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War has become ‘a way of life’ in Holy Land

April 17, 2024

War in Gaza has become a “way of life,” says a Franciscan priest in the Holy Land. “The Holy Land has been at war for almost seven months,” said Franciscan Father Ibrahim Faltas, Vicar of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land. “It is a way of life, or rather an obligation to live the

‘Something has gone truly, terribly wrong’: the latest outbreak of anti-Semitism in Britain

April 13, 2024

The atrocities committed by Hamas on 7 October 2023 and the subsequent Israeli invasion of Gaza mark a turning point not just in the fraught relationship between Israel and the Palestinians but between religious communities and ethnic groups in the United Kingdom as well. Previous conflicts between Israel and Gaza have resulted in an increase

The Temple Mount encapsulates the tragedy of religious conflict today

April 09, 2024

Easter is a good time to reflect on what the Temple Mount means for the three Abrahamic faiths, especially in the wake of the 7 October attack by Hamas on Israel and all that has come to pass since. While holy to so many different religious believers, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem has also long

Pope’s ‘foreign policy’ Easter message: What got included, what got left out

March 31, 2024

ROME – A pope’s Easter Sunday Urbi et Orbi blessing, meaning “to the city and the world,” is generally understood to be one of his premier foreign policy statements of the year, a sort of 365-degree review of the global situation. Which issues and hotspots a pontiff chooses to highlight, therefore – and, equally, which he chooses

Gaza ceasefire ‘finally a step closer’ after UN Security Council resolution, says CAFOD

March 26, 2024

The United Nations Security Council on 26 March passed a resolution that calls for an immediate cease-fire during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. It also called for an unconditional release of all hostages. According to CAFOD, England’s leading Catholic international aid agency, as a result of the UN resolution, the conditions needed to prevent

Cardinal Bo laments ‘wounded world’ and a Holy Week scarred by ‘devastating toll of conflict’

March 25, 2024

Cardinal Charles Bo has said that this year Christians mark Holy Week reflecting on the “devastating toll of conflict even in the birthplace of Jesus, Ukraine, and our own soil”. The Myanmar cardinal, and president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Myanmar and of the Federations of Asia Bishops Conferences, said in a statement: “As

Top cardinal addresses difficulties of two-state solution for Israel and Palestine

March 18, 2024

ROME – A top cardinal and leading papal diplomat who served as Pope Francis’ special envoy to Iraqhas addressed the issue of how peace in the Holy Land could require a change of mentality in which both Israel and Palestine recognise and respect each other’s right to exist, regardless of whether that is together as

Israeli historian calls out International Women’s Day for forgetting female hostages in Gaza

March 14, 2024

In the wake of the recent celebration of International Women’s Day a prominent Israeli historian specialising in gender issues has decried how the global event appeared to have no time for the 19 women who remain captives of the insurgent-terrorist group Hamas. Noting that most of the women have likely endured sexual violence, Tamar Herzig was speaking at