UDAINAGAR, India (CNS) – The man who served a prison term for the 1995 murder of a Franciscan Clarist nun said that the forgiveness shown to him by the slain nun’s family has given him “new life.”
International News
Pope Calls for End To Death Penalty
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis called for abolition of the death penalty as well as life imprisonment and denounced what he called a “penal populism” that promises to solve society’s problems by punishing crime instead of pursuing social justice.
Year for Consecrated Life
The worldwide observance of the Year for Consecrated Life proclaimed by Pope Francis will open in the diocese with prayer services in Brooklyn and Queens. Our Lady of Angels Church, Bay Ridge, will be the site for the Brooklyn service on Sunday, Dec. 7, at 3:30 p.m. The opening in Queens will take place on Sunday, Dec. 14, at Immaculate Conception Monastery Church, Jamaica Estates, at 3:30 p.m.
Muslims Condemn ISIS Terrorism
WASHINGTON (CNS) – More than 100 Muslim leaders – clerics and laypeople alike – have signed on to a letter criticizing the Middle East Muslim military group ISIS, short for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
Dallas Diocese Houses Ebola Victim’s Family
DALLAS (CNS) – Dallas Bishop Kevin J. Farrell said that he followed the teaching of Christ and stepped in to house the fiancee of Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan and three others for several weeks at a diocesan facility because when no one else would.
Deacon Ordained in Rome
Nicholas Colalella, from St. Margaret parish, Middle Village, a fourth-year seminarian at the North American College, Rome, was ordained a deacon at St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican on Oct. 2 by Cardinal Donald Wuerl.
Pope: Terrorism Is at Unimaginable Levels
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The Middle East, especially Iraq and Syria, are experiencing “terrorism of previously unimaginable proportions” in which the perpetrators seem to have absolutely no regard for the value of human life, Pope Francis said.
Brooklyn Heights Parishes to Pray for Middle East Peace Oct. 26
Three Brooklyn Heights congregations will come together in a street procession to pray for peace in the Middle East this Sunday, Oct. 26. The faithful will meet at St. Charles Borromeo Church at 12:15 p.m. to begin the procession carrying the Most Blessed Sacrament. Participants will pray the rosary as they walk through the neighborhood […]
Paul VI Is Beatified
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Beatifying Blessed Paul VI at the concluding Mass of the Synod of Bishops on the family, Pope Francis praised the late pope as the “great helmsman” of the Second Vatican Council and founder of the synod, as well as a “humble and prophetic witness of love for Christ and his church.”
Pope Warns Synod About Extremism
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – After several days of animated debate over its official midterm report, the Synod of Bishops on the family agreed on a final document more clearly grounded in traditional Catholic teaching. Yet the assembly failed to reach consensus on especially controversial questions of Communion for the divorced and civilly remarried and the pastoral care of homosexuals.