Episodes

  • Healing, recovery and faith in Tigray

    Healing, recovery and faith in Tigray
    Sep 12 2025
    On today’s Catholic News podcast we’re speaking to our Lead Bishop for Africa, Bishop Paul Swarbrick. Our focus is Ethiopia – and in particular Tigray. Six months ago, from 17-28 March, Bishop Paul travelled to the country at the invitation of CAFOD, the Church’s Aid and Development agency here in England and Wales, and the charities SCIAF, the equivalent in Scotland, and Trócaire, the Irish Bishops’ agency. Bishop Paul has a love for Africa and her people having served as a missionary priest in Zambia for almost 15 years, but how did he feel travelling to Tigray – a region […]
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    27 mins
  • National Walking Pilgrimage for the Jubilee Year

    National Walking Pilgrimage for the Jubilee Year
    Aug 15 2025
    As the UK endures its fourth heatwave of the year, more people than ever are using their spare time to get out and about to enjoy the sunshine and the many walking routes our country has to offer. Yes, you have to be sensible – you have to be prepared – but why not use this seasonal time of rest and relaxation to combine faith, prayer, and pilgrimage to walk a path of witness that medieval English and Welsh people followed religiously pre-Reformation. One man who wants to see that ancient tradition of walking pilgrimage resurrected and embedded into the […]
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    14 mins
  • Communicating using language that encourages hope and peace

    Communicating using language that encourages hope and peace
    May 23 2025
    World Communications Day falls this year on Sunday, 1 June. The theme centres around the need to communicate responsibly to foster a culture of hope and peace. For this Catholic News podcast, we speak to our Media Bishop, the Rt Revd John Arnold, to discuss the final Communications Day message of Pope Francis’s pontificate and how Pope Leo XIV has picked up where his predecessor left off to speak positively about the need to build bridges with our words: “Pope Leo was very measured with the media professionals [in a meeting four days after his election]. He presented language as […]
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    11 mins
  • Cardinal Nichols' homily after Pope Leo XIV's election

    Cardinal Nichols' homily after Pope Leo XIV's election
    May 11 2025
    Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster and President of the Bishops’ Conference, gave a Sunday morning homily in the chapel of the Venerable English College in Rome, in which he spoke at length about the intense focus on prayer in the Sistine chapel that prevailed in the conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV as Bishop of Rome. The homily was given on Sunday, 11 May 2025. Subscribe You can subscribe to our Catholic News podcasts via Apple Podcasts or Amazon/Audible.
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    9 mins
  • Cardinal prepares for the funeral of Pope Francis

    Cardinal prepares for the funeral of Pope Francis
    Apr 24 2025
    Three days after the death of Pope Francis, Cardinal Vincent Nichols speaks to us from Rome about his personal feelings and experiences ahead of the papal funeral. Subscribe You can subscribe to our Catholic News podcasts via Apple Podcasts or Amazon/Audible.
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    10 mins
  • Bishop Shomali gives an update on the plight of West Bank and Gazan Christians

    Bishop Shomali gives an update on the plight of West Bank and Gazan Christians
    Apr 2 2025
    Bishop William Shomali, Patriarchal Vicar for Jerusalem and Palestine, joins us for this Catholic News podcast. The Bishop was in the UK at the invitation of two charities helping Christians under intense pressure – Aid to the Church in Need and Friends of the Holy Land. During his visit, he met with Bishop Nicholas Hudson, Moderator of the Holy Land Coordination, and gave a talk in central London titled ‘Christians in the Holy Land: Challenges and Hopes’. Listen to Bishop William Shomali discuss how the Christians of the West Bank are fearful for their future, with unemployment rife, severe restrictions […]
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    10 mins
  • Missio Director updates us on Cambodia and Myanmar

    Missio Director updates us on Cambodia and Myanmar
    Mar 28 2025
    The National Director of the Pope’s charity for world mission in England and Wales, Father Anthony Chantry, joins us for this Catholic News podcast to bring us up to date on the work of Missio. After a recent visit to Cambodia, Fr Chantry spoke about the many challenges the Catholic Church faces in the country. He explains how the Church literally had to “start from scratch” and focus its efforts on healing after dictator Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge regime. We then turn our attention to the incredibly difficult situation for the people of neighbouring Myanmar, before Fr Chantry talks about […]
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    30 mins
  • Life Bishop on next steps to oppose the assisted suicide bill

    Life Bishop on next steps to oppose the assisted suicide bill
    Mar 20 2025
    For this Catholic News podcast, Archbishop-elect John Sherrington of Liverpool, Lead Bishop for Life Issues here at the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, explains our objection to the proposed legislation passing through parliament seeking to legalise assisted suicide. Ahead of the Bill’s Third Reading and vote, likely to take place in late April or early May, Archbishop-elect Sherrington insists all is not lost and that there’s still time to contact your MP to ask them to oppose assisted suicide becoming law. In addition to our Bishops’ principled objection, there are many other compelling reasons why this Private Members’ […]
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    23 mins