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 Pope says Holy Spirit brings newness, harmony and mission
20 May, 2013 - St. Peter’s Square in Rome was awash with some 200,000 pilgrims on Sunday, as Pope Francis celebrated the feast of the Pentecost, commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Virgin Mary and the Apostles, an event regarded as the birth of the Church. Celebrating a solemn Mass with members of Catholic movements and associations from around the world, the Pope told them to be open to “God’s surprises” because they bring true happiness. “The newness which God brings into our life is something that actually brings fulfillment, that gives true joy, true serenity, because God loves us and desires only our good,” he stated. Sunday’s Pentecost Mass wrapped up two days of celebrations by the Church movements and associations in the current year of Year of Faith, whic ...»
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 Pope says miracles occur even today, but one needs to “wrestle with God”
20 May, 2013 - Miracles occur even today, but in order to obtain them they require a ‘strong prayer’ that ‘wrestles with God’ and does not end with a one-time ‘courtesy’ supplication. The Pope said this at Mass, Monday morning, at the Casa Santa Marta residence in the Vatican, which was attended by a group of employees from Vatican Radio. The Pope was reflecting on the day’s Gospel episode o ...»
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Pope joins rally of Church movements and associations
20 May, 2013 - Pope Francis joined some 200,000 members of Catholic movements and associations from around the world at a prayer vigil Saturday evening in Rome’s St. Peter’s Square, sharing with them some of his personal experiences. The rally included music, speeches and testimonies aimed at encouraging Catholics to genuine practice of faith. In unscripted comments in answers to questions b ...»
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Pope visiting Mother Teresa shelter in Vatican City
20 May, 2013 - Pope Francis is paying a private visit on Tuesday to the homeless shelter run by the Missionaries of Charity of Blessed Mother Teresa of Kolkata in Vatican City. During the evening visit to the shelter called “Dono di Maria”, the Italian for ‘Gift of Mary’, the Pope will meet the nuns along with the homeless and the volunteers. A stone’s throw from the southern colonnade of St ...»
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Pope receives German Chancellor Angela Merkel
Vatican City, 18 May 2013: Pope Francis received Angela Merkel, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany on Saturday in the Vatican Apostolic palace. The German Chacellor later met with the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States, Archbishop Dominique Mamberti.
During the cordial conversations, the long history of relations between the Holy See and
Germany was recalled and topics o ...»
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 Pope urges imitation of Mary in his tweet
Vatican City, 18 May 2013: Pope Francis urged the faithful to imitate Mary in her discipleship of Christ, in a tweet published on Saturday morning.
“We must learn from Mary, and we must imitate her unconditional readiness to receive Christ in her life’, wrote the Pontiff.
The Pope has more than six million followers on Twitter, among whom 2.5 million are English-speaking. The Pope’s Twitte ...»
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| Human Rights & Environment |
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Rights group criticizes Sri Lanka's rights record
20 May, 2013 - An international human rights group says respect for basic rights and liberties has declined in Sri Lanka in the four years since the government defeated separatist Tamil rebels to end a civil war. Human Rights Watch said the Sri Lankan government has yet to follow through on its assurances to the United Nations to investigate allegations of war crimes by all sides. The group' ...»
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Pakistan: Gunmen attack polio team, kill policeman
20 May, 2013 - Officials say gunmen have killed a policeman who was guarding a polio vaccination team in northwestern Pakistan. Local government administrator Faramosh Khan says the gunmen attacked the team on Monday in the town of Mamound in the Bajur tribal area, just as it had started a vaccination drive. No one has claimed responsibility for the shooting, but suspicion will likely fall o ...»
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 Islamist judges and blasphemy charges, new weapons against Christians
Cairo, 18 May 2013: Judges affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafist imams are jeopardising the safety and survival of Egypt's Coptic Christians, sources, anonymous for security reasons, told AsiaNews. Backed by controversial Attorney General Talaat Abdhallah, more and more judges are in fact accepting allegations of blasphemy and insults to religion.
"The presence of radical imams i ...»
