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February 14, 2017
NAIROBI, Kenya – The Kenyan government declared the country's drought a national disaster, three days after Catholic bishops requested such an action.
WASHINGTON– Local Catholic Charities agencies are scrambling to save staff jobs as they respond to President Donald Trump's executive order temporarily suspending the country's refugee resettlement program.
The following is Sabrina Quartarone’s third place essay for the 2017 Friars’ Student Writing Awards contest: “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died”— 2 Corinthians 5:14. What does this verse mean and how does it relate to Christian reconciliation?
The following is Ruthann J. Lemonius’s second place essay for the 2017 Friars’ Student Writing Awards contest: By Google’s definition, reconciliation is “the restoration of friendly relations.” But because of the topic, the second definition seemed more fitting: “the action of making one view or belief compatible with another.”
The following is Jessica Nguyen’s winning essay for the 2017 Friars’ Student Writing Awards contest: This year marks the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, a reminder of yet another huge division in Christianity.
AMMAN, Jordan – A famed Italian Catholic cathedral organist is believed to have been the first Western musician to perform in Syria since the start of the civil war nearly six years ago.
VATICAN CITY – The provisions of "Amoris Laetitia" allow people in irregular marriage situations access to the sacraments only if they recognize their situation is sinful and desire to change it, according to the cardinal who heads the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts.
OTTAWA – Church groups calling for the scrapping of the Safe Third Country agreement in response to U.S. President Trump’s refugee policies are likely to remain disappointed.
February 15, 2017
A lifetime of ecumenical commitment has been transposed onto a couple of younger commitments to ecumenism.
OTTAWA – Toxic emotions can destroy a parish and destroy a family, says Henri Lemay, a veteran of the Catholic charismatic renewal in French-speaking Canada.
OTTAWA – Citizens for Public Justice (CPJ) is welcoming the launch of a national consultation as one of the first steps in developing a Canadian Poverty Reduction Strategy.
WASHINGTON – A repeal of Washington, D.C.'s physician-assisted suicide law moved through the U.S. House on Monday, but is in a race against time to pass through Congress and be signed by President Trump by Friday.
Fr. Thomas Rosica is stepping down as national coordinator of the World Youth Day delegations.
Euthanasia is here to stay, so Catholic health care workers must rely on their Christian perspectives to guide them through the tensions caused by medical aid in dying.
VATICAN CITY – Cardinal Raymond L. Burke, a church law expert and former head of the Vatican's highest court, arrived in Guam Feb. 15 as the presiding judge in a church trial investigating allegations of sexual abuse levelled against Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron of Agana.
WASHINGTON – The chairman of a U.S. bishops' committee urged Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to pursue additional reductions in the nuclear arsenals of the United States and Russia.
OXFORD, England – A prominent Catholic ecumenist has urged a better understanding of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Canada can expect to see more asylum seekers crossing its 9,000 km, mostly unguarded, border with the United States as enforcement toughens at the U.S.-Mexican border and President Donald Trump continues to issue executive orders to restrain refugee arrivals, Catholic refugee advocates have told The Catholic Register.
VATICAN CITY – Vatican heavyweight Cardinal Reinhard Marx said there may be tensions within the Roman Catholic Church but stressed Pope Francis has the full support of his senior cardinals.
February 16, 2017
War begins in a person’s heart, for this reason we are all responsible for caring for peace. This was Pope Francis’ message during his morning Mass at the Casa Santa Marta.