Catholic News 2
DUBLIN (AP) -- Martin McGuinness took up arms to fight British soldiers in the streets but ended up shaking hands with Queen Elizabeth II. A militant who long sought to unify Ireland through violence, he became a peacemaking politician who earned the respect, and even the friendship, of his former enemies....
BRUSSELS (AP) -- In the year since suicide bombings ripped through the Brussels airport and subway, those affected have found themselves fighting to be recognized as victims, battling for compensation, and dealing with insurance bureaucracy like seeking three price estimates for a prosthetic limb....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. government, citing unspecified threats, is barring passengers on nonstop, U.S.-bound flights from eight mostly Middle Eastern and North African countries from bringing laptops, tablets, electronic games and other devices on board in carry-on bags....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump on Tuesday warned House Republicans they could lose their seats in next year's midterm elections if they failed to back the GOP health care overhaul and fulfill a long-promised goal to undo Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell warned fellow Republicans Tuesday of political consequences if they oppose health care legislation coming up for a vote in the House this week....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch batted away Democrats' efforts Tuesday to get him to reveal his views on abortion, guns and other controversial issues, insisting he keeps "an open mind for the entire process" when he issues rulings....
(Vatican Radio) Tantur Ecumenical Institute in Jerusalem this year marks the 50th anniversary of its establishment in the wake of Pope Paul VI’s historic visit to the Holy Land.Offering a wide variety of conferences, study programmes and research opportunities, the institute aims to promote ecumenical and interfaith understanding among people from all religious backgrounds. It also provides a base from which to explore the places connected to the Old and New Testaments, while learning something of the complex political realities of the Holy Land today.Philippa Hitchen is visiting Tantur this week to report on its achievements and its future vision:Listen to her report: The word ‘Tantur’ is Arabic for hilltop and the geography of this unique ecumenical institute clearly illustrates its mission to be a place of encounter between Christians, Muslims and Jews. It is located on a hill on the outskirts of Jerusalem, overlooking Bethlehem to the south and another Palest...
(Vatican Radio) Tantur Ecumenical Institute in Jerusalem this year marks the 50th anniversary of its establishment in the wake of Pope Paul VI’s historic visit to the Holy Land.
Offering a wide variety of conferences, study programmes and research opportunities, the institute aims to promote ecumenical and interfaith understanding among people from all religious backgrounds. It also provides a base from which to explore the places connected to the Old and New Testaments, while learning something of the complex political realities of the Holy Land today.
Philippa Hitchen is visiting Tantur this week to report on its achievements and its future vision:
Listen to her report:
The word ‘Tantur’ is Arabic for hilltop and the geography of this unique ecumenical institute clearly illustrates its mission to be a place of encounter between Christians, Muslims and Jews. It is located on a hill on the outskirts of Jerusalem, overlooking Bethlehem to the south and another Palestinian town, Beit Safafa, to the north. From the roof of the main building you can easily pick out the bell tower of Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity rising behind the Israeli separation barrier that snakes across the landscape dividing Israel from the West Bank.
To the east and west lie two Jewish settlements, Har Homa and Gilo, with Tantur situated right at the crossroads. Before the separation barrier was built in 2005, many Bethlehem residents, heading to work in Jerusalem, would cut through the grounds of the institute, which is owned by the Vatican and run by the U.S. University of Notre Dame, in order to avoid Israeli checkpoints on the Hebron Road.
Now it is much harder for Palestinians in the West Bank to get to Jerusalem, with permits mostly being issued around the time of the different religious festivities. Yet Tantur still sees its mission as one of patiently building bridges and trying to bring people together across the different faith communities. The current rector, Holy Cross Father Russ McDougall, says it remains one of the few places where “both Palestinians and Israelis feel safe coming together for dialogue.”
On the day I arrived, a group of young students from the interfaith youth network ‘Kids 4 Peace’ was meeting there and many other local peace groups use the facility as a safe space in which to build relations between people who otherwise live increasingly segregated lives.
Founded half a century ago, following Pope Paul VI’s historic embrace of the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagorus, which ended centuries of estrangement between Catholics and Orthodox, Tantur continues that work of reconciliation and encounter today. Amid an increasingly bleak political landscape, it remains true to its original mission as a hilltop oasis of hospitality and welcome.
