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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Donald Trump on Thursday delayed his first trip home to New York as president to celebrate House passage of legislation undoing much of former President Barack Obama's health law, a long-sought GOP goal and top Trump campaign promise....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Relieved Republicans muscled their health care bill through the House Thursday, taking their biggest step toward dismantling the Obama health care overhaul since Donald Trump took office. They won passage only after overcoming their own divisions that nearly sank the measure six weeks ago....
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis’ prayer intention for May is dedicated to Christians in Africa: That Christians in Africa, in imitation of the Merciful Jesus, may give prophetic witness to reconciliation, justice, and peace.The Apostleship of Prayer has produced the Pope’s Video on this prayer intention.The full text of the Pope’s Video is below:When we look at Africa, we see much more than its great natural richness.We see its joie de vivre, and above all, we see grounds for hope in Africa’s rich intellectual, cultural and religious heritage.But we cannot fail to see the fratricidal wars decimating peoples and destroying these natural and cultural resources.Let us join with our brothers and sisters of this great continent, and pray together that Christians in Africa, in imitation of the Merciful Jesus, may give prophetic witness to reconciliation, justice, and peace.
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis’ prayer intention for May is dedicated to Christians in Africa: That Christians in Africa, in imitation of the Merciful Jesus, may give prophetic witness to reconciliation, justice, and peace.
The Apostleship of Prayer has produced the Pope’s Video on this prayer intention.
The full text of the Pope’s Video is below:
When we look at Africa, we see much more than its great natural richness.
We see its joie de vivre, and above all, we see grounds for hope in Africa’s rich intellectual, cultural and religious heritage.
But we cannot fail to see the fratricidal wars decimating peoples and destroying these natural and cultural resources.
Let us join with our brothers and sisters of this great continent, and pray together that Christians in Africa, in imitation of the Merciful Jesus, may give prophetic witness to reconciliation, justice, and peace.
Bishop John Hsane Hgyi, the bishop of Pathein diocese of Myanmar has expressed joy over the joint agreement between the Holy See and the Republic of the Union of Myanmar of establishing diplomatic relations, a decision he says is for the positive evolution and for the steps towards change. The decision came after the meeting in the Vatican held on May 4, between Pope Francis and leader Aung San Suu Kyi, State Councilor and Foreign Minister of Burma.The Bishop notes that the main challenge is to resolve conflicts with ethnic minorities. He hopes all the different ethnic groups can join the May 24 national meeting in Yangon for the signing of a ceasefire and make it a real step towards national reconciliation.All peoples in Myanmar and all religions want peace he says but today the nation needs an effort on behalf of everyone to reach peace. The Catholic Church expresses the utmost solidarity even with the Rohingya Muslims and desires solutio...
Bishop John Hsane Hgyi, the bishop of Pathein diocese of Myanmar has expressed joy over the joint agreement between the Holy See and the Republic of the Union of Myanmar of establishing diplomatic relations, a decision he says is for the positive evolution and for the steps towards change.
The decision came after the meeting in the Vatican held on May 4, between Pope Francis and leader Aung San Suu Kyi, State Councilor and Foreign Minister of Burma.
The Bishop notes that the main challenge is to resolve conflicts with ethnic minorities. He hopes all the different ethnic groups can join the May 24 national meeting in Yangon for the signing of a ceasefire and make it a real step towards national reconciliation.
All peoples in Myanmar and all religions want peace he says but today the nation needs an effort on behalf of everyone to reach peace. The Catholic Church expresses the utmost solidarity even with the Rohingya Muslims and desires solutions that respect human dignity and human rights, according to criteria of peace and justice the Bishop notes.
The Catholic Church in Myanmar is observing 2017 as the Year of Peace and the faithful are encouraged to fast, make sacrifices and to raise awareness for peace in the nation. Currently seminars and conferences are being promoted on the subject of reconciliation in different dioceses and the collaboration of other religious leaders is sought the Bishop said.
The Government spokesperson Zaw Htay commenting on the diplomatic relations said that his country wanted to be part of the international family and that establishing diplomatic relations with the Vatican was key to that, given its role as a reference point for all Christians.
