Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta decided to reject plans for rules to regulate religious worship following consultations with religious leaders, the secretary general of the Kenyan Episcopal Conference has said. Religious Societies Rules 2015, which Kenya’s bishops had believed defied constitutional guarantees of religious freedom and the separation of Church and State, will not now be…
Vatican joins international call to help Syria The Vatican has joined international appeals to raise funds for emergency and long-term assistance to victims of the Syrian crisis. Speaking at the Syria Donors’ Conference in London, Archbishop Paul R. Gallagher, Vatican secretary for relations with states, said the Church would continue to help the region through its fundraising efforts. In his address,…
Francis answers questions from children around the world “What did God do before the world was made?” is one of 30 questions from children around the world the Pope tackles in a book to be published on March 1. Dear Pope Francis, published by Loyola Press, and illustrated with drawings by children aged 6-13, was first proposed to the Pontiff by Fr…
Pope Francis has called for stronger collaboration between the world’s bishops and the Vatican’s ‘doctrinal watchdog’, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). Addressing the congregation’s plenary assembly, the Pope praised its work in the “delicate task” of “caring for the integrity of the Faith and Tradition”, and encouraged it to continue in…
A local Catholic agency intends to stand by the US city of Flint, Michigan during its public health crisis, the organisation’s president and CEO has said. Vicky Schultz, of the Flint-headquartered Catholic Charities of Shiawassee and Genesee Counties, says the city developed water problems when it stopped purchasing treated Lake Huron water, instead sourcing water…
Europe’s leading human rights body has called ISIS atrocities “genocide”. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has passed a resolution by 117 votes to 1, which included the statement “States should act on the presumption that Da’ish (ISIS) commits genocide”. The resolution “Foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq” condemned recent terrorist acts in…
We should be prepared to share the Eucharist with “surprising others”, Philippine Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle told participants at the 51st International Eucharistic Congress. “In the meal hosted by the Lord, persons recognise a close neighbour, a fellow sinner, a sister, a brother with a place at the table,” he said at the congress in…
The Eucharist demands our commitment to a just world and calls for a global war on poverty, the Pope’s personal envoy to the International Eucharistic Congress has said. Preaching at the opening Mass of the congress in the Philippine city of Cebu, Cardinal Charles Maung Bo said “in an unequal and uncaring world, the Eucharist…
The Holy Thursday foot-washing ritual will no longer be limited to men, the Vatican has ruled, but can include “all members of the people of God”. The announcement from Cardinal Robert Sarah, head of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, follows a December 2014 letter from Pope Francis to the congregation. In his…
We share the responsibility for the deaths of desperate migrants when we stand by silently, Pope Francis has said, urging Catholics to see migrants not in legalistic terms but as fellow human beings with their own inherent dignity and abilities to contribute to their new homes. Speaking on the World Day for Migrants and Refugees,…