Catholic News 2
DALLAS (AP) -- The Latest on the shooting of police officers in Dallas (all times local):...
MADRID (AP) -- President Barack Obama called Sunday for greater tolerance, respect and understanding from police officers toward the people they are sworn to protect, as well as from individuals who think the police are too heavy-handed and intolerant, particularly toward people of color....
DALLAS (AP) -- The suspect in the deadly attack on Dallas police taunted authorities during two hours of negotiations, laughing at them, singing and at one point asking how many officers he had shot, the police chief said Sunday....
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis at the Angelus took note of the observance of Sea Sunday, which takes place each year on the second Sunday of July. On Sea Sunday, the Catholic Church, along with other churches and ecclesial communities, remembers seafarers and prays for them, their families and those who support them.In his remarks, the Holy Father said, “I encourage seafarers and fishermen in their work, which is often difficult and risky, as well as the chaplains and the volunteers in their precious service. May Mary, Star of the Sea, watch over you!”
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis at the Angelus took note of the observance of Sea Sunday, which takes place each year on the second Sunday of July. On Sea Sunday, the Catholic Church, along with other churches and ecclesial communities, remembers seafarers and prays for them, their families and those who support them.
In his remarks, the Holy Father said, “I encourage seafarers and fishermen in their work, which is often difficult and risky, as well as the chaplains and the volunteers in their precious service. May Mary, Star of the Sea, watch over you!”
(Vatican Radio) At the Angelus on Sunday, Pope Francis reflected on the parable of the Good Samaritan.This parable, the Pope said, in a simple, yet stimulating way, “indicates a style of life, in which the centre of gravity is not ourselves, but others.” Like the doctor of the law in the day’s Gospel, we might ask ourselves, “Who is my neighbour? Is it my friends, my parents, my fellow countrymen, my co-religionists?”Jesus does not answer the question directly, but instead tells of the Good Samaritan, a man who did not observe the true religion, but who nonetheless helped the poor, abandoned victim of robbers – in contrast to the priest and the Levite who simply passed him by. This story, the Pope said, completely reverses our perspective. It is not up to us, he said, to try to categorize people, to see if they count as our neighbours. Rather, the decision to be, or not be a neighbour, depends on us. “It depends on me,” Pope Francis ...
(Vatican Radio) At the Angelus on Sunday, Pope Francis reflected on the parable of the Good Samaritan.
This parable, the Pope said, in a simple, yet stimulating way, “indicates a style of life, in which the centre of gravity is not ourselves, but others.” Like the doctor of the law in the day’s Gospel, we might ask ourselves, “Who is my neighbour? Is it my friends, my parents, my fellow countrymen, my co-religionists?”
Jesus does not answer the question directly, but instead tells of the Good Samaritan, a man who did not observe the true religion, but who nonetheless helped the poor, abandoned victim of robbers – in contrast to the priest and the Levite who simply passed him by. This story, the Pope said, completely reverses our perspective. It is not up to us, he said, to try to categorize people, to see if they count as our neighbours. Rather, the decision to be, or not be a neighbour, depends on us. “It depends on me,” Pope Francis said, “it depends on me to be or not be a neighbour to the person I meet who has need of my help, even if he is a stranger, or even hostile.”
In the Gospel, Jesus tells the doctor of the law – and he tells us, too – to do as the Good Samaritan had done. We must have the attitude of the Good Samaritan to demonstrate our faith. The Pope quoted from the Apostle St James, reminding us that “faith without works is dead.” We should ask ourselves, the Pope said, if our faith is fruitful, if it produces good works, or if, on the other hand, it is sterile, “and so more dead than alive.”
We should ask ourselves this question often, Pope Francis continued, because it is precisely on this question that we will be judged at the end of our lives. The Lord, he said, will ask us, “Do you remember that time on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho? That man, who was half-dead, was me. Do you remember? That hungry child was me. Do you remember? That migrant who so many people wanted to chase away was me. Those grandparents, abandoned in rest homes, were me. Those sick people in the hospital, who no one went to find, were me.”
With that challenging reflection, Pope Francis concluded his remarks, calling on the Blessed Virgin “to help us to walk along the paths of generous love towards others, the path of the Good Samaritan.”
