When we go into a Christian place of worship, we expect to see a Cross. And when crosses are removed from public places, such as crematoria or hospital chapels, we quite reasonably get rather indignant about it. But in the world in which Christianity began, a place of worship was the last place you would expect to see a Cross. We can only begin to get some sense of what it might have felt like to encounter the symbol of a cross in the first couple of Christian centuries if we imagine coming into a church and being faced with a large picture of an electric chair or perhaps a guillotine.

In a Register interview, the Vatican’s ‘foreign minister,’ Archbishop Paul Gallagher, discusses the Holy Father’s distinctive approach to international issues.

After the audience, on Saturday, January 14, the Palestinian president inaugurated the Palestinian embassy to the Holy See, which opened in light of the Apostolic See’s recognition of the “State of Palestine”.

President-elect Donald Trump must help persecuted religious groups around the world or his administration will fail, said the leader of a nonprofit at the release Wednesday, January 11, 2016 of its annual list of the most dangerous countries for Christians.

In response to the emergency caused by the cold weather, since Saturday 7 January, the church of San Callisto in Rome’s Trastevere neighbourhood, has kept its doors open to the homeless, offering them a place to sleep at night.

When a man blew himself up inside a Coptic church in Cairo during Sunday mass, killing 25 worshippers on December 11, 2016, he not only performed a gruesome deed but added another instance to a global trend of recent years: the persecution of Christians.

Within a geographic band that writer Eliza Griswold has identified as the 10th parallel running from Libya to Indonesia, Christians suffer death, torture, illegal detention, the burning of their property, heavy discrimination, and other human rights violations on account of their faith.

A wide variety of issues, both domestic and foreign, have been raised during the presidential transition. One that hasn’t received much notice is the situation of the beleaguered Christian community in the Middle East.

Given the interest in, and media coverage of those other issues, it’s an open question as to just what the United States would do for the Middle East’s Christian minorities under the presidential administration of Donald J. Trump.

While the hustle and bustle of Christmas ends for many people on Dec. 26, throughout Christian history Christmas lasts for twelve days – all the way until Jan. 6.

This feast marking the end of Christmas is called “Epiphany.”

In the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church, Epiphany celebrates the revelation that Jesus was the Son of God. It focuses primarily on this revelation to the Three Wise Men, but also in his baptism in the Jordan and at the wedding at Cana.

Although there are different versions of the story of St. Barbara, Christians in the Middle East and Central Europe still celebrate the early Christian martyr each Dec. 4.

At a time when churches, mosques and hotel restaurants are being bombed by persons claiming to do it in the name of religion, it is hard to continue to trust in anyone mixing religion with patriotism.

But while such a mix is being challenged by secularism and the idea of civil state, we are reminded of a person who exemplified what faith can do in terms of defending the weak, standing by the lonely and protesting injustice.