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BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) -- With policy splits among European Union countries putting their bloc under existential threat, national leaders agreed Friday on a six-month time table to come up with solutions for the multiple crises hobbling their union. But they delivered few concrete commitments on ways to bridge the deep differences....
MIAMI (AP) -- Donald Trump made his usual sarcastic call Friday for Hillary Clinton's Secret Service agents to be stripped of their firearms - and then added, "let's see what happens to her."...
NEW YORK (AP) -- Donald Trump's renouncement of birtherism came with some media gamesmanship that compelled television news networks to air 20 minutes of endorsements by retired military men before the candidate briefly got to the point....
Irondale, Ala., Sep 16, 2016 / 02:38 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A portion of Old Leeds Road in Irondale, Alabama, which is home to the EWTN Global Catholic Network, is being officially renamed to honor Mother Angelica, the foundress of the Catholic media network.In a ceremony on Friday morning, EWTN Chairman and CEO Michael Warsaw, as well as Irondale Mayor Tommy Joe Alexander, officially dedicated a portion of the road, renaming it “Mother Angelica Way.”The ceremony, which took place across the street from EWTN’s exit onto the road, was attended by local leaders and community members as well as visitors and EWTN employees. “This is a great honor to Mother Angelica,” Warsaw said.“We want to thank Mayor Alexander, the Irondale City Council, City Clerk James D. Stewart, and Irondale Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Tellis Shoemaker for paying tribute to her in this way. EWTN has been pleased to make Irondale our home for over 35 years – and, w...
Irondale, Ala., Sep 16, 2016 / 02:38 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A portion of Old Leeds Road in Irondale, Alabama, which is home to the EWTN Global Catholic Network, is being officially renamed to honor Mother Angelica, the foundress of the Catholic media network.
In a ceremony on Friday morning, EWTN Chairman and CEO Michael Warsaw, as well as Irondale Mayor Tommy Joe Alexander, officially dedicated a portion of the road, renaming it “Mother Angelica Way.”
The ceremony, which took place across the street from EWTN’s exit onto the road, was attended by local leaders and community members as well as visitors and EWTN employees. “This is a great honor to Mother Angelica,” Warsaw said.
“We want to thank Mayor Alexander, the Irondale City Council, City Clerk James D. Stewart, and Irondale Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Tellis Shoemaker for paying tribute to her in this way. EWTN has been pleased to make Irondale our home for over 35 years – and, with God’s grace, we intend to enjoy another 35 years in our city.”
EWTN’s founder, Mother Mary Angelica of the Annunciation, passed away on Easter Sunday this year at the age of 92. She founded EWTN out of a garage in Alabama in 1981, and it has since become the largest religious media network in the world. Her work touched the lives of many people across the world.
The dedication took place right before the EWTN family celebration in Birmingham, Ala. on Saturday and Sunday, a free event open to the public which will focus on the life of Mother Angelica.
“This year’s EWTN Family Celebration is our first since the death of Mother Angelica and provides us with an opportunity to celebrate and reflect on the extraordinary life of Mother and what she meant to her EWTN family and to the world," Warsaw said in a previous statement about the event.
The event will include talks from various EWTN personalities, and serves as a chance to remember the legacy of the foundress, Warsaw said.
“We will share our memories, and answer audience questions about the nun whose faithfulness to God left a legacy of which all of us can be proud.”
Rome, Italy, Sep 16, 2016 / 04:30 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Father Gabriel Amorth, the exorcist of the Diocese of Rome who drew worldwide attention, died on Friday at the age of 91.Leaders of the Society of St. Paul remembered him with “great affection and gratitude,” SIR News reports.“Now he rests from his many battles with the devil,” Spanish theologian Father Jose Antonio Fortea told CNA Sept. 16.The priest first met Father Amorth in 1995 during theological studies about exorcisms.“His doors were open for me and for all priests. There were no mysteries or grandstanding. I could see his work and his simplicity,” Fr. Fortea said.“His strong, vigorous voice spoke to millions of people about the action of the devil,” he continued. “He alone, one person, managed to revitalize the ministry in one country and then his influence reached everywhere in the Church. The means to achieve this was simply to tell what he had seen.”Father Am...
Rome, Italy, Sep 16, 2016 / 04:30 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Father Gabriel Amorth, the exorcist of the Diocese of Rome who drew worldwide attention, died on Friday at the age of 91.
Leaders of the Society of St. Paul remembered him with “great affection and gratitude,” SIR News reports.
“Now he rests from his many battles with the devil,” Spanish theologian Father Jose Antonio Fortea told CNA Sept. 16.
The priest first met Father Amorth in 1995 during theological studies about exorcisms.
“His doors were open for me and for all priests. There were no mysteries or grandstanding. I could see his work and his simplicity,” Fr. Fortea said.
“His strong, vigorous voice spoke to millions of people about the action of the devil,” he continued. “He alone, one person, managed to revitalize the ministry in one country and then his influence reached everywhere in the Church. The means to achieve this was simply to tell what he had seen.”
