Catholic News 2
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump revealed highly classified information about Islamic State militants to Russian officials during a meeting last week, The Washington Post reported Monday. The White House rebutted the story, saying no intelligence sources or methods were discussed....
(Vatican Radio) The Vatican has released details of Pope Francis upcoming Pastoral Visit to Genoa.The one day visit will begin with an encounter with the “world of labour.”Later he will meet with the Bishops of Liguria, along with the priests, seminarians, and religious of the region; as well as lay curial collaborators, and representatives of other religious confessions at the Cathedral of San Lorenzo.Pope Francis will than have an opportunity to spend time with young people attached to the Diocesan Mission at the Marian Sanctuary of the Madonna della Guardia.After lunch at the sanctuary with a number of poor persons, refugees, the homeless, and prisoners, the Holy Father will meet with children from the various departments of the Giannina Gaslini Pediatric Hospital.The Pope’s Pastoral Visit will conclude with Solemn Mass at the Piazzale Kennedy, named for the first Catholic President of the United States.
(Vatican Radio) The Vatican has released details of Pope Francis upcoming Pastoral Visit to Genoa.
The one day visit will begin with an encounter with the “world of labour.”
Later he will meet with the Bishops of Liguria, along with the priests, seminarians, and religious of the region; as well as lay curial collaborators, and representatives of other religious confessions at the Cathedral of San Lorenzo.
Pope Francis will than have an opportunity to spend time with young people attached to the Diocesan Mission at the Marian Sanctuary of the Madonna della Guardia.
After lunch at the sanctuary with a number of poor persons, refugees, the homeless, and prisoners, the Holy Father will meet with children from the various departments of the Giannina Gaslini Pediatric Hospital.
The Pope’s Pastoral Visit will conclude with Solemn Mass at the Piazzale Kennedy, named for the first Catholic President of the United States.
Fatima, Portugal, May 15, 2017 / 11:11 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Jose Antonio dos Santos, an immigrant from Venezuela now living in Barcelona, made his way to Fatima for the centenary of the Marian apparitions with a special request for Our Lady: a solution for the dire crisis unfolding in his homeland.Dos Santos, who held a large Venezuelan flag, told journalists May 13 that he came to Fatima to raise “the cry of a people and to ask the Virgin of Fatima the same thing that has come from her message 100 years ago, which was peace in Portugal and the freedom of a country that was oppressed.”When Mary appeared to three young shepherd children in 1917, she came in the midst of a world embroiled in war – both on a global scale during World War I, and on a more local scale in Portugal itself, which was in a period of instability after the revolution and coup d’état leading to the establishment of the First Portuguese Republic in 1910.Roughly 220,000 Portuguese c...
Fatima, Portugal, May 15, 2017 / 11:11 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Jose Antonio dos Santos, an immigrant from Venezuela now living in Barcelona, made his way to Fatima for the centenary of the Marian apparitions with a special request for Our Lady: a solution for the dire crisis unfolding in his homeland.
Dos Santos, who held a large Venezuelan flag, told journalists May 13 that he came to Fatima to raise “the cry of a people and to ask the Virgin of Fatima the same thing that has come from her message 100 years ago, which was peace in Portugal and the freedom of a country that was oppressed.”
When Mary appeared to three young shepherd children in 1917, she came in the midst of a world embroiled in war – both on a global scale during World War I, and on a more local scale in Portugal itself, which was in a period of instability after the revolution and coup d’état leading to the establishment of the First Portuguese Republic in 1910.
Roughly 220,000 Portuguese civilians died during the war, thousands due to food shortages, and thousands more from the Spanish flu.
“Now the same thing is happening in Venezuela,” Dos Santos said, explaining that as he participates in the centenary celebrations of the Fatima Marian apparitions, he brings with him the petition for “a solution, above all for a country that is without medicine, without food.”
“It’s completely neglected in the entire country,” he said, adding that he hoped his flag would be a visible appeal to Pope Francis, “who knows what it is to work on the peripheries.”
Dos Santos is originally from Madeira, Venezuela, but has been living in Barcelona for 10 years. He was forced to immigrate to Spain along with his ailing mother and two sisters when the family could no longer access medicine for his mother’s illness.
Riots have spiked in Venezuela in recent years, resulting from unemployment, food and medicine shortages, and President Nicolás Maduro's authoritarian policies.
