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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. government investigation of President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, crossed the Atlantic earlier this year to the Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus, once known as a haven for money laundering by Russian billionaires....
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Utah's governor announced Thursday that he will sign legislation giving the predominantly Mormon state the strictest DUI threshold in the country, a change that restaurant groups and representatives of the ski and snowboard industry say will hurt tourism....
JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israeli police on Thursday arrested a 19-year-old hacker who they said was the main suspect in a wave of bomb threats against Jewish community centers in the United States, appearing to crack a case that has sent a chill through the American Jewish community....
LONDON (AP) -- Authorities on Thursday identified a 52-year-old Briton as the man who mowed down pedestrians and stabbed a policeman to death outside Parliament, saying he had a long criminal record and once was investigated for extremism - but was not currently on a terrorism watch list....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Trump administration will approve the Keystone XL pipeline on Friday, senior U.S. officials said, after the State Department delivers a positive recommendation to start construction on a long-delayed project that has served as a flashpoint in the debate about climate change....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House intelligence committee chairman privately apologized to his Democratic colleagues on Thursday, yet publicly defended his decision to openly discuss and brief President Donald Trump on typically secret intercepts that he says swept up communications of the president's transition team in the final days of the Obama administration....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- GOP House leaders delayed their planned vote Thursday on a long-promised bill to repeal and replace "Obamacare," in a stinging setback for House Speaker Paul Ryan and President Donald Trump in their first major legislative test....
Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster has expressed his shock following the terror attack which took place near the British House of Parliament on Wednesday leaving four people dead and dozens injured.Speaking to BBC Radio Essex the Cardinal offered his prayers for those who died and those who grieving.See below the full transcript provided by the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales."Like everybody I was very shocked as the news started to come through this afternoon and now, as we just look back, I think first of the families of the people who have lost their lives. I pray for the dead and I pray for those who will mourn their loss very deeply."It'll be especially tragic for the families of the young French visitors who, I understand, have been seriously injured."Clearly my first thoughts are for the victims and for those who will mourn and be in considerable shock."And then, of course, it's important as a society that we hol...
Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster has expressed his shock following the terror attack which took place near the British House of Parliament on Wednesday leaving four people dead and dozens injured.
Speaking to BBC Radio Essex the Cardinal offered his prayers for those who died and those who grieving.
See below the full transcript provided by the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales.
"Like everybody I was very shocked as the news started to come through this afternoon and now, as we just look back, I think first of the families of the people who have lost their lives. I pray for the dead and I pray for those who will mourn their loss very deeply.
"It'll be especially tragic for the families of the young French visitors who, I understand, have been seriously injured.
"Clearly my first thoughts are for the victims and for those who will mourn and be in considerable shock.
"And then, of course, it's important as a society that we hold our nerve, keep calm, and let the story unfold and the information be established as to what exactly has taken place.
"As police commissioners have said to me, it's always a combination of being calm but very vigilant."
(Vatican Radio) The Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols has condemned Wednesday’s terror attack which took place in his Archdiocese and has offered prayers for the victims.The Archbishop speaking to Vatican Radio’s Lydia O’Kane described the shock that was being felt in London, but he also said that “typically here life gets on in a normal way; people are coming to work, parliament will be open this afternoon and there’s a determined calmness…”Listen: Four people are known to have died when a man mowed down pedestrians near the British House of Parliament. They included a police officer and a mother of two.Prayers for the victimsPaying tribute to the woman he said her children went to “one of our schools and the two children and her husband will be devastated today and we pray very deeply for them and the others who were killed”.Faith in GodCardinal Nichols underlined that it was very important that peopl...
(Vatican Radio) The Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols has condemned Wednesday’s terror attack which took place in his Archdiocese and has offered prayers for the victims.
The Archbishop speaking to Vatican Radio’s Lydia O’Kane described the shock that was being felt in London, but he also said that “typically here life gets on in a normal way; people are coming to work, parliament will be open this afternoon and there’s a determined calmness…”
Listen:
Four people are known to have died when a man mowed down pedestrians near the British House of Parliament. They included a police officer and a mother of two.
Prayers for the victims
Paying tribute to the woman he said her children went to “one of our schools and the two children and her husband will be devastated today and we pray very deeply for them and the others who were killed”.
Faith in God
Cardinal Nichols underlined that it was very important that people remember at this time that “faith in God and the rootedness of our culture in its Christian and its Judeo-Christian heritage; faith in God is a huge asset, it’s not a problem and what we must not do is begin to think that this extremism is the product of religious faith; it’s a distortion, it's a corruption of a particular religious faith.” He also stressed that “there is no place for hatred in our response”.
