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Just a reminder that the month of June is traditionally dedicated to foster devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. You might give consideration to what you may do in your own devotional practices. Don’t be afraid to be pious. We lose nothing in being devout and we gain ineffable benefits. Do not be afraid to bend yourself down before God especially and also to the angels and saints our intercessors and patrons and be simply pious. Man was made to be pious. This is the essence of religion, without which we are empty shells: to give due reverence to...

RUSSIA – VATICANKirill might accompany Putin to see Pope, says Orthodox bishopMarta AllevatoIn an interview with AsiaNews the Orthodox Bishop of Vienna and Austria, Hilarion, discusses the positive evolution of relations between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Vatican. He adds that having Benedict XVI and Bartholomew I in Ravenna together would be at odds with Orthodoxy’s hierarchy. Rome (AsiaNews) – Metropolitan Kirill, head of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations, might accompany Russian President Vladimir Putin in his visit to see the Pope on March 13, this according to the Russian Orthodox Bishop of Vienna and Austria, Hilarion...

VATICAN CITY, MARCH 5, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI paid tribute to Pope Paul VI, saying he was a protagonist in a difficult historical period. The Holy Father said this on Saturday, when receiving members of the Paul VI Institute, a Brescia, Italy-based organization which collects documentation and promotes the thought of Giovanni Battista Montini, who was Bishop of Rome from 1963 to 1978. Benedict XVI mentioned some personal memories of this Pope, who appointed him archbishop of Munich in March 1977 and elevated him to cardinal three months later. "He was called by divine providence to pilot Peter's boat during...

ROME, MARCH 5, 2007 ( Zenit.org).- Music in church should be an avenue to deeper prayer, not a distraction, says a Russian Orthodox bishop and composer. Bishop Hilarion Alfeev of Vienna and Austria is the representative of the Russian Orthodox Church of Moscow to the European Community. His latest composition, "The Passion According to Matthew," will be performed in Moscow and then in Rome on March 29. The Holy Week concert seeks to promote Christian unity, especially among Catholics and Orthodox. In this interview with ZENIT, the Lithuania-born Bishop Alfeev discusses his latest composition, the central role of music in...

MOSCOW, MARCH 5, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Religious leaders of various confessions have discussed a plan of action to bring Europe back to its Christian roots. Christian leaders from the Baltic States and former Soviet republics met Feb. 27-28 in Moscow as part of the preparations for the European Ecumenical Assembly to be held this September in Romania. A unanimous decision was made to reactivate the Christian Interconfessional Consultative Committee. And a joint statement was drafted which calls on European states and societies to respect Christian principles and rights. The working sessions were organized by the Russian Orthodox Church. The theme was...

ROME (CNS) -- Global interest in Pope Benedict XVI's upcoming trip to Turkey has focused on relations with Muslims, especially after the pope's recent remarks on Islam and the controversy that followed. But the Nov. 28-Dec. 1 visit also will highlight the tiny but historic Greek Orthodox community in Turkey and its struggle for religious freedom. In fact, it was Istanbul-based Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew who first invited the pope to visit as a demonstration of ongoing dialogue between the Christians of East and West -- an aspect overshadowed by the latest controversy with Islam. In an apparent desire to...

In Vietnam and Russia, countries marked by Communist atheism, the devotion to Our Lady of Fatima sustains the hopes of the faithful. Rome (AsiaNews) – The devotion to Our Lady of Fatima is live and well in Vietnam and Russia. In both countries there are shrines dedicated to her. And in both countries, the past as well as the present are marked by Communist atheism whose end the Virgin predicted when She appeared to the little young shepherds in Portugal in 1917. In Vietnam there is a “Fatima Centre” in Binh Trieu, 30 km from Saigon; in Russia, the Shrine...