BEIRUT (CNS) -- In Easter messages, Catholic patriarchs in the Middle East highlighted the need for an end to the war in Syria, now entering its third year. Cardinal Bechara Rai, Maronite patriarch, appealed "to the disputants in Syria, who are so intent in demolishing the homes of peaceful citizen...
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- With Jesus' resurrection "love has triumphed, mercy has been victorious," Pope Francis said in his first Easter message "urbi et orbi" (to the city and the world). "Let us become agents of this mercy, channels through which God can water the earth, protect all creation and mak...
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Lying prostrate on the floor before the main altar of St. Peter's Basilica, Pope Francis celebrated the Liturgy of the Lord's Passion. The pope presided at the service March 29 to commemorate Christ's death on the cross. He began the rite after a silent procession down the cen...
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis told young inmates that, just as Jesus came to help and serve others, he, too, was at their service as a priest and bishop. During the evening Mass at Rome's Casal del Marmo prison for minors, Pope Francis washed the feet of 12 young people of different nationalit...
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The papal coat of arms has undergone a few major adjustments to more clearly reflect the symbolism of Mary and St. Joseph. The five-pointed star has been replaced with an eight-pointed star, and the spikenard flower looks more like a flower rather than a bunch of grapes, as it...
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- In its second day of oral arguments about aspects of laws related to same-sex marriage March 27, the Supreme Court spent little time discussing the actual definition of marriage, focusing instead on issues of jurisdiction, state's rights, motives behind the federal Defense of Ma...
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Holy Week is a time to follow Jesus out of one's parish or group and out of one's comfort zone to go with him in search of the lost sheep, Pope Francis said. "There is such a great need to bring (people) the living presence of Jesus, who is merciful and rich in love," the pope...
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Pope Francis embraces emeritus Pope Benedict XVI at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, March 23. Pope Francis travelled by helicopter from the Vatican to Castel Gandolfo for a private meeting with the retired pontiff.  ...
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis has decided to celebrate the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord's Supper in a Rome juvenile detention facility and wash the feet of some of the young detainees. It marks a change in venue of the previously scheduled March 28 Holy Week event from St. Peter's Basilica t...
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MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (CNS) -- On the evening of July 4, 1976, Rodolfo Capalozza, then a seminarian in Argentina for the Pallottine religious community in Buenos Aires, made a fateful decision to catch a movie and then visit his parents. In the morning, Capalozza would learn that two other seminarians...
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