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Cameroon: why should we care?

More than 6,500 people are known to have been killed since the conflict escalated in 2016

This week marks the 10th anniversary of the start of Cameroon's Anglophone Conflict. The international community will shrug with indifference. The continuing suffering of more than six million Africans who cherish the right to speak English, teach an English curriculum and practice English common law counts for little in our age of post-morality politics. Yet, three geopolitical reasons explain wh... Read More


Mary and Maysa - more victims in Gaza

Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius, before it was bombed. Wiki image by Rahimabaid

Fr David Neuhaus SJ, an Israeli Jesuit priest, born in South Africa to a Jewish family writes: Every day Palestinians mourn their dead especially in Gaza. The small Christian community is no exception to this devastating reality. Since the so-called ceasefire on October 10, 2025, at least 1, 454 Gazans have been killed and 5090 have been wounded. Just after midnight, early on Saturday morning, Oct... Read More


Private Diary of Pope Francis to be published

Image, an imprint of Penguin Random House Christian Publishing Group, in partnership with Libreria Editrice Vaticana (LEV), will publish the English edition of The Private Diary of Pope Francis by Víctor Manuel Fernández, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith on 24 November 2026 in North America and in all formats. The Private Diary of Pope Francis is an extraordinary glimpse i... Read More


Oxford Pilgrimage for the Planet on Feast of St Francis

Oxford Pilgrimage for the Planet

On Sunday morning, 4 October, around 30 people shared in a two hour 'Pilgrimage for the Planet' around eight Oxford landmarks to highlight the climate and nature emergency. Jointly organised by the Oxford branches of the Laudato Si Movement and Christian Climate Action, the pilgrimage began at Blackfriar's Priory in St Giles and passed through the centre of Oxford visiting sites, including Christc... Read More

Composer David Palmer RIP

David Palmer 13 August 1933- 23rd August 2026. Two days before the death of Dolly Parton, another less well known, musical legend passed away. Composer David Palmer, who died on 23 August just ten days after his 93rd birthday, was legendary among the Catholics in the Croydon area and had a huge impact on the children he taught in Purley for thirty years. His oratorio Holy Boy received its premier ... Read More


Gospel in Art: The Parable of the Good Samaritan

The Good Samaritan, by Jacob Jordaens,1616 © Louvre Abu Dhabi

Gospel of 5 October 2026 Luke: 10:25-37 At that time: Behold, a lawyer stood up to put Jesus to the test, saying, 'Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?' He said to him, 'What is written in the Law? How do you read it?' And he answered, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbour a... Read More


Cable Street - 90 years on

Remembering two 1936 anti-fascist protesters

An anti-far right march was held in London yesterday, in commemoration of the Battle of Cable Street 90 years ago, in which London's East End drove out Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists as they attempted, aided by the police, to intimidate the predominantly Jewish community of the East End. The protestors gathered at 12 noon to hear speeches from Tower Hamlets' political, faith and communi... Read More


Holy Land: Christian village faces fourth threatened olive harvest

Human rights campaigners on visit to Taybeh before such visits were banned

Fr Bashar Fawadleh, Parish Priest of the Latin Patriarchate in Taybeh, the last fully Christian village in the West Bank, writes: As the olive harvest begins, the same fears are returning to homes across Taybeh. What is happening on the ground suggests that this season may be little different from the previous three, when many families faced repeated difficulties in reaching their land safely and... Read More


Scotland: Bishops concerned at calls to decriminalise abortion

Bishop John Keenan, President of the Marriage, Family and Life Commission of the Bishops' Conference of Scotland has issued the following statement today in response to government calls to decriminalise abortion. The Bishops' Conference of Scotland is deeply concerned by renewed calls to decriminalise abortion in Scotland and to remove existing legal safeguards governing the ending of unborn human... Read More


US Bishops urge state to commute death sentence after botched execution

Tennessee's Catholic Bishops have joined the US state's Episcopal Bishops to issue an ecumenical appeal in the wake of the twice-failed execution of Christa Pike on September 30. In their joint statement issued on October 1, the Bishops asked Tennessee Governor Bill Lee to spare Ms Pike's life and prevent another attempt to carry out her death sentence. Ms. Pike, 50, survived two doses of a letha... Read More


Pope Leo: the Church needs artists

Photo by Avi Richards on Unsplash

Pope Leo gave a reflection on the relationship between the Church and art in an address to participants in a meeting on Friday, promoted by the Dicastery for Culture and Education, entitled: "The Art of Possibility: Weaving Together." Especially in "the age of search engines," Pope Leo said, the Church stands in need of artists," who can aid pastors in making the Gospel "accessible and understand... Read More


Gospel in Art: There was a master who planted a vineyard

Untitled painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat,1982, Sotheby's New York, 18 May 2017, lot 24, sold $110 million

Gospel of 4 October 2026 Matthew 21:33-43 At that time: Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people, 'Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence round it and dug a wine press in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get... Read More


Ireland: Catholic and Protestant Archbishops encourage prayer for peace

Archbishop Eamon Martin and Archbishop John McDowell are inviting people across the island Ireland - and beyond - to pray the Prayer of Saint Francis this weekend at home, at Mass and at services. In a newly recorded video, the two archbishops jointly recite the Prayer for Peace of Saint Francis. Their invitation comes as the community faces the ongoing crisis at Drumcree. In the following joint s... Read More


Italy celebrates 800th Feast of St Francis of Assisi

On Sunday, 4 October, the 800th feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi will be celebrated throughout Italy as a national holiday, for the first time in half a century. The bells of Assisi will ring at midnight tonight. Thousands of pilgrims began arriving in Assisi from 24 September to take part in many events commemorating the great saint. A Solemn Commemoration of the Transitus: remembering the f... Read More

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