World News
Britain’s House of Commons close to passing same-sex marriage bill
MANCHESTER, England (CNS) -- Members of Britain's House of Commons voted, 400-175, to allow same-sex marriage, pushing a controversial piece of legislation closer to becoming law. The vote followed six hours of debate and represented the first time lawmakers were able to vote on the redefinition of marriage to include same-sex couples.
Zubin Mehta conducts concert of Verdi, Beethoven works for Pope Benedict
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The conductor Zubin Mehta performed with an Italian orchestra at the Vatican Feb. 4, in a concert honoring Pope Benedict XVI and Italian President Giorgio Napolitano. The concert, which marked the 84th anniversary of the Lateran Pacts recognizing the sovereignty of Vatican City State, was organized by the Italian embassy to the Holy See and held in the Vatican audience hall.
Ignore ‘prophets of doom’ predicting end of religious life, pope says
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI asked nuns, brothers and priests not to listen to the “prophets of doom” who say that consecrated life has no future or that it has no meaning in today’s world. “Do not join the prophets of doom who proclaim the end or the lack of meaning of consecrated […]
Pope calls for protection of life, greater investment in families
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI called for greater investment in families and protecting life. As the Italian Catholic Church marked Day for Life Feb. 3, the pope used his Sunday Angelus address to echo the Italian bishops’ call “to invest in life and the family, also as an effective response” to the current […]
Pro-life Vietnamese offer dignified burial for aborted fetuses
HANOI, Vietnam (CNS) -- In a 160-square-foot hut 10 miles north of Hanoi, Anna Nguyen Thi Nhiem takes aborted fetuses out of a refrigerator and wraps them in white cloth and plastic bags, all the while saying prayers. She places about 20 tiny bodies into urns and buries them in freshly dug graves in the cemetery at Ben Coc sub-parish. "Aborted fetuses are saints and worthy of being interred properly," said Nhiem, a mother of four.
Media blitz can help youths find Gospel in digital deluge, speaker says
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The best way the church can be heard and seen amid the deluge of the information age is to launch a media blitz of simple answers to life’s deepest questions, a young Catholic journalist told a Vatican news conference. “People always say it should be quality over quantity; perhaps this was […]
Why not women priests? The papal theologian explains
Some Catholics persist in asking why, as traditional distinctions between the sexes break down in many areas of society, the Catholic clergy must remain an exclusively male vocation, and what this suggests about the church's understanding of women's worth and dignity. Few are as well qualified to answer such questions as Dominican Father Wojciech Giertych.
The Pope’s tweets and retweets: Study analyzes @Pontifex traffic
ROME (CNS) — In his first month on Twitter, Pope Benedict XVI sent two dozen mini-messages in nine languages, generating more than 270,000 comments and responses from other Twitter users, according to a study conducted by an Italian Jesuit magazine and an Italian new-media consulting firm. While some of the comments were harsh and even […]
Catholic group turns parade into procession after deadly Rio nightclub fire
SAO PAULO (CNS) -- A Catholic samba group in Rio de Janeiro changed its parade plans after the nightclub fire that killed more than 230 people, most of them students from the local university in Santa Maria.
Lack of faith can hurt marriage, may affect validity, pope says
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — A lack of faith in God can damage marriage, even to the point of affecting its validity, Pope Benedict XVI said. “Faith in God, sustained by divine grace, is therefore a very important element for living in mutual dedication and conjugal fidelity,” he said. The pope said he was not suggesting […]