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Browsing News Entries

Browsing News Entries

Vatican announces conference on marriage formation (Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life)

The Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life announced that it is hosting a study day on April 28 devoted to “The Sacrament of Marriage, Faith and the Munus Docendi” (Office of Teaching).

“This initiative stems from the realization that the relationship between marriage, faith and the Church’s mission is now a pastoral and educational issue of particular importance,” the dicastery said. “In a time marked by profound cultural changes, the event aims to provide an opportunity to reflect on how to accompany young people, engaged couples, and married couples, and, at the same time, on how to train ministers and pastoral workers capable of supporting this journey with greater awareness and competence.”

Speakers include Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the dicastery’s prefect; Father Andrea Bozzolo, S.D.B., rector of the Pontifical Salesian University; and Father Fabio Rosini, a professor at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross.

Latin Patriarchate condemns Israeli settlers' encroachments on Church land in the West Bank (Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem)

The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem condemned Israeli settlers’ encroachments on its land in the area of Tayasir, a West Bank village.

After a meeting with Israeli officials, the Latin Patriarchate, led by Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, O.F.M., announced it had filed a complaint about “the attacks against local residents and Patriarchate lands in several locations. Following this complaint, the authorities began the necessary actions, including pursuing those responsible and seizing heavy machinery used for land destruction and damage at the site.”

“Protecting Church endowment properties is a red line,” the Patriarchate said. “It will continue to take all legal and administrative steps needed to protect their sanctity, preserve their Church identity, defend their lawful rights, and continue supporting the local people.”

The Pope has called us to personal responsibility, leading Equatorial Guinea prelate says (Vatican News)

Reflecting on Pope Leo’s recent apostolic journey to Equatorial Guinea, the president of the nation’s episcopal conference said that he was most struck by the Pope’s call to personal responsibility.

“The Holy Father has called both the Church and Christians engaged in social life to work for the coming of the Kingdom,” Bishop Juan Domingo-Beka Esono Ayang, C.M.F., of Mongomo said in an interview with the Vatican News podcast Nota Ecclesial. “The future is not something to be awaited passively; it calls for the commitment of each and every one of us.”

Press conference announced for presentation of Holy See's Biennale art exhibit (Vatican Press Office)

The Holy See Press Office announced an April 27 press conference for the presentation of “The Ear is the Eye of the Soul,” the Holy See’s pavilion at this year’s Venice Biennale,

The Biennale, a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place every two years, will begin on May 9 and conclude on November 22. The Dicastery for Culture and Education previously announced that the Holy See’s exhibit will feature works of art inspired by St. Hildegard of Bingen.

Church in Vietnam faces challenges from AI, mass media, bishop says after papal audience (Vatican News)

A Vietnamese bishop told Vatican News that Vietnamese Catholics “are appreciated for our strong faith, but also we face all the challenges like everyone else, in particular now with AI and with mass media.”

Auxiliary Bishop Dominic Nguyễn Tuan Anh of Xuân Lộc made his remarks after an April 24 papal audience with Vietnam’s bishops, who were in Rome for their ad limina visit.

“The Vietnamese Church is a family, and in our culture, family is very strong,” the prelate said. “The Church has also been blessed by God’s grace and by the blood of our martyrs ... So we need to unite; we need to unify, and with God’s grace, we can face this challenge in the way of faith, in the way of hope.”

Located in Southeast Asia, Vietnam is a Communist nation of 106.7 million (map) that is 48% Buddhist and 10% Christian, with 12% adhering to ethnic religions.

Pope Leo: 'The Church teaches that the death penalty is inadmissible' (CWN)

Citing Pope Francis’s 2018 revision of a paragraph of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Pope Leo XIV said that “the Church teaches that ‘the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.’“

When Teaching the Faith Becomes a Crime in Iceland

commentary

Pope offers advice to Christians engaged in politics (CWN)

Pope Leo XIV received leading members of the European People’s Party today and offered advice to Christians engaged in politics: first and foremost, “rediscovering and embracing the Christian heritage from which you come, while still maintaining the necessary distinction between prophetic religious witness—reserved to the ecclesial community—and Christian witness expressed through concrete political choices.”

Apr. 25 Feast of St. Mark, Evangelist; <em>Major Rogation Day</em>, Feast

Today is the Feast of St. Mark, the Evangelist, the author of the second Gospel, was the son of Mary whose house at Jerusalem was the meeting place of Christians, where St. Peter sough refuge after having been freed from prison. He was baptized and instructed by St. Peter. He accompanied St. Paul and his own cousin St. Barnabas in the evangelization of Cyprus before he became the companion and secretary of St. Peter in Rome about the year 42 A.D.. He wrote his Gospel about the year 50 A.D. His Gospel is a record of St. Peter's preaching about Our Lord and pays special attention to the head of the Apostles, and emphasizes the miraculous powers of the Savior. The Gospel was written for Roman Gentile converts. It rarely quotes the Old Testament, and is careful to explain Jewish customs, rites and words. It excels in portraying the emotions and affections of both Christ and His hearers. St. Mark preached in Egypt, especially in Alexandria and was martyred there by the heathen.