“From Smakiyeh to Wahadneh and vice versa”… this is the title of my article that was published in Al Rai daily on March 3, 2005. I was at the time talking about the hardships faced by university students with regards to transportation. The question that arises is why do I love these two townships? The reason I dearly love them is because the latter, located in the northern part of the homeland, is my township where I spent the first decade, while the former, located in the southern part of the homeland, is the place where I spent ten years as priest of the Latin Patriarchate.

A “Chinese Bishops’ Conference in communion with the Pope” is “what we hope to see and that for which we have been praying for a long time”: the viewpoint of Joseph Wei Jingyi, the “clandestine” Catholic bishop in Qiqihar, in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang. Wei is a known member of the so-called “clandestine” Chinese Church: an unfortunate and misleading term used to indicate the part of bishops, priests and faithful who are not subject to the organisms and methods of religious politics in Beijing.

They are 21 Syrians. The children presented their drawings to Francis, the Pope gave toys. The refugees are guests of the Community of Sant’Egidio

The Pope had lunch on Thursday, August 11, with 21 Syrian refugees who are living in Rome after the same Francis took on the task of bringing them to Italy following his trip to the Greek island of Lesbos on 16 April.

Iraqi Christians appear divided about whether they will be able to return home after Islamic State militants are flushed out of the battle-scarred Ninevah Plains region. They say their safety must be guaranteed at all costs.

In the sky of Poland, there were two planes overflying the country. The first one had Pope Francis on board coming from Rome and heading to meet the youths of the world in the country of his friend John Paul II. The second plane was returning from Warsaw and heading to France with a bishop on board, who had get ready for a trip to Poland a year ago, but circumstances forced him to return to the Ryan Parish.

Established in 1994, the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies (RIIFS) has been working for decades to achieve HRH Prince Hassan’s vision of religious pluralism and interfaith harmony, according to its director.

RIIFS Director Majeda Omar said Prince Hassan first initiated dialogue between adherents of different faiths in the 1970s.

“Imagine how the world would have been if the call for dialogue was as active forty years ago,” she said, adding that the prince’s vision extended beyond Jordan to include the whole region.

Cardinal John Tong has today published an important article on the Sino-Vatican dialogue, in which he says China “is now willing” to reach an agreement with the Holy See on the appointment of bishops in the mainland, and discusses what such an agreement can or cannot contain.

There has been much speculation in the media in recent times that the Holy See and China are moving closer to reaching an historic agreement on the crucial question of the nomination of bishops. This has provoked different reactions inside and outside the mainland.

At the culmination of weeks marked by violent sectarian clashes and attacks, Patriarch Tawadros II launches a cry of alarm and Sisi invites him to the presidential palace

At this evening’s WYD prayer vigil, Pope Francis said: “People try to make us believe that being closed in on ourselves is the best way to keep safe from harm. Today, we adults need you to teach us how to…experience multiculturalism not as a threat but an opportunity”

The regional conference of the Ecclesiastical Courts in the Middle East, the first ever of its kind, has convened at the Dead Sea region. The six-day conference, organized by the Ecclesiastical Court of the Latin Patriarchate and the Pontifical Lateran University which is specialized in the teaching of Canon Law, aimed at shedding light on the “novelties” in the activities of the Ecclesiastical Courts with regards to marriage, family and other relevant issues.