Calling himself a pilgrim of peace and hope, Pope Francis urged some 22,000 young people gathered in Bogotá’s Bolivar Square not be afraid of the future: “Dare to dream big, he said, I want to invite you to that great dream today”.

And of course Pope Francis was asking them to make that dream of a peaceful future for Colombia come true…

Pope Francis’ Apostolic Journey to Colombia, which starts today, shines the light on a nation in which the Catholic Church has not only taken an active role in peace negotiations between the government and guerrilla groups, but also has made it its mission to accompany the countless innocents caught in the crossfire, affirming their dignity and fighting for their rights…

As the first anniversary of the sainthood of Mother Teresa of Kolkata was marked on Monday, the Archdiocese of Calcutta, in eastern India, is set to declare her as its co-patron.  “On 6 September we will have at 5.30 pm a Holy Mass in the Cathedral (of the Most Holy Rosary) and the Archbishop is going to declare Mother Teresa as co-patroness of the Archdiocese,” IANS reported Sister Prema, Superior-General of the Missionaries of Charity of Mother Teresa, as saying on September 4.   

Sister Prema made the declaration at the inauguration of a two-day exhibition of paintings and sculptures on Mother Teresa organized in Kolkata, formerly Calcutta, by the Indian National Forum of Art and Culture in association with the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) and Church Art to commemorate the first anniversary of the Nobel laureate’s canonization, Sept…

The story of creation presents us with a panoramic view of the world. Scripture reveals that, “in the beginning”, God intended humanity to cooperate in the preservation and protection of the natural environment. At first, as we read in Genesis, “no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up – for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground” (2:5)…