Catholic News 2
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea on Monday fired "several" banned ballistic missiles that flew about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) into waters off its east coast, South Korea's military said, an apparent reaction to huge military drills by Washington and Seoul that Pyongyang insists are an invasion rehearsal....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Latest on President Donald Trump's claim that then-President Barack Obama had Trump's telephones tapped during last year's election (all times EST):...
PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- President Donald Trump turned to Congress on Sunday for help finding evidence to support his unsubstantiated claim that former President Barack Obama had Trump's telephones tapped during the election. Obama's intelligence chief said no such action was ever carried out, and a U.S. official said the FBI has asked the Justice Department to dispute the allegation....
(Vatican Radio) French conservative presidential candidate Francois Fillon has urged supporters not to "give up the fight" for his presidency despite corruption allegations against him, but apologized for asking his wife to work for him. Fillon spoke to a crowd of thousands in Paris ahead of a widely anticipated television appearance later Sunday. Listen to the report by Stefan Bos: The crowd chanting "Fillon, President!" gathered across from the famed Eiffel Tower in a show of defiance against those who want Francois Fillon to give up his candidacy for France's top job.Fillon's wife Penelope arrived with her husband at the rally after keeping a low profile since financial investigators began examining allegations that she and two of their children had taxpayer-funded jobs they never performed. She was paid around 850,000 euros of public money for work she allegedly never did.Fillon had been a front-runner for France's two-round April-May pres...
(Vatican Radio) French conservative presidential candidate Francois Fillon has urged supporters not to "give up the fight" for his presidency despite corruption allegations against him, but apologized for asking his wife to work for him. Fillon spoke to a crowd of thousands in Paris ahead of a widely anticipated television appearance later Sunday.
Listen to the report by Stefan Bos:
The crowd chanting "Fillon, President!" gathered across from the famed Eiffel Tower in a show of defiance against those who want Francois Fillon to give up his candidacy for France's top job.
Fillon's wife Penelope arrived with her husband at the rally after keeping a low profile since financial investigators began examining allegations that she and two of their children had taxpayer-funded jobs they never performed. She was paid around 850,000 euros of public money for work she allegedly never did.
Fillon had been a front-runner for France's two-round April-May presidential election until the investigation began and several allies abandoned him.
Speaking at the rally, Fillon said that although the charges were in his words "unjust" he wanted to apologize. He said it was a mistake to ask his wife to work for him and secondly that he had been hesitating on how to tell his supporters about it.
ATTACKING FORMER ALLIES
Yet he also assailed the conservative allies who have abandoned his campaign, and pledged to create jobs and slash public
spending to put France back on its feet. "My dear countrymen, They think that I am standing alone. They want that I stand alone. But are we alone?", he said, sparking thousands to answer "Np!"
He thanked who he called "friends" for supporting him "in the middle of a storm" marked by "criticism and caricatures and offensive remarks" and "to gather at a symbolic location."
Counter protests were also underway in France.
Fillon's wife urged her husband however to stay in the race, in her first interview since the scandal broke in January.
"Unlike the others, I will not abandon him," Penelope Fillon was quoted as saying in the Journal du dimanche newspaper. "I told him to continue to the end. Every day I told him that," she said, but added, "He is the one who will decide."
FRANCE FACING UNCERTAINTY
If Fillon quits, that would throw France's already exceptional, unpredictable campaign into disarray anew.
Many conservatives want Alain Juppé to run in his place for the two-round April-May vote.However their Republicans party has no official Plan B.
Juppé, who campaigned on a more moderate platform than the tough-on-security, pro-free market Fillon, was runner-up in the conservative primary.
NEW YORK (AP) -- The R-rated "X-Men" spinoff "Logan" slashed into the weekend box office, opening with a massive $85.3 million in North American theaters, according to studio estimates Sunday, while best-picture winner "Moonlight" got a significant, if far from superhero-sized, Oscar bump....
MOSCOW (AP) -- A Russian lawmaker has proposed an unorthodox solution to the country's problems with soccer hooliganism ahead of next year's World Cup - legalize it and make it a spectator sport....
PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- President Donald Trump turned to Congress on Sunday for help finding evidence to support his unsubstantiated claim that former President Barack Obama had Trump's telephones tapped during the election. Obama's intelligence chief said no such action was ever carried out....
(Vatican Radio) Turkish leaders have condemned Germany for cancelling political rallies of Turkish residents due to be addressed by Ankara's ministers and said Berlin gave "shelter" to people committing crimes against Turkey. The German government has denied it was involved in cancelling the rallies, while Germany's president has urged municipalities not to cancel other political rallies. While they are still allies in the NATO military alliance, Turkey and Germany are now facing their worst tensions in years. Listen to the report by Stefan Bos: Turkey's Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag, who had been scheduled to address a meeting in the southwestern town of Gaggenau until it was called off on Thursday, is among ministers condemning Berlin after several political rallies were cancelled in German municipalities. "The right of expression and meeting is guaranteed in all democracies by government bodies," he said. "Here [in Germany] th...
(Vatican Radio) Turkish leaders have condemned Germany for cancelling political rallies of Turkish residents due to be addressed by Ankara's ministers and said Berlin gave "shelter" to people committing crimes against Turkey. The German government has denied it was involved in cancelling the rallies, while Germany's president has urged municipalities not to cancel other political rallies.
While they are still allies in the NATO military alliance, Turkey and Germany are now facing their worst tensions in years.
Listen to the report by Stefan Bos:
Turkey's Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag, who had been scheduled to address a meeting in the southwestern town of Gaggenau until it was called off on Thursday, is among ministers condemning Berlin after several political rallies were cancelled in German municipalities. "The right of expression and meeting is guaranteed in all democracies by government bodies," he said.
"Here [in Germany] those rights have been ignored. They are ignored when Turkey comes into question. But for terrorist organizations which have been working against Turkey, the door is still open," the minister added.
The city of Cologne also blocked an event where Turkey's Economy Minister Nihat Zeybecki was to speak on Sunday. Police said shortly after that a second gathering he had been due to attend in the western town of Frechen.
MANY MIGRANTS
With some 3 million Turkish migrants living in Germany, Ankara's ministers want to campaign here for a yes vote in an April referendum on constitutional reforms that would expand the powers of Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Yet, German chancellor Angela Merkel has denied involvement in cancelling the rallies. Speaking in Tunis, Merkel said her government played no part in steps taken by city councils who, according to one mayor, acted purely on security grounds. However she renewed her criticism of Turkey's arrest of Deniz Yucel, a correspondent for German newspaper Die Welt. "We support freedom of expression and we can criticise limitations on press freedom in Turkey," she said.
Amid the standoff with Turkey, Germany's President Joachim Gauck has urged municipalities not to cancel political rallies, despite local authorities citing security concerns and at least one bomb threat. "Are we, the democratic middle, so weak to fear the arguments of those whose political notion we do not share, so that we must prevent public speech? I don't see this weakness," he stressed.
Germany is wary of rising tensions at a time when it is seeking continued Turkish commitment to arrangements preventing large movements of refugees from Turkey to Europe. Yet it isn't the only country where at least some authorities have expressed concerns about political rallies. In neighboring Netherlands the Dutch government said plans by Turkish officials to hold a referendum campaign gathering in the port city of Rotterdam were "undesirable".
The leader of an association of Dutch Turks said Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was planning to attend the March 11 rally, hoping to persuade the Netherlands' hundreds of thousands of dual citizens to vote for the new constitution giving Erdogan greater powers.
(Vatican Radio) Archbishop Michael Neary of Tuam in Ireland has spoken of his shock to learn of the extent of the numbers of children buried in the graveyard at the former Catholic orphanage "Mother and Baby Home" in Tuam.Archbishop Neary chose to speak of his horror at the recent findings of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation that was established following allegations about the deaths of 800 babies in Tuam and the manner in which they were buried during his homily for the First Sunday of Lent.Please find below the full text of Archbishop Neary's homily: Each year, on the First Sunday of Lent, the Church puts before us, in the Gospel passages She has chosen for us, the accounts of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness. We are invited to enter into these scriptural texts and to acknowledge how they mirror what is going on in our own lives, and to avail of the opportunity to be changed for the better and transformed by them durin...
