NICE, France: A knife-wielding attacker shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is Greatest) beheaded a woman and killed two other people in a church in the French city of Nice on Oct. 29. A defiant President Emmanuel Macron, declaring that France had been subject to an Islamist terrorist attack, said he wouldContinue Reading
Colombo: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on October 28 visited the St Anthony’s Church in north Colombo, one of the three churches devastated by the horrific Easter Sunday attacks in 2019, and paid tributes to the victims of the deadly terror strikes. Nine suicide bombers belonging to the localContinue Reading
London: St Paul’s Church in Clapham has hosted a special service to make amends for the racist treatment received by Rev Carmel Jones when he visited back in 1955. After arriving in London from Jamaica as part of the Windrush Generation, Rev Jones attended the church as an Anglican himselfContinue Reading
Vatican City: Pope Francis on October 25 named 13 new cardinals, including two Asians. In a surprise announcement from his studio window to faithful standing below in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis said the churchmen would be elevated to a cardinal’s rank in a ceremony on Nov. 28. Nine ofContinue Reading
Vatican City: A laicized priest who had been the spiritual director to six people who said they experienced visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Bosnian town of Medjugorje has been excommunicated. Tomislav Vlasic, who had been a Franciscan priest until he was laicized in 2009, was excommunicated JulyContinue Reading
By Matters India Reporter New Delhi: With the appointment of Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu to the Council of Cardinals (C 9), Pope Francis has selected two Capuchins among his seven close confidants. The Council of Cardinals, also known as the Council of Cardinal Advisers, is a group of cardinals ofContinue Reading
Manila: Pope Francis’ surprise endorsement of same-sex civil unions reverberated through the Catholic world October 22, with his comments prompting criticism but also support. The supporters included Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, the strongman leader of Asia’s largest Catholic nation. Even before the Pope’s comments, Duterte supported a law that wouldContinue Reading
Vatican:The Vatican and China have renewed a provisional agreement on the appointment of bishops for two more years, the Holy See announced Oct. 22. An Oct. 22 Vatican communique said that the Chinese government and Vatican authorities agreed “to extend the experimental implementation phase” of the two-year provisional agreement firstContinue Reading
Ghana: At least 17 worshippers were killed in eastern Ghana when a three-storey church building collapsed, local officials said Oct. 22, with more people feared trapped in the rubble. One survivor told local media that some 60 people were inside the building belonging to the Church of Prosperity when itContinue Reading
Rome: Pope Francis set the tone of his speech October 20 by recalling the historic Assisi Meeting desired by Saint Pope John Paul II on October 27, 1986, in which for the first time in Church history the Pope invited leaders of other religions to join him in prayer forContinue Reading