(Vatican Radio) The value and values of water are at the heart of a conference taking place in Rome on 22 March entitled “Watershed: replenishing the water values for a thirsty world”.The one-day event marks World Water Day 2017 and is organized by the Pontifical Council for Culture and the Club of Rome, in collaboration with Circle of Blue and the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on the Environment.Policy makers, academics, and business leaders will join top Vatican officials in a dialogue aimed at recovering the values of water and the centrality of water for human life.Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture and of the Pontifical Commission of Sacred Archaeology, along with Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with States, are among those making opening remarks.Cardinal Peter Turkson, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development, will speak on the ‘The Nexus o...
(Vatican Radio) The value and values of water are at the heart of a conference taking place in Rome on 22 March entitled “Watershed: replenishing the water values for a thirsty world”.
The one-day event marks World Water Day 2017 and is organized by the Pontifical Council for Culture and the Club of Rome, in collaboration with Circle of Blue and the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on the Environment.
Policy makers, academics, and business leaders will join top Vatican officials in a dialogue aimed at recovering the values of water and the centrality of water for human life.
Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture and of the Pontifical Commission of Sacred Archaeology, along with Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with States, are among those making opening remarks.
Cardinal Peter Turkson, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development, will speak on the ‘The Nexus of Water and Humanity’.
The event represents a concrete response by the Pontifical Council for Culture to the questions raised by Pope Francis in his Encyclical Laudato Si’ about humanity’s relationship with the environment.
The conference will be broadcast live at http://worldwatervalues.org/
Vatican City, Mar 21, 2017 / 03:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Italian layman Joseph Mayr-Nusser who refused to take the Hitler oath was beatified March 18 in his home town of Bolsano.In 1944, Mayr-Nusser, a Catholic husband and father, refused to take the oath of allegiance to Hitler after being drafted into the German army. He died on the way to Dachau concentration camp, to which he had been sentenced.On Sunday, Pope Francis said that Blessed Joseph is a model for all laymen and fathers “on account of his great moral and spiritual stature.”Joseph was born on Dec. 27, 1910 to a devout family. Since his family was poor and his older brother Jakob was in seminary studying for the priesthood, Mayr-Nusser didn’t study himself, but worked on the farm and later as the clerk for the Eccel company in Bolzano.At the age of 22 he joined the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, an international Catholic volunteer organization dedicated to serving the poor and disadvantaged, in an effor...
Vatican City, Mar 21, 2017 / 03:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Italian layman Joseph Mayr-Nusser who refused to take the Hitler oath was beatified March 18 in his home town of Bolsano.
In 1944, Mayr-Nusser, a Catholic husband and father, refused to take the oath of allegiance to Hitler after being drafted into the German army. He died on the way to Dachau concentration camp, to which he had been sentenced.
On Sunday, Pope Francis said that Blessed Joseph is a model for all laymen and fathers “on account of his great moral and spiritual stature.”
Joseph was born on Dec. 27, 1910 to a devout family. Since his family was poor and his older brother Jakob was in seminary studying for the priesthood, Mayr-Nusser didn’t study himself, but worked on the farm and later as the clerk for the Eccel company in Bolzano.
At the age of 22 he joined the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, an international Catholic volunteer organization dedicated to serving the poor and disadvantaged, in an effort to imitate the charity of the saint.
Mayr-Nusser was also involved in Catholic Action, and became head of its division in the Diocese of Trent in 1934. In 1937 he became president of the Bolzano branch of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, spending a large amount of his time visiting the poor and providing them with both material and spiritual support.
When World War II broke out in Europe in 1939, Mayr-Nusser joined the anti-Nazi movement “Andreas Hofer Bund.”
A few years later, civil war also broke out in Italy following the 1943 ousting of Benito Mussolini from power, which led to the German occupation of the northern half of the country.
The Nazi regime had established the “Schutzstaffel,” or “protective squadron.” The regime called not only on local men from Nazi Germany to join the squad, but they also took volunteers and conscripted men from both occupied and non-occupied territories.
Mayr-Nusser was among those conscripted from northern Italy, and so in 1944 was enrolled in an SS unit, forcing him to leave his wife and newborn son for training in Prussia.
However, when it came time for the SS members to swear an oath to Hitler, Mayr-Nusser refused.
According to a fellow comrade, he was “pensive and worried,” but told the general with a “strong voice” that “I cannot take an oath to Hitler in the name of God. I cannot do it because my faith and conscience do not allow it.”
