Sokoto, Nigeria, Feb 1, 2020 / 01:51 pm (CNA).- One of four Nigerian seminarians kidnapped last month has been killed, reportedly by his abductors. The three seminarians kidnapped along with him were released in the weeks following their kidnapping. “With a very heavy heart, I wish to inform you that our dear son, Michael was murdered by the bandits on a date we cannot confirm. He and the wife of a doctor were arbitrarily separated from the group and killed. The Rector identified the corpse this afternoon,” Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of Sokoto, Nigeria, said in a statement released Feb. 1. Michael Nnadi was 18 years old. Information about the woman killed with Nnadi is not yet available. Nnadi himself was taken by gunmen from Good Shepherd Seminary in Kaduna, around 10:30 pm on Jan. 8. Wi...
Communist China has accelerated its policy of “sinicization” of religions, with the implementation of a new set of crippling rules which Christian leaders say spell danger for their people, particularly for underground Catholics.The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had announced last year that revised administrative measures on religions would come to in force from Feb. 1 across the country, covering all religions. Among other things, the rules stipulate that each religion will be headed by a state-appointed conference, which will function as the supreme decision-making body for the respective religious group. “Does this aim to abolish the traditional church model headed by bishops and replace them with group conferences? If there is no Catholic head for a church, is it ...
Christian funerals have been banned in some areas of China as the communist government begins to enforce a set of repressive regulations on religious practices. In the eastern province of Zhejiang, the government has put in force a set of Regulations on Centralized Funeral Arrangement, which bans priests from attending funeral prayers outside a religious place. The government claims the new rules aim to “get rid of bad funeral customs and establish a scientific, civilized and economical way of funerals.” “Clerical personnel are not allowed to participate in funerals” at homes and “no more than 10 family members of the deceased are allowed to read scriptures or sing hymns in a low voice,” the rules state. The new rules began to take effect recently, although enacted on...
Here is a ZENIT translation of the address Pope Francis gave today, before and after praying the midday Angelus with those gathered in St. Peter’s Square. * * * Before the Angelus: Dear Brothers and Sisters, good morning! Today we celebrate the feast of the Presentation of the Lord, when the newborn Jesus was presented in the Temple by the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph. Observed on this date also is the World Day of Consecrated Life, which recalls the treasure in the Church of those that follow the Lord closely, professing the evangelical counsels. The Gospel (Cf. Luke 2:22-40) recounts that forty days after His birth, Jesus’ parents took Him to Jerusalem to consecrate Him to God, as prescribed by the Jewish Law. And, while describing a rite provided by the tradition, this episode cal...
Have you ever thought about the correlation of the time of day to the bad habits we have? While its not always the case, typically we are tempted the most during the night-time hours. Why is that? This isn’t a new idea, as the Bible plainly reveals the reason why it is sometimes difficult to remain virtuous in physical darkness. The man who dishonors his marriage bed says to himself, “Who can see me? Darkness surrounds me, walls hide me, no one sees me. Who can stop me from sinning?” (Sirach 23:18) For thinking that in their secret sins they were unobserved behind a dark curtain of forgetfulness. (Wisdom 17:3) Think about it for a few minutes. What bad habits do you have? Are there any “pet sins” that are difficult for you to stop? What time of day is it easiest for you...
By Dr. Jeff Mirus ( bio – articles – email ) | Jan 31, 2020 Not long ago Pope Francis expressed concern that, in praying the Our Father, people should not think that God ever leads them into temptation, so another translation would be better. Actually, however, God does in some sense lead us into temptation. When we look at this from the mindset of the ancient Jews, we can see very clearly how this is true. It is bound up in the reality of Providence. In general, the Old Testament texts do not distinguish what we would now call God’s permissive will from his active will. This can create confusion when we read things like, “God hardened Pharaoh’s heart”. If that is so, how can Pharaoh be blamed for his response to Moses? Why is it Pharaoh’s chariots and charioteers that are dest...
