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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Wednesday afternoon met with football legend Diego Maradona and other players in the “Match for peace and solidarity” which took place later that evening at Rome’s Stadio Olimpico.Among other stars playing in the match were Ronaldinho, Roberto Carlos, Aldair, Cafu, Claudio Lopez, Hernán Crespo, Zambrotta, Rui Costa, Juan Sebastián Verón, Fabio Capello, Aitor Karanka, and Francesco Totti.The White team led by Karanka and Ronaldinho beat the Blue team led by Capello, Maradona, and Totti by a score of 4-3.The football match was promoted by ‘Scholas occurrentes’, Comunità Amore e Libertà, Centro Sportivo Italiano and Unitalsi. The proceeds from the match will be used to help the earthquake victims in central Italy.
The Catholic Church of Indonesia last week concluded its Second Indonesian Youth Day (IYD2) in Manado, the capital of the northern province of North Sulawesi, with nearly 2,460 young men and women from all of the nation’s 37 dioceses taking part in it. After six days of prayer, reflection, testimonies, catechesis that kicked off with a 3-day live-in programme in local families, the Second Indonesian Youth Day (IYD2) ended with a highly animated evening Mass Oct. 6 at the ‘Amphitheatre’ of the Emmanuel Catholic Youth Centre at Lotta, a suburb of Manado. After the Mass followed a variety programme that included the final declaration by the nation’s Catholic youth, speeches, songs, dances and entertainment by the various diocesan regional groups with fireworks to cap it all close to midnight.The IYD, Oct. 1-6, had as its theme, “The Joy of Gospel amidst a Plural Society i...
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has written the preface to the book “Bartholomew: Apostle and Visionary,” published by the U.S.-based Thomas Nelson. The book is being published to mark the 25th anniversary of the election of the Ecumenical Patriarch, who is the “first among equals” of the Orthodox Church.Pope emeritus Benedict XVI also contributed a chapter to the volume.The October 12 edition of L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, had the texts written by Pope Francis (available here) and Pope emeritus Benedict XVI (available here) in their entirety.“The Church of Rome and the Church of Constantinople are united by a profound and long-standing bond, which not even centuries of silence and misunderstanding have been able to sever,” – Pope Francis wrote – “This bond is exemplified by the relationship between those to whom tradition attributes the foundation of our respective Churches, namely, the holy apostles Peter ...
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Thursday morning met with Jens Stoltenberg, the Secretary General of the NATO military alliance.The Holy See Press Office did not release any details of the meeting.However, Mr. Stoltenberg sent a tweet saying “Honoured to meet [Pope Francis]. His vision for a just world and appeal for cooperation is inspiring. Especially in times of increased tension.”
Caritas India, an official agency of the Catholic Church, has decided to fight against an openly discriminatory mentality, announcing the launch of a programme for the assistance and social promotion of transgender people. The Catholic Church's social service wing has confirmed the decision in a statement on Monday, Oct. 10 after holding internal talks on its inclusive development policy."Caritas is open to work with transgender people. I am even open to recruiting them," said Fr Frederick D’Souza, executive director of Caritas India, during the meeting. Referring to the initiative as the “beginning of a new school of thought,” and explaining: “People who are suffering for no fault of their own because of sexual confusion in their body require our attention and support.”With this programme, Caritas hopes to eradicate “traditional biases against them,” in the awareness that this “decision will definitely have implication...
(Vatican Radio) The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday elected 67 year old António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres to replace outgoing Ban Ki Moon as the world body’s new Secretary General. In December 2013, Mr. Guterres was here in the Vatican where, as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, he met the newly elected Pope Francis in private audience. At the time, Guterres was serving his second five year mandate at the helm of the U.N.’s agency for refugees. He will take over his new job January 1.As High Commissioner of UNHCR, Guterres headed one of the world's largest humanitarian organizations with more than 7,000 staff working in 126 countries providing protection and assistance to millions of refugees, returnees, internally displaced people and stateless persons. More than 85 per cent of UNHCR staff work in the field, often in difficult and dangerous situations.Tracey McClure spoke with the former Portuguese...
Vatican City, Oct 13, 2016 / 05:49 am (CNA/EWTN News).- As images of children crushed by bombs or washed up at sea are becoming an increasingly daily sight, Pope Francis’ decision to focus his message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees on child migrants rings in as particularly timely and appropriate.“I feel compelled to draw attention to the reality of child migrants, especially the ones who are alone,” Francis said in his message.Young migrants, he noted, are particularly vulnerable and defenseless primarily because “they are children, they are foreigners, and they have no means to protect themselves.”He pointed to Jesus’ insistence in the Gospels that whoever receives a child “in my name receives me,” as well as his warning that for those who cause a child to sin, “it is better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and be drowned in the depth of the sea.”“How can we ignore this severe wa...
Lahore, Pakistan, Oct 13, 2016 / 06:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Several Christian television stations in Pakistan were ordered to stop transmitting last month, after the nation's media regulator found that they didn’t have the legal permit required to broadcast their materials.“It’s true that we didn’t have permission for the radio,” Alessandro Monteduro, president of the Italian branch of Aid to the Church in Need, told CNA Oct. 12.For two years Monteduro’s branch has been supporting a specific project on Catholic TV, the television network of the Archdiocese of Lahore.While Monteduro admitted they didn’t have the necessary legal permit in order to broadcast their content, he said the network had been following the proper legal procedures, but that the procedures had been changed and that they were unaware of the changes.In Monteduro’s opinion, the absence of the permit was used as an excuse to close Catholic TV and the other 10 netwo...
IMAGE: CNS photo/Giorgio Onorati, EPABy Cindy WoodenVATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Meeting a pilgrimage of Catholics andLutherans from Germany, Pope Francis said he does not like "the contradictionof those who want to defend Christianity in the West, and, on the other hand,are against refugees and other religions.""This is not something I've read in books, but I see inthe newspapers and on television every day," Pope Francis said.Answering questions from young people in the group Oct. 13,the pope said, "the sickness or, you can say the sin, that Jesus condemnsmost is hypocrisy," which is precisely what is happening when someoneclaims to be a Christian but does not live according to the teaching of Christ."You cannot be a Christian without living like aChristian," he said. "You cannot be a Christian without practicingthe Beatitudes. You cannot be a Christian without doing what Jesus teaches usin Matthew 25," which is to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and welcomethe stranger."It's hypocris...
BOSTON (AP) -- A man wearing body armor and armed with an assault rifle shot two Boston police officers who were responding to a report of a domestic disturbance, before being shot and killed by other officers, police said....
