Catholic News 2
BRUSSELS (AP) -- Belgian authorities are focusing a new search on a man known to have traveled with key Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam, who was captured last week in Brussels, officials said Monday....
ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Greece detained hundreds of refugees and migrants on its islands Monday, as officials in Athens and the European Union conceded a much-heralded agreement to send thousands of asylum-seekers back to Turkey is facing delays....
HAVANA (AP) -- President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro tussled Monday over differences on human rights and democracy but pledged to keep working on a new path forward between their two countries in a stunning diplomatic display....
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Donald Trump faces an uphill battle in Utah's caucuses Tuesday, but he could still walk away with delegates if sharp divisions within the party prevent anyone from winning a majority....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A front-runner under attack from all sides, Republican Donald Trump demanded that his party's skeptical establishment embrace the inevitability of his presidential nomination as he stormed into Washington on Monday. Democrats responded by debuting a multi-pronged assault, shifting their rhetoric and resources against the man they expect to face in a contentious and ugly general election campaign....
NEW YORK (AP) -- When it comes to emojis, the future is very, very ... Face with Tears of Joy....
MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia on Monday warned the United States that it will start responding unilaterally to cease-fire violations in Syria if the U.S. refuses to coordinate rules of engagement against violators. The U.S. State Department insisted that Moscow and Washington were working constructively to monitor the truce and warned Russia against taking unilateral action....
(Vatican Radio) In Seven Last Words: An Invitation to a Deeper Friendship with Jesus (Harper Collins 2016), Fr. James Martin, SJ, leads readers to the foot of the Cross, inviting them to hear the seven phrases Our Lord is recorded as having uttered from the Cross in the Gospels: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” (Lk 23:34) “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Lk 23:43) “Woman, behold your son. Son, behold your mother.” (Jn 19:26–27) “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Mt 27:46; Mk 15:34) “I thirst.” (Jn 19:28) “It is finished.” (Jn 19:30) “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” (Lk 23:46) Based on a series of reflections he delivered on Good Friday, 2015, in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, at the invitation of New York’s Archbishop, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Fr. Martin’s published version prese...
(Vatican Radio) In Seven Last Words: An Invitation to a Deeper Friendship with Jesus (Harper Collins 2016), Fr. James Martin, SJ, leads readers to the foot of the Cross, inviting them to hear the seven phrases Our Lord is recorded as having uttered from the Cross in the Gospels:
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“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” (Lk 23:34)
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“Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Lk 23:43)
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“Woman, behold your son. Son, behold your mother.” (Jn 19:26–27)
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“My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Mt 27:46; Mk 15:34)
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“I thirst.” (Jn 19:28)
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“It is finished.” (Jn 19:30)
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“Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” (Lk 23:46)
Based on a series of reflections he delivered on Good Friday, 2015, in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, at the invitation of New York’s Archbishop, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Fr. Martin’s published version preserves the sense of discursive intimacy with which he conducted the talks, while offering the reader the chance to engage the traditional Lenten exercise of prayerful meditation on the seven sayings at his or her own pace.
If Fr. Martin’s other works have aimed at piquing the interest of the lax, lapsed, or indifferent both inside and outside the Christian fold, this latest effort is frankly devotional.
“It does presume that you are – at least – a believer,” Fr. Martin told Vatican Radio. “My other books sort of ‘brought you into’ the Faith, but this one really does ask you to accept the fact that Jesus is fully human and fully divine,” he explained.
Click below to hear Fr. James Martin, SJ's extended conversation with Vatican Radio's Chris Altieri
If the book is for “the initiate” in this sense, it nevertheless does not require advanced training in sacred science in order to be read with profit. “It is broadly for the Christian,” Fr. Martin said, adding, “it also doesn’t presume that [the reader] knows a great deal about the Gospels or the Seven Last Words – so, it is for ‘the initiate’ in the sense that it is for the average Christian,” whether he or she be new to the devotion, or a devout believer ready to go deeper into the mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection.
Seven Last Words is accessible: it is also challenging.
“My God, my God, why hast thou abandoned me?” is not an easy thing to hear any man say, and harder still when the man saying it is God. “It is a very complex phrase,” said Fr. Martin – the hardest of the sayings to treat, and a source of profound and at times contentious theological discussion. “I wanted to be very respectful [of the different] interpretations," he explained, "but also to allow the reader in his or her own mind to meditate,” on the meaning of Our Lord’s utterance.
