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(Vatican Radio) The new incoming just inaugurated President of Peru must make some practical political concessions, if he`s to boost the economy and get things done. Freedom of action might well follow another form of freedom as James Blears reports.Listen: At seventy seven ex Wall Street afficinado Pedro Pablo Kuczynski who`s no spring chicken, insists he`s still got it up top. But to stay on top, he`s going to need a little help for more than just his friends. His Center-right Peruvians for Change Party holds just 18 seats in Congress. He only defeated Keiko Fujimori, the Candidate of the Popular Force Party, by a quarter of a percentage point. But more to the point, her Party holds 73 seats. The price will almost inevitably involve 78 year old former President Alberto Fujimori being released from prison, where he`s serving a 25 year term for human rights abuses. Outgoing President Ollanta Humala ...
(Vatican Radio) It was a day dedicated to showing the Christian response to pain and suffering. Coming midway through his five day visit to Poland, Pope Francis began the day on Friday with a visit to the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau and ended it with a Way of the Cross led by young people in Krakow’s Blonia Park.In between those two events he visited a children’s hospital where some of the most severely ill children from all over the country are treated. Philippa Hitchen reports:Listen: It was a particularly poignant meeting as the Pope and the Polish Prime Minister were welcomed by rows of sick children, many of them in wheelchairs, alongside family members and staff from the Prokocim Pediatric hospital.Originally built by money from the Polish American community and later by grants from the U.S. government, the hospital treats thousands of children each year, in particular those suffering from the most advanced tumours, severely premature babies and c...
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis’ third day in Poland was a day of sombre reflection as he visited the infamous Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, he spent time with young patients at a Childrenìs Hospital in Krakow, and he joined young people in a Way of the Cross Procession.Vatican Radio’s Lydia O’Kane is in Poland reporting on Pope Francis’ 15th Apostolic Journey abroad and speaks about her impressions of the day…Listen:
(Vatican Radio)The theme of this Way of the Cross for World Youth Day was the path of mercy and this solemn event opened in Blonia Park in Krakow to the anthem of the Jubilee Year performed by a talented youth orchestra and choir with Pope Francis looking on.In a prelude to the mediations for this evening, a girl in Marian like clothes took to the stage creating a design drawn in sand which revealed the face of Christ.All through the Via Crucis the World Youth Day cross was brought to each station by a different group of young people which included a group of refugees from Syria, a former homeless couple from Poland and nuns from the missionaries of charity; all symbolising the works of mercy.Many of the stops on the way to Calvary were artistically re-enacted through the medium of dance and at the 10th station an acrobat took to the sky where the cloth wound around him fell away to symbolise Jesus being stripped of his garments.At the 12 station and to the strains of Samuel Barbe...
(Vatican Radio) From the window of the Archbishop’s residence on Friday evening, Pope Francis recalled this day as one of pain. “Friday, he said, is the day when we remember the death of Jesus and with the young people we prayed the Way of the Cross: the suffering and death of Jesus for all of us.”So many people, the Pope noted, “so many people are suffering: the sick; those who are at war; the homeless; the hungry; those who are doubtful in life, who do not feel happiness,”… In the afternoon, he continued, “I went to the children’s hospital. There too, Jesus suffers in so many sick children: I always ask myself that question, "Why do children suffer?". It's a mystery. There are no answers to these questions ...”Recalling his morning at Auschwitz-Birkenau, he said, “how much pain, how much cruelty! Is it possible that we men, created in the likeness of God, we are able to do these things?Then he added,...
Philadelphia, Pa., Jul 28, 2016 / 06:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Pennsylvania Supreme Court let stand July 26 a ruling that prosecutors in a Philadelphia priest’s trial used prejudicial evidence related to clergy sex abuse.Philadelphia’s district attorney must now decide whether to re-try Monsignor William J. Lynn.The priest was not accused of sexually abusing children. However, he was convicted on one felony count of child endangerment for failing to protect children from an abusive priest, and was sentenced to three to six years in prison.Msgr. Lynn, now 65 years old, had served as the Philadelphia archdiocese’s Secretary for Clergy from 1992 to 2004. As such, he was responsible for investigating priests accused of abuse.He was the first Catholic official convicted for a supervisory role over priests accused of abusing children.That trial could be revisited, or the priest could be released for good.In December 2015 the Superior Court had ordered a new trial for M...
New York City, N.Y., Jul 29, 2016 / 03:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Mike Piazza, the newest inductee of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, has given a shout-out to Pope Benedict XVI and his mother Veronica.“She gave me the gift of my Catholic faith, which has had a profound impact on my career and has given me patience, compassion and hope,” Piazza said in his induction speech Sunday.“Pope Benedict XVI said, ‘One who has hope, lives differently.’ Mom, you raised five boys, and you were always there for me.”Piazza, 47, played catcher for the New York Mets and other teams. He hit 427 home runs in his professional career. He began his professional baseball career with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1992 and played with the Mets from 1998-2005. He was a 12-time All Star player and a 10-time Silver Slugger Award winner. He retired in 2007.He is only the second Hall of Fame player to be inducted as a Met.Piazza had attended 7:30 Mass at Cooperstown’s Our ...
Krakow, Poland, Jul 29, 2016 / 10:29 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The day after a priest was brutally murdered in France, a panel at World Youth Day in Poland discussed the importance of religious freedom worldwide.The panel left an Iraqi archbishop deeply impressed at how Catholic youth from around the world \are not only aware of the persecution of Christians – particularly in the Middle East – at the hands of ISIS, but are anxious to demonstrate their solidarity.Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil, Iraq, was greeted with one standing ovation after another as he spoke to thousands of young people at World Youth Day (WYD) about the targeting of Christians in his country.World Youth Day is a weeklong gathering of young Catholics from around the world that will conclude on Sunday with a Mass celebrated by Pope Francis.The panel discussion took place Tuesday at Tauron Arena Kraków, the site for English-speaking pilgrims to World Youth Day. The arena has been dubbed "Mercy...
Krakow, Poland, Jul 29, 2016 / 11:13 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis sent a video message to Cuban youth unable to attend World Youth Day on Friday, encouraging them to have hope and to bring the Gospel to life.“Young Cubans: open yourselves to great things! Do not be afraid,” the Pope said July 29 in his message to the some 1,400 youth who are gathered in Havana for a celebration that coincides with World Youth Day.“Dream that with you, the world can be different! Dream that Cuba, with you, can be different, and better every day. Do not give up! In this endeavour it is important that you open your heart and mind to the hope that Jesus gives.”The Church in Cuba has organized a gathering for those who could not travel to Krakow for the encounter with Pope Francis, adopting the same themes and providing catecheses, the Way of the Cross, and opportunities to pass through a Holy Door and gain the plenary indulgence offered for the Jubilee of Mercy.“With g...
Krakow, Poland, Jul 29, 2016 / 11:56 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Way of the Cross shows Christ's embrace of everyone who hungers, suffers, and dies – and the imperative for Christians to do works of mercy. Those were Pope Francis’ words for young people at World Youth Day in Krakow on Friday.“Jesus himself chose to identify with these our brothers and sisters enduring pain and anguish by agreeing to tread the ‘way of sorrows’ that led to Calvary,” the Pope said July 29. “By dying on the cross, he surrendered himself into to the hands of the Father, taking upon himself and in himself, with self-sacrificing love, the physical, moral and spiritual wounds of all humanity.”“By embracing the wood of the cross, Jesus embraced the nakedness, the hunger and thirst, the loneliness, pain and death of men and women of all times,” he continued.The Pope spoke to thousands of young people gathered in a field in Krakow’s Blonia Park...
