Catholic News 2
CINCINNATI (AP) -- An Ohio judge has rejected a prosecution request to allow jurors to consider a lesser charge in the murder retrial of a former University of Cincinnati police officer....
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) -- Jurors in Bill Cosby's sexual assault trial told a judge Thursday they're deadlocked on charges the comedian drugged and molested a woman in 2004, but the judge told them to keep trying to reach a unanimous decision....
Christians of central India’s Bhopal city have demanded justice for a Catholic nun who had been detained under the false charge of forcibly converting 4 tribal girls. Sister Bina, of the Congregation of the Carmelite Sisters of St. Teresa (CSST), was arrested at Satna railway station while travelling with 4 girls on board a train from Jharkhand state. The railway police forced them to get off the train locked them up at Satna Station for at least 12 hours before moving them to the police station where they were questioned. With no apparent evidence against them they were released.Fr. Maria Stephen, head of the Public Relations Office of the Archdiocese of Bhopal, led a delegation of Christians to G.P. Singh, head of state railways. The priest told AsiaNews he submitted a memorandum expressing concern over the incident against Christians and the harassment of Sr. Bina. "We have stressed that Christians, like any other citizen of this country, have...
Christians of central India’s Bhopal city have demanded justice for a Catholic nun who had been detained under the false charge of forcibly converting 4 tribal girls. Sister Bina, of the Congregation of the Carmelite Sisters of St. Teresa (CSST), was arrested at Satna railway station while travelling with 4 girls on board a train from Jharkhand state. The railway police forced them to get off the train locked them up at Satna Station for at least 12 hours before moving them to the police station where they were questioned. With no apparent evidence against them they were released.
Fr. Maria Stephen, head of the Public Relations Office of the Archdiocese of Bhopal, led a delegation of Christians to G.P. Singh, head of state railways. The priest told AsiaNews he submitted a memorandum expressing concern over the incident against Christians and the harassment of Sr. Bina. "We have stressed that Christians, like any other citizen of this country, have the right to travel for study, work and religious motives," Fr. Stephen said.
The Hindu fundamentalists belonging to the extremist Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Matrushakti groups had filed a complaint of forced conversion of the girls. Fr. Stephen noted that "the police halted the journey of Christian missionary on the basis of a simple claim, without making appropriate verifications.” “All this goes against the freedom of Indian citizens," he said. "Now the nun and three girls - says the archdiocese spokesman - are in the Pastoral Center, while a fourth tribal has been taken to the ChildLine Child Center, as the authorities insist on her being underage."
Archbishop Leo Cornelio of Bhopal strongly condemned the harassment by radical elements professing their loyalty and political alliance with the ruling right-wing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). “All this is absolutely wrong and goes against the freedom of every Indian citizen," the Divine Word archbishop told AsiaNews. He denounced the “harassment, intimidation and humiliation” of Sr. Bina by the police while she was travelling by a public transport vehicle. “The behavior of the agents is to be condemned, " he said.
Fr. Stephen said that incident has caused "a profound trauma to the nun and the girls". Sister Tripti, vice provincial of the Carmelites, said that tribal girls from poor families were going to Bhopal for a training period. But the unpleasant incident would not disorient them and they would continue serving the poor. (Source: AsiaNews)
Vatican City, Jun 15, 2017 / 02:59 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops announced the launch of a new website for the upcoming synod on youth, and encouraged young people to take the survey available there.The theme for the 50th General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, set to take place in 2018, is “Young People, the Faith and the Discernment of Vocation.” It follows the much-talked about Extraordinary and Ordinary Synods of Bishops on the Family, held in 2014 and 2015 respectively.While much of the new website is currently only available in Italian, it includes a survey for young people in multiple different languages: Italian, English, French, Spanish and Portuguese. The answers to the survey will be sent to the synod’s Secretary General, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, through November 30, 2017, and will be used to provide the bishops with an understanding of what it’s like to be a young person in the Church.The preparat...
Vatican City, Jun 15, 2017 / 02:59 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops announced the launch of a new website for the upcoming synod on youth, and encouraged young people to take the survey available there.
The theme for the 50th General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, set to take place in 2018, is “Young People, the Faith and the Discernment of Vocation.” It follows the much-talked about Extraordinary and Ordinary Synods of Bishops on the Family, held in 2014 and 2015 respectively.
While much of the new website is currently only available in Italian, it includes a survey for young people in multiple different languages: Italian, English, French, Spanish and Portuguese.
The answers to the survey will be sent to the synod’s Secretary General, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, through November 30, 2017, and will be used to provide the bishops with an understanding of what it’s like to be a young person in the Church.
The preparatory document for the synod defines youth as being individuals 16-29 years old, but also takes into account that the definition of “young” is different depending on where you’re from. The survey allows for answers from people born in the year 1950 or later.
The broad survey includes questions about education, home and family life, what young people think about themselves, and how much trust they have in institutions such as the government and the Church.
It is part of an “extensive consultation that the General Secretariat is doing at all levels of the people of God,” according to a Vatican statement.
The website also includes videos, photos and messages from the Pope to young people, as well as the preparatory document and a history of the synod.
The theme for the 2018 synod was announced in October 2016.
