Catholic News 2
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) -- Jurors in the Bill Cosby sexual assault case, weighing charges that could send him to prison for the rest of his life, drilled down Tuesday on what the TV star said happened inside his suburban Philadelphia home and how he characterized his relationship with the accuser....
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- It's clear from former Attorney General Eric Holder's recommendations on how to fix Uber's dysfunctional management that the male-dominated company grew huge without even the most basic procedures to prevent sexual harassment, bullying and other bad behavior....
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- Virginia Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam won the Democratic nomination in the closely watched race for governor Tuesday, defeating a more liberal insurgent challenger in a contest to be one of the party's standard-bearers against President Donald Trump....
PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) -- Dennis Rodman, the former NBA bad boy who has palled around with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, began sightseeing in Pyongyang on Wednesday during a trip he said he hoped would "open a door" for his former "Celebrity Apprentice" boss - President Donald Trump....
LONDON (AP) -- Firefighters were battling a massive fire and evacuating residents from the burning 27-floor building in London early Wednesday morning....
LONDON (AP) -- The Latest on the London fire (all times local):...
CINCINNATI (AP) -- An American college student whose parents say has been in a coma while serving a 15-year prison term in North Korea was released and returned to the United States Tuesday as the Trump administration revealed a rare exchange with the reclusive country....
Vatican City, Jun 12, 2017 / 12:14 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Consolation is never self-reliant, Pope Francis said during Mass on Monday, noting it is only possible to receive the Lord’s encouragement through another.“No one can console himself, no one – and whoever tries to do it ends up looking into the mirror – staring into the mirror and trying to ‘make oneself up,’” said the Pope during his June 12 Mass at the chapel of the Vatican's Casa Santa Marta.“The experience of consolation, which is a spiritual experience, always needs ‘someone else’ in order to be full.”He reflected on the day’s readings, in which Saint Paul described the need for the Lord’s consolation in his second letter to the Corinthians, and the Beatitudes in the Gospel of Matthew.He said the “doctors of the law” will not have true consolation because they are the ones who console themselves. “One ‘consoles’ ...
Vatican City, Jun 12, 2017 / 12:14 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Consolation is never self-reliant, Pope Francis said during Mass on Monday, noting it is only possible to receive the Lord’s encouragement through another.
“No one can console himself, no one – and whoever tries to do it ends up looking into the mirror – staring into the mirror and trying to ‘make oneself up,’” said the Pope during his June 12 Mass at the chapel of the Vatican's Casa Santa Marta.
“The experience of consolation, which is a spiritual experience, always needs ‘someone else’ in order to be full.”
He reflected on the day’s readings, in which Saint Paul described the need for the Lord’s consolation in his second letter to the Corinthians, and the Beatitudes in the Gospel of Matthew.
He said the “doctors of the law” will not have true consolation because they are the ones who console themselves. “One ‘consoles’ with these closed things that do not let one grow,” he said, “and the air that one breathes is that narcissistic air of self-reference.”
This narcissism never allows for growth or a view of the entire picture, he explained.
Pope Francis said consolation is always from the Lord, and is a two-fold process: receiving a gift and serving others. He said “consolation is a state of transition from the gift received to the service given.”
Consolation must begin with a recognition of one’s own need, he said, explaining that “only then does the Lord come console us, and give us the mission to console others. It is not easy to have one’s heart open to receive the gift and to serve.”
He said an open heart is a happy one because it relies on the Lord, and he reflected on the receptive spirit described in Beatitudes.
“The poor: the heart is opened with an attitude of poverty, of poverty of spirit; those who know how to cry, the meek ones, the meekness of heart; those hungry for justice who fight for justice; those who are merciful, who have mercy on others; the pure of heart; peace-makers and those who are persecuted for justice, for love of righteousness.”
“Thus is the heart opened and [then] the Lord comes with the gift of consolation and the mission of consoling others,” Francis stated.
The Pope contrasted it to the men with closed hearts, who find themselves sufficient: “those who do not need to cry because they feel they are in the right.” He said these men do not understand meekness, mercy, or forgiveness, and in turn they cannot serve others in the same way.
He asked his audience to reflect on how open their hearts are to be able to ask for consolation and then to pass it on to their neighbors.
Ending with words of encouragement, he said the Lord always aims to console us and “asks us to open the doors of our hearts even only just a little bit.”
