The churches are open for private prayer, and public Masses will soon resume. But for many Catholics, the lockdown has taught them new ways of living their faith. This week, for the first time in months, Catholics in England ventured across the threshold of their churches. It was really only a tiptoe, a peek around the door after months of being locked out.
The survey, undertaken by Professor Francis Davis of the Universities of Birmingham and Oxford in collaboration with Catholic Voices, shows that 93 per cent of Catholics used online worship at some point and 66 per cent had made regular use of livestreaming.
In the dramatic health situation that is upsetting our current historical situation, reflections on the theme of leprosy in Sacred Scripture can perhaps help us to deal with the threatening contagion of Covid-19 from the always therapeutic perspective of salvation history.
India's bravado in dealing with Covid-19 seems to be heading towards near-collapse, with nearly 10,000 new cases added daily amid reports of a shortage of hospital beds and the breakdown of the economy.
Saint Eugene de Mazenod, the founder of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, the Religious Congregation to which I belong, left us with these last words as he lay dying: “Among yourselves, charity, charity, charity”. I don’t always live that, though I wish I could, especially today.
Christian groups around Europe have condemned a decision by the EU Commission to liquidate its office for religious freedom, led until the end of 2019 by the Slovak Jan Figel. The Vienna-based Documentation Centre for Religious Rights accused EU politicians of "closing their eyes" to growing religious freedom violations worldwide and ignoring past commitments. Eighteen (18) brief news about the Church in the world.
Lynn Schofield Clark’s study, From Angels to Aliens, explores how teens seek and explore spiritual and religious identities, often drawing on narratives, images and characters from popular culture, i.e. those artistic expressions of various kinds that have had mass diffusion since the second half of the 20th century.
Since last December, a new coronavirus, Covid-19, has been putting our lives at risk. At the same time, it has paralyzed most of our productive systems, whose survival is now under threat. This unprecedented health emergency has triggered a very serious economic crisis, the depth of which will be determined by the duration of the pandemic.
In his address to the participants at the International Peace Conference at Al-Azhar (Cairo, Egypt) on April 28, 2017, Pope Francis reminded his listeners that dialogue on a global level may occur if three basic duties are observed: the duty to respect one’s own identity and that of others, the courage to accept differences, and the willingness to recognize the sincerity of the intentions of other people.
