Catholic News 2
PALMYRA, Syria (AP) -- Explosions rocked the ancient town of Palmyra on Friday and on the horizon, black smoke wafted behind its majestic Roman ruins, as Syrian army experts carefully detonated hundreds of mines they say were planted by Islamic State militants before they fled the town....
NEW YORK (AP) -- California and New York -where almost 1 in 5 Americans live - are on their way to raising their minimum wage to $15 an hour. And the activists who spearheaded those efforts are now setting their sights on other similarly liberal, Democratic-led states....
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Brittany Hudson was pregnant, addicted to painkillers and afraid of a Tennessee law that calls for the arrest of mothers of drug-dependent babies. She eventually gave birth without medical help, on the side of a road in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains....
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) -- There was the old story about Corning, New York and the diesel buses. The one about the "soap lady" who built her business online with help from Hillary Clinton's Senate office. And don't forget about the wine ice cream, discovered by the former New York senator and now sold across the globe....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- World leaders declared progress Friday in securing nuclear materials worldwide but warned of a persistent and harrowing threat: terrorists getting their hands on a nuclear bomb. "It would change our world," President Barack Obama said....
(Vatican Radio) Vatican Weekend for April 2, 2016 features our weekly report on the general audience of Pope Francis with pilgrims from across the world in Saint Peter’s Square, a programme focusing on the devotion to Divine Mercy which takes us to a Kraków suburb by the name of Lagiewniki.This is followed by an Eastertide musical meditation and a scripture scholar's interpretation of the story of 'Bethsheba', one of the ladies from our family tree of faith. The programme ends with our popular 'Latin Lover' sharing his linguistic expertise surrounding the ancient gods of Rome.A programme presented and produced by Veronica Scarisbrick:
(Vatican Radio) Vatican Weekend for April 2, 2016 features our weekly report on the general audience of Pope Francis with pilgrims from across the world in Saint Peter’s Square, a programme focusing on the devotion to Divine Mercy which takes us to a Kraków suburb by the name of Lagiewniki.This is followed by an Eastertide musical meditation and a scripture scholar's interpretation of the story of 'Bethsheba', one of the ladies from our family tree of faith. The programme ends with our popular 'Latin Lover' sharing his linguistic expertise surrounding the ancient gods of Rome.
A programme presented and produced by Veronica Scarisbrick:
(Vatican Radio) Vatican Weekend for April 3, 2016 features our weekly reflection on the Sunday Gospel by the title of 'There's More in the Sunday Gospel than Meets the Eye' presented by Jill Bevilacqua and a bird's eye view of the past week in the Vatican presented by EWTN bureau chief here in Rome, Joan Lewis.A programme presented and produced by Veronica Scarisbrick:
(Vatican Radio) Vatican Weekend for April 3, 2016 features our weekly reflection on the Sunday Gospel by the title of 'There's More in the Sunday Gospel than Meets the Eye' presented by Jill Bevilacqua and a bird's eye view of the past week in the Vatican presented by EWTN bureau chief here in Rome, Joan Lewis.
A programme presented and produced by Veronica Scarisbrick:
(Vatican Radio) This past week a Church in the heart of Rome, that of S. Andrea della Valle, became the location to celebrate the European Apostolic Congress on Mercy. At least for the first two days, that’s to say from the 31st to the 1st of April. And on Sunday 3rd of April, Divine Mercy Sunday, there will be Holy Mass in Saint Peter’s Square presided over by Pope Francis in St Peter’s Square.That's eleven years on from the death of John Paul II on the 2nd of April 2005, who as we know was canonised on Divine Mercy Sunday. No surprise given his special devotion to Divine Mercy. To mark the day the Church celebrates the Feast of Divine Mercy Veronica Scarisbrick tells the story linked to this devotion.Listen to a programme focusing on the devotion to Divine Mercy presented and produced by Veronica Scarisbrick: It’s a Polish story which takes us to a leafy Kraków suburb by the name of Lagiewniki. At a time i...
(Vatican Radio) This past week a Church in the heart of Rome, that of S. Andrea della Valle, became the location to celebrate the European Apostolic Congress on Mercy. At least for the first two days, that’s to say from the 31st to the 1st of April. And on Sunday 3rd of April, Divine Mercy Sunday, there will be Holy Mass in Saint Peter’s Square presided over by Pope Francis in St Peter’s Square.
