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ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) -- At least six armed men attacked beachgoers outside three hotels Sunday in Grand-Bassam, sending tourists fleeing through the historic Ivory Coast resort town. Bloody bodies were sprawled on the beach in photos apparently taken at the scene and posted on social media....
PARIS (AP) -- Last fall, soccer fans celebrated refugee children at a legendary Munich stadium; today, European voters are boosting anti-immigrant political parties and governments are closing their gates to new arrivals. The refrain of Europe's migrant crisis has changed from "welcome" to "enough already."...
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) -- Earlier this year, a wife of former polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs tried to visit him at a Texas state prison with a tiny microphone implanted in her hollowed-out watch. Another time recently, a woman planning to visit the convicted sex offender was denied entry after a metal detector found something buried in her hair and she refused to show it to a corrections officer....
CLEVELAND (AP) -- A man arrested Saturday after he tried to get on the stage at a Donald Trump campaign rally in Ohio reportedly told police he planned to grab the microphone and yell that Trump is a racist but didn't intend to hurt anyone....
BLOOMINGTON, Ill. (AP) -- Showing no signs of trying to ease the nation's tense political atmosphere, Republican front-runner Donald Trump is standing by his antagonistic campaign rhetoric, rejecting any responsibility for violence at his rallies and defending his supporters who have been charged with assaulting protesters....
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Defending champion Dallas Seavey was leading Sunday in Alaska's Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, gunning for his fourth win in the nearly 1,000-mile (1,600-kilometer) contest, with his father among his closest rivals....
(Vatican Radio) During his Angelus address on the Fifth Sunday of Lent, Pope Francis drew inspiration from the Gospel reading of the day which the Pope himself described as so beautiful that he reads it and rereads it.It tells the story of the adulterous woman, which the Pope said, highlights the theme of the mercy of God, who never wants the death of the sinner but wants them to convert and live.Pope Francis asked the faithful present in St Peter’s Square to imagine they were witnessing the scene of Jesus, the woman and the crowd who want her stoned to death for her sins.The Holy Father said that the crowd have not come to the Master to ask for his opinion but to make him fall into a trap.When Jesus responds saying "Let him who is without sin, cast the first stone at her" continued the Pope this “displaces the accusers”, and disarms them. They leave aware of their sins. Just like the Gospel reading said Pope Francis, we need to be aware of our sins and...
(Vatican Radio) During his Angelus address on the Fifth Sunday of Lent, Pope Francis drew inspiration from the Gospel reading of the day which the Pope himself described as so beautiful that he reads it and rereads it.
It tells the story of the adulterous woman, which the Pope said, highlights the theme of the mercy of God, who never wants the death of the sinner but wants them to convert and live.
Pope Francis asked the faithful present in St Peter’s Square to imagine they were witnessing the scene of Jesus, the woman and the crowd who want her stoned to death for her sins.
The Holy Father said that the crowd have not come to the Master to ask for his opinion but to make him fall into a trap.
When Jesus responds saying "Let him who is without sin, cast the first stone at her" continued the Pope this “displaces the accusers”, and disarms them. They leave aware of their sins. Just like the Gospel reading said Pope Francis, we need to be aware of our sins and have the courage to drop the stones that we aim at others and think about the wrong we do.
The Holy Father noted that when everyone has gone it is just “the woman and Jesus: misery and mercy, facing each other.”
Putting this scene into the context of today, Pope Francis explained that it is like when we are in the confessional filled with shame. We see our own misery and we ask for forgiveness.
This woman underlined, the Pope “represents all of us, sinners, that is, adulterers before God, traitors of his loyalty. And her experience is God's will for each of us: not our condemnation, but our salvation through Jesus.”
Following the recitation of the Marian prayer, all those gathered in St. Peter's Square, were given a copy of the Gospel of St. Luke, donated by Pope Francis, with an invitation to "read it every day.”
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis had a special gift for the pilgrims and tourists present in St. Peter’s Square for the Angelus prayer on the 5th Sunday of Lent: a pocket-sized copy of the Holy Gospel According to St. Luke. Inspired by the words of our Lord as recorded in Chapter 6, verse 36 of Luke’s Gospel, “Be ye merciful as your Father [in Heaven is merciful],” the little volume is titled, St. Luke’s Gospel of Mercy, reporting the theme of the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy underway in the Church throughout the world.Click below to hear our report Volunteers from the Saint Martha Pediatric Dispensary distributed the copies of the special edition (not available for sale) to those present, with the aid of a number of grandparents of the diocese of Rome. “How worthy are grandfathers and grandmothers who transmit the faith to their grandchildren,” said Pope Francis.The Holy Father also called the attention of the faithful to page 123 of t...
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis had a special gift for the pilgrims and tourists present in St. Peter’s Square for the Angelus prayer on the 5th Sunday of Lent: a pocket-sized copy of the Holy Gospel According to St. Luke. Inspired by the words of our Lord as recorded in Chapter 6, verse 36 of Luke’s Gospel, “Be ye merciful as your Father [in Heaven is merciful],” the little volume is titled, St. Luke’s Gospel of Mercy, reporting the theme of the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy underway in the Church throughout the world.
