CARDINAL THOMAS COLLINS: Canada can do more to help Christians under siege in Iraq
Cardinal Thomas Collins is Archbishop of Toronto.    Far away from the comfort of our television screens, tablets and newspapers, a tragedy continues to unfold in Iraq. Islamist extremists, intent on eliminating any trace of Christianity, have cast out tens of thousands of Christians, a people with an almost 2,000-year history in the region. Seven years ago, shortly after I began my mission as Archbishop of Toronto, the Archbishop of Mosul visited me and shared his hopes for caring for his community. He wanted to build a little school, and we tried to help him. He also told me of what his people were suffering even then. Now Mosul, one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, is devoid ...

General Audience: Pope prays for China earthquake victims and Middle East peace
In the first General Audience since his summer break Pope Francis resumed his Catechesis on the Church and the People of God, but his mind was also on the tensions and recent conflict in the Middle East and an earthquake in China which last Sunday left hundreds dead and over two thousand injured. Expressing his closeness to the people of the province of Yunnan, the Holy Father offered his prayers for the victims and their families, for those injured and those who lost homes in the disaster. Earlier greeting pilgrims from the Middle East he asked those present to “pray hard for peace” in the region”. He made the plea in the Paul the VI hall which provided both the ...

Muslim Preacher converts to Christianity and questions Islam’s growth in Western countries
We’re speaking in London with a new Orthodox Christian who was baptized today with the name Daniel. Daniel is not a Muslim name, far from it [actually, it does exist as a Muslim name, but it’s quite rare]. Although information about his conversion will inevitably circulate among the Muslims of London, for reasons of security we will not deliberately give details about this subject because there are very often cases of threats and violence and sometimes even murders perpetrated by fanatics. That said, Daniel’s experience is very precious for the Orthodox. Fr. Nicholas Savtchenko, interim rector of the Church of the Dormition (ROCOR) in London speaks with him.   Fr. Savtchenko: Daniel, please tell us about yourself. Daniel: For many years ...

Priest member of Shalom Community is one of the speakers at Fota International Liturgy Conference
  The VII FOTA International Liturgy Conference organised by Saint Colman’s Society for Catholic Liturgy will be held in Cork, Ireland, next July 5-7. This year’s conference theme is “In Persona Christi Agens: Aspects of the Ordained Ministry” and will explore aspects of the ordained priestly ministry with especial reference to the sacred liturgy. Fota Liturgy Conferences are held every year during the month of July and intends to gather some of the most important contemporary research scholars in the area of Catholic Liturgy. The Conference’s topics vary from a wide range of liturgical interest; however, it has as its main subject the liturgical writings of Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI. The Conference will have the presence of bishops, theologians ...

“Agere in persona Christi capitis” by Fr. Joao Paulo D. M. Dantas
“Agere in persona Christi capitis: a clarification on the systematic Theology of the ordained ministry”  By Dr. Fr. Joao Paulo D. M. Dantas The author presents a summary of his doctoral research entitled  “In persona Christi capitis: il ministro ordinato come rappresentante di Cristo capo della Chiesa nella discussione teologica da Pio XII fino ad oggi”. Its preface was written by Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes.  In the research he studied the origin, the biblical-theological sense, the importance and the way in which the expression “in persona Christi capitis” is used in the post-conciliar magisterium and in contemporary theology. The formula “in persona Christi capitis” officially joins the theological vocabulary of the ordained ministry with the Second Vatican Council (Presbyterorum Ordinis ...

Pope Francis: To have a dialogue with God we need to make ourselves like a small child
  Pope Francis said God is like a gentle father who holds us by the hand and we need to become like a small child to have a dialogue with Him. This was the focus of his homily during the Mass he celebrated on Friday in the Santa Marta residence. June 27th is the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Pope’s homily was a reflection on the nature of the love between God and his people. He described this feast as a celebration of God’s love in Jesus Christ. “There are two aspects to this love. First, love is more about giving than receiving. Second, love is more about actions than words. When we say it’s more ...

Galaxies come to the Vatican
Galaxies, collections of billions of stars in beautiful spirals or elegant elliptical clouds, were once called “island universes” because they seemed so distant that they couldn’t possibly impinge on us. But the study of galaxies, near and far, young and old, has touched the Vatican this past month. It is the topic of the Vatican Observatory’s fourteenth summer school in Observational Astronomy and Astrophysics. These schools are held every two years at its headquarters in the Papal Summer Gardens of Castel Gandolfo, outside Rome. The current school began on June first; it ends with a Papal audience on Thursday and final classes on Friday. Twenty five university and post-graduate students have come from twenty two nations, from Argentina to Thailand, ...

Bishops Seek ‘Rescue Plan’ as Iraq’s Christians Near Extinction
For 1st Time in 1,600 Years, There Was a Sunday in Mosul With No Masses Offered Catholic bishops from Iraq are meeting this week to come up with a “rescue plan” amid growing fears that the ISIS Islamist attacks have put Christianity at increased risk of being extinguished from the country. The meeting of the Chaldean hierarchy, which starts Tuesday, comes after the military success of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) prompted yet another wave of displacement within a country that has already seen a dramatic decline in the Christian population over the past decade. Speaking today in an interview with Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, Chaldean Auxiliary Bishop Saad Sirop of Baghdad ...

Pope: Unprecedented Religious Persecution Can’t Go On
Pope Francis says it is incomprehensible and troubling that people continue to suffer discrimination, restriction of their rights and, even, persecution for professing their faith. This morning, the Holy Father ushered in the first day of a two-day international congress in Rome, titled “Religious Freedom According to International Law and Global Conflict of Values,” organized by the Maria SS. Assunta University of Rome’s (LUMSA) Department of Law and St. John’s University Law School in New York. The Pontiff lamented to conference participants that religious persecution is more widespread than it was 1,700 years ago, saying, “Nowadays, persecution of Christians is stronger than it was in the first centuries of the Church, and there are more Christian martyrs than in that ...

With the sign of the Cross, US soccer player dedicates goal to sister
U.S. soccer fans went wild on Monday as team captain Clint Dempsey scored a goal during the first minute of the club’s opening World Cup game against Ghana. The goal is among the quickest in World Cup history and the fastest scored by an American during the World Cup games, adding to numerous records held by the acclaimed player, who is also the first American to score in three different World Cups. Perhaps less well-known is the role that Dempsey’s Christian faith plays in his life. “My faith in Christ is what gives me confidence for the future. I know that through both good times and bad, He is faithful and will watch over me,” he told Sports Spectrum in ...