That's eleven years on from the death of John Paul II on the 2nd of April 2005, who as we know was canonised on Divine Mercy Sunday. No surprise given his special devotion to Divine Mercy.
To mark the day the Church celebrates the Feast of Divine Mercy Veronica Scarisbrick tells the story linked to this devotion.
Listen to a programme focusing on the devotion to Divine Mercy presented and produced by Veronica Scarisbrick:
It’s a Polish story which takes us to a leafy Kraków suburb by the name of Lagiewniki. At a time in history when this nation was behind a so called 'iron curtain’ and under the yoke of a communist regime. And when Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II, was growing up in the nearby town of Wadowice.
Today in this place there stands a Shrine where pilgrims flock. It’s that of ‘Divine Mercy’. One Pope Francis is scheduled to visit at the end of July when he travels to Kraków to preside over ‘World Youth Day’ during this Jubilee Year dedicated to Mercy.
He’ll be doing so in continuity with two of his predecessors to the See of Peter. The last being Benedict XVI, now Pope Emeritus. And the other you’ll have guessed is the Pope from Poland, Saint John Paul II, who first launched ‘World Youth Days’.
So Francis then will be going to a place linked in a special way to the visions of a Polish sister by the name of Faustina Kowalska who lived and prayed there in the first half of the twentieth century. And was later canonised by John Paul II during the Jubilee Year 2000.
But let’s glance at how this devotion came about and at its message. The date was the 22nd of February 1931 with the first of a series of ‘Apparitions’ which Sister Faustina describes in a diary of some 600 pages, a personal witness of divine revelations and mystical experiences.
This diary written in a ‘spidery’ like calligraphy unveils a powerful message of hope in a world in the shadow of the fearful humanity of the time. But also reveals an image of that ‘Apparition’ of the Lord Jesus who appeared to her clothed in a white garment with two rays of light emanating from His breast one red and one white. The red, she writes, symbolic of blood representing the life of souls and the white symbolizing water which makes souls righteous. These are her exact words: “In the evening when I was in my cell, I saw the Lord Jesus clothed in a white garment. One hand was raised in a gesture of blessing, the other was touching the garment at the breast. From beneath the garment, slightly drawn aside at the breast, there were emanating two large rays, one red, the other pale. In silence I kept my gaze fixed on the Lord. My soul was filled with awe, but also with great joy. After a while, Jesus said to me: ‘Paint an image according to the pattern you see, with the signature Jesus, I trust in You. I desire that this image be venerated, first in your Chapel, and then throughout the world.”
And at the Lagiewniki Shrine of ‘Divine Mercy’, a copy of this painting of the ‘Merciful Jesus’ stands above the main altar. The original is to be found only yards away in the tiny chapel where Sister Faustina once prayed following her first vision.
At the ‘Dedication Mass’ of this large new Basilica on the 7th of August 2002, John Paul II mentioned in a moment of nostalgia how he used to come to this same chapel to pray as a young man whenever he went by on his way to work at the Solvay Chemical Plant nearby. As he rather famously remarked on that occasion: “Who would ever have imagined that the young man in his wooden clogs would one day be back here in his capacity as Roman Pontiff to dedicate a new Basilica dedicated to Divine Mercy”.
Earlier still, during the homily he had highlighted the spiritual importance of the message of mercy at a time when mankind was experiencing bewilderment in the face of many manifestations of evil. How greatly the world needs God’s mercy, he insisted: “In every continent, from the depth of human suffering, a cry for mercy seems to rise up. Where hatred and the thirst for revenge dominate, where war brings suffering and death to the innocent, there the grace of mercy is needed in order to settle human minds and hearts and to bring about peace. Wherever respect for life and human dignity are lacking, there is need of God’s merciful love, in whose light we see the inexpressible value of every human being. Mercy is needed in order to ensure that every injustice in the world will come to an end in the splendour of truth”.
What began as a very Polish devotion has now spread right across the world. And in July when Pope Francis travels to Kraków for World Youth Day no doubt many thousands of young pilgrims from the four corners of the earth will rally around him during this Jubilee Year dedicated to Mercy. Here at the Shrine of “ -Lagiewniki" where the legacy of Saint Faustina Kowalska lives on in a special way.
