London, November 25, 2020: Priests are warned against making ‘disparaging remarks’ on social media in a new safeguarding document drawn up by the Catholic bishops of England and Wales. The guidelines, Pastoral Standards and Safe Practices in the Conduct of Ministry, sent to every bishop, secular and religious priest andContinue Reading
Buenos Aires: Argentine football legend Diego Maradona has died at the age of 60, his spokesman announced Nov. 25. Renowned along with Brazil’s Pele as one of the greatest footballers of all time, the Argentine World Cup winning captain died of a heart attack, having undergone brain surgery earlier thisContinue Reading
Bishop Damián Iguacén Borau died Nov. 24 at his residence in Huesca in northeastern Spain. He was 104 years old. After the death in June of 104-year-old Chilean Bishop Bernardino Piñera from pneumonia due to COVID-19, Iguacén was the oldest living Catholic bishop in the world. Iguacén’s last public appearanceContinue Reading
NICOSIA, Cyprus — The Cypriot Orthodox Church’s top decision-making body on Nov. 25 backed the Archbishop’s move to effectively recognize the new Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s independence, overturning an earlier position of neutrality on the thorny issue. Of the Holy Synod’s 17 bishops, 10 voted not to contest last month’s decisionContinue Reading
Karachi: Pakistan’s Christian transgender people, often mocked, abused and bullied, say they have found peace and solace in a church of their own. Shunned by other churches, they can raise their voices high here. During a recent service, transgender women, flowing scarves loose over their long hair, conducted Bible readingsContinue Reading
The Archbishop of Canterbury will take a three-month sabbatical next year for “reflection, prayer, and spiritual renewal,” Lambeth Palace has confirmed. The announcement was made at the Canterbury Diocesan Synod on Nov.21 – and Justin Welby is expected to be away from May to July 2021, studying in either CambridgeContinue Reading
Vatican: Pope Francis says in a new book that he can relate to people in intensive care units who fear dying from Covid-19 because of his own experience when part of his lung was removed 63 years ago. Italian newspapers published excerpts of the new book Let Us Dream: TheContinue Reading
London: A U.K.-based charity has called on British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to grant asylum to a 14-year-old Christian girl who was abducted at gunpoint during the Covid-19 lockdown and forcibly married and converted to Islam by a Muslim married man. The Catholic charity Aid to Church in Need, whichContinue Reading
Birmingham: A Mother Teresa scholar from UK explained the epiphany moment in the life of two Alabnian ‘national heroes’ who lived 600 years apart. In the Zoom Talk on November 23, Mother Teresa author and scholar from Birmingham University, UK, himself an Albanian, Dr Gezim Alpion explored the lives andContinue Reading
Vatican: Pope Francis offered Mass for the Feast of Christ the King on Nov. 22, and afterward oversaw the traditional passing of the World Youth Day cross and Marian icon to a delegation from Portugal. At the end of Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica Nov. 22, the World Youth DayContinue Reading
