World News
With faith and sustainable agriculture, nuns feed Salvadoran orphans
SANTA TECLA, El Salvador (CNS) -- Dressed in her brown habit, Sister Elsy Gaytan walks through a field among rows of cabbages, pointing to the crisp green crop sprouting from the earth. "The motto of our institution is God will provide, and indeed He is providing," she said.
Properly used, social networks important for evangelization, pope says
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Social media need to promote more logic, kindness and Christian witness than bluster, star-status and division, Pope Benedict XVI said. Given that the online world exposes people to a wider range of opinions and beliefs, people need to accept the existence of these other cultures, “be enriched by it” and offer […]
Pope Benedict has new App-titude, lets users follow live events
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican launched a new "Pope App" on the eve of the release of the pope's World Communications Day message, which is dedicated to social networks as important spaces for evangelization. The new app provides live streaming of papal events and video feeds from the Vatican's six webcams. It sends out alerts and links to top stories coming out of the Vatican's many news outlets, and carries words and images of Pope Benedict XVI.
Pope says Christian divisions ‘disfigure’ the church
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The divisions among Christians have “disfigured” the church, Pope Benedict XVI said. “The church is the bride of Christ, who makes her holy and beautiful by his grace,” the pope said Jan. 20 before praying the Angelus with visitors gathered in the rain in St. Peter’s Square. Even though the church […]
Pope: ‘No’ to gender philosophy, ‘yes’ to supporting human dignity
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The church must promote the beauty of marriage between a man and a woman and warn against ideologies opposed to human nature, including philosophies of gender that portray male and female as cultural inventions, Pope Benedict XVI said. The pope made his remarks during a Jan. 19 audience with workers and […]
After rally, Irish officials reconsider suicide threat as reason for abortion
DUBLIN (CNS) -- In the wake of the largest pro-life demonstration ever to have taken place in Ireland, cracks have begun to emerge in the coalition government over its plans to legislate for abortion. More than 25,000 people converged on Dublin Jan. 19, braving bitterly cold weather, to attend the "Unite for Life" vigil near the Irish parliament.
Meeting between pope, Vietnam’s Communist Party head boosts relations
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Diplomatic relations between the Vatican and Vietnam were strengthened further when Pope Benedict XVI met Nguyen Phu Trong, marking the first time a pope had met with the general secretary of the nation's Communist Party.
Everyone, even atheists, has human desire to know who God is, pope says
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The desire to see and know God is innate in everyone, even nonbelievers, Pope Benedict XVI said. But it’s especially important that people don’t just seek God when they need him but make room for him throughout their busy lives, he said during his weekly general audience in the Vatican’s Paul […]
Canada slashed funds to Catholic agency despite bureaucratic support
TORONTO (CNS) — Government staffers described the bishops’ Development and Peace agency as “Canada’s most experienced development organization supported exclusively by Canadians” — then slashed its funding. Internal emails, briefing notes and memoranda obtained by The Catholic Register, a national weekly, reveal that a government decision to cut funding to the Canadian Catholic Organization for […]
Bishop in Mali says people in hiding, afraid to enter churches
OXFORD, England (CNS) — A Catholic bishop in war-torn Mali whose diocese lies in the path of Islamic insurgents said “people are hiding in their homes, unable to venture out.” Bishop Augustin Traore of Segou, Mali, told Catholic News Service by telephone: “Although our churches are still intact, people are becoming afraid to enter them. […]