Catholic News

Nurturing one’s marriage is not a seasonal endeavour. Hard work and commitment are needed on a daily basis to keep the ship sailing straight. Summer, however, presents the opportunity to take a little time off for rest and recouperation – family time when, for a few precious weeks, we can hit the reset button after the rigours of the first six months of the year. For married couples, it’s a chance...

Day for Life, the day in the Church’s calendar when we come together to celebrate the gift of life from conception to natural death, falls on Sunday, 21 June 2026. The theme is The Wonder of the Child in the Womb. Archbishop John Sherrington, Archbishop of Liverpool, is the Lead Bishop for Life Issues for the Bishops’ Conference. He spoke to us for this Catholic News podcast to explain the importa...

The World Day for Social Communications is marked on Sunday, 17 May. This year, Pope Leo’s message examines how we need to preserve our God-given human dignity and show wisdom and good judgment in our use of fast-evolving communications technologies – particularly AI. This is a theme we discuss on this Catholic News podcast with the ‘media bishop’ for the Catholic Church in England and Wales, Bish...

A peace vigil was held in London on Thursday, 30 April, at Our Lady of Victories Catholic Church in Kensington to pray for peace in the Middle East. The vigil was attended by Bishop Jim Curry, Lead Bishop for the Holy Land for the Bishops’ Conference as well as Bishop Mike Royal, General Secretary of Churches Together in England, and His Grace Bishop Hovakim Manukyan, Primate of the Armenian Apost...

It’s Holy Week for the world’s 2.4 billion Christians. As such, it’s a great time for us to meditate on how sacred music and sacred art accompany us on the road to Calvary to the foot of Christ’s Cross and beyond. The life, Passion, death and Resurrection of Jesus have provided rich and provoking subject matter for composers and artists for many hundreds of years, so for this joint Catholic News/A...

When Bishop Jim Curry, our Lead Bishop for the Holy Land, and Dr Harry Hagopian, our former consultant on the Middle East North Africa region, last offered their thoughts on a podcast together, it was to contribute to the final episode of ‘Middle East Analysis’. Just as we were lamenting the fact that the series had been placed on hold to consider its long-term future, something cataclysmic and li...

For this ‘Catholic News’ podcast we’ve pulled a segment from our Lenten episode of ‘At the Foot of the Cross’. Fleur Dorrell, our Biblical Apostolate Manager, provides a very useful 15-minute whistle-stop tour of the Bible. We’re encouraging our listeners to deepen their relationship with Christ through Scripture during Lent. As well as talking about the books of the Bible, Fleur offers some achie...

It’s the end of the world as we know it. Wasn’t that what REM once sang? Ironically when the famous Seattle rock band committed those lyrics to popular music folklore, the world made more sense. Today, after 17 years and many laughs, smiles, tears (and the odd exasperated outburst), Dr Harry Hagopian brings the curtain down on a remarkable podcasting run with this, the final Middle East Analysis....

In today’s Catholic News podcast, we are joined by His Eminence Cardinal Giorgio Marengo, Apostolic Prefect of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. The Cardinal has been visiting the UK this week with Missio, the Pope’s charity for world mission. Cardinal Marengo has served as a missionary priest in Mongolia since 2003. He has been the Apostolic Prefect of Ulaanbaatar, a missionary jurisdiction that covers the...

Our Lead Bishop for the Holy Land, Bishop Jim Curry, has appeared as a guest on the December 2025 episode of Middle East Analysis, a podcast series that examines the complex religious, political and socio-economic realities of the region covering the Middle East, North Africa and Gulf States. Sitting alongside regular studio guest Dr Harry Hagopian, an international lawyer, analyst and consultant...

During the 16 Days of Activism against violence against women and girls, we met with Nikki Dhillon-Keane, a therapist, trainer, author and activist, and the founder of Safe in Faith, a project of Caritas Westminster working to support survivors of domestic abuse, sexual violence and exploitation in ways that understand how their faith impacts their experiences. Nikki explored the expansion of viol...

‘Dying to Live’ was a panel discussion that took place in the Grimshaw Room of St Chad’s Cathedral, Birmingham, on Sunday 26 October. It examined how faith traditions approach dying, death, and bereavement and the religious and cultural practices observed in end-of-life settings. Moderated by Associate Professor Maggie Doherty, Lead at the Centre for the Art of Living and Dying Well, the session p...

