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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has made two more of his impromptu visits to hospitals and social service centres as part of his regular Friday initiatives during this Year of Mercy.The Pope began by making a surprise visit to the Accident and Emergency department and to the Neonatal unit of Rome’s San Giovanni hospital.After putting on a mask and completing the other health and safety procedures, the Pope stopped beside the incubators of twelve new born babies, five of whom are suffering from severe complications, including one set of twins. The Holy Father offered words of comfort and support to all of the parents, before going on to meet with staff and families at the nursery on the floor above.Later in the afternoon the Pope visited some thirty terminally ill patients at the Villa Speranza Hospice, located in the north of Rome as part of the Gemelli University Hospital Foundation.A note from the Holy See press office explained that through these two ‘Mercy Friday&rsqu...
Vatican City, Sep 16, 2016 / 11:19 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Friday, Pope Francis visited a neonatal hospital unit and a hospice for the terminally ill, stressing the dignity of human life from conception to natural death.The Sept. 16 visit is the latest in the Pope’s “Mercy Friday” initiatives, to spend time with various groups each month during the Jubilee of Mercy.In previous trips, he has made surprise stops at places including an elderly home, a drug and alcohol rehab center, and a facility for retired priests.In this month’s visit, Pope first visited the San Giovanni hospital, stopping at both the emergency room and the neonatal unit. Currently there are 12 babies with various conditions in the unit. Five of them – including one set of twins – are in very serious condition in the ICU.A Vatican description of the event said that Pope Francis wore a hygienic mask and took other sanitary precautions, like all visitors to the unit, where the child...
Vatican City, Sep 16, 2016 / 12:38 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis has confirmed that the impediments preventing one from being ordained – such as homicide, abortion, or attempted suicide – apply whether or not the man was Catholic at the time the act occurred.As the law is written, a doubt existed that the “irregularities,” as they are called, applied only to those who were Catholic – and thus those who were under the law – at the time they were committed.Pope Francis affirmed the definitive interpretation, that the law does apply to non-Catholics who have performed the acts, in a meeting with members of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts on May 31. The letter was made public by the Vatican Sept. 15.The purpose of the law is to provide extra protection to the sanctity of the Sacrament of Holy Orders – in the episcopate, priesthood, and diaconate – Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta Ochoa de Chinchetru, secretary of the Pontifical...
Vatican City, Sep 16, 2016 / 01:10 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Like the Good Samaritan in the parable, you have been called to show the mercy of God to the men and women God has placed in your path, Pope Francis said to a group of new bishops on Friday.“Be bishops with a heart wounded by such a mercy and so tireless in the humble task of accompanying the man who 'by chance' God has put in your way,” the Pope encouraged.The Roman Pontiff's Sept. 16 audience was with the participants in an annual training course for bishops held in Rome organized by the Congregation of Bishops and the Congregation of Eastern Churches.“Men have need of mercy,” the Pope said. The Good Samaritan is “interested in (the man's) recovery and his future … mercy, which had broken his heart, needs to pour and pour.”Just as Christ was close to his disciples, accompany your priests first “with patient care”, Pope Francis exhorted the new bishops. He ...
IMAGE: CNS photo/Philip Laubner, CRSBy Rhina GuidosWASHINGTON (CNS) ? A six-month search for a new president and CEOfor one of the largest humanitarian relief agencies in the world ended at itsdoorstep, with Catholic Relief Services announcing Sept. 16 that it is hiring aveteran employee -- the agency's No. 2 -- Sean Callahan, as its newpresident and CEO."We looked all across the nation and found that the best personfor the job was Sean, already working for us," said Bishop Richard J. Malone ofBuffalo, New York, head of the CRS Board Search Committee, in a statementannouncing Callahan's new position, which begins Jan. 1, 2017. He succeedsCarolyn Y. Woo, who ends her five-year term at the end of 2016.Callahan began his career with CRS 28 years ago and has servedas director of Human Resources, regional director for South Asia, head of itsNicaragua program and executive vice president for overseas operations. Four yearsago he was appointed as the agency's chief operating officer.Archb...
IMAGE: CNS/L'Osservatore RomanoBy Cindy WoodenVATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis donned a green hospitalgown over his white cassock and entered the neonatal unit of a Rome hospital,peering in the incubators, making the sign of the cross and encouraging worriedparents.The trip to the babies' ward of Rome's San Giovanni Hospitaland then to a hospice Sept. 16 were part of a series of Mercy Friday activities Pope Francis has been doing once a monthduring the Year of Mercy.By visiting the ailing newborns and the dying on the sameday, the Vatican said, Pope Francis "wanted to give a strong sign of theimportance of life from its first moment to its natural end.""Welcoming life and guaranteeing its dignity at everymoment of its development is a teaching Pope Francis has underlined manytimes," the statement said. With the September visits he wanted to put"a concrete and tangible seal" on his teaching that living a life ofmercy means giving special attention to those in the most precarioussi...
FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) -- When Hillary Clinton returned to the campaign trail this week after a brief illness, she promised a more aspirational finish to her White House bid. And she used Michelle Obama as a guidepost....
SPRING LAKE, N.C. (AP) -- A 79-year-old North Carolina man suffering from dementia is in jail on murder charges after shooting his wife and caretaking daughter, authorities said....
BEIRUT (AP) -- Trucks carrying humanitarian aid to Syria's besieged rebel-held part of the city of Aleppo were held up for yet another day as heavy fighting broke out Friday on the edges of Damascus between government forces and insurgents....
JERUSALEM (AP) -- In his landmark speech to the Arab world seven years ago, President Barack Obama warned that Israeli settlements on occupied territories were undermining hopes for peace. "It is time for these settlements to stop," he declared....
