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ISTANBUL (AP) -- An explosion at Istanbul's historic Sultanahmet district, which is popular with tourists, has injured several people on Tuesday, Turkish media reports said. At least two people were hospitalized, the private Dogan news agency reported....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Since the tradition of a State of the Union address began in the late 18th century, only a few presidents have not delivered their final speech in person....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama will deliver a final State of the Union address Tuesday brimming with optimism - far more than most Americans possess....
GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) -- The latest developments from the College Football Playoff national championship game between Clemson and Alabama (all times local):...
DETROIT (AP) -- After a few years of Detroit domination, two foreign automakers nabbed 2016 North American Car and Truck/Utility of the Year honors....
BURNS, Ore. (AP) -- The leader of a small, armed group occupying a national wildlife refuge in southeastern Oregon said Monday he and his followers are going through government documents stored inside refuge buildings....
LOS MOCHIS, Mexico (AP) -- At 4:40 a.m. in a central neighborhood of the Pacific coast city of Los Mochis, 17 Mexican marines began their assault on a safe house thinking there was a good chance Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was inside. The operation was dubbed "black swan."...
Cologne, Germany, Jan 11, 2016 / 03:21 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A week after hundreds were attacked in Cologne on New Year’s Eve, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Archbishop of Munich and Freising and president of the German Conference of Catholic Bishops, condemned the attacks in a press release and called for more vigilance in the future.“(T)he excesses in Cologne and other large cities are deeply disturbing for our society and can in no way be tolerated,” Marx said. “We need accurate information and a clear response from the authorities.”Over 500 criminal complaints – about 40 percent of which involve allegations of sexual assault – have been filed to the German police regarding attacks that took place in the square outside Cologne’s main train station on Monday night according to BBC.Women appeared to be intentional targets of the attacks, which were allegedly carried out by large groups of seeming Arabs or North Africans.The incident has...
Cologne, Germany, Jan 11, 2016 / 03:21 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A week after hundreds were attacked in Cologne on New Year’s Eve, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Archbishop of Munich and Freising and president of the German Conference of Catholic Bishops, condemned the attacks in a press release and called for more vigilance in the future.
“(T)he excesses in Cologne and other large cities are deeply disturbing for our society and can in no way be tolerated,” Marx said.
“We need accurate information and a clear response from the authorities.”
Over 500 criminal complaints – about 40 percent of which involve allegations of sexual assault – have been filed to the German police regarding attacks that took place in the square outside Cologne’s main train station on Monday night according to BBC.
Women appeared to be intentional targets of the attacks, which were allegedly carried out by large groups of seeming Arabs or North Africans.
The incident has sparked national and international controversy, with accusations of a cover-up by the police, media and politicians after investigations indicated many of the attackers were men who entered the country as refugees.
The local police have been inundated with accusations over the delay in informing the public about the attacks. They have also been criticized for supposedly holding back information about the nationality of the suspects.
German bishops also faced criticisms for their failure to respond in a timely manner.
In his Jan. 8 statement, Cardinal Marx warned that “these new forms of violence and especially the inhumane treatment of women cannot be tolerated” and he demanded that “all the different forces in society must work together to prevent this type of incidents and guarantee safety.”
“As a Church we are here to make our contribution to participate in a society that lives in mutual respect,” he stated.
The Cologne chief of police, Wolfgang Albers, lost his job over the controversy. He was dismissed Monday, Jan. 11.
A police report leaked to press noted that when he was arrested one of the suspects exclaimed “I’m a Syrian. You have to treat me well. Mrs. Merkel invited me,” referring to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
In late November, Merkel was harshly criticized for promoting an open door policy for refugees, despite various security concerns. In 2015, the country took in more than 1 million asylum seekers, largely from North Africa and the Middle East.
In a statement to the BBC, Merkel described the attacks as “repugnant criminal acts” that Germany “will not accept.”
The German Chancellor demanded that “everything that happened there will be brought to the table.”
"We must examine again and again whether we have already done what is necessary in terms of deportations from Germany, in order to send clear signals to those who are not prepared to abide by our legal order."
Cologne Mayor Henriette Reker also came under fire for her response to the attacks, when she initially refuted the link to migrants and said that the city will be publishing “online guides” to help women and girls be “better prepared” when they go out at night.
