WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Some Catholic schools across the country treated the National School Walkout April 20 -- commemorating the 19th anniversary of the school shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado -- much like how they responded to the March 14 walkout marking one month since the Parkland, Florida, school shooting: with prayer and dialogue on school grounds.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- In the halls of Congress, they stood side by side, a prominent archbishop from the U.S. with a delegation of four high-ranking Salvadoran prelates in tow, including the first cardinal in the country's history.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican Gardens has branched out and added a small orchard to its hillsides, becoming a safe haven for a number of endangered native Italian fruit and nut tree species. If all goes well with weather and pollination, the eight new saplings planted behind St. Peter's Basilica should be bearing fruit in just a few years. Hopes are for a harvest including pomegranates that can weigh as much as three pounds each and a natural hybrid fruit called the "susincocco," which could be translated as a "plumpricot" -- a dark red fruit that has the juiciness of a plum with the tastiness and velvety feel of an apricot.
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Washington D.C., Apr 19, 2018 CNA/EWTN News.- After surviving six years of imprisonment and torture, Vietnamese pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh told CNA that prayer sustained him through his physical suffering and pain.
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Philadelphia, Pa., Apr 19, 2018 CNA/EWTN News.- In a time of cultural confusion and challenge, youth need clarity and guidance from the Church – and failure to give it could be disastrous, says a young father who wrote to Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia.
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LOWELL -- Taking the last major step in a long journey towards priesthood, 14 men were ordained transitional deacons in the presence of family, friends, fellow seminarians, clergy, and religious during a standing-room-only Mass April 14 in Immaculate Conception Church in Lowell.
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[This is the second in a series of articles profiling each of the seven men who will be ordained to the priesthood by Cardinal Seán P. O'Malley at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Mission Church) on May 19.]
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BOSTON -- Every school day, more than 4,000 students in 82 of the Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Boston don their uniforms, clutch their backpacks and get to do something extraordinary: learn. Each of their stories is different, but all of these students receive partial scholarships from the Inner City Scholarship Fund (ICSF), a scholarship program overseen by the Catholic Schools Foundation.
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LYNN -- Sacred Heart School in Lynn, a parochial primary school, announced plans April 9 to roll out a bilingual education model that administrators hope will see all graduating students fluent in both English and Spanish.
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BRAINTREE -- A new collaborative initiative between the Archdiocese of Boston's Catholic Schools Office and the Catholic Schools Foundation (CSF) is providing local Catholic educators with the training and opportunity to grow into school leaders.
Read moreCAMBRIDGE -- Father William Kelly, Pastor of St. Paul's Parish in Harvard Square, announced April 17 that Thomas Haferd, PhD has been appointed as the Head of School at St. Paul's Choir School, effective June 11.
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Gaudete et Exsultate This week, the Holy Father issued a beautiful new apostolic exhortation,, Gaudete et Exsultate ("Rejoice and be Glad"). It was actually signed on the Feast of St. Joseph, but it was published on Monday, April 9.
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HOUSTON (CNS) -- Former first lady Barbara Bush "was a model public servant and set a standard for her unwavering and loving devotion to both family and community," said Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston Houston in offering his prayers and "heartfelt condolences" to the Bush family.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Tributes from business leaders and politicians alike described Jennifer Riordan -- the 43-year-old passenger who died April 17 from injuries suffered on Southwest Flight 1380 when its engine exploded -- as a devoted mother, community leader, mentor and volunteer.
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OTTAWA, Ontario (CNS) -- A conservative member of Parliament blocked a motion calling on the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops to invite Pope Francis to apologize for the Catholic Church's role in abuse at Indian residential schools.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis has asked the president of the German bishops' conference to come to Rome to discuss pastoral guidelines for possibly allowing some non-Catholics married to Catholics to receive the Eucharist, the conference spokesman said.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Christians must be willing to move where the Spirit leads them and not be benchwarmers on the sidelines of efforts to evangelize, Pope Francis said. Evangelization "isn't a well-thought-out plan of proselytism" but rather an occasion in which the Holy Spirit "tells you how you should go to bring the word of God, to carry Jesus' name," the pope said in his homily April 19 during morning Mass at the Domus Sanctae Marthae.
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Vatican City, Apr 18, 2018 CNA/EWTN News.- The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has reportedly rejected a plan approved by the German bishops' conference to publish guidelines permitting non-Catholic spouses of Catholics to receive the Eucharist in some limited circumstances.
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SIOUX CITY, Iowa (CNS) -- Statistics gathered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services indicate 11.5 million people misused prescription opioids in 2016. Some of those people serve the church.
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DUBLIN (CNS) -- Pro-life activists have launched a campaign urging citizens to vote no in a forthcoming referendum to remove the Eighth Amendment to the Irish Constitution. That amendment provides legal protection for unborn children "with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother."
