Article Archive
Please click below to view any of the articles in our archive.
Vatican City, Feb 13, 2017 / 10:10 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In the wake of several contentious events surrounding the Vatican recently, Pope Francis' advisory board in his ongoing reform of the Roman Curia affirmed their support of the Pope and his work.On behalf of the group, Cardinal Oscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga greeted Pope Francis at the start of the councils of cardinal's Feb. 13 meeting.He thanked the Pope for his Christmas address to the Roman Curia Dec. 22, and acknowledging “his encouragement and direction for the work of the council,” a Vatican communique stated.“In relation to recent events, the Council of Cardinals expresses its full support of the work of the Pope, while ensuring full adhesion and support to his person and his Magisterium,” it added.The statement comes just over one week after posters criticizing the Pope were plastered on walls of the city center of Rome Feb. 4.Depicting a dour looking Pope Francis, they re...
Vatican City, Feb 13, 2017 / 10:40 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis on Monday spoke about what it means to kill your brother in your heart, which, may be something as small as envy or bitterness, and if left to grow, can lead to even worse things, such as war or actual murder.Most people have never actually killed someone, the Pope said in his homily for Mass at the chapel of Casa Santa Marta Feb. 13, but “if you have a bad feeling toward your brother, you killed him; if you insult your brother, you killed him in your heart. Killing is a process that starts from little things.”Reflecting on the story of Cain and Abel, the Pope said it is one “which begins with a little jealousy: Cain is irritated because his sacrifice does not please the Lord and he begins to cultivate a feeling of resentment, a feeling he could control but does not.”“The speck of sawdust becomes a plank in our eye,” he continued, “our life revolves around it and it ends up...
Washington D.C., Feb 13, 2017 / 01:09 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- President Donald Trump’s administration will stop fighting in court to implement the Obama administration’s transgender bathroom policy, leading to applause from a religious freedom legal group. “This is good news for the privacy, safety, and dignity of young students across America,” stated Gary McCaleb, senior counsel with the legal group Alliance Defending Freedom.On Friday, the Trump administration announced that it was dropping the government’s appeal on behalf of the Obama administration’s transgender bathroom guidance. That guidance had directed schools to allow students to use the bathroom or locker room of the gender they currently identify with, not the facilities of their birth or biological sex.In August, the Northern District of Texas federal court placed an injunction on the policy, halting it from going into effect. In response to the injunction, the Obama admini...
Portland, Ore., Feb 13, 2017 / 02:56 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- An Oregon bill on advanced medical directive rules could allow patients who suffer from dementia or mental illness to be starved or dehydrated, opponents warned.“These are patients who are awake, can chew and swallow and want to eat, even though in some cases they may need help in delivering food to their mouths,” Gayle Atteberry of Oregon Right to Life said Jan. 31. “Current safeguards in Oregon’s law protect these patients from this type of cruelty. This bill take away these safeguards.”The legislation, S.B. 494, would create an appointed committee empowered to make changes to the advance medical directive governing end-of-life decisions.According to Oregon Right to Life, the bill was drafted in response to the case of Ashland, Ore. resident Nora Harris, who suffered from early onset Alzheimer’s disease. She lost the ability to communicate and the fine motor skills needed to feed herself....
Madrid, Spain, Feb 13, 2017 / 04:28 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Josefa Rodríguez and Amaro Pesquero were not expecting to receive a letter from Pope Francis.But that's exactly what happened last September, when the Pope himself thanked them in his own handwriting for the donation they had made for the persecuted Christians in the Middle East.Josefa and Amaro are a married couple from Fuenlabrada, Madrid, Spain, who made a pilgrimage to Rome on the occasion of the Holy Year of Mercy in August 2016.“My wife bought a prayer book on Divine Mercy and got in contact with this apostolate so they could send her more books so she could to give them away to others. Then they informed her that there was going to be a pilgrimage to Rome and we signed up,” Amaro Pesquero told CNA.But in addition to going on pilgrimage for the Jubilee, the retired couple brought a gift that they had gathered together with a lot of effort and that they wanted to give to the Holy Father: a sum of mo...
