Pope Francis contemplates Shroud of Turin, calls it 'icon of love'
VATICAN CITY - It took place in silence and lasted only a few minutes, but Pope Francis' time of prayer and contemplation before the Shroud of Turin was marked with gestures of reverence and tenderness.
People are destroying the earth, Pope says in encyclical
[Read the Pope's encyclical on the environment here.]
VATICAN CITY - The earth, which was created to support life and give praise to God, is crying out with pain because human activity is destroying it, Pope Francis says in his long-awaited encyclical, Laudato Si', on Care for Our Common Home.
God has greater plans for us beyond death
Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) June 28 (Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24; Psalm 30; 2 Corinthians 8:7, 9, 13-15; Mark 5:21-43)
Death is the enemy that humans fear most. People tend to blot it from their minds and often refuse to even talk about it. It is easy to bury it under a layer of euphemisms, even as aches, pains and illness become more frequent and unwelcome visitors. But in the end, death comes for us — all of us without exception.
The deepest secret inside wisdom
Everyone longs to know something that’s secret, to know something that others don’t know, but that you know, and the knowledge of which gives you some insight and advantage over others who are outside the inner circle of that secret. It has always been so. Historically this is called “Gnosticism,” which forever makes an appearance in one form or another.
Pope Francis: Seek forgiveness for shutting out refugees
VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis said people who shut out refugees should seek forgiveness June 17, after clashes on Italy’s borders as European countries try to push back against a wave of migrants fleeing by boat from Libya.
Read encyclical on care for creation with 'open heart,' Pope asks world
VATICAN CITY - Appealing to the entire world, Pope Francis urged everyone to read his upcoming encyclical on the care of creation and to better protect a damaged earth.
Vatican outraged by encyclical leak
The most anticipated papal encyclical in history has anticipated itself. What an angry Vatican spokesman called an “intermediate draft” of the letter from Pope Francis on the environment was leaked by an Italian magazine three days before its official launch.
The new evangelization depends on parish renewal
OTTAWA - Parish renewal is the key to the new evangelization and the survival of the Church, say organizers of the Summer Institute of New Evangelization.
Pope Francis: ‘Let us modify our relationship with natural resources’
VATICAN CITY - People must change their lifestyles and attitudes to help defeat hunger, Pope Francis said June 11, a hint of what may be coming in his much-anticipated environmental encyclical next week.
Pope Francis to open 30-bed homeless shelter a few steps from Vatican walls
VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis will open a homeless shelter on the edge of Vatican City, the latest move by the pontiff to help poor people in Rome.
Moral flaw or struggle with divine energy?
The renowned spiritual writer Henri Nouwen made no secret about the fact that he was emotionally over-sensitive and that he suffered, sometimes to the point of clinical depression, from emotional obsessions. At times, he, a vowed celibate, was so overpowered by the feeling of being in love with someone who was hopelessly unavailable that he became psychologically paralyzed and needed professional help.