It was truly a nightmare scenario. Images of a dark cavern lit up TV screens in every home, coffee shop and restaurant. As humanity watched with bated breath, the focus of the world turned to a remote jungle in the distant land of Thailand. Twelve boys and their coach were found alive after nine days without food or water.
by Father John P. Cush, STD
FOR THOSE OF us who are priests, the first reading from the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah should strike a chord. It should put more than a little bit of fear into our hearts. The prophet writes:
First in a series
IN HIS APOSTOLIC exhortation “Gaudete et Exsultate” (“Rejoice and Be Glad”), after mentioning our deceased loved ones as saints, Pope Francis writes the following sentence: “The saints now in God’s presence preserve their bonds of life and communion with us.”
ALMOST A QUARTER-CENTURY AGO, Father Jay Scott Newman, back in Rome to finish a graduate degree after his priestly ordination in Charleston, N.C., took me on an extended ramble around the Eternal City: my first hike up the Aventine; my first visit to the crown jewel of paleo-Christian architecture, Santa Sabina; my first exploration of Santa Maria in Cosmedin – and later in the evening, some essential instruction as to what you don’t put on a pasta dish featuring seafood (hint: a certain hard cheese). I had a grand time but little idea then of the impact Father Newman would have on my life and work in the future. Now, as he celebrates the silver jubilee of his priestly ordination, it’s time to do some of what our evangelical Protestant friends would call “witnessing.”
Luau time for the Golden Age Club of Our Lady of Mercy in Forest Hills; Teen Drama Club at Holy Child Jesus parish, Richmond Hill; Catholic War Veterans; Nuns offer prayers.
French priest Father Paul Anel delighted in his national team winning this year’s World Cup.
This week’s listing includes events in Brooklyn and Queens into the beginning of August
A federal judge has swept away claims of religious discrimination by plaintiffs including Catholic Social Services of the Philadelphia Archdiocese and ruled the church agency must provide home assessments for same-sex couples wishing to provide foster care for at-risk children in Philadelphia.
An Idaho priest has been evicted from his home while he awaits trial for possession of child pornography – but the Diocese of Boise has wasted no time in having an exorcist, along with a 10-person prayer team, pray over his former house and selling it off.
As a case over whether the state of Texas can require fetal remains to be buried is argued in Federal Court this week, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals handed the Texas Conference of Catholic Bishops a major victory just hours before opening arguments began, saying they did not have to comply with a third party subpoena that would have required the bishops to release decades of internal correspondence over the issue of abortion.
