Catholic News 2
PARIS (AP) -- France's interior minister has inspected the more than 500 security forces deployed at the pilgrimage site of Lourdes to guard some 20,000 faithful expected for next week's Feast of the Assumption....
BEIRUT (AP) -- U.S.-backed fighters have seized a key Islamic State stronghold in northern Syria after two months of heavy fighting and freed hundreds of civilians the extremists had used as human shields, Syrian Kurdish officials and an opposition activist group said Saturday....
ALTOONA, Pa. (AP) -- The Republican Party could be nearing a breaking point with Donald Trump....
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has given his support for the “Más por Menos” [More for Less] campaign taking place in Argentina on 10-11 September.During those days, a collection will be made to help the less fortunate in the country.In a message sent through the Secretary of State, the Holy Father encouraged the participants to “make great personal and communal efforts to reach out to the multitude of needy brothers and sisters who feel excluded from society, and to bring to the them the closeness and love of God.”Pope Francis invited those involved to “be sensitive to the cry of anguish” from so many people who have been “marginalized and discarded,” and to help them.“May Christ, the true merciful face of the Father, give them the experience of the joy of sharing their time, their treasure, and their lives with those whom God loves with a preferential love, the poor and homeless,” concluded the message.
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has given his support for the “Más por Menos” [More for Less] campaign taking place in Argentina on 10-11 September.
During those days, a collection will be made to help the less fortunate in the country.
In a message sent through the Secretary of State, the Holy Father encouraged the participants to “make great personal and communal efforts to reach out to the multitude of needy brothers and sisters who feel excluded from society, and to bring to the them the closeness and love of God.”
Pope Francis invited those involved to “be sensitive to the cry of anguish” from so many people who have been “marginalized and discarded,” and to help them.
“May Christ, the true merciful face of the Father, give them the experience of the joy of sharing their time, their treasure, and their lives with those whom God loves with a preferential love, the poor and homeless,” concluded the message.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Aug 13, 2016 / 03:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Katie Ledecky, Lia Neal, and Anabelle Smith are some names you might hear on television if you are watching the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro this year.These Olympians have all won medals in the 2016 games, but they are also united by another common factor: their Catholic education.Sacred Heart Schools, founded by the Society of the Sacred Heart, boasts of a network of over 145 Catholic schools across the globe that have been teaching for over two hundred years. These schools are also responsible for producing nine Olympic athletes who are competing at Rio this year.“Our athletes recognize that their gifts comes from God and are not to be wasted,” the school's communications director Donna Heckler told CNA.“They are taught to take personal responsibility for themselves while being self-disciplined in their efforts,” she said.After the first two days of competition, the Sacred Heart Olympians w...
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Aug 13, 2016 / 03:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Katie Ledecky, Lia Neal, and Anabelle Smith are some names you might hear on television if you are watching the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro this year.
These Olympians have all won medals in the 2016 games, but they are also united by another common factor: their Catholic education.
Sacred Heart Schools, founded by the Society of the Sacred Heart, boasts of a network of over 145 Catholic schools across the globe that have been teaching for over two hundred years. These schools are also responsible for producing nine Olympic athletes who are competing at Rio this year.
“Our athletes recognize that their gifts comes from God and are not to be wasted,” the school's communications director Donna Heckler told CNA.
“They are taught to take personal responsibility for themselves while being self-disciplined in their efforts,” she said.
After the first two days of competition, the Sacred Heart Olympians won four medals in Rio. Their alumnae are from four different countries, and include Katie Ledecky, Lia Neal, Anabelle Smith, KK Clark, Mary Joe Fenandez, Gaby Lopez, Gabi Nance, Erin Rafuse, and Denise Sheldon.
So, what's their secret to producing all-stars?
While Heckler noted that they have no secret to producing Olympians, she did say that the school “does have a secret to producing amazing people. That secret is seen in the five Goals and Criteria of the Sacred Heart Schools that bind the schools together.”
According to Heckler, the network of Sacred Heart Schools focuses on instilling five main goals in their students: a personal relationship with God, respect for intellectual values, social awareness and action, community building, and personal growth.
“The Goals and Criteria, which are Sacred Heart educational principles, are foundational to this year's dedicated Sacred Heart Olympians,” the schools press release stated.
The students who attend Sacred Heart schools are fostered in self-discipline, accountability and responsible decision making – all of which caters to producing a disciplined student and athlete.
“Students are taught to open themselves up to the transforming power of the Spirit of God and to explore their individual relationships to God, to self, to others and to all creation,” Heckler said.