Unity of the people
The Cardinal said that despite the terrible events the people of London displayed incredible unity. “People were running to help, the staff from the hospital which is at the other end of (Westminster) bridge… were running out of the hospital into the danger area because they were professional nurses and doctors and it’s that sense of a brave and generous response to what has happened, a practical one, one that has a focus to it.”
(Vatican Radio) A campaign to immortalise Scotland’s only post-Reformation Catholic martyr is growing, more than forty years after he was canonised by Pope Paul VI.Saint John Ogilvie was born in 1579 to a family of Scottish nobility. He was raised a Calvinist, but converted to Catholicism at Louvain in 1596. After receiving an education at several Catholic institutions, he joined the Society of Jesus. He was ordained in 1610 in Paris and requested that he be sent back to Scotland, by this time marked by a hostility to the Catholic Faith. He was betrayed by someone posing as a Catholic and was imprisoned for treason.The Jesuit priest was tortured by his captors in an attempt to find out the names of other Catholics in the area. They deprived him of sleep and pushed needles under his fingernails. When he refused to betray his people, he was sentenced to death. He was hanged at Glasgow Cross on 10th March 1615. The date is remembered every year as the saint’s feast day.He...
(Vatican Radio) A campaign to immortalise Scotland’s only post-Reformation Catholic martyr is growing, more than forty years after he was canonised by Pope Paul VI.
Saint John Ogilvie was born in 1579 to a family of Scottish nobility. He was raised a Calvinist, but converted to Catholicism at Louvain in 1596. After receiving an education at several Catholic institutions, he joined the Society of Jesus. He was ordained in 1610 in Paris and requested that he be sent back to Scotland, by this time marked by a hostility to the Catholic Faith. He was betrayed by someone posing as a Catholic and was imprisoned for treason.
The Jesuit priest was tortured by his captors in an attempt to find out the names of other Catholics in the area. They deprived him of sleep and pushed needles under his fingernails. When he refused to betray his people, he was sentenced to death. He was hanged at Glasgow Cross on 10th March 1615. The date is remembered every year as the saint’s feast day.
He was beatified as a martyr of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation by Pope Pius XI in 1929. He became the only post-Reformation Scottish saint when he was canonised in 1976 by Blessed Paul VI, after a Glasgow dockworker had been miraculously healed of a stomach tumour.
More than 400 years after his martyrdom, an online campaign was launched on his feast day to mark the place where St John paid the ultimate sacrifice. The Order of the Knights of St Columba, a Catholic fraternal organisation in the UK, is supporting the campaign. Speaking about it, the Supreme Knight Charlie McCluskey said, “Let’s make this happen.” He suggested that a statue should be erected in an alcove at Glasgow Cross. “We have made tentative enquires to the council. We need to move onto the next stage. If there’s public support we’d be happy to take a lead on this.”
The Archbishop of Glasgow used his homily on the feast day this year to tell people to “make more” of the Scottish saints. He spoke about the current hostility experienced by Christians of the western world. “There are more subtle forms of restricting religious freedom, when it gets into the realm of limiting your freedom to say in public places what you believe and what you hold most dear in your heart and in your conscience,” adding, “That’s one reason why we continue to need the example, inspiration and intercession of Saint John Ogilvie.”
The martyr’s legacy reached beyond the borders of Scotland, too. One year after his death, the Rector of the Pontifical Scots College in Rome, which had been founded in 1600 as an institution for Catholic education, read his account of John Ogilvie’s execution. This was the catalyst that motivated the transformation of the College into a seminary. Inspired by what they had heard, the students took the Mission Oath, swearing to return to Scotland as priests.
In his address to the community of the Pontifical Scots College in 2016 to mark the 400th anniversary of this transformation into a seminary, Pope Francis said that the transformation was “born of a martyr’s blood.” He spoke about John Ogilvie’s impact on the College:
"The martyrdom of Saint John Ogilvie, which was meant to silence the Catholic faith, instead was an impetus for its promotion and for defending the Church’s freedom to remain in communion with the See of Peter. The “yes” proclaimed by the sixteen men four hundred years ago was eloquent not simply for their good intentions, but rather because they persevered, and prepared themselves in every way, returning to Scotland to face the hardships that awaited them, even if it meant becoming martyrs themselves. Theirs was a life which sought the joys and peace that Christ alone could offer. Looking out at you today, I can see that, through the grace of God, the martyrdom of Saint John and the courage of those sixteen men has borne fruit in your beloved homeland. Saint John’s Feast is celebrated around Scotland and the world on 10th March. There is a notable celebration at the Pontifical Scots College on or around this date every year. Given the history the College has with the Society of Jesus, the community uses this Feast every year to invite professors to the College to give thanks for their work."
