Catholic News 2
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Nearly two decades of using heroin and a year of living on the streets of Philadelphia had led Steven Kemp to a simple conclusion: It was time to get sober. But when he staggered into a detox facility on a recent Friday night, his head brimming with the thought that suicide would end the pain, he was told he couldn't be admitted because he didn't have a photo ID....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. employers added 209,000 jobs in July, a second straight month of robust gains that underscore the economy's vitality as it enters a ninth year of expansion....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Attorney General Jeff Sessions pledged on Friday to rein in government leaks that he said undermine American security, taking an aggressive public stand after being called weak on the matter by President Donald Trump....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Special Counsel Robert Mueller is using a grand jury in Washington as part of an investigation into potential coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia, a person familiar with the probe says....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Latest on President Donald Trump and the Russia investigation. (all times local):...
(Vatican Radio) The Catholics in eight districts of Arunachal Pradesh, India on August 2, fondly remembered two French Missionaries, Frs. Krick and Bourry, who were killed by a Mishmi tribal chief in Somme Village near Khibito bordering China.Frs. Krick and Bourry, the 19th century martyrs who sowed the first seeds of Christianity in Arunachal Pradesh, had Tibet as one of their important goals. Back then, the only way to Tibet was through Arunachal Pradesh. It was on their way to Tibet via Arunachal Pradesh, while halting at Somme, a Mishmi tribal village, they were killed by its chief Mr. Kaisha on 2 August 1854.Frs. Krick and Bourry were members of the Société des Missions Etrangères de Paris (M.E.P), or the Society of the Paris Foreign Missions, an institute of diocesan priests zealous to spread the Gospel of Christ in Asia. One of their important goals or destinations was Tibet. Back then, the only way to Tibet was through NE In...
(Vatican Radio) The Catholics in eight districts of Arunachal Pradesh, India on August 2, fondly remembered two French Missionaries, Frs. Krick and Bourry, who were killed by a Mishmi tribal chief in Somme Village near Khibito bordering China.
Frs. Krick and Bourry, the 19th century martyrs who sowed the first seeds of Christianity in Arunachal Pradesh, had Tibet as one of their important goals. Back then, the only way to Tibet was through Arunachal Pradesh. It was on their way to Tibet via Arunachal Pradesh, while halting at Somme, a Mishmi tribal village, they were killed by its chief Mr. Kaisha on 2 August 1854.
Frs. Krick and Bourry were members of the Société des Missions Etrangères de Paris (M.E.P), or the Society of the Paris Foreign Missions, an institute of diocesan priests zealous to spread the Gospel of Christ in Asia. One of their important goals or destinations was Tibet. Back then, the only way to Tibet was through NE India, Arunachal Pradesh today. In fact, it was through Frs. Krick and Bourry that Arunachal Pradesh had its first encounter with Christianity, way back in mid-19th century.
Bishop George Pallipparambil of Miao Diocese, that covers the eastern part of Arunachal Pradesh, has taken keen interest to promote the cause of Canonization of these two martyrs. “Having read about these two missionaries from the few literatures available, we can say it with confidence that these two are holy men beyond doubt” says Bishop George.
In order to make these two holy men known and promote their cause of attaining Sainthood, the Diocese of Miao conducts various events on the day of their martyrdom. In the two centres dedicated to names of Frs. Krick and Bourry at Tezu in Lohit district and Injan in Changlang district, there were Quiz competitions and prayer service conducted to mark their martyrdom this year.
Around 20 schools participated in the Quiz Competitions at Krick and Bourry Memorial School, Tezu in Lohit district. The Krick and Bourry Memorial Hospital, the only Hospital run by the Diocese of Miao, at Injan in Changlang district organized a prayer service to remember the two martyrs. Dr. Sudip Bhattacharya, a senior doctor of the hospital expressed his happiness to have known about the two holy men through the prayer service, in which the nurses working in the hospital too prayed for its smooth running and for the canonization of the two martyrs.
With Pope Francis adding a new fourth way to possible Sainthood – people who lived a good Catholic life and who freely accepted a certain and premature death for the good of others, the Diocese of Miao is hopeful that it would soon have two Saints from Arunachal Pradesh. (Felix Anthony, Miao Diocese)
(Vatican Radio) The Vatican on Friday issued an urgent appeal to Venezuela’s leaders to suspend the new Constituent Assembly which, it says, is threatening the future of the South American nation.The strongly worded communique, issued by the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, says Pope Francis is following closely the situation in Venezuela, where President Nicolas Maduro is headed towards a showdown with the opposition, as he pushes ahead with the inauguration of his new Assembly.The statement comes as the body's 545 delegates were expected to be installed at the legislative palace in the capital, Caracas, close to the chamber where the opposition-controlled National Assembly meets.The new Constituent Assembly has been tasked with rewriting the country's constitution and holds powers that override all other government branches.Opposition leaders have denounced the erosion of democracy and vowed they will only be removed by force. Over a hundred people have alread...
