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Vatican City, Apr 6, 2017 / 11:20 am (CNA/EWTN News).- According to Vatican statistics released Thursday, the Church in the Americas lags behind globally when it comes to the number of seminarians per number of Catholics.In 2015, the Americas had 53.6 seminarians per one million Catholics, trailing just behind Europe with 65.0 seminarians per million Catholics. This is in comparison to Asia's 245.7 and Africa’s 130.6 seminarians per million Catholics.The Americas' low seminarian rate occurs despite the continent’s hold on the highest percentage of baptized Catholics in the world – 49 percent.These and other statistics, released by the Vatican April 6, are contained within the 2017 Pontifical Yearbook, and the 2015 “Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae.” These volumes, compiled by the Central Office of Church Statistics and edited by the Vatican Press, are being distributed in bookstores now.In terms of clergy, although the number of bishops grew rela...
Vatican City, Apr 6, 2017 / 12:32 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- This Holy Thursday, Pope Francis will wash the feet of prison inmates and say Mass at their penitentiary.The Pope will visit Paliano prison south of Rome the afternoon of April 13. He will make a private visit and say the Mass of the Last Supper, Vatican Radio reports.For Holy Thursday in 2013, just after becoming Pope, Francis visited the Casal del Marmo youth detention center in Rome and celebrated Mass there. This occasion was notable for being the first time a Pope included females and non-Christians among those whose feet he washed.At the time, liturgical law permitted only men's feet to be washed in the Holy Thursday ceremony.In January 2016, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments modified the Roman Missal to allow for women's feet to be washed at the Holy Thursday Mass.The decision was made in concert with Pope Francis.In a letter to the congregation's prefect, Cardinal Robert...
IMAGE: CNS/Paul HaringBy Robert DuncanROME(CNS) -- In an Italian nature reserve surrounded by a forest inhabited by wildboar and foxes, a group of families is seeking to embrace the lifestyle of NewTestament-era Christians."Inthe Acts of the Apostles, it is written that they lived with one soul and heartand held all things in common," said Susanna Scifoni, a member of theNomadelfia community on the outskirts of Rome.Following that principle, communitymembers live together and share the responsibilities involved in their work of welcomingvisitors and with cooking, cleaning and gardening for the community. They growbok choy, fennel, lettuce, spinach and chicory, raise chickens and assist theirlocal parish in its Caritas operation.Nomadelfians, as they are sometimescalled, receive no pay for their work, but they also do not need money foranything within the group's 25-acre property."Ifwork is an act of love, an act of love can't be paid for because it has a pricethat would be infinite...
IMAGE: CNS photo/courtesy National World War I Museum and MemorialBy Mark PattisonEditor's Note: This CNS backgrounderwas first posted Aug. 4, 2014, to mark the 100th anniversary of the beginningof World War I. We are reposting it today, because April 6 marks the 100thanniversary of the United States' entrance into the war. On April 2, 1917,Democratic President Woodrow Wilson asked a special joint session of Congressto declare war on the German Empire. Congress issued the declaration April 6,1917.WASHINGTON (CNS) -- WorldWar I was dubbed "the Great War" because of the near-global scale ofthe fighting.Some called it "theWorld War," and many had thought it was "the war to end allwars." But its status as World War I was cemented when World War IIcommenced just 21 years after it ended.On July 28, 1914, WorldWar I began in earnest. The United States entered the war April 6, 1917,playing a decisive role in its outcome. But U.S. Catholics were watching andworrying long before the nation -...
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The Security Council is strongly condemning North Korea's latest ballistic missile launch and demanding a halt to all missile tests that violate U.N. sanctions "and are significantly increasing tension in the region and beyond."...
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Don Rickles, the big-mouthed, bald-headed "Mr. Warmth" whose verbal assaults endeared him to audiences and peers and made him the acknowledged grandmaster of insult comedy, died Thursday. He was 90....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republicans invoked the "nuclear option" in the Senate Thursday, unilaterally rewriting the chamber's rules to allow President Donald Trump's nominee to ascend to the Supreme Court....
BEIRUT (AP) -- President Bashar Assad's government came under mounting international pressure Thursday after a chemical attack in northern Syria, with even key ally Russia saying its support is not unconditional....
PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- President Donald Trump hinted at possible military action against Syria Thursday as his administration considered how to strike at President Bashar Assad after this week's chemical weapons attack that killed more than 80 people....
Should recess be mandatory for Florida public schools? It would be close to impossible to find a current student who thinks recess is a bad idea. However, things at the capitol are little more complicated.
