News Brief: St. Mary’s Knights next on Dolan listening tour
Bishop John Dolan continued his tour of high schools in the Catholic Diocese of Phoenix today as part of his “Listening Tour,” visiting St. Mary's High School in Phoenix. In addition to meeting with students, faculty, and staff, he celebrated Mass with the student body and toured the campus.
Day of Consecrated Life is time to renew missionary zeal, cardinal says
The religious-order brothers, sisters and priests and the hermits, monks and consecrated virgins who serve God and the Catholic Church are called to stoke the "missionary fire" in their souls, said Cardinal João Bráz de Aviz.
Sinner and sage: Despite troubled life, Caravaggio mastered spiritual meanings
Considered one of Caravaggio's best masterpieces, "The Entombment of Christ" was covetingly confiscated by the French for its newly opened Louvre Museum as Napoleon swept down the Italian peninsula in the late 18th century.
Women help religions share wisdom, promote peace, pope says
The world's religious traditions and their followers are called to offer wisdom to the world and to "infuse it with a spirit of warmth, healing and fraternity," which requires the participation of women as well as men, Pope Francis said.
God ‘suffers’ when believers injure, ignore those God loves, pope says
God suffers and grieves when those who profess to believe in him do not love the people he loves and do not work for the justice he desires, Pope Francis said.
In interview, pope says criticism is annoying, but can be helpful
Public criticism by cardinals and bishops is annoying -- "like a rash that bothers you a bit," Pope Francis said -- but differences need to be aired and criticism can be helpful, he told the Associated Press.
Pope tells Knights of Malta to strengthen unity, reject lust for power
Conflict and division hurt the mission of the Knights of Malta, and craving for power creates distance from Christ, Pope Francis told members of the religious, charitable and chivalric order.
Mission begins by meeting Jesus in the Scriptures and Eucharist, pope says
Having come to know Jesus through the Scriptures and in the Eucharist, Catholics are called to share with others the hope and joy that come from faith and that endure even when life gets difficult, Pope Francis said.
Christians must not be oppressed by guilt, but filled with joy, pope says
Christians must not "put pressure on others" to convert or induce in them "feelings of guilt," but take a weight off their shoulders through joyfully sharing the Gospel, Pope Francis said.
Vatican rejects proposed governing council of bishops and laity in Germany
Germany's bishops do not have the authority to establish a permanent decision-making body of bishops and laypeople that top Vatican officials said would supersede the authority of the country's bishops' conference, according to a letter from the officials published Jan. 23.
