 'Bar Sabbae', dedicated to a tenth century Coptic Saint. There he met with representatives of the [...]
· At the Angelus the Pope denounces the powerful for their lack of will for peace · “It is unacceptable that so many defenseless people — even many children — must pay the price of the conflict” in Syria. The Pope chose strong words at the Angelus on Sunday, 7 August, again denouncing the tragedy of [...]
May 5, 2016, Thursday -- A Russian Concert in Palmyra, Syria, Contains a Message to the West The Diplomacy of Music As I write this, a renowned Russian conductor is conducting an orchestral concert called "Prayer for Palmyra: Music Revives Ancient Ruins" in the ruins of the ancient desert city of Palmyra in war-torn Syria. As [...]
Father Dhiya Azziz, OFM - The human face of Christianity in a region dominated by chaos, Fr. Azziz, abducted twice by Islamic Jihaists in Syria, symbolizes the crisis of the region The story of the Iraqi Franciscan friar Dhiya Azziz, OFM, the parish priest of the Syrian village of Yacoubieh, with whom all contact [...]
In Rome, prelates prepare to debate the nature of the marital bond, the nature of the family in an age of “familylessness,” at the same time that the family of the faith, the Church, remains divided. The wisdom of Simone. “Two prisoners whose cells adjoin communicate with each other by knocking on the wall. The wall [...]
As Pope Francis passed the end of the first year of his pontificate on March 13, at least six books and four television series and films about him appeared. What has changed with the arrival of this “Pope from afar”? And in what areas has he made the greatest impact? Lucio Brunelli, the Italian state television [...]