Pope Francis celebrates Mass Dec. 12 marking the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Max Rossi, Reuters)

With a mother’s heart, Mary raises up the abandoned, pope says at Mass

Posted by - December 23, 2018

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Just as she did hundreds of years ago from a small hill in Tepeyac, Mexico, Mary accompanies the downtrodden and the lowly like a mother caring for her children. Mary “is a woman who walks with the gentleness and tenderness of a mother, she makes her home in family life, she

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The Bethlehem grotto at Washington's Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land features a 14-point silver star with the words "Hic de Virgine Maria Jesus Christus natus est" ("Here Jesus Christ was born to the Virgin Mary"), a direct copy of the one pilgrims touch in Bethlehem and decorated for Christmas in this Dec. 24, 2017, photo. The monastery is a perfect place for those who can't make it to the Holy Land to witness Christmas celebrations in the birthplace of Christ may look like, say Franciscan friars at the monastery. (CNS photo/Rhina Guidos)

U.S. monastery transmits Christmas Holy Land experience to Washington

Posted by - December 23, 2018

WASHINGTON (CNS) — With a diapered baby Jesus doll in her arms, the woman named Mary descended the steps and walked toward an opening marked “Bethlehem” where she put the figurine on top of a bale of straw as Franciscan friars and other priests in brown habits and white cassocks sang all around. The baby

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Pope Francis arrives for an audience with journalists and collaborators of Telepace, a Italian Catholic television and radio station, at the Vatican Dec. 13. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

Be voice for the poor, imprisoned, pope tells Catholic television

Posted by - December 23, 2018

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Catholic media have a responsibility to be “spiritual antennas” that connect the world to the sufferings of the poor and the unwanted in society, especially prisoners on death row, Pope Francis said. During a Dec. 13 audience with journalists and collaborators of Telepace, an Italian Catholic television and radio station, the

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Diocese hopes list will ‘shed light’ on abuse claims, ‘further healing process’

Posted by - December 23, 2018

SALT LAKE CITY (CNS) — By posting a complete list of priests with credible abuse allegations against them, the Salt Lake City Diocese said it “seeks to shed some light” on such claims within the diocese, “with the hope that it may further the healing process for those betrayed by men they believed they could

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Christmas Joy Lives On

Posted by - December 23, 2018

By: Julie Anne Loong, for the North Star How can the Spirit, especially in this time of Christmas, remain alive in our tiny islands when something happens and affects the lives of over 50,000 inhabitants? It is only possible through God, and it is a mystery beyond our human understanding. Two months ago, the record-setting

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Here for the Long Haul: “The Yutu 4,865”

Posted by - December 23, 2018

Things look a little different around Saipan these days. I hope they do in Tinian, too. There are no more long lines at gas stations or water suppliers.  No more traffic jams in As Lito because of the S-(Supplemental) and D-(Disaster) NAP (food stamps). There are fewer “Feds” driving around, too, replaced now by the

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SIGNS

Posted by - December 23, 2018

A friend shared the story about the sign at the door of a clinic which says: The Radiologist is: “ IN/OUT”. And the patient asked; Is the Radiologist on AM or FM band frequency? Jesus talked about tribulation at the end of time and the signs that will accompany it. Through these signs, we’ll know

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Christmas

Posted by - December 23, 2018

A Christmas theme that has always fascinated me is the Bethlehem innkeeper who encounters Joseph and a very pregnant Mary looking for a place to stay after traveling some 90 miles from Nazareth on a donkey. It is such a powerful image. It is easy to portray the innkeeper as a cold-hearted villain who ignores

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IV DAMENGGUN ADBIENTU

Posted by - December 23, 2018

FINE’NA NA TINAITAI                                                                               Mi 5, 1-4a Un tinaitai ginin i Lepblun i Prufeta as Micah Taiguini ilek-ña i Saina: Hågu, iya Belen-Ephrathah mampus dikiki’ para un såonåo gi rasan Hudah, Ginin hagu nai para u huyung para Guåhu unu ni para u ma’gåsi iya Israhet; Guiya ni tutuhon-ña desdi åntis na tiempu, desdi i

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The Christmas tree and "Sand Nativity" are seen after a tree-lighting ceremony in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican Dec. 7. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Christmas spirit in the air as Vatican unveils Nativity scene, tree

Posted by - December 16, 2018

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The annual unveiling of the Vatican’s Christmas tree and Nativity scene brought some much-needed warmth to people’s hearts as winter approached. Hundreds of people in St. Peter’s Square Dec. 7 applauded as white curtains unfurled, revealing a 52-foot wide artistic representation of Jesus’ birth made entirely of sand and dubbed the

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