International
Pope Francis has established that from now on the ministries of lector and acolyte are to be open to women in a stable and institutionalised form through a specific mandate.
Events
It may not have taken place in Rome as planned but the Pallium Investiture Mass for Archbishop Patrick O’Regan was fittingly held in St Francis Xavier’s Cathedral, Adelaide, on the feast of St Francis Xavier.
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Pope Francis’ latest encyclical has been described by Archbishop Mark Coleridge as a roadmap for the world beyond a global pandemic and “not just for believers but for the entire human family”.
In his first major statement, The Joy of the Gospel, Pope Francis spoke bluntly about the challenges facing Catholic parishes: ‘We must admit … that the call to review and renew our parishes has not yet sufficed to bring them nearer to people, to make them environments of living communion and participation, and to make them completely mission-oriented.’
When 68-year-old Paul Faraguna was fighting for his life after contracting COVID-19 on board the Ruby Princess cruise ship, his family reached out to the Catholic Church for help.
Standing before a deserted St Peter’s Square, Pope Francis has delivered an extraordinary blessing ‘to the City and to the World’, praying for an end to the coronavirus pandemic.
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