News

Pope set to decide on special exception to priestly celibacy rule

Ihesiulo Grace 12 February 2020 0

Pope Francis is expected to decide on Wednesday whether to make a limited exception to the celibacy rule for priests, one of the most controversial issues in the Catholic Church today. In October, a summit of bishops known as a synod proposed allowing married men into the priesthood, only in

Featured News

Just In: Pope pronounces decision on married priests Feb. 12

Ihesiulo Grace 7 February 2020 0

The Vatican on Friday said Pope Francis will on Feb. 12 release a document in response to a proposal to allow married men into the priesthood. The proposal is strictly limited to the Amazon region. Pope appeals to U.S., Iran to pursue dialogue, self-restraint It was made in October by a summit of bishops, known […]

News

Pope appoints Latino as new archbishop of Philadelphia

Ihesiulo Grace 23 January 2020 0

Pope Francis on Thursday appointed Nelson Perez, the current Roman Catholic bishop of Cleveland, Ohio, to be the new archbishop of Philadelphia. Perez now becomes the latest Latino to head a major U.S. archdiocese. Pope, religious leaders, send South Sudan rivals Christmas peace appeal The 58-year-old Perez succeeds the recently retired Archbishop Charles Chaput, a […]

World

Pope appoints first woman junior foreign affairs minister

Ihesiulo Grace 15 January 2020 0

Pope Francis has for the first time promoted a woman to a junior ministerial post in the Vatican’s foreign affairs department. Italy-born Francesca Di Giovanni was appointed Undersecretary for the Section for Relations with States at the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, a Vatican statement said on Wednesday. READ ALSO: Couple get married as volcano erupted […]

Africa Featured World

Pope, religious leaders, send South Sudan rivals Christmas peace appeal

Ihesiulo Grace 25 December 2019 0

Pope Francis and two other religious leaders sent out an extraordinary Christmas appeal on Wednesday to the leaders of South Sudan to keep their promise to form at least a transitional unity government early in 2020. The brief message was signed by Francis, worldwide Anglican leader Archbishop Justin Welby, and Rev. John Chalmers, former moderator […]

Foreign

Remains of Jesus’ crib to return to Holy Land after over 1,000 years

Ihesiulo Grace 29 November 2019 0

 After spending more than 1,000 years in Rome, a wooden fragment worshiped by Catholics as part of the crib in which Jesus was born will be welcomed back to the Holy Land on Friday. The fragment, part of a relic stored in the Italian capital’s Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, was described by the Custody […]

World

Pope issues call for end to nuclear weapons in Japan visit

Ihesiulo Grace 23 November 2019 0

Pope Francis landed in the wind and rain in Tokyo on Saturday evening, issuing a call for an end to nuclear weapons in the only country to have suffered a nuclear bomb attack. He is set to travel to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, two cities flattened by U.S. atom bombs at the end of World War […]

Religion

Pope Francis appoints Makurdi Diocese’s Fr Beba `Chaplains to His Holiness’

Ihesiulo Grace 9 November 2019 0

Makurdi – Pope Francis on Saturday formally announced the appointment a priest of Makurdi Diocese, Revd Fr. Stephen Beba as “Chaplains to His Holiness” with the title of Monsignor. His Eminence, Cardinal John Onaiyekan, Archbishop of Abuja, made the announcement during the 25th Priestly Anniversary of the Catholic Bishop of Makurdi, Most Revd Wilfred Anagbe, […]

News World

Pope Offers Warm Welcome To Chinese Bishops

Ihesiulo Grace 3 October 2018 0

Pope Francis on Wednesday offered a “warm welcome” to two Chinese Catholic bishops attending a synod for the first time following a landmark deal between China and the Vatican. “Today, for the first time, we have also with us two bishops from mainland China,” the pontiff said in a speech to kick off the month-long […]

Religion

Hell Does Not Exist, Don’t Be Deceived – Pope Francis | Do You Agree?

