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(Vatican Radio) Sri Lanka’s Catholic Bishops have sent special greetings to their Buddhist countrymen on the occasion of Vesak, Wednesday, May 10 this year. It is the most solemn festival of Buddhists which the United Nations adopted in 1999 and is celebrating for the first time in Sri Lanka this year. "Vesak", sometimes informally called "Buddha's Birthday", occurs on the full moon in the month of May, and commemorates the birth, enlightenment and death of Gautama Buddha or Shakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, who lived sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries. "It is fitting for the U.N. Day of Vesak to be held in Sri Lanka which is the predominant Theravada Buddhist country in the world and where four world religions are present," read a statement released on May 7 by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Sri Lanka (CBCSL). "Vesak is a festival of peace and light; may this Vesak b...
(Vatican Radio) Corruption is “like a cancer” that consumes the daily life of people across Latin America, Pope Francis has told bishops.In a letter to the Latin American Episcopal Conference (CELAM) at the start of their general assembly, the Pope decried corruption as “one of the most serious sins that plagues our continent today”.The Pope reiterated his call to the bishops gathering in El Salvador to walk more closely with people, especially those on the peripheries, and to renew their hope.Pope Francis wrote: “Corruption devastates lives by submerging them in the most extreme poverty. It’s a corruption which destroys entire populations by subjecting them to precariousness. It’s a corruption that, like a cancer, consumes the daily life of our people.”The Pope used the story of Our Lady of Aparecida, the patroness of Brazil, as the basis of his message of hope. The statue was found 300 years ago by three poor fisherman who caught a...
(Vatican Radio) Religious leaders united in their opposition to violence against children have gathered in Panama for a major international conference.About 430 representatives of the world’s religions are joining with children from about 70 countries in Panama City to study ways in which young people can be protected from gang violence, organised crime and violent extremism. It will also look at ways to end sexual exploitation and abuse of children.Delegates at the V Forum of the Global Network of Religions for Children (GNRC) are set to sign a statement committing themselves to working for a world free from childhood violence.Chilean Catholic priest Father Sidney Fones, head of the Forum's organizing committee, said: “We need to understand that all people have a role to play in ensuring that peace prevails and that children are safe."Our hope is that the ideas and results of this meeting will generate practical and fruitful actions for the protection of chil...
IMAGE: CNS photo/Tony Gentile, ReutersBy Junno Arocho EstevesVATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Mary, like many mothers throughout the world, is anexample of strength and courage in accepting new life and in sharing thesuffering of their children, Pope Francis said. Althoughshe had no idea of what awaited her when she accepted to bear God's son,"Mary in that instant appears to us like one of the many mothers in ourworld, courageous to the extreme," the pope said May 10 at his weeklygeneral audience.Hermotherly love and courage is seen again at the foot of the cross, he said,where "she teaches us the virtue of waiting even when everything appearsmeaningless."Just afew days before he was to visit Fatima, Portugal, to commemorate the 100thanniversary of the Marian apparitions there and as people in many countrieswere preparing to celebrate Mother's Day, Pope Francis used his audience talkto focus on Mary and hope."We are not orphans, we have a mother in heaven,"he said. "In difficult moments, may ...
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- After conquering Hollywood, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson may have his sights set on the White House....
WOODBURY, Conn. (AP) -- The wife of longtime ESPN broadcaster Chris Berman died in a traffic crash in Connecticut, the sports network's president confirmed Wednesday....
WEST POINT, N.Y. (AP) -- Brothers Noah, Sumner and Cole Ogrydziak entered West Point's grueling world of 6:30 a.m. reveille, 60-pound packs and rigorous course loads on the same day four years ago. The three cadets are now preparing to fling their caps together at graduation this month, marking a rare fraternal trifecta at this storied academy....
TUSKEGEE, Ala. (AP) -- Decades later, it's still hard to grasp what the federal government did to hundreds of black men in rural Alabama - even if you're among their descendants, lighting candles in their memory....
RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) -- The collapse of an underground tunnel containing radioactive waste that forced workers at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation to shelter in place is the latest incident to raise safety concerns at the sprawling site that made plutonium for nuclear bombs for decades after World War II....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump on Wednesday welcomed Vladimir Putin's top diplomat to the White House for Trump's highest level face-to-face contact with a Russian government official since he took office in January....
