Catholic News 2
HONOLULU (AP) -- The Army knew Sgt. 1st Class Ikaika Kang had shown support for Islamic State years ago. It even took away his security clearance for a while....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, grievously wounded in a shooting at a baseball practice nearly a month ago, has been moved out of the intensive care unit of a Washington hospital but remains in serious condition....
ITTA BENA, Miss. (AP) -- With debris scattered for miles across the flat countryside of the Mississippi Delta, federal and local officials may be combing soybean fields for up to a week for clues in a military plane crash that killed 15 Marines and a Navy sailor, a sheriff said Wednesday....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he's ready to unwrap his latest bill repealing much of President Barack Obama's health care law, with wary House conservatives signaling Wednesday they're watching to make sure it doesn't stray from their goals....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Breaking with the president, the lawyer Donald Trump picked to lead the FBI declared Wednesday that he does not believe a special counsel investigation into possible coordination between Russia and the Trump presidential campaign is a "witch hunt."...
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has sent a message to an International Catechetical Symposium which is taking place this week at the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina in Buenos Aires, and has as its theme “blessed are those who believe”.Listen: In the message to the symposium, the Holy Father points out that “being a catechist is a vocation of service in the Church, that has been received as a gift from the Lord and must in turn be transmitted.”He goes on to say that the catechist walks with Christ, therefore is not a person who starts from his own ideas and tastes. He or she looks for the Lord and that searching makes their heart burn.Pope Francis also notes in his message that the role of the catechist is a creative one because this person seeks different ways and means to announce the good news of Christ. The Pope adds that “this quest to make Jesus known as supreme beauty leads us to find new signs and forms for the transmission...
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has sent a message to an International Catechetical Symposium which is taking place this week at the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina in Buenos Aires, and has as its theme “blessed are those who believe”.
Listen:
In the message to the symposium, the Holy Father points out that “being a catechist is a vocation of service in the Church, that has been received as a gift from the Lord and must in turn be transmitted.”
He goes on to say that the catechist walks with Christ, therefore is not a person who starts from his own ideas and tastes. He or she looks for the Lord and that searching makes their heart burn.
Pope Francis also notes in his message that the role of the catechist is a creative one because this person seeks different ways and means to announce the good news of Christ. The Pope adds that “this quest to make Jesus known as supreme beauty leads us to find new signs and forms for the transmission of the faith.”
The means may be different, the Holy Father underlines, “but the important thing is to keep in mind the style of Jesus, who adapted to the people around him in order to bring them the love of God.”
The Pope continues that, it is necessary to know how to "change" and adapt, in order to transmit God’s message even though the message itself is always the same.
Finally, Pope Francis encourages catechists taking part in the symposium to be joyful messengers, guardians of good and beauty who shine in the faithful life of the missionary disciple.”
Orlando, Fla., Jul 12, 2017 / 03:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Catholic Church may be thousands of years old, but its bishops are rapidly adjusting to the demands of 21st-century communication.If the Church is to effectively evangelize in the modern world, a group of bishops argue, its leaders must be engaged online – but in the right way.What's most important is for Catholics engaging online, particularly priests and bishops, is to be sure to bring Christ with them online, said Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas.“If we aren't talking about the Gospel and what Jesus said today, then all the other stuff is going to be simply polemical, and our young people are tired of polemics,” he said during a panel discussion.Young people, he added, want to know what Jesus has to say about the various issues and discussions happening online.“I think, actually, we have kind of an obligation to sanctify social media,” the bishop said.Bishop Flores spoke o...
Orlando, Fla., Jul 12, 2017 / 03:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Catholic Church may be thousands of years old, but its bishops are rapidly adjusting to the demands of 21st-century communication.
If the Church is to effectively evangelize in the modern world, a group of bishops argue, its leaders must be engaged online – but in the right way.
What's most important is for Catholics engaging online, particularly priests and bishops, is to be sure to bring Christ with them online, said Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas.
“If we aren't talking about the Gospel and what Jesus said today, then all the other stuff is going to be simply polemical, and our young people are tired of polemics,” he said during a panel discussion.
Young people, he added, want to know what Jesus has to say about the various issues and discussions happening online.
“I think, actually, we have kind of an obligation to sanctify social media,” the bishop said.
Bishop Flores spoke on social media use at a press conference during the “Convocation of Catholic Leaders: The Joy of the Gospel in America” event on July 2 in Orlando, Florida. Joining him in the press conference were Dr. Hosffman Ospino, associate professor of theology and religious education at Boston College; Archbishop Wilton Daniel Gregory of Atlanta; and Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington, D.C.