Vatican City, Jun 13, 2017 / 02:09 pm (CNA).- Philosopher Nigel Biggar, who backs legal abortion, is among the 45 new appointments to the Pontifical Academy for Life, according to a statement on the Vatican website. Biggar, the Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology at the University of Oxford, has said that he supports legal abortion up to 18 weeks. In a 2011 dialogue with Peter Singer, a philosopher who supports infanticide, Biggar said: “I would be inclined to draw the line for abortion at 18 weeks after conception, which is roughly about the earliest time when there is some evidence of brain activity, and therefore of consciousness. In terms of maintaining a strong social commitment to preserving human life in hindered forms, and in terms of not becoming too casual about killing human life, we need to draw the line much more conservatively.” He added: “It’s not clear that a human foetus is the same kind of thing as an adult or a ma...
Vatican City, Jun 13, 2017 / 02:09 pm (CNA).- Philosopher Nigel Biggar, who backs legal abortion, is among the 45 new appointments to the Pontifical Academy for Life, according to a statement on the Vatican website.
Biggar, the Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology at the University of Oxford, has said that he supports legal abortion up to 18 weeks.
In a 2011 dialogue with Peter Singer, a philosopher who supports infanticide, Biggar said: “I would be inclined to draw the line for abortion at 18 weeks after conception, which is roughly about the earliest time when there is some evidence of brain activity, and therefore of consciousness. In terms of maintaining a strong social commitment to preserving human life in hindered forms, and in terms of not becoming too casual about killing human life, we need to draw the line much more conservatively.”
He added: “It’s not clear that a human foetus is the same kind of thing as an adult or a mature human being, and therefore deserves quite the same treatment. It then becomes a question of where we draw the line, and there is no absolutely cogent reason for drawing it in one place over another.”
Biggar has also opposed the legalization of assisted suicide, and written in defense of just war.
Other appointments to the Academy include Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, Dr. John M. Haas, President of the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia, and Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney.
The pontifical academy was founded by Pope St. John Paul II and professor Jerome Lejeune in 1994 and is dedicated to promoting the Church’s consistent life ethic.
The appointments come at a time when the Pontifical Academy for Life is under sharp scrutiny and criticism from former members, who are concerned by the actions of current president Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, who has been head of the Academy for nine months.
In November, Archbishop Paglia implemented new statutes for the academy that ended the terms of the 172 members of the academy (with some subject to possible renewal), and removed a requirement for new members to sign a statement promising to defend life in conformity with the Church’s magisterium.
Christine Vollmer, a founding member of the academy and president of the Latin American Alliance for the Family, told the National Catholic Register that Archbishop Paglia’s actions amount to the “elimination” of the institution which St. John Paul II founded.
Mercedes Wilson, president of Family of the Americas and also a founding member of the academy, told the Register that Archbishop Paglia’s appointment is “very tragic” and said that he seemingly wishes to “destroy” both the academy and the Pope St. John Paul II Pontifical Institute on Studies on Marriage and Family, to which he was appointed grand chancellor last year.
Archbishop Paglia defended his actions in comments to the Register, and urged anyone with concerns to read what he has said and written in defense of life.
He added that new members will be “not only talented and accomplished,” but also “truly representative of all who value life at all its stages,” and said his vision for the academy is one that must “express clearly what it means to be human and must present an attractive vision of human love and solidarity,” drawing on the Church’s “great treasury of human and Gospel wisdom” to inspire all cultures “to a new and fruitful humanism.”
Padua, Italy, Jun 13, 2017 / 04:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- As the Church celebrates St. Anthony of Padua, his widespread popularity can be traced to his efforts at reaching out as a neighbor to all peoples, according to the rector of the basilica where the saint's body rests.“The devotion to the Saint of the Peoples is truly universal perhaps because he himself desired to consider all the world his as his home,” Father Oliviero Svanera, rector of the Basilica of St. Anthony of Padua, told CNA.“He was Portuguese by birth, he went to Morocco to spread the faith, he landed in Sicily by shipwreck, then he went back up the Italian peninsula all the way to Assisi and joined the friars of St. Francis, who sent him all the way to France.Once St. Athony returned to Italy he was appointed provincial superior and served in Padua, where he died in 1231.“It is told that he would speak one language made of a thousand accents but which was understandable to all,” Fr....
