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IMAGE: CNS/Paul HaringBy Robert DuncanVATICAN CITY (CNS) -- In a craftsman's workshop on the edgeof Rome's Campo Verano cemetery, two designers are working to revive what theysee as a dying art: burial.Unlike the masons who make the cemetery's gravestones andmemorials, Anna Citelli and Raoul Bretzel are fashioning biodegradable burialpods.Theirprototype is an egg-shaped sarcophagus that can hold a corpse in thefetal position. A young tree, chosen ahead of time by the deceased, will beplanted over the pod in place of a headstone. Citelli and Bretzel imagine afuture where "sacred forests" co-exist with cemeteries.The burial pods are part of a widespread movement focused on"green burial" practices, which use decomposable materials and avoid the use ofembalming chemicals.A growing number of Catholic cemeteries offer "greenburials," but do so emphasizing how the practices and the motivationsbehind such a choice must coincide with Catholic faith."By burying the bodies of the faithful, th...
HONOLULU (AP) -- Six carefully selected scientists will spend the next eight months living inside a man-made dome on a remote Hawaii volcano as part of a human-behavior study that could help NASA as it draws up plans for sending astronauts on long missions to Mars....
HOUSTON (AP) -- The Latest on the hospitalizations of former President George H.W. Bush and his wife, Barbara Bush (all times local):...
DAKAR, Senegal (AP) -- A West African regional force charged into neighboring Gambia late Thursday to support the country's newly inaugurated president, while longtime ruler Yahya Jammeh showed no sign of stepping down....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democrats begin the Donald Trump presidency in sad shape. They lack a clear power base, they've got no distinct national leader, and party brokers are searching for a formula to counter the new Republican-dominated government and figure out how to win again....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- On the night in 2008 when Barack Obama was elected the country's first black president, many black Americans wept. Eight years later, they weep again for the end of an era some thought they would never live to see - and for the uncertain future they face without him....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Ready for his big moment, Donald Trump swept into Washington on a military jet Thursday and quickly set to building better ties to the Republican Congress as he kicked off three days of inaugural festivities. Washington braced for an onslaught of crowds and demonstrators - with all the attendant hoopla and hand-wringing....
(Vatican Radio) An ecumenical delegation from Finland met with Pope Francis on Thursday, marking the feast day of their country’s patron saint, the 12th century Saint Henrik.While around three quarters of the population belongs to the Lutheran Church, Catholics in Finland make up a tiny minority of about 15.000 faithful, led by their first native bishop of Helsinki since the Reformation, Teemu Sippo. The delegation visiting the Vatican this week includes Bishop Sippo, together with the Lutheran bishop of Turku Kaarlo Kalliala and the Finnish Orthodox Metropolitan Elia of Oulu.In his words to the group, the Pope noted that Christians in Finland are celebrating the centenary of the Finnish Ecumenical Council, as well as marking the centenary of their nation as an independent state. May this anniversary, he said, “encourage all the Christians of your country to profess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ – as did Saint Henrik so zealously – offering a witness of fa...
Card Gracias of Mumbai, issued an appeal on the occasion of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which began on Wednesday saying “Let us pray together to accomplish Jesus’s prayer that ‘all may be one’.”Card Oswald archbishop of Mumbai and president of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences (FABC), notes that the celebration takes place every year, from 18 to 25 January, but "this year it takes on an even greater significance because of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, an event that triggered a profound division in the Christian world between the Catholic Church and the Reformed Churches."At the same time, the cardinal underlines the efforts made in favour of dialogue last year by Pope Francis, who in October signed a Joint Declaration with Bishop Munib Younan, President of the World Lutheran Federation.Thus, "by embracing and signing the declaration, they put an end to 500 years of separatio...
The Church in Kenya has reiterated Pope Francis’ message calling for the protection of child migrants and refugees.Governments and political leaders in countries where refugees are fleeing conflict have been encouraged to ensure peace in their countries and create conditions that are favourable for their own people. If this is done, many children and young people would be spared much of the suffering that comes from the trauma of being refugees and migrants.In reference to Pope Francis’ message on the 103rd World Day of Migrants and Refugees marked last Sunday, the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (KCCB) Chairman of the Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Seafarers, Bishop Joseph Alessandro said many refugee children are suffering at the hands of malicious and unscrupulous people.“In the present world and in many places, people are trafficking children and introducing them to prostitution, pornography, drugs, child labour and (as) soldiers. The...
