News
Pope launches Twitter account, tweets to more than 1 million followers
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI launched his very own Twitter account, sending a short inaugural message to his more than 1 million followers. "Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter. Thank you for your generous response. I bless all of you from my heart," it said. His tweet -- 139 characters -- went viral as the number of followers of @Pontifex and its seven other extensions grew by more than 5,000 new people an hour, a Vatican official said.
Live Nativity play in Warrington
Students from St. Joseph/St. Robert School, Warrington, and members of the parish youth group of St. Joseph Parish and St. Robert Bellarmine Parish will form the cast and crew of a live Nativity play Thursday, Dec. 13 at 7 p.m. outside the main entrance of the school. The show will be performed with live lambs, […]
Christmas concert at St. Charles Seminary draws capacity crowd
The 25th annual Christmas concert at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary was so successful that seminarians had to hustle to find folding chairs to accommodate an enthusiastic capacity audience. More than 600 people filled the seminary’s St. Martin’s Chapel Sunday night, Dec. 9, and were treated to an hour and a half of selections of sacred music and two traditional Christmas carols by the 25-voice seminarian choir.
Supreme sacrifice of Phila. priest chaplains recalled at Seminary
Call it a premonition or maybe just a fitting epitaph. “Courage is fear that has said its prayers and there is no greater prayer than squaring souls away for God.” That was written in the last letter to his family by Father Anthony Conway, chaplain in the U.S. Marines and a priest of Philadelphia, ordained May 22, 1937, and who died on a Guam beach July 23, 1944.
If charitable deductions are in peril, will contributions be, too?
This December, as Congress and the White House scramble to find new sources of revenue to go with budget cuts to achieve deficit reductions and avert a so-called "fiscal cliff," one tempting source for creating revenue is a ceiling on tax deductions. Father Larry Snyder, president of Catholic Charities USA, predicted that if tax deductions are capped, "there will be a definite decrease in the philanthropy that charities will see."
Supreme Court to hear cases on same-sex marriage
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The Supreme Court will take up in the spring two cases over the constitutionality of same-sex marriage. In orders issued Dec. 7, the court agreed to hear a case over California's Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage, and one out of New York over the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which defines a marriage as being between one man and one woman.
Berlin Archdiocese to restructure for administrative, spiritual reasons
OXFORD, England (CNS) -- Germany's Berlin Archdiocese has announced plans to merge its parishes into larger "pastoral areas" and pool its institutional resources in the face of falling church membership. The reorganization is the latest of several by German dioceses and follows plans by the Vienna Archdiocese in neighboring Austria to cut its parishes from 660 to 150 in the face of dwindling clergy and laity.
French bishops say vote to allow embryo research ‘shocking’
PARIS (CNS) — The French bishops described as “shocking” the French Senate’s approval of a law permitting the use of human embryos for stem-cell research. “The human embryo has the right to be protected,” and current French law urges “respect for the human person ‘from the beginning of its life,'” said Archbishop Pierre D’Ornellas of […]
Catholic beliefs are not open to popular vote, pope says
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — When the Catholic Church affirms the importance of how all the faithful understand matters of faith and morals, it is not saying Catholic beliefs are open to a popular vote, Pope Benedict XVI said. An authentic “sensus fidei,” which literally means “sense of faith,” can come only when Catholics actively participate […]
Salvation must be proclaimed, faith explained, papal preacher says
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Catholic Church has great resources and experience in helping the baptized learn about and live their faith, but it also can learn something from other Christians about the initial step of bringing people to faith in Jesus, said the preacher of the papal household. “Our situation is becoming more and […]