World News

Pope Francis reminds the South Sudanese faithful that Jesus understands their pain, hopes, and loves them personally and never to be afraid because God is with them.

“No more bloodshed, no more conflicts, no more violence and mutual recriminations about who is responsible for it, no more leaving your people athirst for peace. No more destruction: it is time to build! Leave the time of war behind and let a time of peace dawn!” the Pope insisted.

Pope Francis urges the clergy and the religious in Congo to anoint God's people "with the balm of consolation and hope" to show God's compassion.

Pope Francis recommended five ingredients for the future: prayer, community, honesty, forgiveness, and service, with the figurative symbol of five fingers.

“While so many today dismiss the poor, you embrace them; while the world exploits them, you encourage them," Pope Francis tells the representatives of several charities in Kinshasa.

Taking the theme “widening the tent” from the working document of the continental phase of the Synod, the message of the Dicastery for Consecrated persons, exhorts the consecrated people to widen the tent and walk together in “closeness, compassion and tenderness”

“Enough! Stop getting rich at the cost of the poor, stop getting rich from resources and money stained with blood!” the Pope insisted.

Pope Francis invited the wounded and oppressed Congolese people to give Christ a chance to heal their hearts by handing their past over to him, along with all their fears and troubles. 

Pope reminded them that the Congolese people are more precious than the diamonds found abundantly in their soil and reminded them that peace and development comes from ‘spiritual wealth’ ad not from natural resources.

The continental level study is based on the 50-page document issued by the Synodal secretariate last October titled “Enlarge the Space of your Tent”.

"It is time to raise our gaze and move towards encounter and reconciliation with justice. The country must not continue in anxiety, fear and uncertainty," the statement read.

“With the whole family of God here in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, I am praying for the victims of this violence,” Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez said in a statement.

According to the Vicar General, "majority of the victims were Catholics, and the attackers were Fulanis who occupied some of the villages they had abandoned after earlier attacks.” “11 people were killed, including women and children, and many with life-threatening wounds in the hospital."

The love that God invites us into is always a love which gathers us into communion: we – not me. This insight makes all the difference in how we “do justice”.

When justice is done…
How can local congregations support one another to withstand the opposition that may follow from doing justice?

Archbishop Anthony Muheria of Nyeri Archdiocese ordained a blind seminarian, Michael Mithamo King'ori, and five other deacons at St. John Bosco Kiamuiru Primary School Grounds, Kiamuiru parish, on January 14.

From 18 to 25 January 2023, the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Christians from all over the world belonging to different traditions and confessions, gather spiritually in prayer for the unity of the Church. The theme for 2023 is “Do Good; Seek Justice” (Isaiah, 1:17).

The world’s oldest person, French nun Sister André, died at 118. She died on Tuesday, January 17, at 2 AM local time.

Among the charred remains of the building of Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church, the body of Father Isaac Achi was found on January 15, said the Catholic Diocese of Minna.  

The President of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Timothy Costelloe, offered condolences over the death of Cardinal George Pell in a statement published on January 11. Australian Cardinal Pell died at the age of 81 in Rome on January 10.