Pope’s outreach to Protestants to hit new heights in Sweden
ROME—Pope Francis’ outreach to the Protestant world will hit new heights this fall, when he makes a two-day trip to Sweden to participate in ecumenical events marking the 500th anniversary of the...
View ArticleGut-check time in June for both Orthodox and Catholics
In one week, Christian history is supposed to be made on the island of Crete when the leaders of all the world’s independent Orthodox Churches are to begin meeting in a “Holy and Great Council” for the...
View ArticleComfort level with dialogue a U.S. gift to the universal Church
This week, Crux’s Vatican correspondent Inés San Martín, who’s an Argentinian, was in the United States, among other things for a sort of crash course in the realities of American Catholicism. One...
View ArticleChristians in Middle East call Pope Francis’s visit to Egypt a blessing
AMMAN, Jordan — Pope Francis’s historic, 27-hour visit to Cairo has left a profound mark on Egyptians, Catholic leaders said, as they anticipate increased ties with fellow Orthodox Christians and...
View ArticlePope and Patriarch: A common declaration for a shared world
[Editor’s note: This commentary was written for L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, to appear along with the joint statement of Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople for the...
View ArticleU.S. Catholics and Protestants agree: 500 years after Reformation, they have...
The theological differences that led to the Protestant Reformation 500 years ago have dwindled since in both the United States and Western Europe. That’s the finding of a Pew Research Center survey...
View ArticleGod-given sexual identity has inherent beauty, dignity, say faith leaders
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In an open letter Dec. 15, a group of 20 Catholic bishops and other religious leaders described as “deeply troubling” the movement today “to enforce the false idea — that a man can...
View ArticlePresiding in charity: Ecumenical dialogue looks at pope’s role
ROME — Many people, including many Catholics, believe the pope always ruled over the Catholic Church as an absolute monarch, appointing the world’s bishops and definitively settling issues of faith and...
View ArticleBishop Bambera urges prayers for peace after attack on Coptic Christians
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In the wake of a gunman’s attack on a Coptic Orthodox church and a Christian-owned shop near Cairo Dec. 29, killing at least nine people, a U.S. bishop urged Catholics to “pray for...
View Article‘Pope’s favorite movement’ welcomes Syrian refugees to Rome
ROME – When scrums of reporters congregate at an airport to witness someone’s arrival, it’s almost always a celebrity at the center of the storm – a head of state in town for a summit, for instance, or...
View ArticleRoommates: Quebec cardinal, Anglican bishop shared same roof for a year
QUEBEC CITY, Canada — “Really?” Cardinal Gerald Lacroix, archbishop of Quebec, recalls the reaction of people when they learned that the Anglican bishop of Quebec was living with him in the Episcopal...
View ArticleChristian crowd vows to ‘reclaim Jesus’ from polarized U.S.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Saying that Jesus Christ has been “hijacked” in the name of politics, a large crowd of national Christian leaders and members of their congregations vowed during a prayer service and...
View ArticlePatriarch Bartholomew: Ecological crisis caused by ‘human interference’
ROME – One of the greatest allies of Pope Francis in promoting international initiatives that defend the environment is the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I. The spiritual leader...
View ArticleGerman bishops react to Vatican decision on communion for Protestants
MUNICH, Germany — Several German bishops have reacted with surprise, consternation and criticism to the Vatican’s rejection of a proposal to allow Protestants married to Catholics to receive the...
View ArticleCatholics, Anglicans complete work on structures of authority, communion
ROME — The Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission published its first document in 13 years on how both institutions can learn from each other in the exercise of ecclesial authority locally,...
View ArticleArmenian Apostolic Church appoints first-ever representative in Rome
ROME – The Armenian Apostolic Church, one of six in the Oriental Orthodox communion, will have a fixed representative in Rome, similar to the Eastern Orthodox, Anglicans, and Methodists. Archbishop...
View ArticlePope Francis: Do not yield to the seduction of a ‘culture of hate’
BUCHAREST, Romania – Both clad in white in the cream-colored hall of the Patriarchal Palace, Pope Francis and the Orthodox Patriarch of Romania on Friday confirmed their commitment to strengthening...
View ArticleGreek Orthodox, Catholic leaders look at goodwill churches share
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Catholic and Greek Orthodox clergy hope to continue on a path of collaboration between their two churches with the momentum from the June 22 enthronement of Archbishop Elpidophoros...
View ArticlePope gives relics of St. Peter to Orthodox patriarch
ROME — In what Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople described as a “brave and bold” gesture, Pope Francis gave the patriarch a famous reliquary containing bone fragments believed...
View ArticleVocation, mission of ‘people of God’ focus of consultation’s statement
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation has released a new agreed statement titled “The Vocation and Mission of the People of God: ‘A Chosen Race, a Royal...
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