By Francis Rocca When Blessed John Paul II launched the project he called the new evangelisation, he made it clear that it was aimed above all at reviving the ancient faith of an increasingly faithless West: “countries and nations where religion and the Christian life were formerly flourishing,” now menaced by a “constant spreading of religious indifference, secularism and atheism.” T...

The increase of restrictions on religion are up worldwide – and, for the first time, those restrictions increased markedly in the US, according to a new report by a leading researcher of religious trends. For the US, it was the first time in the study’s four-year history that both government restrictions and social hostility were up by at least one point on a scale of 0 to 10, according ...

By John Thavis Fifty years after the close of the Second Vatican Council, the deep transformation it set in motion continues to reverberate through the Church at every level, from the halls of the Vatican to the pews of local parishes. The council’s four sessions from 1962 to 1965 and its 16 landmark documents modernised the liturgy, renewed the priesthood and religious life, enhanced...

The makers of a Bollywood film featuring scenes Indian Christians claimed were ‘blasphemous’ and ‘offensive’ have voluntarily agreed to remove them for its cinema release. The move follows protests and outrage from Christian leaders last week, coming a week after violent protests in the Islamic world in response to an American film which insulted the prophet Mohammed. Bishop of Vasai,...

By Doreen Abi Raad Christian and Muslim leaders in Lebanon called for the formation of a legal committee to protect all religions. In a statement following a Muslim-Christian summit on September 25 at Bkerke, the seat of the Maronite Catholic church, north of Beirut, religious leaders also condemned the “Innocence of Muslims” film. They denounced “violent reactions that led to inno...

By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) - A three-judge panel of Vatican jurists found Paolo Gabriele, the papal butler, guilty of aggravated theft and sentenced him to 18 months in gaol for his role in leaking private papal correspondence and other confidential documents. The verdict was read on October 6 by Giuseppe Dalla Torre, president of the three-judge panel, just two hours after th...

  An Indian bishop has urged Christians to respond to a new Bollywood film denigrating the Christian faith with peaceful words and not violent protest. "We express with firm and unequivocal words, the disappointment of the Indian Church for this film considered offensive towards the Christian faith, but with peaceful words,” Bishop of Vasai, Mgr Felix Machado, the President for t...

Joondanna priest Fr Peter Porteous had no way of predicting the protests and bloodshed that have ripped through the Islamic world in the past two weeks. But it seems the information session on Islam he has helped to convene and will run at his parish this weekend, couldn’t have come at a better time. God calls on all Catholics to be peacemakers, both through Scripture and Church teach...

By Barb Fraze Many Ukrainian Catholic leaders serving the faithful outside the homeland face a dilemma: Do they serve the needs of the new immigrants and elderly by using Ukrainian in liturgies, or do they minister in English to keep younger people coming to church? Ukrainian “has revived a little with the new immigrants,” who want their native language used in church so their childre...

By Francis Rocca Pope Benedict XVI signed a major document calling on Catholics in the Middle East to engage in dialogue with Orthodox, Jewish and Muslim neighbors, but also to affirm and defend their right to live freely in the region where Christianity was born. In a ceremony at the Melkite Catholic Basilica of St Paul in Harissa, Lebanon, on September 14, Pope Benedict signed the 9...