Global News

• Young nun wows judges on Italy’s The Voice

  Mar 27, 2014

  Sr. Cristina Scuccia is a 25 year old member of the Ursuline Sisters of the Holy Family who has appeared on "The Voice of Italy," a reality show akin to "American Idol" or "Britain’s Got Talent."

  

• Noah film banned: it contradicts Islam

  Mar 21, 2014

  Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates have banned the release of the film Noah which tells the story of the biblical patriarch Noah and the building of the Ark. According to al-Azhar University in Cairo, the foremost academic institution in Sunni Islam, the film “contradicts the teachings of Islam” and for this reason cannotbe viewed.

  

• German bishops’ president preaches on divorce, remarriage

  Mar 21, 2014

  The German bishops have elected Cardinal Reinhard Marx to a six-year term as president of the nation’s episcopal conference, one of the most influential in the Church. Cardinal Marx succeeds Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, the retired archbishop of Freiburg im Breisgau.

  

• Church attendance linked to priest’s credibility

  Mar 21, 2014

  The research of a Goan Catholic priest has revealed that a parish priest’s credibility has a direct bearing on Church attendance amongst parishioners.

  

• Situation in Syria is chaotic with many challenges

  Mar 21, 2014

  Maronite Archbishop Samir Nassar of Damascus said that Syria is in a chaotic situation. “The fourth Lent spent in war will mean pain and violence. The Geneva II peace conference hasn’t changed anything at the moment.

  
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  Marian musical performed at Sri Lankan basilica

  Mar 21, 2014

  The Archdiocese of Colombo celebrated its recent “children’s day” with the performance of a newly-created musical recounting the period in Mary’s life from the Annunciation until the birth of Christ.

  

• Cardinal encourages Lenten prayers for Venezuela

  Mar 20, 2014

  Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino of Caracas, Venezuela, called on the faithful to intensify their prayers during Lent for God to rid Venezuela of violence, as the death toll from recent protests continues to rise.

  

• The unspoken truths surrounding the Ukrainian crisis

  Mar 14, 2014

  What is your understanding of the Ukrainian crisis? That the Ukrainian people rebelled against an arrogant and authoritarian president, Viktor Yanukovich, who tried to quell the protests, killing dozens in the process and getting himself ousted in the end.

  

• Christians concerned Hagia Sophia could soon become a mosque

  Mar 14, 2014

  Concern has spread across the Christian community after Turkish media suggested that the Basilica of Hagia Sophia, which was once a church, then a mosque and now a museum, could become a centre of Islamic worship once again in the coming months.

  

• New Syro-Malabar Catholic eparchy in Australia to ‘start from zero’

  Mar 14, 2014

  The bishop appointed to head the newly erected Syro-Malabar Catholic Eparchy of St. Thomas the Apostle of Melbourne, Australia, said he has "a tough task ahead."