Father Amorth was born in Modena in northern Italy on May 1, 1925. He entered the mother house of the Congregation of the Society of St. Paul in Alba in August 1947, five years after meeting its founder, Blessed James Alberione. He was ordained a priest on Jan. 24, 1951.
In 1985, Cardinal Ugo Poletti, the Vicar General of the Diocese of Rome, appointed him exorcist of the diocese. He performed an estimated 70,000 exorcisms, often repeating the rite on the same persons.
Father Amorth drew much publicity for his books explaining his work and his public statements on the demonic.
In an April 2015 Facebook post, he attributed the Islamic State group to demonic influence.
“ISIS is Satan. Things first happen in the spiritual realms, then they are made concrete on this earth,” he said. He added that evil is “disguised” in various political, cultural and religious ways, with one source of inspiration in the devil.
“As a Christian I fight the beast spiritually,” Fr. Amorth said. “Biblically speaking we are in the last days and the beast is working furiously.”
In May 2013, he told CNA that Pope Francis had performed an exorcism in St. Peter’s Square on a man said to be possessed, using a prayer of liberation instead of the ordinary rite.
Some of the priest’s statements did not go unchallenged. When his memoirs were released in 2010, he claimed that there are “members of Satanic sects” in the Vatican, including priests, monsignors and cardinals. Fr. Amorth said the Pope at the time, Benedict XVI, “does what he can” against such groups.
Fr. Fortea himself questioned the claim, saying some exorcists agreed with Fr. Amorth about the Vatican sects, while others did not.
Fr. Amorth held numerous positions in the Society of St. Paul, including aspirant director, high school teacher, delegate of the Italian province, and spiritual director of various lay institutes. He was also a journalist. For many years he directed the monthly “Mother of God” and worked with the group Famiglia Cristiana and Radio Maria.
He was the author of several books and founded the International Association of Exorcists.
On Sept. 8, 2015 the Prefect of Rome, Paola Basilone, in the presence of Italy’s defense minister Roberta Pinotti, awarded Fr. Amorth the Medal of Liberation for his important role in the partisan struggle in Italy during the Second World War.
The priest had been hospitalized for several weeks for lung complications.
Fr. Fortea last saw Fr. Amorth in 2012.
“His character had not changed. So close to ninety years and still doing exorcisms.”
IMAGE: CNS photo/Tyler OrsburnBy Mark PattisonWASHINGTON(CNS) -- A new exhibit featuring artifacts revolving around St. Thomas More hasopened at the St. John Paul II National Shrine in Washington.Titled "God'sServant First: The Life and Legacy of Thomas More," the exhibit runs throughMarch 31. The title comes from what are believed to be More's last words beforegoing to the chopping block where he was beheaded: "I die the king's good servant, and God's servantfirst."Nearlyall of the 60 or so items in the exhibit come from Stonyhurst College inEngland, according to Jan Graffius, the curator of collections at Stonyhurst, aJesuit institution. The Knights of Columbus and Stonyhurst's Christian Heritage Center organized the exhibit and are its sponsors.To beable to have so many artifacts is remarkable, Graffius told Catholic NewsService Sept. 15, the day before the exhibit opened, as she and her team were puttingthe finishing touches on the exhibit. King Henry VIII, who had St. Thomas M...
IMAGE: CNS photo/Tyler Orsburn
By Mark Pattison
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A new exhibit featuring artifacts revolving around St. Thomas More has opened at the St. John Paul II National Shrine in Washington.
Titled "God's Servant First: The Life and Legacy of Thomas More," the exhibit runs through March 31. The title comes from what are believed to be More's last words before going to the chopping block where he was beheaded: "I die the king's good servant, and God's servant first."
Nearly all of the 60 or so items in the exhibit come from Stonyhurst College in England, according to Jan Graffius, the curator of collections at Stonyhurst, a Jesuit institution. The Knights of Columbus and Stonyhurst's Christian Heritage Center organized the exhibit and are its sponsors.
To be able to have so many artifacts is remarkable, Graffius told Catholic News Service Sept. 15, the day before the exhibit opened, as she and her team were putting the finishing touches on the exhibit. King Henry VIII, who had St. Thomas More imprisoned in the Tower of London for more than a year before his execution, and subsequent monarchs had made Roman Catholicism virtually illegal and had all traces of Catholicism wiped out.
St. Thomas More, a lawyer and the first layman to serve as chancellor of England, had balked at helping Henry VIII obtain an annulment so he could marry Anne Boleyn in hopes of bearing him a son to be heir to the throne. After the pope denied the annulment, Henry declared himself head of the church in England, conferring upon himself the power to divorce and marry whomever he pleased.
More, who also was a husband and father, resigned his position as chancellor to the throne to avoid being forced to acknowledge Henry VIII as head of the church. But after a law was passed requiring acknowledgment by all Britons of Henry's authority, More refused to sign a document stating as such. He was ultimately imprisoned, convicted of a capital treason with the help of perjured testimony, and beheaded. He has since been seen as a champion of conscience rights.
