Category: International News

Famed Hollywood film director Martin Scorsese has indicated his intention to make another film about Jesus Christ, reports suggest.

Individuals become Christian because they have been touched by Christ’s love, not because they have been convinced or coerced by someone else, Pope Francis said.

The Catholic Church needs missionary disciples who have hearts like St Thérèse of Lisieux and who ‘draw people to love and bring people closer to God,’ he told people at his weekly general audience in St Peter’s Square, 7 June.

In his message for the 57th world day of social communications titled, ‘Speaking with the heart: The truth in love’ (Eph. 4:15), Pope Francis has reminded people everywhere to build a civilisation of love amid dissensions, wars, and polarisation of truth.

Pope Francis has sent a message of support to a conference, 16–18 June, to discuss LGBTQ ministry in the Catholic Church, after right-wing online influencers organised a petition to try and stop the event.

Pope Francis is to visit the east-Asian nation of Mongolia from 31 August to 4 September 2023. In the most recent consistory for the creation of new cardinals, in August 2022, Pope Francis made Cardinal Giorgio Marengo, the Apostolic Prefect of Mongolia’s capital of Ulaanbaatar, the first-ever Cardinal of the country. There are fewer than 1,500 Catholics in all of Mongolia. Pope Francis will be the first Pope to ever visit the East Asian country.

Two days after a naked man stood on the high altar of St Peter’s Basilica, the basilica’s archpriest on 3 June held a penitential rite as required by Canon Law in cases where sacred places are desecrated.

Australian firm Catholic Church Insurance (CCI) has announced that it will begin winding down its operations after failing to secure additional financial support.

Pope Francis began his three-day visit to Hungary last month, praising the country for its traditional values and making a forceful appeal for European unity, decrying the rise of nationalist populism he faulted for a breakdown in multilateralism.

The Synod of Bishops will include female voting members for the first time, Synod organisers revealed last month in a landmark development for the Church’s Synod process. 

The Secretariat for the Synod announced that 70 ‘non-bishop members’ appointed directly by the Pope – half of whom will be women – will be able to vote at the Synod General Assembly in October.

In a rare gesture, Catholic and Protestant leaders in Papua have come together to appeal to Indonesian President Joko Widodo to stop military operations in the crisis-hit province following the latest move to implement a ‘combat alert operation’.