News
Apologies and processes: Synod groups end with varied offerings
Two of the 13 final small-group reports of the Synod of Bishops for the family contained apologies: one for ways in which a lack of pastoral care may have contributed to the breakdown of marriages and one for "harsh and merciless" attitudes toward unwed mothers and their children, the divorced and homosexuals.
Promises must be made in freedom, honored with sacrifice, says pope
The beauty of love and promises is that they are carried out in freedom, he said during his weekly general audience Oct. 21 in St. Peter's Square. "Without freedom there can be no friendship, without freedom there is no love, without freedom there is no marriage."
Vatican spokesman says claims pope has tumor ‘entirely unfounded’
After checking with the pope himself and other sources, Father Lombardi told reporters "the pope enjoys good health" and that the unsubstantiated news report was "a serious act of irresponsibility, absolutely unjustifiable and unspeakable."
Latino Catholics are church’s future, but also its present, says prof
The Hispanic Catholic presence in the United States predates the foundation of Jamestown, Virginia, by a century, a University of Notre Dame professor said at a discussion about Latino Catholicism at the Sheen Center for Thought & Culture.
To build new life in U.S., family has struggled but now ‘we are safe’
The future, however, is in the hands of an immigration court.
National Association of Evangelicals changes position on death penalty
The new resolution, which is the standing policy of the group, does not reverse its initial position but acknowledges that some evangelicals are opposed to capital punishment.
Shorter annulment process isn’t about shortcuts, cardinals say
The reforms to the annulment process introduced by Pope Francis serve only to avoid delays in cases where marriages are clearly not valid, two synod fathers said.
Haitian bishops urge citizens to vote, but warn of false promises
"In politics, there is no messiah," they warned in an Oct. 15 message. "Do not believe the electoralist promises of some."
Discourage mixed marriages, women accepting abuse, some say at synod
Observers told the Synod of Bishops on the family to discourage Christian women from marrying Muslim men, urge priests not to tell women to return to abusive husbands, share the truth of church teaching about marriage, and embrace single mothers who are alienated from the church.
God’s love is overabundant, limitless, pope says
God is neither petty nor still; he goes out in search of people out of love, Pope Francis said at early morning Mass in the chapel of his residence.