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October 2, 2015
VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis' meeting with Kim Davis, the county clerk from Kentucky who was jailed for refusing to issue marriage licenses, does not equate support for her "position," a Vatican spokesman said.
Pope Francis says God has given everybody a Guardian Angel to accompany us and offer advice and protection, an Angel to whom we should listen with meekness and respect. He was speaking during his homily at Mass on Friday (2nd October) celebrated in the Santa Marta Residence.
PHILADELPHIA - It's difficult to forget Pope Francis' passionate Sept. 26 speech, his gestures and the tone of his voice when he addressed the value of the family in Philadelphia.
ROSEBURG, Ore. - The gunman behind the Oct. 1 massacre at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg reportedly asked students whether they were Christian.
October 3, 2015
Laughter might truly be the best medicine if it can encourage friendly conversation between Christians and atheists. That was Andy Bannister’s goal when he wrote The Atheist Who Didn’t Exist.
VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis planned two gatherings of the Synod of Bishops to focus on the family and urged participants to use the year between the assemblies as a time for "true spiritual discernment" with both study and prayer.
TORONTO - Robert Mickens is expecting Pope Francis to “rattle cages” during the Synod of Bishops on the Family by challenging the world’s bishops to face and address the problems within the Church.
MISSISSAUGA, ONT. - The Church must rediscover its role in helping and supporting families at this fall’s Synod on the Family, one of the leading Asian cardinals told The Catholic Register.
October 4, 2015
They were commonly known as Recollects when their first four members landed 400 years ago with New France founder Samuel de Champlain.
VATICAN CITY — In a world filled with challenges to marriage and family life, the Catholic Church is called “to carry out her mission in fidelity, truth and love,” Pope Francis said at the Mass opening the world Synod of Bishops on the family.
The Muppets are back — and they’re having a lot of sex.
October 5, 2015
The front of St. Peter’s Basilica was lined with green and scarlet as the Synod Fathers gathered around the altar for the opening mass of the Ordinary Synod of Bishops on the Family on Sunday presided over by the Holy Father, Pope Francis.
The world Synod of Bishops on the family is not a parliament where participants will negotiate or lobby, Pope Francis said, but it must be a place of prayer where bishops speak with courage and open themselves to “God who always surprises us.”
JERUSALEM - Unrest flared in early October throughout the West Bank and Jerusalem, which has experienced tensions during September, largely over the status of the contested holy site of the Temple Mount or Haram al-Sharif.
TORONTO - One of Michael Burgess's final requests was to have St. Michael's Choir School participate at his funeral Mass. With hundreds of mourners packing Blessed Sacrament Roman Catholic Church on Oct. 5, that request was granted.
October 6, 2015
VIENNA - The head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church has urged the Vatican to show greater support for his country, as a senior Vatican diplomat warned the country risked becoming "a kind of Somalia."
OTTAWA - Lost in the “fight for the middle class” in the federal election campaign is the plight of Canada’s poor, said Joe Gunn of the Citizens for Public Justice.
VATICAN CITY - As the discussion began at the world Synod of Bishops on the family, Pope Francis urged members not to act as if the only question that mattered was the pastoral care of divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, his spokesman said.
VATICAN CITY - Canadian Archbishop Paul-Andre Durocher of Gatineau, Quebec, said the synod should reflect on the possibility of allowing for female deacons as it seeks ways to open up more opportunities for women in church life.
Pope Francis has warned against having a hard heart that is closed to God’s mercy.