VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The saints were flesh-and-blood people whose lives included real struggles and joys, and whose holiness reminds all the baptized that they, too, are called to be saints, Pope Francis said. Thousands of people joined the pope Nov. 1 for the midday recitation of the Angelus prayer on the feast of All
PRAIRIE DU SAC, Wis. (CNS) — Less than 10 miles north of Prairie du Sac, 22 contemplative Catholic nuns of the Cistercian Order live quietly on 112 acres of farmland. A set of renovated buildings and additions off an 1859 stone cottage make up Valley of Our Lady Monastery, where prayer, study and manual labor
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — In life, Christians face the choice of either being open to encountering God’s generosity or closed in on their own interests, Pope Francis said. The banquet that Jesus often refers to in his parables “is an image of heaven, of eternity with the Lord,” the pope said Nov. 5 in his
ROME (CNS) — In what he said was his first visit to the catacombs, Pope Francis celebrated Mass for the feast of All Souls with special words of remembrance for Catholics who still today must worship in secret. The website of the Catacombs of Priscilla, used from the second to the fifth centuries, says, “because
ST. BENEDICT, Ore. (CNS) — Although Tony Del Castillo cannot see, a friend’s question years ago helped him perceive people with clarity and to look beyond an individual’s quirks, foibles and facades. “God used her to open up my eyes in a sense,” said Del Castillo, the first blind seminarian at Mount Angel Seminary, a
MCALLEN, Texas (CNS) — It started with a child’s concern for a homeless man she saw outside a grocery store. A stream of questions to her parents followed, and then her insistence on helping in some way. Now Emily’s Meals and teams of volunteers in McAllen every day feed dozens of the homeless they call
NEW HOPE, Minn. (CNS) — A German Messerschmitt fighter plane was bearing down on Don Stoulil’s B-17 bomber as he flew a mission during World War II. Stoulil, the pilot, looked out the windshield of his cockpit and saw the enemy plane zooming straight at him with machine guns blazing. “This is it,” he thought,
WASHINGTON (CNS) — A bill in Congress to require respectful disposition of fetal remains from abortions as well as accountability from the abortion industry “is in keeping with society’s treatment of all other deceased persons,” said the chairman of the U.S. bishops’ pro-life committee. In an Oct. 31 letter to lawmakers urging they support the
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Jesus invites everyone to always go to him, which, Pope Francis said, also means no longer making life revolve around oneself. “What direction is my journey going? Do I only try to make a good impression, to protect my position, my time and my space or do I go to the
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — After listening to indigenous people and church leaders at the Synod of Bishops on the Amazon, the Catholic Church cannot remain indifferent to the suffering of the region’s people, Pope Francis said. “The cry of the poor, together with that of the earth, came to us from the Amazon,” the pope
