Catholic News

Deliver Us From Evil is a new booklet, published by the Catholic Truth Society (CTS), offering Catholics a useful set of prayers and supplications, humble requests for the Lord's help, that can be used in times of fear, distress or temptation. The prayers are drawn from Holy Scripture and Sacred Tradition and are intended for individual use to protect us from the forces of evil. In this Catholic N...

As the Church enters the season of Advent, on the first Sunday, 3 December, we also celebrate the International Day of Disabled Persons. It's an occasion that reminds us, should we need reminding, that the Church needs to be a place of belonging for people with disabilities. For this Catholic News podcast we're joined by Cristina Gangemi from the Kairos Forum, her friend Sean, a man who has never...

Bishop Peter Brignall, the Bishop of Wrexham, has warmly welcomed the news that the Shrine of St Winefride in Holywell, north Wales, has been elevated to the status of a National Shrine for England and Wales. The shrine, on Bishop Peter's patch, has an unbroken 1,400-year tradition of pilgrimage and is part of the national heritage of Wales. The Bishops, at their Autumn 2023 Plenary meeting, appro...

Canon Christopher Thomas, General Secretary of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales speaks about the Bishops' Autumn Plenary meeting held at Hinsley Hall in Leeds from 13-16 November 2023. He talks, in particular, about the resolutions from the meeting and is joined by Father Jan Nowotnik to discuss the longer resolution on the Synod that looks at "Steps Towards Renewal". On this...

Dominican friar Fr Samuel Burke OP is a chaplain in the Royal Navy currently serving on HMS Duncan in the Mediterranean. He gave a poignant reflection on remembrance and honouring our war dead on BBC Radio 4's Thought for the Day . It was broadcast on 11 November, Armistice Day, known as Remembrance Day in the Commonwealth. "If, during the two minutes of silence, the enormous shadow of grief and t...

November is a very important month in the Catholic calendar. It's the month when we pause on many occasions to remember our friends and loved ones who have died - the Holy Souls. We also remember those killed in the world's conflicts, especially on Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday. For this podcast, produced in partnership with the Centre for the Art of Dying Well, we head over to South Kensin...

Director of Policy and Research here at the Bishops' Conference, Philip Booth, joins us to talk about our latest cost-of-living statement. Philip is an economist who is also Professor of Finance, Public Policy and Ethics at St Mary's University, Twickenham, as well the university's Director of Catholic Mission. The Bishops' Conference statement, released by the Department for Social Justice ahead...

Father Anthony Chantry joins us for this 'Catholic News' podcast to discuss World Mission Sunday. Celebrated on the penultimate Sunday of October, it's a chance to support missionaries and the churches, hospitals and schools where they do the Lord's work, in countries where the Church is new, young or poor. Fr Chantry is the National Director of Missio, the Pope's official charity for world missio...

Phil McCarthy is a man on a mission - to rebuild a culture of walking pilgrimage that has been somewhat lost in England and Wales. "England is quite unusual in that pilgrimage was actually banned by Act of Parliament in 1538 by Thomas Cromwell," says Phil. "So we lost the shrines, very often the cathedrals, and we lost the religious infrastructure along the way." That's where Pilgrim Ways comes in...

In this Catholic News podcast, we're joined by Bishop Peter Kihara Kariuki, Bishop of Marsabit, and Isacko Jirma, Director of Caritas Marsabit. Marsabit is a semi-arid location 500km north of the capital of Kenya, Nairobi. The local Catholic diocese spans almost 80,000 square kilometres without a single river passing through. The Horn and East Africa has suffered its worst drought in 40 years. In...

Rachel's Vineyard is a healing ministry for those who are suffering from the trauma of abortion, or have been closely connected to someone who is - whether they're siblings, grandparents, aunts, cousins. Rachel's Vineyard recognises that abortion impacts the wider family and community. The organisation also supports those that have worked in the abortion industry and struggle with the part they ha...

Recently, Archbishop Bernard Longley was a keynote speaker at a unique interfaith event that examined how followers of the world's major religions viewed eternity, and how a knowledge of eternity can help us to make the most of the life that we have now. Organised by The Centre for the Art of Dying Well and the Institute for Theology and Liberal Arts at St Mary’s University, the Archbishop of Birm...

