Netherlands, Feb 9, 2019: The Netherlands is becoming the land of death, and that’s not just physical death with its permissive euthanasia laws, but spiritual death with the Catholic Church in decline. It is, in fact, in freefall. Archbishop Wim Eijk, one of the country’s most steadfastly Catholic bishops, revealedContinue Reading
Birmingham, Feb. 7, 2019: New research carried out by the University of Birmingham’s Gëzim Alpion concludes that Mother Teresa’s dark night of the soul was triggered by childhood and that she had gnawing doubts about the existence of God to the end of her life. Dr Gëzim Alpion, who isContinue Reading
By Robin Gomes Vatican, Feb 7, 2019: The 27th World Day of the Sick of the Catholic Church is being celebrated on Monday in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), the capital of West Bengal state. The annual day was instituted by St. John Paul II on MayContinue Reading
Abu Dhabi, Feb. 4, 2019: Pope Francis, the first leader of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics to visit the Arabian Peninsula, will attend an interfaith meeting in the UAE on Monday as part of his outreach to Muslims. The pontiff arrived in a modest black Kia at Abu Dhabi’s presidentialContinue Reading
North Korea, Feb. 4, 2019: There is a “good chance” of reaching a deal on North Korean nuclear disarmament, President Donald J. Trump said on Sunday. The president said the date and place of a second summit with North Korea leader Kim Jong Un had been agreed. But the plightContinue Reading
Manila, Feb. 4, 2019: A man suspected of helping two suicide bombers carry out the deadly twin blasts on the small Philippine island of Jolo has surrendered, security officials announced on Feb 4. Kammah Pae and four other supposed operatives of the Abu Sayyaf – a gang of self-styled IslamicContinue Reading
James Massola Bangkok, Feb. 4, 2019: Mick Kelly remembers the phone call from his friend in Pakistan as if it was yesterday. “He asked me to help out this one guy who was fleeing Pakistan, and on his way to Bangkok. That was more than five years ago,” Kelly recalls.Continue Reading
Hanoi, Jan 31, 2019: In the dead of night in a Hanoi cemetery, Nguyen Van Thang’s casket is unearthed; his bones carefully cleaned, wrapped in silk and then reburied, so he can finally segue into the next life. The ceremony is one of Vietnam’s most sacred death rituals, an ancientContinue Reading
Vatican, Jan. 31, 2019: When Pope Francis becomes the first pope to visit the Arabian peninsula on Sunday, he takes another important step in his efforts to build bridges with Islam and confirms inter-religious dialogue as a keystone of his papacy. In the long, complicated and often bloody history ofContinue Reading
The planned appearance of Pope Francis in Abu Dhabi is huge news. More than 140,000 people are expected to make the trip to Zayed Sports City on Tuesday, February 5 for a papal mass with the head of the Catholic church. Now, the UAE government has announced that private sectorContinue Reading