On Sept. 25, Pope Francis will visit the World Trade Center memorial site of the 9/11 attacks, where nearly 3,000 people were killed by terrorists in 2001. He plans to pay his respects to the victims of the attack and meet with local religious leaders for a Multi-Religious Meeting for Peace.
Guest columnist Richard Trumka shares the results of a recent national survey, commissioned by the AFL-CIO and faith organizations, that shows “religious” and “faith affiliated” Americans see Pope Francis’ moral clarity as a guide for the 2016 presidential election.
More than 360 participants, including 18 married couples from around the world, were expected to attend October’s Synod of Bishops on the family. The complete list of synod participants and papal appointees was released Sept. 15 by the Vatican.
Pope Paul VI’s address to the U.N. General Assembly in New York in 1965 is commemorated in a stained-glass window
A man sells T-shirts with Pope Francis’ picture Sept. 14 outside the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington DC, where Pope Francis will celebrate Mass Sept. 23.
Safeguarding the Dignity of Every Human Person is the theme for the annual Catechetical Sunday, which will be celebrated on Sunday, Sept. 20. This Catechetical Sunday will mark the beginning of a week of great joy and celebration as we welcome our Holy Father, Pope Francis, to the U.S. During these next few days of preparation for his visit, it would be good to reflect on the goals of our 2015-2018 diocesan springboard plan for evangelization and renewal, fittingly named The Joy of Encountering Christ: The Families Hope, in place since Holy Family Sunday of 2014.
If Pope Francis weren’t headed to the United States in a matter of days, American Catholics would never have known how much others value their opinions.
Pope Francis’ three predecessors who spoke to the General Assembly – Blessed Paul VI, St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI – addressed issues reflecting the great social and political challenges of their era.
THE HISTORY OF popes in these United States is full of surprises. And one of them – to begin at the beginning – includes the little-known fact that Blessed Paul VI was not the first pontiff to set foot on American territory, when he landed at newly renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport on Oct. 4, 1965. No, the first pope to plant a papal slipper on the sovereign territory of the U.S. was Blessed Pius IX, way back in 1849.
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (CNS) – Pope Francis’ visit to Cuba is a sign of his closeness to the nation’s people as they “breathe the air of hope” that relations with the U.S. will improve, said Bishop Wilfredo Pino Estevez of Guantanamo-Baracoa.
