VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis called on the international community to ban surrogate pregnancy, calling it “deplorable” and a “grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child, based on the exploitation of situations of the mother’s material needs.” The path to peace requires respecting every human life, “starting with the life…
Reading I Is 60:1-6 Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem! Your light has come, the glory of the Lord shines upon you. See, darkness covers the earth, and thick clouds cover the peoples; but upon you the LORD shines, and over you appears his glory. Nations shall walk by your light, and kings by your shining radiance.…
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — In the Sistine Chapel, where popes are elected, Pope Francis baptized 16 infants, who, he said, “give us the witness of how to receive the faith: with innocence and with an open heart.” Celebrating the feast of the Baptism of the Lord Jan. 7, the pope baptized seven girls and nine…
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Instead of splitting into ideological groups, members of the Catholic Church need to put God front and center, not their own personal ideas and plans, Pope Francis said. “We need to let go of ecclesiastical ideologies in order to find the meaning of the Holy Mother Church” and to support its…
Readings for the Memorial of Saint John Neumann, bishop [In the Dioceses of the United States] Reading 1 1 Jn 3:11-21 Beloved:This is the message you have heard from the beginning:we should love one another,unlike Cain who belonged to the Evil Oneand slaughtered his brother. Why did he slaughter him? Because his own works were…
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Help “de-weaponize” the way language is used in the media by being respectful to others and fostering greater understanding and peace between people, Pope Francis told a group of Catholics journalists from Germany. “How many conflicts today, instead of being extinguished by dialogue, are fueled by fake news or inflammatory statements…