After going to Bosnia in 2015, Sweden in 2016 and the Baltic states in 2018, Pope Francis is once again visiting the peripheries of Europe to meet two small Catholic communities -- in Bulgaria where there are 68,000 Catholics, and in Northern Macedonia where there are only 15,000.
The pope's trip also includes a ten hour stop in Skopje to pay tribute to Mother Teresa, who was born in the Macedonian capital although she was Albanian by nationality.
The monthly magazine will have a new editorial board coordinated by the journalist, feminist, and first woman to become deputy editor of a large Italian newspaper. "Monda assures us complete freedom".
Their connection to Vatican II was highlighted during the beatification ceremony presided over by Cardinal Becciu in the Argentinean city of La Rioja
Two are absent from Jerusalem, God and man
Holy places are many, but God is not there.
God is no more in Jerusalem. He has departed. The human being also. Men of war took over waging wars and oppressing others. They planted hatred in the hearts. Even their prayers are no longer praise of God but have become a curse against others.
Even so, there are still true human beings in Jerusalem. They pray and they praise the Lord. God does not forget them even if He departed from the city of war made by men.
Thearchbishop of Colombo comments with Vatican Insider on the Easter Sunday massacres: “We reject the death penalty but their punishment should match their crime. The terrorists are not Muslims, they do not believe in any God, they must be isolated”
The Church after the great Lenten season arrives at the marvelous feast of the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Christ endured all the disgusts and torments at the cross, he tasted death and defeated it. The gates of paradise had been closed since Adam had committed his sin, but Jesus Christ opened those gates with his suffering. And this all was done so that us ‘the sinners’ who repent may enter with him and experience the glory of paradise with him on this great day.
The burning of Notre Dame in Paris last week struck us all very deeply, more deeply, I think, than most of us imagine. Even the most secular in France were struck and saddened. Why is this? Simply put, Notre Dame is far more than a building. What follows are three short reflections on the deeper meanings of the burning of Notre Dame. What unites them is an archetypal longing for what we once were and have seemingly lost but can regain if we allow Our Lady to lead us back to her Son.
SHE IS NOTRE DAME DR PARIS
Was the near destruction of Notre Dame Cathedral simply the result of an accidental fire? Or was it also a prophetic sign?
Following is the meditation of Most Rev. Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Apostolic Administrator of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, on the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, June 21, 2019:
The Gospel passage that the Liturgy places before us on this feast of Corpus Christi contains various paradoxes, as if to show us something excessive, exaggerations.
It is the passage that tells the episode of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes by Jesus according to the version of Luke (9:11b-17).
Following is the reflection by Most Rev. Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Apostolic Administrator of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, for the 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C, July 14, 2019:
There are two expressions that give us a first key to understanding today’s Gospel passage (Lk 10:25-37).
The first we find immediately at the beginning, when the evangelist Luke says that a doctor of the Law stands up to test Jesus.
