Jerusalem, Feb 27, 2018 / 04:16 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Christian leaders are re-opening the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem after the city backtracked on proposals seen as targeting Christianity in the region.
On Sunday, Catholic, Greek Orthod… […]
Vatican City, Feb 27, 2018 / 03:22 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- During the penitential season of Lent, Pope Francis pointed to confession as the means to true conversion, saying the faithful should approach the sacrament with trust and confidence.
“The … […]
Birmingham, Ala., Feb 27, 2018 / 02:59 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Next month, EWTN Global Catholic Network will premiere the television series “Scripture and Tradition,” a new weekly Bible study hosted by Scripture scholar Fr. Mitch Pacwa, SJ.
The series will replace one of Fr. Pacwa’s previous shows, “Threshold of Hope.”
Created in response to viewer demand, the new show will launch Tuesday, March 6 at 2 p.m. ET, with encores on Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET and Wednesdays at 9 a.m. ET.
“For over three decades, Father Mitch Pacwa has been a favorite of EWTN audiences around the globe,” said EWTN Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Michael P. Warsaw in a press release.
“I am confident our viewers will be excited about this newest program which plays to Father Mitch’s strength as a Scripture scholar.”
EWTN President Doug Keck, who aided in the show’s creation, said it “will talk about Scripture in light of Catholic Tradition – spotlighting early Church documents that illuminate the way we understand the Bible.”
Fr. Pacwa has authored numerous Bible studies with thematic focuses. He will kick off the new show with his book, ‘Winning the Battle Against Sin,’ which discusses Scriptural teachings on sin and forgiveness.
“After that, I’d like to counterbalance that with my Bible study called ‘Saved,’ which tackles the theme of salvation,” he said in a press release. “I’ve also done Bible studies on the life of Christ.”
Saying that he will take the new ministry “step by step,” Fr. Pacwa added that he also hopes to study individual books of the Bible, beginning with Isaiah and Jeremiah.
Viewer questions will make up a significant part of the show, and can be submitted at www.facebook.com/groups/ewtnbiblestudy.
Father Pacwa is a Jesuit priest who holds a Ph.D in Old Testament studies from Vanderbilt University, as well as a Master of Divinity and an S.T.B. in Theology from Loyola University Chicago.
He previously taught Scripture at Loyola University and the University of Dallas. He currently hosts “EWTN Live” and serves as a senior fellow at the St. Paul Institute for Biblical Studies.
EWTN Global Catholic Network was launched in 1981 by Mother Angelica of the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration. The largest religious media network in the world, it reaches more than 275 million television households in more than 145 countries and territories.
In addition to 11 television channels in multiple languages, EWTN platforms include radio services through shortwave and satellite radio, SIRIUS/XM, iHeart Radio, and over 500 AM & FM affiliates. EWTN publishes the National Catholic Register, operates a religious goods catalogue, and in 2015 formed EWTN Publishing in a joint venture with Sophia Institute Press. Catholic News Agency is also part of the EWTN family.
Shrewsbury, England, Feb 27, 2018 / 01:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In a recent pastoral letter, a British bishop has encouraged Catholics to make the “awesome reality” of the Eucharist a central focus of their life and prayer during Lent.
&ldq… […]
Cali, Colombia, Feb 27, 2018 / 12:44 am (ACI Prensa).- In 2016, Jeison Aristizabal was named CNN’s Hero of the Year for overcoming the challenges posed by cerebral palsy and working to help children with disabilities in Colombia.
Today, Aristizabal, 38, is focusing his efforts on fighting a measure to legalize euthanasia in Colombia.
In October 2017, Colombia’s Constitutional Court instructed the Department of Health to produce within four months regulations for administering “death with dignity” to “boys, girls and adolescents” with disabilities and terminal illness.
The Colombian court said that its ruling seeks to prevent minors from becoming “victims of cruel and inhumane treatment because their right to die with dignity is being denied.”
In response, Aristizabal filed for an injunction with Colombia’s Council of State – the country’s highest judicial authority – to prevent the implementation of the Constitutional Court’s ruling.
Speaking recently to EWTN’s Radio Católica Mundial (Catholic World Radio), Aristizabal said that “people need to know how this happened. This came about because the family of a child with disabilities and a terminal illness saw that their health insurance, their healthcare system, would not provide him with medical care, would not provide medication for their child.”