A spokesman for the Catholic Church in Myanmar, Fr. Soe Naing, said the new relationship would do more than merely facilitate direct contacts between the Holy See and Yangon.
The need for peace is expressed at all levels. Cardinal Bo at an interreligious peace conference in Yangon on April 26 reminded his counterparts from other faiths about their moral obligation to build peace and harmony at the grassroots levels in the strife-torn nation. He said that the wish for peace needs to shine through every word and deed, and solutions must be found through "dialogue and mutual understanding."
About one percent of Myanmar’s 51 million people are Catholics where the church has been active for five centuries. The celebrations for the 500 years of the Church in Myanmar should have taken place in 2011, but the political situation and the lack of true religious freedom then, did not allow for such a nation-wide celebration. Hence the jubilee year was marked from Nov. 24, 2013 to Nov. 23, 2014.(Fides)
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Thursday approved decrees regarding miracles or heroic virtues attributed to 12 men and women who are currently on the road to sainthood, including former Vietnamese Cardinal François Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan.The cardinal, who died in Rome in 2002, served as head of the Vatican’s Justice and Peace Council, after he was barred by the government from returning to his native country. Following the fall of Saigon in 1975, Van Thuan was seized by the communist government and spent 13 years in prison or under house arrest, including eight years in solidary confinement.The reflections, prayers and messages that he managed to smuggle out of prison to support the Catholic community in Vietnam during that era have been published in a book entitled ‘The Road of Hope’.
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Thursday approved decrees regarding miracles or heroic virtues attributed to 12 men and women who are currently on the road to sainthood, including former Vietnamese Cardinal François Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan.
The cardinal, who died in Rome in 2002, served as head of the Vatican’s Justice and Peace Council, after he was barred by the government from returning to his native country.
Following the fall of Saigon in 1975, Van Thuan was seized by the communist government and spent 13 years in prison or under house arrest, including eight years in solidary confinement.
The reflections, prayers and messages that he managed to smuggle out of prison to support the Catholic community in Vietnam during that era have been published in a book entitled ‘The Road of Hope’.
Vatican City, May 4, 2017 / 06:14 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis told the Vatican’s Secretariat for Communications, which is holding their first plenary assembly this week, that given a growing digital culture throughout the world, new media must become a primary platform for spreading the Gospel.“Studying new ways and means to communicate the Gospel of mercy to all people, in the heart of different cultures, through the media that the new digital cultural context makes available to our contemporaries” is something that is “very much in my heart,” Pope Francis said May 4.He spoke to members of his Secretariat for Communications, which was formed in June 2015 as part of his ongoing reform of the Roman Curia, during their first plenary assembly.The assembly is taking place May 3-5 at the Vatican and gathers members of the secretariat, which is headed by Msgr. Dario Edoardo Vigano.In his audience with the plenary participants, Francis said the word &ldq...
Vatican City, May 4, 2017 / 06:14 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis told the Vatican’s Secretariat for Communications, which is holding their first plenary assembly this week, that given a growing digital culture throughout the world, new media must become a primary platform for spreading the Gospel.
“Studying new ways and means to communicate the Gospel of mercy to all people, in the heart of different cultures, through the media that the new digital cultural context makes available to our contemporaries” is something that is “very much in my heart,” Pope Francis said May 4.
He spoke to members of his Secretariat for Communications, which was formed in June 2015 as part of his ongoing reform of the Roman Curia, during their first plenary assembly.
The assembly is taking place May 3-5 at the Vatican and gathers members of the secretariat, which is headed by Msgr. Dario Edoardo Vigano.
In his audience with the plenary participants, Francis said the word “reform” is something we shouldn’t be afraid of. To reform, he said, isn’t just “repainting” things, but is rather “giving another form to things, organizing them in a different way.”
“And it must be done with intelligence, meekness, but also...also, allow me the word, with a bit of ‘violence,’” he said, but stressed that its a “good violence to reform things.”
More than just merging the Vatican’s various communications entities, the secretariat has the task of building “a truly new institution” that has arisen from the need for a “so-called ‘digital convergence,’” he said.
