At the time of Pope Benedict s September visit to the UK the Archbishop of Canterbury joked that he and the Pope had two things in common a fondness for cats and a keenness to recruit Anglican clergy Travelling in India this past week Dr Rowan Williams has had plenty of interesting things to sa

Yesterday the Mid-East Synod concluded with a message from the Synod to the world or Nuntius Read the whole thing here The following are highlights Guided by the Holy Scriptures and the living Tradition we have reflected together on the present and the future of Christians and all peoples of th

Among the editor of America Drew Christiansen SJ s distinguished contributions to the public life of the Church was to help create back in the 1990s the International Co-ordination of the Roman Catholic Church for the Holy Land The longstanding representative on it of the bishops conference of E

ROME As expected Pope Benedict today announced a consistory to create more cardinals on 20 November reading out the list of the new porporati or red hats at the end of his Wednesday audience Twenty of the 24 are elettori that is eligible to elect the next pope in a future conclave if it w

ROME There s been some debate in the Vatican press office about whether Pope Benedict will make the announcement of a 20 November consistory to create more cardinals tomorrow or after the end of the Synod Sunday In his blog tonight the vaticanista Andrea Tornielli seems certain it ll be tomorrow

ROME The Mid-East Synod has concluded its post-discussion report an interim summary of the key themes which this historic gathering of more than 180 bishops from the region believe should dictate the Church s future policies The view from the Vatican press office is that the relatio post-disce

ROME Of all the beleagured Christian communities of the Middle East the most dramatically affected in the past few years is without doubt Iraq s Trying to put numbers on the dramatic exodus of Christians is not easy however as I discovered when four synod participants sat down this afternoon w

ROME Friday afternoon and Saturday morning saw the final speeches of the Synod participants bringing to a close the first part of the deliberations here in which bishops and other participants have a chance to air what they think important This morning they discuss their report after the discus

The Anglican Bishop of Fulham in London who heads the leading grouping of Anglo-Catholic priests in the UK called Forward in Faith has announced that he will join an ordinariate once one had been created in the UK possibly next year Speaking at the FiF assembly yesterday in London he said he wo

ROME Last night standing outside the Jesuit Curia -- an obvious meeting-place for an America correspondent at the Vatican -- waiting for a colleague I watched the entrance to the Rome HQ just opposite of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre The cars had been cleared from that part of the Borgo San