MONTREAL (CNS) — For sculptor Sylvette Chanel, Advent is the busiest time of the year. She is among the few people left who keeps alive the ancient New France craft of making and repairing wax Jesus figures for Nativity scenes. This art was brought to Canada by the first female religious congregations more than three
COLCHESTER, Vt. (CNS) — Father Lino Oropeza is a fan of technology. He worked in information technology in his native Venezuela before becoming a priest of the Society of St. Edmund, based at St. Michael’s College in Colchester. So, it seems natural that he would come up with an idea to combine technology and education
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Celebrating his 81st birthday, Pope Francis blew out the candles on a 13-foot long pizza after being serenaded with song and dance by children and employees from a Vatican pediatric clinic. A group of children receiving assistance from the Vatican’s St. Martha Dispensary, a maternal and pediatric clinic, had given the
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Countries with low birthrates suffer from that awful disease called “demographic winter,” Pope Francis said in a morning homily. They do not have children for fear of undermining their economic well-being or they try to justify it with other reasons, he said in his homily during morning Mass Dec. 19 at
WASHINGTON (CNS) — A panel discussion last year on the challenges faced by refugees didn’t sit well with a freshman at the Jesuit-run College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. “The stories that I heard reminded me that when we picture refugees, we falsely imagine a mass of people hoping to hoard into our
DUPONT, Wash. (CNS) — Catholic leaders in the Archdiocese of Seattle and the Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon, offered prayers for all affected by the Dec. 18 derailment of an Amtrak train that had just come from the Tacoma station and was headed to Portland. “Our community of faith is praying for the victims and families
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis advanced the sainthood causes of Holy Cross Father Patrick Peyton and St. John Paul II’s mentor, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski. The pope approved the decrees recognizing their heroic virtues during an audience Dec. 18 with Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes. The pope also recognized the
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Only relics that have been certified as authentic can be exposed for veneration by the faithful, said a new Vatican instruction. Published Dec. 16 in Italian by the Congregation for Saints’ Causes, the instruction clarifies and details the canonical procedures to be followed by local bishops in an effort to verify
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — People need factual and trustworthy news that avoids sensationalism and whipping up heated reactions, Pope Francis said. It is important the press not be “constantly at the mercy of easy slogans or improvised information campaigns, which show the intention of manipulating reality, opinions and people themselves, often creating worthless ‘media dust
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis plans to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of St. Pio of Pietrelcina and the 100th anniversary of Padre Pio receiving the stigmata by visiting the famed Italian saint’s hometown and the pediatric oncology ward of the hospital he founded. Pope Francis will travel to Pietrelcina and San
