Church News & Info 
General Church news and information related to Benedictine community or teachings
“Mystical experience” prompted Pope Benedict to retire
Rome, August 21, 2013 (Zenit.org) Salvatore Cernuzio The Pope Emeritus on Sunday spent a few hours at Castel Gandolfo, at the residence where he passed his summers as Pope. According to reports from Vatican sources, Benedict XVI spent about three hours at the papal summer residence, walking in the palace gardens, praying the rosary and attending a piano… Read More ›
Canonization date of late Popes to be announced in September
Vatican City, Aug 20, 2013 / 03:53 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis plans to hold a consistory Sept. 30 to formally approve the sainthood of Blesseds John Paul II and John XXIII, during which the official date of the canonizations will be announced. Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints,… Read More ›
Egyptian patriarch calls recent violence a ‘war’ on terrorism
Alexandria, Egypt, Aug 19, 2013 / 05:08 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The head of the Coptic Catholic Church has expressed solidarity with other Egyptians over the wave of violence that has struck the country, bluntly calling the events a struggle against terrorist forces. Patriarch Ibrahim Isaac Sidrak of Alexandria said that “out of love for our… Read More ›
Evangelization blocked by our own ‘hesitancy’ to convert
San Antonio, Texas, Aug 7, 2013 / 05:07 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The biggest obstacle to the success of the New Evangelization is the reluctance of individual Catholics to let themselves be converted by the faith, according to Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley. This dynamic is a “hesitancy to accept that each one of us has the… Read More ›
Near death experience still a mystery
Dutch researchers say there is no obvious medical explanation for the near death experience reported by some patients during cardiac arrest. The near death experience (NDE) has received quite a lot of attention in recent years. It involves a feeling of disconnection from the body during a life-threatening medical crisis – typically a cardiac arrest… Read More ›
Resist ‘Idols’ of Money, Power, Pleasure
Aparecida, Brazil, Jul 24, 2013 / 08:40 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Openness to being surprised by God is an attitude which marks the life of a Christian, Pope Francis said in his homily at Brazil’s Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida during his first World Youth Day Mass. “God always surprises us, like the new wine… Read More ›
Technology, National Agencies and “Big Brother”
It’s been expected and feared so long: that, one day, government would develop the ability to watch everywhere we go and record everything we do, say, and read, with the implication that — someday, if it doesn’t want us to be a certain way, or do certain things — it could instantly know and then… Read More ›
Pope tells priests to buy “humble” cars
(Reuters) – Pope Francis said on Saturday it pained him to see priests driving flashy cars, and told them to pick something more “humble”. As part of his drive to make the Catholic Church more austere and focus on the poor, Francis told young and trainee priests and nuns from around the world that having… Read More ›
Pope Francis: Look for Pastors, not Princes for Episcopacy
Vatican City, 21 June 2013 (VIS) – This morning in the Clementine Hall of the Vatican Apostolic Palace, as part of the Year of Faith, the Holy Father received the pontifical representatives. After an introduction by Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone, S.D.B., the Holy Father addressed the nuncios with “simple thoughts” and informal words… Read More ›
May the Last Judgement never frighten us
. . .Lastly, a word about the passage on the Last Judgement in which the Lord’s Second Coming is described, when he will judge all human beings, the living and the dead (cf. Mt 25: 31-46). The image used by the Evangelist is that of the shepherd who separates the sheep from the goats. On… Read More ›