Whereas in the past each form of expression had its own medium in either newspapers, books, photographs, television, radio and CDs, now all of these forms of communications, are transmitted “with a single code that exploits the binary system.”
In this context, he pointed to the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, which will officially join the secretariat next year, saying it “will have to find a new and different way to reach a number of readers greater to what it can achieve in paper format.”
As of now the paper operates primarily in daily and weekly print format, with a limited online presence in its various languages.
Pope Francis also turned to Vatican Radio, which broadcasts papal and Vatican news several languages throughout the world, saying the entity will need to be revisited “according to new models and adapted to the modern technologies and needs of our contemporaries.”
He made a point to emphasize the attention Vatican Radio has given to broadcasting in countries will little access to technology, such as certain countries in Africa, noting that services to these places “have never been abandoned.”
In addition to L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican Publishing House and the Vatican Typography office will also be merged into the greater working community of the secretariat, which is something the Pope said will require “availability to harmonize” with their “new productive and distributive design.”
“The work is great, the challenge is great, but it can be done. It must be done,” he said, stressing the need to for a willingness to work together as all of the changes and merges take place.
As the study commissions within the secretariat move forward in identifying new paths and proposals, the Pope told them to be “courageous” in the criteria they choose, asking that the guiding criteria be an “apostolic and missionary one, with special attention to situations of discomfort, poverty, difficulty.”
“In this way, it becomes possible to bring the Gospel to everyone, to optimize human resources, without replacing the communication of the local Churches and, at the same time, supporting the ecclesial communities most in need.”
He concluded his speech stressing the need to “not let ourselves be overcome by the temptation of attachment to a glorious past,” and encouraged members instead to make “a great effort of teamwork to better respond to the new communicative challenges that the culture of today asks of us, without fear and without imagining apocalyptic scenarios.”
Pope Francis established the Secretariat for Communications on June 27, 2015, with the promulgation of the motu proprio, “The current communication context.”
One of its primary responsibilities is the restructuring and consolidation of the Holy See’s various communications outlets, which were previously ran as individual offices.
The dicastery will eventually oversee Vatican Radio, L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican Television Center, the Holy See Press Office, the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Vatican Internet Service, the Vatican Typography, the Photograph Service, and the Vatican publishing house.
Msgr. Dario Edoardo Viganò, previously head of Vatican Television, is prefect of the department. On April 12, 2017, the Pope named a group of 13 new consultors, including EWTN's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Michael P. Warsaw
Vatican City, May 4, 2017 / 09:47 am (CNA/EWTN News).- President Donald Trump will meet Pope Francis during a visit to the Vatican later this month.“His Holiness Pope Francis will receive the Hon. Donald Trump, President of the United States of America, on Wednesday, 24 May 2017, at 8:30 a.m. in the Apostolic Palace,” the Vatican announced Thursday.“President Trump will then meet with His Eminence Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State, and Archbishop Paul Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with States.”The president and the pope have sometimes been put at odds.During a Feb. 18, 2016 in-flight press conference, Reuters reporter Philip Pullella asked the Pope to respond to Donald Trump’s immigration stand.Pope Francis answered: “A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not in the Gospel.”The pontiff added he would “give the benefit of the doubt” t...
Vatican City, May 4, 2017 / 09:47 am (CNA/EWTN News).- President Donald Trump will meet Pope Francis during a visit to the Vatican later this month.
“His Holiness Pope Francis will receive the Hon. Donald Trump, President of the United States of America, on Wednesday, 24 May 2017, at 8:30 a.m. in the Apostolic Palace,” the Vatican announced Thursday.
“President Trump will then meet with His Eminence Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State, and Archbishop Paul Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with States.”
The president and the pope have sometimes been put at odds.
During a Feb. 18, 2016 in-flight press conference, Reuters reporter Philip Pullella asked the Pope to respond to Donald Trump’s immigration stand.
Pope Francis answered: “A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not in the Gospel.”
The pontiff added he would “give the benefit of the doubt” to the political candidate.
One week prior, Trump had bashed Pope Francis as a “pawn” for the Mexican government and “a very political person” who does not understand the problems of the United States.