Last night I was honored to be the guest speaker at the fund raising gala for the Fr Capodanno School High School in Pinehurst, NC. The school is an independent Catholic start up with only a handful of students, but like most of these entrepreneurial Catholic enterprises it is full of energy, youth, enthusiasm, solid Catholic faith and a joyful hope for the future. This is one of the things I love most about American Catholicism. On the one hand you have the old Catholic establishment. They have their big colleges in the Northeast. They have their bureaucracies, diocesan structures, big budgets, big donors and all that boring stuff. They also have, for hte most part, a secular, materialistic, liberal American mindset. They run the show using lawyers, insurance companies, fund raising profe...
The liturgical focus of the Feast of the Presentation, which we celebrate today, is light. Christ is our light, and the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light! In the Gospel, Simeon holds the infant Jesus and calls Him “a light for revelation to the Gentiles.” Thus, this feast has long featured the carrying of candles by the faithful in procession and the blessing of candles. For this reason, the feast was often called Candlemas. Today’s feast celebrates the “purification” of Our Lady. As a Jewish woman, she presented herself forty days after giving birth to be blessed and welcomed back to the community. I have written more on the history of that practice here: The Churching of Women. In this reflection, we will attend to four teachings or perspectives gleaned from the ...
Vatican City, Feb 2, 2020 / 06:20 am (CNA).- Pope Francis spoke Sunday about the need for Catholics to be active in going out to announce the faith of Jesus Christ to the world. “The world needs Christians who let themselves be moved, who never tire of walking the streets of life, to bring everyone the consoling word of Jesus,” he said Feb. 2 in his Angelus address. “Every baptized person has received the vocation to proclaim,” he added “– to proclaim something, to proclaim Jesus – the vocation to the evangelizing mission: to proclaim Jesus!” For the feast of the Presentation of the Lord, Pope Francis reflected on the day’s Gospel passage, which speaks of Joseph and Mary bringing the child Jesus to be consecrated in the temple, where they encountered the holy Simeon and Anna. These men and...
It happens from time to time that a feast of the Lord falls on a Sunday in Ordinary Time and, since such a feast ranks high among the liturgical days, it replaces even the Sunday celebration. Such is the case on Sunday, February 2, 2020. On this day, rather than observing the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, the Roman Rite will celebrate the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord. And there is much to dig out about this day. For many non-observant Catholics, though, the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord (also called the Feast of the Purification of Our Lady, the Feast of the Meeting of the Lord, and Candlemas) is overshadowed by Punxsutawney Phil. On Groundhog Day, Punxsutawney Phil ceremoniously emerges from his lair in west-central Pennsylvania from which the eponymous rodent received ...
The great Catholic educator St. John Bosco was known to suffocate his students with love. This meant that he identified and affirmed his students as children created in the image and likeness of God. Part of this unique approach was instilling in his students a sense of moral discipline, the use of reason and the study of religion. St. John Bosco was not passive in his approach with “his boys” in many respects he was a strict disciplinarian who had little tolerance for disobedience, and he was not shy of expressing his displeasure with their behavior when warranted. The Method of St. John Bosco One of St. John’s Bosco’s education tenets was the art of dialogue. He would consistently establish relationships with his students by way of dialogue e.g. learning their ways, attitudes, and inclin...
Lay People, messy families we need you! The Church needs you. We will die without you. Priests and Religious need you. We don’t just need you for our annual fund or to bring dinner to our homes. We need you so badly and are afraid to admit it. We need to remember what family is. We need to see children making mistakes and being forgiven, we need to see play, we need humor. We need you to invite us into the chaos of your homes, not to fix it or bless it but to be in it and see it as it is. We need to belong without being needed for service. We need you to see beyond the habit or collar to our own fragility. We need someone who will invite us not just to be on Instagram with them but weak with them. We need a brother or sister who will not be scandalized that we struggle. Priests need ...