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(Vatican Radio) The World Day of the Sick, established by Pope Saint John Paul II in 1993, is celebrated each year on the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, 11 February. This year marks the 25th annual commemoration of the day.The theme chosen for World Day of the Sick 2017 is “Amazement at what God has accomplished: ‘The Almighty has done great things for me’.” In his message for the Day, Pope Francis said, “This celebration likewise gives the Church renewed spiritual energy for carrying out ever more fully that fundamental part of her mission which includes serving the poor, the infirm, the suffering, the outcast and the marginalized” – echoing the words of St John Paul.Pope Francis also focused on the Marian aspect of the commemoration, saying, “I encourage all of you, the sick, the suffering, physicians, nurses, family members and volunteers, to see in Mary, Health of the Infirm, the sure sign of God’s love for every human ...
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis prayed the Angelus with pilgrims and tourists gathered in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday. In remarks ahead of the traditional prayer of Marian devotion, the Holy Father offered a meditation on the Gospel reading for this Sunday, taken from the 5th chapter of Gospel according to St. Matthew, in which Our Lord says:Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place.Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven. I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.Reflec...
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Monday spoke of the importance of the bond of brotherhood and of how easy it is for petty jealousies and envy to damage that bond and set off a process that can lead to the destruction of families and peoples.The Pope was speaking during the homily at morning Mass at the Casa Santa Marta, a Mass that he offered to Father Adolfo Nicolás, the former Superior General of the Society of Jesus who is preparing to continue in his mission in Asia. Listen to the report by Linda Bordoni: Brotherhood is destroyed by small thingsReflecting on the first reading of the day which speaks of Cain and Abel, Pope Francis said that in this reading from Genesis, for the first time in Bible we hear the word ‘brother’ and we listen to a “story of brotherhood that should grow and be beautiful, but ends up destroyed”.“A story which begins ‘with a little jealousy’: Cain is irritated because his sacrifice does not p...
Vatican Radio’s English Africa Service would like to inform listeners in Rome, Italy, that the English Africa Service programme broadcast four times daily on Rome's FM 103.8 frequency is moving to a digital platform beginning Tuesday, this week, 15 February 2017.From this date onwards, the ‘English Africa Programme’ can be heard only through the Vatican Radio World Channel on Digital Audio Broadcasting standard known as DAB or its updated version DAB+, which will require the purchase of a digital radio receiver. However, listeners can continue to listen to the podcast of the daily programme throughout the day by logging on to our website www.radiovaticana.va, click on English and then go to the On-demand and Podcast section on the right hand side of the page; click on ‘English for Africa Programme.’In recent years, Vatican Radio has experimented with digital transmission technologies, including DAB, which is said to be cheaper and has a bette...
(Vatican Radio) “How can a priest, at the service of Christ and of His Church, come to cause such evil? How can one who has consecrated his life to leading the little ones to God, end up instead devouring them in what I have called a ‘diabolic sacrifice,’ which destroys both the victims and the life of the Church?”Pope Francis has once again spoken out strongly against the evil of sex abuse perpetrated by clergy and religious. His words come in the preface to a book by a victim of clerical sexual abuse, Daniel Pettit, today a husband and father of six children.In his preface, the Holy Father describes meeting Mr Pettit at the Vatican during the Year of Consecrated Life. “I couldn’t imagine that this man, enthusiastic and passionate about Christ, was a victim of abuse by a priest,” the Pope writes. “And yet this is what he told me, and his suffering struck me deeply. I saw once more the fearful damage caused by sexual abuse, and the l...
The All India Catholic Union (AICU), the largest lay Catholic organization in India, has called on the Prime minister Narendra Modi to use his influence and that of his government to negotiate with the countries of the Middle East to free Fr. Tom Uzhunnalil, kidnapped in Yemen on March 4, 2016. In the letter, signed by the President, Lancy Da Cunha, Catholics express the anguish of the Christian community over the long months of imprisonment undergone by the Salesian priest, in the hands of jihadi militants linked to the Islamic State. Cunha says: "We ask for your personal intervention and assistance to ensure that he will return home as soon as possible and in complete safety. We hope and pray that you will support us".Since last March, Fr. Tom, a native of Kerala state, has been a captive of an Islamic group after it a home for the sick and elderly of the Missionaries of Charity in Aden, in southern Yemen. In the attack four sisters of Mother Teresa and 12 ...
The Colombian Foreign Ministry confirmed last Wednesday from the San Carlos Palace in Bogotá that Sister Gloria Cecilia Narváez Argoti was kidnapped Tuesday evening while she was going about her charitable duties at the Catholic parish in the village of Karangasso, Mali.The Colombian Embassy in the West African capital of Accra, Ghana, is coordinating with Mali military and police the safe release of the 56-year-old Franciscan nun who is believed to have been captured by four armed men who turned up in the remote village of the Sahel region, close to the border with Burkina Faso.According to eyewitness accounts, the gang stormed the parish compound claiming to be jihadists. Narváez Argoti, was one of four nuns working in Karangasso, southern Mali, and the only one to have been taken hostage.Search and rescue operations by Mali’s security forces have resulted in the arrest of two suspects, but as of Thursday, there has yet to be an official claim of respo...
In a scathing indictment of Pakistan's treatment of Afghan refugees, a human rights group charged Monday that the country is forcing hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees back to their homeland, which is still beset by war and crushing poverty. It also said that a $400 stipend the United Nations refugee agency gives to refugees who return to Afghanistan is tantamount to a bribe to convince reluctant Afghans to leave Pakistan. ``The exodus amounts to the world's largest unlawful mass forced return of refugees in recent times,'' the Human Rights Watch report said.. Both the U.N. and Pakistan denied the allegations. The report by the New York-based rights group was harsh in its criticism of the U.N. agency for not condemning what it insisted is Pakistan's forced return of the refugees. The number of Afghan refugees returning from Pakistan, already at the highest level in years, may increase this year if Pakistan maintains its forceful policies...
Myanmar is to investigate whether police have committed abuses against Rohingya Muslims, the government has said, after officials promised that allegations of atrocities against members of the Muslim minority would be looked into. The United Nations human rights office said in a report this month Myanmar's security forces had committed mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingya Muslims and burned their villages since October in a campaign that "very likely" amounted to crimes against humanity and possibly ethnic cleansing. Myanmar has denied almost all allegations of human rights abuses in northern Rakhine State, where many Rohingya live, and says a lawful counterinsurgency campaign has been under way since nine policemen were killed in attacks on security posts near the Bangladesh border on Oct. 9.The military said last week it was setting up a team to investigate alleged atrocities by the security forces and the interior ministry followed that up on the weekend...
Vatican City, Feb 10, 2017 / 04:53 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican has issued an updated version of their charter for healthcare workers, removing question marks from modern ethical concerns such as euthanasia and the creation of human-animal chimeras by offering a clear set of guidelines.In the past 20 years “there have been two to situations, two events” that have made the production of a new healthcare charter necessary, Professor Antonio Gioacchino Spagnolo told CNA Feb. 6.The first, he said, is “scientific progress. In these 20 years there has been a lot of scientific progress in the field of the beginning of life as well as in the phase of the end of life, in the context of living.”But alongside advancements in science the Church’s Magisterium has also produced several texts dealing with new and current issues, offering an authoritative take on how they should be handled.The charter, he said, “encompasses a sort of collection of the various...
