GERMANY  First church centre for Middle East Christians inaugurated   On Sunday, October 22, 2017, the Chaldean-Catholic community of Mar Shimon Bar Sabbai in Stuttgart celebrated the opening of the first centre of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Europe. The Stuttgart municipality is named after the 4th-century martyr bishop and [...]

FRANCE Court orders removal of cross from St John Paul II statue   The Conseil d’Etat, France’s top administrative court, has ordered the removal of a cross from a statue of Pope Saint John Paul II in Ploërmel, a small city in Brittany. The court stated that the cross’ “presence [...]

 “Christians in the Middle East feel abandoned and betrayed" – Patriarch Younan   Christians in the Middle East feel abandoned by the international community. The West has so far failed to help them in an extremely difficult situation - and Islamic society makes them second-class citizens in their own homeland, [...]

Pope Francis says “To fight hunger and forced migration, end war and arms trade.”  “Ensuring everyone’s right to food and nourishment is an imperative we cannot ignore. It is a right to which there are no exceptions!” tweeted Pope Francis @Pontifex Pope Francis issued a lengthy appeal to world leaders [...]

BRAZIL “Now and at the hour of our death”    The month of November is devoted in particular to prayers for the deceased. What was supposed to be a work of mercy in the Amazonas region of Brazil became nothing more than a means of exploitation before the church took [...]

RUSSIA Centenary of the October Revolution: Persecuted Christians then and now    7 November 2017 marks the 100th anniversary of the October Revolution in Russia. The revolution developed into a brutal civil war that ended with the establishment of the communist Soviet Union: a violent dictatorship ideologically rooted in Marxism, [...]

MYANMAR “The Pope will come to heal the wounds of the country”   Cardinal Charles Maung Bo of Yangon, the first Burmese cardinal in the history of the Church, spoke about the upcoming papal trip to the country. He stressed that the “Vatican and others need to work toward healing [...]

Remembering our departed loved ones in November   “From the earliest times, the Church has honoured the memory of the dead and offered suffrage for them, particularly the Eucharistic sacrifice so that purified from their sins, they will attain the beatific vision of God. The Church also recommends charity, indulgences [...]