Elise Ann Allen, Author at Catholic Herald

Elise Ann Allen

A man on a mission: Pope Francis has ambitious travel plans for 2024

January 31, 2024

ROME – Despite being almost 90 years old and suffering from the various ailments that come with ageing, Pope Francis has touted some ambitious travel plans for this year, including potential visits to Polynesia and a long-awaited return trip to Argentina. Though there is nothing yet on the calendar for this spring, the Pope in

Pope offers usual Christmas message of hope while lamenting ‘the little Jesuses of today’ lost to war, migration and abortion

December 28, 2023

At the end of a year marked by the outbreak of fresh wars and by various personal health crises, Pope Francis at Christmas offered a message of hope, saying Jesus’s birth brings light to a dark world and his littleness shows the path of salvation, through humility and love. Though he also took to task

Designed to avoid polemics, Pope’s media blackout on synod may exacerbate them

October 23, 2023

ROME – Perhaps one of the most exciting moments of the Synod of Bishops so far, not to mention one of the most illustrative, took place during a heated exchange between synod organisers and a veteran Vatican reporter over a publicity “fast” called for by Pope Francis during the assembly. In his opening address for

October’s Synod in Rome will have an impact far beyond the Church

September 26, 2023

There has been a good deal of hype over this month’s Synod on Synodality in Rome, which will draw together nearly 400 participants. Touching on issues such as women’s ordination, LGBTQ+ issues and clerical celibacy, this year’s synod is the first of a two-part discussion that will culminate next October. In the lead-up to this

Pope in Marseille sent secular Europe a clear message on life

September 25, 2023

ROME – Although the issue of migration was front and centre during his overnight visit to Marseille, Pope Francis sent another strong message to secular Europe, offering a clear condemnation of the widespread practices of abortion and euthanasia. Francis, who has repeatedly referred to abortion and euthanasia as byproducts of what he has dubbed a

Pope condemns hitting civilian targets after Caritas warehouse destroyed by Russians in Lviv

September 20, 2023

ROME – Pope Francis has condemned the routine use of “conventional weapons” against civilian targets in a message to Ghanian Cardinal Peter Turkson, sent the day after a warehouse in Ukraine containing several tons of humanitarian aid was destroyed in a Russian drone attack. In his Sept. 19 message, the pope pointed to what he

Pope’s Mongolia trip reaffirms globality of a non ‘Eurocentric’ church

September 07, 2023

ROME – During a trip seemingly to the ends of the world to visit one of the remotest flocks in the Catholic Church, Pope Francis found a small, but warm welcome, with many praising his visit as not only reaching out to the peripheries, but as expanding the Church’s own perspective. Father Ambrose Mong, a

Pope dismisses critics of Synod as ‘ideological’ with an ‘incapacity for dialogue’

September 04, 2023

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE – Pope Francis warned against the influence of what he called “ideology” on an upcoming Synod of Bishops at the Vatican, indicated that his future travel plans may be curtailed given considerations of health and limitations on movement, and also distanced himself from climate change extremists. The pontiff also largely rejected

Pope Francis kicks off ‘hot autumn’ at the Vatican

September 04, 2023

ROME – As summer winds down in Rome and the city fills up with reluctant vacationers getting back to the grind, Pope Francis has kicked off what promises to be a true autunno caldo, or “hot autumn” at the Vatican. For Francis, this autumn promises to be one of his busiest yet, with two international trips,

Pope says maintaining Church teaching on ordination and marriage not a sign of closed-mindedness

August 06, 2023

PAPAL PLANE – Returning from Lisbon on Sunday, Pope Francis insisted that maintaining the Church’s traditional teachings on ordination and marriage is not a sign of closed-mindedness. In an airborne news conference the pontiff also touched on his reasons for opting not to mention Ukraine out loud while in the famed Marian shrine of Fátima

Life and Seoul: World Youth Day will head to South Korea in 2027

August 06, 2023

LISBON – In a sign of the rapidly expanding influence that Asian Catholicism is having in the global church, Pope Francis announced on Sunday at the close of World Youth Day in Portugal that the next such gathering will be held in Seoul, South Korea. The Seoul gathering will take place in 2027, meaning in

“Share your joy with others!” Pope Francis’s message to 1.5 million young people

August 06, 2023

LISBON – Pope Francis has told a crowd of young people at a prayer vigil for World Youth Day (WYD), estimated by organisers to be in the region of 1.5 million, not to spend life at a standstill but to imitate the Virgin Mary in “making haste” to share their joy with others. “Mary does

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