To mark the 57th World Communications Day, this Catholic News podcast looks at Pope Francis' message for the day and the challenges of emerging technologies with Bishop John Arnold. Bishop Arnold is the Lead Bishop for Communications for the Bishops’ Conference. As well as discussing the theme for World Communications Day, Speaking with the heart. ‘The truth in love’ , we also discuss the need to...

Sunday 21 May, the Sixth Sunday of Easter, marks the International Day of Prayer for Eastern Christians. It's an opportunity to come together to pray for peace in the world – especially in the Middle East. But with so many noble causes competing for our attention, why is it important for us to pray for the Christians of the East with whom we share an indelible link? And how can we find out more ab...

Speaking to us shortly after Sunday Mass the day after the Coronation of Their Majesties King Charles and Queen Camilla, Cardinal Vincent Nichols looks back on a day of celebration that showcased plenty of elements familiar to Catholics. Six Catholic prelates attended the historic coronation, including the Cardinal Secretary of State and the Apostolic Nuncio representing the Holy See, and Cardinal...

Bishop Tom Neylon, Lead Bishop for Asia for the Bishops' Conference, has recently returned from a week-long trip to Pakistan from 9-16 March. He visited a number of projects funded by the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need and met with the faithful, priests and bishops in the major cities of Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Lahore and Faisalabad. The Catholic faithful experience various challenges i...

Archbishop John Wilson tells us of his 'shock' when he learned Pope Francis had been admitted to hospital with viral bronchitis. Thankfully, the Pope is on the mend and is scheduled to be discharged from Gemelli hospital on Saturday morning. In this short Catholic News interview, the Archbishop of Southwark reflects on two memorable encounters with Pope Francis and tells us why it's important we k...

On today's Catholic News podcast, Archbishop John Wilson joins us to talk about the launch of CARITAS Southwark - a new diocesan Caritas social action charity to help those in need across the south east. Archbishop Wilson is keen to work collaboratively: "This is not about a takeover. This is about creating a network whereby there can be a real celebration of good practise, and where new initiativ...

This audiobook, recorded and produced in collaboration with the Catholic Truth Society (CTS) , sees us re-visit the 'Victims of the Nazis' series to shine a light on a truly remarkable woman - Edith Stein - who we know and venerate as Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Born on the Feast of St Wilfred, 12 October 1891, in the then German town of Breslau (now Wroclaw in Poland), Edith Stein was a...

Bishop Nicholas Hudson, Chairing his first Holy Land Co-ordination, spoke to us on the eve of his return home from Amman, the capital of Jordan. He had just spent five days leading a pilgrimage of Bishops from 11 countries around the holy sites of Jordan, as well as visiting some of the Catholic parishes and projects active in the country. Jordan today hosts more displaced people than almost any o...

"In one way it was a very straightforward celebration of a Funeral Mass as would take place at the death of any Catholic in any parish church. And yet in another way it was a uniquely historical event and an event of great emotional depth and stature. "I think we can say it's the first time [in over 200 years] that a pope has buried a pope who has just died and in that sense there was a uniqueness...

Shortly after arriving in Rome the day before Benedict XVI's funeral, Cardinal Vincent Nichols spent some time in prayer and quiet contemplation before the body of the late Pope Emeritus Lying in state in St Peter’s Basilica, Pope Benedict was visited by tens of thousands of pilgrims who paid their final respects and offered prayers for the repose of his soul. "Yesterday afternoon, I was able to g...

Audio taken from a virtual press conference in which four Catholic bishops from England and Wales discussed their autumn plenary meeting. Bishop Paul Mason, who chaired the press conference, spoke about the Church's safeguarding work, Bishop John Arnold discussed four resolutions concerned with environmental matters, Bishop John Sherrington addressed the issue of buffer zones around abortion clini...

Patrick O’Dowd, the director of Caritas Salford, spoke to us recently to give an overview of what the charity is doing to ease the burdens of struggling families in the north west of England. Patrick relayed some shocking statistics about the devastating effects of the crisis, with hundreds of thousands of children lacking the bare essentials, families plunged into precarious positions, and even h...

Every year, millions of pilgrims from around the world visit the foothills of the French Pyrenees to walk in the footsteps of Saint Bernadette at Lourdes. It's one of the world's busiest Catholic pilgrimage sites with around five million pilgrims visiting each year. It's estimated that over 200 million people have visited the Marian shrine and sanctuary since 1860. Why do they come? It's a common...