The sword was covered in sediment that preserved it in “perfect condition.” An amateur diver off the coast of Israel has made a once-in-a-lifetime discovery on Carmel Beach, just outside Haifa. While enjoying some afternoon scuba diving, Shlomi Katzin spotted a sediment-encrusted object that resembled a sword. Upon recovering the object, it was revealed that

“When a million children pray the Rosary, the world will change.” Over one hundred thousand children have already enrolled in this year’s “A million children praying the Rosary” initiative, organized by Aid to the Church in Need International (ACN), which will take place tomorrow, October 18, 2021. Emails and messages from dioceses, missions, and parishes

… and they did so at considerable risk to themselves. As Halloween approaches, many people will enjoy themselves by dressing up as witches. But, outside of Halloween festivities, there is nothing enjoyable about being labeled as a witch. As fears and obsessions about witchcraft spread across Europe in the late-16th and early-17th centuries, countless thousands

Clergy kidnappings are becoming more common in Nigeria, where atrocities committed by Islamist extremists are committed every day against Christians. Three seminarians from Nigeria’s conflict-stricken Middle Belt were kidnapped from their college chapel Monday night and six others were injured. Six seminarians were injured in the attack. The abducted seminarians are all fourth-year theology students

In his texts, Augustine often referred to a very specific kind of monstrosity. One of Augustine’s favorite topics is that of infirmity. But, as is often the case, the original Latin infirmitas Augustine used can refer to many different things. Infirmitas, to begin with, translates “sickness.” When one is sick, one is infirmus: frail, weak,

New ministry helps clear away psychological obstacles to receiving God’s grace and love. Love is the central and defining fact of human existence: The Church tells us that the purpose of human life is to seek God, to know Him, and to love Him with all our strength (CCC 1), and Christ taught that the greatest

The Catholic Church in Nigeria claims that the Christians in that country are the victims of a process of ethnic cleansing at the hands of Fulani Muslims, with the complicity of the state. During a webinar hosted by Aid to the Church in Need International (ACN), respective speakers, among them one bishop and several priests

Life is one storm after another. The Rosary is a great ship of obedience. The most common depictions of Our Lady of the Rosary show the Blessed Mother handing her chain of prayers to St. Dominic and St. Catherine of Siena. According to tradition, Dominic, the founder of the Dominicans, received the Rosary from Our

There are at least four relics believed to be John the Baptist’s head. One of them is in a mosque. All four canonical gospels (and also the apocryphal “gospel of the Nazarenes”) present John the Baptist as being an itinerant, hermit-like preacher living in the semi-desert vicinity of the Jordan River in the early 1st

About 30 religious leaders and 10 scientists gathered at the Vatican for the signing of an unprecedented document calling for respect of the environment. The October 4 meeting gathered leaders of Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and others to call on the world to limit the increase in global temperature to 1.5 degrees. It

Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, Holy See representative to United Nations, preaches in presence of Chief Justice John Roberts. Justice has to do with the sacred, and those who administer justice are at the service of something larger and greater than themselves, a top Vatican diplomat told Chief Justice of the United States John G. Roberts; U.S.

Former Secretary of State was national security advisor on 9/11 20 years ago. Condoleezza Rice, who was national security advisor under President George W. Bush at the time of the September 11 terrorist attacks, will be the keynote speaker at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner this month, 20 years after 9/11. Currently director

She will participate with the Pope in the Meeting for Peace organized by Sant’Egidio. German Chancellor Angela Merkel will be received by Pope Francis in audience at the Vatican on October 7. She will then participate with the Pontiff in the meeting for peace organized by Sant’Egidio near the Colosseum. German Federal Government spokesperson Steffen Seibert announced

Dale Recinella, who has accompanied the condemned to the execution chamber, said he and his wife have “many baptismal godchildren” on death row. The Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Life has given its first Guardian of Life Award to an American layman who has dedicated his life to ministering to death row inmates.  Dale Recinella, an

Tradition claims the chains of St. Peter, kept in Rome’s San Pietro in Vincoli, correspond to two sets of chains used to imprison Peter on two different occasions. The Roman minor basilica Basilica of San Pietro in Vincoli (literally, “St. Peter in Chains”) is well known for being the home of Michelangelo’s Moses. But this

Aid to the Church in Need interviews a religious sister about her experiences Originally from Pakistan, Sister Shahnaz Bhatti is a member of the congregation of the Sisters of Charity of Saint Jeanne-Antide Thouret. She was serving in Afghanistan until 25 August, when she was able to leave the country through the help of the

Some can’t focus on vaccine availability because they first need potable water, says Bishop of Rome. Pope Francis denounced both abortion and “hidden” euthanasia in his address to the members of the Pontifical Academy for Life on September 27, but also spoke of the lessons to learn from the pandemic. The Pontiff received the participants

Dear protector and shepherd, lead me to life! Catechism of the Catholic Church 350: Angels are spiritual creatures who glorify God without ceasing and who serve his saving plans for other creatures: “The angels work together for the benefit of us all” (St. Thomas Aquinas, STh I, 114, 3, ad 3). Prayer for Day 4 “God sends us the angel to

A famous passage in the Gospel of John presents Jesus writing on the ground with his finger. But what was he writing? Most of the ideas and practices of the very early centuries of Christianity can be safely understood as derived from those we understand to be typical of the Judaism of that period. Much

At the end of August, the teacher and author moved heaven and earth to evacuate an Afghan Christian family threatened by the arrival of the Taliban in Kabul. He tells Aleteia about this risky rescue and his journey as an exile forced to flee Afghanistan after the murder of his parents. No more phone calls,

The ‘March for the Martyrs’ is a chance to stand in solidarity with Christians suffering for the faith around the world. This Saturday thousands are expected to turn out in the nation’s capital to march for a cause that most people don’t know a lot about — the plight of persecuted Christians around the world.

