News

19/06/2018

Pope Francis at Mass on Tuesday morning said the mystery of Christian life is loving our enemies and praying for our persecutors.

He drew inspiration from the day’s Gospel (Mt 5:43-48), in which Jesus invites his followers to a higher standard of human relations, so as to be “perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

The Holy Father said forgiveness, prayer, and love for those who seek to destroy us is the path Jesus has laid out for us…

Change in Marriage Office opening hours

18/06/2018

…

18/06/2018

The cathedral of the southern Chilean diocese of Osorno during a Mass led by papal representative Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna at the end of his pastoral visit to the diocese. (Credit: Courtesy Misión Pastoral Osorno.)
An investigator assigned by Pope Francis to visit Chile’s southern diocese of Osorno, which has been the epicentre of that country’s clerical sexual abuse scandals, has said the pontiff instructed him to ask forgiveness for the suffering those scandals have caused…

17/06/2018

Knisja tal-Madonna tal-Abbandunati, il-Wardija
16 ta’ Ġunju 2018

Waħda mill-iktar esperjenzi koroh fil-ħajja hi l-abbandun – li xi ħadd ikun skartat, abbandunat. Papa Franġisku jitkellem fuq il-kultura tal-iskart fi żmienna. Jgħid li m’hijiex biss kultura li tisfrutta lin-nies, li tqiegħed lil xi nies fil-periferija, imma wkoll li tittrattahom bħal skart. Hu jgħid li l-kultura tal-iskart ma tibqax tistma l-ħajja umana bħala valur primarju li wieħed għandu jirrispetta u jipproteġi…

17/06/2018

It’s not easy being a good father. It requires a great deal of sacrifice, willing to do what is necessary to guide your children to be the best versions of themselves. The father works together with mother to bring up their children in the faith and build them up into vessels of virtue.

The responsibility can feel intense at times and every father fails at some point…

16/06/2018

As part of their special mission to help bring healing to the troubled Chilean diocese of Osorno, Archbishop Charles Scicluna and Msgr. Jordi Bertomeu are holding several pastoral meetings this week which they say are aimed at listening.

Speaking to Chilean media at the airport after landing in Osorno, Scicluna said they came “to convey the special closeness of the pope to the beloved people of Osorno…

14/06/2018

For months the Vatican waited, silently, to see how to engage Italy’s new populist government. For months the Italian bishops offered support and patience as political parties clumsily attempted to create a new government. Promising vigilance, for months Italy’s high-ranking clergy looked for points of dialogue, but also contrast, with the country’s infant leadership.

Finally, the wait is over and – unsurprisingly – the battle between the Church and Italy’s ruling coalition of right-wing populists, Northern League, and anti-establishment party, Five Star Movement, will be centred around immigration…

14/06/2018

Fr Richmond Villaflor Nilo, a parish priest in the Philippines, was shot to death just he was about to celebrate Mass, making him the fourth priest to be shot in the last six months in that troubled country.

According to a report in UCANews, Fr. Nilo was killed while putting on his alb to begin the Mass. Three shots were fired through the chapel’s window…

13/06/2018

The archbishop tasked with investigating the Chilean clerical abuse crisis said the main objective of his visit to the diocese of Osorno is not only to express Pope Francis’ closeness to the local Church, but to help provide the legal structures needed to handle abuse accusations.

“In respect to our pastoral mission, we wish in first place to be a sign of the closeness of the pope to the people and Church of Chile,” Archbishop Charles Scicluna said in a June 12 statement read aloud to the press in Santiago…

12/06/2018

The Apostolic Nuncio to Korea and Mongolia, Archbishop Alfred Xuereb hailed Tuesday’s “truly historic” summit between the leaders of the U.S. and North Korea, saying the Church is “full of hope and confidence” but warning we’re still at the beginning of a long process.

Long and arduous road

Speaking from Seoul in an interview with Vatican News, Archbishop Xuereb said that the Korean people and the local Church had been anxiously awaiting “these truly historic events.” He described the summit between U.S…