Pope Francis on Thursday 24th September 2015, made history by becoming the first Pope ever to address a joint session of the United States Congress. In his wide-ranging address that was frequently interrupted by applause, the Pope touched on many themes including the need for politics to serve the common good, the importance of cooperation and solidarity, the dangers of fundamentalism, the refugee crisis, abolition of the death penalty, the need for courageous acts to avert environmental deterioration, the evils of the arms trade and threats to the family from within and without…

The Conference of European Justice & Peace Commissions will meet from 25 to 28 September 2015 in Copenhagen and Malmö for their annual International Workshop and General Assembly. The general theme of the International Workshop is “European models of living together– experiences in Copenhagen and Malmö”. H.E. Jean-Claude Hollerich, the Archbishop of Luxembourg and President of Justice and Peace Europe, will moderate the General Assembly…

Pope Francis has arrived. His flight landed at Joint Base Andrews (formerly known as Andrews Air Force Base), shortly after 3:30 PM local time in the US state of Maryland.

The welcome ceremony – otherwise little more than a simple observance of only the most absolutely necessary protocol – was punctuated by two particularly poignant elements: the first was the presence of the President of the United States, Barack Obama – and his family – to greet his nation’s guest; the second was the Spanish  language alongside English, in which the gathered crowd – some hundreds of young people from Washington, DC area schools among them – cheered their welcome…

Perhaps the event which created most media interest during Pope Francis’s first full day in Cuba was his meeting with revolutionary leader Fidel Castro. During a private encounter at the 89-year-old retired President’s home, the Pope and Castro discussed religion and world affairs. The meeting took place just hours after the Pope at Mass urged Cubans to serve one another and not ideology…

Pope Francis on Sunday urged young Cubans to follow a path of hope, built on solidarity and encounter with others. The Pope’s words came in a meeting with several thousand young students gathered at the Fr Felix Varela cultural centre in Havana at the end of his first full day in the Cuban capital. The centre, set up in 2011 by the local Archdiocese with the support of the Pontifical Council for Culture, offers courses in theology, philosophy, sociology, psychology and business administration…