Category: International News

Priestly vocations in Ireland are experiencing a modest yet significant development, with a slight uptick in the number of men answering the call to priesthood.

A study group has been set up to evaluate the functioning and role of Apostolic Nuncios, the papal Representatives in the Church worldwide.

Next May, Pope Francis will undertake a significant trip to Turkey, an event that promises to be both ecumenical as well as politically relevant. This journey, announced by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I, will commemorate the 1700 years of the first Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, held in 325 in present-day Iznik, Turkey.

Around the world, bishops together with the Catholic faithful of their dioceses in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa have been gearing up for the second session of the 2021–2024 Synod on Synodality to take place 2–27 October in Vatican City.

Bishop Emmanuel Gobilliard of Digne, the Holy See’s special representative for the 2024 Paris Olympics, was the representatives of the five major religions involved in the Paris Olympics, at a significant interfaith ceremony held on Sunday 4 August outside Notre-Dame Cathedral, to highlight a message of universal fraternity.

The bronze bell used for track and field competitions during the Paris Olympic Games will ring during every Mass at Notre Dame Cathedral when it reopens in December. 

The Church in South Korea has officially set the stage for World Youth Day 2027 with a launch event at Myeongdong Cathedral in Seoul. 

Under the theme ‘Hope Ignites in Seoul. Success for WYD Seoul 2027’, the ceremony, held on Sunday 28 July, marked the beginning of preparations for the highly anticipated international gathering.

September will be a busy month for Pope Francis, and for the faithful of the four countries preparing to welcome him as he visits them on his 45th Apostolic Journey abroad: Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Singapore. The Pope will be visiting the four countries over a period of less than two weeks. 

When Pope Francis visits Papua New Guinea in September, Fr Mario Abzalón Alvarado Tovar, the Superior General of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, says the Holy Father will find a Church with a strong practice of faith, but in the style of Papua New Guinea.

Pope Francis met with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his fiancée, Lauren Sánchez, vice chair of the Bezos Earth Fund, last month at the Vatican to discuss climate change. The meeting was at the Domus Sanctae Marthae, the Pope’s residence.