IPhone confession app ‘no substitute’ for sacrament
Fr. Frederico Lombardi (Photo courtesy of Catholic News Service)VATICAN CITY – A Vatican official said a new iPhone application can [...]
Pope prays for peaceful outcome of Egyptian unrest
VATICAN CITY –– Pope Benedict XVI prayed for a peaceful outcome of the political unrest in Egypt, and the Vatican [...]
European Catholic theologians call for end to celibacy, other changes
WASHINGTON –– More than 140 Catholic theologians from universities in Austria, Germany and Switzerland called for the church to end [...]
Bishop hopes settlement brings healing to survivors, renewal to church
Pat Nagle and Mary Dougherty, victims of clergy sexual abuse, speak during a press conference, Feb. 3, the day after [...]
Court decisions, congressional actions challenge health reform law
WASHINGTON –– The health reform law passed last year faces continuing challenges in the courts, Congress and at the administrative [...]
Pope cannot be organ donor, Vatican official says
Pope Benedict XVI greets Christian leaders as he leaves an ecumenical evening prayer service that marked the close of the [...]
US judge rules law making pregnancy center post sign unconstitutional
Lindsay Rupprecht, coordinator for the Center for Pregnancy Concerns at St. Brigid in Baltimore, Md., displays a sign that was [...]
What last fall’s elections meant to pro-life movement
WASHINGTON – House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia said that after being out of power on Capitol Hill for the past couple of years, pro-life supporters in Congress and across the nation have been re-energized since last November's elections brought in "the biggest pro-life freshman class in memory."
"The tide has turned," Cantor said in remarks at the March for Life rally on the National Mall, held Jan. 24 to mark the 38th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion.
Jan. 22 was the official anniversary date, but the March for Life was organized for the following Monday to allow participants to visit their representatives on the Hill after a noon rally and a march along Constitution Avenue to the Supreme Court.
Members of the House pledge to institute a government-wide ban on the use of federal funds for abortion, said Cantor. He acknowledged that any pro-life legislation will face an uphill battle in the Senate and with President Barack Obama, a supporter of keeping abortion legal, but "the people's House will stand unapologetically for life."
Archbishop Dolan closing 27 schools
NEW YORK – Twenty-seven Catholic schools in the New York Archdiocese – victims of low enrollment and rising costs – [...]
Online social networks can help spread the Gospel
Bishop Ronald P. Herzog of Alexandria, La., talks about social media and the church during the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops annual fall meeting in Baltimore Nov. 15. (CNS photo/Nancy Wiechec)VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI invited Christians to join online social networks in order to spread the Gospel through digital media and discover "an entirely new world of potential friendships."
At the same time, the pope warned of the limits and the dangers of digital communication, including the risks of constructing a false online image and of replacing direct human contact with virtual relationships.
"Entering cyberspace can be a sign of an authentic search for personal encounters with others, provided that attention is paid to avoiding dangers such as enclosing oneself in a sort of parallel existence, or excessive exposure to the virtual world," the pope said in his message for the 2011 celebration of World Communications Day.
"In the search for sharing, for 'friends,' there is the challenge to be authentic and faithful, and not give in to the illusion of constructing an artificial public profile for oneself," he said.
The theme of this year's World Communications Day, which will be celebrated June 5, is "Truth, proclamation and authenticity of life in the digital age." In his message, released Jan 24, the pope acknowledged that the Internet has fundamentally changed the way people communicate today.