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Category - catholic church

  • 22 Mar 2013
    Do we have a new pope for a reformed church?

    We have begun to learn something of the varied influences that have shaped the new pontiff. What is required from the new pope today, says Dr Harry Hagopian, is more than an evocative name and a humble posture. Catholicism also needs someone who can bringing a cleansing brush to bear on tired structures, on the abuse scandal, and on the existential, ecclesial, structural, ecumenical and global challenges that Christians face in a fast-changing world. It is a monumental task, but which many hope the first Jesuit pontiff can begin and lead.

  • 17 Mar 2013
    'I wish for a Church that is poor and for the poor', says Pope Francis

    The new spiritual head of 1.2 billion Roman Catholics has told them and the world's media, "I wish for a Church that is poor and for the poor."

  • 16 Mar 2013
    A new pope: headlines are simple; the truth is complex

    When Pope Francis first emerged into the blinking glare of global publicity, most people had little idea who he was, says Simon Barrow. The initial attempts to fill the media void with headlines, soundbites and images still leaves us bereft of deeper understanding. We need time to grow that, and to realise that it is the fruits of action rather than heated rhetoric that will get us closer to the complexity of truth.

  • 14 Mar 2013
    Archbishop Welby seeks positive relations with new Pope

    The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has offered his "warmest welcome" to the former Cardinal Bergoglio on his election as Pope Francis.

  • 14 Mar 2013
    World and regional church bodies greet Pope Francis

    The head of the World Council of Churches has sent greetings and an assurance of continuing engagement with the Catholic Church in the era of Pope Francis I.

  • 13 Mar 2013
    "Francis, go repair my house": papal advice from a saint?

    Others will also recall it now, but I am grateful to Mark Chater, director of Culham St Gabriel's Trust in Oxford, for reminding me of one of the most significant sayings said to have been received from Christ by St Francis of Assisi: "Francis, go repair my house which, as you see, is falling completely to ruin."

  • 13 Mar 2013
    Analysis: What can we expect from Pope Francis I?

    The election of Argentinian Cardinal-Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio, SJ, to be Pope Francis I is historic in four senses. The new pontiff is the first non-European to be Bishop of Rome for a millennium, the first Jesuit, the first from Latin America, and the first with deep origins in the industrial working class.

  • 13 Mar 2013
    A 'religious pope': what difference it could make for the Catholic Church

    Unsurprisingly, the Jesuits are celebrating tonight that one of their own has become the first member of the Society of Jesus to be elected pope in the history of the Catholic Church.

  • 13 Mar 2013
    Pope Francis, from Argentina, is introduced to the world

    The man who will be the next leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics is Jorge Mario Bergoglio SJ, Cardinal-Archbishop of Buenos Aires.

  • 13 Mar 2013
    Waiting on the Conclave: is laughter the best medicine?

    As black smoke continued to rise above the Sistine Chapel earlier today, and as speculation bubbled in inverse proportion to the amount of information coming out of the Vatican about the papal conclave (that is, given the secrecy surrounding it, virtually none), journalists were faced with the task of finding something to do to 'keep the story alive'.