Consultant and member of the Vatican's Secretariat for Communication Kim Daniels also brought up the opportunity presented by social media in a July 3 speech at the convocation. In many ways, she commented, social media is a modern “periphery” where many whose needs are overlooked gather together.
“It's clear that we need to engage people where they are, and the place where people are is social media on their own devices,” she said. “We know this is a great advantage for us to have this opportunity to reach out.”
Daniels also said that the Church has millennia of experience in communicating and bringing people together that it can give to online spaces.
“We know what it is to be a global interconnective network. We know that these kinds of communities need stability, and they need fidelity, and they need mercy, and relation and we can bring those gifts there.”
For an example of these kinds of gifts being used in the Church today, Daniels said to look at Pope Francis as an “extraordinary communicator.” His enthusiasm, honesty, frank discussion, and resistance to jargon makes him effective at bringing the Gospel to the peripheries, even online, she said.
“He brings something very substantive.”
Bishop Flores agreed with the need to bring substance and Christ to online spaces. “There's one thing I do every day, and that's that I will tweet out the Gospel of the day,” he said of his own personal Twitter use.
“If there's anything I want people to know about the bishop it's that the first thing he does in the morning is tell you about something Jesus said in the Gospel, because that's the context from which we have to speak.”
“Maybe you're not going to get a lot of followers if you comment on the Gospel every day, but it has an effect.”
However, bishops and Catholics can use social media in other worthwhile ways, Bishop Flores stressed. “I have a Twitter and I probably have more fun with it than I should,” he joked.
He said that he often takes group pictures of his confirmation classes, and the confirmande will share his photos online and discuss their confirmation.
“It gives them a chance to say that they're happy to be Catholic.”
Their diocese also helps high school students utilize social media to develop skills in journalism through the diocese's Mobile Journalism Project.
“We help get some mobile equipment for high school students who want to learn about journalism, because they're out there everywhere,” Bishop Flores said.
After the students take pictures or write stories, the diocesean communications office will share them and give feedback. “It helps them get the idea that they can do this,” he said of the program's impact on students.
Cardinal Wuerl also pointed to the need for bishops to play a more active role on social media, acknowledging the challenges it brings for those who didn't grow up online.
“We need to be able to be a part of the conversation,” he urged. “If the Church is not part of their conversations, we're not speaking to them.”
Dr. Ospino pointed out, however, that in many places in the country, this collaboration between generations is not the norm for social media use in the Church. He noted that there is a large “discrepancy” between people in leadership positions in the Church and those who are using the media constantly, with most lay leaders, priests and religious being in their mid 50s, 60s, and 70s, respectively.
“It is more than likely that these people are not tweeting day and night,” he said. Instead, he encouraged Catholic leaders to learn how young people are interacting with social media and the kinds of conversations they are having.
Archbishop Gregory had a different warning. While he agreed that bishops and Catholics should use social media more effectively, he also worried that it has its limitations.
“There is a great challenge though with social media and I think it's that it emphasizes one-on-one relationships. It doesn't provide the opportunity of a sense of belonging to a group larger than yourself,” he said.
He noted that in his diocese, many young people will say that they don't need to attend Mass because they can watch Mass on their smartphones, which runs counter to the Church's understanding of Mass and the Church.
“The Church is this community that is comprised of all of us together, and without that capacity to highlight that and to give expression to that, the best social media in the world will be missing a unique dimension of what it means to be the Church,” Bishop Gregory said.
“It doesn't mean that we don't use it, but we also have to recognize its limitations in delivering the Gospel message.”
Sacramento, Calif., Jul 12, 2017 / 06:07 am (CNA).- It’s been nearly 26 years since Auxiliary Bishop Alphonse Gallegos’ funeral at Sacramento’s Blessed Sacrament Cathedral, but his nephew Rey vividly recalls the fellow who came up to him that day with his family.“He told me, ‘Your uncle saved my marriage and my life,’” Rey Gallegos said with a smile, while waiting for a Memorial Mass in his late uncle’s honor to begin last June 24 at Mary Star of the Sea Church in Oxnard.“He told me how messed up he’d been, how my uncle had shown him kindness and brought him back to live a good life. Then he introduced me to his wife and son, who he’d named after Uncle Alfonso, and said, ‘He was the most fantastic man I ever met.’“And that’s who my uncle was: a man of love and mercy and grace. There was a time I was doing drugs and alcohol myself, and Uncle Alfonso never judged me. All he did was show how much ...
