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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis celebrated Holy Mass for Ash Wednesday at the Basilica of Santa Sabina on the Aventine hill in Rome.In his homily, the Holy Father said Lent is a path that "leads to the triumph of mercy over all that would crush us or reduce us to something unworthy of our dignity as God's children."Click here to see a report on the Pope's Mass.Please find below the official English translation of the Pope's homily:“Return to me with all your heart… return to the Lord” (Jl 2:12, 13). The prophet Joel makes this plea to the people in the Lord’s name. No one should feel excluded: “Assemble the aged, gather the children, even infants at the breast, the bridegroom… and the bride” (v. 16). All the faithful people are summoned to come and worship their God, “for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love” (v. 13).We too want to take up this appeal;...
(Vatican Radio) Continuing a long-standing tradition, Pope Francis celebrated the Holy Mass for Ash Wednesday at the Basilica of Santa Sabina on the Aventine hill in Rome.Listen to Chrisopher Wells' report: The Holy Father began his homily for the beginning of Lent with the words of the prophet Joel, from the first Reading: “Return to me with all your heart… Return to the Lord.” These words, the Pope said, apply to everyone, and exclude no one; “we all want to return to the merciful heart of the Father.”Lent, the Pope said, is a path that “leads to the triumph of mercy over all that would crush us or reduce us to something unworthy of our dignity as God’s children.” The mark of ashes, received during the ceremony, reminds us of our origins, that we are dust – but, he said, it also reminds us that God breathed life into each of us. “The breath of God’s life,” he said, “saves us from this asphyxia tha...
Denver, Colo., Mar 1, 2017 / 06:24 am (Denver Catholic).- St. Bernadette Parish, the pioneer Catholic church of Lakewood, Colorado, outgrew its first worship space just 18 years after being founded in 1947. Today, the half-century-old church remains large enough but needs updating to better serve its exceptionally diverse congregation.In addition to ministering to the faithful of central Lakewood, the parish heads Colorado Catholic Deaf Ministry, is home to St. Kateri Native American Community, runs a school and soon will be host to Marisol Home, which will provide transitional housing to homeless women with children.“One holy, Catholic and apostolic church is a pretty good description for our parish,” said the pastor, Father Tom Coyte.“Catholic means universal,” added pastoral associate Julie Plouffe, “and there is so much diversity represented in this one worship space: the deaf, Native Americans, service to the poor and the homeless, and to our schoo...
Vatican City, Mar 1, 2017 / 06:42 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Wednesday, the decision of clerical abuse survivor Marie Collins to resign from her post on the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors was announced, citing frustrations with “a lack of cooperation” by the Curia as leading factor.In a March 1 statement coinciding with the announcement of Collins’ resignation, Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston, who heads the commission, voiced “our most sincere thanks for the extraordinary contributions she has made as a founding member of the commission.”“We will certainly listen carefully to all that Marie wishes to share with us about her concerns and we will greatly miss her important contributions as a member of the commission,” he said.A laywoman from Ireland, Collins had been one of two clerical abuse survivors tapped to join the commission when it was established in March 2014. Plans to found the commission had been announce...
Vatican City, Mar 1, 2017 / 09:43 am (CNA/EWTN News).- At Ash Wednesday Mass, Pope Francis spoke about the bad habits, negativity, and sin present in our lives which cause us to be choked off from the life-giving breath of God – supernatural grace.“The breath of God’s life saves us from this asphyxia that dampens our faith, cools our charity and strangles every hope,” he said March 1. “To experience Lent is to yearn for this breath of life that our Father unceasingly offers us amid the mire of our history.”Marking the start of the Lenten season, Pope Francis prayed the Stations of the Cross at St. Anselm Church in Rome before processing the short way to the Basilica of Santa Sabina for the celebration of Mass, benediction, and the imposition of ashes.Francis said that as we set out from the church, the mark of the ashes reminds us of our origin: “we were taken from the earth, we are made of dust.”“True,” he said, “yet...
IMAGE: CNS/Carol GlatzBy Carol GlatzVATICAN CITY (CNS) -- One of the founding members and the last remaining abuse survivor on the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors has quit over what she described as resistance coming from Vatican offices against implementing recommendations.Marie Collins, who joined the commission when it was established in 2014, said: "The reluctance of some in the Vatican Curia to implement recommendations or cooperate with the work of a commission when the purpose is to improve the safety of children and vulnerable adults around the world is unacceptable.""It is devastating in 2017 to see that these men still can put other concerns before the safety of children and vulnerable adults," she said in an editorial published online March 1 by the National Catholic Reporter.Pope Francis created the commission to be an independent body of experts, including survivors of clerical sexual abuse, to advise him with recommendations on best practices for pr...
IMAGE: CNS/Paul HaringBy Junno Arocho EstevesVATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Like the people of Israel freed fromthe bondage of slavery, Christians are called to experience the path towardhope and new life duringthe Lenten season, Pope Francis said. Through his passion, death and resurrection, Jesus "hasopened up for us a way that leads to a full, eternal and blessed life,"the pope said at hisweekly general audience March 1, Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent forLatin-rite Catholics."Lent lives within this dynamic: Christ precedes uswith his exodus and we cross the desert, thanks to him and behind him," hesaid. On awarm and sunny morning, the pope held his audience in St. Peter's Square.Arriving in the popemobile, he immediately spotted a group of children and signaledseveral of them to come aboard for a ride. One by one, the three girls and oneboy climbed into the popemobile and warmly embraced the pope. In hismain audience talk, the pope said that while Lent is a time of"penance and e...
By Junno Arocho EstevesROME (CNS) -- Lent is a time to receive God's breath of life,a breath that saveshumanity from suffocatingunder the weight of selfishness, indifference and piety devoid ofsincerity, Pope Francis said. "Lent is the time to say no to the asphyxia born ofrelationships that exclude, that try to find God while avoiding the wounds ofChrist present in the wounds of his brothers and sisters," the pope said March 1 during anAsh Wednesday Mass.PopeFrancis celebrated the Mass after making the traditional Ash Wednesdayprocession from the Benedictine monastery of St. Anselm to the Dominican-run Basilica of Santa Sabina on Rome's Aventine Hill.After receiving ashes on top of his head from Cardinal JozefTomko, titular cardinal of the basilica, the pope distributed ashes to thecardinals, his closest aides, some Benedictines and Dominicans. He also distributed ashes to a family and to two members ofthe Pontifical Academy for Martyrs, which promotes the traditional Lenten"stati...
NEW YORK (AP) -- There's a new version of the frightful musical "Sweeney Todd" playing in downtown Manhattan that's undeniably meatier than most....
VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Frustrated by what she described as Vatican stonewalling, an Irish woman who was sexually abused by clergy quit her post Wednesday on a pontifical panel advising Pope Francis about how to protect minors from such abuse....