IMAGE: Nancy WiechecBy Nancy WiechecTUMACACORI, Ariz. (CNS) -- Jesuit Father EusebioFrancisco Kino, an Italian missionary to the American Southwest known as the "Padreon Horseback," was honored Jan. 10 at the Tumacacori National HistoricalPark with Kino Legacy Day.The celebration of the priest --who founded 24 missions and was also known as an astronomer, builder, mapmaker,linguist, agriculturalist and stockman -- kicked off the yearlong celebrationof the National Park Service's 100th anniversary.Bob Love, superintendent ofTumacacori National Historical Park, said Father Kino played a key role in thepark's story.But that morning, park rangersleft much of the storytelling to Tucson Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas, whose diocesecovers the land that Father Kino crisscrossed, building his missions when hetraveled more than 15,000 miles by horseback.During Mass, held outside theruins of Mission San Jose de Tumacacori church, the bishop told the crowd whatit is to be a great missionary. He compa...
IMAGE: Nancy Wiechec
By Nancy Wiechec
TUMACACORI, Ariz. (CNS) -- Jesuit Father Eusebio Francisco Kino, an Italian missionary to the American Southwest known as the "Padre on Horseback," was honored Jan. 10 at the Tumacacori National Historical Park with Kino Legacy Day.
The celebration of the priest -- who founded 24 missions and was also known as an astronomer, builder, mapmaker, linguist, agriculturalist and stockman -- kicked off the yearlong celebration of the National Park Service's 100th anniversary.
Bob Love, superintendent of Tumacacori National Historical Park, said Father Kino played a key role in the park's story.
But that morning, park rangers left much of the storytelling to Tucson Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas, whose diocese covers the land that Father Kino crisscrossed, building his missions when he traveled more than 15,000 miles by horseback.
During Mass, held outside the ruins of Mission San Jose de Tumacacori church, the bishop told the crowd what it is to be a great missionary. He compared missionaries such as Father Kino to archers, ardent with a singular, fixed target.
"They teach Christ, they preach Christ, they lead to Christ," he said. "That was the purpose of Kino's whole life, to lead the native peoples to Christ. To teach them about a God who loved them dearly and who was there among them, always at their side."
The Tumacacori mission church dates to the early 1800s. It had a short-lived tenure as an active church. Apache attacks, upheaval following war with Mexico and one particularly hard winter led to its abandonment by the mid-1800s. The site was named a national monument by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1908, and in 1990 Congress created Tumacacori National Historical Park, which includes the old monument land and the remains of two smaller missions.
Father Kino was born in 1645 in the northern Italian town of Segno and was educated by Jesuits. As a young man, he fell seriously ill and prayed for God's grace and healing, calling on the Jesuit missionary St. Francis Xavier as intercessor. When he got well, he joined the Jesuits.
He yearned to do missionary work in China, but was sent to Mexico instead. He worked in Baja California for three years and spent the rest of his life in Pimeria Alta, what is now the northern part of Mexico's Sonora state and southern Arizona.
He first arrived in Tumacacori (pronounced Too muh ka' koh ree) in January 1691, responding to an invitation of its O'odham people. Shortly after, there were four Kino missions in O'odham communities. Today, San Xavier del Bac remains the only active Kino mission in Arizona. Located just south of Tucson, the northernmost point of the Sonoran mission trail, it is a popular destination for pilgrims and tourists.
Tumacacori, about 20 miles from the border city of Nogales, Arizona, covers 360 acres and is among the smallest of the 23 national parks within Arizona.
During the Kino Legacy Day, the park service set up displays of heritage horses, livestock and other items associated with the missionary priest who brought cattle, other livestock, European farming tools and seeds to the area so the missions would be self-sufficient.
Southern Arizona rancher Dean Fish said Father Kino's lasting impact on the area is significant.
Cattle raised for beef remains a large part of the economy in Arizona's Santa Cruz County, Fish said.
"We're honored to be a part of that, to feed America a little bit and to be able to work and be a part of God's land," he said.
Mark O'Hare of the Kino Heritage Society handed out Kino wheat to Tumacacori visitors. The grains came from a line of winter wheat the Jesuit brought to the missions.
O'Hare, a Tucson native and admirer of Father Kino since boyhood, runs the society's website, padrekino.com. He said the group was formed in 2010 to make Father Kino's life and legacy more known to the public and to assist the Diocese of Tucson in promoting his cause for canonization.
"Spiritually, he was this man of great faith," O'Hare told Catholic News Service. "He was what we'd call a white martyr, not someone who died for the faith, but someone who dedicated his life for the salvation of souls."
The Mexican Archdiocese of Hermosillo in Sonora, the Diocese of Tucson and the Italian Archdiocese of Trent, where Father Kino was born, have all been advocating for his canonization.
The Vatican received the diocesan petition and documentation on Father Kino's life and work in 2006, but has yet to act to name him venerable, the next step in the sainthood process.
Tucson resident Rosie Garcia, president of the Kino Heritage Society, said moving his cause along would a blessing for area. She marks her admiration for the missionary with the vanity Arizona license plate that reads KINOLND.
"He was a man of peace and that is what we need right now -- peace in these border areas where there is so much turmoil," she said.
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