Sacramento, Calif., Jul 12, 2017 / 06:07 am (CNA).- It’s been nearly 26 years since Auxiliary Bishop Alphonse Gallegos’ funeral at Sacramento’s Blessed Sacrament Cathedral, but his nephew Rey vividly recalls the fellow who came up to him that day with his family.
“He told me, ‘Your uncle saved my marriage and my life,’” Rey Gallegos said with a smile, while waiting for a Memorial Mass in his late uncle’s honor to begin last June 24 at Mary Star of the Sea Church in Oxnard.
“He told me how messed up he’d been, how my uncle had shown him kindness and brought him back to live a good life. Then he introduced me to his wife and son, who he’d named after Uncle Alfonso, and said, ‘He was the most fantastic man I ever met.’
“And that’s who my uncle was: a man of love and mercy and grace. There was a time I was doing drugs and alcohol myself, and Uncle Alfonso never judged me. All he did was show how much he loved me, because he was all about bringing God into people’s lives.”
The man who brought God, and God’s healing, to so many in such a short time was celebrated June 24 in a church filled with parishioners, family members and members of the Order of Augustinian Recollects, the religious order in which Alphonse Gallegos was ordained to the priesthood in 1958.
Last July 16, Pope Francis declared Bishop Gallegos “Venerable,” an important step on the road to canonization. The life of the man who, in his ministry as priest and bishop, dressed in a 99-cent sombrero and T-shirt to minister at night to gang members, lowriders and at-risk youth in poor areas of Los Angeles and Sacramento, should have a lasting impact on all who proclaim themselves as followers of Christ, Archbishop José H. Gomez said.
“Bishop Alfonso was always seeing the face of God in the poor, the homeless, the immigrant, the prisoner, in everyone he met,” Archbishop Gomez said. “As we celebrate the life of this local saint, let us follow his example, and become beautiful witnesses of God’s love and mercy in our world.”
Following the Mass, Archbishop Gomez blessed a statue of Bishop Gallegos, created by Sacramento sculptor Jesus Romo and located in the garden of St. Augustine Priory adjacent to Mary Star Church, where the bishop often went on retreats during his priestly ministry.
Born in New Mexico, Alphonse Gallegos moved with his family to Los Angeles and attended San Miguel Church in Watts, where he built an altar in their house, prayed the rosary daily and dreamed of becoming a priest. He entered at Augustinian Recollect Monastery in Kansas City in 1950 and, despite severe myopia, persevered in his studies until he was ordained in 1958.
In 1972, he returned to San Miguel as pastor, working day and night to bring young people back to church, arranging for sports equipment and academic supplies for the parish school and earning his reputation as a “priest of the lowriders” for his fearlessness in meeting with those that society regarded as “seedy elements” and “bad influences.”
He did the same when he became pastor of Cristo Rey Church near Glendale in 1978, then moved to Sacramento as director of Hispanic Affairs for the California Catholic Conference. In 1981, he was named auxiliary bishop of Sacramento by Pope John Paul II, and served the diocese until his death in an auto accident on Oct. 6, 1991. His funeral procession included hundreds of lowriders.
His episcopal motto, “Love one another,” drew many to him in life and afterward. Reports of people who have said they were healed from illnesses after praying for Bishop Gallegos’ intercession led, in 2005, to a movement to declare him a saint. The cause for his canonization received its biggest boost last July with Pope Francis’ declaration.
At the start of the June 24 Mass, Augustinian Recollect Father Samson Silloriquez, postulator of the cause, read a Decree of Heroic Virtues for Bishop Gallegos.
“Father Alfonso was an authentic image of Christ, who loved the little ones, the poor, the immigrant,” said Father Silloriquez. “He was attentive to the needs of all, responding quickly and generously, and he left an indelible memory on all he touched.”
Including his nephew Rey, son of the bishop’s older brother Leonard, who was one of many who responded to his uncle’s never-ending love and relentlessly positive attitude.
“Everyone has his own definition of a saint,” said Rey with a smile. “In my mind, Uncle Alfonso is already a saint, for all he did to help me and so many others.”
This article was originally published at Angelus News, the publication of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
ATLANTA (AP) -- Former actress Maia Campbell has rejected an offer of help from her one-time sitcom co-star LL Cool J....
TERNI, Italy (AP) -- Italy's plan to reduce the risk of a jihadi-inspired attack is pinned in small part on El Hacmi Mimoun, an imam who bikes to the prison here every week and exhorts Muslim inmates not to stray from life's "right path" or hate people who aren't Muslim....
