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August 2014

August 1

AIDS activists praise progress, warn about lingering danger of HIV

August 1, 2014

MELBOURNE, Australia - Catholic AIDS activists said they are encouraged by the steady progress being made against HIV, but warned against complacency.

Jesuits tell their alumni in Congress: Protect border children

August 1, 2014

American Jesuits are pushing members of Congress who were educated at the Catholic order’s schools to pass aid for thousands of refugee children who have surged across the border in Texas in recent months, calling proposals to swiftly deport them “inhumane and an insult to American values.”

August 2

In El Salvador, seeing firsthand the legacy of murdered Jesuits

August 2, 2014

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador - Standing at the edge of the garden where six Jesuit priests were killed in 1989, Echol Nix is clear about the message he is taking home with him to the United States.

Holy Land still safe for pilgrimages, says head of U.S. tour group

August 2, 2014

WASHINGTON - The head of a Michigan-based tour company that leads trips to the Holy Land said the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas so far has not had an impact on pilgrimages he and his associates lead.

August 3

World War I at 100: New books examine the battle of beliefs behind the ‘Great War’

August 3, 2014

Some called it “The Great War.” Others called it “The War to End All Wars.” History proves it was neither.

Newfoundland remembers WWI

August 3, 2014

In 1914 the Dominion of Newfoundland was not yet part of Canada, but as part of the British Empire it too was at war. On Monday evening, Aug. 4, St. John’s soaring Catholic cathedral, the Basilica of St. John the Baptist, will host an ecumenical service to remember the precise moment 100 years ago when Newfoundland Governor Walter Davidson received a telegram informing him that England was at war.

Catholic patriotism and the Great War

August 3, 2014

Jesuit novices in Guelph in 1918 expected to wake early to prayers and devotions, then Mass, then breakfast. They did not expect to be woken by military police.

August 4

Changing needs, changing names: Reform of Curia is Vatican tradition

August 4, 2014

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis and his international Council of Cardinals continue to study the most effective and efficient way to organize the Roman Curia, a large bureaucracy with a long history of expansions and a few, short-term, attempts at consolidation.

Changing needs, changing focus: Councils advise, encourage church

August 4, 2014

VATICAN CITY - The Roman Curia did not have any "pontifical councils" until 1967, but since then they have become a popular structure for focusing attention on practical areas of life in the church and the world.

August 5

Vatican urges priests to clamp down on excessive emotions during the sign of peace

August 5, 2014

VATICAN CITY - In an effort to insure a more sober ritual, the Vatican has urged bishops to clamp down on singing, moving around and other casual expressions of affection when the sign of peace is exchanged during Mass.

Pope Francis lifts 29-year suspension on liberation theology icon

August 5, 2014

VATICAN CITY - Continuing a bid to revive a movement that was sidelined by his predecessors, Pope Francis has reinstated a Central American priest who was suspended by the Vatican in the 1980s for his involvement in the political activities of Nicaragua’s leftist Sandinista movement.

Dennis Savoie appointed Canada's Holy See Ambassador

August 5, 2014

OTTAWA - Dennis Savoie has been chosen as Canada's new ambassador to the Holy See.

Ottawa archbishop among religious urging CPSO not to violate physicians’ conscience rights

August 5, 2014

OTTAWA - Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, along with an imam and a rabbi, have written a joint-intervention in favour of physicians’ conscience rights.

Gaza on 'brink of collapse'

August 5, 2014

AMMAN, Jordan - A top Catholic charity official described Gaza as a "complete catastrophe" after nearly four weeks of fighting between Israel and the Palestinian militant Hamas.

August 6

Italy expels imam for preaching hatred against Jews

August 6, 2014

ROME - Italian officials on Tuesday (Aug. 5) moved to expel a Moroccan imam who was caught on video inciting violence against Jews during Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.

Pope Benedict XVI OK’d abusive priest in Paraguay, local bishop says

August 6, 2014

A showdown between Pope Francis and a conservative bishop in Paraguay is heating up as the bishop rejected charges that he sheltered a priest accused of sexual misconduct, and claimed that Pope Benedict XVI himself vouched for the suspect cleric just days before his election as pope in 2005.

Patriarch pleads for help to stop Christian ‘genocide’ in Iraq

August 6, 2014

OTTAWA - The head of the Syriac Catholic Church is pleading for Western nations to intervene immediately with diplomatic and political clout to save the Middle East’s ancient Christian communities as they face “a kind of genocide.”

Majority of Canada’s doctors are opposed to euthanasia

August 6, 2014

OTTAWA - The Canadian Medical Association says the majority of its members continue to support its policies against euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide.

Input sought on physicians’ conscience rights

August 6, 2014

TORONTO - Silence from the public could cost Ontario’s doctors the right to deny non-emergency procedures, prescriptions and referrals which they morally oppose, warns the Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute.

Pope Francis offers prayers for victims of earthquake in China

August 6, 2014

VATICAN CITY - As Chinese authorities raised the official death toll from an Aug. 3 earthquake in the southern Yunnan province, Pope Francis offered public prayers for the victims and their families.