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Sometimes the best opportunities result from a mix of asking and having things fall into your lap. So it was for William Friedkin, who directed "The Exorcist" 45 years ago and thought he was through with the subgenre he helped create. Then came his documentary on exorcism, "The Devil and Father Amorth."
Read moreHONG KONG (CNS) -- Catholics in China's Henan province have been warned that venues will be closed if they do not adhere to the revised regulations on religious affairs. Ucanews.com reported that a clampdown on religious freedom has intensified in the province in recent months, with crosses removed from churches, minors banned from entering churches, church-run kindergartens closed and children expelled from Mass.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- When Pope Francis insisted that the lives of the unborn and of the poor are "equally sacred," he was not trying to shift the focus of Catholics from fighting abortion to fighting poverty, he was trying to show they are part of the same battle, said Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Begging Pope Francis to help his son, Alfie, Tom Evans met with the pontiff, pleading for "asylum" in Italy so his seriously ill son may receive care and not be euthanized in England.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Naming a child is an important task for parents, because it gives children a sense of identity and belonging to their family and to God, Pope Francis said. "Without a name, we remain unknown, without rights and duties. God calls each one of us by name, loving us individually in the concreteness of our history," the pope said April 18 during his weekly general audience.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Despite abortion having been part of the national debate for nearly a half-century, it remains a complex and complicated issue to a significant majority of Americans, according to a survey released April 17.
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The Catholic Church in Iceland is speaking out against a popular proposed law that could land Jewish and Muslim parents in prison for up to six years for circumcising their infant boys. "If this bill goes through, it would mean regular persecution of Jewish people," Father Jakob Rolland, chancellor of the Diocese of Reykjavik, told Catholic News Service. "That brings us back to 1933, when Hitler took power in Germany. And we know how it ended."
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PAISLEY, Scotland (CNS) -- A Scottish bishop has criticized the BBC for making a film that describes the Eucharist as smelling "like hate." The video, produced by BBC Scotland, a publicly funded "public service broadcaster," seeks to show how people who experience same-sex attraction continue to be made to feel outcast and ostracized in 2018.
Read moreVATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Meeting with a top Muslim leader in Saudi Arabia, the Vatican's chief interreligious dialogue official called for the equal treatment of people of all religions, saying discrimination and double standards based on religious affiliation only increase Islamophobia and Christianophobia.
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Portland, Maine, Apr 15, 2018 CNA/EWTN News.- The word ‘hermit’ might conjure up some strange images, a la John the Baptist living reclusively in the desert, wearing a hair shirt and eating locusts and honey.
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Liverpool, England, Apr 14, 2018 CNA/EWTN News.- Amid a tense battle over medical care for gravely ill toddler Alfie Evans, hundreds of protestors crowded outside Alder Hey Children's Hospital this week in support of the child and his parents.
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Buenos Aires, Argentina, Apr 12, 2018 CNA.- Before discovering their vocations, Fr. Javier Olivera and Sister Marie de la Sagesse were engaged and planning their wedding. God had other plans. Speaking to ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish language sister agency, Fr. Olivera said that they both grew up in Catholic families and that “our parents knew each other when they were young.” They saw each other frequently when they were children.
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ST. ANTHONY, Minn. (CNS) -- Even before Katherine and Jeff Dobbs were married, they had a name picked out for a future son: Fulton Francis. Fulton, for Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, known for his mid-20th century broadcast evangelism, and Francis, for Pope Francis, whom the couple met at a general audience during their honeymoon in 2017.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Retired Pope Benedict XVI had a "peaceful and familial" 91st birthday April 16, celebrating with his 94-year-old brother, Msgr. Georg Ratzinger, who was visiting from Germany, the Vatican said.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis met with members of the preparatory council for the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon region, which will take place in Rome in October 2019. Meeting in Rome April 12-13, the presynod council worked with Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, secretary-general of the Synod of Bishops, to finalize the preparatory document and related questionnaire for the special assembly next year.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Highlighting the plight of a seriously ill toddler in Great Britain and a severely brain-damaged man in France, Pope Francis called for greater respect for every patient's life and dignity.
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SANTIAGO, Chile (CNS) -- Victims of clergy sexual abuse welcomed Pope Francis' letter in which he apologized for underestimating the seriousness of the crisis in Chile. James Hamilton, Jose Andres Murillo and Juan Carlos Cruz, victims of Father Fernando Karadima, released a statement April 11 saying they appreciated the pope's letter and were "evaluating the possibilities" for meeting with the pope.
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ROME (CNS) -- After circling a massive, crumbling public housing complex on the outskirts of Rome, Pope Francis had an emotional encounter with the neighborhood's children. Question-and-answer sessions with youngsters are a standard part of Pope Francis' parish visits. And, at St. Paul of the Cross parish April 15, there were the usual questions like, "How did you feel when you were elected pope?"
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