Seven Last Words: An Invitation to Deeper Friendship with Jesus is published by Harper Collins, and is available in bookstores and through online sellers in paper and e-book formats.
Pope Francis on Monday welcomed in the Vatican Indonesia’s new ambassador to the Holy See, Antonius Agus Sriyono. The 58 year old diplomat presented his credentials to the Pope at a formal ceremony in the Vatican, at the start of his diplomatic mission with the Holy See. A graduate in international relations from Gadjah Mada University, Sriyono later did courses in diplomacy before starting a career in diplomacy. He has held several posts in Indonesia’s foreign ministry as well as in diplomatic missions abroad, such as in the Netherlands, the United Nations and Russia before serving as ambassador to New Zealand, 2010-2013. Muslims form over 87% of Indonesia’s over 255 million population, making it the most populous Muslim-majority country in the world. Catholics make up just 2.8 percent of the population. The Holy See recognized the Republic of Indonesia in 1947 and established an Apostolic Delegation in the country....
Pope Francis on Monday welcomed in the Vatican Indonesia’s new ambassador to the Holy See, Antonius Agus Sriyono. The 58 year old diplomat presented his credentials to the Pope at a formal ceremony in the Vatican, at the start of his diplomatic mission with the Holy See. A graduate in international relations from Gadjah Mada University, Sriyono later did courses in diplomacy before starting a career in diplomacy. He has held several posts in Indonesia’s foreign ministry as well as in diplomatic missions abroad, such as in the Netherlands, the United Nations and Russia before serving as ambassador to New Zealand, 2010-2013.
Muslims form over 87% of Indonesia’s over 255 million population, making it the most populous Muslim-majority country in the world. Catholics make up just 2.8 percent of the population. The Holy See recognized the Republic of Indonesia in 1947 and established an Apostolic Delegation in the country. This was promoted to Apostolic Internunciature in 1950, and in 1965 it became a fully-fledged Apostolic Nunciature, or Vatican Embassy. Two Pope’s have visited the South-East Asian nation, with Blessed Pope Paul VI in 1970 and St. John Paul II in 1989.
(Vatican Radio) "God is mercy": that’s the title chosen by Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti for the meditations for the Via Crucis which will be presided by Pope Francis on the night of Good Friday at the Roman Colosseum. In the texts, which will be published tomorrow by the Libreria Editrice Vaticana, the archbishop of Perugia, Italy conveys the message that in response to our fear, pain, persecution and violence, God gives his mercy freely to all. In meditations for each of the 14 stations of the Cross, Cardinal Bassetti recalls the words of St. John Paul II, reflects on the plight of persecuted Christians and the Jews killed in the death camps, and “the victims of all persecution.”He reminds us to see the face of Christ in the stranger, especially migrants, and to pray for families in difficulty, especially for couples whose marriages are failing, those who have lost their jobs, and for young people who have yet to find stable employment.Cardinal Ba...
(Vatican Radio) "God is mercy": that’s the title chosen by Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti for the meditations for the Via Crucis which will be presided by Pope Francis on the night of Good Friday at the Roman Colosseum. In the texts, which will be published tomorrow by the Libreria Editrice Vaticana, the archbishop of Perugia, Italy conveys the message that in response to our fear, pain, persecution and violence, God gives his mercy freely to all. In meditations for each of the 14 stations of the Cross, Cardinal Bassetti recalls the words of St. John Paul II, reflects on the plight of persecuted Christians and the Jews killed in the death camps, and “the victims of all persecution.”
He reminds us to see the face of Christ in the stranger, especially migrants, and to pray for families in difficulty, especially for couples whose marriages are failing, those who have lost their jobs, and for young people who have yet to find stable employment.
Cardinal Bassetti’s meditations also reflect on abused children and “those who have suffered abuse or whose dignity is not respected.”
Modern day martyrs of the recent past like Massimiliano Kolbe and Edith Stein are also raised up in the meditations “as true apostles of the contemporary world.” He points to the love, gratitude and humbleness of Joseph of Arimathea who takes Christ’s body for a “sober” burial and holds up the simplicity of his actions in contrast to the “ostentation, banality and flashiness of the funerals of the powerful of this world.”
With the closing of Christ’s tomb, the Cardinal reflects, it is not death which has triumphed – because in the shadow of this tomb in Jerusalem, he says, God is quietly “working …to generate new grace in man.”