“Through every phase of this Synod, the Church wants again to state her desire to encounter, accompany and care for every young person, without exception,” the preparatory document reads.
“The Church cannot, nor does she wish to, abandon them to the isolation and exclusion to which the world exposes them.”
According to the document, the Church wants to ask young people how best to reach them with the message of the Gospel.
“By listening to young people, the Church will once again hear the Lord speaking in today’s world. Listening to their aspirations, the Church can glimpse the world which lies ahead and the paths the Church is called to follow.”
Hartford, Conn., Jun 15, 2017 / 06:13 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Important decisions loom ahead as the Archdiocese of Hartford preps its reorganization plan, a reconstruction and consolidation of parishes throughout much of Connecticut.Under the new plan, 144 parishes in the archdiocese will be merged into 59 new parishes. Each new church community will be made up of two to six old parishes.The reorganization, which will officially begin on June 29, will cut the number of parishes nearly in half, from 212 to 127.Only 68 parishes will go untouched in the reorganization.Saint Margaret of Scotland in Waterbury is the only church scheduled to be deconsecrated thus far, with no announcement from the archdiocese as to what will happen with the building itself. Additionally, 26 church buildings will close, and will not hold regularly scheduled Mass times.The archdiocese has developed a 200-page manual to help ease the process, which includes 26 sections offering suggestions on the transition of ...
Hartford, Conn., Jun 15, 2017 / 06:13 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Important decisions loom ahead as the Archdiocese of Hartford preps its reorganization plan, a reconstruction and consolidation of parishes throughout much of Connecticut.
Under the new plan, 144 parishes in the archdiocese will be merged into 59 new parishes. Each new church community will be made up of two to six old parishes.
The reorganization, which will officially begin on June 29, will cut the number of parishes nearly in half, from 212 to 127.
Only 68 parishes will go untouched in the reorganization.
Saint Margaret of Scotland in Waterbury is the only church scheduled to be deconsecrated thus far, with no announcement from the archdiocese as to what will happen with the building itself. Additionally, 26 church buildings will close, and will not hold regularly scheduled Mass times.
The archdiocese has developed a 200-page manual to help ease the process, which includes 26 sections offering suggestions on the transition of employment, cemeteries, parish records, and a check list for merging parishes.
Questions have been raised about what to do with some of the items donated to specific churches. The manual mentions that any sacred objects, like tabernacles, monstrances, and chalices, are not to be become an individual’s property.
The manual suggests establishing sub-committees, with representatives from each merging parish, to aid the transition, including the turnover of objects and parish archives. Developing a strategic plan is also encouraged to help create a guiding mission statement, and an assessment of the risks and goals surrounding the transition.
Not only do the archdiocese’s guidelines map out programs to facilitate the physical changes, but they also offer personal and community-led prayers to help with anxiety and stress over the move.
The pastor of Saint Rosa Lima in New Haven is one of the over 40 priests who are being reassigned in the new project, and he has established a transitional team, creating an opportunity for prayer and dialogue to help prepare his parishioners for the adjustment.
Saint Rosa of Lima will be joined by Saint Francis Parish in New Haven, adding more people to the nearly 1,300 families already attending the church.
Father James Manship served as Saint Rosa of Lima’s pastor for 12 years, and, although he sees his parish as strong, he understands the upheaval is upsetting and uneasy.
“The parish has been such a foundational part of their life and for that to have to be morphed and changed from the outside, by the restructuring, is tough,” he told the Hartford Courant.
Other parishioners are excited about the transition. Members of St. Bridget’s and St. Bartholomew’s are joining together in the new St. Teresa of Calcutta Parish.
“We agree that now we are moving forward as a stronger community, with Mother Teresa as a patron, is so beautiful, that we can go forward and proclaim the gospel of the Lord. This is what our point [is] here,” Father Marcin Pluciennik, who had been pastor of Saint Bridget Parish, told the Hartford Courant.
Archbishop Leonard Blair of Hartford has said that the reorganization is not just for financial reasons or due to declining membership, but is also for a rejuvenation of the community’s spiritual life.
BEIJING (AP) -- An explosion struck the entrance to a kindergarten in eastern China on Thursday, police said. State media said there were casualties, and videos purportedly from the scene and posted on social media showed children and adults lying on the ground, some bleeding....
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- At least 31 people are dead after the overnight siege of a popular restaurant in Somalia's capital by al-Shabab Islamic extremists, ended Thursday morning by security forces with all five attackers killed. Police said many victims were killed at point-blank range after being hunted down....
LONDON (AP) -- London firefighters traumatized by the devastation they witnessed in a high-rise apartment blaze that killed at least 17 people worked Thursday to make the building safe so they could continue the search for more victims....
PHOENIX (AP) -- When Ron Barber saw the news that a gunman opened fire on Republican lawmakers practicing for a baseball game, he immediately was taken back to when he was yelling his wife's name and phone number while lying on a gurney. Pam Simon remembers lying on the ground unable to move after the bullet went through her wrist into her chest....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- On the day that gunfire shattered the morning calm of suburban Washington, dozens of family members of those killed by past gun violence had gathered in the capital to lobby against Republican-backed legislation to make it easier to buy gun silencers....