Springfield, Ill., Feb 13, 2017 / 04:39 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A Catholic advocacy group is warning the governor of Illinois that he will face massive political opposition if he signs an abortion funding bill into law.“Let me be clear. If Governor Rauner signs the bill as written, we will urge our members along with every pro-life voter in the state to support an alternative candidate – or to abstain from voting for his re-election. And we won’t be the only group doing so,” Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote.org, stated on Monday of Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner (R).The Illinois H.B. 40 would allow for the state’s Medicaid recipients to have their abortions covered, as the program currently pays for abortions done in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother.Illinois Right to Life has estimated that abortions in the state could increase by 12,000 per year.The bill would also repeal the state’s “trigger” law, which was ena...
Washington D.C., Feb 13, 2017 / 06:03 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Objectors to abortion need stronger conscience protections in federal law, the U.S. bishops have said in a letter to Congress supporting a bill being considered by Congress.“While existing federal laws already protect conscientious objection to abortion in theory, this protection has not proved effective in practice,” the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said. They said the proposed Conscience Protection Act of 2017 is essential to protect health care providers’ fundamental rights and ensure that they are not “forced by government to help destroy innocent unborn children.”Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, chair of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, and Archbishop William Lori, who chairs the U.S. bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Freedom, backed the legislation in a Feb. 8 letter to Congress.They said the bill would benefit the “great majority” ...
By Cindy WoodenVATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Satan is a liar and a cheat whopromises people everything then leaves them with nothing, Pope Francis said athis early morning Mass.In his homily Feb. 10, Pope Francis contrasted the way Eveinteracted with the serpent in the garden of Eden and the way Jesus reacted to the devilafter spending 40 days in the desert.With Eve, "the father of lies" demonstrates how heis a specialist in tricking people, the pope said. First, he makes her feelcomfortable, then he begins a dialogue with her, leading her "step bystep" where he wants her to go."He's a trickster," the pope said. "Hepromises you everything and leaves you naked," like he left Adam and Eve.Jesus, on the other hand, does not enter into a dialoguewith the devil, but responds to his temptations by quoting Scripture, PopeFrancis said."The serpent, the devil, is astute," he said, but"you cannot dialogue with the devil.""We all know what temptations are, we all know becausewe all have them -- tempt...
By Cindy WoodenVATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A nation's health care system cannotbe run simply as a business because human lives are at stake, Pope Francis said."If there is a sector in which the 'throwaway culture'demonstrates its most painful consequences, it is the health care sector,"the pope told patients, medical professionals, pastors and volunteers attendinga meeting sponsored by the Italian bishops' national office for health care ministry.Anticipating the celebration Feb. 12 of the World Day of theSick and marking the 20th anniversary of the bishops' office, the pope saidCatholics obviously give thanks for the advances in medicine and technologythat have enabled doctors to cure or provide better care for the sick.He also praised medical personnel who carry out their workas "ministers of life and participants in the affectionate love of God thecreator. Each day their hands touch the suffering body of Christ, and this is agreat honor and a great responsibility," he said.But, the po...
IMAGE: CNS photo/Kamil Krzaczynski, ReutersBy WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Migration welcomed a federal appeals court ruling that upheld a temporary restraining order against President Donald Trump's travel ban on refugees from seven predominantly Muslim countries that also temporarily suspended the country's refugee resettlement program."We respect the rule of law and the American judicial process. We remain steadfast in our commitment to resettling refugees and all those fleeing persecution," Bishop Joe S. Vasquez of Austin, Texas, said in a statement Feb. 10."At this time we remain particularly dedicated to ensuring that affected refugee and immigrant families are not separated and that they continue to be welcomed in our country," the statement said.The bishop pledged that church agencies would continue to welcome people "as it is a vital part of our Catholic faith and an enduring element of our American values and traditions."In a decision ...