(Vatican Radio) The Vatican on Friday issued an urgent appeal to Venezuela’s leaders to suspend the new Constituent Assembly which, it says, is threatening the future of the South American nation.
The strongly worded communique, issued by the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, says Pope Francis is following closely the situation in Venezuela, where President Nicolas Maduro is headed towards a showdown with the opposition, as he pushes ahead with the inauguration of his new Assembly.
The statement comes as the body's 545 delegates were expected to be installed at the legislative palace in the capital, Caracas, close to the chamber where the opposition-controlled National Assembly meets.
The new Constituent Assembly has been tasked with rewriting the country's constitution and holds powers that override all other government branches.
Opposition leaders have denounced the erosion of democracy and vowed they will only be removed by force. Over a hundred people have already been killed in over three months of violent anti-government protests.
The Vatican statement expresses “profound concern for the radicalisation and worsening of the crisis”, including the increase in deaths, injuries and arrests of protesters. It calls on all the country’s politicians, in particular, the government, to guarantee “full respect for human rights and basic freedoms, as well as for the existing Constitution”.
It says initiatives such as the new Constituent Assembly should be “avoided or suspended” since they “foment a climate of tension and conflict” which “mortgages the future” of the country, rather than fostering reconciliation and peace.
The statement calls for a negotiated solution, along the lines already indicated in a previous letter from the Secretary of State on December 1st 2016. These solutions must take into account “the serious suffering of the people”, due to a lack of security, as well as the shortages of food and medicine.
Finally the statement calls on all members of Venezuelan society, in particular the security forces, to avoid violence or an excessive use of force. It says the pope assures all Venezuelans of his prayers and invites people across the globe to pray intensely for the country at this moment of crisis.
Rome, Italy, Aug 4, 2017 / 03:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Just eleven miles east of Rome lies the site of excavations of another ancient city, one which thrived in the last few centuries before Christ, but, overshadowed by Rome, eventually died out – though not before having its own thriving Christian community.The city, Gabii, was first occupied by small groups of settlers in the early Iron Age (9th-8th century B.C.). It eventually grew into a full-fledged city with walls and large public buildings, peaking around the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C.Evidence shows that it then began to shrink, probably because of competition from Rome, but archeologists working on the site have recently uncovered the remains of a tower of a church, and believe the city to have been a center for Christianity, if an unusual one, in the early centuries of the Church.“We know that there was a thriving Christian community and that it had a bishop as early as the 5th century, which is kind of unusual f...
Rome, Italy, Aug 4, 2017 / 03:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Just eleven miles east of Rome lies the site of excavations of another ancient city, one which thrived in the last few centuries before Christ, but, overshadowed by Rome, eventually died out – though not before having its own thriving Christian community.
The city, Gabii, was first occupied by small groups of settlers in the early Iron Age (9th-8th century B.C.). It eventually grew into a full-fledged city with walls and large public buildings, peaking around the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C.
Evidence shows that it then began to shrink, probably because of competition from Rome, but archeologists working on the site have recently uncovered the remains of a tower of a church, and believe the city to have been a center for Christianity, if an unusual one, in the early centuries of the Church.
“We know that there was a thriving Christian community and that it had a bishop as early as the 5th century, which is kind of unusual for a community of this size,” said Nicola Terrenato, a professor for the University of Michigan and coordinator of the excavations.
“So it probably means that even if it was a small community it was considered very important because of the glory that Gabii had in the past,” he told CNA.
The Diocese of Gabii was suppressed in 1060, but it was made a titular see in the late 20th century. The Titular Bishop of Gabii is currently Sebastian Taltavull Anglada, who is auxiliary bishop of Barcelona.
Because Rome has been continuously inhabited, the city exists in layers upon layers of construction and reconstruction over the years. These many layers can make it hard to investigate and map the early growth of the city. Gabii, by contrast, died out sometime in the 9th or 10th century AD.
Because the two cities emerged around the same time, researching Gabii and what it looked like when first formed can shed light on the beginnings of the city of Rome as well.
“We chose Gabii for excavation for a variety of reasons. This is a site that had not been excavated previously, so you had a whole city that you can investigate. But even more importantly, this is a site that really illustrates well the birth and the decline of the ancient city,” Terrenato said.
One of the goals of the excavations, however, is to find out if Gabii had a bishop’s residence and a cathedral in the early part of the Middle Ages. Whether there was ever a cathedral is still an unsolved question, but the excavations did uncover a church dedicated to St. Primitivus, an early Christian martyr in Rome.