The network of Sacred Heart Schools are run by the Sisters of the Society of the Sacred Heart. Although each individual school has its own history and character, they are all rooted in St. Madeleine Sophie Barat's mission of challenging every student to be their “most authentic selves.”
The Sisters love to see their students excel and are among the Sacred Heart Olympians biggest fans.
“The Sisters love their students and see their heart in all they do,” Heckler stated, saying that the sisters have the schedules of all of the Sacred Heart athletes, and follow each of their events closely.
Although the Sacred Heart students hold a special place in the Sisters’ hearts, Heckler did say that the Sisters pray for all of the athletes competing in Rio.
While the Sacred Heart Olympians are making a big splash in the Rio games this year, Heckler noted that all of their alumnae are bringing Catholic values to various outlets in the world.
“While today we are all celebrating the Olympic athletes, Sacred Heart alumni are making a difference throughout the world: in business, in journalism, in music, in education, in medicine, in justice and peace, in the arts, in service,” Heckler said.
“With a strong faith, commitment to others and value of community, Sacred Heart students bring these values to the world every day.”
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) -- The Latest on the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro (all times local):...
BANGKOK (AP) -- In the aftermath of a coordinated wave of bombings that shook tourist towns in Thailand this week, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha's military government is scrambling to hunt down those responsible. The 11 explosions killed four people and injured dozens, including 11 foreign tourists....
HATCH, N.M. (AP) -- A New Mexico police officer was gunned down during a traffic stop and a motorist was shot during a rest stop carjacking before authorities were able to chase down three suspects and take them into custody, Dona Ana County law enforcement officials say....
BERLIN (AP) -- Germany's foreign minister says humanitarian aid is desperately needed in the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo and that it may be necessary to start an "air bridge" to bring it in....
(Vatican Radio) On the 75th anniversary of the death of St. Maximilian Kolbe, a leading scholar on the life of the saint describes him as “a witness of heroic charity.” Father James McCurry is the Minister Provincial of our Lady of Angels Province of the Franciscan Friars Conventual in the U.S. and the author of a biography on Maximilian Kolbe, who belonged to the same Order. Father McCurry met many times and became “the best of friends” with the Polish man for whom Father Kolbe gave up his own life inside the Auschwitz concentration camp. He was interviewed by Susy Hodges.Listen to the interview with Father James McCurry: Father McCurry has met and gained first-hand testimonies from people who knew Maximilian Kolbe including the man for whom the priest sacrificed his own life, Franciszek Gajowniczek, a Polish sergeant who was married with young children.He described how Father Kolbe stood up and offered his own life because “h...
(Vatican Radio) On the 75th anniversary of the death of St. Maximilian Kolbe, a leading scholar on the life of the saint describes him as “a witness of heroic charity.” Father James McCurry is the Minister Provincial of our Lady of Angels Province of the Franciscan Friars Conventual in the U.S. and the author of a biography on Maximilian Kolbe, who belonged to the same Order. Father McCurry met many times and became “the best of friends” with the Polish man for whom Father Kolbe gave up his own life inside the Auschwitz concentration camp. He was interviewed by Susy Hodges.
Listen to the interview with Father James McCurry:
Father McCurry has met and gained first-hand testimonies from people who knew Maximilian Kolbe including the man for whom the priest sacrificed his own life, Franciszek Gajowniczek, a Polish sergeant who was married with young children.
He described how Father Kolbe stood up and offered his own life because “he was so moved by “the plight” of “this father of a family” who had been chosen to die by the Nazis. After being spared his life because of St. Maximilian’s heroic gesture, Gajowniczek survived the horrors of the 2nd World War and went on to live until the age of 93. Father McCurry said they met many times after the canonization of Maximilian Kolbe and Gajowniczek would often say of Fr Kolbe:
“He didn’t die just for me but for all of us - to give us a witness of heroic charity.”
Father McCurry said St Maximilian stood “as a symbol of gospel freedom” against the backdrop of all the cataclysms of the 20th century including the two world wars and the rise of the communist totalitarian system.
Asked about his feelings when he watched Pope Francis sit in silent prayer during his recent visit to the underground cell in Auschwitz where Maximilian Kolbe was killed by the Nazis, Father McCurry said it gave him “a deep resonance” because he himself has visited that same cell many times, remarking: “it reduces one to silence.” He spoke of how the atmosphere in that cell “is sacred” because it proves to everybody that “good can triumph over evil,” even in Auschwitz that was designed by the Nazis to be “a place of horror, hate and despair.”
