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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis centered the catechesis of this week’s Wednesday general audience on the importance of persevering in prayer.Below, please find the official English-language summary of the Holy Father’s prepared remarks:Dear Brothers and Sisters: In our continuing catechesis for this Holy Year of Mercy, we now turn to the parable of the unjust judge and the widow (Lk 18:1-8). In telling us that even an unscrupulous judge will finally render justice to a poor woman because of her persistence, Jesus encourages us to persevere in prayer to our heavenly Father, who is infinitely just and loving. He also assures us that God will not only hear our prayers, but will not delay in answering them (vv. 7-8). The Gospels tell us that Jesus himself prayed constantly. His own intense prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane is a model for our own: it teaches us to present our petitions with complete trust in Father’s gracious will. Th...
(Vatican Radio) Greece has won an batch of bailout funds from international creditors, following 11 hours of talks in Brussels, and an agreement between the 19 eurozone finance ministers.Listen to Vatican Radio's report: Ministers approved Greece's recent reform efforts, and agreed early on Tuesday to disburse 10.3 billion euros in funds to Athens.Responding to the demand for measures by creditors, Greece's parliament passed a bill over the.These measures included tax hikes, more budget-cutting reforms, and a new privatization superfund, which will manage almost all state property.
(Vatican Radio) “It is a duty of everyone to protect children, especially those exposed to elevated risk of exploitation, trafficking, and deviant conduct.”That was the message of Pope Francis for International Missing Children’s Day at his General Audience on Wednesday. Missing Children’s Day was established in the United States by President Ronald Reagan in 1983, four years after the disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz in New York City. The date of his disappearance, May 25, was chosen for the annual commemoration. Since 1998 Missing Children’s Day has been commemorated internationally.In his appeal at the conclusion of the weekly Audience, Pope Francis expressed his hope that “civil and religious authorities might stir consciences and raise awareness, in order to avoid indifference in the face of children on their own, exploited children, and children far from their families and their social context, children who cannot grow-up peacefully o...
(Vatican Radio) A NATO senior official says the alliance's planned biggest military build-up since the end of the Cold War in especially Eastern Europe is to counter a more aggressive and unpredictable Russia. The announcement by the chairman of NATO's Military Committee came shortly after Moscow summoned a U.S. defense attache this week after American military aircraft allegedly flew into civilian airspace during a reconnaissance mission near Russia's Far Eastern border.Listen to the report by Stefan Bos: Russia's Defense Ministry says the American defense attache was summoned to explain why a U.S. Air Force RC-135 surveillance plane risked colliding with passenger planes as it flew over the Sea of Japan on May 22.Moscow alleged that the plane had turned its transponders off and could not be detected by civilian radar, although it was flying at an altitude typically used by passenger jets.However in turn, Washington has repeatedly accused Russian aircraft of buzzi...
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis began his weekly General Audience in St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday by greeting people in sign language.The message of greeting – which involves raising one’s arms, and then turning your hand with the palms out – was for a pilgrimage group from the National Board for the Deaf, which is based in Florence.There was also a group of pilgrims from the Italian Union of the Blind, based in Latina.When greeting the sick and infirm at the end of the Audience, Pope Francis invoked Pope St. Gregory VII – whose feast day was being celebrated on Wednesday.“May he encourage you, dear sick people, to confront your moments of suffering with faith,” Pope Francis said.
Archbishop Peter Kairo of the Catholic Archdiocese of Nyeri has called on the faithful to follow the good example of Blessed Irene “Nyaatha”.The Archbishop was speaking during the occasion of the first anniversary of the beatification of Blessed Irene Stefani “Nyaatha” on May 23 at Dedan Kimathi University of Technology.“What legacy can we learn from Blessed Irene Nyaatha? She really lived her motto All for Jesus, Nothing for me,” said Archbishop Kairo during his homily.“She lived her simple life like Christ; she was friendly, kind and compassionate to all the people she served, and because for her companionate love, the Christians nicknamed her Nyaatha – The merciful mother.”“In our Christian lives there are many challenges, but just like Blessed Irene Nyaatha endured all the suffering while doing her missionary work at Gikondi and wherever she was sent, so can you also follow her good example and ask the lord to help us...
Gen 14: 18-20; I Cor 11: 21-26; Lk 9: 11b-17Dominic Tang, the courageous Chinese archbishop, was imprisoned for twenty-one years for nothing more than his loyalty to Christ and Christ’s one, true Church. After he had spent five years of solitary confinement in a windowless, damp cell, he was told by his jailers that he could leave it for a few hours to do whatever he wanted. Five years of solitary confinement and he had a couple of hours to do what he wanted! What would it be? A hot shower? A change of clothes? Certainly a long walk outside? A chance to call or write to family? What would it be, the jailer asked him. “I would like to say Mass,” replied Archbishop Tang. [Msgr. Timothy M. Dolan, Priests of the Third Millennium (2000), p. 216]. The Vietnamese Jesuit, Joseph Nguyen-Cong Doan, who spent nine years in labor camps in Vietnam, relates how he was finally able to say Mass when a fellow priest-prisoner shared some of his own smuggled supplies. &...
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has sent a message to participants at a conference on pre- and perinatal care taking place at Rome’s Agostino Gemelli Teaching hospital.The Conference, entitled “Guarding Life: the perinatal hospice, a scientific, ethical and human response to prenatal diagnoses,” is presenting the initial results of therapeutic approaches to care for newborns, including those with grave pathological conditions, developed by the new “Perinatal Hospice” established at the Gemelli Hospital. The Hospice has been established in the context of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy proclaimed by Pope Francis.In the Message, signed by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Holy Father expressed his hope for the continued success of the project “in the service of the person and in the progress of medical science, in constant reference to perennial human and Christian values.” He noted their efforts in “seeking to re...
Lilongwe, Malawi, May 25, 2016 / 03:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Amid increased violence against albinos in the southeastern African nation of Malawi, the bishops' justice and peace commission has condemned their killing, which is linked to the practice of witch doctors.“Albinos are being abducted and killed for ritual purposes. Graves have been exhumed and some people have been caught by the police with bones and other albino body parts,” Martin Chiphwanya, acting national coordinator of Malawi's Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, said in a May 21 statement.Across Africa – from Malawi, Tanzania, and Burundi in the east, to Cameroon in the west – albinos are targeted because it is believed they have magical powers or bring good luck. They are killed, and their body parts sold to be used in potions made by witch doctors.Chiphwanya commented that Malawi needs a multi-faceted approach to the problem, involving police, government, religious, and tradit...
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Ariana Grande has filled in for a hologram version of Whitney Houston in a duet with Christina Aguilera on the season finale of NBC's "The Voice."...
