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IMAGE: CNS photo/Max Rossi, ReutersBy Junno Arocho EstevesVATICAN CITY (CNS) -- After five years of tension and top-levelsilence, Pope Francis and the grand imam of one of the most important SunniMuslim universities in the world embraced at the Vatican May 23."The meeting is the message," the pope told Ahmad el-Tayeb, the grand imam ofal-Azhar University, as the religious scholar approached him just inside thedoor of the papal library. El-Tayeb's spring visit wasthe first meeting between a pontiff and a grand imam since the Muslimuniversity in Cairo suspended talks in 2011.Established in 1998, theformal dialogue between al-Azhar and the Vatican started to fray in2006, after now-retired Pope Benedict XVI gave a speech in Regensburg, Germany.Al-Azhar officials and millions of Muslims around the world said the speech linked Islam toviolence.Al-Azhar halted the talks altogether in 2011 after the former popehad said Christians in the Middle East were facing persecution. Al-Azharclaimed ...
IMAGE: CNS photo/courtesy Father Liam DunneBy Francis NjugunaNAIROBI, Kenya (CNS) -- Missionaries and other Catholicsgathered in Nairobi May 23 for a requiem Mass for a Slovak nun killed in Yei,South Sudan.Holy Spirit Missionary Sister Veronika Theresia Rackova, 58,director of St. Bakhita Medical Center in Yei, was shot the night of May 16 whiledriving an ambulance after taking an expectant mother to the hospital. When theambulance was attacked by soldiers, Sister Rackova was wounded in the hip andabdomen.After two surgeries in Yei, she was evacuated to Nairobi,where she died May 20.Sister Maria Jerly, regional superior for the Holy SpiritMissionary Sisters, told Catholic News Service that Sister Rackova was shot aspeople marked John Garang Day. She added that a motive for the shooting was notknown. Three soldiers were arrested in connection with theincident, and Sister Jerly added, "One of them is said to have admittedhaving shot at Sister Rackova."Six of the order's nuns are servi...
IMAGE: CNS photo/Rafael Marchante, ReutersBy Cindy WoodenVATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Sixteen years after the Vaticanreleased the text of the so-called Third Secret of Fatima, rumors cyclically ariseclaiming that the Vatican still is keeping part of Mary's message to three childrenin Fatima, Portugal, secret.The Vatican press office May 21 took the unusual step ofpublishing a communique with reaction from retired Pope Benedict XVI, who -- asprefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith -- oversaw thesecret's publication in 2000 and personally wrote a commentary on it. Heinsisted at the time that the complete text had been published.In mid-May, a blog published a story claiming a Germanpriest, Father Ingo Dollinger, said that then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger hadtold him soon after the publication in 2000 that part of the message was stillsecret.The Vatican communique said: "In this regard, Pope emeritusBenedict XVI declares 'never to have spoken with Professor Dollinger aboutFati...
PARIS (AP) -- The French navy said Monday that one of its ships has arrived in the search area to help look for traces of EgyptAir Flight 804 that crashed in the Mediterranean and especially for its flight recorders....
VIENNA (AP) -- The Latest on Austria's presidential election (all times local):...
VIENNA (AP) -- Left-leaning candidate Alexander Van der Bellen won the election to become Austrian president Monday, but his right-wing rival was only narrowly behind, a result that reflects the growing strength of Europe's anti-EU political movements....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Before deciding if she'll vote for Donald Trump, Martha McSally says she'll spend time "determining what kind of man he is." Mia Love says some comments by the presumptive Republican presidential candidate need "some sort of explanation," while Renee Ellmers backs him because he's "a problem solver."...
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court ruled decisively in favor of a death-row inmate in Georgia on Monday, chastising state prosecutors for improperly keeping African-Americans off the jury that convicted him of killing a white woman....
BALTIMORE (AP) -- A Baltimore officer was acquitted Monday of assault and other charges in the arrest of Freddie Gray, dealing prosecutors a significant blow in their attempt to hold police accountable for the young black man's death from injuries he suffered in the back of a police van....
Holy Mass in memory of Sr. Veronika Rackova has been held over the weekend at Yei’s Christ the King Cathedral in South Sudan. Sr. Veronika, a medical doctor at St Bakhita Health Centre in Yei, South Sudan died Friday of her wounds after being shot at in South Sudan, last week.Speaking at the Mass, the Vicar General of Yei Diocese, Fr. Zachariah Angutuwa Sebit told the congregation that Sr. Veronika knew she was dying. As Fr. Angutuwa Sebit narrated the last days of Sr. Veronika, priests and Christians openly shed tears at the Mass. Earlier in the week, the Secretary General of the Diocese of Yei, Fr. Emmanuel Sebit told media that he believed that the death of Sr. Veronika was "a tragic accident." According to Fr. Emmanuel, being the eve of anniversary celebrations marking 30 years of the formation of Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLA), the army had been deployed in large numbers to protect civilians. There were several roadblocks on most major high...
