WASHINGTON (CNS) — A month after President Barack Obama announced the relaxation of family travel and finance restrictions for Cuban Americans to visit and financially support their relatives in Cuba, supporters of further changes renewed their efforts to lift travel bans for all U.S. citizens. At a May 19 press conference at the Capitol, members […]
Continue readingWASHINGTON (CNS) — Two members of Congress have called on President Barack Obama to make good on something he said in his May 17 speech to University of Notre Dame graduates, namely that he wished to “honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion.” At a May 19 press conference in Washington and in […]
Continue readingBETHLEHEM, West Bank (CNS) — Israel issued fewer than half the travel permits the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem had requested for Christians from the Gaza Strip to attend Pope Benedict XVI’s Mass May 13 in Bethlehem. “We gave 250 (names). We should have at least gotten 200. There was no explanation for anything,” said Father […]
Continue readingBETHLEHEM, West Bank (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI arrived in the Palestinian territories May 13 and immediately declared the Vatican’s support for an independent Palestine. “The Holy See supports the right of your people to a sovereign Palestinian homeland in the land of your forefathers, secure and at peace with its neighbors, within internationally recognized […]
Continue readingWASHINGTON (CNS) — The Catholic Church teaches that unions are indispensable for “a just social order,” said Manhattan College religious studies professor Joseph Fahey, but “we won’t have a just social order unless we have labor associations that contribute.” Fahey feels labor associations can make greater contributions if Congress passes the Employee Free Choice Act. […]
Continue readingJERUSALEM (CNS) — Israeli and Vatican officials denied reports that Israeli President Shimon Peres had asked the government to relinquish sovereignty over several holy places as a gesture of good will for Pope Benedict XVI. Reports abounded in the Israeli press in early May claiming internal discord between Peres and officials from the Tourism and […]
Continue readingWASHINGTON (CNS) — The Supreme Court’s unanimous decision May 4 that said the government was wrong to prosecute illegal immigrants for identity theft in certain types of cases was the latest of several rulings and policy announcements that will effectively roll back approaches on immigration initiated by the Bush administration. In Flores-Figueroa v. United States, […]
Continue readingVATICAN CITY (CNS) — President Barack Obama’s efforts to tackle the economic crisis drew praise from a Nobel Prize-winning member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. At a Vatican press conference May 6, the president of the academy, U.S. Catholic scholar Mary Ann Glendon, was asked about Obama’s economic strategies in light of Catholic […]
Continue readingVATICAN CITY (CNS) — Blessed Pope Pius IX re-established the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem in 1847 to support the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and other Catholics living in the Holy Land. Pope Benedict XVI’s May 8-15 trip to the region will help him see the results of that support and the […]
Continue readingWASHINGTON (CNS) — As the number of swine influenza cases increases around the world, some U.S. bishops are suggesting ways that pastors can alter certain practices within the celebration of Mass in an effort to prevent the spread of the highly contagious virus. The swine flu is transmitted when an infected person coughs or sneezes […]
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