For the first time in its 82-year history, Miracle Hill Ministries will allow Catholics to serve as volunteers and employees in its vast network of homeless shelters, thrift stores and drug-recovery programs and as parents to foster children in its government-funded foster care agency.
Ecumenism
Posted inFaith, Faith in Focus
What 10 years in a Protestant church taught me about my Catholic faith
After a decade away from weekly Catholic worship, I realize that Roman Catholicism offers me the opportunity to see the world through the eyes of a poet.
Posted inDispatches, Faith
Pope Francis gives Orthodox patriarch relics of St. Peter
Patriarch Bartholomew said, “Pope Francis made this grand, fraternal and historic gesture” of giving the Orthodox fragments of the relics of St. Peter.
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Pope Francis to meet Putin for third time in July
The fact that they are meeting for a third time shows that Putin considers Pope Francis an influential player and moral authority on the global stage.
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Pope urges E.U. politicians to avoid 20th century conflicts
After enduring three grueling and demanding days crisscrossing Romania, Pope Francis fielded six questions at a press conference that lasted around 30 minutes during the plane ride home. What came across most strongly was his deep concern over the divisions that have emerged in Europe and the risk that the continent could return to the […]
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
A joyous celebration in Romania as Pope Francis beatifies seven bishop-martyrs
These “pastors and martyrs for the faith,” Pope Francis said, “re-appropriated and handed down to the Romanian people a precious legacy that we can sum up in two words: freedom and mercy.”
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Pope Francis calls on Romanian and Hungarian Catholics ‘to live together as brothers and sisters’
“Complicated and sorrow-filled situations from the past must not be forgotten or denied,” he told the assembled during his homily, “yet neither must they be an obstacle or an excuse standing in the way of our desire to live together as brothers and sisters.”
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Bishop Fratila: Pope Francis’ Romania visit may help unify Catholic witness
On the eve of Pope Francis’ visit to Romania, the Greek Catholic bishop of Bucharest, Mihai Fratila, spoke about the changes in his homeland since St. John Paul II’s visit in 1999 and the contemporary difficulties Romanians face.
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Pope Francis is visiting Romania. Here’s what to expect.
“I come as a pilgrim and a brother,” Pope Francis said in a video message to the people of Romania on the eve of his visit to the largest of the Balkan states and a predominantly Orthodox country.
Posted inFaith, Faith and Reason
Will a new gathering of Orthodox scholars and leaders push ecumenism forward?
The work of IOTA could help move the ecumenical movement forward. IOTA plans to meet every four years, on the model of the Olympics. It could become a blessing for all the church.