VATICAN (CNS): In what Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople described as a “brave and bold” gesture, Pope Francis gave the patriarch a famous reliquary containing bone fragments believed to belong to St. Peter.
 
The only time the bronze reliquary has been displayed publicly was in November 2013, when Pope Francis had it present for public veneration as he celebrated the closing Mass for the Year of Faith, opened by Pope Benedict XVI.
 

VATICAN (CNS): Many people, including many Catholics, believe the pope always ruled over the Catholic Church as an absolute monarch, appointing the world’s bishops and definitively settling issues of faith and morals. Yet that exercise of the papal office is comparatively new.
 
The pope’s supreme power, both in governance and doctrine, was defined by the First Vatican Council in 1870 and has been seen as crucial to defending the Church from hostile governments and cultural forces around the world.
 

The story of creation presents us with a panoramic view of the world. Scripture reveals that in the beginning God intended humanity to cooperate in the preservation and protection of the natural environment.
 
At first, as we read in Genesis, “no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth and there was no one to till the ground” (2:5).
 

VATICAN (SE): While joint statements from popes and ecumenical patriarchs have a longish history, the most recent one signed by Pope Francis and the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople is the first expressing the concern for the well-being of creation held by the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. 

MUMBAI (UCAN): This year marks the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation, an event which changed the history of western Europe and much of the rest of the world.

At its heart is Martin Luther’s claim that the individual could seek and find God in the depths of his soul, not through obedience to a corrupt external Church structure. The first blow for freedom of choice, for freedom of conscience was struck here.

ROME (SE): “I hope that the next declaration opens the way for shared Eucharistic communion in special cases,” Walter Cardinal Kasper said in expressing his hope for ecumenical progress through intercommunion.

VATICAN (SE): Fifty years ago the Anglican Centre was set up in Rome as a result of an historical meeting between Pope Paul VI and Archbishop Michael Ramsey, the archbishop of Canterbury and head of the worldwide Anglican Communion.