News

Open Weekend at the Cathedral Museum in Mdina

14/09/2019

  • The Mdina Cathedral Museum is a unique and eclectic museum dealing with Maltese identity over the ages. Housed in the magnificent baroque palace on the right hand side of the Mdina Cathedral, it used to serve as the first purpose-built seminary. Amongst the museum’s priceless collections one finds a complete collection of original Albrecht Dürer prints; a fine picture gallery; ecclesiastical and household silver, including the Apostolato of 15 silver statues, once at risk of being lost to plunder during French occupation; furniture found in period Maltese households; a reconstruction of the 1486 choir stalls; the late medieval retable of St Paul, once the main altarpiece of Mdina’s medieval cathedral; and a numismatic hall, which includes a particularly stout collection of coins of antiquity…

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Bahamas: Catholic Church trying to meet basic needs of hurricane survivors

14/09/2019
  • Archbishop Patrick Pinder of Nassau told Vatican News that his archdiocese is trying to meet the immediate needs of the evacuees as well as those who have remained behind in the affected islands after Hurricane Dorian.

    Hurricane Dorian, a devastating category-5 storm, left a trail of death and destruction in the Bahamas, after battering the north-western islands of Grand Bahama and Abaco for more than 24 hours on 1 September. 

    According to official estimates, at least 50 people have died and around 70,000 have been affected.  Thousands of hurricane survivors are being evacuated to New Providence, which includes the capital, Nassau.  Most of them have little or no idea of how or where to begin to rebuild their lives. 

    Archbishop Patrick Pinder of Nassau on Monday visited some of the affected areas in Grand Bahama and Abaco…

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Pope Francis to visit Thailand and Japan in November

13/09/2019
  • The Holy See Press Office announces Pope Francis’ Apostolic Journey to Thailand and Japan from 19 to 26 November. He will be the second Pope to visit these two Asian countries, after Pope John Paul II.

    The Pope’s next Apostolic Journey will see him visiting two Asian countries: the Kingdom of Thailand, from 20 to 23 November, and then Japan from 23 to 26 November, where he will visit Tokyo, Nagasaki and Hiroshima…

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Committee implementing goals in Document on Human Fraternity meet for first time

12/09/2019
  • Pope Francis receives the members of the Higher Committee working to achieve the goals delineated in the Document on Human Fraternity who met for the first time on Wednesday.

    By Sr Bernadette Mary Reis, fsp

    Eighteen years to the day that the twin towers were attacked in New York City, the 7 member Higher Committee established for the purpose of acheiving the goals of the Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together met together for the first time on Monday…

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New Council of the St John’s Co-Cathedral Foundation

12/09/2019

  • The Council of The St John’s Co-Cathedral Foundation for the years 2019-2020 is now composed of Mr Wilfrid Buttigieg, President of the Council (centre), and (from left) Dr Philip Farrugia Randon, Mgr Louis Camilleri, Dr Ray Bondin and Mgr Victor Zammit McKeon, together with new Council member Mgr Prof. Emanuel Agius. Mr Joe Gerada (far right) is the Council Secretary…

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Pope Francis’ in-flight press conference: full text

11/09/2019
  • Press conference on the flight back from his Apostolic Journey in Southern Africa: Pope Francis recalls the joy of the children he met and affirms that the State has the duty to take care of families. He says that xenophobia is “a disease” and asks that people’s identities be preserved from ideological colonization. He speaks of the criticisms he receives and replies to a question on schismatic temptations with: “I pray that schisms do not happen, but I am not afraid of them.”

    From the flight Antananarivo-Rome

    Two and a half hours after the Air Madagascar flight to Rome took off from Antananarivo; Pope Francis met the journalists accompanying him and spoke, answering their questions, for about an hour and a half…

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Turkey bishop urges missionary effort by the church

11/09/2019
  • A Catholic bishop in Turkey has warned his Church lacks enough priests and places of worship to meet the needs of refugees and local residents, many of whom seek to return to Christianity or learn more about it.  “We need priests, nuns and laypeople who can help with the formation and daily pastoral care of Christians, which is made more complex by great distances”, said Bishop Paolo Bizzeti, an Italian-born Jesuit heading Turkey’s apostolic vicariate of Anatolia…

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Pope returning to Vatican after 31st Apostolic Journey abroad

10/09/2019

  • Pope Francis concluded his three-leg Apostolic Visit to Mozambique, Madagascar, and Mauritius on Tuesday morning. He is scheduled to touch down in Rome at about 7pm.

    The Air Madagascar Airbus plane that is bringing Pope Francis back to the Vatican at the end of his 31st Apostolic Journey abroad has taken off from Antananarivo International Airport.

    As is customary, the Pope’s outbound flight is always by Italy’s national airline Alitalia, while the national airline of the country he is leaving is the one to bring him back home…

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Il-Papa lill-kleru u lir-reliġjużi fil-Madagascar: ‘kunu sinjal tal-preżenza ħajja tiegħU’

09/09/2019

  • Pope Francis wrapped up his two-day Apostolic Visit to Madagascar on Sunday evening at Antananarivo’s Saint Michel College, an institute founded by French Jesuit missionaries in 1888 and that has become a well-known center for higher education throughout the region.  

    The Pope’s message to the men and women gathered in Antananarivo to be with their pastor, was one of thanks for their hard work – often carried out in difficult situations – and of encouragement in times of difficulty…

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The ongoing detention of asylum seekers at Safi Barracks and the Initial Reception Centre

A statement endorsed by 34 organisations including entities of the Archdiocese of Malta

09/09/2019

  • We are deeply concerned about the ongoing detention of hundreds of asylum-seekers – men, women and children – on medical grounds at the Initial Reception Centre and Safi Barracks. We believe that, in many cases, the detention is completely unlawful.

    National law allows the health authorities to restrict an individual’s movement for medical screening for a period not exceeding four weeks, which may be exceptionally extended up to ten weeks for the purpose of finalising any tests that may be necessary…

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