Catholic News 2
WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday called for the Pentagon to immediately suspend efforts to recover enlistment bonuses paid to thousands of soldiers in California, even as the Pentagon said late Tuesday the number of soldiers affected was smaller than first believed....
FALMOUTH, Maine (AP) -- Rigged elections. Vigilante observers. Angry voters. The claims, threats and passions surrounding the presidential race have led communities around the U.S. to move polling places out of schools or cancel classes on Election Day....
DORAL, Florida (AP) -- Suddenly armed with fresh political ammunition, Donald Trump and anxious Republicans across the nation seized on spiking health care costs Tuesday in a final-days effort to spark election momentum....
Washington D.C., Oct 25, 2016 / 01:35 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A proposal to close the Washington, D.C. metro until noon on Sundays has prompted strong criticism from churches whose members rely on public transportation to attend worship services.“Opening 2 hours later on Saturday and 5 hours later on Sunday would drastically impact access to numerous events held by local congregations,” warned Terrance Lynch, executive director of the Downtown Cluster of Congregations, a group of some 50 religious congregations throughout the Washington, D.C. area.In order to allow more time for safety and maintenance of the metro system, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) has issued four proposals for new shortened service schedules.Each proposal would cut back on the current schedule by eight hours per week, allowing time for work to be done on the cars and tracks.Elements of the proposed changes include closing the metro earlier – either all week long or jus...
Washington D.C., Oct 25, 2016 / 01:35 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A proposal to close the Washington, D.C. metro until noon on Sundays has prompted strong criticism from churches whose members rely on public transportation to attend worship services.
“Opening 2 hours later on Saturday and 5 hours later on Sunday would drastically impact access to numerous events held by local congregations,” warned Terrance Lynch, executive director of the Downtown Cluster of Congregations, a group of some 50 religious congregations throughout the Washington, D.C. area.
In order to allow more time for safety and maintenance of the metro system, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) has issued four proposals for new shortened service schedules.
Each proposal would cut back on the current schedule by eight hours per week, allowing time for work to be done on the cars and tracks.
Elements of the proposed changes include closing the metro earlier – either all week long or just on weekends – and opening later on weekends. The fourth proposal would focus all cuts to weekend hours and would include changing the Sunday start time from 7:00 a.m. to noon.
Local churches are warning that this option would severely impede the ability of people with in the D.C. area to attend worship services on Sunday mornings.
Seeking user feedback, the metro system is holding an open house and public hearing on the proposals, and is asking for public comments through 5:00 p.m. October 25 via an online survey and written comments.
In a testimony on the proposed changes, Lynch said that Proposal 4 “would be a step in the wrong direction for those that seek to attend worship services those days – as well as for others seeking to get to work or return home from work, as well as the many other users who utilize it to go about their lives on those days.”
While appreciating the need for safety and on-going Metro maintenance, he stressed that many people in the area rely on the metro to attend worship services on Sunday mornings, particularly the many people in D.C. who do not own cars.
“Indeed, the metro's opening at 7 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays provides support to congregations that despite increased congestion and numerous road closures have chosen to remain within the city,” Lynch said.
“Over the last two decades, many congregations have relocated to the suburbs, often stating in part that the reason is the difficulty to find parking for their members that drive to services,” he continued. “Hence, the current metro operating hours have become a part of the fabric of the lives of local congregations - the expectation being that hours of operation would expand if anything - not shrink.”
The Catholic cathedral for the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. also voiced concern about the proposal.
“So many parishioners take metro to St. Matthew's that our community could not come together without it,” The Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle said in a website announcement, asking parishioners to contact WMATA via Facebook, email, written comments, or survey, and ask that another proposal be considered instead.
WMATA has assured its users that it will work to provide alternate options for transportation during the hours that the metro is closed, regardless of which proposal is adopted. Details of what those options would look like have not been determined.
Vatican City, Oct 25, 2016 / 02:05 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The kingdom of heaven is able to grow when its members are docile to the Holy Spirit – rather than when they focus on structures and organization charts, the Pope said during his homily at Mass on Tuesday.“What is the Kingdom of God? Well, perhaps the Kingdom of God is a very well-made structure, everything tidy, organization charts all done, everything and the person who does not enter (into this structure) is not in the Kingdom of God,” Francis rhetorically suggest while saying Mass Oct. 25 at the chapel of the Santa Marta house in the Vatican.“No, the same thing can happen to the Kingdom of God as happens to the Law: unchanging, rigidity … the Law is about moving forward, the Kingdom of God is moving forward, it is not standing still. What’s more: the Kingdom of God is re-creating itself every day.”Divine law, the Pope said, is meant to help us as we are “journeying towa...
Vatican City, Oct 25, 2016 / 02:05 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The kingdom of heaven is able to grow when its members are docile to the Holy Spirit – rather than when they focus on structures and organization charts, the Pope said during his homily at Mass on Tuesday.
“What is the Kingdom of God? Well, perhaps the Kingdom of God is a very well-made structure, everything tidy, organization charts all done, everything and the person who does not enter (into this structure) is not in the Kingdom of God,” Francis rhetorically suggest while saying Mass Oct. 25 at the chapel of the Santa Marta house in the Vatican.
“No, the same thing can happen to the Kingdom of God as happens to the Law: unchanging, rigidity … the Law is about moving forward, the Kingdom of God is moving forward, it is not standing still. What’s more: the Kingdom of God is re-creating itself every day.”
Divine law, the Pope said, is meant to help us as we are “journeying towards fullness” and “towards hope.”
He recalled the parable of the yeast, which is mixed in with flour and makes bread, but dies in the process.
“What is the attitude that the Lord asks from us in order that the Kingdom of God can grow and be bread for everyone, and is a house too for everyone? Docility: the Kingdom of God grows through docility to the strength of the Holy Spirit.”
He said that flour “ceases to be flour and becomes bread because it is docile to the strength of the yeast, and the yeast allows itself to be mixed in with the flour… I don’t know, flour has no feelings but allowing itself to be mixed in one could think that there is some suffering here, right? But the Kingdom too, the Kingdom grows in this way and then in the end it is bread for everyone.”
Docility to the Holy Spirit keeps one from becoming a “rigid person” who “has only masters and no father,” he said.
“The Kingdom of God is like a mother that grows and is fertile, gives of herself so that her children have food and lodging, according to the example of the Lord. Today is a day to ask for the grace of docility to the Holy Spirit. Many times we are not docile to our moods, our judgements. ‘But I do what I want….' The Kingdom does not grow in this way and neither do we grow.”
“It is docility to the Holy Spirit that makes us grow and be transformed like the yeast and the seed,” he concluded. “May the Lord give us all the grace of this docility.”
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Always up for a party, Cleveland is about to rock like never before....
DETROIT (AP) -- A federal judge on Tuesday approved a settlement between Volkswagen AG and about 475,000 owners of diesel cars that don't meet U.S. emissions standards....
BAGHDAD (AP) -- Iraqi forces battled Islamic State fighters for a third day in a remote western town far from Mosul on Tuesday, but the U.S.-led coalition insisted the latest in a series of "spoiler attacks" had not forced it to divert resources from the fight to retake Iraq's second-largest city....
QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) -- Survivors of an overnight attack that killed 61 people at a Pakistani police academy described chaotic scenes of gunfire and explosions, with militants shooting anyone they saw and cadets running for their lives and jumping from windows and rooftops....
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- A data analysis firm hired by a voter registration group said on Tuesday that Indiana's voter database is riddled with errors, including thousands of people over the age of 110 who would likely be deceased but are still on the registration list....