Price controls in 2003 caused inflation rates to skyrocket on basic necessities, barring the access of food and medicines to the people. Poor socialist policies have affected many products, and while they remain affordable on the shelf, they are under-produced and are soon swept off and sold on the black market at a triple digit inflation rate.
Violent riots have fluctuated since the death of the previous president Hugo Chavez in 2013, but gained even more traction after opposition leaders were arrested last year and Maduro's attempt for more power by dissolving the legislature in March of this year.
Now working as a crewman for an airline company, Dos Santos said the situation in Venezuela has become “impossible.”
The conditions that Venezuelans are living in today is inconceivable, he said, adding that “what the world knows about what is happening there is practically nothing” due to strict control of the media.
Javier Pereira, one of Dos Santos’ three companions, said he appreciates the concern Pope Francis has shown for Venezuela, but voiced doubt that the nation’s government is listening.
“The Pope always asks through prayer and dialogue, but unfortunately the government of Venezuela pretends to agree with what the Pope says, but what is really happening in Venezuela (is) completely different,” Pereira said, explaining that the government is able to keep up the façade because they control the media.
“People don’t know because the media is closed, and they don’t publish. What is published is that yes, they want dialogue to be done, but what is happening, is not (dialogue),” he said.
Giving an example, Dos Santos said that Cardinal Jorge Liberato Urosa Savino of Caracas was once beaten inside the basilica of Santa Teresa for suggesting that opposition and government forces come to an understanding.
The cardinal had been celebrating Mass for the feast of the Nazareno de San Pablo, one of the biggest devotions in Venezuela, and simply said he hoped “there would be an understanding between people of the opposition and the government,” Dos Santos said.
After Mass, a group of people came to into the sacristy and “they hit him inside the basilica and he had to be escorted out.”
Media don’t report on this type of incident, Dos Santos said, and so the only way people find out about it is through social networks such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, “because the people are the ones using social communication.”
What he wants to ask Our Lady of Fatima, then, is “for freedom and the peace of Venezuela,” and that she would inspire “the governments of the countries that do not intervene” to help.
He said that should he get the opportunity, he would ask Pope Francis “to intercede as an authority, as an important figure, and to mediate, at least for now, a channel for medicine and food.”
“This is why we wanted to come early and be first in line, so that form the altar he can understand the message,” he said, pointing to his flag, which isn’t merely a banner for Venezuela, but “it’s a message from an entire country that cries out for freedom.”
Pope Francis recently sent a message to the country's bishops, urging them to continue promoting a culture of encounter.
“Dear brothers, I wish to encourage you to not allow the beloved children of Venezuela to allow themselves to be overcome by distrust or despair since these are evils that sink into the hearts of people when they do not see future prospects,” he said in a May 5 letter.
“I am persuaded that Venezuela's serious problems can be solved if there is the desire to establish bridges, to dialogue seriously and to comply with the agreements that were reached.”
MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Javier Valdez, a veteran reporter who specialized in covering drug trafficking and organized crime, was slain Monday in the northern Mexico state of Sinaloa, the latest in a wave of journalist killings in one of the world's most dangerous countries for media workers....
BERLIN (AP) -- French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged Monday to work closely together to draw up a "road map" of reforms for the European Union, saying that they're both prepared even to implement treaty changes if needed....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- North Korea's launch of a longer-range missile shows advances in its technological capabilities and offers the sternest test yet of President Donald Trump's strategy to work with China to combat the threat....
HAMAM AL-ALIL, Iraq (AP) -- During a visit south of Mosul on Monday, a senior U.S. official praised territorial gains against the Islamic State group in Iraq, but local officials cautioned more aid is needed to rebuild on the heels of victories against the extremists....
SEATTLE (AP) -- Federal judges on Monday peppered a lawyer for President Donald Trump with questions about whether the administration's travel ban discriminates against Muslims and zeroed in on the president's campaign statements, the second time in a week the rhetoric has faced judicial scrutiny....
Catholic Church leaders in Indonesia have deplored the nation’s rejection of the abolition of the death penalty in the southeast Asian nation. Abolishing the death penalty was one of the recommendations put to Indonesia by member states at the 27th session of the U.N. Universal Period Review in Geneva, Switzerland. Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly, who led the Indonesian delegation, rejected the recommendation, saying the death penalty was an integral part of President Joko Widodo's fight against narcotics, which she said was one of the top-three causes of death among Indonesian youths.Father Paulus Siswantoko of the Commission for Justice, Peace and Pastoral Care of Migrants of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Indonesia (KWI) said the government's insistence on keeping the death penalty shows its failure to handle drug-related crimes. The government has often argued the death penalty is a deterrent, but this is not the case, he ...
