In Wales, an ancient shrine dedicated to St Winifride becomes first to be granted national status
Norwich, UK For more than 1,400 years, pilgrims have been making their way to the quiet shrine of St Winifride at Holywell, near Wrexham in Wales. Now, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales have granted it national shrine status, making Holywell the first such site in Wales and only the second in the UK […]
Sight-Seeing: The elegant music of grace in a tone-deaf world
NILS VON KALM expresses his thankfulness for God’s gift of grace…
Unwashed and underfed, babies born into Gaza war face hardship in tents
Rafah, Gaza Strip Reuters The grandmother has a simple wish for her twin baby grand-daughters, Alma and Salma: they should be in a clean, safe room where they can be bathed. Instead, the infants are living in a tent in a camp for displaced people in Rafah, southern Gaza. Their mother cannot breastfeed them because […]
Egypt’s Sisi sweeps to third term as President with 89.6 per cent of vote
Cairo, Egypt Reuters Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has swept to a third term as Egypt’s President in an election where he faced no serious challengers, election authorities said on Monday, and he called the vote a rejection of the “inhumane war” in neighbouring Gaza. The election, in which he took 89.6 per cent of the vote […]
Vatican approves blessings for same-sex couples in landmark ruling
Vatican City Reuters The Vatican said on Monday in a landmark ruling approved by Pope Francis that Roman Catholic priests can administer blessings to same-sex couples as long as they are not part of regular church rituals or liturgies. Pope Francis leads the Angelus prayer from his window, at the Vatican, on 17th December, 2023. […]
Guinea oil terminal blast kills at least 13, fire largely contained
Conakry, Guiena Reuters An explosion at an oil terminal in Guinea’s capital Conakry killed at least 13 people and injured 178 on Monday, the government said, as firefighters worked through the afternoon to fully extinguish the blaze. The blast at the West African nation’s main oil terminal rocked the Kaloum administrative district in downtown Conakry […]
Bosnia police arrest seven Serbs suspected of 1995 massacre
Sarajevo, Serbia & Herzegovina Reuters Bosnia’s state police have arrested seven former members of the Bosnian Serb wartime army suspected of taking part in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of about 8,000 Bosnian Muslims, described as genocide by two international courts. The suspects were arrested on Friday near the eastern town of Zvornik on suspicion of […]
US religious freedom watchdog “implores” Biden administration to designate India
Washington DC, US Reuters The US religious freedom watchdog on Friday again called on the Biden administration to designate India as a “country of particular concern” under the US Religious Freedom Act, citing its alleged targeting of religious minorities overseas. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), an independent federal government commission, said “recent […]
On the YouVersion Bible app, Americans looked for hope, not arguments, in 2023
United States RNS Bobby Gruenewald might know more about how Americans read the Bible than anyone else in the country. For the past 15 years, Gruenewald, an online entrepreneur turned pastor, has run the popular YouVersion Bible app – a free application that has been downloaded more than 700 million times in the US and […]
Security tight ahead of landmark trial for leading Hong Kong democrat
Hong Kong, China Reuters A landmark national security trial for leading China critic Jimmy Lai opened in Hong Kong on Monday amid tight security, with the pro-democracy activist battling charges that he colluded with foreign forces, including the United States. Queues formed outside the West Kowloon Law Court building the night before the closely anticipated […]