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CHICAGO (AP) -- An alleged sex abuse victim of Dennis Hastert could testify about his emotional trauma next month at the former U.S. speaker's sentencing in his hush-money case, according to a transcript of an unannounced court hearing this week during which the court linked sex-abuse allegations to the Illinois Republican for the first time....
DENVER (AP) -- A powerful spring blizzard stranded travelers at Denver's airport and shut down hundreds of miles of highway in Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska as it spread into the Midwest on Wednesday....
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WAUWATOSA, Wis. (AP) -- While Ted Cruz decried "gutter politics" against him, former Republican presidential contenders gave him a boost Wednesday, casting the Texas senator as the party's last best chance to stop Donald Trump. The long and bitter 2016 campaign shifted to a new Midwestern battleground....
BRUSSELS (AP) -- As police hunted for the surviving Brussels bomber, evidence mounted Wednesday that the same Islamic State cell carried out the attacks in both Paris and Brussels, and that the militants may have launched this week's slaughter in haste because they feared authorities were closing in on them....
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis will once again focus attention on marginalized members of society during the traditional “Washing of the Feet” ceremony – also known as the “Mandatum” – on Holy Thursday.The ceremony this year will take place during the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, which the Pope will celebrate at the Centre for Asylum Seekers (Centro di Accoglienza per Richiedenti Asilo, or CARA) in Castelnuovo di Porto, located 25 kilometres north of Rome. There he will wash the feet of twelve refugees from various countries; in previous years, he has invited prisoners, the elderly, and disabled persons to take part in the ceremony.To help understand the Biblical and Pastoral significance of the Mandatum, Father Thomas Rosica, CSB, offers the following reflection on the ceremony:Biblical and Pastoral Reflection on Feet Washing on Holy ThursdayBy Father Thomas Rosica, CSBCEO, Salt and Light Catholic Media FoundationEnglish language attach&...
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis will once again focus attention on marginalized members of society during the traditional “Washing of the Feet” ceremony – also known as the “Mandatum” – on Holy Thursday.
The ceremony this year will take place during the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, which the Pope will celebrate at the Centre for Asylum Seekers (Centro di Accoglienza per Richiedenti Asilo, or CARA) in Castelnuovo di Porto, located 25 kilometres north of Rome. There he will wash the feet of twelve refugees from various countries; in previous years, he has invited prisoners, the elderly, and disabled persons to take part in the ceremony.
To help understand the Biblical and Pastoral significance of the Mandatum, Father Thomas Rosica, CSB, offers the following reflection on the ceremony:
Biblical and Pastoral Reflection on Feet Washing on Holy Thursday
By Father Thomas Rosica, CSB
CEO, Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation
English language attaché, Holy See Press Office
Both the Jewish and Christian traditions view eating and feasting as more than simply an opportunity to refuel the body, enjoy certain delicacies, or celebrate a particular occasion. Eating and feasting became for both traditions, encounters with transcendent realities and even union with the divine. In the New Testament, so much of Jesus’ own ministry took place during meals at table.
Jesus attends many meals throughout the four Gospels: with Levi and his business colleagues, with Simon the Pharisee, with Lazarus and his sisters in Bethany, with Zacchaeus and the crowd in Jericho, with outcasts and centurions, with crowds on Galilean hillsides, and with disciples in their homes. It is ultimately during the final meal that Jesus leaves us with his most precious gift in the Eucharist. The Scripture readings for Holy Thursday root us deeply in our Jewish past: celebrating the Passover with the Jewish people, receiving from St. Paul that which was handed on to him, namely the Eucharistic banquet, and looking at Jesus squarely in the face as he kneels before us to wash our feet in humble service. Instead of presenting to us one of the synoptic Gospel stories of the “institution” of the Eucharist, the Church offers us John’s account of the disturbing posture of the Master kneeling before his friends to wash their feet in a gesture of humility and service.
As Jesus wraps a towel around his waist, takes a pitcher of water, stoops down and begins washing the feet of his disciples, he teaches his friends that liberation and new life are won not in presiding over multitudes from royal thrones nor by the quantity of bloody sacrifices offered on temple altars but by walking with the lowly and poor and serving them as a foot washer along the journey. It is as though the whole history of salvation ends tonight just as it begins — with bare feet and the voice of God speaking to us through his own flesh and blood: “As I have done for you, so you must also do.” The washing of the feet is integral to the Last Supper. It is the evangelist John’s way of saying to Christ’s followers throughout the ages: “You must remember his sacrifice in the Mass, but you must also remember his admonition to go out and serve the world.”
At the Last Supper, Jesus teaches us that true authority in the Church comes from being a servant, from laying down our lives for our friends. His life is a feast for the poor and for sinners. It must be the same for those who receive the Lord’s body and blood. From the Eucharist must flow a certain style of communitarian life, a genuine care for our neighbors, and for strangers.
