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WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama has nearly ruled out any major last-ditch effort to put pressure on Israel over stalled peace negotiations with the Palestinians, U.S. officials said, indicating Obama will likely avoid one last row with Israel's government as he leaves office....
GATLINBURG, Tenn. (AP) -- After nearly 24 hours of drenching rain helped quench a series of devastating wildfires in eastern Tennessee, local officials turned to cleanup and recovery efforts even as they battled their own personal crises....
DALLAS (AP) -- OPEC's decision to cut production gave an immediate boost to oil prices, but the impact on consumers and the U.S. economy is likely to be more modest and gradual....
MIAMI (AP) -- For more than a decade, Maria Vazquez's store had a special gift basket to celebrate Fidel Castro's death....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- For all the concerns raised in the presidential campaign about Donald Trump's fitness to command America's nuclear arsenal, the immediate questions he's likely to face as president aren't about launching these weapons, but modernizing them....
MEDELLIN, Colombia (AP) -- Simultaneous tear-filled tributes were held at packed stadiums in Colombia and Brazil for the victims of this week's air tragedy that claimed 71 lives when a chartered plane crashed while ferrying a scrappy, small-town soccer team to the finals of a prestigious South American tournament....
IRVING, Texas (AP) -- Baseball players and owners reached a tentative agreement on a five-year labor contract Wednesday night, a deal that will extend the sport's industrial peace to 26 years since the ruinous fights in the first two decades of free agency....
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- After five decades of war, more than four years of negotiations and two signing ceremonies, Colombia's congress late Wednesday formally ratified a peace agreement allowing leftist rebels to enter politics....
Vatican City, Nov 30, 2016 / 04:15 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Bishop of Rome sent a message to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople on Wednesday, continuing a recent tradition of ecumenism between the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches.“The exchange of delegations between Rome and Constantinople on the occasion of the respective feast days honouring the brother apostles Peter and Andrew is a visible sign of the profound bonds that already unite us,” Pope Francis said Nov. 30 in his message to Bartholomew I, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople.“So too, it is an expression of our yearning for ever deeper communion, until that day when, God willing, we may witness to our love for one another by sharing the same eucharistic table. In this journey towards the restoration of eucharistic communion between us, we are sustained by the intercession not only of our patron saints, but by the array of martyrs from every age, who 'despite the tragedy of ou...
Vatican City, Nov 30, 2016 / 04:15 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Bishop of Rome sent a message to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople on Wednesday, continuing a recent tradition of ecumenism between the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches.
“The exchange of delegations between Rome and Constantinople on the occasion of the respective feast days honouring the brother apostles Peter and Andrew is a visible sign of the profound bonds that already unite us,” Pope Francis said Nov. 30 in his message to Bartholomew I, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople.
“So too, it is an expression of our yearning for ever deeper communion, until that day when, God willing, we may witness to our love for one another by sharing the same eucharistic table. In this journey towards the restoration of eucharistic communion between us, we are sustained by the intercession not only of our patron saints, but by the array of martyrs from every age, who 'despite the tragedy of our divisions… have preserved an attachment to Christ and to the Father so radical and absolute as to lead even to the shedding of blood'.”
The message was conveyed by a Holy See delegation to Istanbul to celebrate the feast of St. Andrew, who founded the see. The delegation was led by Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and it took part in a Divine Liturgy celebrated by Patriarch Bartholomew.
A similar visit to Rome is made annually by an Eastern Orthodox delegation for the feast of Ss. Peter and Paul.
Pope Francis wrote in his message that the “strong commitment to re–establishing the unity of Christians” confirmed at the Pan-Orthodox Council in June “is for Catholics a source of real encouragement.”
He recalled that Bartholomew “has always remained conscious of existing difficulties to unity and has never tired of supporting initiatives which foster encounter and dialogue,” but added that “the history of relations between Christians, however, has sadly been marked by conflicts that have left a deep impression on the memory of the faithful. For this reason, some cling to attitudes of the past.”
The Pope emphasized that “only prayer, common good works and dialogue can enable us to overcome division and grow closer to one another.”
He noted that through dialogue, “over the last decades Catholics and Orthodox have begun to recognize one another as brothers and sisters and to value each other’s gifts, and together have proclaimed the Gospel, served humanity and the cause of peace, promoted the dignity of the human being and the inestimable value of the family, and cared for those most in need, as well as creation, our common home.”
Francis then pointed in particular to the work of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches. Regarding their September document on synodality and primacy during the first millennium, he said that “though many questions remain, this shared reflection … can offer a sure foundation for discerning ways in which primacy may be exercised in the Church when all Christians of East and West are finally reconciled.”
