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.

The Chaldean Patriarch speaks about the recent slaughter of the French priest: by dying at the altar, his blood blended with the blood of Christ. In Europe, terrorist branches are getting a hold on young people who are blinded with resentment

During the Mass celebrated at the sanctuary of the Black Madonna of Czestochowa on Thursday,July 28, Pope Francis said we are always called upon to listen, get involved and reach out, sharing people’s joys and hardships, so that the Gospel is passed on to the world through the transparency of life.

On the flight to Poland, Francis speaks about the murder of the French priest, saying it was down to a conflict of interests and money.

“The world is at war” but what we are living through “is not a religious war,” Pope Francis told journalists travelling with him to Krakow. Fr. Federico Lombardi asked the Pope to comment on the terrible murder of the French priest.

The urge for tough responses runs through some veins of western Catholicism. But the Christian testimony of martyrs has always been of a very different nature.

In wars, there are neither winners nor losers for all are losers. It is an adventure, rather a risk on a road of no return and a procession in a wrong and senseless direction that leads to nowhere. The world nowadays listens again to the words of former Pope John Paul II who in the early 21st century was feeble and weak, but his voice continued to reverberate until now in his attempt to dissuade the world, particularly the United States of America, from waging a war on Iraq. Yet, his voice remained unheeded by falling on deaf ears.

Director of the Holy See Press Office Fr. Lombardi said Pope Francis “has been informed” about the attack in which a priest was slain and that the Pope is praying “for the victims”

In a new apostolic constitution titled Vultum Dei Quaerere (“Seek the Face of God”) and addressed to Catholic women religious in contemplative communities, the Pope calls for changes to be implemented in 12 diverse areas from prayer life to work habits. Archbishop Jose Rodriguez Carballo says contemplative men’s communities have not been considered in such a manner by the Pope and that the document replaces the 1999 instruction Verbi sponsa.

The words of the spokesman Lombardi: “Francis is following the terrible massacre with great concern and with prayer”.

This photo is 25 years old. It coincides with the time when John Paul II presided over the International Youth Day in Czestochowa in his country of origin, Poland, marking the 7th anniversary of the day he himself launched in 1985 for the first time for the youths in Rome. This anniversary, then, was marked every two years in all countries of the world.