Archbishop of Toronto is appointed as a member of the Comission of Cardinals for the oversight of the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR)
In January 15, 2014 Cardinal Thomas Collins, Archbishop of Toronto,  issued the following statement regarding his January 15, 2014 appointment by Pope Francis as a member of the Commission of Cardinals for oversight of the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR). “I am honoured that Pope Francis has appointed me to serve as a member of the commission overseeing the Institute for the Works of Religion. While my primary role remains to serve the people of the Archdiocese of Toronto as archbishop, this new responsibility is a further way of serving the mission of the whole church. I look forward to learning more about the work of the commission in the coming weeks.” Cardinals of the Catholic Church are called to serve ...

Cardinal Koch on Christian Unity and Jewish-Catholic relations
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is being celebrated by many Churches in the northern hemisphere from January 18th to 25th, focusing this year on a provocative question from St Paul to the early Christian community in Corinth: ‘Has Christ been divided?’ Resources for this annual event have been developed by an ecumenical group of Christians in Canada and are available on the websites of both the Vatican’s Council for Christian Unity and World Council of Churches. Here in Rome the week of ecumenical activities, conferences and liturgies will conclude with the celebration of Vespers, with Pope Francis presiding in the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls with members of the many other Christian communities. But what will ...

“Towards a Better World”
Sunday 19th January the Church marks the 100th World Day of Migrants and Refugees. In his     message to mark this occasion, Pope Francis urged countries to welcome and respect    migrants and refugees and not to treat  them as “pawns on the chessboard of humanity”. In a world in which there are some 200 million migrants – 44 million of whom are refugees          and internally displaced people – the Pope said “They are children, women and men who          leave or who are forced to leave their homes for various reasons, who share a legitimate desire for knowing and having, but above all for being more.”He also repeats his condemnation of “slave labour” ...

Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, appointed to the Congregation for Bishops
Pope Francis has appointed the Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, to the Congregation for Bishops, among other new members. Archbishop Nichols was installed as the 11th Archbishop of Westminster, London, after Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor’s retirement. He is also President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales since 2009. Archbishop Vincent said after his nomination on December 16th: “It is a privilege to assist in the important task of appointing Bishops and I am honoured to have been asked to undertake this role by Pope Francis. I look forward to making whatever contribution I can to the work of the Apostolic See.” The Congregation for Bishops meets regularly on alternate Thursdays in Rome and has a key role in ...