ROME (CNS) — The Vatican’s recently published guidance on administering blessings to same-sex couples or other unmarried couples does not affect the Catholic Church’s teaching on marriage, Pope Francis said. Meeting for nearly two hours with a group of about 30 priests on the southern outskirts of Rome Dec. 21, the pope fielded questions and…
Reading 1 1 Sm 1:24-28 In those days,Hannah brought Samuel with her,along with a three-year-old bull,an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine,and presented him at the temple of the LORD in Shiloh. After the boy’s father had sacrificed the young bull,Hannah, his mother, approached Eli and said:“Pardon, my lord!As you live, my lord,I…
Reading 1 Sg 2:8-14 Hark! my lover–here he comesspringing across the mountains,leaping across the hills.My lover is like a gazelleor a young stag.Here he stands behind our wall,gazing through the windows,peering through the lattices.My lover speaks; he says to me,“Arise, my beloved, my dove, my beautiful one,and come!“For see, the winter is past,the rains are…
WASHINGTON – The document released this week by the Vatican on the pastoral meaning of blessings insists that marriage is a union of one man and one woman in lifelong fidelity and openness to children, said Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester. Following the publication of Fiducia supplicans by the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of…
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Officials of the Roman Curia must learn how to really listen to others, not treating a discussion as a game of “ping pong” where everything another says is met with a speedy and automatic response, Pope Francis said. “Sometimes, even when speaking among ourselves, we risk being like hungry wolves: we…
Reading 1 Is 7:10-14 The LORD spoke to Ahaz:Ask for a sign from the LORD, your God;let it be deep as the nether world, or high as the sky!But Ahaz answered,“I will not ask! I will not tempt the LORD!” Then Isaiah said:Listen, O house of David! Is it not enough for you to weary…