The child’s family, feeling powerless, told their insurance company that “they would rather see their child die than to see him suffering from negligence, and from the insurance company’s lack of coverage for his medications,” Aristizabal said.
“What the country never expected was that instead of the court saying, ‘We are going to sanction the healthcare system, we are going to order the healthcare system to be more effective,’ what this court did was to order the government to issue regulations on childhood euthanasia.”
“What this court said was that any parent can dispose of the life of his child when he has a terminal illness or a disability.”
Born with cerebral palsy, Aristizabal has faced numerous challenges in life. A doctor told his mother when he was young that he was “not going to amount to anything in this life.”
But his mother supported him, and today, he is a media professional and lawyer, in addition to running a foundation that serves hundreds of children with disabilities in Cali, Colombia.
Through the foundation, he said, he helps those with physical or cognitive disabilities to realize that they have value and worth.
“Today’s society is one that gives us prognoses,” said Aristizabal, but “you have to overcome that prognosis. We must tell the person who feels defeated today, who has waved the white flag, to not give up.”
Aristizabal said that he has traveled around the world encouraging people to “not surrender in the face of obstacles.”
“And this is the message that we want to bring to these parents that today are experiencing a tragedy, that today are in a tough situation, [with their children’s] health issues: don’t wave the white flag, don’t give up, don’t accept defeat,” he said.
“Instead rise up today with the will to fight, to win, with the help of God and society.”
Aristizabal has launched a CitizenGo petition drive directed to the Council of State, encouraging it to oppose childhood and adolescent euthanasia.
“Disabilities cannot make children’s human lives of lesser worth because they have such conditions,” he said. “Life is valuable in itself and must be protected.”
This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Washington D.C., Feb 26, 2018 / 06:09 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- With the U.S. Supreme Court hearing a case that could have a great impact on the future of public sector unions, the U.S. bishops have filed an amicus brief citing Pope Benedict XVI in oppositi… […]
Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Feb 26, 2018 / 05:00 pm (CNA).- Four Congolese protesters were shot dead Feb. 25, during demonstrations organized by Catholics protesting President Joseph Kabila’s refusal to step down from power.
The casualties occurred just two days after a worldwide day of prayer and fasting for peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo, called for by Pope Francis.
An additional 47 people were wounded and more than 100 arrested in the Sunday protests, according to the United Nations mission in Congo.
Many of the demonstrations occurred in and around Catholic churches in the DRC. Some priests chose to hold protests within the parameters of their parish grounds to minimize violence.
“Security forces blocked the roads around the churches. They came in and threw tear gas canisters into churches. They used live ammunition,” Father Jean Claude Tabu, Curate of the St. Benoît Parish in the north of Kinshasa, told La Croix. This is the third round of demonstrations organized by the Catholic Lay Committee. Previous protests on Dec. 31 and Jan. 21 left over a dozen dead.
“I note with sorrow and deep concern the loss of life and injuries that occurred at the hands of those who are supposed to protect life and the rule of law. I add my voice to that of the Holy Father in his call for calm and peace in the country,” wrote Archbishop Timothy Broglio, chair of U.S. Bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace, in a Feb. 14 letter to the bishops of Congo.
The Catholic church in the Democratic Republic of Congo has strongly advocated for free and fair elections in the country that has faced decades of political instability.
The Congolese Catholic Bishops’ Conference have called upon President Kabila to state that he will not run for an illegal third term as president. Kabila was supposed to leave office in December 2016, but elections have been continually postponed.
Jerusalem, Feb 26, 2018 / 02:31 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem has been closed indefinitely to protest two proposals that Christian leaders see as targeting the presence of Christianity in the region.
Catholic, Gree… […]
Washington D.C., Feb 26, 2018 / 01:24 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The US bishops’ conference has designated today, Feb. 26, 2018, as “National Call-in Day for the Protection of Dreamers.”
The bishops are urging Catholic to contact their sen… […]
Vancouver, Canada, Feb 26, 2018 / 12:27 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Palliative care and hospice units are known for their life-affirming service to individuals who are facing the end of their lives, accompanying patients with dignity, comfort and meaning unti… […]
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