VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The nearly 400-year-old sculpted canopy towering over the main altar of St. Peter’s Basilica will be surrounded by scaffolding for most of 2024 as it is washed, repaired and restored. Standing nearly 100 feet tall, the baldachin, designed by Baroque master Gian Lorenzo Bernini, has stood over the tomb of St.…
Reading I 1 Sm 4:1-11 The Philistines gathered for an attack on Israel. Israel went out to engage them in battle and camped at Ebenezer, while the Philistines camped at Aphek. The Philistines then drew up in battle formation against Israel. After a fierce struggle Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who slew about four…
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — A major leap forward in Christian unity began with an embrace, as Pope Francis recalled. St. Paul VI and Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I of Constantinople met, and embraced, in Jerusalem in January 1964 and the following year they lifted the mutual excommunications their churches had issued in 1054. St. Paul…
WASHINGTON – In observance of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Most Reverend Timothy P. Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has issued a statement: On Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day we pause and reflect on Rev. King’s indelible legacy, and…
Reading I 1 Sm 3:1-10, 19-20 During the time young Samuel was minister to the LORD under Eli, a revelation of the LORD was uncommon and vision infrequent. One day Eli was asleep in his usual place. His eyes had lately grown so weak that he could not see. The lamp of God was not…
“Pope Francis strongly condemned the practice of surrogacy calling it ‘a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child.’ He emphasized that a child is a gift and as such can ‘never (be) the basis of a commercial contract.’ Surrogacy represents the commodification and instrumentalization of a woman’s body, treating her as…