Pope gives interview to homeless vendor, reveals childhood memories
By Junno Arocho Esteves VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Inundated with requests from major media outlets around the world, Pope Francis chose to sit down for an interview with a homeless man who makes his living selling newspapers in Netherlands. The pope met with 51-year-old Marc, who was accompanied by Frank …
Cardinal: Climate change affects all, regardless of wealth or privilege
IMAGE: CNS/Bob Roller By Gus Hardy SANTA CLARA, Calif. (CNS) — Ghanaian Cardinal Peter Turkson, the lead consultant on Pope Francis’ encyclical on the environment, issued a call to action in the heart of the world’s technology and communications industries — Silicon Valley. The president of the Pontifical Council for …
Catholic-Lutheran document sums up agreements, maps steps to full unity
IMAGE: CNS photo/Tyler Orsburn By Nancy Frazier O’Brien BALTIMORE (CNS) — A new 120-page document marks the progress in Catholic-Lutheran relations over the past 50 years and maps the remaining steps needed to achieve full unity. The “Declaration on the Way” was prepared by a joint task force of the …
Second Vatican Council participants hand legacy on to new generation
IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) — A group of young adults from North and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia received scrolls commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World; dangling from the ribbon around each …
Throwback Thursday: Remembering Lauren Hill
Staff Report Perhaps one of this publication’s most moving stories of the past couple years involved a non-Catholic and a story not entirely tied to religion. The story of this Throwback Thursday is Lauren Hill. An Indiana native, and standout student-athlete in high school, Hill was diagnosed with, and later died of, …
Pope: Persecution is a ‘shared experience’ that unites all Christians
By Junno Arocho Esteves VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The persecution and martyrdom of Christians around the world have become “a shared experience” and a common journey that unites all who give witness to Christ, Pope Francis said. The pope sent a message addressed to Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the …
Little doesn’t only mean small; it can also mean servant
Do you know any little people? I am not talking about short people. I am talking about people who have a servant mentality. Little is a spiritual term for those who live out the gospel challenge to lay down our life for another. What I am noticing is that there …
Ohio Catholic first woman to lead a national organization for veterans
By Jerry Donohue GARFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio (CNS) — Arminda “Armi” Crawford is the first woman to lead a national veterans organization as national commander of the Catholic War Veterans. One of only a dozen or so female veterans in the 7,520-member organization, Crawford ran unopposed when she was elected at …
‘VatiLeaks’ 2015: Books claim strong resistance to pope’s finance reform
IMAGE: CNS By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Financial wrongdoing at the Vatican, leaked documents and arrests by the Vatican police may make it seem like 2012 all over again, but the situation — while serious — is not the breach of papal privacy that the earlier “VatiLeaks” scandal …
Families must forgive and not ‘end the day in war,’ pope says
IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring By Junno Arocho Esteves VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The secret to healing wounds among family members is to “not end the day in war” and to forgive one another, Pope Francis said. “One cannot live without forgiving, or at least one cannot live well, especially in the …