Three years ago on Holy Thursday evening, Pope Francis washed the feet of 12 young people at a Roman Juvenile Detention Center, including young women, and two Muslims. That Pope Francis washed the feet of young men and women in a detention centre in Rome on his first Holy Thursday, and has continued that gesture over the past Holy Thursdays in a centre for the elderly and infirm and then a maximum security facility in Rome, should call our minds and hearts to the simple and spontaneous gesture of love, affection, forgiveness and mercy that have been the hallmarks of the Bishop of Rome since his election in March 2013. Just as Jesus gave an example to his disciples in the humble gesture of foot washing, so too the Vicar of Christ offers us an example that we might learn from it and imitate this gesture.
Pope Francis’ simple gesture of washing the feet speaks for itself. He has taught the world profound messages over the past three years of his Petrine ministry to the world. He has brought many to Jesus Christ through the simplicity of his messages and gestures. He shows us how to put the Eucharist into practice in our daily lives.
IMAGE: CNS/Paul HaringBy Cindy WoodenROME (CNS) -- Walking in a crowded Rome neighborhood with his prayer beadswrapped around one hand, Hassan said, "You must write: Big thanks to thepope because he helps my kids -- really."Hassan and his family, who are Muslim, are being hosted by a Catholic parishin Rome. Out of concern for their safety, the family, the parish priest and theCatholic school that welcomed Hassan's three youngest children asked thatidentifying details remain unpublished.Likes millions of refugees around the world, Hassan packed up his family toflee violence and to try to find a safe place where his children could grow andthrive.Also like many refugees, his story is much more complicated than that.Hassan is a Palestinian born in a refugee camp in Lebanon. After universitystudies there, he had a good career as a nurse. Then came the war. He stayed, though, working harder than ever. "Too much blood," he said.Hassan was shot in the arm; the entrance- and exit-wound scar...
IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring
By Cindy Wooden
ROME (CNS) -- Walking in a crowded Rome neighborhood with his prayer beads wrapped around one hand, Hassan said, "You must write: Big thanks to the pope because he helps my kids -- really."
Hassan and his family, who are Muslim, are being hosted by a Catholic parish in Rome. Out of concern for their safety, the family, the parish priest and the Catholic school that welcomed Hassan's three youngest children asked that identifying details remain unpublished.
Likes millions of refugees around the world, Hassan packed up his family to flee violence and to try to find a safe place where his children could grow and thrive.
Also like many refugees, his story is much more complicated than that. Hassan is a Palestinian born in a refugee camp in Lebanon. After university studies there, he had a good career as a nurse. Then came the war.
He stayed, though, working harder than ever. "Too much blood," he said.
Hassan was shot in the arm; the entrance- and exit-wound scars are still visible.
Seeking a safe place to work and to find a wife and start a family, he moved to Libya in 1986. He met and married Adiba, whose father is Palestinian and mother is Egyptian. Hassan and Adiba eventually had four children. Hassan found a job in a hospital and ran a shop for a while. They bought a home and later a small farm. Then came the war.
During an interview in Rome March 22, Hassan constantly fingers his prayer beads, which he made himself by stringing together 33 olive pits. Many Muslims use the beads to recite God's praises, but Hassan said his prayer usually is repetitions of "God, help us."
"I always am praying. That is why I am still alive," he said in the tiny two-room apartment where he, his wife and four children live. A Catholic parish answered Pope Francis' call for every parish to take in a refugee or refugee family.
While there is a small refrigerator and microwave in the apartment, there is no space to cook, so the family goes to the parish each day for lunch, traditionally the Italians' main meal.
The children do their homework on their bunkbeds. The school requires every student to have a laptop computer, which was a worry for the family and parish. But Pope Francis, through his almoner's office, provided what the kids needed. The parish provided the Wi-Fi connection.
"If we ask for anything, they provide it," Hassan said. "But this is not our life."
Hassan -- and his wife and children -- see their lives as being in Sweden, where they have friends and relatives and had spent 15 months making a start for themselves. That ended shortly after the Paris terrorist attacks in November.
Father Marco, pastor of the parish hosting the family, calls them "victims of the Dublin Regulation," a European Union agreement that refugees must apply for asylum in the first EU country they arrive in and wait there for their cases to be heard. In the aftermath of the Paris attacks, governments that had not been enforcing the agreement took steps to do so.
Paying 4,500 euros (just over $5,000), Hassan and his family had boarded an overcrowded fishing boat in Libya Sept. 5, 2014. With 350 other people, they bobbed around the Mediterranean for four days until they were picked up "by the Italians with a big ship" and taken to the port city of Bari.
"They took our fingerprints, then they said, 'You are in Europe. You can go,'" he said.
Hassan and his family went by train to Milan, then paid people, who turned out to be thieves, to drive them north. When they reached Sweden, they applied for asylum. The Swedish government assigned them an apartment and gave them a monthly stipend. The children started school.
