Ugandan priest arrested for celebrating Mass (Daily Monitor (Kampala))
Father Deogratias Kiibi Kateregga, 33, has been described as a celebrity priest in the Ugandan media.
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Father Deogratias Kiibi Kateregga, 33, has been described as a celebrity priest in the Ugandan media.
Read MoreBishop Agnelo Gracias, the apostolic administrator of Jullundur (Jalandhar) in the northern Indian state of Punjab (map), also “directed all parish priests to provide food and other help to migrant laborers in their areas who have lost work or be…
Read MoreSometimes the post-Vatican II push for lay participation can become onerous. What is really needed to be fully Christian? Does everyone need to be a theologian, liturgist, and apologist?
Cy Kellett:
Hello and welcome again to Catholic Answers Focus. I…
Reading 1 Dn 3:14-20, 91-92, 95
King Nebuchadnezzar said:
“Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
that you will not serve my god,
or worship the golden statue that I set up?
Be ready now to fall down and worship the statue I had made,
whenever…
By Edward Pentin | UPDATES (Rome time)
April 1, 12.42
The Italian government has decided to extend its national lockdown until Easter Monday, April 13, despite the spread of the virus appearing to have reached its…
Read MoreVatican City, Apr 1, 2020 / 03:09 am (CNA).- It is the Holy Spirit who leads us away from our sins and towards purity of heart, Pope Francis said at the general audience Wednesday.
Speaking via livestream due to the coronavirus crisis, the pope said April 1 that the purification of our hearts must begin by recognizing the evil that lies within us and renouncing it.
“This is a decisive maturity: when we realize that our worst enemy is often hidden in our heart,” he said. “The noblest battle is against the inner deceptions that generate our sins.”
In his address from the library of the apostolic palace, the pope continued his cycle of catechesis on the beatitudes, the eight blessings proclaimed by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.
Focusing on the sixth beatitude, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8), the pope said: “The pure of heart live in the presence of the Lord, preserving in the heart what is worthy of the relationship with Him; only in this way does it possess an intimate, ‘unified’ life, linear, not tortuous but simple.”
“The purified heart is thus the result of a process that implies liberation and renunciation. The pure of heart is not born such, he has experienced an inner simplification, learning to deny evil within itself, something which in the Bible is called ‘circumcision of the heart.'”
“This inner purification implies the recognition of that part of the heart which is under the influence of evil, in order to learn the art of always allowing oneself to be taught and led by the Holy Spirit. And so, through this path of the heart, we come to ‘see God.'”
When we “see God,” he explained, we recognize God’s presence in the Church’s sacraments and in our fellow human beings, especially the needy.
“In this beatific vision there is a future dimension, eschatological, as in all the beatitudes: it is the joy of the Kingdom of Heaven towards which we are going,” he said.
“But there is also the other dimension: to see God means to understand the plans of Providence in what happens to us, to recognize his presence in the Sacraments, in our brothers and sisters, especially the poor and suffering, and to recognize him where he manifests himself.”
He said the sixth beatitude was, in a sense, “the fruit” of the preceding five.
“If we have listened to the thirst for the good that dwells in us and are aware that we live in mercy, a journey of liberation begins which lasts a lifetime and leads us to heaven,” he said.
“It is a serious work and it is above all a work of God in us – in the trials and purifications of life – which leads to great joy, to true and profound peace.”
In off-the-cuff remarks at the end of his address, the pope urged Catholics not to be afraid to open their hearts to the Holy Spirit.
In his greetings to different language groups after his address, he invited the faithful to seek the intercession of St. John Paul II, who died on April 2, 2005.
Addressing Polish Catholics, he said: “In these difficult days we are living, I encourage you to entrust yourselves to Divine Mercy and to the intercession of St. John Paul II, on the eve of the 15th anniversary of his death.”
Read MoreBrother David Perry’s letter is published in the April edition of Fraternitas, the newsletter of the Order of Friars Minor.
Read MoreMarch 24 was the 40th anniversary of the martyrdom of St. Óscar Romero, and in February, Pope Francis recognized the 1977 martyrdom of Father Rutilio Grande, SJ, and 2 lay companions, clearing the way for their beatification.
Read MoreThe Economy of Francesco, an international meeting between young economists and Pope Francis, was scheduled to take place in Assisi from March 26-28, and has been rescheduled for November.
Read MoreIn welcoming the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), Archbishop Paul Coakley, chairman of the US bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, said that “it was disappointing that certain aid and …
Read MoreDescribing his decision to suspend the public celebration of Mass as “the most difficult decision I have had to make in my 11 years as bishop,” Bishop Richard Stika of Knoxville said, “I have asked all parishes to have adoration throu…
Read MoreCardinal Philippe Ouédraogo of Burkina Faso (map) is president of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar.
Read MoreThe chapel is located in the Italian embassy in Kabul.
Read MoreIn 1995, Pope St. John Paul II issued Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life), his encyclical letter on the value and inviolability of human life. “Some have advanced the argument that climate change or immigration are assaults against human life …
Read More“We making a call to live this whole day [April 3] in fasting and to participate, through digital platforms, in a penitential holy hour, in which, in light of the Word of God that calls us to conversion, together we will make an act of perfect co…
Read MoreAt a Mass celebrated in the chapel of Domus Sanctae Marthae on March 31 (video), Pope Francis preached on Numbers 21:4-9 and John 8:21-30, the readings of the day.
Read MorePosted by bcadmin | Apr 1, 2020 | Faith, God's creation, Jesus, Living with Christ, News, Sr. Chris Koellhoffer IHM |
Blessed are you in the firmament of heaven, praiseworthy and glorious forever. (Daniel 3:56) During my childhood, we lived in the countryside in a house set on top of a hill. Sometimes in the middle of the night, my father would shake us awake, wrap us…
Read MorePatriarch Bartholomew’s visit to America has been postponed due to coronavirus. Joseph Pearce describes some lessons from literature on the current epidemic. Massimo Faggioli says Francis isn’t the first pope …
The post Morning Catholic must-reads: 01/04/2020 appeared first on Catholic Herald.
Read MorePosted by bcadmin | Apr 1, 2020 | Catholic Living, Coronavirus, Featured, John Henry Newman, News, Padre Pio, Weekly Headlines |
Christendom has seen a plague or two in its day. On more than one occasion a worse pestilence than that which we now face has plunged the West into chaos, or brought it to a grinding halt. In every extraordinary time, however, the Church has remained semper idem and has remained, at the very least, […]
Read MorePosted by bcadmin | Apr 1, 2020 | News, The Dispatch |
This bruising Lent, in which “fasting” has assumed unprecedented new forms, seems likely to be followed by an Eastertide of further spiritual disruption. What is God’s purpose in all this? I would be reluctant to […]
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