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The Second Annual Report on Safeguarding Policies in the Catholic Church, was published today by the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. The document presents guidelines for "informed listening" and for economic, psychological, and spiritual support to victims, while highlighting the need for more transparent communication, public acceptance of responsibility by the Church, and str... Read More

Church bells have once again begun to ring in Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, built on the ruins of Nineveh. The Mar Toma and Al-Tahira churches in Mosul's Old City, which had been desecrated and wrecked by Daesh, (ISIS) eight years ago, have been restored and were reopened yesterday. When ISIS seized power in northern Iraq in 2014, they declared Mosul their capital. All holy sites belonging t... Read More

The Vicars for Religious from dioceses across England and Wales have just held their annual conference at Hinsley Hall in Leeds, together with Bishop Alan Williams of Brentwood, the link with the Bishops Conference. Bishop Alan's input was important to keep the group aware of the national perspective, as well as the more local knowledge gained by individuals updating one another on what was happe... Read More

Gospel of 16 October 2025 Luke 11:47-54 At that time: Jesus said, 'Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. So you are witnesses and you consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their tombs. Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, "I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute", so that the blo... Read More

As humanitarian aid was finally granted access to Gaza, Pope Leo XIV instructed the Office of Papal Charities to send medicines for the youngest victims of the war. Meanwhile, aid missions to Ukraine also continue. Through the Office of Papal Charities, known as 'Pope Leo's first aid service', 5,000 doses of antibiotics have been sent to Gaza for children, who are among those most affected by two ... Read More

The Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue has sent greetings to those preparing to celebrate the Hindu feast of Diwali (Deepavali) next Monday 20 October, and invited Christians and Hindus, "as believers rooted in our respective faith traditions, and as people united by shared values and a common concern for peace, may we... together with those of other religions and all people of goodwill - join ... Read More

A massive best-seller in French for the past four years - God, The Science, The Evidence has just been published this week in English by Palomar - and looks set to attract a much larger audience. In this book, authors Michel-Yves Bolloré and Olivier Bonnassies distil insights from 62 Nobel Prize winners and more than 100 leading scientists from a wide range of disciplines - from cosmology to phys... Read More

As part of the two-week immersion in the curriculum of the in-person phase of the World Council of Churches' Global Ecumenical Theological Institute (GETI), participants gathered on 15 October for a plenary session exploring the theme 'Memory and Mission: Churches Responding to Persecution and Genocide.' The session invited participants to reflect on the church's role in remembering suffering, bea... Read More

A bishop in Jerusalem has said that, while the current war between Israel and Hamas has ended, the causes of the conflict remain unresolved. In a message sent today (Wednesday, 15th October) to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Bishop William Shomali, Auxiliary Bishop of Jerusalem, urged all friends and supporters to "continue to pray", saying "nothing is impossible to God". A ceasefire in Gaza to... Read More

A new study from an ecumenical academic coalition has revealed considerable progress over the past five years in LGBTQ+ affirmation in the Catholic Church in England and Wales. The LGBT+ Catholics Westminster Pastoral Council, a long-standing member of the ecumenical European Forum of LGBTI + Christian Groups is pleased to announce that the Catholic Church in England & Wales has been rated joi... Read More

One of the anomalies of English Catholicism is that Catholics working for social justice have in the past been made to feel they are oddities, peripheral to the main life of the Church, worship, sacraments, and prayer, a troublesome add-on, sometimes vaguely threatening. Yet the St Vincent de Paul Society active in every parish and the red boxes of the Pontifical Mission Societies (MISSIO today) i... Read More

Gospel of 15 October 2025 Luke 11:42-46 At that time: Jesus said, 'But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the market-places. Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people wa... Read More

To celebrate the end of the harvest season, St Alban's Catholic Primary School, Wallasey, has donated hundreds of food and toiletry items to the Wirral Foodbank to support members of its local community who are experiencing food poverty. The school asked pupils to bring in products that are urgently needed by the foodbank and staff were blown away by the generosity of families who donated in their... Read More

"[The Almighty] makes wars cease to the ends of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear, he burns the shields with fire. He says, 'Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."" (Psalm 46:9-10) Along with millions living throughout our war-torn region, and hundreds of millions around the globe, We, the Patriarchs and Heads of th... Read More