The Holy See has warned that law enforcement and security measures alone are not enough to combat radicalisation and terrorism.
Rainbow Catholics are urging the Pope and the Vatican to rein in LGBTIQ+-phobic prelates, warning that it is “literally a matter of life and death”.
On Saturday, 22 August, the President of the Jewish community in Graz, Austria, Elie Rosen, was attacked on the premises of the synagogue.
At the Angelus Sunday, Pope Francis warned that “the Lord will hold us to account for all of the migrants who have fallen on their journey of Hope”, as “victims of the throwaway culture”.
Pope Francis pleaded with the world today to “stop using religions to incite hatred, violence, extremism and blind fanaticism”.
Following an unprecedented increase of violence against religious communities and people belonging to religious minorities, in 2019 the UN General Assembly proclaimed August 22 as the International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, has conveyed Pope Francis’ “warm greetings” to Supreme Knight Carl Anderson of the Knights of Columbus on the occasion of the Knights’ 138th Supreme Convention which took place last week.
During his Angelus address at midday today, Pope Francis pleaded for a world “completely free of nuclear weapons” and a commitment to make Lebanon – still reeling after last Tuesday’s blast in the port in Beirut – “free and strong”.
In 2018, Pope Francis announced a deal that cleared the way for the reappointment of clergy in China, something that the Vatican described as “a question of great importance for the life” of the Catholic Church.
The Vicar Apostolic of Anatolia has recalled that most Turks want Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia to be a mosque, and as such the decision to reconvert the monument was “not the whim of the president”.
In a recent letter sent to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria, H.Em. Card. Jean-Claude Hollerich SJ, President of COMECE, expressed his solidarity to the Christian communities in the African country, who are “living a situation of continuous attacks by terrorists, insurgents and militias, that in some cases reaches levels of genuine criminal persecution”.
In his Angelus today after his Mass for the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Pope Francis denounced the “solitude of the elderly”, treated as “discarded material”, as a “tragedy of our times”, and urged that the life of children and grandchildren be given “as a gift” to older people.
In the Angelus today, Pope Francis pressed for a renewed commitment on the part of the world to refugees and the environment post-COVID-19, as he recalled too the “painful reality” of persecuted Christians today, whom he lamented are more numerous even than the martyrs of the early Church.
The Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE) has called on the world to redouble efforts to stop the persecution of Christians in Nigeria, as well as to bring criminals to justice, support victims and promote dialogue and peace.
An EU court condemnation of migrant detentions in Hungary has shown that the goverment’s concern for persecuted Christians is a farce.
In the face of hatred, fear, and division, Pope Francis called Sunday on the Christian communities of the Mediterranean to recognise the inherent unity of the region’s multiculturalism.
At the invitation of the Italian Episcopal Conference, various leaders of the Churches of the Mediterranean region have been meeting in Bari, Italy this past week. Pope Francis joined them on Sunday morning and offered words of encouragement and vision.
From their Bari synod, the bishops of the Mediterranean have denounced that European “economic interests” in the region “do not always reflect evangelical principles”.
On the first day of their Bari ‘synod’ Wednesday, 60 bishops from 20 countries around the Mediterranean deplored the “economic and interested wall” dividing the countries around that sea.
A Spanish-Moroccan cardinal has blasted Europe for holding to a “nearsighted, selfish, individualistic and unfair” migration policy.
A Vatican and an Italian cardinal are looking forward to the Bari ‘synod’ that begins today with bishops from all around the ‘Mare Nostrum’ as the start of a “great Mediterranean spring”.
“The Mediterranean has forgotten its vocation to hospitality”, the Vicar Apostolic in Turkey has lamented.
The Turkish authorities have formally charged Syriac Orthodox monk Sefer Bileçen for complicity with terrorist organizations and activities.
The Christian minority is once again being put under pressure in Turkey.
The Pope has said that ‘holier than thou’ believers unwilling to “get their hands dirty” and help others are only “superficial” Christians.
The United States has been joined by 26 other countries in a new International Religious Freedom Alliance that seeks to reduce religious persecution across the globe.
“All minorities in Turkey agree on the fact that we are experiencing the most comfortable era during the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) administration”.
A British-Hungarian Anglican priest-journalist has denounced Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s “propagandist manipulation” of persecuted Christians.
According to recent statistics, since the beginning of 2019, a total of 238 armed attacks have been reported in Burkina Faso, transforming the African country in the epicenter of the Sahel’s security crisis.
The Greek Government has promised more action on human rights issues as attacks on religious sites in the country recorded an alarming rise.