The Catholic bishops of the Philippines have released a major pastoral letter on “climate emergency”, urging their communities to ecological conversion, listen to the cry of the Earth and the poor and act together to mitigate the ill effects of climate change.

Signed by Archbishop Romulo Valles of Davao, the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), the pastoral letter, entitled “An urgent call for ecological conversion, hope in the face of climate emergency”, was released on Tuesday. 

The 9-page document is divided into eight sections, with the first half offering a reflection on the state of the environment, followed by concrete ecological actions…

One of the incredible things about being part of a large family is the overall sense of unity between the siblings that so often occurs. Of course, there are always the squabbles, but there’s so much love — and influence — shared from the oldest to the youngest. This seems to be the case with the Hinnebusch family. When William (1908-1981), the eldest of 10, set off to join the Dominicans, six of his other siblings soon followed his example…

A brief statement issued by the interim director of the Holy See Press Office, Alessandro Gisotti, shone light on the continuation of operations in the Vatican’s Teutonic Cemetery.

Gisotti said the preliminary investigations that took place onJuly 11in the cemetery inside Vatican City were both of a documentary and a logistical nature. It emerged, he said, that between the 1960s and ‘70s  of the last century work was carried out to expand the college itself and that work, during this period, involved the entire cemetery area and the building of the Teutonic College…

There are no human remains, no coffins, no urns and no bones in the two 19th century graves in the Teutonic Cemetery inside the Vatican where forensic experts were searching for the remains of Emanuela Orlandi.

The 15 year-old-daughter of a Vatican bank employee, whose family lived inside Vatican City, disappeared on June 22, 1983. 

A statement by the Holy See Press Office on Thursday confirmed that the operations at the Teutonic Cemetery to verify the hypothesis of the presence of human remains attributable to Emanuela Orlandi ended at 11.15 a.m…