This Spanish woman died after postponing cancer treatments to save the baby she was carrying in her womb, who was born healthy. She died on July 13, 2012. One day early in 2010, newlyweds Ignacio Cabezas and Barbara Castro Garcia were sitting in a café eating breakfast. The couple both had smiles on their [...]
His friends and family speak of his warmth, his hard work and dedication to justice, his sense of humor and of the safety they felt while in his presence. His colleagues and mentors note that he is someone who knows how to be around others and to respect all people. Almost everyone speaks of him with [...]
Text of the homily Pope Benedict gave at Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica. Dear Brothers and Sisters! Again and again the beauty of this Gospel touches our hearts: a beauty that is the splendor of truth. Again and again it astonishes us that God makes himself a child so that we may love him, [...]
Pope Benedict celebrates the Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on December 24. Benedict XVI celebrates Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica and asks all of us to make time and space for God. Pope Benedict XVI had an urgent message during his homily on Christmas Eve in St. Peter’s Basilica: he [...]
Pope Benedict XVI in December — on the Feast of Our Lady of Gaudalupe — launched his very own Twitter account, sending a short inaugural message to his more than 1 million followers. “Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter. Thank you for your generous response. I bless all of [...]
Benedict XVI’s personal secretary is the new prefect of the Pontifical Household. He replaces Archbishop (now Cardinal) James Harvey. He will be consecrated an archbishop on January 6 and will also remain the pontiff’s personal secretary. The decision reinforces Gänswein’s position as the Pope’s “right hand” Pope Benedict, showing his great trust in his personal secretary, [...]
Its opposition to the law on homosexual marriages is finding agreement even among non-Catholics and nonbelievers. The archbishop of Paris is at the helm of the new course. (Originally published in L’Espresso magazine December 7) ROME, December 7, 2012 – No one would have bet on it. But after decades of invisibility and torpor, the French [...]
An interview with Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, Archbishop of Paris, on Prime Minister Hollande’s reform legalizing gay marriage and adoption for same-sex couples. Something extraordinary is happening in France. Against all expectations in this very secularized society, a strong movement has emerged in opposition to homosexual marriage and the adoption of children by same-sex couples (meaning the [...]
Perhaps Pope Benedict, making some remarks during his most recent speech to the Roman Curia, recalls the letter he wrote. “Dear Baby Jesus, soon you will descend on earth. You will bring joy to children, and I will be joyful, too.” This is the beginning of a Christmas letter written in 1934 by a 7-year-old child [...]
At the Council of Constance in 1416, John Gerson proposed that a votive Feast of the Betrothal of Mary Most Holy and St. Joseph be observed mainly by priests on the Thursday of Advent’s Ember Week when the Gospel of the espousal would fit nicely. In 1474, Franciscan Bernardine of Bustis wrote an Office for the [...]