Warns against ideas separated from the concrete life of persons. Pope Francis reiterated his concerns regarding gender ideology during a discussion with Jesuits held during his trip to Slovakia on September 12. He says that abstract ideologies have “a diabolical appeal” that must be “exposed at the root,” according to an article in the Jesuit

Archbishop Vienneau of Moncton, New Brunswick, pledges cooperation with government in stopping spread of COVID-19. A Catholic bishop in Canada is requiring that anyone who wishes to attend Mass must be fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus. Archbishop Valery Vienneau of the Archdiocese of Moncton, New Brunswick, said in a statement last week that the

Aid to the Church in Need interviews Ali Ehsani, who fled Afghanistan after his Christian parents were killed for their faith. Ali Ehsani is 38 years old and a lawyer by profession. After a very long and difficult journey, he arrived in Italy at the age of 13; he was all alone. He had fled

Ornate, jewel-encrusted headgear is a thing of the past. The last pope to wear a papal tiara was St. Paul VI. This piece of historic regalia is now in the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, in Washington, DC. In keeping with his austere style, the decorative effect is more like barbed wire than the

October 3 demonstration mounted in response to Supreme Court ruling decriminalizing abortion. In response to the Mexican Supreme Court’s steps to decriminalize abortion and remove legal protection from unborn children, the Catholic Bishops Conference of Mexico is calling for a March for Women and for Life on October 3. The march will take place in

John Sung Bla Giong conducted catechism courses for local villagers at his home. He is now serving a 29-year-sentence after being falsely accused of heroin trafficking. An ethnic Hmong Catholic family from Phinh Ho Parish based in Vietnam’s Yen Bai province have been kept in jail for spreading Catholic faith among villagers. The parish, founded

Two days after decriminalizing abortion, supreme court takes aim at state constitutional provision protecting nascent life. A followup to the Mexican Supreme Court ruling decriminalizing abortion throughout the country also invalidated a clause in a state constitution that provided protection of life “from the moment in which an individual is conceived … until their death.”

The call to surrender to Christ and take up the cross is the key to renewing the face of the earth. Our discipleship will renew the world. Not in the sense that we are the cause of renewal. Jesus died for our sins once and for all. It’s his grace that renews the world. But

The painting of St. Ildephonsus having a gold and gemstone-encrusted chasuble forced onto him was an important Counter-Reformation message in the New World. Art exhibitions with Catholic content are a rare treasure. There is one that just closed in the St. James’s area of London – once the site of a church-run hospital for lepers 

The shooting is the latest crime against clergy and religious in a year in which kidnappings and violence have increased dramatically. A Catholic priest was shot dead in Haiti on Monday, Catholic News Agency reported. Father André Sylvestre, age 70, was killed in the country’s second largest city, Cap-Haitien, outside of a bank where he

How to make sense of two seemingly contradictory positions. As a growing number of businesses and universities have mandated the COVID-19 vaccine for employees and students, many Catholic bishops have instructed their priests not to issue letters testifying to religious exemptions for the COVID-19 vaccine.  A memo from the Archdiocese of New York declares, “There

Registration opens beyond the fully vaccinated, to those with a negative test and those who have recovered from the virus. The bishops of Slovakia announced in a statement that people with a negative COVID-19 test or who have recovered from Covid will be able to attend Pope Francis’ events during his trip to Slovakia. The Pope

Since a resolution was adopted by the General Assembly in 2012, the U.N. has designated September 5 as the International Day of Charity. “The International Day of Charity was established with the objective of sensitizing and mobilizing people, NGOs, and stakeholders all around the world to to help others through volunteer and philanthropic activities,” states

Ephphatha: Christ opens more than the ears of the deaf and the mouths of the mute in the Scriptures. Among the many accounts of the miracles Jesus worked which are recorded in the New Testament, the healing of the deaf man in Mark 7 is particularly memorable. By commanding “ephphatha”—that is, “be opened”— Jesus summarizes

The three martyrs were beatified by Pope Francis on his visit to South Korea in 2014. The remains of the first Catholics martyrs from Korea have been recovered over two centuries after they were executed. Catholicism was brought to Korea in the 17th century by lay Koreans who had encountered the faith in their travels

Caravaggio might try to convince you otherwise, but that is not what the biblical text says. Finding Saint Paul (or rather Saul) falling off his horse in the Book of Acts while on his way to Damascus is an impossible task. This is not to say, however, that Caravaggio (and other great masters who have

30 years ago St. John Paul II’s Apostolic Constitution on Higher Education went into effect “on the first day of the academic year 1991.” Named “From the Heart of the Church” (Ex Corde Ecclesiae) the document clearly came from the heart of St. John Paul II. He shows great affection for higher education. The university