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Students of the Studienjahr during a lesson at Beit Josef, the headquarters of the program, within the compound of the Benedictine Abbey of the Dormition in Jerusalem. The Studienjahr program (launched in 1973) is an annual program of ecumenical studies. It brings together every year about 20 German-speaking theology students from all Christians denominations. January 2024. / Credit: Marinella BandiniJerusalem, Jan 26, 2024 / 17:30 pm (CNA).This past week in the Holy Land, during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, a group of young people in their 20s actively participated in all various ecumenical prayer services. They were German-speaking theology students enrolled in the annual program of ecumenical studies (called "Studienjahr"), which has been offered for 50 years at the Benedictine Abbey of the Dormition in Jerusalem. The Benedictine Abbey of the Dormition in Jerusalem. The large building stands on Mount Zion and has been a part of Jerusalem's skyline for over a centu...
Cardinal Gerald Lacroix is Archbishop of Quebec, Canada. / Credit: Daniel IbáñezACI Prensa Staff, Jan 26, 2024 / 18:00 pm (CNA).The archbishop of Quebec, Canada, Cardinal Gerald Lacroix, has been accused of abusing a 17-year-old teenager almost four decades ago.The allegations are included as part of a lawsuit filed against the Archdiocese of Quebec and were made public in court on Thursday.As reported by the AFP news agency and according to lawyer Alain Arsenault, who is representing a group of plaintiffs against the Archdiocese of Quebec, the accusation dates back to 1987 and 1988, when the alleged victim was 17 years old.Arsenault said he expects additional victims to join the lawsuit, which originated in 2022 and initially involved 101 people who were allegedly "sexually assaulted" by priests and laypeople since 1940.The new court documents, AFP notes, list 46 new alleged victims, bringing the total number of people suing the archdiocese to 147.Lacroix, 66, is a member of t...
ROME (CNS) -- Divided Christians will draw closer to one another only by loving God and loving their neighbors, serving one another and not pointing fingers in blame for past faults, Pope Francis said.Closing the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity with an evening prayer service Jan. 25 at Rome's Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, Pope Francis was joined by Anglican Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury and, at the end of the service, the two commissioned pairs of Anglican and Catholic bishops from 27 countries to "bear witness together to the hope that does not deceive and to the unity for which our Savior prayed."Members of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches, who were meeting in Rome, also participated along with representatives of Orthodox, Protestant and Anglican communities in Italy.In his homily, Pope Francis reflected on the theme for the 2024 celebration of the week of prayer: "You sh...
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis again insisted that an informal blessing of a gay or other unmarried couple is not a blessing of their union but a sign of the Catholic Church's closeness to them and its hope that they will grow in faith."The intent of 'pastoral and spontaneous blessings' is to concretely show the closeness of the Lord and the church to all those who, finding themselves in different situations, ask for help to carry on -- sometimes to begin -- a journey of faith," Pope Francis said Jan. 26 as he met members of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.The full membership of the dicastery was holding its annual plenary meeting at the Vatican.While Pope Francis' remarks to the members focused on their discussions about the sacraments, human dignity and faith, particularly the centrality of evangelization, he also mentioned "Fiducia Supplicans" ("Supplicating Trust") on "the pastoral meaning of blessings," which was published by the dicastery and signed by Pope Fra...
ROME (CNS) -- Acknowledging that many of the bishops present live in situations of poverty and strife, the spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion told Catholic and Anglican bishops that they had a responsibility to work together to preach the Gospel and to bring hope and healing to the world."We must look outward. We cannot continue, as the church, to be those who are obsessed with what is going on amongst us," said Anglican Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury during his homily Jan. 25 at an Anglican Eucharist celebrated in the Catholic Church of St. Bartholomew on Tiber Island in Rome.Coming directly from a private meeting with Pope Francis, the archbishop began the liturgy by thanking the pope for allowing him to celebrate the Anglican service in a Catholic church. Anglican Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury, spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, gives his homily during the celebration of the Anglican Eucharist in the Church of St. Bartholomew in Rome Jan...
