VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- People can choose either to tackle life's challenges with the loving and wise heart of God or be driven by their own passions and interests, Pope Francis said. All people, whether they know it or not, have access to the gift of the Holy Spirit, "who teaches us to see with God'...
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Q. Our recently ordained deacon told a parishioner he did not feel comfortable giving him Communion because the man married a divorced woman. (He was a widower.) Even if the man should not receive Communion, is it the deacon's role to excommunicate this person? I am a cradle Catholic; a deacon is n...
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ROME (CNS) -- A gold cross ripped from the altar of a mountain church. Two 18th-century carved and gilded wooden cherubs. An entire tabernacle hacked from a wall. These are just a few of the objects stolen from Italian churches in the first three months of 2014. As a treasury of art and archaeology...
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The bishops who trekked through the desert, served dinner to deportees, celebrated Mass at the Mexican border and visited a morgue full of unidentified bodies found in the wilderness were intent on sampling and publicizing the harsh realities of what they repeatedly called the b...
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Through the sacrament of matrimony, married couples are called to be living icons of God's love in the world, Pope Francis said; and when they fight -- and all couples do -- they don't have "to call the United Nations," but find simple words and gestures to say they are sorry....
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Q. Does the church no longer celebrate the feast of St. Valentine? None of my Catholic daily devotional books even make mention of St. Valentine on Feb. 14. Instead they note the day as the feast of Sts. Cyril and Methodius. (Evansville, Ind.)    A. Your books are correct. The curren...
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  VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The rite of canonization for Blesseds John XXIII and John Paul II April 27 will use the standard formula for the creation of new saints, but the Mass will be preceded by the recitation of the Divine Mercy chaplet, and it is possible retired Pope Benedict XVI will attend...
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- In their first encounter, Pope Francis received U.S. President Barack Obama at the Vatican March 27 for a discussion that touched on several areas of tension between the Catholic Church and the White House, including religious freedom and medical ethics. During an extraordinar...
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Just like someone gently unwrapping a present, a restorer carefully peeled back a thin wet veil of paper from a black sooty wall to see what was hidden underneath. From behind the layers of grime and dirt emerged the frescoed images of a fallen Roman column, a flock of fluffy...
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- It might appear as though the Supreme Court, the departments of Defense and Justice and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission are paying attention to the current popularity of beards. Recent actions by the four federal entities put a fuzzy face on some of the ongoing confl...
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