Catholic News 2
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -- David West has undergone four surgeries in his long NBA career: left knee, right elbow and right foot twice to fix a couple of toes....
SANTIAGO, Cuba (AP) -- After a week of national mourning that reached near-religious peaks of adulation, Cuban President Raul Castro announced Saturday that his government would prohibit the naming of streets and monuments after his brother Fidel and bar the construction of statues of him in keeping with the former leader's desire to avoid a cult of personality....
MALANA, India (AP) -- For hundreds of years, the tiny village was just a speck lost amid the grandiose mountains of the Indian Himalayas....
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -- The Latest on a deadly fire in a converted warehouse in Oakland, California (all times local):...
Havana, Cuba, Dec 3, 2016 / 03:40 pm (Church Pop).- After Fidel Castro gained power in Cuba in 1959, he spent the next decade slowly imposing socialism on the country, including state atheism.In 1960, several Cuban Catholic bishops signed a letter re-affirming the Church’s long-standing rejection of communism and called for Catholics to reject it. In response, his government confiscated Catholic property and arrested Catholics. Then, in 1969, he banned the celebration of Christmas.This ban on the celebration of one of the Church’s high holy days lasted for nearly three decades until 1998, when St. John Paul II successfully convinced him to remove the ban. Joaquín Navarro-Valls, John Paul II’s spokesman in the 1990s, recently shared the amazing story with Vatican Insider.“I explained to him [Castro] that now that the date of [John Paul II’s] visit was set – for 21 January 1998 – it would be interesting if it were a great success,&rdquo...
Havana, Cuba, Dec 3, 2016 / 03:40 pm (Church Pop).- After Fidel Castro gained power in Cuba in 1959, he spent the next decade slowly imposing socialism on the country, including state atheism.
In 1960, several Cuban Catholic bishops signed a letter re-affirming the Church’s long-standing rejection of communism and called for Catholics to reject it. In response, his government confiscated Catholic property and arrested Catholics. Then, in 1969, he banned the celebration of Christmas.
This ban on the celebration of one of the Church’s high holy days lasted for nearly three decades until 1998, when St. John Paul II successfully convinced him to remove the ban. Joaquín Navarro-Valls, John Paul II’s spokesman in the 1990s, recently shared the amazing story with Vatican Insider.
“I explained to him [Castro] that now that the date of [John Paul II’s] visit was set – for 21 January 1998 – it would be interesting if it were a great success,” Navarro-Valls shared. “‘Cuba needs to surprise the word,’ I told him. Fidel agreed.”
“So I added something about the surprises the Pope was expecting. I asked Castro for Christmas, which was just around the corner, to be celebrated as an official holiday for the first time since the start of the Revolution.”
Here’s how Castro responded, according to Navvarro-Valls:
“He said it would be very difficult as Christmas fell right in the middle of the sugar cane harvesting season. To which I responded: ‘But the Holy Father would like to be able to publicly thank you for this gesture once he lands in Havana.’
“After a long discussion, Castro finally said yes, although he did add: ‘But it could be for this year only.’ All I said was: ‘Great, the Pope will be grateful to you for this. And as for next year, we’ll see.’
“As we know, to this day, Christmas is still celebrated as a public holiday in Cuba.”
You can read the full interview on Vatican Insider.
This article originally appeared on Churchpop.com. Reprinted with permission.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- Green Party-backed voters dropped a court case Saturday night that had sought to force a statewide recount of Pennsylvania's Nov. 8 presidential election, won by Republican Donald Trump, in what Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein had framed as an effort to explore whether voting machines and systems had been hacked and the election result manipulated....
SANTIAGO, Cuba (AP) -- Cuba is nearing the end of its nine-day public mourning for Fidel Castro with a second massive rally in honor of the revolutionary leader....
CINCINNATI (AP) -- Authorities are investigating terrorism as a possible motive in the car-and-knife attack on the Ohio State University campus, the latest in a series of cases involving young men who apparently became radicalized in the heartland state....
CHAPECO, Brazil (AP) -- On a rainy Saturday that only accentuated the grief, 20,000 people filled a tiny stadium under umbrellas and plastic ponchos to say goodbye to members of the Chapecoense soccer club who died in a plane crash....
