Catholic News 2
NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) -- The new Sandy Hook Elementary School, built to replace the one demolished after a massacre that took the lives of 20 children and six educators, features three courtyards, study spaces designed to look like treehouses and a moat-like raingarden....
SAN DIEGO (AP) -- One San Diego police officer was killed and another was wounded in a shootout following a late-night traffic stop, authorities said Friday. A suspect was wounded and taken into custody a short time later and hours later police surrounded a home as they searched for man described as a possible accomplice....
MIAMI (AP) -- Mosquitoes have apparently begun spreading the Zika virus on the U.S. mainland for the first time, health officials said Friday in a long-feared turn in the epidemic that is sweeping Latin America and the Caribbean....
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Donald Trump's flurry of offhand remarks and abrupt zingers on Russia - praising Vladimir Putin, dismissing NATO - have jolted the world, not to mention the U.S. presidential campaign....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- His status as a presidential nominee barely a week old, Donald Trump is already tasked with assembling a complex transition team capable of hiring thousands of high-level government officials and crafting a detailed policy agenda should he win the presidency....
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Kicking off her fall campaign for the White House, Hillary Clinton used her first post-convention rally Friday to stress the "stark choice" voters will face in November between her and Republican rival Donald Trump....
OSWIECIM, Poland (AP) -- Pope Francis and his predecessors St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI each came to the memorial at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps in southern Poland. Each visit reflected the pontiffs' personal history and style....
(Vatican Radio) India’s Foreign Minister, Mrs. Sushma Swaraj will lead the Indian government’s delegation to the sainthood ceremony of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, on September 4 in the Vatican. The official spokesman of the foreign ministry, Vikas Swarup made the announcement at press briefing on Thursday. "In view of eh importance that we attach to this very significant event – the canonization of Mother Teresa – let me tell you, the government of India’s delegation will be led by the Honorable External Affairs Minister herself,” Swarup told journalists. He noted that the composition of the delegation is being finalized and its members will be announced in due time. On Wednesday, Ashutosh, the spokesperson of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that heads the government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi said that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will be travelling to the Vatican as he has accepted the ...
(Vatican Radio) India’s Foreign Minister, Mrs. Sushma Swaraj will lead the Indian government’s delegation to the sainthood ceremony of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, on September 4 in the Vatican. The official spokesman of the foreign ministry, Vikas Swarup made the announcement at press briefing on Thursday. "In view of eh importance that we attach to this very significant event – the canonization of Mother Teresa – let me tell you, the government of India’s delegation will be led by the Honorable External Affairs Minister herself,” Swarup told journalists. He noted that the composition of the delegation is being finalized and its members will be announced in due time.
On Wednesday, Ashutosh, the spokesperson of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that heads the government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi said that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will be travelling to the Vatican as he has accepted the invitation of Missionaries of Charity to attend the event. The Delhi chief minister met Mother Teresa in 1992, who asked him to work with the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, now called Kolkata. He remained there for several months, before joining the Indian Revenue Service. Earlier in May, Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of West Bengal state said she has accepted the invitation of the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata to attend the ceremony in the Vatican. However it is not clear the two will participate in private or will be part of the India’s official delegation.
Born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu of Albanian parents on August 26, 1910, in Skopje, in what is Macedonia today, Mother Teresa died in Kolkata, on September 5, 1997. Affectionately known as the "saint of the gutter" for her unconditional love for the poor, abandoned and the marginalized, she earned several international honours, including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.
The Vatican has cleared the way for sainthood process of a 17th century Italian Jesuit missionary who was martyred in the Philippines. Bishop Severo Caermare of Dipolog told UCANEWS that last week he received the needed ‘nihil obstat’ from the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints for the process of Fr. Francesco Palliola, who was killed in the southern Mindanao region. Bishop Caermare had presided over the formal opening of the canonical investigation into the life and martyrdom of Father Palliola in January. Born into noble family in the town of Nola in Naples, May 10, 1612, Fr. Palliola joined some 40 Jesuits on an expedition to the Philippines. After a trip of over two years, he finally landed in Iligan on January 2, 1644, beginning a mission in Mindanao that would take him to Dipolog, Dapitan and the rest of the Zamboanga Peninsula, spreading the Catholic faith to the locals, including the lumads. Fr. Palliola was martyred at...
The Vatican has cleared the way for sainthood process of a 17th century Italian Jesuit missionary who was martyred in the Philippines. Bishop Severo Caermare of Dipolog told UCANEWS that last week he received the needed ‘nihil obstat’ from the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints for the process of Fr. Francesco Palliola, who was killed in the southern Mindanao region. Bishop Caermare had presided over the formal opening of the canonical investigation into the life and martyrdom of Father Palliola in January.