Catholic News – October 2025 In this Catholic News podcast we are joined by Anton Asfar, Secretary General of Caritas Jerusalem and Fr Elias Tabban, Parish Priest of Zababdeh Parish, near Jenin. We learn about the happy, hopeful but also cautious mood on the ground among the people following the Gaza ceasefire agreement which marks the end of the war and the beginning of the first phase of the pea...

The Right Reverend Patrick McKinney, Bishop of Nottingham, joined the National Jubilee Pilgrimage of Hope on its last day as pilgrims descended on his diocesan Cathedral Church of St Barnabas. Geographically, Nottingham worked well as the intersection point where the four pilgrimage ‘Ways’ – north, south, east and west – came together to complete a huge Cross that was traced by the footsteps of th...

On today’s Catholic News podcast we’re speaking to our Lead Bishop for Africa, Bishop Paul Swarbrick. Our focus is Ethiopia – and in particular Tigray. Six months ago, from 17-28 March, Bishop Paul travelled to the country at the invitation of CAFOD, the Church’s Aid and Development agency here in England and Wales, and the charities SCIAF, the equivalent in Scotland, and Trócaire, the Irish Bisho...

As the UK endures its fourth heatwave of the year, more people than ever are using their spare time to get out and about to enjoy the sunshine and the many walking routes our country has to offer. Yes, you have to be sensible – you have to be prepared – but why not use this seasonal time of rest and relaxation to combine faith, prayer, and pilgrimage to walk a path of witness that medieval English...

World Communications Day falls this year on Sunday, 1 June. The theme centres around the need to communicate responsibly to foster a culture of hope and peace. For this Catholic News podcast, we speak to our Media Bishop, the Rt Revd John Arnold, to discuss the final Communications Day message of Pope Francis’s pontificate and how Pope Leo XIV has picked up where his predecessor left off to speak...

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster and President of the Bishops’ Conference, gave a Sunday morning homily in the chapel of the Venerable English College in Rome, in which he spoke at length about the intense focus on prayer in the Sistine chapel that prevailed in the conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV as Bishop of Rome. The homily was given on Sunday, 11 May 2025. Subscribe You ca...

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Bishop William Shomali, Patriarchal Vicar for Jerusalem and Palestine, joins us for this Catholic News podcast. The Bishop was in the UK at the invitation of two charities helping Christians under intense pressure – Aid to the Church in Need and Friends of the Holy Land. During his visit, he met with Bishop Nicholas Hudson, Moderator of the Holy Land Coordination, and gave a talk in central London...

The National Director of the Pope’s charity for world mission in England and Wales, Father Anthony Chantry, joins us for this Catholic News podcast to bring us up to date on the work of Missio. After a recent visit to Cambodia, Fr Chantry spoke about the many challenges the Catholic Church faces in the country. He explains how the Church literally had to “start from scratch” and focus its efforts...

For this Catholic News podcast, Bishop John Sherrington, Lead Bishop for Life Issues here at the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, explains our objection to the proposed legislation passing through parliament seeking to legalise assisted suicide. Ahead of the Bill’s Third Reading and vote, likely to take place in late April or early May, Bishop Sherrington insists all is not lost...

A special Catholic News podcast in which we speak to the charismatic Right Worshipful Lord Mayor of Westminster, Councillor Robert Rigby. When you picture a Lord Mayor you probably conjure up images of mayoral chains and hats, meeting important people, being the ‘first citizen’ of a city with all the trappings that accompany such an office – but it’s also a role that comes with great responsibilit...

Understanding the shock, pain, and anxiety that comes after a terminal diagnosis is often best articulated through first-person stories. Today we’re speaking to Matt Parkes about how he cared for his dad, Jeff, at the end of his life. Jeff became aware something was seriously wrong health-wise in 2011. Something had changed. Something felt different. He had a number of episodes where he would lose...

The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, His Beatitude Pierbattista Pizzaballa, took some time out of his very busy schedule to be guest of honour in a joint Catholic News / Middle East Analysis podcast just before the First Sunday of Advent. You can listen to the full podcast here. This excerpt from the full episode offers the Patriarch’s meditation on faith and hope through the lens of Advent and Chris...