Vatican City, Jul 10, 2016 / 05:56 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Sunday Pope Francis said the parable of the Good Samaritan isn’t just a nice passage to reflect on, but signifies a concrete choice we make in deciding how to live and treat those around us.“The Good Samaritan indicates a lifestyle, the center of which is not ourselves, but others, with their difficulties, who we meet on our path and who challenge us,” the Pope said July 10.It’s us who choose this lifestyle or choose to reject it, he said, explaining that the attitude of the Good Samaritan tests our faith, since faith without works “is dead.”“Let us ask ourselves: is our faith fertile? Does it produce good works? Or is it rather sterile, and so more dead than alive? Do I make neighbors, or do I just pass by?” Francis asked, adding that these questions would be good to ask ourselves often, since in the end “we will be judged on the works of mercy.”The Lord, he said, ...
Vatican City, Jul 10, 2016 / 05:56 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Sunday Pope Francis said the parable of the Good Samaritan isn’t just a nice passage to reflect on, but signifies a concrete choice we make in deciding how to live and treat those around us.
“The Good Samaritan indicates a lifestyle, the center of which is not ourselves, but others, with their difficulties, who we meet on our path and who challenge us,” the Pope said July 10.
It’s us who choose this lifestyle or choose to reject it, he said, explaining that the attitude of the Good Samaritan tests our faith, since faith without works “is dead.”
“Let us ask ourselves: is our faith fertile? Does it produce good works? Or is it rather sterile, and so more dead than alive? Do I make neighbors, or do I just pass by?” Francis asked, adding that these questions would be good to ask ourselves often, since in the end “we will be judged on the works of mercy.”
The Lord, he said, will remind us of the situations in which we saw him in those around us and either helped, or did nothing.
“Do you remember that time on the street of Jerusalem and Jericho? That man who was half dead was me. Do you remember? That hungry child was me. Do you remember? That migrant who many times they wanted to throw out was me.”
“Those grandparents, abandoned in the nursing home, was me. That sick person in the hospital, who no one visited, was me,” the Pope said, explaining that these are the questions we will be asked.”
It is through good works, done with love and joy toward our neighbor, which makes our faith sprout and bear fruit, Francis observed.
He spoke to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square who braved the Roman heat to participate in his Sunday Angelus address, focusing his entire speech on the parable of the Good Samaritan.
In his address, Pope Francis noted how Jesus used the parable to dialogue with the doctors of the law on the twofold commandment of loving God with one’s entire heart and loving one’s neighbor as oneself.
When Jesus’ disciples ask him “who is my neighbor?” it’s the same question we must each ask ourselves today, he said.
Turning to the parable itself, the Pope noted how out of the three men who pass the dying man on the road, the first two, who did nothing, were a priest and a Levite. It was the third man, an inhabitant of Samaria “despised by the Jews because they didn’t observe the true religion,” who stopped.
“It was precisely he, when he sees the poor unfortunate man, who had compassion,” Francis said, noting how the Samaritan went above and beyond just rescuing the man, but cared for him and paid for all the expenses involved in curing him.
At this point Jesus asks the doctors of the law which of the three men was a neighbor to the one beaten and left for dead, to which they all naturally respond was “the one who had compassion on him,” the Pope observed.
By doing this, Jesus “completely overturned the initial perspective of the doctors of the law,” which is frequently our own perspective as well, he said.
Francis cautioned that we mustn’t “catalogue others to decide who is my neighbor and who isn’t,” explaining that being a neighbor entails adopting the same attitude as the Samaritan toward the people we meet who need help, “even if they are a stranger or even hostile.”
The Pope then pointed to how Jesus tells his disciples to “go, and also you do the same.” Jesus, he said, repeats the same commandment to each one of us: “go and to the same, be a neighbor to the brother and sister you see in difficulty,” whether they are a stranger, a migrant, elderly or sick.
He closed his address by praying that Mary would help us to walk along the path of the Good Samaritan, which is the path “of generous love toward others.”
“May she help us to live the principal commandment that Christ left us. This is the road to enter into eternal life.”
BEIRUT (AP) -- Al-Qaida's media arm has released an audio in which the purported son of the late al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden threatens revenge against the U.S. for assassinating his father....
ABOARD THE AQUARIUS ON THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA (AP) -- The young Liberian man went through hell, but when he reached Libya he hoped that there he'd be able to make a living and get an education. Instead, he entered another hell of imprisonment, then near death at sea....
GREAT YARMOUTH, England (AP) -- Across Britain, from dilapidated Welsh coal mining towns to English beach resorts frozen in time, people say they voted to leave the European Union and plunge into the unknown to get their country back....
BAGHDAD (AP) -- Taha Abbas recites the names of the dead-- Hassan, Ali, Issa, Mustafa -- and flips through pictures on his phone of smartly dressed young men with coiffed hair striking poses. Nearly a dozen of his friends were killed last Sunday when the Islamic State group carried out the worst single bombing Iraq has seen in 13 years of war....
