Catholic News 2
DENVER (AP) -- Rangers protecting the lions, elephants and leopards of Rwanda's Akagera National Park often patrol on foot, and venture only with difficulty into its swamps to keep an eye on rare birds....
NEW YORK (AP) -- Savannah Guthrie of the "Today" show put a public face Tuesday on what NBC says is a "small handful" of employees who will not travel to Rio de Janeiro this summer for Olympics coverage because of concern over the Zika virus....
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) -- Astronaut James Halsell Jr. seemed the very definition of someone with the right stuff. An Air Force Academy graduate and decorated test pilot, he commanded or piloted five space shuttle missions. NASA even turned to him for leadership as it was picking up the pieces after the Columbia disaster in 2003....
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- The most famous man in the world sat down in a busy airport terminal with a little girl he'd never met, and the pair played pat-a-cake for 10 minutes....
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Stanford University "did everything within its power" to ensure justice in the case of a former swimmer sentenced to six months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman, saying it moved swiftly to investigate and punish the student but that more needs to be done at the school and elsewhere to end sexual violence....
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) -- President Bashar Assad vowed Tuesday his troops would "liberate" every inch of Syria, just like they recaptured the ancient town of Palmyra from the Islamic State group, in a speech that reflected his renewed confidence as the military pressed on toward Raqqa, the extremists' self-styled capital....
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Already the presumptive Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton pressed for victory in California and five other states Tuesday, while Bernie Sanders looked to play spoiler and cast doubts about Clinton's historic achievement....
The president of the Bishops Conference of the Philippines, Mgr. Socrates Villegas, breaks silence after the new president Rodrigo Duterte’s attacks against the Church: Duterte has publicly accused the Filipino bishops and priests of hypocrisy and corruption.Many faithful were eager for Archbishop Socrates Villegas to answer the series of vulgar attacks on the Church. He, after all, has built a reputation to immediately speak on current issues.On Sunday, the head of the Catholic bishops’ leadership, finally broke his silence but with a touch of benevolence. So far, his overall message has been one of reconciliation, not reprimand.“Mine is the language of peace that refuses the dark magic of revenge,” he said. Mine is the silence of respect for those who consider us their enemies but whose good we truly pray for and whose happiness we want to see unfold.” “There is virtue in silence. There is virtue in speech. Wisdom is knowing when i...
The president of the Bishops Conference of the Philippines, Mgr. Socrates Villegas, breaks silence after the new president Rodrigo Duterte’s attacks against the Church: Duterte has publicly accused the Filipino bishops and priests of hypocrisy and corruption.
Many faithful were eager for Archbishop Socrates Villegas to answer the series of vulgar attacks on the Church. He, after all, has built a reputation to immediately speak on current issues.
On Sunday, the head of the Catholic bishops’ leadership, finally broke his silence but with a touch of benevolence. So far, his overall message has been one of reconciliation, not reprimand.
“Mine is the language of peace that refuses the dark magic of revenge,” he said. Mine is the silence of respect for those who consider us their enemies but whose good we truly pray for and whose happiness we want to see unfold.” “There is virtue in silence. There is virtue in speech. Wisdom is knowing when it is time for silence and when is the timing for speech,” Villegas said.
The bishops and priests have been the subjects obscenity-laden attacks from incoming President Rodrigo Duterte and his supporters in recent weeks, hitting the Church as the “most hypocritical institution.”
In some occasions, he also threatened to bring down the Church by exposing its sins in the past, including churchmen who had allegedly had secret affairs with women.
An online petition launched was also put up by Duterte’s supporters calling for the resignation of Villegas, both as CBCP president and archbishop of Lingayen-Dagupan.
The same petition also called for the resignation of Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz, clearly unmindful that the prelate has no longer been acting as the leader of the archdiocese. Cruz retired from the post in 2009 after reaching the mandatory retirement age for bishops of 75.
It is obvious that the church hierarchy will not engage in a word war with the incoming president, and the CBCP’s silence was apparently more eloquent than speech.
“Mine is the silence of Jesus before the arrogance of Pilate,” added Villegas.
“You can understand my speech if you speak the language of silence. You can understand my silence if you know how to love like Him who was born one silent night,” he said. (CBCPNews)
Nigeria’s Bishop Emmanuel Badejo of Oyo Diocese, who is also the Bishop-President for CEPACS has announced that African Bishop-Chairmen and Secretaries of Communications from Africa are meeting in Accra, Ghana from 6 June to 9 June 2016.Known by its French acronym, CEPACS is the Comité Episcopal Panafricain pour les Communications Sociales or in English - Pan-African Episcopal Committee for Social Communications. It is one of the committees of The Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) which has its headquarters in Accra, Ghana.Bishop Emmanuel Badejo says that this week’s meeting in Accra seeks to rally, strategise and re-energize Church communications on the African Continent.According to Bishop Badejo, it was the wish of the First African Synod that social communications in Africa be revived under the auspices of the CEPACS.“The Post-Synodal Exhortation of the 1994 Synod of Bishops for Africa, ‘Ecclesia in Africa&...
