Month: December 2019

Happy New Year 2020

Happy New Year from Novena! Our top 20 ahead of 2020

Pope Francis December 31 at Vespers and the Te Deum in St. Peter's Basilica

Pope urges “time for others”, “dialogue”: “To listen is already an act of love!”

Pope Francis embraces a man

Welcome and mercy, touchstones of the Pope’s 2019

Church pews (stock)

German, Austrian Christians denounce radical restrictions on Church asylum system for refugees

A baby being baptised (stock)

In gay-friendly move, French bishop scraps terms ‘father’ and ‘mother’ from baptismal registers

A pregnant couple (stock)

Irish Health Minister blasts parish anti-IVF message as “inappropriate” Church “interference” in individuals’ lives

Polish priest and media and business tycoon Tadeusz Rydzyk

Tens of thousands of Poles petition Pope to silence “hateful voice” of priest media tycoon

Anti-climate change campaigner Greta Thunberg

Irish Primate defends “prophet” Greta as Polish bishops redouble attacks

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin in Georgia

Vatican Secretary of State: Holy See fully supports Georgia’s sovereignty

Pope’s message for the 170th Anniversary of 'La Civiltà Cattolica'

Francis insists: “Catholic civilisation is that of the Good Samaritan”

A woman kisses the ring of Pope Francis

Vatican paper implores Pope “to break wall of inequality between women and men in Church”

Auxiliary bishop of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg, Alain de Raemy

Sex harassment case rocks Swiss diocese, hurts auxiliary bishop tipped for promotion

Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic

Montenegrin President signs controversial law on religion

Tourists crowd around Rome's famous Trevi Fountain

Rome poor score win as Trevi Fountain coins come back to Church charity

'I love you' in Spanish sign language

Deaf Christians often struggle to hear God’s word, but some find meaning in the richness of who they are

Pope Francis prays the Angelus

Pope expresses solidarity with families “obliged into exile because of repression, violence and war”

A Spanish-speaking congregation at Mass (stock)

Tens of thousands of Spanish laypeople denounce Church’s “excessive clericalism”, “high degree of paternalism”

Bishop of Osnabrück (Germany), Franz-Josef Bode

Osnabrück bishop pushes for progress in Church on women, gay blessings, celibacy

Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin

Dublin archbishop decries rise in Ireland of groups “clearly populist and racist”

Scaffolding on Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral

Notre Dame “not out of danger”, only “50% chance” it will be saved, alerts rector

Satanism (stock)

Veteran Italian exorcist blames secularisation for rise in “aggressive Satanism”

Jedraszewski and Thunberg

Polish archbishop blasts Greta Thunberg as Antichrist

Protest in Montenegro over a controversial new religions law

Amid protests, Montenegro passes law to ‘expropriate’ Serbian Orthodox assets

European Meeting of Young People in Poland, organised by Taizé

Pope exhorts youth gathered in Poland to tackle “perils that weigh on our Common Home”

Austrian theologian Paul Zulehner

Austrian theologian presses bishops to find more (married and women) priests instead of closing churches

A priest rests his hands on his stole (stock)

Vienna auxiliary bishop supports easing compulsory priestly celibacy

The body of a dead refugee found floating in the Mediterranean

Cardinal Hollerich rips Europe on inaction for Med migrants: “We must be fiercely ashamed”

Dome of the Vatican's St. Peter's Basilica

Theologian says Vatican financial scandals signal “end of pontifical monarchy”

Abuse in the Church (stock)

French historian: no fix to Church abuse crisis without fix to Church sexism

Angelus with Pope Francis

Francis asks for churches centred on “the little ones and the poor”