“Despite so many efforts to promote and reinforce the fundamental human right of religious freedom, we are actually witnessing a continued deterioration, we might even say an assault, of this inalienable right in many parts of the world,” Cardinal Pietro Parolin said on April 3.
Vatican hints that Pope Francis may meet Xi Jinping. Any encounter in Rome this week would be the first between a Chinese leader and a pope. Although a visit to the Vatican is not on Xi’s official schedule for his state visit to Italy, Monaco and France from March 21-26, a senior Vatican source claimed that the pope is willing to meet Xi and that the president’s intermediaries had made overtures to the Vatican.
Pope Francis has called for people to pray for Christians persecuted "because they speak the truth and proclaim Jesus Christ to this society". The Pope begins the 60-second recording released on Wednesday 6 March by telling listeners that there are more martyrs today than in the first centuries.
The role played by religion has been largely ignored in debates surrounding Brexit – but as a leading Catholic academic points out, religious faith continues to be a decisive factor in shaping the lives and identities of many British people.
"I want to remember those heroes suffering in China and Hong Kong for respecting human dignity, freedom and democracy". Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun received the Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom from the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in United States capital Washington on Jan. 28.
The Catholic Church's aid agency Cafod has criticised a report calling for a multi-billion pound cut in the UK's overseas aid budget. The report, "Global Britain: A Blueprint for the 21st Century", with a foreword by former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, argues among other things for the closure of the Department for International Development.
In a message to mark the Church's world communications day, the Pope welcomes possibilities the web and social networks open up but also warns of the dangers. “If the internet represents an extraordinary possibility of access to knowledge, it is also true that it has proven to be one of the areas most exposed to disinformation and to the conscious and targeted distortion of facts and interpersonal relationships, which are often used to discredit,” he writes.
Zamboanga City blast comes 3 days after twin Jolo Cathedral bombings claim 21 lives. Claretian missionary priest Angel Calvo, president of Peace Advocates Zamboanga, appealed for calm and called on people to pray for peace. "These are terroristic and barbaric acts," said the priest who has worked to foster inter-religious dialogue among Christians and Muslims in Mindanao for more than four decades.
Church leaders condemned bomb explosions that killed at least 20 people and injured about 100 others inside a Catholic church in the southern Philippines on Jan. 27, branding the attack a "heinous and evil" act of terrorism.
Bishops participating in the annual Holy Land Coordination see "great need" to promote an understanding between Israelis and Palestinians, said Bishop Noel Treanor of Down and Connor, Ireland. "There is ... a need to devise ways for both people to understand that, ultimately and finally, for the common good of all, a permanent and sustainable solution is needed," said Bishop Treanor.
"The problem with the House of Commons is that three-quarters of the members voted to remain," said Rees-Mogg, chair of the pro-Brexit European Research Group, on ITV news Jan. 15. "Therefore, you have got a 'remainer' House of Commons trying to implement a 'leave' that it doesn't want. That is why you have no agreement on the deal.
Respect for the environment should take center stage in 2019 to change ideas about the proper use of the Earth's resources. So, the ecological crisis summons all Christians to a profound interior conversion. The result of an ecological conversion means that the Christian encounter with Jesus Christ becomes evident in the relationship with the world around us.
Pope Francis has warned that a return of 1930s era nationalism and populism is undermining the hard-won peace and international alliances of the post-war period.
A report by the British All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom of Religion or Belief said the rise of nationalist "Hindutva" ideology — which defines 'Indian' as exclusively Hindu — has led to an increase in religious oppression in the country.
The birth of Jesus teaches Christians that love is more valuable than anything else and is what will change the world, Pope Francis said. "In Bethlehem, we discover that the life of God can enter into our hearts and dwell there. If we welcome that gift, history changes, starting with each of us," the pope said in his homily at Mass Dec. 24 in St. Peter's Basilica.
Every Christmas Eve, hundreds of people from all over the world crowd outside the octagonal-shaped chapel in Oberndorf, Austria, to sing along to one of the world’s most-beloved Christmas carols: Silent Night. It’s a scene especially poignant this holiday season, as 24 December 2018 marks the 200th anniversary of the song’s humble origins in Oberndorf.
The Vatican’s Secretary of State has told delegates at the UN Climate Summit that climate change is caused by humans and that we all bear responsibility to protect and value creation. Speaking at the COP-24 conference on Tuesday, Cardinal Pietro Parolin said the international community also has a moral responsibility to address climate change.
Just once in a while, in the middle of a complex and difficult political muddle, there can come a moment when the voice of common sense can be heard above the clamour, ringing with the blessed clarity of a bell from a church steeple. “What I want,” said the plaintive voice of a woman on the radio this week, “is for all this nonsense to stop.”
Shortly after the 2016 referendum, a friend of mine, an experienced diplomat, said of Brexit that it could best be understood as a type of cult, played out on a vast – and therefore catastrophic – national stage. We both knew of the likely range of disastrous consequences that would flow from the “decision” that the “people” had supposedly then just taken.
In a world where national egotism is growing stronger, fraternity still has something to offer. The concept has formed part of the France's motto of “liberty, equality, fraternity” since 1848. Now, France’s Constitutional Council has ruled that fraternity “must be respected as a constitutional principle by the legislator and may be invoked in legal hearings.”