Michigan head coach says meeting pope was 'emotional'
http://www.myspiritfm.com/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&view=post&articleid=158856&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
IMAGE: NS photo/L'Osservatore RomanoBy Junno Arocho EstevesVATICAN CITY (CNS) -- As someone accustomed to the stress ofthe gridiron, University of Michigan head football coach Jim Harbaugh said hewas touched by Pope Francis' peaceful presence. "The way he talks is peaceful, it's calm. It felt like this is what itwould be like to meet Jesus Christ. That's what it felt like to me. It was veryemotional," the coach told journalists April 26.Harbaugh and his wife, Sarah, briefly greeted the popefollowing his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square earlier that day. "I said, 'Buenos dias, Santo Padre' ('Good morning,Holy Father'), and then my wife came in and told him that she loved him. Heheld her hand and prayed and asked that we pray for him," Harbaughrecalled. The coach and his wife presented the pope with a Michiganfootball helmet along with a pair of size-10 Air Jordan sneakers in the football team's maize and blue colors.Harbaugh said the pope smiled and graciously accepted ...
IMAGE: NS photo/L'Osservatore Romano
By Junno Arocho Esteves
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- As someone accustomed to the stress of
the gridiron, University of Michigan head football coach Jim Harbaugh said he
was touched by Pope Francis' peaceful presence.
"The way he talks is peaceful, it's calm. It felt like this is what it
would be like to meet Jesus Christ. That's what it felt like to me. It was very
emotional," the coach told journalists April 26.
Harbaugh and his wife, Sarah, briefly greeted the pope
following his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square earlier that day.
"I said, 'Buenos dias, Santo Padre' ('Good morning,
Holy Father'), and then my wife came in and told him that she loved him. He
held her hand and prayed and asked that we pray for him," Harbaugh
recalled.
The coach and his wife presented the pope with a Michigan
football helmet along with a pair of size-10 Air Jordan sneakers in the football team's maize and blue colors.
Harbaugh said the pope smiled and graciously accepted the
gifts, despite their unusual nature.
"I'm not sure the Holy Father knows a lot about 'futbol americano,' but he doesn't need to.
There's a lot of distress,
too, when you look
into his eyes; there's pain there. There's so much injustice in the world, so
much poverty and war and you can tell and feel that he feels that," he
said.
Also present at the audience were several of the 150 players
and staff visiting Rome as part of their spring practice program April 22-30.
According to the press release by the university's athletic
department, the program was Harbaugh's way of giving the team players
"a major life experience, traveling to Rome to practice, but also to take
part in social projects and offer them a look into a foreign country and
culture."
Speaking to journalists after the audience, Harbaugh said
the experience was "more emotional than he anticipated," and that meeting the pope
gave him the chance "to live in a state of grace."
"I've been trying to figure out what this experience
means and what am I supposed to do with it. At least he gave me the marching
orders to pray for him so I have that part of it down."
- - -
Follow Arocho on Twitter: @arochoju.
- - -
Copyright © 2017 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.
Full Article
http://www.myspiritfm.com/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&url=10&view=post&articleid=275596&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
A patient at the new Misky María Palliative Care Hospital located on the outskirts of Lima, Perú. / Credit: Asociación de las Bienaventuranzas (Association of the Beatitudes)ACI Prensa Staff, May 4, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).In the context of the recent news of the death of Ana Estrada, the first person to request and receive euthanasia in Peru, there is a contrasting story to tell on care for the dying in that country: that of a new Catholic hospital on the outskirts of Lima that provides palliative care, which extends the love of Christ to those in extreme poverty who are in the final stages of their lives.The beginning of the 'Misky María' HospitalIn 2021, Father Omar Sánchez Portillo, a priest known for his extensive charitable work in the district of Lurín (south of Lima) and founder of the Association of the Beatitudes, had the dream of building a center to serve, with the "sweetness of Mary," people in situations of abandonment and extreme poverty who have terminal illnesses...
http://www.myspiritfm.com/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&url=10&view=post&articleid=275586&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
President Joe Biden presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Jesuit Father Greg Boyle on May 3, 2024. / Screenshot/public domainCNA Staff, May 3, 2024 / 15:30 pm (CNA).The White House on Friday announced that Jesuit Father Greg Boyle, the founder of a prominent ministry dedicated to rehabilitating gang-affiliated youth, will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom alongside 18 other recipients this afternoon. Boyle, ordained a priest in 1984, founded Homeboy Industries in 1992 while pastor of Dolores Mission, a Catholic church and school in an area that at one time had one of the highest concentrations of gang activity in Los Angeles. Today, Homeboy Industries claims to be the largest gang-intervention program in the United States.The successful ministry, which now operates nationwide, offers training and job skills to those formerly involved in gangs or in jail, as well as case management, tattoo removal, mental health and legal services, and GED completion.Wh...
http://www.myspiritfm.com/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&url=10&view=post&articleid=275585&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
Father Roger Landry, Catholic chaplain at Columbia University, discusses the protests at Columbia University in New York City on EWTN's "The World Over with Raymond Arroyo" on May 2, 2024. / Credit: EWTN News The World Over / ScreenshotWashington, D.C. Newsroom, May 3, 2024 / 17:05 pm (CNA).Father Roger Landry, a Catholic chaplain at Columbia University, said on Thursday that the protests making national headlines at the New York City school are being organized in part by "explicitly communist" outside forces. "There is an instrumentalization of what's going on in Gaza to advance an agenda," he said. "And that is to deconstruct our present world order at which the United States is considered the top of that order."Speaking on EWTN's "The World Over with Raymond Arroyo," Landry said that he had been walking through the encampment nearly daily, conversing with student protesters and other "outside agitators." While he said he believes that many of the protesters we...