Pope Francis: Albania proves to world that diverse religions can live in peace
By Carol Glatz, Catholic News ServiceVATICAN CITY - People of different religious beliefs can and must live together in peace, Pope Francis said.
Send prayers, aid to those hit by Ebola, Pope Francis says
By Carol Glatz, Catholic News ServiceVATICAN CITY - Pope Francis called for prayers and concrete help for the thousands of people affected by the deadly Ebola virus.
Pope Francis to bishops: Guard the faith, build hope, love sinners as they are
By Carol Glatz, Catholic News ServiceVATICAN CITY - Today's bishops must be as vigilant and courageous as sentinels keeping watch over the faith, and as forgiving and patient as Moses, leading a sinning people across harsh deserts to God, Pope Francis said.
Pope Francis ends South Korea trip with overture to China
By Josephine McKenna, Religion News ServiceVATICAN CITY - Pope Francis ended his first official visit to Asia on Monday (Aug. 18) with a fresh overture to China and a call for reconciliation between South Korea and its communist neighbor, North Korea.
Hundreds brave rain to try to get final glimpse of Pope Francis in South Korea
By Simone Orendain, Catholic News ServiceSEOUL, South Korea - Hundreds of Catholic faithful and non-Catholic admirers of Pope Francis braved the pouring rain to try to get a glimpse of him outside his final Mass before he left South Korea.
Charity, forgiveness keys to Korean reunification, says Pope Francis
By Francis X. Rocca and Simone Orendain, Catholic News ServiceSEOUL, South Korea - Pope Francis told Korean Catholics that the reunification of their divided peninsula as well as the harmony of South Korean society depend on the practice of Gospel virtues, especially charity and forgiveness.
Pope Francis tells Asians to witness to Christ in all aspects of life
By Simone Orendain, Catholic News ServiceSEOSAN, South Korea - Pope Francis told young Asian Catholic leaders to witness to Christ in everything they do.
Seders give Christians the Passover experience
By Michael Swan, The Catholic Register
Christians can’t think of the Easter Triduum, let alone live through it, without thinking of the Passover. Increasingly, Christians are letting that thought lead them to an authentic experience of the Jewish Passover in interfaith Seders.A Seder is a family meal that ritually re-enacts the Exodus story. It’s the beginning of the Jewish celebration of Passover. Foods served at the Seder are connected directly with the Exodus and the story of Israel’s escape from Egypt is retold, reading the Haggadah aloud through the course of the meal. The Haggadah is a sort of expansion of the Bible story with roots in the Mishnah, a collection of Jewish writings based on oral tradition.
“It’s a story of liberation,” explains Beth Porter. “We’re really meant to appropriate that story for ourselves as we sit at the Seder table — to think about our own journey from bondage to freedom.”
Pope earmarks Holy Thursday collection for disaster relief in Japan
By Carol Glatz, Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI has decided the collection taken up at his Holy Thursday evening Mass will be used to help those affected by the devastating earthquake and tsunami in northeast Japan.The March 11 disaster left more than 13,000 people dead and another 13,700 unaccounted for. More than 150,000 were made homeless and many lost their jobs, especially in the fishing industry.
Each year, the Pope chooses where to send the collection taken up during the Mass of the Lord's Supper at the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the cathedral of the diocese of Rome.
'Silent Night' gains World Heritage List recognition from UNESCO
By Jonathan Luxmoore, Catholic News Service
WARSAW, Poland - The world's most popular Christmas carol, "Silent Night," has been added to UNESCO's World Heritage List in recognition of its role in fostering cultural diversity."This is a song of freedom for the world, whose beautiful melody and text have inspired versions in more than 300 languages," Michael Neureiter, president of Austria's Silent Night Society, told Catholic News Service.
"Although it comes from the Catholic tradition, its calm, harmonic sound has made it accessible internationally. As such, it's not just a Christian song, but also a human song."
"Stille Nacht," or "Silent Night," was written as a poem in 1816 by Fr. Joseph Mohr in Mariapfarr, where he was assigned as an assistant parish priest. It premiered as a carol for two solo voices on Christmas Eve 1818 at the newly established St. Nicholas Church in Oberndorf, near Salzburg, with music composed by the church organist, Franz Gruber.
Truth still matters
By Michael Swan, The Catholic Register
With campaign jets soaring over the land and campaign buses rolling down highways, it’s sometimes easy for Canadians to be cynical about the honesty of politicians. But truth in politics still matters to Canadians, and politicians recognize it, said Prof. Richard Feist, dean of the faculty of philosophy at Ottawa’s Saint Paul University.
“The incumbent party certainly does not say something like, ‘Well, so what if we were defeated on non-confidence, or not providing (information).’ ” said Feist. “They want to talk as if ‘No, we were defeated on the budget.’ ”
Feist runs the Masters in Public Ethics program at Saint Paul, training civil servants in the philosophy of honesty. Truth, who tells the truth and whether citizens can recognize it, is important in how we run our politics and how we run our country, he said.