John Lavenburg When Dr Fonie Pierre looks around the streets of Les Cayes the word that comes to her mind is “desolation”. “No businesses are open. People are in streets. There is no shelter,” Ms Pierre, head of the Catholic Relief Services Les Cayes office told Crux. “There are needs for food, water, every basic need.”…
Nearly 40,000 Catholic pilgrims journeyed on foot, by bicycle, and on horseback to arrive at the Marian shrine of Jasna Góra in Czestochowa, Poland this summer. The traditional walking pilgrimage to venerate an icon of the Black Madonna of Czestochowa housed in the shrine dates back to the 17th century. Among the pilgrims to make…
August is the new October. A succession of low-pressure systems hit the west coast of Ireland this August, just in time for peak holiday season. We found ourselves needing full winter clothing as we explored the windswept Aran islands or the rain-drenched streets of Galway. Of course there were gaps in the weather, when the…
Living Laudato Si’ The recent UN report on Climate Change (IPCC) left many people feeling overwhelmed as the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, described it as a “code red for humanity”. The report was released during a week which saw wildfires continue to rage across the world and countries such as Madagascar bracing themselves for…
Pope Francis saddened by attack which killed nuns in South Sudan Pope Francis has sent his condolences after a violent attack on a group of Catholic religious sisters and others in South Sudan left five dead last week. “His Holiness Pope Francis was deeply saddened to learn of the brutal attack on a group of…
In a recent issue of Comment magazine, Timothy Keller, theologian and pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, wrote an insightful essay entitled, ‘The Fading of Forgiveness’, within which he highlights how, more and more, forgiveness is being seen as a weakness and a naivete. Hence, our culture sees forgiveness more negatively than…
Faith leaders concerned over online censorship of religious speech YouTube’s blocking of a theologian’s talk on the Christian view of sex as a “content violation” raises serious concerns that “religious speech is being censored online”, San Francisco’s archbishop and Focus on the Family’s president said in a Wall Street Journal op-ed they co-wrote. “Today’s sexual…
Young woman takes off on round-the-world record bid Pilot Zara Rutherford, 19, has taken off at the start of a three-month bid to become the youngest woman to fly solo round the world. She departed from Kortrijk-Wevelgem Airport in western Belgium in her Shark ultralight, the world’s fastest microlight aircraft. “Growing up, I loved aviation…
Notebook Getting vaccinated is “an act of love,” Pope Francis said in his latest urgent appeal, after more than a year of insisting Covid-19 vaccines be equitably available worldwide for everyone to get inoculated. Nonetheless, some Catholics have been wondering if they should seek a religious exemption from an immunisation requirement with vaccines tested or…
Saint Francis of Assisi and the wolf of Gubbio St Francis of Assisi, canonised in 1228, a mere century after his death, must be one of the most universally venerated saints in the world, a man widely respected beyond the Christian community. This is partly due to his special relationship with birds and animals. In…
Rory Fitzgerald
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Peter Costello