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By Junno Arocho EstevesVATICANCITY -- God's kingdom is not a well-organized structure where only strictadherents of the law can enter but a path that is walked upon every day withmeekness and docility, Pope Francis said. Christiansare called to walk that path of the kingdom and not fall victim to "abehavior of rigidity" that prevents the Holy Spirit from growing, the pope said in his homily Oct. 25 during his morning Mass inthe Domus Sanctae Marthae."The kingdom does not grow in this way and neither do we grow. Itis docility to the Holy Spirit that makes us grow and be transformed," hesaid. The pope reflected on the day's Gospel from St. Luke, in which Jesus comparesthe kingdom of God to a mustard seed that grows into a large bush and likeyeast that is mixed with flour "until the whole batch of dough isleavened."Jesus' comparison of the kingdom to a mustard seed and the yeast, thepope said, is a reminder that in order for the Holy Spirit to grow, it mustfirst "die" and transform in...
IMAGE: CNS/Paul HaringBy Cindy WoodenVATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Professing belief in the resurrectionof the dead and affirming that the human body is an essential part of aperson's identity, the Catholic Church insists that the bodies of the deceasedbe treated with respect and laid to rest in a consecrated place.While the Catholic Church continues to prefer burial in theground, it accepts cremation as an option, but forbids the scattering of ashesand the growing practice of keeping cremated remains at home, said CardinalGerhard Muller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith."Caring for the bodies of the deceased, the churchconfirms its faith in the resurrection and separates itself from attitudes andrites that see in death the definitive obliteration of the person, a stage inthe process of reincarnation or the fusion of one's soul with theuniverse," the cardinal told reporters Oct. 25.In 1963, thecongregation issued an instruction permitting cremation as long as itwas...
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- A birther debate in Venezuela is heating up as President Nicolas Maduro's opponents seek to push the embattled socialist leader from office at any cost....
VATICAN CITY (AP) -- The Vatican on Tuesday published guidelines for Catholics who want to be cremated, saying their remains cannot be scattered, divvied up or kept at home but rather stored in a sacred, church-approved place....
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Authorities have been hunting for more than 24 hours for an Oklahoma man they say posted live videos to social media while running from police during a violent rampage that included shooting two police officers, armed car thefts and killing his aunt and uncle, apparently attempting to cut off their heads....
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A federal judge in San Francisco has approved a $15 billion court settlement of most claims against Volkswagen for its emissions-cheating scandal....
QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) -- Militants wearing suicide vests stormed a Pakistani police academy in the southwestern city of Quetta overnight, killing 61 people, mostly police cadets and recruits, and waging a ferocious gunbattle with troops that lasted into early hours Tuesday....
DORAL, Florida (AP) -- Donald Trump declared Tuesday that "Obamacare is just blowing up," hoping for powerful late-campaign ammunition against Hillary Clinton after the government projected sharp cost increases for President Barack Obama's health care program....
(Vatican Radio) The President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran has sent a Message to Hindus for the Feast of Deepavali (Diwali), entitled Christians and Hindus: Promoting hope among families.“The health of society depends on our familial bonds and yet we know that today the very notion of family is being undermined by a climate that relativizes its essential significance and value,” Cardinal Tauran writes.“It is in the family that children, led by the noble example of their parents and elders, are formed in the values that help them develop into good and responsible human beings,” – the Cardinal Tauran continues – “Too often, however, the optimism and idealism of our youth are diminished by circumstances that affect families. It is especially important, therefore, that parents, together with the wider community, instil in their children a sense of hope by guiding them towards a better ...
(Vatican Radio) The Vatican’s representative to the United Nations has decried the fact that hundreds of millions of people still face hunger and undernourishment, in a speech given on Monday to the UN General Assembly.“Despite progress made since 1990 in reducing hunger, nearly 800 million people are still undernourished, at a time when global challenges to reducing malnutrition are becoming increasingly more complex,” – said Archbishop Bernadito Auza, the Holy See’s Permanent Representative to the UN in New York – “An equally troubling fact is that more than two billion suffer from micronutrient deficiencies, among whom are some of the most vulnerable members of the world’s population, including more than 200 million children under the age of five years, who are either stunted or wasted.”The Archbishop went on to reaffirm the Holy See’s commitment to “firm, political and societal” action in order to combat w...
