VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI said the church should be generous when it comes to administering the sacraments to young people, recognizing that Jesus would have done the same. The pope made the remarks in a closed-door meeting Aug. 6 with about 400 priests and religious in the northern Italian city of Bressanone, […]
Continue readingTALLAHASSEE, Fla. (CNS) — The executive director of the Florida Catholic Conference praised an Aug. 4 circuit court ruling that clears the way for voters to decide whether the state constitution should be amended to allow public funding of faith-based and school-choice programs. D. Michael McCarron called the decision “a pivotal step toward safeguarding health, […]
Continue readingWASHINGTON (CNS) — Food and water were among the primary needs Catholic aid agencies were trying to meet as thousands of households remained without power and some remained under water July 25 in the wake of Hurricane Dolly. Sister Norma Pimentel, executive director of Catholic Social Services in the Brownsville Diocese, said her agency had […]
Continue readingWASHINGTON (CNS) — The Vatican has given its approval to a new English-language translation of the main constant parts of the Mass, but Catholics in the pew are unlikely to see any of the approved changes at Masses for awhile to allow for catechesis on the reasons for the revisions. The approved text, sent to […]
Continue readingSays ‘Humanae Vitae’ was ‘lucid and farsighted’ VATICAN CITY (CNS) — In the face of “disquieting developments in genetic engineering,” Pope Paul VI’s encyclical on human life and birth control was “lucid and farsighted,” said the editor of the Vatican newspaper. Giovanni Maria Vian, editor of L’Osservatore Romano, wrote a front-page editorial July 25 marking […]
Continue readingBy: By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Protecting human dignity is the only guiding principle that ensures progress in biomedical technology does not harm the weakest humans, the Vatican newspaper said. Using human dignity as the guiding principle for determining what is medically and scientifically ethical is not simply a Catholic approach and it […]
Continue readingCAPE TOWN, South Africa (CNS) — Hundreds of victims of xenophobic violence in South Africa are being housed in church halls in Durban as the country’s faith communities and civil society rally to help those displaced. “We’re housing more than 430 people, mostly from Zimbabwe, but also from Mozambique, Malawi, Burundi and the Democratic Republic […]
Continue readingWASHINGTON (CNS) — With a sour economy, a war in its sixth year, gas prices at record levels and good health care increasingly unattainable, voters have other priorities ahead of worries about illegal immigration, pollsters say. A May voter survey found immigration to be voters’ fifth biggest concern behind those other issues, with 7 percent […]
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