Article Archive
Please click below to view any of the articles in our archive.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A presidential speech to Congress is one of those all-American moments that ooze ritual and decorum....
MOSUL, Iraq (AP) -- The Iraqi advance into Mosul's western half slowed Saturday as combat turned to urban warfare and Iraqi forces met stiff resistance from the Islamic State group. Hundreds of civilians poured out of Mosul on foot following the advances, but the vast majority of 750,000 estimated to still be in the city's west remain trapped, and describe deteriorating humanitarian and security conditions....
There is a difference between childish and childlike.
(Vatican Radio) On Sunday Pope Francis is scheduled to visit All Saints Anglican Church, where he will answer questions from the congregation, bless a newly commissioned icon of Christ the Saviour and witness a twinning with Rome’s Catholic parish dedicated to All Saints.The afternoon visit will take the form of a short Evensong service, presided over by the pope and by the bishop of the Anglican Diocese in Europe, Robert Innes. It’s the first time a pope has visited an Anglican church in Rome and it comes as part of All Saints’ 200th anniversary celebrations.As chaplain of All Saints for the past 18 years, Father Jonathan Boardman will be welcoming the pope to the central Rome parish, which began with a group of English worshippers back in October 1816. He talked to Philippa Hitchen about the origins of the community and about the importance of this historic papal visit….Listen Fr Jonathan explains that there was no English community living in Rome ...
(Vatican Radio) In the journey of the Christian, truth is not negotiable; rather, a Christian must be just in mercy, as Jesus teaches us. That was the message of Pope Francis at the morning Mass at the Casa Santa Marta. The Holy Father warned against hypocrisy and the deception of a faith reduced to a “casuistic logic.”Listen to Christopher Wells' report: “Is it lawful for a husband to put away his wife?” That is the question the doctors of the law put to Jesus in the day's Gospel.Jesus does not give in to a casuistic logic, but always explains the truthThey asked the question to once more put Jesus to the test, the Pope observed. Looking to Jesus' answer, the Pope explained what matters most in the faith:“Jesus does not answer whether it is lawful or not lawful; He doesn’t enter into their casuistic logic. Because they thought of the faith only in terms of ‘Yes, you can,” or “No, you can’t” – to t...
The Holy Father Pope Francis on 30 December 2016 appointed Very Rev. Fr. Benjamin Kituto Maswili as the Apostolic Administrator of the Military Ordinariate in Kenya.In a recent interview, Fr. Maswili, expressed gratitude to Pope Francis for entrusting him with the responsibility. He also thanked the Bishops of Kenya for their support.Fr. Maswili said his immediate undertaking is to offer spiritual and psychological support to the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) and their families affected by the attacks and killings at the hands of al-Shabaab militants while on peacekeeping mission in Somalia. “We need to train more Catechists and priests to help in counselling affected families of fallen soldiers and those of wounded soldiers to be able to live normal lives again,” He said.He added that he would promote the Pontifical Society of the Missionary Childhood or Holy Childhood amongst the children of the military forces and encourage the association to be embraced in famili...
Vatican Weekend for February 25th, 2017 features a report on Pope’s Francis’ general audience where he urges aid for famine victims in South Sudan, a religious sister in the war-torn country tells us about the children who are already dying from hunger there, we explore the significance of Pope Francis’ historic visit to the Anglican church of All Saints in Rome and we have two reflections to mark the start of the Lenten season.Listen to this program produced and presented by Susy Hodges:
Vatican Weekend for February 26th, 2017 features a moving testimony from a former supervisor of executions at a U.S. prison who describes how this harrowing experience led him to become a strong opponent of the death penalty and our resident Vatican watcher Joan Lewis reviews the past week’s events in the Vatican.Listen to this program produced and presented by Susy Hodges:
(Vatican Radio) A 2-day seminar focusing on the contribution of science, culture, politics and technology in improving water and sanitation management came to a close on Friday in the Vatican. The workshop organized by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences was entitled “The human right to water: An interdisciplinary focus and contributions on the central role of public policies in water and sanitation management”.Present at the seminar Cardinal Peter Turkson, President of the new Vatican office for Integral Human Development, said policies for a just and fair water management are urgently needed in the quest for greater social justice and solidarity. Speaking to Vatican Radio, he said the seminar is a precious occasion to push for good water management policies:Listen: Cardinal Turkson said the meeting is important because it provides an occasion to draw attention to the fact there is still no formulation regarding access to water in terms of it being a &l...
(Vatican Radio) The National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States – NASA – made an announcement this week about a major astronomical discovery: seven planets orbiting a star, three of which are in the so-called “habitable zone” of the solar system some 40 light-years from Earth.Scientists have named the star TRAPPIST 1 – an acronym for the Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope, which is located in Chile and was the instrument chiefly used in the original discovery of the system, the planets of which are identified simply as TRAPPIST b-h.No other known system contains so many Earth-sized and probably rocky planets.Scientists say they need to study the planets’ atmospheres before determining whether they are capable of supporting life.To learn more about the discovery, we spoke with Fr. Brian Reedy SJ, a biophysicist who has designed experiments on life forms conducted aboard the International Space Station&hell...
