BLOGS

Pope Francis and local Church leaders on February 6 reacted with dismay and calls for prayer following a devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria. According to Reuters, the series of earthquakes — up to 7.8 magnitude — killed about 1,700 people and injured thousands more, with many people still trapped under the rubble Monday. Figures…

A group of 60 young people and 24 adults traveled across South Sudan by foot for nine days to see Pope Francis and to pray for peace in their country. The peace pilgrimage, an initiative of the Diocese of Rumbek in central South Sudan, began from Holy Family Cathedral on January 25, the feast of…

On February 2, the feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple and the Virgin of Candlemas, a vandal desecrated an image of Jesus in a Catholic church in Jerusalem. The Associated Press reported that the attack occurred at the Church of the Flagellation located on the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem, the route…

After getting into a bad car accident on a highway in Mexico, a young man was approached by a Catholic priest at the scene and made a surprising request: “I want to confess.” Father Salvador Nuño, a Legionary of Christ priest who serves in Monterrey, Mexico, shared the story on Facebook Jan. 27. “Today I…

The Spanish bishops consider “synodality to be advancing in our Church” although they report low participation, especially among young people, to whom the Church must learn to listen and modulate the way of communicating the Gospel, they say. The Spanish Bishops’ Conference has presented the Synthesis for the European Continental Stage of the Synod on…

The skull of St. Thomas Aquinas has arrived at the Dominican Convent of Toulouse, France, and placed in a new reliquary as the order celebrates the 700th anniversary of the saint’s canonization in the Catholic Church. The new reliquary was created by Augustin Frison-Roche and was blessed during a Mass on Jan. 27 in the church…

Pope Francis has named an American as the next prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Bishops to succeed Cardinal Marc Ouellet. Bishop Robert Francis Prevost will lead the Vatican office responsible for evaluating new members of the Catholic Church’s hierarchy, the Vatican announced January 30. Bishop Prevost, 67, has served as a bishop of the…

With the Biden administration’s expansion of abortion pill distribution to neighborhood pharmacies, pro-life college students and other anti-abortion advocates are organizing campaigns against CVS, Walgreens, and other companies that have announced that they will dispense the drugs.  “Our purpose of having these protests is so that we can let ‘Big Pharma’ companies know that it’s…