POPE Francis has advanced the sainthood causes of two women and 11 men, including a miracle attributed to Blessed Charles de Foucauld. In a meeting with Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes, the Pope also authorised decrees recognizing miracles attributed to Blessed Cesar de Bus, founder of the Fathers of Christian Doctrine, and Blessed Maria ... Read More »

PERSONAL and systemic racism was a “kind of original sin in our country”, Bishop Robert Barron said days after the murder of George Floyd during a homily at St Louis de Montfort Church, Santa Maria US. “The whole country’s acknowledging it, we do see this presence of personal and indeed systemic racism,” he said. Riots and civil unrest had intensified ... Read More »

WHILE isolation, social distancing and economic uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic prove to be a challenge, Christians are called by God to take part in the church’s mission in the world, Pope Francis wrote in a message for World Mission Sunday 2020. “The impossibility of gathering as a church to celebrate the Eucharist has led us to share the ... Read More »

THE uncertainty and restrictive measures in place due to the coronavirus pandemic caused an increase in prayers and religious fervour in Italy, a recent study said. The study, which was released on May 22, was conducted by the State University of Milan, to “daily monitor public opinion during the COVID-19 emergency” and the impact it “has had on the religiosity ... Read More »

Marking the 25th anniversary of St John Paul II’s encyclical on Christian unity, Pope Francis said he shares “the healthy impatience” of those who think more can and should be done, but he also insisted that Christians must be grateful for the progress made. “Many steps have been taken in these decades to heal the wounds of centuries and millennia,” ... Read More »

This is a homily delivered at Mary, Mother of Mercy Church, Burleigh Waters drawing a connection between the Ascension, the strange times we’ve been living through during COVID-19, and answering a call-to-arms for the mission of the Church. THE event of the Ascension is a bit like a bridge – leading from the time when Jesus was fully physically present ... Read More »

RECENTLY the Dutch Supreme Court ruled that doctors could carry out a euthanasia request even if their patient developed severe dementia and could no longer express an explicit wish to die. The ruling was sparked by the case of a 74-year-old woman who was euthanised in a nursing home in 2016 after developing advanced dementia. The woman had written a ... Read More »

MARONITE Catholics of Brisbane are appealing for prayers for Lebanon, a nation in crisis. “We would like people to join us in prayers. Really, that’s the main thing that we need,” George Tawk, a Lebanese Catholic from the Maronite parish of St Maroun’s, Greenslopes, said. “Just we need them to join us in prayers for the safety of Lebanon, especially ... Read More »

AS countries continue to reel from the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, Pope Francis offered prayers for the men and women who have been unable to work. “In these days, many people have lost their jobs, were not rehired or work off the books,” Pope Francis said on May 11, at the start of his Mass in the Domus ... Read More »