Catholic pilgrimage

Scores killed in Egypt's protests This protest is dangerous, he said, “because the [Muslim Brotherhood] are always threatening Christians.”  He cited examples of attempts to burn down Churches, graffiti walls, as well as a recent incident of a woman whose Rosary, which hung on the rear-view mirror, was thrown from the car. “But the price of freedom has to be paid,” 

Pope Francis: address to CELAM leadership

Pope brings message of hope to Varginha community But it was his gestures that spoke louder than any of the words (that none of us could hear anyway): the universal thumbs-up sign of positivity and participation, the way he constantly touches his heart to indicate his closeness and affection, the joined hands of prayer, and the physicality and generosity of his embraces, the shy, almost self-effacing smile – and the eyes that widen with curiosity and recognition, leaving people feeling that not only has the Pope seen them – but that they too are important.  I almost forgot. Distracted as we were by all this joy and excitement of the Pope’s visit to Varginha, many of us missed witnessing a sort of minor miracle. Yes, the rain stopped…  Well, for about ten minutes, at least.

(Vatican Radio) “We announce with joy that Pope Francis has had lunch with the Jesuit community of the Vatican Observatory. We are deeply moved!” This was the first of a series of messages posted on Twitter on Sunday by Jesuit astronomers of Castel Gandolfo – first in Italian and then in English, Spanish and French. The Vatican Observatory has its headquarters in the Pontifical Villas of Castel Gandolfo, while the Pontifical Palace, directly above the apartment of the Pope, continues to host the domes with telescopes. But the observations for some time have been being made at the new research centre, the Vatican Observatory Research Group (VORG), located in the United States, in Tucson, at the Steward Observatory of the University of Arizona.  

Pope Francis prays for the victims of the Volhynia massacre Vatican City, 14 July 2013 (VIS) – Following Sunday's Angelus, the Pope commemorated the massacres of Volhynia in June 1943, a tragic episode during the Second World War in which tens of thousands of people lost their lives. He said, “I join in prayer with the prelates and faithful of the Church in Ukraine, gathered in the cathedral of Lutsk for the Holy Mass of the souls of the deceased on the seventieth anniversary of the massacres at Volhynia. Those actions, provoked by nationalist ideology in the tragic context of the Second World War, claimed tens of thousands of victims and damaged the fraternity between the two peoples, the Polish and the Ukrainian. I entrust to the mercy of God the souls of the victims and, for their people, I ask the grace of profound reconciliation and of a peaceful future in hope and in sincere collaboration in building together the Kingdom of God”.

Apostolic Journey to Canada, Homily of John Paul II, 15 September 1984 Saint Kateri Tekakwitha (1656-1680) the blood of the martyrs is the seed born Saints. Nine years after the Jesuit priest Father Isaac Jogues and Jean de Brebeuf was the native Huron and Iroquois tortured to death, a girl was born near the place of the martyrdom, in Auriesville, Nữu. She is the first native in North America was declared blessed. Her mother was a Christian Algonquin, Iroquois was arrested and forced to do the Mohawk chief's wife, is the brave tribes and the most brutal in the five Nations. When he was four years old, Kateri lost his parents and younger brother in the battle of epidemic that she, too, was almost blind and faces are distorted. She was an uncle brought about raising after he succeeded her father as Chief. He didn't like the monks A ¨ o Trai but he could not do was because of an agreement signed with France, forced to have the presence of monks in the village and Christians w...

Pope Francis: Mass with seminarians and novices (full text)

Democracy doesn't on its own mean effective government

To die of hope Pope Francis did Mass on the Island of Lampedusa,  for the many refugees that die trying to escape from a situation that beyond there control. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gt9cAnmC38w

  http://www.romereports.com/pdf/inglese.pdf The first paragraph grabs me with the reference to Jesus being the light of the world. To be expected I suppose. However the mention of the Pagan worship "the cult of the sun god, Sol Invictus," (Lumen Fidei 2013). The reference to the cult of sun worshiping reminds me of a conversation I had with my good friend Joe, God rest his soul. We were sitting outside discussing this same topic and were talking about the Son and since we were enjoying a few cold beers on a hot day we made the comparison with the sun and son and the light that illuminates. The differences between the physical and spiritual.  Nietzsche is mentioned again in theology as an example of how easy it is even for a well educated person to lose the way and drift into darkness. The fleeting easy alternatives become an option that is more easily at tenable. the light of faith can indeed bring salvation to the suffering of humanity e...

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Twal: "I ask France to have a more political role" | Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem  

postconflict.unep.ch/publications/UNEP_Afghanistan_NRM_report.pdf This report investigates the ways in which the management of land, water, minerals, forests and drugs  are linked to instability and insecurity in Afghanistan . Its aims are two-fold: first, to suggest ways that the  government and the international community  can maximise the peacebuilding opportunities  that come from better natural resource management and, second, to encourage the international  community to introduce safeguards in their existing  projects to ensure they do not inadvertently exacerbate conflict 

Morning Mass celebrated by Pope Francis in the Chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae, 22 June 2013

San Otón - Orden Franciscana Seglar en México

ASIA/SYRIA - Military offensive on refugee camps in the north STILL NO RELIEF FOR THE REFUGEE!    Syria's 600,000 refugees face severe winter conditions across the country and the surrounding region. http://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/in-pictures-winter-hits-syrias-refugees-8451522.html

Vatican Assures Cooperation With Authorities in Light of Arrest | ZENIT - The World Seen From Rome A top Catholic cleric with connections to the Vatican Bank was under arrest last night accused of laundering tens of millions of euro. Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, 61, is suspected of plotting to help rich friends smuggle huge sums of cash into Italy from Switzerland. The move comes two days after the Pope set up an inquiry to look into the activities of the troubled bank. In a scandal that reads like a spy novel, it involves police wiretaps, a private plane rented to collect the cash and burned mobile phones. An allegedly corrupt secret services agent who promised to get the money past Customs is also being quizzed by police. The case against Msgr Scarano will come as an acute embarrassment to Pope Francis who has dispensed with many of the trappings of office stressing the importance of a simple life. The Vatican announced he had set up a commission of inquiry into the Vat...