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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Thursday met with a delegation from the Anti-Defamation League encouraging them to cultivate justice and foster accord and telling them “the fight against anti-Semitism can benefit from effective instruments, such as information and formation.” Listen to Lydia O’Kane's report The Anti-Defamation League was founded in 1913 "to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all,” and on Thursday just like his predecessors, Saint John Paul II and Benedict XVI, Pope Francis received a delegation from the organization, which has maintained relations with the Holy See since the Second Vatican Council. Speaking to those gathered the Pope recalled his visit last year to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp saying, “there are no adequate words or thoughts in the face of such horrors of cruelty and sin; there is prayer, that God may have mercy and that such ...
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has urged all those involved in Catholic education to be builders of a more united and peaceful world.In an address on Thursday morning to the Congregation for Catholic Education that is holding its Plenary Assembly, the Pope pointed out that institutes of education have meaning only in relation to the formation of the person. Thus, he called on all educators to help young people to be builders of a more united and peaceful world. And, the Pope reminded those present, more than others, Catholic institutions have a mission to offer horizons that are open to transcendence. Listen to the report by Linda Bordoni: “Gravissimum educationis” he recalled highlights the fact that education is at the service of an integral humanism and that the Church, as a mother and an educator, always looks to the younger generation from the perspective of an integral formation of the human person, both in view of his own ultimate goal, and fo...
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis met on Thursday with Jesuits who write for the 'Civiltà Cattolicà' magazine, currently celebrating its 4000th edition. Founded in 1850 and originally available only in Italian, the publication is now adding editions in English, French, Spanish and Korean.As well as sending the writers a hand-signed note, the Pope reflected at length on the importance of poetry, art and pioneering intellectual research, as the magazine seeks to build bridges with many peoples and cultures.Listen to Philippa Hitchen's report: Your writing must not just defend Catholic ideas, but must witness to Christ in the world with a restless, open-ended and imaginative spirit. That’s was the Pope’s message to his Jesuit colleagues as he encouraged the work of this “ancient and precious” publication, a copy of which, he confided, “is often on my desk”.Remain on open seasDescribing the Civiltà Cattolica’s...
(Vatican Radio) “Without women, there is no harmony in the world.” That was the message of Pope Francis in his homily at the morning Mass at the Casa Santa Marta. At the center of his reflection was creation of woman, as told in Genesis. Men and women are not equal; the one is not superior to the other. But it is the woman, and not the man, who brings that harmony which makes the world a beautiful place.Pope Francis was continuing his reflections on creation, the subject of the Readings for the past few days, taken from the Book of Genesis. The Lord had formed every sort of animal, but the man did not find a companion in any of them; he was alone. Then the Lord took a rib and created woman, who the man recognized as “flesh of his flesh.” “But before seeing her,” the Pope said, “the man dreamed of her… In order to understand a woman, it is necessary first to dream of her.”Without women, there is no harmony“Often when we s...
Washington D.C., Feb 9, 2017 / 02:59 am (CNA).- Walt Heyer remembers the moment when he started desiring to be a girl.When he was just 4 years old, Heyer’s grandmother would crossdress him while she was babysitting. She loved seeing Heyer in dresses, and even made him his own purple chiffon dress.But it was their secret, grandma said - don’t tell mom and dad.At age 7, Heyer brought the purple chiffon dress home with him, and hid it in his bottom dresser drawer.Heyer’s mom soon found the dress, and confronted him about it. That’s when he told his parents that grandma had been dressing him like a girl for years.“You could have set off an atomic bomb in the house for the conflict between my dad and my mom, and my mom and her mom, my dad and his mother in law,” he said.Heyer’s parents didn’t have the vocabulary or the resources to know how to handle the situation. His dad reacted out of fear, and implemented very stern disciplinary measure...
Vatican City, Feb 9, 2017 / 05:56 am (CNA/EWTN News).- As the historic Jesuit-run paper La Civilta Cattolica for the first time rolled out four new language editions other than Italian, Pope Francis praised their work, urging the writers to have a healthy dose of restlessness, openness and imagination.Even with its 167 year history, the paper “continues with courage it’s navigation in the open sea,” the Pope told the publication’s writing staff Feb. 9, urging them to “stay in open water!”“The Catholic must never be afraid of the open sea, must never try to seek shelter in safe havens,” he said, explaining that its especially important for them as Jesuits “to avoid clinging to certainties and securities.”“The Lord calls us to go out on mission, and to go offshore and not to retire in order to safeguard certainties,” he said, adding that while going offshore means they could face “storms and headwind,”...
Portland, Ore., Feb 9, 2017 / 06:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A week after Hispanic Catholics experienced racial harassment and taunts from a group of men during a Spanish Mass, the local community in Portland, Oregon sprang into action to show their support for the churchgoers. Despite the chill and the rain, an estimated 200-300 people created a human barrier on Sunday, Feb. 5, protecting parishioners of St. Peter Catholic Church from possible harassment. It was a different scene than what had greeted parishioners the week before, when a group of about eight men dressed as hunters shouted racial and sexual slurs at parishioners during Spanish Mass, and taunted the congregation for being made up of many immigrants, according to the Catholic Sentinel. The group of men was nowhere to be seen the following week. The harassment came at an already tense time for the parish because of new federal immigration policy proposals. Pastor Fr. Raul Marquez, a native of Colombia who ha...
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Donald Trump had a head start building rapport at a previous meeting, and hope to build on it in Washington on Friday. But Trump's words and views don't always align with what's said in Japan:...
CANNON BALL, N.D. (AP) -- The developer of the Dakota Access pipeline has promised to quickly resume construction of the long-delayed project that would route oil under a North Dakota reservoir, even as American Indian activists vowed to take legal action to protect their water supply....
BOSTON (AP) -- A powerful, fast-moving storm swept through the northeastern U.S. Thursday, making for a slippery morning commute and leaving some residents bracing for blizzard conditions and more than a foot of snow....
