St Mary’s Cathedral was lit red in support of Red Wednesday on 24 November. Photo: Ron Tan. St Mary’s Cathedral was last week lit up red in support of Red Wednesday, in unison with hundreds of cathedrals, churches, monuments and public buildings around the world Celebrated on 24 November as part of an international campaign, Red Wednesday aims to raise awareness of the persecution of Ch...

Adelaide Archbishop Patrick O’Regan and Sandhurst Bishop Shane Mackinlay have been elected Australia’s two delegates to the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, to be held in 2023. The delegates were confirmed during the recent plenary meeting of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference. In March 2020, Pope Francis announced that the theme of the next Synod of Bishops would be “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation and Mission”. The Holy Father launched the international journey towards the celebration of the Synod in October this year, with local launches and a diocesan consultation phase commencing soon after. That local engagement will support the preparation of national syntheses, which will be followed by continental meetings. Australia’s bishops will collaborate […]

By Carol Glatz Pope Francis is pictured with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople during a meeting at the Vatican in this 26 May 2018, file photo. The Holy Father sent a message to Patriarch Bartholomew on the feast of St Andrew, patron saint of the church of Constantinople and the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Photo: CNS/Paul Haring) Catholics and Orthodox Christians must incre...

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service Pope Francis speaks in this still frame from a video message to the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council for Culture at the Vatican Nov. 23, 2021. The pope encouraged the council in its exploration of the question, "What does it mean to be human?" (CNS/Vatican Media) The classical Christian understanding of what it means to be human provides a ...

By Junno Arocho Esteves, Catholic News Service Pope Francis gives the homily as he celebrates Mass marking World Day of the Poor in St Peter's Basilica at the Vatican on Sunday 14 November, 2021. Photo: CNS/Remo Casilli, Reuters. The gift of hope becomes tangible in people's lives through concrete actions that seek to relieve the suffering of the poor and console the downtrodden, Pope Fr...

Blessed Charles de Foucauld will finally be canonised 15 May 2022, the Vatican announced on 9 November. Along with Blessed de Foucauld, the spring ceremony will see the canonisation of the Indian martyr Devasahayam Pillai and five founders of religious orders.

“I am sure that all of those who went with goodwill (to war), called by their country to defend it, are with the Lord,” Pope Francis said, celebrating Mass on the feast of All Souls, on Tuesday 2 November at the French Military Cemetery in Rome.

Pope Francis left the Vatican in the morning to attend the general chapter, which was held in Rome from 11 Sept to 24 Oct. The theme of the assembly was “Generative Communities of Life in the Heart of Contemporaneity.”

The Synod Office, the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network and the Women’s International Union of Superiors General have joined forces not only to encourage prayers, but to collect them, share them using an updated version of Click to Pray, an app and website run by the prayer network – www.prayforthesynod.va.

Australian lay woman Susan Pascoe AM, who been assisting in the process of the current Synod of Bishops, says the Church in Australia has been a key supporter of the Synod.