Panama City, Panama, Jan 27, 2019 / 03:20 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis met with World Youth Day volunteers Sunday, thanking them for their service and reminding them of the importance of preceding their endeavors with prayer.
“Thank you all… […]
Panama City, Panama, Jan 27, 2019 / 09:56 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On the final day of World Youth Day in Panama, Pope Francis met with the guests of a home for people with AIDS, reflecting on a question Jesus was asked in the Gospels: “Who is my nei… […]
Panama City, Panama, Jan 27, 2019 / 07:49 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Serving God and his mission is not a passing thing, but can and should be pursued in the present, with one’s entire life, Pope Francis said Sunday at the closing Mass for World Youth … […]
Jolo, Philippines, Jan 27, 2019 / 05:51 am (CNA).- At least 20 people were killed and 111 wounded after two bombs exploded minutes apart during Sunday Mass in a Catholic cathedral on the southern Philippine island of Jolo.
After the initial blast inside the Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Jan. 27, which destroyed the wooden pews and glass windows, Mass-goers were rushing to get outside when a second bomb detonated near the cathedral’s entrance, the Associated Press reported.
Police and army troops stationed outside the cathedral were also caught in the second blast when trying to enter the cathedral.
According to police, at least 15 civilians and 5 soldiers were killed in the explosions. Among the wounded there were at least 90 civilians, 17 soldiers, two police officers, and two coast guards. No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Philippines bishops’ conference condemned the attack as an “act of terrorism.”
“We condole with the families of the several soldiers and civilians who were killed by the explosions. We also express our sympathies with those who were wounded and extend our solidarity with the rest of the church-goers inside the Cathedral and the rest of the church community in the Apostolic Vicariate of Jolo,” they said Jan. 27.
The bishops also noted the recent creation of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARRM), which was created with the hope of ending a nearly five-decade long separtist rebellion in the southern Philppines.
The new autonomous region was endorsed by most Muslims in the majority Catholic nation, though it was rejected by Muslim voters in the Sulu province, where Jolo is located.
“As we begin a new phase in the peace process … we ask our Christian brethren to join hands with all peace-loving Muslim and Indigenous People communities in the advocacy against violent extremism,” the bishops said.
Jolo island has a population of more than 700,000. The island’s Catholics, estimated in 2014 to be around 31,000, mostly live in the capital of Jolo.
The country’s defense secretary, Delfin Lorenzana, said in a statement Sunday that he has directed troops “to heighten their alert level, secure all places of worships and public places at once, and initiate pro-active security measures to thwart hostile plans.”
There has long been a presence of Muslim Abu Sayyaf militants on Jolo island. The group is defined as a terrorist organization by the United States and the Philippines due to years of kidnappings, beheadings, and bombings.
A statement from the office of Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte Jan. 27 said, “We will pursue to the ends of the earth the ruthless perpetrators behind this dastardly crime until every killer is brought to justice and put behind bars. The law will give them no mercy.”
Panama City, Panama, Jan 26, 2019 / 05:43 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Reflecting on the Blessed Virgin Mary’s fiat, Pope Francis encouraged World Youth Day participants Saturday night to say yes to God’s grace in their lives.
“In a few mome… […]
Famously, after the atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis during World War II, the world spoke the words, “Never Again.” In the years since, however, you have to wonder how seriously we have taken those words. […]
Panama City, Panama, Jan 26, 2019 / 03:12 pm (CNA).- At World Youth Day, there are tens of thousands of pilgrims, thousands of priests and religious sisters, and hundreds of bishops. But there are very few honeymooners. Nadia Giudice and Alberto Celi might, in fact, be the only ones.
The pair got married Dec. 8, 2018, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, and knew immediately they would go World Youth Day Panama 2019 for their honeymoon.
The couple are part of an Argentine delegation to the event. Along with about 2,500 pilgrims from Argentina, they participated in a Mass celebrated Jan. 23 at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Panama City.
She’s 25 and he’s 26, and they met, unsurprisingly, at Church- an event sponsored by the Legion of Mary, in the Santa Fe province of Argentina.
“We got to know each other, became friends and later got engaged. We were married December 8, Our Lady’s feast day, and this is our honeymoon,” Nadia told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish language sister agency.
For his part, Albert confessed “never in our lives had we dreamed of this.”
“We couldn’t go to WYD Rio for different reasons and we thought we were never again going to have the possibility. Krakow was completely out of the question but when they told us that it was going to be in Panama we said: it’s now or never,” he explained.
Nadia said they chose this Wold Youth Day because “we could see that by the next time we would probably have children, so it was going to be more complicated for us to think about going as pilgrims, to be walking a ton and all those things.”
“If you really believe God is calling you to marriage, and your courtship was really done in prayer, and you prepared yourself always in prayer, and you believe you found the person, then you have to go all in and trust in God,” Nadia said.
“One of the things that stuck with me at the vocations fair is that it doesn’t matter to what vocation you’re called by God, there’s always going to be difficulties, and by our own means it’s impossible to fulfill it, but trusting completely in God, in Him we can do everything,” Alberto concluded.
This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Panama City, Panama, Jan 26, 2019 / 03:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A diocesan youth minister who lunched with Pope Francis Saturday said that he spoke about the necessity of prayer in responding to the clerical sex abuse crisis.
Brenda Noriega, young adults ministry coordinator for the Diocese of San Bernardino, was among the 10 young people who dined with Pope Francis Jan. 26 at San Jose Major Seminary in Panama City. She spoke about the experience at a World Youth Day press conference.
Asked about the pope’s reflections on the abuse crisis in the US, Noriega responded: “The pope said that it’s a horrible crime, and the Church doesn’t support these kind of crimes. He expressed the importance of prayer.”
She reflected on the US bishops’ January retreat, directed by the apostolic preacher, saying Pope Francis wanted the Church in the US “to pray, and [that] before making any decision, we need to pray. That’s what he expressed. For me as a youth minister, that means a lot.”
“Sometimes we forget about prayer,” Noriega stated, “because we react too easy and too fast, so I think what His Holiness is telling us, to the Church, is to first pray, and build community.”
Noriega said the pope also spoke about the importance of ensuring that “all the victims of the sexual crisis are heard, and the Church is committed to support them, that the church is committed to walk with them, as we have done it.”
“We as a Church we need to be a pastoral Church,” she said, “so it was important for me to hear from the Holy Father his affirmation about the support of the Church to the victims.”
Noriega was selected to attend the luncheon with Pope Francis by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.
She spoke about the fact that the US representative was not “blonde”, but a Hispanic, born and raised in Mexico.
“The new face of the Catholic Church in the US has my face,” Noriega reflected, noting that most young Catholics in the country are Hispanic.
“This is the way for the USCCB to say we are … ready to let you be protagonists of Catholicism in the US,” she said.
Panama City, Panama, Jan 26, 2019 / 11:54 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Amid large and very vocal delegations from Latin America at World Youth Day, pilgrims from all across Asia are also in attendance. The Church in Asia is growing, even as the faithful in sev… […]
Panama City, Panama, Jan 26, 2019 / 07:54 am (CNA).- Pope Francis said Saturday that he recognized the weariness felt in the priesthood and in religious communities due to the sins that wound the Church today.
“Weariness of hope comes from seein… […]
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