Click below to hear our report
Volunteers from the Saint Martha Pediatric Dispensary distributed the copies of the special edition (not available for sale) to those present, with the aid of a number of grandparents of the diocese of Rome. “How worthy are grandfathers and grandmothers who transmit the faith to their grandchildren,” said Pope Francis.
The Holy Father also called the attention of the faithful to page 123 of the volume, on which the full list of the Seven Corporal and Seven Spiritual Works of Mercy appear. “It would be nice that you should learn them by heart,” he said, “so as to make it easier for you all to do them!”
“I invite you to take this gospel and to read it, a little passage every day, so that the mercy of the Father might dwell in your heart and so that you will bring that mercy to everyone you meet.”
Vatican City, Mar 13, 2016 / 07:35 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A group of elderly persons and the “grandparents of Rome” distributed copies of Luke’s Gospel at the Vatican on Sunday after Pope Francis delivered his Angelus address, which touched on the human dignity of the sinner.“How deserving grandfathers and grandmothers who transmit the faith to their grandchildren!”, the Pope said as he introduced the elderly men and women, who were assisted by volunteers of the Vatican’s Santa Marta pediatric dispensary.Delivering his remarks to crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square on the fifth Sunday of Lent, the pontiff encouraged those present to read the Gospel daily in order that “the mercy of the Father may dwell in your heart, and you may bring it to everyone you meet.”“I invite you to take this Gospel, because the mercy of the Father is done works in you,” he said.In addition to containing the entire Gospel of Luke, the bookle...
Vatican City, Mar 13, 2016 / 07:35 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A group of elderly persons and the “grandparents of Rome” distributed copies of Luke’s Gospel at the Vatican on Sunday after Pope Francis delivered his Angelus address, which touched on the human dignity of the sinner.
“How deserving grandfathers and grandmothers who transmit the faith to their grandchildren!”, the Pope said as he introduced the elderly men and women, who were assisted by volunteers of the Vatican’s Santa Marta pediatric dispensary.
Delivering his remarks to crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square on the fifth Sunday of Lent, the pontiff encouraged those present to read the Gospel daily in order that “the mercy of the Father may dwell in your heart, and you may bring it to everyone you meet.”
“I invite you to take this Gospel, because the mercy of the Father is done works in you,” he said.
In addition to containing the entire Gospel of Luke, the booklets include the seven corporal and spiritual works of mercy.
“It would be nice that you learned by heart,” to make it easier to follow them, the Pope added.
It has become a custom of Pope Francis to call on volunteers from a particular group to distribute copies of the Gospel during Lent. On March 22, 2015, also the fifth Sunday of Lent, a group of homeless persons helped to distribute the Gospels.
Pope Francis centered his pre-Angelus address on Sunday’s Gospel account of Jesus forgiving the woman caught in adultery.
He recounted the scene from John’s Gospel, in which the woman is brought to Jesus by the Scribes and Pharisees. They attempt to trap him by asking whether they should stone her according to the law, or show her mercy: if Jesus follows the law, he loses his reputation, whereas if he shows her clemency, he goes against the law.
The Scribes and Pharisees “seemed to have had a thirst for blood,” the Pope observed.
However, Jesus disarmed them of their intentions, and said: whoever is without sin, cast the first stone. This prompted them to walk away in shame.
In off-the-cuff remarks, the Pope observed how effectively this scene helps us to be aware of our own sinfulness.
How good it is to “have the courage to drop the stones we have for throwing at others, and to think a little about our sins,” he said.
After the Scribes and Pharisees leave the scene, Jesus turns to the woman with “eyes full of mercy and full of love” and asks her where her accusers have gone.
Observing that Jesus treated her with dignity “perhaps for the first time,” the Pope said: “she is not her sin; she has the dignity of a person.”
Such treatment “can change lives,” and help a person leave behind slavery and take “a new path.”
The scene highlights “the theme of the mercy of God, who never wants the death of the sinner, but that she be converted and live.”
The woman caught in adultery “represents all of us,” Pope Francis said: “that we are sinners, adulterers before God, traitors of his loyalty.”
“Her experience is God's will for each of us: not our condemnation, but our salvation through Jesus. He is the grace that saves us from sin and death.”
“God does not nail down our sin,” nor does he “identify us with the wrongs we have done. We have a name, and God does not identify this name with the sin we have committed.”
“He wants that our freedom is converted from evil to good, and this is possible - you can! - With his grace.”
WASHINGTON (AP) -- When one of the country's largest for-profit college companies failed in 2014, the Education Department faced a choice. It could shut down Corinthian Colleges Inc., incurring a $1 billion loss to taxpayers and sending students scrambling, or it could find someone to take the school off its hands....
