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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Tuesday urged the international community to act without delay in combating climate change.In a message to participants of the COP22 Climate Change meeting taking place in the Moroccan city of Marrakech, the Pope pointed out that all parties and stakeholders have a “serious ethical and moral responsibility to take action and implement last year’s Paris climate-change agreement.Listen to the report by Linda Bordoni: “The current situation of environmental degradation – Pope Francis said – which is strongly connected to the human, ethical and social degradation that we unfortunately experience daily, challenges us all, each of us with our own roles and competencies, and brings us together here with a renewed sense of awareness and responsibility”. Participants at the so-called COP22 Conference are being called to take the next step in the implementation of the Paris Agreement which saw world leaders pledge to m...
(Vatican Radio) The Prefect of the Secretariat for Communications unveiled on Tuesday details of the multimedia coverage for the Consistory and the closing ceremony for the Jubilee Year of Mercy taking place on November 19th and 20th. At a presentation in the Vatican the Secretariat’s Prefect, Monsignor Dario Vigano, said, in an historic first, the two papal events over the weekend will be filmed live in Ultra HD with a High Dynamic Range thanks to a joint production by the Vatican Television Centre and Vatican Radio in collaboration with Eutelsat, Globecast and Sony. Monsignor Vigano said the multimedia coverage of these two events marked the creation of a New Audiovisual Production Centre created by the merger of the Vatican Television Centre and Vatican Radio as part of the ongoing reform and merger of the Vatican’s various media outlets.
A Zambian Catholic Priest, Fr. Leonard Namuhumba has lamented the fact that hospitality for which Africans are known was slowly being replaced by individualism and self-centeredness. Fr. Leonard Namuhumba has particularly called on African religious women to embrace hospitality and to open their hearts to fellow community members and the people they serve. Fr Namuhumba who is Lusaka Archdiocese’s Cathedral Administrator said this, at the weekend, during the graduation Mass of religious women drawn from various African countries. Zambia’s Kalundu Study Centre, situated in Lusaka, offers a one-year Leadership and Development course tailored for religious women. The course equips the nuns with skills needed in their religious congregations.Fr. Leonard Namuhumba lamented the fact that hospitality was slowly being replaced by individualism and self-centeredness adding that society was becoming closed in itself.“Hospitality is a spoken message, given out in ...
Vatican City, Nov 15, 2016 / 06:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin has said that Francis’ decision to give a red hat to the longtime papal envoy to Syria is a sign of the Pope’s closeness to the Church and people on the ground amid the country's dire situation.“With this decision, the Pope wanted to express a great sign of closeness to Syria,” Cardinal Parolin told CNA Nov. 13. The gesture goes beyond mere “diplomatic formulas,” and is a sign of human and ecclesial closeness.Pope Francis has already demonstrated his closeness, concern, and interest in Syria “in many, many ways,” he said, adding that Archbishop Mario Zenari’s elevation “is another manifestation of that interest.”On Oct. 9 Pope Francis announced that Archbishop Zenari and 16 other priests and bishops would be named cardinals Nov. 19, the eve of the close of the Jubilee of Mercy. He has served as the Pope&rsquo...
Baltimore, Md., Nov 15, 2016 / 09:36 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on Tuesday elected Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston as its president, and Archbishop Jose Gómez of Los Angeles vice-president.Cardinal DiNardo has served as conference vice-president since 2013. He was elected president at the bishops' fall assembly Nov. 15 in Baltimore, and will serve a three-year term.The bishops’ conference president plays a significant role in coordinating and leading charitable and social work and education, while providing a public face for the Catholic Church in the U.S.Cardinal DiNardo has served as Archbishop of Galveston-Houston since 2006, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 2007. Archbishop Gómez succeeded as Archbishop of Los Angeles, in 2011.In the vote for president, Cardinal DiNardo received 113 votes. There were 10 candidates, and the nominee with the second-largest number of votes was Archbishop Gregory A...
IMAGE: CNS/Paul HaringBy Cindy WoodenVATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Year of Mercy brought more than 20million pilgrims to Rome, but for Pope Francis, the idea always was that thecelebration of God's mercy would be local: have people experience God's love intheir parishes and send them out into the world to commit random acts of mercy.While concrete works of mercy have a social impact, PopeFrancis' idea was deeply connected to evangelization, which is why Rome jubileeevents were organized by thePontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization. The pope hadsaid he wanted the Holy Year to be "a new step on the church's journey inher mission to bring the Gospel of mercy to each person."The pope's constant refrain during the Year of Mercy, which began Dec. 8,2015, was that no one is excluded from the mercy of God, who has shownhis love for each person by sacrificing his son for the salvation of all. Allcan be forgiven, the pope taught over and over again. And once a personexperiences ...
IMAGE: CNS/Paul HaringBy Cindy WoodenVATICANCITY (CNS) -- In a rather simple prayer service Nov. 19, Pope Francis willcreate 17 new cardinals and symbolically bind them to ancient churchtraditions.Inthe months following the consistory -- as any gathering of cardinals is called-- the new cardinals under the age of 80 will be named members of variousVatican congregations, councils, dicasteries and offices. For most of thecardinals, the memberships, while not involving a permanent move to Rome, willbe the most regular exercise of their new ministry as advisers to the pope.Themost serious responsibility that cardinals have is the solemn obligation to gatherin a conclave to elect a new pope. That right is reserved to cardinals underthe age of 80.ThreeU.S. citizens are among the new cardinals. They are: Archbishop Blase J. Cupichof Chicago; Bishop Kevin J. Farrell, prefect of the new Vatican office forlaity, family and life; and Archbishop Joseph W. Tobin, who recently wastransferred fro...
IMAGE: CNS photo/Bob RollerBy Carol ZimmermannBALTIMORE (CNS) -- The U.S.bishops chose to break from tradition during this year's fall assembly bycelebrating Mass at the church known as the "Mother Church" of blackCatholics in Western Baltimore instead of the usual venue: Baltimore's historicbasilica."I pray our presence willconvey the church's solidarity with you," said Baltimore ArchbishopWilliam E. Lori in opening remarks Nov. 14 to a few dozen parishioners attendingthe Mass with more than 250 bishops who filled nearly every pew of the small church.In his homily, Archbishop JosephE. Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, said the bishops came to the church "to bepresent, to see with our own eyes, so that we might humbly take a step and leadothers to do so." Archbishop Kurtz, outgoingpresident of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, also said the bishops'presence was just one part of an effort to bring about healing of racialdivides. He acknowledged this effort would involve "more th...
IMAGE: CNS photo/Tyler OrsburnBy Cindy WoodenVATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Cardinal-designate Kevin J. Farrellbelieves the U.S. bishops as a whole should have discussed pastoral guidelinesfor implementing Pope Francis' exhortation on the family before individualbishops began issuing guidelines for their own dioceses.Implementing the pope's exhortation, "AmorisLaetitia," he said, "has to be done in communion with our bishops. Ithink that it would have been wiser to wait for the gathering of the conferenceof bishops where all the bishops of the United States or all the bishops of acountry would sit down and discuss these things."A conference-wide discussion, he told Catholic News ServiceNov. 15, would ensure "an approach that would not cause as much divisionamong bishops and dioceses, and misunderstandings."The cardinal-designate was asked specifically about pastoralguidelines issued for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia by Archbishop Charles J.Chaput, who also is head of a U.S. bishops' ad ho...