The luckless first wife of Henry VIII, Catherine of Aragon, spent her last days before her own death, possibly from poisoning, embroidering grapes onto a chasuble. That chasuble is in the exhibit.
Anne Boleyn wasn't all that lucky, either. After bearing a daughter -- Elizabeth I -- and later miscarrying, she fell into Henry's disfavor, was imprisoned on trumped-up charges of adultery, incest and treason, was herself beheaded 11 months after Thomas More, and buried not far from him, Graffius said.
Two relics in the exhibit made their way to the United States a few months ahead of the rest of the artifacts. One is a jawbone fragment of St. Thomas More; the other is a ring worn by St. John Fisher, who was also martyred under Henry VIII. Both were on exhibit during the U.S. bishops' "Fortnight for Freedom" activities in June and July.
The anti-Catholic laws imposed by Henry VIII stayed on the books in England for nearly three centuries until they were repealed in 1829. In 1886, St. Thomas More was beatified. In 1935, both he and St. John Fisher, who had been executed a few months before More, were both canonized. St. Thomas More was added to the Anglican calendar of saints in 1980.
Because of the anti-Catholic laws, Graffius said, Catholic parents had to sneak their children out of the country, sometimes under false identities, so they could receive a Catholic education. One of those schools was in the Spanish Netherlands -- mostly modern-day Belgium and Luxembourg -- and was the forerunner to Stonyhurst College.
St. Thomas More was part of the martyrology proclaimed every day at the school. The exhibit includes a schoolbook used by two brothers who eventually made their way to the United States. On one page of the book, an illustration of two men was defaced when one of the students sketched the men as smoking pipes. To this day, she added, nobody knows whether the pipes were added by John Carroll, the first Catholic archbishop in the United States, or his brother Charles Carroll, the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence.
In 2000, St. John Paul II made St. Thomas More, who had already been the patron saint of lawyers, the patron saint of statesman and politicians. The pontiff said his life and martyrdom offered a testimony that "spans the centuries" and "speaks to people everywhere of the inalienable dignity of the human conscience."
Patrick Kelly, the shrine's executive director, said in a statement that St. Thomas More's example "remains thoroughly modern."
"He is an eloquent example of courageous Christian discipleship, and it is our hope that this exhibit will inspire others to imitate his virtues and his extraordinary fidelity to God and to a well-formed conscience," Kelly added.
The exhibit comes during the golden anniversary of the 1966 film biography of St. Thomas More, "A Man for All Seasons." Recently restored with a new Technicolor print, "A Man for All Seasons" -- based on the stage play of the same name -- grossed the fifth-best box office numbers of the year, a stunning accomplishment given that it wasn't released until Dec. 12 that year and the weightiness of its subject matter.
The movie was nominated for eight Oscars and won six, including Best Picture, Best Director for Fred Zinneman and Best Actor for Paul Scofield as Thomas More. It also won five British Academy Film Awards and four Golden Globes, as well as a Best Actor award for Scofield at the Moscow International Film Festival.
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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Attorneys for the family of a 13-year-old Ohio boy fatally shot by a policeman said Friday they want to hear from witnesses, because the police version of events "might not be true."...
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Latest on the U.S. presidential race (all times EDT):...
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has made two more of his impromptu visits to hospitals and social service centres as part of his regular Friday initiatives during this Year of Mercy.The Pope began by making a surprise visit to the Accident and Emergency department and to the Neonatal unit of Rome’s San Giovanni hospital.After putting on a mask and completing the other health and safety procedures, the Pope stopped beside the incubators of twelve new born babies, five of whom are suffering from severe complications, including one set of twins. The Holy Father offered words of comfort and support to all of the parents, before going on to meet with staff and families at the nursery on the floor above.Later in the afternoon the Pope visited some thirty terminally ill patients at the Villa Speranza Hospice, located in the north of Rome as part of the Gemelli University Hospital Foundation.A note from the Holy See press office explained that through these two ‘Mercy Friday&rsqu...
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has made two more of his impromptu visits to hospitals and social service centres as part of his regular Friday initiatives during this Year of Mercy.
The Pope began by making a surprise visit to the Accident and Emergency department and to the Neonatal unit of Rome’s San Giovanni hospital.
After putting on a mask and completing the other health and safety procedures, the Pope stopped beside the incubators of twelve new born babies, five of whom are suffering from severe complications, including one set of twins. The Holy Father offered words of comfort and support to all of the parents, before going on to meet with staff and families at the nursery on the floor above.
Later in the afternoon the Pope visited some thirty terminally ill patients at the Villa Speranza Hospice, located in the north of Rome as part of the Gemelli University Hospital Foundation.
A note from the Holy See press office explained that through these two ‘Mercy Friday’ encounters, Pope Francis wished to “send a strong signal about the importance of life from its first moment until its natural end”. Welcoming life and guaranteeing its dignity at all times, the statement said, is a teaching that the Pope regularly reiterates. Through these two visits, it concluded, he has given a concrete and tangible sign of the importance of caring for the weakest and most vulnerable in order to show mercy in our lives.
