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August 15, 2016
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia – Women who belong to Catholic organizations give witness to God by the causes they support and the influence they bring to bear on a variety of issues, said Halifax Archbishop Anthony Mancini.
BATON ROUGE, La. – As Louisiana's governor announced the federal government had declared a major disaster for the state Aug. 14, Catholic churches in the Baton Rouge Diocese called for volunteers to help those displaced by extreme flooding and asked flood victims what assistance they needed.
MILWAUKEE – Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki of Milwaukee called the violence that broke out in the city as part of protests over the fatal police shooting of an African-American man "a self-inflicted wound."
QUEBEC CITY – For Father Gaston Ndaleghana Mumbere, the feast of the Assumption represents his hope for better tomorrows for Congo.
August 16, 2016
CAPE TOWN, South Africa – The dust had hardly settled on Catholic Relief Services' work fighting the world's worst Ebola outbreak before the team was putting together a response to the Zika virus in the West African island nation of Cape Verde.
NEW YORK – Police were questioning a possible suspect in the double homicide of a popular imam and his associate in Queens but there was still no clear motive even as the shocking daylight murders were becoming a flashpoint in the national debate over anti-Islamic rhetoric.
OTTAWA – The Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society will not seek an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada of a recent court decision that prevents it from barring graduates of a proposed law school at Trinity Western University (TWU) from practising law in the province.
Marylake Shrine’s Rosary Path is now open for prayers. On Aug. 14 Cardinal Thomas Collins opened the path with a blessing of each of the 59 beads. Collins also celebrated Mass that day at the shrine with about 2,000 in attendance, many of whom provided the funding for the path.
August 17, 2016
Nearly 500 years after Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the Castle Church door, the largest Lutheran denomination in the U.S. has approved a declaration recognizing “there are no longer church-dividing issues” on many points with the Roman Catholic Church.
OTTAWA – The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls needs to address underlying racism and colonialism, observers say.
OTTAWA – The Canadian Bar Association (CBA) is calling on the government to expand access to euthanasia in a way that, according to opponents, would make it “wide open.”
VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis met privately at the Vatican with French President Francois Hollande, who said he felt it necessary to thank the Pope in person for his words after the slaying of a French priest and other terrorist attacks in France.
OXFORD, England – An official of the Congolese bishops' conference said he is optimistic that the government and opposition will work with them to restart peace talks.
“Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 16:13). This is the Gospel that St. Maximilian Kolbe preached with his life and death. On the 75th anniversary of his death (Aug. 14), the Church celebrated his heroic sacrifice in 1941 when he volunteered his life in place of a fellow Auschwitz inmate.
August 18, 2016
VATICAN CITY – Appointing Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia as the new chancellor for the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family and new president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Pope Francis said he wanted to make sure the two bodies help the church offer better care to people who are hurting.
The swiftness of Pope Francis setting up a Vatican panel to study the question of women deacons clearly indicates His Holiness wants resolution to the prickly issue.
Cardinal Oswald Gracias is encouraging his clergy in the Archdiocese of Mumbai to imitate the recently slain priest, Fr. Jacques Hamel. The French priest was brutally killed by two men proclaiming loyalty to the Islamic State on July 26.
OTTAWA – The Canadian bishops are emphasizing the beauty of the Sacrament of Reconciliation in a newly released text.
MANILA, Philippines – Residents of a small island in the central Philippines hailed a government order that stopped one of the country's largest mining firms from removing nickel ore stockpiles from their village.
Hell is never a nasty surprise waiting for a basically happy person. Hell can only be the full-flowering of a pride and selfishness that have, through a long time, twisted a heart so thoroughly that it considers happiness as unhappiness and has an arrogant disdain for happy people. If you are essentially warm of heart this side of eternity, you need not fear a nasty surprise awaits you on the other side because somewhere along the line, you missed the boat and your life went terribly wrong.