FREE access to the digital edition and archives until September 2. Click here. →
Browse › 2017 › May
May 13, 2017
NEW YORK – Early on in "King Arthur: Legend of the Sword" (Warner Bros.), the audience is treated to the sight of magically generated giant elephants swinging boulder-size wrecking balls at the ramparts of Camelot. It's an apt visual considering how ponderous this action fantasy turns out to be.
ROME – Loaded with peanut butter and jellysandwiches, bananas, Gatorade, grit and prayer, nine U.S. seminarians studying in Rome ran relay-style across the Italian peninsula to raise funds for displaced families in Iraq.
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador – Bishops from across Latin America condemned the ongoing violence in Venezuela and called for the church to find ways to provide charity to the South American country amid food shortages that have left thousands hungry.
WASHINGTON – Wilson Jean-Baptiste is worried that in less than a year, he and his wife, Myrlande, will be left with a stark question: What to do if the U.S. government orders her to move back to Haiti because she no longer has protected status under immigration law.
SAINT-JEAN-DE-MATHA, Quebec – When the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance left Oka, Quebec, to escape suburban sprawl, they left behind an oversized, aging building.
FATIMA, Portugal – Our Lady of Fatima's message of peace to a country suffering from war and persecution resonates today just as it did a century ago, a Venezuelan pilgrim said.
FATIMA, Portugal – Standing before the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary, Pope Francis canonized two shepherd children who saw Mary at Fatima, but more importantly, he said, they heeded the call to pray for sinners and trust in the Lord.
ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT FROM PORTUGAL – While the investigations into the very first alleged apparitions at Medjugorje in must continue, Pope Francis said he has doubts about claims that Mary continues to appear in the village of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
May 14, 2017
Somehow I managed to miss the film Jackie during the Christmas season, but I watched it, twice, on recent long flights to and from the East coast. Like many others, I was struck by its moody, more “European” style, the high quality of the acting, especially on the part of Natalie Portman, and its historical verisimilitude. But what particularly impressed (and surprised) me were the scenes between Mrs. Kennedy and a sympathetic priest.
NORWICH, England – Neither the narrow narrative against religion nor the real failings of the Church should define the role of Catholics in public life, Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh has said.
MEXICO CITY – A Mexican archdiocese is warning against the veneration of a "pseudo saint" created to legitimize criminal activities such as stealing gasoline, saying it is "playing with people's faith."
DECATUR, Ga. – Religion and science have intertwined in Divine Word Father Jean Ikanga's life and it began with a fearful mother.
Muyanza, RWANDA – The dense darkness of nighttime in rural northern Rwanda completely obliterates the immense hills that surround the village of Muyanza. But piercing this complete darkness a few times a week are two pinpricks of light, from the headlights of the village's lone ambulance.
May 15, 2017
Missed our coverage of Pope Francis' trip to Fatima for the 100th anniversary of the Marian apparitions? Click here to check them out.
SYDNEY, Australia – Catholics in the Australian state of New South Wales applauded the rejection of bills in the upper house of the parliament that would have legalized abortion.
VATICAN CITY – On Sunday Pope Francis reflected on the May 13 canonization of the child visionaries St. Francisco and Jacinta Marto, saying that their faithfulness, despite their young age, reminds us to pay special attention to children in the ministry of the Church.
WASHINGTON – Although the North Korean government is doing everything it can to suppress Christianity, the faith continues to spread, said a defector and missionary who called for prayers and action to increase religious freedom in the country.
PORTSMOUTH, England – An English bishop has asked the people of his diocese to remember the sanctity of human life at all stages as they prepare to vote in the upcoming general election.
VICTORIA, British Columbia – When Father Marinaldo Batista asked for relics of Blesseds Francisco and Jacinta Marto, two of the three children to whom Mary appeared in Fatima in 1917, he had no idea they would be canonized in 2017. He simply thought it would be a fitting way for the parish he pastors, Our Lady of Fatima in Victoria, to commemorate the centennial of the Marian apparitions.
UNITED NATIONS – The message of peace Mary gave to three shepherd children 100 years ago at Fatima, Portugal, is still timely and urgent in 2017 and is an ongoing reminder that flashes of the divine are revealed in unexpected places, according to speakers at a May 12 U.N. panel.