The Pope concluded, saying, “In assuring you of my daily remembrance in prayer, I renew my best wishes for peace, health and abundant blessings upon you and all those entrusted to your care. With sentiments of brotherly affection and spiritual closeness, I exchange with Your Holiness an embrace of peace in the Lord.”
IMAGE: CNS photo/courtesy Association of Jesuit Colleges and UniversitiesBy Carol ZimmermannWASHINGTON (CNS) -- More than 70 presidents at Catholic colleges and universities have signed astatement pledging their support for students attending their schools who are legally protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, knownas DACA.The statement, posted Nov. 30 onthe website of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, says ithopes "the students in our communities who have qualified for DACA areable to continue their studies without interruption and that many more studentsin their situation will be welcome to contribute their talents to our campuses."President Barack Obama's DACA program protectsyoung immigrants brought into the United States by their parents as youngchildren without legal permission. More than 720,000 of these young immigrants have been approved for the program, which protects themfrom deportation for two-year periods.The college lead...
IMAGE: CNS photo/courtesy Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities
By Carol Zimmermann
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- More than 70 presidents at Catholic colleges and universities have signed a statement pledging their support for students attending their schools who are legally protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA.
The statement, posted Nov. 30 on the website of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, says it hopes "the students in our communities who have qualified for DACA are able to continue their studies without interruption and that many more students in their situation will be welcome to contribute their talents to our campuses."
President Barack Obama's DACA program protects young immigrants brought into the United States by their parents as young children without legal permission. More than 720,000 of these young immigrants have been approved for the program, which protects them from deportation for two-year periods.
The college leaders' statement also points out that "undocumented students need assistance in confronting legal and financial uncertainty and in managing the accompanying anxieties. We pledge to support these students -- through our campus counseling and ministry support, through legal resources from those campuses with law schools and legal clinics and through whatever other services we may have at our disposal."
The statement was released three weeks after the presidential election. During his campaign, President-elect Donald Trump promised to deport those who are in the country without legal permission; build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border; and enact a ban on Muslims entering the country until a system for what he called "extreme vetting" of refugees is in place.
Trump also made promises during his campaign to undo what he called Obama's "overreaching" executive orders, including the president's November 2014 expansion of his 2012 DACA program to allow more young immigrants people to benefit from its provisions that defer deportations and allow them to have work permits.
"Many of us count among our students young men and women who are undocumented, their families having fled violence and instability," the presidents' letter said, adding that these students have met the DACA criteria.
Signers of the letter represent large schools, like Villanova, which is outside Philadelphia, DePaul University in Chicago and The Catholic University of America in Washington, and small schools, like Anna Maria College in Paxton, Massachusetts, and Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, and dozens of colleges in between. They include leaders who have been vocal in their support of students with DACA status, such as Patricia McGuire, president of Trinity Washington University, and Jesuit Father Kevin Wildes, president of Loyola University New Orleans.
Michael Galligan-Stierle, president of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, and Jesuit Father Michael Sheeran, president of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, also signed the statement.
Many of the signers are presidents of Jesuit colleges and universities who signed a similar Nov. 30 statement issued by the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities that reiterated support for students who are in the United States without legal documents.
That statement, signed by 28 leaders, said: "We feel spiritually and morally compelled to raise a collective voice confirming our values and commitments as Americans and educators."
The leaders pledged to continue working "to protect to the fullest extent of the law undocumented students on our campuses" and to promote retention of students with DACA status.
Several of the signers of both statements also signed a Nov. 21 letter with more than 400 college and university presidents from public and private institutions across the U.S. offering to meet with U.S. leaders on the issue of immigrant students and urging business, civic, religious and nonprofit sectors to join them in supporting DACA and undocumented immigrant students.
The letter from Catholic college and university presidents stressed that their schools "share a long history of educating students from a diverse array of socioeconomic, geographical and ethnic backgrounds, often welcoming those on society's margins, especially immigrants and underprivileged populations."
It also cited what Pope Francis said last year at the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia when he welcomed many recent immigrants to the United States, pointing out that many of them came to the United States "at great personal cost, in the hope of building a new life."
"Do not be discouraged by whatever hardships you face," the pope told them. "I ask you not to forget that, like those who came here before you, you bring many gifts to this nation."
John DeGioia, president of Georgetown University, who joined the statement with Jesuit college leaders, also sent a similar-themed message to members of the school community Nov. 29.
In the letter, he noted that he has been meeting with students, faculty and staff members from the university and "many of them have shared with me that they feel vulnerable and unsure about their futures or the futures of close friends and family."
DeGioia stressed that Georgetown's school community would continue to support the DACA program and "protect our undocumented students to the fullest extent of the law."
"I wish to encourage each of us to recommit ourselves to supporting one another -- to working together to do all that we can to ensure that our community is a place of deep care for each person, especially those who feel most vulnerable," he wrote.
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Follow Zimmermann on Twitter @carolmaczim.
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