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OSWIECIM, Poland (AP) -- Pope Francis and his predecessors St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI each came to the memorial at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps in southern Poland. Each visit reflected the pontiffs' personal history and style....
(Vatican Radio) India’s Foreign Minister, Mrs. Sushma Swaraj will lead the Indian government’s delegation to the sainthood ceremony of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, on September 4 in the Vatican. The official spokesman of the foreign ministry, Vikas Swarup made the announcement at press briefing on Thursday. "In view of eh importance that we attach to this very significant event – the canonization of Mother Teresa – let me tell you, the government of India’s delegation will be led by the Honorable External Affairs Minister herself,” Swarup told journalists. He noted that the composition of the delegation is being finalized and its members will be announced in due time. On Wednesday, Ashutosh, the spokesperson of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that heads the government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi said that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will be travelling to the Vatican as he has accepted the ...
The Vatican has cleared the way for sainthood process of a 17th century Italian Jesuit missionary who was martyred in the Philippines. Bishop Severo Caermare of Dipolog told UCANEWS that last week he received the needed ‘nihil obstat’ from the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints for the process of Fr. Francesco Palliola, who was killed in the southern Mindanao region. Bishop Caermare had presided over the formal opening of the canonical investigation into the life and martyrdom of Father Palliola in January. Born into noble family in the town of Nola in Naples, May 10, 1612, Fr. Palliola joined some 40 Jesuits on an expedition to the Philippines. After a trip of over two years, he finally landed in Iligan on January 2, 1644, beginning a mission in Mindanao that would take him to Dipolog, Dapitan and the rest of the Zamboanga Peninsula, spreading the Catholic faith to the locals, including the lumads. Fr. Palliola was martyred at...
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis visited on Friday the Pediatric Hospital of Prokocim near Krakow and in an address to patients and staff said he wished that “We Christians could be as close to the sick as Jesus was, in silence, with a caress, with prayer.” Sadly, the Pope continued, “our society is tainted by the culture of waste” and the victims of this “are the weakest and frailest and this is indeed cruel." He thanked all those working at the hospital for the love and compassion shown towards the young patients, describing this as “the sign of true civility, human and Christian: to make those who are most disadvantaged the centre of social and political concern.” Please find below an English translation of the Pope’s greeting to patients and staff at the Children’s Hospital: Dear brothers and sisters, A spec...
(Vatican Radio) A film festival celebrating the life of Blessed Mother Teresa will begin in her adopted hometown of Kolkata in eastern India, in the run-up to her sainthood ceremony on September 4 in the Vatican. Predominantly featuring documentaries, the three-day long the Mother Teresa International Film Festival (MTIFF) begins Aug. 26 at Kolkata's Nandan multiplex. Organized by the Indian chapter of SIGNIS, the World Catholic Association for Communication, the film festival will travel to numerous locations around India and then go overseas. Festival director Sunil Lucas said they would present the best and the biggest repertoire of films and documentaries made on the Nobel laureate and inspired by her life. "The objective is to spread the message of Mother Teresa before the world. We want to raise awareness and sensitize the people," he told PTI. Organizers are planning around 20 movies out of which two will have worl...
Some 50 young people from eastern India’s Odisha state who have joined Pope Francis and young people from across the world for the Catholic Church’s international celebration of World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland, feel they are being spiritually accompanied by their martyrs. John, a 21-year old Catholic from the diocese of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar said this to AsiaNews explaining he felt the martyrs of Odisha were spiritually accompanying not only them but also all the young pilgrims from India. “This is because their death has changed our faith, … making us more aware. Thanks to them and World Youth Day we learn mercy”, he said, recalling the theme of the World Youth Day, “Blessed are the Merciful, for they will Receive Mercy.” Three priests are accompanying the Odisha group, that includes a Hindu girl who is considering starting the catechumenate. The group estimates there are some 500 Indians at the July 2...
Yokohama, Japan, Jul 29, 2016 / 05:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Following Tuesday's mass killing at a care home in Japan for persons with mental disabilities, one of the country's bishops has said the incident demonstrates the need for such persons to be valued and protected by society.“Disabled people have to be protected,” Bishop Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi of Niigata told CNA.He added: “A society which will not protect the weak has no respect for human dignity.”In the early hours of July 26 an attacker entered the Tsukui Yamayuri-en facility in Sagamihara, some 20 miles northwest of Yokohama, stabbing 19 people to death. The dead ranged in age from 19 to 70, and another 25 people were wounded.Shortly after the attack, 26-year-old Satoshi Uematsu, a former employee of the care center, turned himself in to local police and was arrested.Uematsu had written a letter to Japan's parliament in February advocating for euthanasia of persons with disabilities, sayi...
Krakow, Poland, Jul 29, 2016 / 05:40 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis paid a solemn visit to the Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps on Friday, where over a million people are believed to have lost their lives. At the memorials, he gave no speech and prayed in silence, but instead wrote in the guest book two simple lines begging for God's mercy and forgiveness."Lord have mercy on your people! Lord, forgiveness for so much cruelty!" the Pope wrote in the “Memory Book” shortly after praying in the darkened cell of St. Maximilian Kolbe, a Catholic priest martyred in Auschwitz.The July 29 Papal visit was made to two out of the three main Auschwitz camps, where as many as 1.5 million people are believed to have died under the Nazi regime.The pontiff's day began with a stop at the original camp (known as Auschwitz I), where he prayed for several minutes in silence in the courtyard of the complex.He was then taken by car to the camp's infamous Bloc...
Krakow, Poland, Jul 29, 2016 / 09:48 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis paid a visit to the patients of a children's hospital in Krakow on Friday, where he expressed his solidarity with the sick and lauded the hospital in its caring for “the smallest and most needy,” showing his gratitude to those present for “this sign of love.”“To serve with love and tenderness persons who need our help makes all of us grow in humanity. It opens before us the way to eternal life,” the Pope said July 29 to the patients, their families, and their caretakers.“Those who engage in works of mercy have no fear of death,” he added.The Pope's visit to the Prokocim University Pediatric Hospital took place on the second full day of his July 27-31 visit to Poland, where he is leading World Youth Day festivities in Krakow.Francis also stressed the need for social and political concerns to center on the needs of society's most disadvantaged.“This ...
IMAGE: CNS/Paul HaringBy Junno Arocho EstevesOSWIECIM, Poland (CNS) -- Sitting with head bowed and eyesclosed, Pope Francis paid silent tribute to the victims of one of the worstatrocities of the 20th century.The pope arrived July 29 at the Auschwitz-BirkenauNazi death camp in Oswiecim,an area now blanketed by green fields and empty barracks lined by barbed wirefences, remnants of a horror that remains embedded in history. Used by the Nazis from 1940 to 1945, the camp was the Nazi's largest andconsisted of three parts: Auschwitz I, where many were imprisoned and murdered;the Birkenau extermination camp -- also known as Auschwitz II -- and Auschwitz III (Auschwitz-Monowitz), an area of auxiliarycamps that included several factories.In 1942, Auschwitz became the site of the mass exterminationof over 1 million Jews, 23,000 Roma, 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war andthousands of Polish citizens of different nationalities.Among those killed were St. Maximilian Kolbe, aPolish Conventual Fra...
