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Austin, Texas, Mar 17, 2017 / 10:27 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Texas Senate has passed a bill that would require people to use bathrooms based on the sex on their birth certificate, but it faces significant opposition from influential corporations and LGBT activists.The Senate voted to pass Senate Bill 6 by a vote of 21-10 on March 15. It has been characterized as a “bathroom bill.”Lt. Governor Dan Patrick said the bill “reflects common decency and common sense and is essential to protect public safety.”He said the bill “codifies what has always been common practice in Texas and everywhere else – that men, women, boys and girls should use separate, designated restrooms, locker rooms and showers in government buildings and public schools.”Gov. Greg Abbott has not taken a clear stand on the bill. Republican House Speaker Joe Straus has been critical and said its passage could harm jobs and be bad for business, the Associated Press reports.State ...
Vatican City, Mar 17, 2017 / 11:16 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis told priests Friday to make confession a priority in their parishes, and, if they want to be good confessors, to have a strong prayer life focused on growing in humility and closeness to the Holy Spirit in order to evangelize.The confessor, in face, is called daily to go to the peripheries of evil and sin,” the Pope said March 17, adding that “this is an ugly periphery,” but the priest is called to go “and his work represents an authentic pastoral priority.”“To confess is a pastoral priority,” he said. “Please, may there not be those signs (that say): ‘confessions only Monday and Wednesday, from this time to this time.’”“Confess each time they ask you,” he said, telling priests that if they are sitting in the confessional praying, “you are there with the confessional open, which is the open heart of God.”Pope Francis spoke to ...
Vatican City, Mar 17, 2017 / 11:48 am (CNA/EWTN News).- At the end of his annual Lenten penitential service on Friday, Pope Francis was the first to go to the sacrament of confession, afterward hearing the confessions of seven laypeople, three men and four women, in attendance. Instead of giving a homily during the service, which he has done in years past, Pope Francis led people in a lengthy silence following the readings in order to reflect and pray prior to receiving the sacrament of confession. Earlier on March 17, Francis spoke with participants of the Apostolic Penitentiary’s annual course on the internal forum about the importance of confessors being available to people and spiritually well-formed. In his speech, the Pope said that to be a good confessor, a priest must be a man of prayer, a man who is attentive to the Holy Spirit and knows how to discern well, and who also is a good evangelizer. Held in St. Peter's Basilica, the penitential servi...
IMAGE: CNS/Paul HaringBy Cindy WoodenVATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A few hours after urging priests to begenerously available for the sacrament of penance, Pope Francis went toconfession, then offered the sacrament to seven Catholics.Presiding over the annual Lenten penance service March 17 inSt. Peter's Basilica, Pope Francis was one of 95 priests and bishops listeningto confessions and granting absolution.After the reading of a Gospel passage, the pope did not givea homily. Instead, he and the thousands of people gathered in the basilica prayed in absolute silence for 10 minutes.Pope Francis spent about four minutes kneeling before apriest in one of the wooden confessionals before he walked to one nearby, puton a purple stole and waited for the first penitent to approach.As people were preparing, confessing and praying, theSistine Chapel Choir alternated with the organist and a harpist in ensuring anatmosphere of peace.The pope spent 50 minutes administering the sacrament beforeleading t...
HODEIDA, Yemen (AP) -- The boat packed with dozens of Somali refugees was more than 30 miles off war-torn Yemen's coast when a military vessel and a helicopter gunship swooped in, opening fire in the dead of night Friday, killing at least 42 people. The attack, which Yemen's Shiite rebels blamed on a Saudi-led coalition, highlighted the perils of a heavily used migration route running from the Horn of Africa to the oil-rich Gulf, right through Yemen's civil war....
HONOLULU (AP) -- Lawmakers in nearly half the states want to add a requirement for presidential candidates: Show us your tax returns....
LIMA, Peru (AP) -- The number of people killed in Peru following intense rains and mudslides wreaking havoc around the Andean nation climbed to 67 Friday, with thousands more displaced from destroyed homes and others waiting on rooftops for rescue....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Meals on Wheels, the popular service that provides food to the elderly, faces a sharp funding cut under President Donald Trump's budget proposal, drawing protests from congressional Republicans and Democrats....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump agreed to add fresh Medicaid curbs to the House Republican health care bill Friday, bolstering the measure with support from some conservative lawmakers but leaving its prospects wobbly. House leaders discussed other amendments calibrated to round up votes and scheduled a showdown vote for Thursday....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump on Friday stood by his unproven claim that his predecessor wiretapped his phones, suggesting he was the victim of the same sort of surveillance the Obama administration was once alleged to have used to monitor German Chancellor Angela Merkel's calls....