Born into noble family in the town of Nola in Naples, May 10, 1612, Fr. Palliola joined some 40 Jesuits on an expedition to the Philippines. After a trip of over two years, he finally landed in Iligan on January 2, 1644, beginning a mission in Mindanao that would take him to Dipolog, Dapitan and the rest of the Zamboanga Peninsula, spreading the Catholic faith to the locals, including the lumads. Fr. Palliola was martyred at the age of 37 at Ponot, now Jose S. Dalman town, on January 29, 1648 by Tampilo, a converted native leader who had left Catholicism, and who the priest was trying to bring back to the faith.
Although he died some 368 years ago, the Jesuit priest is still remembered in the oral history of the tribe as a "loving and protective father." A painting of Fr. Palliola, showing a dagger piercing his throat, remains at the archives of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. Together with traditions passed on since his death, and written records of individuals who have been healed after praying to him, the painting is a reminder of Fr. Palliola's lasting impact on the people of the Peninsula. His gravesite, marked by a modest memorial, continues to be regularly visited by those who seek his intercession.
Work on Fr. Palliola's sainthood has been a collaborative effort involving not just the Diocese of Dipolog but also the Jesuits and the Augustinian Recollects who had worked in the area. If declared a saint, Fr. Palliola will be third from the Philippines, after St. Lorenzo Ruiz of Manila and St. Pedro Calungsod of Cebu - and the first to come from Mindanao. (Source: UCAN)
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis visited on Friday the Pediatric Hospital of Prokocim near Krakow and in an address to patients and staff said he wished that “We Christians could be as close to the sick as Jesus was, in silence, with a caress, with prayer.” Sadly, the Pope continued, “our society is tainted by the culture of waste” and the victims of this “are the weakest and frailest and this is indeed cruel." He thanked all those working at the hospital for the love and compassion shown towards the young patients, describing this as “the sign of true civility, human and Christian: to make those who are most disadvantaged the centre of social and political concern.” Please find below an English translation of the Pope’s greeting to patients and staff at the Children’s Hospital: Dear brothers and sisters, A spec...
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis visited on Friday the Pediatric Hospital of Prokocim near Krakow and in an address to patients and staff said he wished that “We Christians could be as close to the sick as Jesus was, in silence, with a caress, with prayer.” Sadly, the Pope continued, “our society is tainted by the culture of waste” and the victims of this “are the weakest and frailest and this is indeed cruel." He thanked all those working at the hospital for the love and compassion shown towards the young patients, describing this as “the sign of true civility, human and Christian: to make those who are most disadvantaged the centre of social and political concern.”
Please find below an English translation of the Pope’s greeting to patients and staff at the Children’s Hospital:
Dear brothers and sisters,
A special part of my visit to Kraków is this meeting with the little patients of this hospital. I greet all of you and I thank the Prime Minister for his kind words. I would like to draw near to all children who are sick, to stand at their bedside, and embrace them. I would like to listen to everyone here, even if for only a moment, and to be still before questions that have no easy answers. And to pray.
The Gospel often shows us the Lord Jesus meeting the sick, embracing them and seeking them out. Jesus is always attentive to them. He looks at them in the same way that a mother looks at her sick child, and he is moved by compassion for them.
How I would wish that we Christians could be as close to the sick as Jesus was, in silence, with a caress, with prayer. Sadly, our society is tainted by the culture of waste, which is the opposite of the culture of acceptance. And the victims of the culture of waste are those who are weakest and most frail; and this is indeed cruel. How beautiful it is instead to see that in this hospital the smallest and most needy are welcomed and cared for. Thank you for this sign of love that you offer us! This is the sign of true civility, human and Christian: to make those who are most disadvantaged the centre of social and political concern.
Sometimes families feel alone in providing this care. What can be done? From this place, so full of concrete signs of love, I would like to say: Let us multiply the works of the culture of acceptance, works inspired by Christian love, love for Jesus crucified, for the flesh of Christ. To serve with love and tenderness persons who need our help makes all of us grow in humanity. It opens before us the way to eternal life. Those who engage in works of mercy have no fear of death.
I encourage all those who have made the Gospel call to “visit the sick” a personal life decision: physicians, nurses, healthcare workers, chaplains and volunteers. May the Lord help you to do your work well, here as in every other hospital in the world. May he reward you by giving you inner peace and a heart always capable of tenderness.
Thank you for this encounter! I carry you with me in affection and prayer. And please, do not forget to pray for me.
