The beauty of the family, based on the indissoluble marriage between a man and a woman, and the fragile realities and challenges facing married couples today, was the focus of Pope Francis’ 2016 Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, The Joy of Love, released in April.
Following Christ the King, whose regal power is love and mercy, means the whole Church and each Christian must “follow his way of tangible love,” Pope Francis said.
The Year of Mercy brought more than 20 million pilgrims to Rome, but for Pope Francis, the idea always was that the celebration of God’s mercy would be local: have people experience God’s love in their parishes and send them out into the world to commit random acts of mercy.
After celebrating Mass with detainees and people who had been in prison, Pope Francis recently called on governments to mark the end of the Year of Mercy by extending clemency to deserving inmates.
The Catholic Church’s Truth Justice and Healing Council (TJHC) has welcomed the 4 November Commonwealth Government announcement that it will establish and run a national redress scheme for the survivors of institutional child sexual abuse.
Priests in central Italy were instructed to celebrate Mass outdoors following another devastating earthquake that rocked the region and brought one its most spiritually and historically significant churches tumbling down.
In its ministry to young people, and especially in vocations promotion work, Church workers must step out of the sacristy and take seriously the questions and concerns of the young, Pope Francis said.
Jesuit Father Arturo Sosa Abascal, 67, a member of the Jesuits’ Venezuelan province, has been elected the first non-European superior general of the Society of Jesus.
Australian Catholic Bishops Conference President Archbishop Denis Hart, has last week called for an end to the offshore detention of refugees and asylum seekers on Nauru and Manus Island.
Emergency aid slowly began to reach some of the thousands of Haitians displaced by Hurricane Matthew in the country’s picturesque southwest as reports of casualties slowly trickled in from communities cut off by the storm.