Holy See spokesman Father Federico Lombardi on Feb. 19 told Vatican Radio that the Pope’s comment “was never intended to be, in any way, a personal attack or an indication of how to vote” and had repeated a longstanding theme of his papacy, bridge-building.
The U.S. bishops have had a mixed response to the early days of the Trump administration, criticizing his refugee and immigration plan, while praising his pro-life measures.
IMAGE: CNS/Paul HaringBy Cindy WoodenVATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Shortly after Pope Francis metprivately with Myanmar's de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, the Holy See andMyanmar announced they were establishing full diplomatic relations.The Vatican announced May 4 that the pope would appoint anuncio to the southeast Asian nation and that Myanmar would name an ambassadorto the Vatican. The agreement brings to 183 the number of countries with whichthe Holy See has full diplomatic relations.Suu Kyi, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in1991, had spent almost 15 years of the period between 1989 and 2010 under housearrest. Her party, the National League for Democracy, won the general electionin 2015 and she was named the de facto head of government in April 2016.Welcomed to the Vatican by Pope Francis, Suu Kyitook his hand and bowed her head. She and the pope met privately for more than20 minutes before her entourage entered the papal library.She gave Pope Francis a small bas relief of a ...
IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring
By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Shortly after Pope Francis met privately with Myanmar's de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, the Holy See and Myanmar announced they were establishing full diplomatic relations.
The Vatican announced May 4 that the pope would appoint a nuncio to the southeast Asian nation and that Myanmar would name an ambassador to the Vatican. The agreement brings to 183 the number of countries with which the Holy See has full diplomatic relations.
Suu Kyi, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, had spent almost 15 years of the period between 1989 and 2010 under house arrest. Her party, the National League for Democracy, won the general election in 2015 and she was named the de facto head of government in April 2016.
Welcomed to the Vatican by Pope Francis, Suu Kyi took his hand and bowed her head. She and the pope met privately for more than 20 minutes before her entourage entered the papal library.
She gave Pope Francis a small bas relief of a dove and Pope Francis gave her a new medallion illustrating a passage from the Book of Isaiah, "The wilderness will become a fruitful field."
"The dry thorny branch that blossoms and bears fruit symbolizes the passage from selfishness to sharing, from war to peace," said a Vatican description of the medallion.
Suu Kyi has won international support for her efforts to shore up Myanmar's fledgling democracy after decades of military rule, but serious questions have been raised about her government's treatment of the Rohingya people, who are Muslim.
Pope Francis has appealed for their protection on several occasions. At a general audience Feb. 18, the pope said the Rohingya "are good people. They are our brothers and sisters. They have been suffering for years. They have been tortured, killed, just because they want to keep their traditions and their Muslim faith."
The 2017 annual report of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom labeled Myanmar one of 16 "Tier 1" countries of particular concern based on their level of religious repression.
According to the Vatican's latest statistics, Myanmar has about 659,000 Catholics out of a population of about 51 million.
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Copyright © 2017 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.
IMAGE: CNS photo/L'Osservatore Romano via EPABy Carol GlatzVATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis advanced the sainthoodcauses of Wisconsin-born Capuchin Father Solanus Casey, five religious, fourlaypeople and two cardinals, including Vietnamese Cardinal Francois Nguyen VanThuan.The pope approved the decrees during an audience May 4with Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for Saints' Causes.Father Casey (1870-1957) was known for his great faith,humility and compassion and for his ministry as spiritual counselor. He gaineda popular following during his lifetime, with healings attributed to hisintercession both before and after his death.He was the sixth of 16 children of Irish immigrantparents. He was born on a farm near Oak Grove, Wisconsin, and as a young manworked as a logger, a hospital orderly, a streetcar operator and a prison guardbefore entering the Capuchins at age 26.He was ordained in 1904 as a "simplex priest,"one who is unable to hear confessions or preach do...
IMAGE: CNS photo/L'Osservatore Romano via EPA
By Carol Glatz
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis advanced the sainthood causes of Wisconsin-born Capuchin Father Solanus Casey, five religious, four laypeople and two cardinals, including Vietnamese Cardinal Francois Nguyen Van Thuan.
The pope approved the decrees during an audience May 4 with Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for Saints' Causes.