Padua, Italy, Jun 13, 2017 / 04:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- As the Church celebrates St. Anthony of Padua, his widespread popularity can be traced to his efforts at reaching out as a neighbor to all peoples, according to the rector of the basilica where the saint's body rests.
“The devotion to the Saint of the Peoples is truly universal perhaps because he himself desired to consider all the world his as his home,” Father Oliviero Svanera, rector of the Basilica of St. Anthony of Padua, told CNA.
“He was Portuguese by birth, he went to Morocco to spread the faith, he landed in Sicily by shipwreck, then he went back up the Italian peninsula all the way to Assisi and joined the friars of St. Francis, who sent him all the way to France.
Once St. Athony returned to Italy he was appointed provincial superior and served in Padua, where he died in 1231.
“It is told that he would speak one language made of a thousand accents but which was understandable to all,” Fr. Svanera said. “As such, he was a neighbor to all: to the poor, to people in difficulty, to the sick. In this, his being 'brother of all,' is perhaps his universality, something that renders him a friend of all the peoples of the world, beyond nationality, culture, and even religions, given that St. Anthony is respected even by those who do not profess the Catholic faith.”
St. Anthony was born as Fernando Martins in Lisbon around 1195, and when he was 15 entered the Abbey of St. Vincent with the Canons Regular of St. Augustine, and he was ordained a priest.
In 1220 he was moved by seeing the relics of five Franciscan missionaries who had been martyred in Morocco. He was allowed to leave the Augustinians to join the Order of Friars Minor, where he took the name Anthony. He worked as a preacher and laid the foundations of Franciscan theology.
He was canonized in 1232, only a year after his death, by Gregory IX, who had heard him preach and called him the “Ark of the Testament.”
It was also in 1232 that construction of the basilica which houses St. Anthony's body was begun. It was finished at the beginning of the 14th century.
Please find below more from CNA's interview with Fr. Svanera, rector of the basilica:
For the feast day, there exists the famous Tredicina in honor of the saint: What does this consist of?
By the word “Tredicina” is meant the thirteen days of meditation and spiritual preparation for the solemnity of the saint, that is, from May 31 to June 13. Every day those devoted to St. Anthony invoke the intercession of the saint through a particular prayer, the Tredicina to Saint Anthony specifically, to entrust themselves to the mercy of God the Father. These are the days in which the basilica becomes the goal of pilgrims, both individuals and those organized in groups, and our sanctuary becomes truly universal, as in these days of veneration and prayer there are tens of thousands of pilgrims who come here from every country of the world.
Another tradition is the “Bread of St. Anthony.” What is the significance of this tradition?
In a word, the “Bread of St. Anthony” is synonymous with charity. The birth of this tradition has its roots in one of the “miracles” of the saint, that of Tommasino, a baby of twenty months who drowned in a washtub. The desperate mother invoked the help of the saint and made a vow: If she would obtain this grace, she would give to the poor the child’s weight in bread. And the little one returned miraculously to life. This miracle has given origin to two Antonian works in faithfulness to the spirit of St. Anthony: Firstly, l’Opera Pane dei Poveri (the Bread Work of the Poor), the Antonian organization which in Padua works to bring bread, and other necessities to people in difficulty, and next the Caritas Antoniana Onlus (Antonian Charity not-for-profit), the body of friars of the saint who in 2016 supported 124 development projects in 40 countries of the world, for a total of €2.64 million ($2.96 million).
St. Anthony was a great preacher who practiced charity: What can this teach us about a “Church that goes forth”?
The gospel and charity are the two hinges of the lesson from St. Anthony. His preaching was always capable of provoking the heart of everyone. And this too is thanks to his exemplary life and his humility, which he learned from Most Holy Mary, to whom he was profoundly devoted. St. Anthony proclaimed the gospel which conquers the temptation of power, the temptation of pride, the temptation, Pope Francis would say today, of worldliness, of how much worldliness there is and which brings us to act out life as in a play, or to want to give an appearance. Through his love, St. Anthony knew to stoop for the other (refugee, migrant, unemployed, alone, sick, imprisoned, marginalized, poor) and to take care of him. We will thus be effective Christians of a Church which goes forth if, like St. Anthony, we manage to go forth from ourselves to preach Christ crucified, following him with a style of humility, of true humility, a humility full of love.
