For the annual World Youth Day (WYD) to be celebrated this year on Sunday, November 21, on the Solemnity of Christ the King, Pope Francis has called on the young people to arise and be Christ’s witnesses. In his message for the 36th WYD the Pope promised to walk with the young people “on the…
Read moreThe fight against climate change is now on the agendas of all major global political players. The objective of the European Union is to play a decisive role in the fight to save the planet through its internal and foreign politics. Will the EU be able to act as a model on a global level?…
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More than one year has already passed since a large amount of ammonium nitrate stored at the Port of Beirut in the capital city of Lebanon exploded causing hundreds of deaths and leaving thousands wounded. The investigations have produced no result. Political and economic instability has brought the country to the brink of collapse. Lebanon…
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Over 50 years after the Biafra secession war, situation has become extremely tense in South-Eastern Nigeria. Repression is ongoing and support for secession is growing, while Presidential statements stoke the fire. Main threats such as Boko Haram Islamist insurgency in the Northeast, banditry in the Northwest, clashes between farmers and herders in Central Nigeria and…
Read moreIt once happened that a leopard and a dog were very great friends; the leopard was, however, the owner of the house in which they lived; the dog was treated more as a servant than a friend by the leopard. When the rainy season began, the leopard said to the dog, “Let us go and…
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After leading for twenty-six years the Apostolic Vicariate of Esmeraldas, on the north-western coast of Ecuador, Monsignor Eugenio Arellano offered his resignation having reached the age limit. His commitment to environmental protection and education will remain in the hearts of people. We met him. Speaking of Esmeraldas, Bishop Arellano says: “Some say that Esmeraldas is…
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Prior to the Christian missionary movement in the 19th century, the Ankole people’s idea of a Supreme Being was Ruhanga (creator) who was believed to be living in the sky. He was believed to be the maker and giver of all things. However, it was believed that evil persons could use black magic to interfere…
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Climate Change is a perilous turning point in human history. We are beginning to acknowledge this but are still far from achieving the level and intensity of economic change required to meet the threat. The kind of planned, co-ordinated, radical action by governments that is needed is just not happening. As Greta Thunberg put it…
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A young man is killed. The family members arrange the vendetta. The blood of the culture seems to be thicker than the waters of Baptism. Reflections of a missionary who spent fifty years in Africa. It is just a month since the life of my friend James was snuffed out, the umpteenth life cut short…
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The Coronavirus pandemic has hit Brazil’s indigenous people even harder than the rest of the population. To protect themselves, some peoples retreated deep into the rainforest. It’s seven o’clock in the morning when the Capuchin friar Paolo Braghini sits down in a small aluminium boat, starts the outboard and sails up the Igarapé de Belém,…
Read morePope Francis has approved a decree on the heroic virtues of the Little Sister Magdeleine of Jesus, who – inspired by the spirituality of St Charles de Foucauld – founded the Little Sisters of Jesus. She used to say: “I am never so close to God as when I am travelling”. Magdeleine Hutin (Little Sister…
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The Ticuna indigenous ethnic group is one of the most numerous in the ‘Amazonian Trapezium’ which includes the triple border of Colombia, Peru and Brazil. The Pelazón ritual, which marks the transition from childhood to adulthood of a girl, is part of the cultural ceremonies of the Amazon community of the Ticuna people. Although some…
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Two young leaders from the A’i Cofán community of Sinangoe in Ecuador led a movement to protect their people’s ancestral territory from gold mining. Their leadership…
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Because there was a famine in the land, the spider and his family grew thinner and thinner and hungrier and hungrier. In his desperation, the spider…
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Leaving the Church does not mean abandoning the faith; moving away from the faith does not mean giving up one's spirituality. Even though they are leaving…
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