Father Casey (1870-1957) was known for his great faith, humility and compassion and for his ministry as spiritual counselor. He gained a popular following during his lifetime, with healings attributed to his intercession both before and after his death.
He was the sixth of 16 children of Irish immigrant parents. He was born on a farm near Oak Grove, Wisconsin, and as a young man worked as a logger, a hospital orderly, a streetcar operator and a prison guard before entering the Capuchins at age 26.
He was ordained in 1904 as a "simplex priest," one who is unable to hear confessions or preach dogmatic sermons because he had not performed very well in his studies. He carried out humble tasks in the monastery and, while serving in Yonkers, New York, Father Casey was assigned to be the friary's porter, or doorkeeper, a ministry he would carry out for the rest of his life.
He was known to be gentle, approachable and genuinely concerned for people as he had unique insight into people's needs and how they fit into God's plans.
He was declared venerable in 1995 and Pope Francis' approval of a miracle attributed to his intercession was the next step needed for his beatification. Another miracle, after his beatification, would be needed for him to advance to sainthood.
Among the other decrees May 4, Pope Francis recognized the heroic virtues of Cardinal Nguyen Van Thuan, who served as president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace from 1998 to 2002 -- the year he died.
Born in 1928, Vietnam's communist regime jailed him in 1975 when he was the newly named coadjutor bishop of Saigon, later renamed Ho Chi Minh City. He was never tried or sentenced and spent nine of his 13 years of detention in solitary confinement. His uncle was South Vietnam's first president, Ngo Dinh Diem, a Catholic who was assassinated in 1963.
Also May 4, the pope recognized miracles that advanced the causes of three religious women toward beatification and the martyrdom of Lucien Botovasoa, a married man with eight children, who was also a Third Order Franciscan, teacher and a catechist at his parish in Vohipeno, Madagascar.
As the African island went from being a colonial outpost to an independent nation, Botovasoa was blacklisted as an enemy of the cause for independence and was killed in 1947 out of hatred of the faith.
Years later a village elder admitted on his deathbed to a local missionary that he ordered the murder of Botovasoa even though Botovasoa had told him he would be by his side to help him whenever he was in need. The elder told the missionary he felt Botovasoa's presence and asked to be baptized.
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Copyright © 2017 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.
By WASHINGTON (CNS) -- President Donald Trump will visitthe Vatican and meet with Pope Francis May 24 as part of his first foreign tripas president.White House officials said the visit will be part ofa trip that will include stops in Israel and Saudi Arabia before Trump attends aNATO meeting in Brussels May 25 and the G7 summit in Taormina on the island of Sicily May26-27.Thetrip was an attempt to unite three of the world's leading religious faiths in the common cause offighting terrorism, reining in Iran, and "unifying the world againstintolerance," White House officials said May 4.The information wasconfirmed by PalomaGarcia Ovejero, vice director of the Vatican press office.Thepope's meeting with Pope Francis was to take place in the Apostolic Palace andwill include Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, andArchbishop Paul Gallagher, secretary for relations with states.Pope Francis, on his return flight from Egypt April29, told reporters that he had not yet been inf...
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- President Donald Trump will visit the Vatican and meet with Pope Francis May 24 as part of his first foreign trip as president.
White House officials said the visit will be part of a trip that will include stops in Israel and Saudi Arabia before Trump attends a NATO meeting in Brussels May 25 and the G7 summit in Taormina on the island of Sicily May 26-27.
The trip was an attempt to unite three of the world's leading religious faiths in the common cause of fighting terrorism, reining in Iran, and "unifying the world against intolerance," White House officials said May 4.
The information was confirmed by Paloma Garcia Ovejero, vice director of the Vatican press office.
The pope's meeting with Pope Francis was to take place in the Apostolic Palace and will include Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, and Archbishop Paul Gallagher, secretary for relations with states.
Pope Francis, on his return flight from Egypt April 29, told reporters that he had not yet been informed by the Vatican secretary of state's office about a request for an audience from U.S. officials. But he added, "I receive every head of state who asks for an audience."
Trump said at an April 20 news conference with Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni that he was interested in meeting with the pope.
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Copyright © 2017 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.
