By Matters India Reporter Vijayawada, June 21, 2020: A Marian shrine in southern India has fostered communal harmony and provided hope for millions, including childless couples, for the past 95 years. But for nearly four months, the Gunadala Mary Matha church near Vijayawada city has remained out of bounds forContinue Reading
By Hannah Brockhaus Vatican City, Jun 20, 2020: If you have the habit of reciting the Marian litany after the rosary, add three more invocations next time you pray. Pope Francis on June 20 approved the inclusion of these invocations in the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary, also calledContinue Reading
June 19, 2020: The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has issued a report recommending a “binding agreement” between the United States and Pakistan, with the goal of encouraging Pakistan to improve its treatment of religious minorities. Laws against blasphemy in Muslim-majority Pakistan have led to death sentences forContinue Reading
Denver, June 14, 2020: Peyton and Connor Plessala are brothers from Mobile, Alabama. They’re 18 months— one school grade— apart. Despite the occasional competitiveness and squabbles that many brothers experience growing up, they’ve always been best buds. “We’re closer than best friends,” Connor, 25, told Catholic News Agency. As youngContinue Reading
Rome, June 13, 2020: Venerable Carlo Acutis, an Italian teenager and computer programmer who died in 2006, will be beatified October 10 in Assisi, Italy. “The joy we have long awaited finally has a date,” Archbishop Domenico Sorrentino of Assisi said in a statement June 13. The beatification will takeContinue Reading
By Jeemon Jacob Thiruvananthapuram, June 1, 2020: Father Ronal M. Varghese, a Latin Catholic priest and educator in Kollam in Kerala, has had an epiphany. “A Mass without community participation is like a man without a soul,” he says, describing the ritual he has been celebrating in private in aContinue Reading
By Giovanna Dell’Orto Milan, June 1, 2020: When coronavirus struck inside Europe’s largest diocesan seminary, it upended the intense educational routine and spurred soul-searching among the nearly 130 young men studying to become Catholic priests. At Seminario di Milano in northern Italy, which has been preparing clergy since the mid-1500s,Continue Reading
Ahmedabad, May 26, 2020: A Jain ascetic, who claimed to have survived without food or water for 76 years, died on May 26 in the Gandhinagar district of Gujarat, western India. Prahlad Jani alias Chunriwala Mataji, a breatharian yogi, died at his native village Charada, a statement from his disciplesContinue Reading
By Matters India Reporter New Delhi, May 25, 2020: All Christian denominations in India have decided to pray together for their nation on May 31, the feast of Pentecost. “As we struggle through these unprecedented times, we come united as one, believing for a better tomorrow, believing for a Covid-freeContinue Reading
By Matters India Reporter Darjeeling, May 24, 2020: South Asia region of Salesians of Don Bosco this year has a total of 83 novices making their first profession. They were trained in five novitiates in India — Chennai, Darjeeling, Dimapur, Kerala and Shillong – and one in Colombo, Sri Lanka.Continue Reading