I recently received an email from my former parishioner who now lives in the United States, inquiring about the morality of the COVID-19 vaccine. The lady with three children, is worried about the hospitalizations for children that are rising as COVID Delta variant surges in her country.
Before the return to Taliban power, Afghanistan was the second most persecuted country for Christians, according to Open Doors’ latest World Watch List. But now with strict, fundamentalist Taliban rules, that is expected to get even worse.
Only two sisters remain in Kabul, no brothers or priests stayed in the country. The two Catholics take care of a mentally disabled children’s day center and school, living in a dangerous district by choice, to be nearer to the people. “We have many friends here and the rest we rely on God,” Sister Shahnaz told AsiaNews.
“When people stop believing in God, it is not true that they do not believe in anything, because they believe in everything.”
Is there a way to make this mystery of the faith more understandable?
The first fortnight of September is full of memories of Mother Teresa of Calcutta. It was on a train journey, during the night of September 10, 1946, from Calcutta to Darjeeling, India, that Jesus called her to found the Missionaries of Charity. She passed away on September 5, 1997 and the Church annually celebrates her feast on this date. However, as she was canonized by Pope Francis on September 4, 2016, the 4th joins the 5th and the feast lasts for two days.
The Sisters of Charity Mission celebrated Mother St Teresa’s Day on Sunday, September 5, at 10:00 am. As always, families and seniors were invited to join the Sunday Mass.
The Cathedral Parish of the Nativity of our Lady opened its doors for the first time after months of renovations for the 6:00 pm Mass on Saturday, September 4, giving parishioners their first glimpse of its newly renovated interiors.
The Universal Church celebrates the Nativity of Mary on September 8th. Tradition says that the Virgin was born in Jerusalem, near the pool of Bethesda, where a crypt under the church of St Anne is currently venerated as the birthplace of Our Lady. The Feast of the Nativity is celebrated nine months after the celebration of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception (December 8th).
In the middle of the 18th century, during their territorial progression to the east, the Russians, upon reaching the strait that separates Siberia from Alaska, decided to go further and explore the northern region of the Pacific.