WASHINGTON - Consecrated persons advance the mission of the Gospel in the Church today by bringing the light of the Gospel to those they encounter, said Bishop Earl A. Boyea of Lansing. In preparation for the celebration of the World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life by the Catholic Church on February 2, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations (CCLV) commissioned a study on newly professed men and women religious through the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University. The survey, Women and Men Professing Perpetual Vows in Religious Life: The Profession Class of 2023, commissioned annually since 2010 provides valuable insight into the demographics, family background, education history, occupational and ministerial experience, and vocational discernment of religious who professed perpetual vows in the past year.Bishop Boyea serves as chairman of the CCLV committee: "In their work, ministry, and c...
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- It is easy to believe one is the master of everything one owns, Pope Francis said, but often the opposite happens and one's possessions "take possession of us.""This is what misers do not understand. They could have been a source of blessing to many, but instead they have slipped into the blind alley of wretchedness," the pope said Jan. 24 at his weekly general audience in the Paul VI Audience Hall.Continuing a series of audience talks about vices and virtues, the pope reflected on the vice of avarice or greed, which is a sin and "a sickness of the heart, not of the wallet," he said.Greed is not only a "form of attachment to money that prevents people from generosity," he said, it can be seen in an exaggerated attachment to even insignificant objects.Objects can become a kind of fetish that is impossible to let go of, reflecting "a sort of regression to the state of children who clutch their toy repeating, 'It's mine! It's mine!'"It is a kind of attachment that...
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- With little fanfare, Pope Francis officially opened the Year of Prayer after Mass for the church's celebration of Sunday of the Word of God."Today we begin the Year of Prayer; that is, a year dedicated to rediscovering the great value and absolute need for prayer in personal life, in the life of the church and in the world," he said, after praying the Angelus with visitors in St. Peter's Square Jan. 21.The pope called for the special year last February to help prepare Catholics worldwide for the Holy Year, which begins with the opening of the Holy Door in St. Peter's Basilica Dec. 24. Construction is underway at the intersection of Piazza Pia and Via della Conciliazione, the wide boulevard leading to St. Peter's Square, in preparation for the Holy Year at the Vatican Jan. 23, 2024. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)Preparing for the jubilee is not just about the huge construction projects underway throughout Rome to help welcome and facilitate the flow of an estimated 3...
WASHINGTON - This year, Ash Wednesday falls on Valentine's Day (February 14), and Catholics in dioceses across the United States can express love for their sisters and brothers in war-torn Ukraine and in 27 other post-Communist countries by giving to the U.S. bishops' annual Collection for the Church in Central and Eastern Europe.The generosity of Catholics in the U.S. through this collection, especially since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, has yielded over $2 million in urgent humanitarian and pastoral relief to victims of the war. But this generous response did not stop at the Ukrainian border -- the 329 grants awarded in 2023 totaled $8.7 million and helped rebuild churches, support seminary education, and minister to the unique spiritual needs of families and young people. "When Catholics give to this collection, they are actively participating in the rebuilding of the Church in places where decades of Communism have left behind devastated churches and wounded spirits," said B...
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- God's word cuts through the sea of chatter spoken aloud and uttered online to touch the hearts of Christians and inspire them to share the Gospel, Pope Francis said."While society and social media reflect the violence of words, let us draw closer to and cultivate the quiet word that brings salvation, that is meek, that doesn't make noise, that enters into the heart," the pope said during his homily at Mass for the church's celebration of Sunday of the Word of God in St. Peter's Basilica Jan. 21.Although Christians today are "barraged by words about the church," he encouraged them to "rediscover the word of life that resounds in the church.""If not, we end up talking more about ourselves" than about Jesus, "and concentrate on our own thoughts and problems rather than on Christ and his word," the pope told the approximately 5,000 people gathered for Mass in the basilica.In 2019, the pope decreed that the third Sunday of Ordinary Time be devoted to the "celebratio...