Although his friends and tried to convince him to retract his statement and take the oath, Mayr-Nusser refused, believing that Nazi ideals could in no way be reconciled with Christian ethics and values.
As a result he was jailed, put on trial and sentenced to death for treason. He was ordered to march to the Dachau concentration camp, where he was to be shot by firing squad.
Dachau held many religious prisoners of Nazi Germany, and became known as the “largest monastery in the world” because of the number of clerics there. The camp housed some 2,700 clergy, roughly 95 percent of whom were Catholic priests from Poland, making it one of the largest residences for priests in the history of the Church.
Joseph fell ill with dysentery before he reached Dachau, and died Feb. 24, 1945. When his body was discovered, he had both a Bible and a rosary with him.
Mayr-Nusser’s cause for martyrdom was launched by his home diocese of Bolzano in 2005. Pope Francis declared him a martyr in July 2016, paving the way for his beatification.
Vatican City, Mar 21, 2017 / 05:57 am (CNA/EWTN News).- As Christians in the Middle East continue to suffer innumerable hardships this Lenten season, the Vatican has announced that this year’s Good Friday Collection will benefit Christian communities in the Holy Land.“Once again, from every part of the Church, expressions of solidarity come together effectively in the Good Friday Collection,” stated Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, in a recent press release.“Our sense of communion in the suffering and risen Christ moves us again this year to undertake the important initiative that is the Collection for the Holy Land,” Cardinal Sandri said.This announcement means that in most Catholic parishes around the world, a Good Friday Collection will be taken up to aid Christian parishes and their outreaches in the Holy Land. This initiative has been an annual tradition in the Church since its institution by Blessed ...
Vatican City, Mar 21, 2017 / 05:57 am (CNA/EWTN News).- As Christians in the Middle East continue to suffer innumerable hardships this Lenten season, the Vatican has announced that this year’s Good Friday Collection will benefit Christian communities in the Holy Land.
“Once again, from every part of the Church, expressions of solidarity come together effectively in the Good Friday Collection,” stated Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, in a recent press release.
“Our sense of communion in the suffering and risen Christ moves us again this year to undertake the important initiative that is the Collection for the Holy Land,” Cardinal Sandri said.
This announcement means that in most Catholic parishes around the world, a Good Friday Collection will be taken up to aid Christian parishes and their outreaches in the Holy Land. This initiative has been an annual tradition in the Church since its institution by Blessed Pope Paul VI.
According to Blessed Pope Paul VI, the collection was crated “not only for the Holy Places but above all for those pastoral, charitable, educational, and social works which the Church supports in the Holy Land for the welfare of their Christian brethren and of the local communities.”
The Catholic communities that will benefit from this aid include the Latin Patriarchal Diocese of Jerusalem, the Franciscan Custody and other jurisdictions, such as the Greek-Melkite, Coptic, Maronite, Syrian, Chaldean, and Armenian churches.
These funds will be used to help the parochial schools, hospitals, and community centers in these areas to protect and care for their communities, which often include refugees, asylum-seekers, children, and victims of war.
“Living the Christian faith in the Middle East is not at all easy. Especially in Iraq, Syria and Egypt, where Christian communities have experienced an ‘ecumenism of blood,’ individuals are daily pressured to abandon their land or even their faith,” Cardinal Sandri stated.
“The unforgettable faces of thousands of children and teens, fleeing violence and persecution in Syria and Iraq, continue to challenge us, even as these young people, thanks to our Collection, are being welcomed by Christian schools and neighboring counties.”
While this collection is a one-time offering on Good Friday, the cardinal noted that there are additional ways of aiding Christians in the Middle East outside of the Lenten and Easter seasons.
“The small Christian presence in the Middle East has great need of the support and attention of the entire Church. Constant prayer is the first and greatest assistance they seek.”
Cardinal Sandri also said that Holy Land pilgrimages are a substantial way to grow the “vitality of the Church in the Holy Land,” and which also boost local economy.
“At least 30% of the local community in Jerusalem and in Bethlehem live and work thanks to the presence of pilgrims,” Cardinal Sandri said.
The cardinal encouraged individuals to give generously to this year’s Good Friday Collection, pointing to the words of St. Paul: “for God loves a cheerful giver.”
“As we prepare for Easter, let us renew our commitment to becoming artisans of peace, praying and working that peace may dwell in the heart of every person, especially our brothers and sisters of the Holy Land and the Middle East.”
