Posts By Date - Catholic Herald

July 15, 2019

A woman has pushed the celebrated Brazilian priest Fr Marcelo Rossi off a stage during Mass. Priests in Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese have refused to read out a letter from Cardinal George Alencherry. Church leaders have criticised the Indian government’s decision to introduce the death penalty for child abusers. Fr Allen Figueroa Deck argues that a “vocal

Dominicans elect first ever Asian Master

July 15, 2019

Members of the Dominican general chapter elected 51-year-old Fr Gerard Francisco Timoner to be the master general of the worldwide religious order. Father Timoner, a native of the Philippines, is the 88th superior of the Order of Preachers, founded by St Dominic Guzman, and the first Asian to lead the order. Elected July 13 during

The epic Russian novel you’ve never heard of

July 15, 2019

I have been reading Vasily Grossman and the Soviet Century, a biography by Alexandra Popoff. Not widely known in this country, Grossman, a Ukrainian Jew born in 1905 who died in 1964, has been justly described as “the Tolstoy of the 20th century”, because of his vast novel, Life and Fate, which treated similar themes

The Roman basilica dedicated to 20th century martyrs

July 15, 2019

On an island in Rome’s Tiber River, there is a basilica devoted to the Christian martyrs of the 20th century, the bloodiest century in the history of the Catholic Church. Flanked on either side by relics of Christians martyred under Communism and Nazism respectively, the main altar of the Basilica of St. Bartholomew on Tiber

Pope Francis: Judge your own heart first – not that of those in need

July 15, 2019

Helping a person in need requires compassion toward their situation, Pope Francis said Sunday, encouraging Catholics to think first about their own hardness of heart, not the sins of others. “If you go down the street and see a homeless man lying there and you pass by without looking at him, or you think: ‘Eh,

Cardinal Paolo Sardi dies aged 84

July 15, 2019

Cardinal Paolo Sardi, who served under five popes, died Saturday at Gemelli Hospital in Rome after a short illness. The 84-year-old Piemontese cardinal had been retired from his work in the Secretariat of State, where he coordinated the office which edits papal speeches and texts. He most recently had served as pro-patron and then patron

Pro-life leaders tell of online censorship at White House summit

July 15, 2019

Pro-life leaders were invited to a White House social media summit on Thursday, amid claims of online censorship by search engines and social media sites. “We are the tip of the spear as far as social media persecution goes,” Cary Solomon, co-writer, director and producer of the pro-life film “Unplanned” told CNA on Friday. “We

Vatican discovers two sets of bones in search for missing girl

July 15, 2019

The Vatican has found two ossuaries believed to maybe belong to the German noblewomen whose tombs were found empty earlier this week. According to Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti, the ossuaries will be opened for testing July 20, in order to determine if they belong to Princess Sophie von Hohenlohe and Duchess Charlotte Frederica, who both

Car bomb near church in Syria wounds several

July 15, 2019

A car bomb exploded near a Syriac Orthodox church in Qamishli on Thursday, injuring about 11 people. It is unclear who is responsible for the attack. According to AFP, the July 11 bombing “slightly dented” the metal gate of the Church of the Virgin Mary located in the al-Wasta neighborhood of Qamishli, in Syria’s Al-Hasakah