The bell tower of the church, converted into a watchtower later in the Middle Ages, is still visible at the site. Excavations have also revealed a large stone-block construction, which is an early example of the Roman monumental architecture.
“This is a stone that Gabii was famous for in antiquity,” Terrenato said. “A high quality volcanic tufa was quarried inside the city and initially outside the city and beautiful buildings could be built out of beautiful blocks.”
“It was even used in the Forum of Augustus in Rome and the city probably thrived on a trade of this kind of stone.”
Another conspicuous ruin remaining is that of an ancient temple, attributed to Juno. In the late 1700s an archaeologist uncovered a large cache of statues at Gabii, many of which are now in the Louvre after they were carried off from Rome by Napoleon.
Besides the nearly 40 statues and busts from Gabii at the Louvre, there is also an ancient altar called “Altar of the Twelve Gods” dating to the 1st century AD.
New excavations were launched in 2007 by the multi-institutional Gabii Project, led by Nicola Terrenato and the University of Michigan, which collaborates with Yale University, the University of Glasgow, Charlton University, and the University of Dallas.
Professors from these institutions bring both undergraduate and graduate students to the site to learn and work, Terrenato explained. On average there are around 70 people on-site each day.
One of these is Andrew Johnston, an assistant professor of classics and history at Yale, who first began working at the site while a graduate student and who now leads trench excavations.
“So in addition to the research questions that drive us here at the Gabii project, one of our priorities is to train the next generation of North American archaeologists,” he said.
“One of our goals is to train students in a wide range of methodologies and tools of modern archaeology,” he continued.
Not just working at the site, “but also in various labs supervised by specialists in ceramics, osteology, zooarchaeology, environmental archaeology, to teach students about all of the kinds of evidence and data that we are hoping to collect as we excavate – not just exposing the architecture like this, but looking for other kinds of evidence that can tell us about wide range of activities that were taking place at the city in antiquity.”
Vatican City, Aug 4, 2017 / 05:26 am (CNA/EWTN News).- As tensions and deaths continue to rise in Venezuela over the government's push to re-write their constitution, the Holy See has urged the country's leaders to hold off on the constitutional assembly, focusing instead on alleviating the nation's crippling humanitarian crisis. “The Holy See expresses again her profound concern for the radicalization and aggravation of the crisis in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, with the increase in the number of deaths, wounded and those who have been detained,” read an Aug. 4 Vatican communique.Pope Francis, both directly and through Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, “closely follows that situation and it's humanitarian, social, political, economic and even spiritual implications, and assures of his constant prayer for the country and for all Venezuelans,” while inviting faithful around the world “to pray intensely for this si...
Vatican City, Aug 4, 2017 / 05:26 am (CNA/EWTN News).- As tensions and deaths continue to rise in Venezuela over the government's push to re-write their constitution, the Holy See has urged the country's leaders to hold off on the constitutional assembly, focusing instead on alleviating the nation's crippling humanitarian crisis.
“The Holy See expresses again her profound concern for the radicalization and aggravation of the crisis in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, with the increase in the number of deaths, wounded and those who have been detained,” read an Aug. 4 Vatican communique.
Pope Francis, both directly and through Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, “closely follows that situation and it's humanitarian, social, political, economic and even spiritual implications, and assures of his constant prayer for the country and for all Venezuelans,” while inviting faithful around the world “to pray intensely for this situation.”
At the same time, the Holy See asked all political actors, and governments in particular, to ensure that “full respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms” are respected, “as well as the existing Constitution.”
The Holy See asked specifically that political and governmental agents “avoid or suspend ongoing initiatives such as the new constitutional assembly which, instead of fostering peace and reconciliation, foments a climate of tension and conflict and mortgages the future.”
It also asked them to create the conditions “for a negotiated solution” in line with the requirements Cardinal Parolin spelled out in his Dec. 1, 2016, letter to the Venezuelan government, asking that: provisions be made to alleviate the crisis in the supply of food and medicine; that parties agree on a timetable for elections allowing Venezuelans themselves to decide their future; that the country's National Assembly be reinstated as soon as possible and its role provided for in the Constitution; and that legal procedures accelerating the release of detainees be implemented.
In addition, the Holy See also asked the government to bear in mind “the serious suffering of the people due to the difficulty of obtaining food and medicine, and a lack of security.”
The statement closed by making a “firm appeal” to society as a whole “to overcome all forms of violence, inviting, in particular, security forces to abstain from the excessive and disproportionate use of force.”
The statement comes days after July 30 nation-wide elections, which approved a constitutional assembly to reform the country’s 1999 constitution. However, some reports and members of Venezuela’s opposition have disputed the fairness of the elections, which were boycotted by the opposition.