Hate material still exists in Pakistani school textbooks and they need to be removed from the country’s education system, Catholic Church officials told a conference in Karachi, March 30. "The first priority of the education system should be teaching students about humanity, moral and ethical values," said Father Saleh Diego, director for the Justice and Peace Commission in Karachi Archdiocese. He was addressing church and social workers at the conference organized by the Pakistan Catholic bishops’ National Commission for Justice and Peace, NCJP, and the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research. "Inculcating hatred among innocent children will lead us to massive disasters in future. We have to discourage such discriminatory material in our textbooks that creates division among children belonging to different religions, castes, ethnics, tribes and cultures," said Father Diego.Kashif Aslam, NCJPprogram coordinator said rese...
Hate material still exists in Pakistani school textbooks and they need to be removed from the country’s education system, Catholic Church officials told a conference in Karachi, March 30. "The first priority of the education system should be teaching students about humanity, moral and ethical values," said Father Saleh Diego, director for the Justice and Peace Commission in Karachi Archdiocese. He was addressing church and social workers at the conference organized by the Pakistan Catholic bishops’ National Commission for Justice and Peace, NCJP, and the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research. "Inculcating hatred among innocent children will lead us to massive disasters in future. We have to discourage such discriminatory material in our textbooks that creates division among children belonging to different religions, castes, ethnics, tribes and cultures," said Father Diego.
Kashif Aslam, NCJPprogram coordinator said researchers reviewed 70 textbooks, which are used in 74 percent of Pakistan’s schools. Among them, he said, were textbooks that included hate content against other religious beliefs and nationalities. Authorities in Punjab and Sindh provinces have corrected some of these books, Aslam said. However he pointed out that in the provinces of Khyber Paktun Khwa and Baluchistan, there has been no progress due to “political compromises." Aslam said one textbook used in Baluchistan said: "Muslims are superior than the people of all other nations." He gave another examples of a social studies book that said: "Hindu India poses a danger to Islam" and a history book that stated "British rulers of the sub-continent considered Muslims as their real enemies because they took over the rule from Muslims."
Shafi Muhammad Jamote, a member of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League, told the conference that instead of promoting fundamentalism and extremism through education, it would be better if the focus were on moral and ethical values. Opposition lawmaker Syed Hafeezuddin said he appreciated the work done by the commission but added that a long way has to go in addressing the issue. "It’s only the beginning … it will not be easy to change the mindsets of people in a short period of time," said Hafeezuddin. "But we have to speak about such matters and dialogue with governments and political parties." aramat Ali, executive director of the Pakistan Institute of Labor Education and Research, said religious intolerance is an extremely serious issue. The use of "religion in politics and society should be curtailed", otherwise, he said, the "future of this country will be bleak." Shahida Rahmani, a National Assembly member said the teachings of Islam are being taught incorrectly. Islam is a religion that upholds equal rights and values a proper education, Rahmani said. (Source: UCAN)
While the overall population of South Korea rose slightly in 2015, the number of baptisms in the Catholic Church declined, the country’s bishops have said. According to statistics released by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea March 30, a total of 116,143 Catholics were baptized last year in the country, down 6.9 percent from the previous year, The Korea Herald reported. However, statistics showed that South Korea's Catholic population rose slightly by 1.7 percent to about 5.65 million, which accounts for 10.7 percent of the country's total population of 52.67 million last year. The ratio of Catholics in general has been increasing at a constant rate, maintaining the 10 percent level since 2009.Although the number of baptisms decreased last year, it increased in 2014 for the first time since 2010, apparently affected by Pope Francis' first-ever visit to the country. A total of 124,748 Catholics were baptized in 2014, up 5 ...
While the overall population of South Korea rose slightly in 2015, the number of baptisms in the Catholic Church declined, the country’s bishops have said. According to statistics released by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea March 30, a total of 116,143 Catholics were baptized last year in the country, down 6.9 percent from the previous year, The Korea Herald reported. However, statistics showed that South Korea's Catholic population rose slightly by 1.7 percent to about 5.65 million, which accounts for 10.7 percent of the country's total population of 52.67 million last year. The ratio of Catholics in general has been increasing at a constant rate, maintaining the 10 percent level since 2009.
Although the number of baptisms decreased last year, it increased in 2014 for the first time since 2010, apparently affected by Pope Francis' first-ever visit to the country. A total of 124,748 Catholics were baptized in 2014, up 5 percent from the previous year. (Source: UCAN)
