News Around Christendom

By Hannah Brockhaus On the 60th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, Pope Francis encouraged Catholics to leave behind criticism and anger and to live the faith with joy. “May the Church be overcome with joy. If she should fail to rejoice, she would deny her very self, for she would forget the love that begot her,” ...

By Hannah Brockhaus Pope Francis is featured in a documentary film on climate change and the environment that premiered at the Vatican on Tuesday. “The Letter,” which can be streamed for free on YouTube Originals starting Oct. 4, follows a climate activist, an indigenous leader, a climate refugee, and married marine biologists as they travel from their corners of the ...

By Jean Gonzalez The 7-year-old boy who sat with his family in the cafeteria of Hardee Junior High School was too shy to say his name. He smiled as he sipped the straw in his can of Coke Zero, but he didn’t eat much of the hot meal in front of him — a small piece of chicken, rice and ...

By Hannah Brockhaus Prayer is the first element of discernment, Pope Francis said in his general audience message on Wednesday. “To discern we need to be in an environment, in a state of prayer,” he said Sept. 28 in St. Peter’s Square. “We resume our catecheses on the theme of discernment,” the pope said, “because the theme of discernment is ...

By Zelda Caldwell On Tuesday night Benafsha and her husband, Mustafa, anxiously waited at Dulles International Airport for their son, 22-month-old Jasoor, to arrive from Afghanistan. Benafsha tugged at her long brown hair nervously, and Mustafa held his wife close to him as they watched for their son to walk through the airport security exit and into their arms. The ...

Turns 90, Marks 57th Priestly Anniversary By Mercy Hill and Zita Chidera Ezeno The oldest priest in Awka and Ekwulobia Dioceses, Very Rev. Fr. Prof. Johnson Ojiako, has turned 90, with his birthday celebration and 57th priestly anniversary taking place last Sunday. The ceremony started with a Holy Mass at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, G.R.A., Awka. The celebrant who ...

…As Parish Celebrates Patron Feast By Chioma Ndife The Chief Shepherd of the Catholic Diocese of Awka, Most Rev Paulinus Ezeokafor, has confirmed over 170 deserving faithful in faith. Bishop Ezeokafor administered the Sacrament of Confirmation on the faithful on Sunday, August 21, at St. Michael’s Parish, Akwaeze, during the parish’s Patron Feast Day. Speaking at the visit, Bishop Ezeokafor ...

By Sunny A Ijomah The Metropolitan Archbishop of Onitsha, the Most Rev. Valerian Okeke, has ordained 4 deacons of the Salesian Congregation as Catholic priests. The solemn event took place at the St. Johnbosco Youth Centre, Obosi, near Onitsha, on 30th June 2022. The new priests are of the African-Niger Province Congregation. They are: Fr. Solomon Kenneth Oballa; Fr. Joshua ...

By Diego Lopez Marina The regime of President Daniel Ortega has ordered police in Nicaragua to launch an investigation into the Catholic Bishop of Matagalpa, who they have detained for allegedly trying to “organize violent groups” to destabilize the government. Bishop Rolando José Álvarez, who was placed under house arrest and threatened with prison, has been openly critical of the ...

By Nicolas De Cardeñas. On Aug. 6 in the year 953, 200 monks living at the monastery of San Pedro de Cardeña in Burgos, Spain, were put to death, martyred by Muslim troops. From that time until the end of the 15th Century, the flooring at their place of martyrdom turned red with blood once a year. The prodigious event ...