But after about a year, Swedish authorities phoned to tell Hassan the family had to go back to Italy and apply for asylum there, where they had left their fingerprints. There were letters and meetings and lawyers.
"Two days after the trouble in Paris, they came at 5 in the morning and broke down the door," Hassan said. The police took the family and "many of our things, but not all," to the airport. In a small plane with 10 police or immigration agents, Hassan, Adiba and the four children were flown to Rome's Ciampino airport and turned over to the Italian police.
They slept in the airport that night and, after meeting immigration officials in the morning, were told they could go. They slept in Rome's main train station for a couple of nights before hearing about a makeshift center for refugees staffed by welcoming volunteers. From there, they went to a Red Cross shelter where Father Marco and some of his parishioners volunteer.
"We are a family and at the Red Cross center, there were many men," Hassan said. He asked Father Marco to help, and by Christmas they were in an apartment near the parish.
"I thank Don Marco and the pope -- they help us too much," Hassan said. "But for how long can they help us? I still feel much dark for our future."
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Follow Wooden on Twitter: @Cindy_Wooden.
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Copyright © 2016 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.
IMAGE: CNS photo/Joshua Roberts, ReutersBy Kurt JensenWASHINGTON (CNS) -- In the end,the women religious decided it would be good to sing after all.That wasn't on the agenda forthe sunny 90-minute rally in front of the Supreme Court March 23 in support ofthe plaintiffs in Zubik v. Burwell. But it had a calming effect, so it seemedlike the right thing to do.There were several spontaneousrenditions of "Let There Be Peace on Earth," "God Bless America"and "God Bless the USA" from the Little Sisters of the Poor andgroups of Dominican and Carmelite sisters.At the end of the rally,Mother Regina Marie Gorman of the Carmelite Sisters of Los Angeles, whodelivered the closing prayer, decided, with a big smile, that it would be aptfor for all the Catholics to chant the Marian antiphon "Salve Regina,"traditionally sung after evening prayers.It was a serene conclusion to anorderly rally punctuated with chants of "Let them serve!" as thecourt heard oral arguments in the case brought by several C...
IMAGE: CNS photo/Joshua Roberts, Reuters
By Kurt Jensen
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- In the end, the women religious decided it would be good to sing after all.
That wasn't on the agenda for the sunny 90-minute rally in front of the Supreme Court March 23 in support of the plaintiffs in Zubik v. Burwell. But it had a calming effect, so it seemed like the right thing to do.
There were several spontaneous renditions of "Let There Be Peace on Earth," "God Bless America" and "God Bless the USA" from the Little Sisters of the Poor and groups of Dominican and Carmelite sisters.
At the end of the rally, Mother Regina Marie Gorman of the Carmelite Sisters of Los Angeles, who delivered the closing prayer, decided, with a big smile, that it would be apt for for all the Catholics to chant the Marian antiphon "Salve Regina," traditionally sung after evening prayers.
It was a serene conclusion to an orderly rally punctuated with chants of "Let them serve!" as the court heard oral arguments in the case brought by several Catholic and other faith-based entities against the federal government's requirement that most employers, including religious employers, cover contraceptives for their workers.
The Denver-based Little Sisters, who operate nursing homes for the elderly poor, and 36 other groups are contesting the Affordable Care Act's contraceptive mandate. With the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, the case has an uncertain future with the possibility of a 4-4 court deadlock, which means the rulings of the circuit courts, all but one of which have gone against the plaintiffs, will be upheld.
The Department of Health and Human Services has offered an "accommodation," also known as a "work-around," that allows objecting employers to acknowledge their opposition to contraceptive coverage by notifying HHS in a letter. This allows a third party to provide the coverage. The Little Sisters and other plaintiffs object to that, calling it a burden on their free exercise of religion, because they are still involved in allowing coverage they find objectionable.
"Today the Little Sisters make their last stand," said Mother Mary Assumpta Long of the Dominican Sisters of Mary in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
"Filling out a piece of paper is not the issue. Complicity is wrong and it is wrong in itself, and the government cannot make this otherwise."
"The Supreme Court," she continued, "is no the arbiter of sacred Scriptures."
"Our request is not uniquely Catholic or religious. It's American," said Elise Italiano, executive director of communications for The Catholic University of America, another plaintiff.
On March 2, a rally of more than 3,000 participants surrounded and attempted to drown out a pro-life rally of about 200 during oral arguments on a Texas abortion law. This time, the proportions were reversed.
A competing rally organized by the National Women's Law Center, the American Humanist Association and Catholics for Choice, among other groups, had many fewer participants than the several hundred who turned out in support of the Little Sisters and the other plaintiffs, including Oklahoma Wesleyan University, East Texas Baptist University, Southern Nazarene University and Geneva College, a Presbyterian institution, and the Archdiocese of Washington, the dioceses of Pittsburgh and Erie, Pennsylvania and Priests for Life.
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Copyright © 2016 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.
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