Catholic News 2
BAGHDAD (AP) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Monday he believes U.S. forces will be in Iraq and in the fight against Islamic State militants for a while, despite some rocky times between the two nations....
BRUSSELS (AP) -- U.S. Vice President Mike Pence moved Monday to assuage European Union fears about the strength of Washington's support for the union and its commitment to European security through the NATO military alliance....
(Vatican Radio) A ceasefire was due to come into effect Monday in eastern Ukraine following a deal in Munich over the weekend to halt fighting between government forces and Russian-backed separatists and withdraw heavy weapons from the front line.Listen to Stefan Bos' report: The accord agreed by the German, French, Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers followed an increase in fighting in recent weeks, though the prospects for peace in the region appear frail as pro-Russian-rebels and the Ukrainian army have clashed almost daily for the last 30 months.Questions remained early Monday whether weapons would stay quiet across eastern Ukraine where the population suffered in a conflict that has killed nearly 10,000 people.The foreign ministers of Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine agreed over the weekend to use their influence to implement a ceasefire between government forces and Russian backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. "In a small positive way, the contact gro...
(Vatican Radio) A ceasefire was due to come into effect Monday in eastern Ukraine following a deal in Munich over the weekend to halt fighting between government forces and Russian-backed separatists and withdraw heavy weapons from the front line.
Listen to Stefan Bos' report:
The accord agreed by the German, French, Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers followed an increase in fighting in recent weeks, though the prospects for peace in the region appear frail as pro-Russian-rebels and the Ukrainian army have clashed almost daily for the last 30 months.
Questions remained early Monday whether weapons would stay quiet across eastern Ukraine where the population suffered in a conflict that has killed nearly 10,000 people.
The foreign ministers of Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine agreed over the weekend to use their influence to implement a ceasefire between government forces and Russian backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. "In a small positive way, the contact group has once again agreed to start a ceasefire and the withdrawal of heavy weapons to those places where they should be on February 20," explained Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to reporters.
"We have actively supported this decision and expressed the belief that this time we cannot allow for failure. Let’s see how the parties react to it," he added.
Dozens of people have been killed in recent weeks as fighting escalated between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian-backed separatists especially in and around the government-held town of Avdiivka.
CEASEFIRE VIOLATIONS
German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel acknowledged that previous ceasefire agreements have been violated but expressed hope that international observers of Europe's security organization OCSE will closely monitor the movements of heavy weapons. "All parties will use their influence to implement the agreement of the trilateral contact group from Feb 15,” he said, to a body comprising Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
He said the aim is "to have a ceasefire starting from February 20 and to do what has long been agreed but never implemented: To withdraw the heavy weapons from the region, to secure them and enable the OSCE monitors to control where they are kept.”
However the United States says it is disturbed by Russia's decision to recognize passports and other documents issued by Russian-backed rebel authorities in eastern Ukraine. The OSCE has expressed concern that this decision will undermine peace and hurt the chances for the cease-fire to take hold.
Moscow says it made the move" on humanitarian grounds" as people in eastern Ukraine face "blockades" and in many cases cannot receive social benefits such as pensions or have no "adequate access" to hospitals and medicines amid ongoing clashes.
Catholic students of the National Movement of Catholic Students in Zimbabwe have challenged other young people and society, in general, to adopt healthy lifestyles and shun consumerism.Addressing delegates at the Southern Africa Summit in Chinhoyi, the International Movement of Catholic Students (IMCS) Pax Romana President, Edouard Pihewa Karoue challenged young people to lead unique and healthy lives for themselves and the environment.Karoue, who is from Togo, exhorted youths to be ingenious in solving problems in the wake of total dissatisfaction and insecurity.“When the heart is empty, one buys things to keep them and consume. It’s usually people who don’t have joy who keep buying things even when they don’t need them, and the ‘throwaway culture’ exacerbates the ecological crisis,” he said.He urged youths to realise that there is no perfect way to live but that they must strive to adopt healthy lifestyles and avoid participating i...
Catholic students of the National Movement of Catholic Students in Zimbabwe have challenged other young people and society, in general, to adopt healthy lifestyles and shun consumerism.
Addressing delegates at the Southern Africa Summit in Chinhoyi, the International Movement of Catholic Students (IMCS) Pax Romana President, Edouard Pihewa Karoue challenged young people to lead unique and healthy lives for themselves and the environment.
Karoue, who is from Togo, exhorted youths to be ingenious in solving problems in the wake of total dissatisfaction and insecurity.
“When the heart is empty, one buys things to keep them and consume. It’s usually people who don’t have joy who keep buying things even when they don’t need them, and the ‘throwaway culture’ exacerbates the ecological crisis,” he said.
He urged youths to realise that there is no perfect way to live but that they must strive to adopt healthy lifestyles and avoid participating in ‘collective selfishness’ which is caused by consumeristic cultures.
