News
Visitation Parish offers Alpha faith enrichment course in Norristown
Visitation B.V.M. Parish in Norristown is hosting the Alpha Course on Thursday evenings in the Visitation B.V.M. School Library, 196 North Trooper Road (use the entrance closest to corner of Chestnut St. and N. Trooper Rd). An information evening will be held Sept. 12 at 7:30 p.m., and light snacks will be served. The course […]
Pope hears officials’ input on reforming Vatican bureaucracy
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis met with Vatican officials Sept. 10 to hear their questions and suggestions about his ongoing reform of the Vatican bureaucracy. The Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, said the meeting lasted nearly three hours and, except for a brief greeting by the pope, was devoted to remarks by the […]
Congolese bishop says he hopes international pressure helps his country
NAIROBI, Kenya (CNS) -- A bishop from eastern Congo said people in the area continue to suffer from an ongoing government-rebel conflict, and he hoped pressure from the international community would help relieve the situation. Bishop Willy Ngumbi Ngengele of Kindu, Congo, told Catholic News Service in Nairobi that people in and around North Kivu and Goma were the worst hit.
Human rights, religious freedom called necessary to lasting peace
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Retired Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington, back from a recent trip to Jordan, said four essential elements to any long-range peace deal in the Middle East are human rights, religious freedom, an agreement on the Holy Land and forging a "path to peace." "The whole question of peace, the whole question of religious liberty, is so important," Cardinal McCarrick said Sept. 9 at a conference, "Religious Freedom & Human Rights: Path to Peace in the Holy Land -- That All May Be Free," at The Catholic University of America.
Christians, Muslims join Pope Francis in praying for peace in Syria
JERUSALEM (CNS) -- At the Church of All Nations at the Garden of Gethsemane, the stone that traditionally has represented Jesus' agony was scattered with notes in different languages -- all asking for peace in Syria. Christian leaders of the Holy Land gathered there Sept. 7, as Christians and Muslims all over the world prayed with Pope Francis for Syria.
Deacon Leo Gladnick, servant of two parishes, dies at 85
[caption id="attachment_26422" align="alignright" width="150"] Deacon Leo Thomas Gladnick, 85, a permanent deacon assigned to Nativity of Our Lord Parish, Warminster, and formerly Ascension of Our Lord Parish, Philadelphia, died Sept. 4. He was ordained May 25, 1986 at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul by Cardinal John Krol.
Students of Wallingford Catholic school thrill to gift of iPads
Smiles were everywhere — along with some cheers — when the students of Mother of Providence Regional Catholic School in Wallingford learned they were each getting an iPad computer this year. Students were told about the program during opening week activity when Father Edward Hallinan, the pastor of St. John Chrysostom Parish, blessed the iPads […]
Vatican’s new top diplomat ready to ramp up network for peace
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A veteran diplomat, the Vatican's new secretary of state, plans to put the church's vast global diplomatic network into high gear as champions for peace. Archbishop Pietro Parolin said Pope Francis has already injected a new impetus into the Vatican's Secretariat of State structure and given a new push for church-led diplomacy.
Vatican’s U.N. nuncio calls military strikes on Syria ‘unjustified’
NEW YORK (CNS) -- Military strikes on Syria are unjustified and will create a far larger humanitarian disaster for people already suffering from hunger, displacement and critical lack of medical care, said the Vatican nuncio to the United Nations. Archbishop Francis A. Chullikatt urged, instead, that world leaders work toward a "cessation of violence, not an escalation of violence" in Syria during a Mass Sept. 7 at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York.
Three Chester County parishes set to offer Alpha Course for evangelization
The primary goal of the Year of Faith was to inspire Catholics to renew their relationship with Christ and His Church. One example of a successful evangelization effort in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia is the Alpha Course. Three parishes in Chester County are offering the 10-week course one night a week starting this month.