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A film has been premiered which tells the story of the Leeds Women in Black vigil focussing on eight of the women involved in the vigil. The vigil began in August 2019 following the vision of the original Women in Black, Jewish women in Jerusalem who for over 30 years have been protesting the occupation of Palestine every Friday. We started with about a dozen women in 2019. Since October 7th we h... Read More

SCIAF (Scottish International Aid Fund) has welcomed the increase in Scottish Government international aid spending in the draft Scottish budget published today. Proposals include continued spending on humanitarian crises, helping people address the impacts of climate change abroad, and reaching the target set in 2021 of £15m in the next financial year for international development. The budget al... Read More

Mercy International Association (MIA) is offering an online retreat on Tuesday 17th February on the theme 'Walking in Mercy'. The retreat, which will be offered by MIA's Head of Heritage and Spirituality Caroline Thompson, is an opportunity to kick-start your Lenten Journey through the lens of Mercy. The retreat will be offered via Zoom at 10am and 2pm (local time to Dublin/London). Self-registrat... Read More

If you live in or love Italy, if you have a few hours or days to spare, you have just 12 days to get to Firenze/Florence to see one of the most superlative art exhibitions of this or any other century. The New York Times headlined it, 'Fra Angelico and the Miracle of Faith made visible.' It comprises more than 140 religious works of art from the 15th century as the Middle Ages made way for the Ren... Read More

Gospel of 13 January 2026 Mark 1:21-28 Jesus and his disciples went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue and was teaching. And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes. And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, 'What have you to do with us, Jesus... Read More

At the end of a Monday morning filled with meetings at the Vatican's Apostolic Palace, Pope Leo XIV received Maria Corina Machado, the former member of the Venezuelan National Assembly who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October 2025. The meeting took place about 10 days after the US military attack on January 3 in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas during which around 80 people were killed and ... Read More

In December 2025, Bishop Paul Mason, Catholic Bishop of the Forces, travelled to Kyiv with Professor Eric Vermetten of Leiden University in the Netherlands to spend time with Ukrainian military chaplains and conduct a course on psychological and spiritual resilience. These courses are sponsored by the Apostolat Militaire International, a Vatican NGO which promotes a Christian vision of military li... Read More

What does imperialism mean? Lenin's 1917 Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism is the best known of the early twentieth century analyses. Its eerie echoes denounce "the financial strangulation of the overwhelming majority of the people of the world by a handful of 'advanced' countries". It describes how "this 'booty' is shared between two or three powerful world marauders armed to the teeth... Read More

Just after 2pm on Sunday 28th December 2025 I received a heartbreaking message: 'Yanoun is empty'. To most people Yanoun won't mean anything. It is (or was) a tiny village near Nablus on the North of the West Bank or Occupied Palestinian Territories1. In 2012 I travelled from my home in Wales to spend three months there as part of an international team of Ecumenical Accompaniers (EAs: human rights... Read More

What forms a Pope? Who is Robert Francis Prevost, the until-recently relatively unknown Augustinian who now leads nearly 1.5 billion Catholics as Pope Leo XIV? A new concise biography: Leo XIV - An Augustinian Life in Context, by Brian Heffernan, an expert on Augustinian history, looks at the successive contexts in which Prevost lived and worked before his election as pope: Chicago, Peru, Rome, an... Read More

Gospel of 12 January 2026 Mark 1:14-20 After John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.' Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, 'Follow me, an... Read More

'From Strangers to Neighbours: Christian Hospitality in a Changing Asylum Landscape' is the theme of this year's Churches Together in Westminster AGM. The talk will be given by George Lapshynov. Drawing on Theos's recent report: 'From Strangers to Neighbours: The Church and the Integration of Refugees', he will be exploring how UK churches are quietly but powerfully helping asylum seekers become n... Read More

Pax Christi USA has called for the closure of the Guantánamo Bay prison since it was established decades ago. Now on the 24th anniversary of the prison's opening, we are proud to be one of 115 organizations that have signed this statement led by the Center for Victims of Torture and the Center for Constitutional Rights which reaffirms that it must be closed, without repurposing it for any future ... Read More

The full text of Pope Leo XIV's speech at the conclusion of the January 7-8 Consistory, published yesterday, insists that victims and survivors of abuse "need to be accompanied with the closeness of authentic pastors." Although it was not a specific topic of the Extraordinary Consistory, Pope stressed that "abuse itself causes a deep wound, which may last a lifetime; but often the scandal in the ... Read More