Although the government claims that more than 8 million voters attended, the Democratic Unity Table, an organization monitoring the election, reported that only 2.4 million votes, or 12 percent of eligible voters, were cast, of which a quarter would have voted “no”.
Furthermore, in the days leading up to and following the election, uprisings and protests swept throughout the country. Conflicts between protesters and the country’s Bolivarian National Guard have resulted in the death of at least 15 people, including two minors.
Reports also indicate that at least 300 people were arrested for protesting the government in the days surrounding the vote.
The constitutional revisions have been rejected by the Venezuelan bishops for being not only “unconstitutional, but also unnecessary, inconvenient and harmful for the Venezuelan people.”
In a July 27 message, the bishops said Maduro's initiative “has not been convened by the people, has unacceptable commissions, and only the partisans of the ruling party will be represented there.”
“It will be a biased and biased instrument that will not solve, but will aggravate the acute problems of high cost of living, the shortage of food and medicines that suffer the people, and deepen and worsen the deep political crisis we currently face.”
Two opposition leaders, Leopoldo López and Antonio Ledezma, have been re-arrested following the vote.
Frustration in Venezuela has been building for years due to poor economic policies, including strict price controls coupled with high inflation rates, which have resulted in a severe lack of basic necessities such as toilet paper, milk, flour, diapers, and medicines.
Venezuela's socialist government is widely blamed for the crisis. Since 2003, price controls on some 160 products, including cooking oil, soap and flour, have meant that while they are affordable, they fly off store shelves only to be resold on the black market at much higher rates.
On Aug. 1 Cardinal Parolin addressed the situation with local Italian media, saying he and Pope Francis are “very committed” to seeking a peaceful solution to the crisis in Venezuela. The Vatican has been “seeking to help all, indiscriminately, and calling each person to fulfill their own responsibility.”
“The criteria should be only the good of the people,” he said. “The dead are too many and I do not think there are other criteria to follow that is not in the common good of the people,” he insisted.
With that in mind, the cardinal said that “it is necessary to find a peaceful and democratic way to get out of this situation, and the only way is always the same: we must find, talk, but seriously, to find a way to solution.”
Washington D.C., Aug 4, 2017 / 06:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A new poll shows that seventeen percent of people in the U.S. now find polygamy to be morally permissible, citing an increase of acceptance among non-religious people as a major factor.“Though polygamous societies often justify their lifestyle on religious grounds, it is Americans who do not identify with any religion who are most accepting of the practice,” said Andrew Dugan, an analyst for Gallup.“Between 2011 and 2017, 32 percent of Americans who do not associate with a particular religion or have no religion at all said polygamy was 'morally acceptable,'” he said in a July 28 statement.In a Values and Beliefs poll issued May 3-7, Dugan commented that while public opinion hasn't shifted greatly on certain moral issues such as abortion, polygamy's approval rating has steadily increased 10 percent since 2003.Despite the practice of polygamy being often found in fundamentalist sects of ...
Washington D.C., Aug 4, 2017 / 06:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A new poll shows that seventeen percent of people in the U.S. now find polygamy to be morally permissible, citing an increase of acceptance among non-religious people as a major factor.
“Though polygamous societies often justify their lifestyle on religious grounds, it is Americans who do not identify with any religion who are most accepting of the practice,” said Andrew Dugan, an analyst for Gallup.
“Between 2011 and 2017, 32 percent of Americans who do not associate with a particular religion or have no religion at all said polygamy was 'morally acceptable,'” he said in a July 28 statement.
In a Values and Beliefs poll issued May 3-7, Dugan commented that while public opinion hasn't shifted greatly on certain moral issues such as abortion, polygamy's approval rating has steadily increased 10 percent since 2003.
Despite the practice of polygamy being often found in fundamentalist sects of religion, it grew most of its acceptance from non-religious people due to LGBT and pro-abortion advocacy gaining cultural traction.
Yet no legislation has yet been passed in polygamy's favor, with the state of Utah in fact passing a bill increasing the penalty for convicted polygamists.
Statistically those actually practicing polygamy are usually in small sects of the Muslim and Mormon faith, but Dugan suggested that the raising sympathy has been a byproduct of the media.
He pointed that the approval rating really only increased after a polygamy reality show started to air in 2010. Now in the middle of its seventh season, Dugan said the show “Sister Wives” has drawn sympathy from the public by humanizing a polygamist family.
Additionally, Dugan said the increase after 2010 followed a change in the meaning of the word, switching from patriarchal and masculine centered idea to a gender neutral definition – a married individual has more than one spouse.
He doubts the practice of polygamy has increased much, but expressed it is the results of “the general tendency for those who are less religious to be more liberal on social issues.”
