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(Vatican Radio) The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, on Monday celebrated a Liturgy of the Word in Cartagena to mark the signing of the Final Agreement between the Government of Colombia and the Marxist FARC rebels which aims to end decades of conflict which have left nearly 250,000 people dead, and displaced millions of others.In his homily, the Cardinal said Pope Francis has followed “with great attention” and encouraged “the efforts of recent years in search of harmony and reconciliation.”“The Pope has always encouraged respect for human rights and Christian values, ??which are at the center of the Colombian culture,” Cardinal Parolin continued.The Cardinal said he hoped the signing of the Agreement would “ease the pain of those many people who have been humiliated and oppressed by the violence [of the conflict], stop hatred, and change the course of history to build a better future with strong and just institu...
(Vatican Radio) The Vatican told the United Nations on Monday “nuclear arms offer a false sense of security, and that the uneasy peace promised by nuclear deterrence is a tragic illusion.”“Nuclear weapons cannot create for us a stable and secure world,” said Archbishop Bernardito Auza, the Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations.He was speaking at an event marking the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.“Peace and international stability cannot be founded on mutually assured destruction or on the threat of total annihilation,” the Vatican diplomat said. The full statement of Archbishop Auza can be found below Statement of H.E. Archbishop Bernardito AuzaApostolic Nuncio, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nationsat the High-level plenary meeting to commemorate and promoteThe International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear WeaponsNew York, 26 September 2016 Mr. Preside...
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis said silence and prayer is the way to overcome our darkest moments, rather than resorting to pills or alcoholic drinks to escape from our woes. His comments came during his homily at the morning Mass celebrated on Tuesday at the Santa Marta residence. Taking his cue from the day’s first reading where Job was living through a spiritual desolation and was giving vent to his sorrows before God, the Pope’s homily focused on these dark moments of spiritual desolation that all of us experience at some point and explained how we can overcome them. He said although Job was in deep trouble and had lost everything he did not curse God and his outburst was that of “a son in front of his father.”All of us sooner or later experience a spiritual darkness“Spiritual desolation is something that happens to all of us: it can be stronger or weaker … but that feeling of spiritual darkness, of hopelessness, mistrust, lacking the de...
Los Angeles, Calif., Sep 27, 2016 / 03:11 am (CNA).- The needs of Father David Bedrossian’s parish are unique.While many priests grapple with budgetary concerns and a desire to fill pews, Father Bedrossian is wondering where he’s going to find the resources to house the next Syrian refugee who shows up on the church steps.Father Bedrossian’s parish, Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Armenian Catholic Church, has a long history of sheltering displaced persons. From the Armenian refugees escaping genocide and communism through the 1900s to the present-day Christian Syrian refugees, the parish has been a sanctuary for a generation of persecuted persons.Each month, Syrian refugees show up at the church with their last penny to meet the man everyone calls “abouna,” (Arabic for father) Father Bedrossian. He is their job coach, landlord, translator, teacher and priest. And to many Father Bedrossian is their last hope.Seventeen years ago, Father Bedrossian had to flee ...
Indianapolis, Ind., Sep 27, 2016 / 05:02 am (CNA).- The new T.V. series The Exorcist, based on the horror film series of the same name from the 19070s, debuted on FOX on Friday, sparking another wave of fascination with the supernatural.In a recent article prior to the show’s launch, Lance Higdon, writing for pop culture website Vice, explored the world of exorcism, a phenomenon mysterious to many inside and outside the Church. Higdon recalled that in an interview with Agence France-Presse (AFP) in May, director William Friedkin, of the original “The Exorcism” film series, claimed that he had been invited to the Vatican to see - and film - an exorcism in real life.A Vatican spokesman denied the claim to AFP, noting that the Vatican does not have an official exorcist. The spokesman said it may have been possible that Friedkin was mistaking the Vatican for another Catholic entity.Fr. Vincent Lampert is a Vatican-trained exorcist for the Archdiocese of Indianapol...
Washington D.C., Sep 27, 2016 / 06:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A U.N. resolution against further nuclear weapons tests drew praise from the U.S. Catholic bishops, who repeated their support for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in the wake of North Korean weapons tests.The U.S. bishops’ conference “welcomes the action of the U.N. Security Council as encouraging this important step toward a world without nuclear weapons,” Bishop Oscar Cantú of Las Cruces, N.M. said Sept. 23.The prelate, who chairs the U.S. bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace, said the U.S. bishops have long supported ratification of a comprehensive test ban.On Friday, the United Nations Security Council approved a resolution that called on countries to refrain from nuclear weapons testing. It presented the avoidance of nuclear weapons testing as an international norm.The resolution, proposed by the United States, passed with 14 votes and the abstention of Egypt. The Wall S...
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- For all of Dan Quinn's background as a defensive specialist, the Atlanta Falcons' second-year coach is fielding an offense about as good as anyone right now....
HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. (AP) -- Donald Trump aggressively tried to pin the nation's economic and national security problems on Hillary Clinton in the first presidential debate, belittling the former senator and secretary of state as a "typical politician" incapable of delivering the change many Americans crave....
When I was in high school, I didn't make the cheerleading squad my sophomore year...
(Vatican Radio) The state prosecutor of Bosnia-Herzegovina says he has opened an investigation into a Bosnian Serb referendum that was held on Sunday in defiance of the country's highest court. The announcement came after official results showed that about 99.8 percent of Bosnian Serb voters are in favor of keeping a disputed holiday that the Constitutional Court had said discriminates against non-Serbs.Listen to Stefan Bos' report: Bosnia's chief prosecutor Goran Salihovic expressed concern that the Serb region of his ethnically divided nation organized a referendum on whether to keep January 9 as a national holiday.It commemorates the day in 1992 when Bosnian Serbs declared the creation of their own state, now known as Republika Srpska, during the Bosnian war of the 1990s.As expected, Bosnian Serbs voted overwhelmingly to maintain national holiday in Republica Srpska, in defiance of Bosnia's highest court.Referendum organizers ...
