Pope Francis flew back to Rome after an “Ecumenical Pilgrimage” to the Swiss city of Geneva. The Pope made his 23rd Apostolic Journey outside Italy to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the World Council of Churches (WCC).

The WCC is a worldwide fraternity that comprises 345 different churches and ecclesial communities in more than 100 countries.

During his one-day visit, the Holy Father spoke at an ecumenical prayer service, and later at an ecumenical meeting, both at the WCC Ecumenical Centre…

Pope Francis landed in Geneva Thursday for a day-trip aimed at bolstering ecumenical relations, saying off the bat that division among Christians is borne from worldliness, and Christ must be prioritized over any differences that might get in the way of unity.  

In his first official speech after touching down, the pope said Christians are called to walk together along the path of the Spirit, which means “rejecting worldliness” and “opting for a mindset of service and growing in forgiveness.”

“It means playing our part in history but in God’s good time, not letting ourselves be caught up in the whirlwind of corruption but advancing calmly on the way whose signpost is the one commandment: ‘you shall love your neighbour as yourself.’”

“We are called, together, to walk along this path,” he said, noting that walking together requires perpetual conversion and “the renewal of our way of thinking so that it can conform to that of the Holy Spirit.”

It could be said that to walk in this way is to “operate at a loss,” he said, “since it does not adequately protect the interests of individual communities, often closely linked to ethnic identity or split along party lines, whether ‘conservative’ or ‘progressive.’”

The pope then pointed to St…

• L-ikona venerabbli ta’ Sidtna Marija ta’ Damasku, meqjuma fil-parroċċa Griega Kattolika li ġġib l-istess isem, u li tinsab fil-Belt Valletta, inġiebet Malta minn Rodi fis-sena 1530 mill-Ordni ta’ San Ġwann, flimkien mal-ikona ta’ Sidtna Marija l-Eleimonitria (il-Ħanina) u l-ikona ta’ Sidtna Marija ta’ Filermu. L-ikona tmur lura għall-ħdax/tnax-il seklu u hija ta’ qisien kbar (147.5 x 102.5 ċm)…

From Denver to New York City, the country’s Catholic bishops have joined a chorus of organisations, institutions and high-profile individuals urging the Trump administration to stop separating children from their parents as they seek respite in the US from dire conditions in their home countries, largely in Central America.

None have been more outspoken, however, than the bishops with dioceses on or near the border between the US and Mexico, where many migrants, adults as well as children, are being held in detention centres in geographic areas where many of the prelates come into contact with families affected…