Pope Francis, in his 2015 document on the environment (Laudato Sì: On care of our common home) wrote that "when people become self-centred and self-enclosed, their greed increases. The emptier a person’s heart is, the more he or she needs things to buy, own and consume. It becomes almost impossible to accept the limits imposed by reality. In this horizon, a genuine sense of the common good also disappears.”
More than thirty-five young delegates attending the IMCS Pax Romana Sub-regional summit in Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe discussed how young people’s involvement in the promotion of environmental care could change the face of Africa and create safer and cleaner societies foryoung people.
The students’ Summit themed ‘The renewal of the African continent is in our hands’ held recently was attended by delegates from South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Malawi, Lesotho and the hosts, Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe’s Catholic students President, Tinotenda Wakabikwa (University of Zimbabwe) said the summit would benefit not only Catholic students but the entire students as the proceedings motivated students to work for a better and renewed Africa.
He encouraged student-leaders to engage national leaders on issues that affect students and to promote dialogue towards a healthier society.
Also present at the Summit was Patrick Muchalwa, IMCS Pax-Romana African Coordinator from Kenya and Sameh Kamel the IMCS Pax- Romana United Nations representative who hails from Egypt.
(Pylaia Chembe)
Email: engafrica@vatiradio.va
The routine is familiar. The president makes a few bad jokes. The championship-winning team presents the leader of the free world with a personalized jersey. Everyone smiles for the cameras....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal authorities are stepping up investigations at Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals due to a sharp increase in opioid theft, missing prescriptions or unauthorized drug use by VA employees since 2009....
SOUTH OF MOSUL, Iraq (AP) -- Iraqi Federal Police forces on Monday pushed into the southern outskirts of Mosul on the second day of a new push to drive Islamic State militants from the city's western half as the U.S. defense secretary started a visit to Iraq to discuss the fight against IS....
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Sunday afternoon made a visit to the parish of Maria Josefa of the Heart of Jesus in the suburbs of Rome. During Mass, he stressed, that the path to holiness was forgiveness and prayer and that revenge and resentment has no place in the Christian life.Listen to Lydia O’Kane’s report Sunday afternoon was an away day for Pope Francis. He made a visit to the Roman parish of Saint Maria Josefa in Ponte di Nona in the east of the city. After greeting parishioners and meeting with a group of children, the Pope celebrated Mass telling the congregation present, never to go down the road of revenge or resentment. Instead, he said, “pray for those who want to do evil: this prevents wars and brings peace.” It is also, the Pope added, the “Christian path to holiness.”Drawing from the readings of the day, Pope Francis spoke about the path to perfection, holiness and sainthood. Jesus, the Holy Father said, explained concretely ...
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Sunday afternoon made a visit to the parish of Maria Josefa of the Heart of Jesus in the suburbs of Rome. During Mass, he stressed, that the path to holiness was forgiveness and prayer and that revenge and resentment has no place in the Christian life.
Listen to Lydia O’Kane’s report
Sunday afternoon was an away day for Pope Francis. He made a visit to the Roman parish of Saint Maria Josefa in Ponte di Nona in the east of the city. After greeting parishioners and meeting with a group of children, the Pope celebrated Mass telling the congregation present, never to go down the road of revenge or resentment. Instead, he said, “pray for those who want to do evil: this prevents wars and brings peace.” It is also, the Pope added, the “Christian path to holiness.”
Drawing from the readings of the day, Pope Francis spoke about the path to perfection, holiness and sainthood. Jesus, the Holy Father said, explained concretely in the Gospel the necessary tools that are needed to travel this road. He said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I tell you not to resist evil.” That, the Pope stressed means, no revenge. If I have a heart full of resentment and want revenge, he continued, that takes away my holiness.
Someone saying, “you did this to me and you will pay for this”, is not the language of a Christian. Instead, Pope Francis underlined, God tells us to pray for those who slander us.
The Pope went on to say that the great wars we see in the news and in newspapers about the massacre of people, of children is the same hatred that you have in your heart for a certain relative.
“To forgive from the heart”. This Pope Francis said, was the road of "sanctity."
If God “is merciful, holy and perfect, we must be merciful, holy and perfect like him”. This, the Pope observed is “sanctity”: a man or woman who does this deserves to be canonized, become holy. The “Christian life is simple”, he said .
Prayer, observed the Holy Father is “an antidote against hatred, against wars.” If someone doesn’t like you, pray for them, because powerful prayer, stressed Pope Francis, overcomes evil and brings peace.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- A New Zealand judge on Monday upheld an earlier court ruling that flamboyant internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom and three of his colleagues can be extradited to the U.S. to face criminal charges....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Homeland Security Department has drafted sweeping new guidelines aimed at aggressively detaining and deporting immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, according to a pair of memoranda signed by DHS Secretary John Kelly....
