The people of Mozambique continue to pay the high price of climate change as yet another tropical cyclone prepares to make landfall. The southeast African Nation is reeling from the impact of the disastrous Cyclone Idai that killed 1000 people and displaced half a million in March.

The Undersecretary at the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue speaks about the importance of dialogue at this time of fear and insecurity in Sri Lanka.

Pope Francis receives members of the Italian Federation of Associations for the Deaf in audience in the Vatican, and stresses the need for inclusion and a culture of encounter.

Mary is indeed a very special person for us Catholics. Episcopalian and Lutheran Christians also hold her in high esteem for her special role in salvation history. It is impossible to think of our faith, both in doctrine and practice, without thinking of the mother of Jesus—the Mother of God.

Listen to this week's edition of our reflections on the Gospel reading for the second Sunday Easter of Easter, where Jesus says that blessed are those who have not seen and have believed, prepared by the late Jill Bevilacqua.

Fr. Antony Kadavil reflects and comments on the readings at Mass for the second Sunday of Easter. He says that the readings emphasize the importance of faith.

"Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, 'Peace be with you!'" The Gospel tells of an appearance of Jesus in the Cenacle on the very day of His resurrection. The newly baptized (neophytes) and all Christians with them, must live like the risen Christ, none but a heavenly life and by their manner of living proclaim their faith in Christ.

In a 1985 article in the New York Times titled “One Too Many for the Muse,” J. Anthony Lukas noted that “an exhaustive roster of literary scrooders would be too long to publish here.” He [...]

The most immediate challenge facing Catholic Charities of the Virgin Islands in the wake of back-to-back monster storms is finding a home for the people who were living at Bethlehem House in Kingshill, St. Croix, when it was badly damaged last week by Hurricane Maria. 

With the recent spate of hurricanes hitting the US mainland and its territories, the need for disaster relief is urgent and widespread. That many people are focusing their efforts in their local communities is, of course, understandable and appropriate. Residents, charitable organizations like Catholic Charities, and government offices—already embedded in neighborhoods—are taking care of their brothers and sisters. 

Archbishop Felipe Neri Ferrao of Goa and Daman, the president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI), is inviting the Latin-rite faithful to dedicate the April 28 Divine Mercy Sunday as a day of prayer and solidarity for Sri Lanka, following Easter Sunday’s bombings.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the latest attacks on Christians: Muslim fanatics, so-called Islamists, are the most violent enemy of Christians in the world. While it is considered controversial to even mention this today, even less reported is the non-violent counterpart to these barbarians: militant secularists. The latter are growing in influence by [...]

The President of the Federation of the Asian Bishops’ Conferences expresses his sorrow for the earthquakes that have struck the Philippines causing death and destruction.

Severe weather conditions in South Africa and Colombia provoke floods and landslides that leave dozens of people dead and hundreds homeless.

In his continuing catechesis on the Our Father at the Wednesday General Audience, Pope Francis reminds us that we are forgiven in the measure with which we forgive those who trespass against us.

WASHINGTON— Rev. Walter Kedjierski of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York has been appointed as Executive Director of the Secretariat of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), based in Washington D.C.

Fr. Kedjierski will begin the new position effective June 3, 2019. Msgr. Brian Bransfield, USCCB General Secretary, made the appointment.

"Fr. Kedjierski brings to the Conference an abundance of knowledge and experience in the realm of ecumenical and interreligious dialogue, both at the institutional and the personal levels,” said Msgr. Bransfield. "I am very grateful to Fr. Kedjierski for accepting this important position in service to the bishops and to the Conference. I am equally grateful to the Most Reverend John O. Barres, Bishop of Rockville Centre, for his kind consideration of the needs of the Conference and the Church in the United States.”

Since June 2017, Fr. Kedjierski has served as Rector/President of the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Huntington, New York, where he first served as Vice Rector and Director of Diaconate Formation, as well as Director of the Sacred Heart Institute for the Continuing Formation of Clergy. Father Kedjierski is also the Director of the Diocese’s Office of Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Affairs, where he served from 2007 to 2010 as Associate Ecumenical officer in charge of Relations with Muslims and Other Religious groups, and in which role he is a member of the Catholic Association of Diocesan Ecumenical and Interreligious Officers (CADEIO), the Long Island Council of Churches, and the Long Island Multi-Faith Forum. Father Kedjierski was a member of the board of trustees of the Inter-Faith Center of the Islamic Center of Long Island, in Westbury, NY, for three years. He has participated in sessions of the USCCB’s dialogue with the Orthodox Union of Rabbis in New York and facilitated numerous ecumenical and inter-religious dialogues, the latest being a dialogue on non-violence this past fall with Indian Hindu scholar Swami Nikhileswarananda.

Fr. Kedjierski attended the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception, graduating with a Master of Divinity in May of 2002. After his ordination to the priesthood on June 8, 2002, he served in parish ministry until June 2016. In May 2011 he earned an Ed.D. in Inter-faith and Ecumenical Education from the Graduate Theological Foundation in Mishawaka, Indiana, and in August 2016, he earned his Ph.D. in Dogmatic/Spiritual Theology from the Graduate Theological Foundation’s Foundation House at Oxford University Program.

Fr. Kedjierski has additionally published several articles on theological and ecumenical topics in journals such as Homiletic and Pastoral Review and the Princeton Theological Review.

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Keywords: U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, USCCB, Diocese of Rockville Centre, Fr. Walter Kedjierski, Secretariat Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, Monsignor Brian Bransfield

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Media Contact:
Judy Keane
202-541-3200

 

Read JN 20:19-31

On the evening of that first day of the week,
when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,
for fear of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood in their midst
and said to them, "Peace be with you."
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you."

Pope Francis continues his catechesis on the Lord's prayer, reflecting on the words "as we forgive those who trespass against us". The official English-language summary is below:

Published a week short of his 92nd birthday, Joseph Ratzinger’s essay on the epidemiology of the clergy sex-abuse crisis vividly illustrated his still-unparalleled capacity to incinerate the brain-circuits of various Catholic progressives.  The origins of [...]