(Vatican Radio) Archbishop Michael Neary of Tuam in Ireland has spoken of his shock to learn of the extent of the numbers of children buried in the graveyard at the former Catholic orphanage "Mother and Baby Home" in Tuam.
Archbishop Neary chose to speak of his horror at the recent findings of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation that was established following allegations about the deaths of 800 babies in Tuam and the manner in which they were buried during his homily for the First Sunday of Lent.
Please find below the full text of Archbishop Neary's homily:
Each year, on the First Sunday of Lent, the Church puts before us, in the Gospel passages She has chosen for us, the accounts of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness. We are invited to enter into these scriptural texts and to acknowledge how they mirror what is going on in our own lives, and to avail of the opportunity to be changed for the better and transformed by them during the forty days of Lent.
This is true of the texts before us this year too, but I am sure you will understand if I do not reflect with you on the Gospel we have just heard proclaimed but, rather, if I speak for a moment on the news which emerged from the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation on Friday morning.
I was greatly shocked, as we all were, to learn of the extent of the numbers of children buried in the graveyard at the Mother and Baby Home in Tuam. I was made aware of the magnitude of this situation by media reporting and historical research. I am horrified and saddened to hear, through the Commission’s interim statement of 3 March 2017, that quite a large quantity of human remains were discovered on this site which, on analysis, matches the timescale of the Tuam Mother and Baby Home. This points to a time of great suffering and pain for the little ones and their mothers. Albeit not unexpected, I was very upset as I read the Commission’s findings made public on Friday, 3 March 2017.
I can only begin to imagine the huge emotional wrench which the mothers suffered in giving up their babies for adoption or by witnessing their death. Some of these young vulnerable women may already have experienced rejection by their families. The pain and brokenness which they endured is beyond our capacity to understand. It is, then, simply too difficult to comprehend their helplessness and suffering as they watched their beloved child die. In this context my thoughts did not turn to any of the readings from today’s Mass but, rather, to the first reading from last Sunday’s Mass. I found God’s words, spoken through the prophet Isaiah, particularly comforting, and I repeat them now in the hope that they bring comfort to all who are upset and sad and affected by the recent revelations.
“Zion was saying, ‘The Lord has abandoned me, the Lord has forgotten me.’ Does a woman forget her baby at the breast, or fail to cherish the child of her womb? Yet, even if these forget, I will never forget you.” (Is. 49:14-15)
Regardless of the time lapse involved this is a matter of great public concern. I welcome the fact that the Commission has already asked that the relevant State authorities take responsibility for the appropriate treatment of the remains, and that the Coroner has been informed. It continues to be a priority for me, in cooperation with the families of the deceased, to seek to obtain a dignified re-interment of the remains of the children in consecrated ground in Tuam.
As the Archdiocese did not have any involvement in the running of the home in Tuam, I have no specific information on the manner of interment of remains, but any material we have which is even remotely related to the investigation, has been handed over in full to the Commission.
The Commission’s update on its work is very difficult for us to read and comprehend, but it is another necessary step on the path to the truth. We have nothing to fear from the truth because, as Jesus himself assures us, the truth always sets us free (cf. Jn. 8:32). Therefore, the Archdiocese will continue to assist the Commission in every way possible until its work is concluded and its Final Report is published.
Today, however, those who have suffered are uppermost in our minds and at the very heart of our prayers. May the Lord’s infinite mercy console all those mothers whose children died in the Mother and Baby Home, their families, and all who are affected by and upset by the news which came as a body-blow to us all, and may Mary, the Mother of God, who witnessed the death of her only child on the cross be our comfort and consolation now.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Visitors arriving at the Philadelphia Flower Show this year will feel as if they're stepping into the endless flower fields of Holland....
