By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Spain’s newest cardinal-designate is known as an outspoken champion of peace and reconciliation — a common trait among some of the men chosen by Pope Francis to join the College of Cardinals in February. Cardinal-designate Ricardo Blazquez Perez, who has been archbishop of Valladolid since ...read more

By Catholic News Service YANGON, Myanmar (CNS) — Cardinal-designate Charles Bo’s appointment as Myanmar’s first cardinal is seen as support for his efforts to push national reconciliation, peace, justice and freedom as his people struggle with religious and ethnic tensions and other problems. The new position draws attention to Cardinal-designate Bo’s country, formerly Burma, which ...read more

On this week’s Vatican Connections, we look at the long-awaited beatification decree for Archbishop Oscar Romero. We talk to Father Frank Desiderio, a Paulist priest who worked with the producer of the 1989 film about the martyr, and we look at the reaction of Salvadoreans who have long referred to their slain archbishop as “el ...read more

Statement on Physician-Assisted Suicide by the Most Reverend Paul-André Durocher, Archbishop of Gatineau and President of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops Catholics are called by their faith to assist all those in need, particularly the poor, the suffering and the dying. Comforting the dying and accompanying them in love and solidarity has been considered by the Church since ...read more

By Peter Grace Catholic News Service WELLINGTON, New Zealand (CNS) — Cardinal-designate John Dew of Wellington has appealed for a more pastoral approach for some of the family issues facing New Zealand Catholics. At the 2005 Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist, he called on church leaders to discuss a “pastoral approach” to ending “the ...read more

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Instead of accepting the letter of resignation that the archbishop of Ancona-Osimo, Italy, submitted in October, Pope Francis named him a cardinal. Cardinal-designate Edoardo Menichelli is 75 — the age church law requires bishops to submit their resignations — but he still kicks a soccer ...read more

Photo: Three of the four participants on the closing panel of the 2015 De Mazenod Conference were Canadians.  From left to right: Fr. Thomas Rosica, Sebastian Gomes, Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller and Fr. Ronald Rolheiser discuss the Francis effect on the Catholic Church. (S+L: Feb. 1, 2015) This past weekend I had the privilege of addressing ...read more

By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Vietnam’s cardinal-designate sees hope and continuing challenges ahead for the church in a nation that still has to fully embrace religious freedom. Cardinal-designate Pierre Nguyen Van Nhon of Hanoi, 76, said he saw Pope Francis’ decision to induct him into the College of Cardinals as ...read more

Welcome to S+L’s Weekly News Round-Up. As the Director of Marketing and Communications here at S+L, many interesting Catholic news stories and articles come across my desk on a daily basis. Some of them we’ll cover on our different television programs and others I’d like to share with you on this blog. This blog column ...read more

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Not long after Pope Francis became pope, Cardinal-designate Francesco Montenegro was standing next to him “and I could feel his heart beating as he repeated, ‘What suffering.'” As archbishop of Agrigento on Sicily’s southern coast, the cardinal-designate’s archdiocese includes Lampedusa, the Mediterranean island where thousands ...read more