BLOG: Fr. Raphael Ma, CR
By Lise Alves Catholic News Service SAO PAULO (CNS) — Cardinal-designate Orani Tempesta of Rio de Janeiro said he was surprised that Pope Francis named him a cardinal, but friends and thousands of Brazilian Catholics saw it coming. At the end of World Youth Day in July in Rio de Janeiro, several Brazilian newspapers and ...read more
On Sunday March 16, 2014, The Toronto Police Service will commemorate its 50th annual Communion Breakfast. I’m fairly certain when a few Toronto police officers got together, in the winter of 1964, and decided to take their sons to Mass at St. Michael’s Cathedral followed by breakfast at a local restaurant, they never envisioned this ...read more
This week Pope Francis released two special messages: his message for Lent, and a message for World Youth Day. Lent begins on March 5 this year and World Youth Day will be celebrated at the diocesan level on April 13, which is also Palm Sunday. The full text of the Pope’s Lenten message is published ...read more
By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Archbishop Gualtiero Bassetti said a parishioner told him he’d been named a cardinal by Pope Francis, and “my jaw dropped” when he found out it was true. The 71-year-old archbishop of Perugia-Citta della Pieve and president of the bishops’ conference of Umbria in central Italy ...read more
Message on 2014-02-05 from the Archbishop of Montreal, Christian Lépine, regarding Bill 52 which is to legalize euthanasia. For a few decades now, we have been preoccupied by questions concerning the accompaniment of people who are gravely ill and who are dying. Palliative care was developed to respond to suffering and pain without having recourse ...read more
Vatican City, 6 February 2014 (VIS) – We publish below the full text of the message the Holy Father has sent to the young people preparing for the 29th World Youth Day 2014, which will take as its theme: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. Dear Young Friends, ...read more
By Ezra Fieser Catholic News Service SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (CNS) — Haiti’s new cardinal is known as a tireless worker, an advocate for the people and someone who never forgot his impoverished childhood. Pope Francis named the first Haitian cardinal Jan. 12 when he selected Bishop Chibly Langlois of Les Cayes, 55, president of ...read more
The end of its 65th session, the Committee on the Rights of the Child has published its Concluding Observations on the reviewed Reports of the Holy See and five States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (Congo, Germany, Portugal, Russian Federation and Yemen). According to the proper procedures forseen for the ...read more
By Simon Caldwell Catholic News Service LIVERPOOL, England (CNS) — It was not in the silence of a dimly lit church or in the cool hush of an evening breeze that Vincent Nichols recognized he had a vocation to the priesthood, but in the heaving swell and bustle of a soccer crowd. A lifelong supporter ...read more
By. Rev. Dr. Karen Hamilton (Canadian Council of Churches) Given that the focus country of the 2014 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity was, for only the third time in the Week’s one hundred year history, Canada, it was no surprise that I should be invited to preach in a number of places. It was ...read more