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Trafficking gang 'smuggled Bangladeshis into Brazil'
17 May, 2013 - Brazilian police say they have identified a gang specialising in trafficking Bangladeshi nationals into the country. According to BBC. About 80 workers have been lured by their own countrymen with promises of earning up to $1,500 a month. But they ended up as slave labour in order to pay their smugglers nearly $10,000, police say. South America's biggest economy has recently seen ...»
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 ‘Outraged’ by rising death toll in Syria, UN demands halt to all violence
May 16, 2013: Expressing grave concern at the continuing escalation of violence in Syria, the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, adopted a resolution reiterating its call for rapid progress on a political transition, “which represents the best opportunity to resolve the situation […] peacefully.”
Adopted by a vote of 107 in favour to 12 against, with 59 abstentions, the Assembly tex ...»
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The Vatican Radio started its English broadcast for South Asia in 1958, with a weekly 10-minute news transmission. Jesuit Father Thomas O’Donnell was its first Director and the broadcast was specially made for India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. In 1964 South Asia got a boost when Pope Paul VI visited Bombay, India for the World Eucharistic Congress from 2nd to 5th of December. Consequently, in 196 ...» |
Pope Francis on 19 May 2013
The Holy Spirit transforms and renews us, creates harmony and unity, and gives us courage and joy for mission.
Pope Francis on 18 May 2013
We must learn from Mary, and we must imitate her unconditional readiness to receive Christ in her life.
Pope Francis on 17 May 2013
Are our lives truly filled with the presence of God? How many things take the place of God in m ...» |
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20 May, 2013 - The Egyptian Coptic community continues to face violence at the hands of Islamists, with two attacks on churches in a fortnight. Over 20 thousand Muslims attacked the church of St. Mary in Alexandria on Friday, setting fire to th ...» |
Vatican City, 18 May 2013: With the touch of an iPad, Pope Francis became the first pontiff to unlock a new smartphone application and expanded the Church’s footprint in the digital world.
“I was quite anxious that we were going to get the signa ...» |
Vatican City, 18 May 2013: Christians should become more actively engaged in the post Arab Spring political process taking place in their country, said Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, the former Vatican ambassador to Egypt. He was speaking to Vatica ...» |
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May 15, 2013: Hundreds of worshippers attended Wednesday’s Divine Liturgy officiated by Kirill, the patriarch of Moscow, in Shanghai's Mother of God Surety of Sinners Orthodox Cathedral. It was the first religious service in the church for over 5 ...» |
May 15, 2013: On Tuesday, May 21 Christians in Amman will start off a silent march with candles to demand the release of the two bishops of Aleppo, Mar Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim (Syrian Orthodox) and Boulos al-Yazigi (Greek Orthodox) in the hands o ...» |
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| The Faithful Witness -Year of Faith Sp. |
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Acts 2:1-11; 1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13; Jn 20: 9-23
More than a century ago, a great sailing ship was stranded off the coast of South America. Week after week the ship lay there in the still waters with not a hint of a breeze. The captain was desperate ...» |
Acts 1: 1-11; Eph 1: 17-23; Lk 24: 46-53
Leonardo da Vinci had started to work on a large canvas in his studio. For a while he worked at it – choosing the subject, planning the perspective, sketching the outline, applying the colors, with his ow ...» |
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Acts 15:1-2, 22-29; Rev. 21: 10-14, 22-23; John 14: 23-29 St. Francis of Assisi was an ardent advocate of the doctrine of the indwelling of God in man. It enabled him to love every one equally whatever his status in life. One day he met a fellow wh ...» |
Acts 14: 21-27; Rev 21: 1-5; Jn 13: 31-33, 34-35
In the lovely book, Chicken Soup for the Soul, there's a story about a man who came out of his office one Christmas morning and found a little boy from a nearby project looking with great admiration a ...» |
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Bhubaneswar, India, 18 May 2013: Nearly 14 years after Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons were burnt to death by a mob in Odisha 
17 May, 2013 - Building the Body of Christ. This will be the motto of Fr. John Rodrigues, whom Pope Francis on Wednesday appointed one of the tw 
Quetta – 
(May 15, 2013) Pope Francis on Wednesday appointed two Aux. Bishops for the Archdiocese of Bombay in western India’s Maharashtra State. They are Fr 
May 14, 2013: A law introduced three years ago to ensure universal education for all children violates minority rights and it needs to be amended 