Ihesiulo Grace 30 March 2018 0

“There is no hell where the souls of sinners suffer in eternity”, Pope Francis he told Eugenio Scalfari, a 93-year-old atheist philosopher, today, during a conversation in the Vatican. Francis said:- “after death, the souls of people who repent are pardoned by God and join in his contemplation, “but those who do not repent, and […]

News World

Pope feels ‘pain and shame’ over Chile sex abuse scandal

Ihesiulo Grace 16 January 2018 0

Pope Francis has said he feels “pain and shame” over a sex abuse scandal which has rocked the Catholic Church in Chile. The Pope also asked the victims of sexual abuse committed by priests for forgiveness. He made the remarks during his first official address in Chile. The Pope had been criticised in Chile for […]

News

The World, one step away from nuclear war, Pope Francis warns

Ihesiulo Grace 15 January 2018 0

The Catholic Pontiff, Pope Francis has warned that the world is on the “brink” of nuclear war. Pope Francis gave the warning on Monday, at the Vatican as he was setting off on a pastoral visit to Chile and Peru that threatens to become overshadowed by sexual abuse scandals. The Popes warning may not be […]

News

Journey from conflict to communion is irreversible

Ihesiulo Grace 10 December 2017 0

The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) President Archbishop Dr Panti Filibus Musa yesterday met with Pope Francis at the Vatican. During the audience he expressed gratitude for the deepening ecumenical relationships between the two church traditions. In his address, Musa thanked Francis for supporting an ecumenical approach to the 500th Reformation anniversary. “Your presence

Analysis Anambra Times Headlines Religion

Bishop palaver: Pope may shut down 163 Catholic Churches in Imo

Ihesiulo Grace 20 August 2017 0

The Catholic pontiff, Pope Francis, is said to be considering the total closure of the 163 parishes that make up the Catholic Diocese of Ahiara, Imo State, over the protracted crisis generated by the appointment of Peter Okpalaeke, an Anambra indigene, as bishop. Okpalaeke’s appointment in 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI, following the death of […]

Headlines

Pope Francis Tasks Families to Embrace Positive Communication Skills

Ihesiulo Grace 18 May 2015 0

Disturbed by the increasing level of global violence, the Catholic pontiff, Pope Francis, at the weekend, enjoined families to embrace positive communication attributes that can usher in improved perspectives. The pope stated this in his 2015 World Communications Day message delivered on his behalf by Very Rev. Fr. Patrick Tor Alumuku, the Director of Social […]

News

Pope Francis Tasks Families to Embrace Positive Communication Skills

Ihesiulo Grace 18 May 2015 0

    Disturbed by the increasing level of global violence, the Catholic pontiff, Pope Francis, at the weekend, enjoined families to embrace positive communication attributes that can usher in improved perspectives. The pope stated this in his 2015 World Communications Day message delivered on his behalf by Very Rev. Fr. Patrick Tor Alumuku, the Director […]

Headlines News

Pope Creates First Palestinian Saints

Ihesiulo Grace 17 May 2015 0

Two nuns on Sunday became the first Palestinians to gain sainthood during an open-air mass celebrated by Pope Francis in St Peter’s Square attended by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas. The pontiff urged the faithful to follow the “luminous example” of the two 19th-century sisters and two others, from France and Italy, who were canonised along […]

News

WCD: Pope Tasks Media On Promotion Of Human Dignity

Ihesiulo Grace 15 May 2015 0

  Pope Francis has urged the Christian community to assist parents in teaching their children how to survive in a media environment with human dignity and in service of common good. In his message for the 49th World Communication Day, with the theme: “Growing and uniting the family through loving communication”, the Catholic pontiff observed […]

World

Pope Francis Laments Attacks on Christians

Ihesiulo Grace 6 April 2015 0

Pope Francis presided over the solemn Easter Vigil service amid mounting Vatican concern for modern-day Christian martyrs whose deaths have dominated this Easter season. Francis walked in the dark down an utterly silent St Peter’s Basilica at the start of the vigil Mass, which precededed the joyous celebration on Easter Sunday commemorating Christ’s

News

Easter; Pope Washes Feet of 12 Prisoners in Holy Thursday Ritual

Ihesiulo Grace 3 April 2015 0

  Pope Francis said he wants to be a servant of society’s neediest as he presided at a Holy Thursday Mass where an altar-server was a man convicted of multiple homicides. The Pontiff washed and kissed the feet of twelve men and women in a Roman prison housing many hardened criminals. For the third consecutive […]