Catholic media around the world reported that die-hard atheists were in shock, back in 2012, when celebrated atheist blogger Leah Libresco announced she was leaving the fold to convert to Catholicism. Read more

Leaders of the main representative group of U.S. Catholic sisters said their recent annual trip to Rome to visit Vatican offices was productive and resulted in "very rich" conversations about problems facing the church and society globally. Read more

At first, the visitor is struck by the clusters of 10- to 12-year-old children gravitating around Fr. Jean Ollo Kansie. The priest, 34, cannot walk around Bouake without people calling out his name as soon as they see his slender silhouette and unfailing smile. He knows the streets and trails by heart in Ivory Coast's second largest city, where he has been living for the last four years. Read more

The Indian government's push for a national law banning religious conversions hit a roadblock this week when the Ministry of Law and Justice said the federal government had no powers to enact such a law. However, the debate continues with the government pressing on. Read more.

The next Catch Up Day will be on Wednesday April 22, 10am-12noon, $20/person, Level 5 at Aquinas Academy. We will focus on a text from Bede Griffith. For pre-reading contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Pope Francis today referred to the mass killing of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks in 1915 as a "genocide," prompting the Turkish government to summon the Vatican's ambassador for questioning. Read moreSee also Armenian Patriarch says 'Pope was following his conscience' See also Church marks anniversary of Armenian genocide

The World Bank and global faith leaders are joining together to end extreme poverty around the world by 2030. Read more

The October 2014 session of the Synod of Bishops looked at the modern family through a pastoral lens, focusing in particular on situations where there seemed to be a conflict between church doctrine and pastoral need. Two subjects rose to prominence: the situation of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender persons and the situations of Catholics whose marriage has failed and who have later remarried.

I watched the video a second time: there are no women — the candidates are interacting only with men. The emphasis is on the celebration of the Eucharist — no baptism, no anointing of the sick, no penance, no sacraments of marriage. There is virtually no Church. Read more

After three successful pilgrimages to India led by Fr Michael Whelan, Marie Fonseca is now organising a spiritual tour to Greece and Turkey, "St Paul and Our Christian beginnings" with Fr Jack Boog as the Chaplain from September 26, 2015 to October 20, 2015. We will relive St. Paul's life and be influenced by his missionary zeal. At the same time it is also an opportunity for us to visit Gallipoli in the Centenary Year of the Anzacs' landing. For further information, please contact: Marie Fonseca on 02 9529 2817 or 0418 265117 or Andre Rasquinha on 03 9642 4244 or 0403 569079

In 1964, Jean Vanier invited two men with developmental disabilities to share a house with him in Trosly-Breuil, near Paris. It was a life-changing move for the Canadian philosopher that would, over time, radically improve the lives of many others. Read more and watch video

Pope Francis has made a highly significant appointment in naming 61 year old San Francisco auxiliary bishop Robert McElroy to head the see of San Diego. Read more.

The University of Notre Dame mourned the death of its former president Father Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C., prompting outpourings of appreciation and remembrance for his deeply influential and sometimes controversial legacy. Read more

Many people think that science and religion are in conflict. Yet some of the greatest scientists have been priests. Franciscan Fr. Francis Bacon is known as "the father of the modern scientific method." Read more.

The most active are the cardinals, the bishops, the theologians who want to innovate in Church doctrine and practice on marriage and homosexuality. But in the first round of elections for the next synod, the defenders of tradition are much more numerous. Read more

(Pope Francis) affirmed the Catholic Church's ban on artificial contraception but derided the idea that "in order to be good Catholics we have to be like rabbits" and produce litters of kids. Read more

See the Pope's subsequent more considered reflection. Read more 

India has been hit by a wave of conversions and re-conversions of poor Christians, orchestrated by hard-line Hindu groups in recent years. Read more.

Thomas Merton was born on January 31 1915. Aquinas Academy will mark this anniversary in various ways during 2015. The first of those will be a joint seminar with St James Anglican Church in Phillip Street Sydney on Saturday January 31 2015, 9am to 3pm.

Pope Francis on Monday slammed "deviant forms of religion" following deadly attacks by Islamist militants in France last week and dubbed the "never-ending spread of conflicts" around the world a third world war. Read more.