A while ago, I titled one of my pastoral letters “If possible, on your part, live at peace with everyone”, those wise words taken from a verse in Romans 12:18 in the New Testament. In it, I focused on the life of Saint Francis of Assisi and his prayer “Make me a channel of your peace”. Now, four years later, the Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia is returning to that same prayer, as we witness the first ever visit by a Pope to the Arabian Peninsula.

The UAE daily Al-Ittihad has carried the following interview with Director of the Catholic Center for Studies and Media in Jordan Fr. Dr. Rif’at Bader on the upcoming visit of His Holiness Pope Francis to the UAE:

The creation of a new Ukrainian church under the auspices of the Constantinople Patriarchate has deeply divided the churches of the Orthodox world. Both canonical and geopolitical, the dispute has centered around the issue of the primacy of the Patriarch of Constantinople.

On the eve of Orthodox Christmas on Jan. 5, during a solemn ceremony at the patriarchal church of St. George in Istanbul, the Primate of Constantinople, Patriarch Bartholomew, officially confirmed the creation of the new autocephalous or independent Church of the Ukraine.

Addressing an audience of hundreds of thousands of young people Pope Francis painted a portrait of a "close" and "concrete" God in his homily at the final Mass of World Youth Day at St. John Paul II Field in Panama on Sunday Jan. 27.

On Sunday, January 27, was the final day of the World Youth Day in Panama City. Pope Francis celebrated an open-air Holy Mass at the capital’s Metro Park to conclude the WYD.

Following is the full text of the Pope's homily:

Metro Park, 27 January 2019

“The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them: ‘Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing’” (Lk 4:20-21).

"Friends, each of us is much more than our labels." Pope Francis has no doubt, and with these words, he encourages the young people detained in the Centro de Cumplimiento de Menores Las Garzas de Pacora. It is the first time that a pontiff at WYD listens to the confessions of some young detained in a juvenile prison. It happens here today in Panama, where he denounces: "How painful it is to see a society concentrate its energies more on complaining rather than on creating opportunities”.

In a note the Holy See expresses concern and prudence. Cardinal Porras to the security forces: respect the people’s right to protest

Following is the Vatican-provided text of Pope Francis’ address at the Penitential Liturgy with young detainees in the Centro de Cumplimiento de Menores Las Garzas de Pacora in Panama, during the second full day of his Apostolic Visit to the country to celebrate World Youth Day 2019:

“He receives sinners and eats with them”. We just heard this at the beginning of the Gospel reading (Lk 15:2). They are the words muttered by some of the Pharisees and scribes who were greatly upset and scandalized by the way Jesus was acting.

Pope Francis begins a decisive season of his pontificate right in “his” Latin America. He is going to Panama to meet young people at WYD, but also to start tackling in the Amazon, issues such as the defense of the indigenous peoples and the environment - in view of the special Synod in October. 2019 presents itself as the year in which many of the “battles” of the 82-year-old Argentine Pontiff, who is implementing a reform of the Church, will come to a conclusion. His hope is that many knots will finally come undone this year.

The Gospel this week, focusing on the Wedding at Cana, is important for many reasons: the attentive intercession of Our Lady, the elevation of marriage to a sacrament, and the creation of new wine — the best wine — with a single command from Jesus as the first public miracle.