Nigeria’s Bishop Emmanuel Badejo of Oyo Diocese, who is also the Bishop-President for CEPACS has announced that African Bishop-Chairmen and Secretaries of Communications from Africa are meeting in Accra, Ghana from 6 June to 9 June 2016.
Known by its French acronym, CEPACS is the Comité Episcopal Panafricain pour les Communications Sociales or in English - Pan-African Episcopal Committee for Social Communications. It is one of the committees of The Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) which has its headquarters in Accra, Ghana.
Bishop Emmanuel Badejo says that this week’s meeting in Accra seeks to rally, strategise and re-energize Church communications on the African Continent.
According to Bishop Badejo, it was the wish of the First African Synod that social communications in Africa be revived under the auspices of the CEPACS.
“The Post-Synodal Exhortation of the 1994 Synod of Bishops for Africa, ‘Ecclesia in Africa’ urged that “programmes of continental cooperation which exist in Africa, like the Pan African Episcopal Committee for Social Communications (CEPACS), be encouraged and revitalised. That revitalization will only attain relevance if CEPACS can rise to the challenge of animating the Church in Africa to tell her story at every level from parish through the diocesan; to the National and Regional Episcopal Conferences and on to a worldwide audience. It is a daunting but necessary task that requires not just hard work and careful strategies but abundant prayers from the Clergy and faithful alike,” Bishops Badejo said.
The meeting in Accra has assembled Bishop-Chairmen and Secretaries of Communications from the eight Episcopal Regional Conferences on the Continent. The African communicators have been joined by representatives of Catholic international media organisations, partners and other Church pastoral agencies from outside Africa to chart. Together they will chart a way into the future,” Bishop Badejo explained.
CEPACS as a committee of SECAM was restructured by the 5th Plenary Assembly of SECAM that was held in Yaoundé, Cameroon, in 1981. It was approved by an Episcopal committee with a mandate to take up all matters concerning Social Communications that come under the aegis of SECAM.
One of the core mandates of CEPACS is to stimulate, promote and co-ordinate the Church’s mass media activities both on the Regional and African Continental level.
(Fr. Paul Samasumo, Vat. Radio)
Email: engafrica@vatiradio.va
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has urged believers to be true Christians and give flavor to the life of others, not to be tempted to shine light upon themselves but to bring the light of faith to their neighbors and to mankind.The Pope was speaking on Tuesday morning during Mass at the Casa Santa Marta.Listen to the report by Linda Bordoni: Drawing inspiration from the Gospel reading of the day, Pope Francis spoke of when Jesus told his disciples “you are the salt of the earth”, “you are the light of the world”.Christians, he said, must be salt and light, but never self-serving: salt must add flavor and light must illuminate the other.The Pope continued his homily with the question: “what must a Christian do in order for the salt not to run out, so that the oil to light the lamp does not come to an end?”The “battery” a Christian uses to generate light, the Pope explained, is simply prayer. “There are m...
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has urged believers to be true Christians and give flavor to the life of others, not to be tempted to shine light upon themselves but to bring the light of faith to their neighbors and to mankind.
The Pope was speaking on Tuesday morning during Mass at the Casa Santa Marta.
Listen to the report by Linda Bordoni:
Drawing inspiration from the Gospel reading of the day, Pope Francis spoke of when Jesus told his disciples “you are the salt of the earth”, “you are the light of the world”.
Christians, he said, must be salt and light, but never self-serving: salt must add flavor and light must illuminate the other.
The Pope continued his homily with the question: “what must a Christian do in order for the salt not to run out, so that the oil to light the lamp does not come to an end?”
The “battery” a Christian uses to generate light, the Pope explained, is simply prayer.
“There are many things one can do, many works of charity, many great things for the Church – a Catholic University, a college, a hospital – you may even be rewarded as a benefactor of the Church with a monument, but if you do not pray, it will be dark and dimly lit” he said.
Prayer, the Pope said, is what lights up Christian life, and he highlighted the fact that prayer is a “serious” matter: “a prayer of adoration to God the Father, a prayer of praise to the Holy Trinity, a prayer of thanksgiving, a prayer to request to God… prayer must come from the heart”.
As regards the salt that Christians are called to be: it becomes salt when it is given to others.
This, Pope Francis explained, is another Christian attitude: “to give of oneself, to give flavor to the lives of others, to give flavor to many things with the message of the Gospel”.
Salt is something to be used, not to keep for oneself – Francis elaborated - but to give to others.
“It’s curious – he continued - both salt and light are for others, not for oneself: salt does not give flavor to itself; light does not illuminate itself”.
Of course, he noted, you may be wondering how long salt and light can last without running out if we continue to give of ourselves relentlessly.
“That’s where the power of God comes in, the Pope explained, because the Christian is salt given to us by God during Baptism, it’s a gift that never ends”.
And reflecting on the reading from Kings in which Zarephath’s widow trusts the prophet Elijah and thus, her flour and her oil never run out, Pope Francis urged Christians to shine brightly and always overcome the temptation to shine light upon themselves.
And calling it ‘mirror spirituality’ he said “it is a bad thing” to want to shine light onto oneself: “Be light to illuminate, be salt to give flavor and to preserve”.
“May your light shine before men, the Pope concluded, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in Heaven”.