Catholic Church leaders in Indonesia have deplored the nation’s rejection of the abolition of the death penalty in the southeast Asian nation. Abolishing the death penalty was one of the recommendations put to Indonesia by member states at the 27th session of the U.N. Universal Period Review in Geneva, Switzerland. Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly, who led the Indonesian delegation, rejected the recommendation, saying the death penalty was an integral part of President Joko Widodo's fight against narcotics, which she said was one of the top-three causes of death among Indonesian youths.
Father Paulus Siswantoko of the Commission for Justice, Peace and Pastoral Care of Migrants of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Indonesia (KWI) said the government's insistence on keeping the death penalty shows its failure to handle drug-related crimes. The government has often argued the death penalty is a deterrent, but this is not the case, he said. "Drug-related crimes and serious violence continue to occur unabated," the priest said.
Teguh Budiono, from the Community of Sant'Egidio, a Catholic lay group, said retaining the death penalty will perpetuate a culture of violence in society. "Instead of providing a deterrent effect, this practice will only provide an affirmation of the passion of revenge," he said. (Source: UCAN)
Philippine bishops on Saturday, cited the relevance of the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Fatima, Portugal, a hundred years after they reportedly occurred.Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle celebrating the Fatima centenary in Pasay City of Philippines, on Saturday said that helping the poor and the outcasts is something that we can do concretely. He said Christians must make room for people as Jesus did by doing good to others without being selective. “When we don’t like some people, we isolate them. But with Jesus, even Judas has room (in his heart),” Tagle said in his homily during Mass at the Our Lady of Fatima Parish. “Sometimes we do things that are contrary to Jesus’ teachings. Let us show that our parish is really God’s home… the body of Christ by giving room to others,” he said.More than a thousand people attended the liturgical service which was also held to celebrate the Silver Jubilee of the parish. Reflect...
Philippine bishops on Saturday, cited the relevance of the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Fatima, Portugal, a hundred years after they reportedly occurred.
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle celebrating the Fatima centenary in Pasay City of Philippines, on Saturday said that helping the poor and the outcasts is something that we can do concretely.
He said Christians must make room for people as Jesus did by doing good to others without being selective. “When we don’t like some people, we isolate them. But with Jesus, even Judas has room (in his heart),” Tagle said in his homily during Mass at the Our Lady of Fatima Parish. “Sometimes we do things that are contrary to Jesus’ teachings. Let us show that our parish is really God’s home… the body of Christ by giving room to others,” he said.
More than a thousand people attended the liturgical service which was also held to celebrate the Silver Jubilee of the parish. Reflecting on the Fatima apparitions, he reminded the faithful that everyone had a place in God’s heart and it’s something that people should emulate.
He added that Fatima visionaries Lucia, Francesco and Jacinta were then nobodies and ignored by other people but Mary “showed them their room in the heart of Jesus.” Siblings Francesco and Jacina Marto were canonized by Pope Francis in Fatima, Portugal on May 13.
During the Mass, the cardinal also blessed 200 images of Our Lady of Fatima that were distributed to the different barangays in Pasay City.
Retired Bishop Teodoro Bacani of Novaliches said the centenary celebration is an opportunity for Catholics to convert from a life of selfishness and "egoism." The prelate, who led hundreds of devotees in a candlelight procession in Manila, said the essence of the apparitions is a call to conversion. "God will do everything so that we won't lose him," Bishop Bacani told Filipino Catholics. "We must give ourselves to God ... Do some good deeds," he said.
Retired Archbishop Ramon Arguelles of Lipa said the celebration of the centenary of the apparitions means a lot to Filipinos who are described as a "people in love with Mary." He said the children of Fatima — Jacinta and Francisco Marto — should be a model for Filipinos "whose future is bleak if we forget God."
On May 13, Pope Francis declared as saints the two young shepherds who claimed to have seen the apparition of the Virgin Mary in 1917.
The story of the Marto children, who called for prayer and conversion to prevent war, the spread of communism, and the assassination of a pope, captivated Catholics around the world.
Francisco died in 1919 and Jacinta died a year later, both of pneumonia, when they were just nine and 10 years old. The third sibling, Lucia, became a nun and died in 2005 at the age of 97. (CBCP,UCAN)
