Universal Pictures will release a special edition “Legacy of Faith” DVD of the Angelina Jolie-directed film Unbroken on Tuesday that will be available exclusively at Christian outlets. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the special Christian edition of the DVD includes both
On March 8, Pope Francis visited the parish of Santa Maria Madre del Redentore, in the poor Roman neighborhood known as Tor Bella Monaca. Now he has sent a thousand pounds of food as well as medicine to the poorest families of the area.
Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz is counting on the support of conservative Christians to build a base he can spring from to capture the 2016 GOP presidential nomination.
The pizza makers of Neapolitan Pizzeria Don Ernesto decided the Pope deserved a specially personalized pizza, whether he had ordered it or not. The ingenious baker jumped over the makeshift barrier lining the route of the papal entourage and ran up to the Popemobile, handing the pizza to Pope Francis, while his comrades got the whole scene on video.
NAPLES, Italy, March 23 (UPI) — A Naples, Italy, pizzeria owner jumped a barrier during Pope Francis’ visit and ran up to the Popemobile to hand off a pizza to the pontiff. The pope told a Vatican Radio interview earlier
Polygamy is widely practiced in Gaza—and the women (or “sister wives”) are not happy about it.
Amidst the enthusiasm for the upcoming Jubilee year of 2016 proclaimed by Pope Francis, Cardinal Camillo Ruini has added a sobering note of caution. “Terrorism is the greatest threat looming over the Jubilee proclaimed by Pope Francis. You cannot ignore it after what has happened in Tunisia,” he said in an interview this weekend with the Italian daily La Repubblica.
In Urumqi, the capital of China’s northwestern province Xinjiang, residents are still recovering from a violent riot five summers ago between the minority Turkic Muslims — the Uighurs — and the majority Han people.
Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY) took Tea Party stalwart Rep. Steve King (R-IA) to task for his criticism of liberal Jews: “I don’t understand how Jews in America can be Democrats first and Jewish second and support Israel along the line of just following their president. They’re knee-jerk supporters of the president’s policy.” The context was the decision of several dozen Democrats, including some Jews, to boycott the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress.
When the Archbishop of Naples picked up the vial containing the 1700-year-old dried blood of the city’s patron Saint Januarius to present it to Pope Francis Saturday, someone in the Naples cathedral shouted: “Miracle.” According to witnesses, the blood of
In his ongoing campaign to reach out to the lost and marginalized, Pope Francis spent all day Saturday exploring the Naples underbelly, seeking out the poorer areas of town, a prison, and sections dominated by the Neapolitan mafia, or “Camorra.”
In what is being dubbed “the most important new genetic engineering technique since the beginning of the biotechnology age in the 1970s,” scientists have made an enormous breakthrough in editing human genetic material. The possibilities of the technology are so vast that scientists themselves are already calling for ethical discussion and restraint.
In a historic statement, Pope Francis has closed the door to the death penalty, calling it “inadmissible.” In so doing, he has gone beyond any pope before him in condemning capital punishment.
In a new report, the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians expressed serious “concerns” regarding the human rights situation in Austria, especially regarding Christians.
VATICAN CITY (AP) — A disgraced Scottish prelate who admitted to sexual misdeeds has resigned from his cardinal’s post. The Vatican said Friday Pope Francis accepted 77-year-old Keith O’Brien’s resignation from “the rights and privileges of a cardinal.” In 2013,
The president of the Indian conference of Catholic bishops, Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, has insisted that the Indian government take its responsibility seriously to bring to justice the criminals who raped an elderly nun and assaulted several others. “I ask the authorities to guarantee that justice is done,” he said.
A traditionalist Catholic bishop is facing his second excommunication as he plans to consecrate one of his followers as a bishop without the Pope’s consent. Richard Williamson, who achieved notoriety when he used a television interview to deny the existence
A painting on display in Trumbull, Connecticut, that depicts an image of Mother Teresa with Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, and abortion proponent Gloria Steinem has been the subject of much controversy over issues of freedom of speech and religion.
In a sharply-worded memo, Navy Chaplain Wesley Modder’s commander denied his request for a “religious accommodation” in a disciplinary process that has relieved him of his command and could kick him out of the Navy forever. Modder stands accused of homophobia and insensitivity–though, in the official documents, the term is “substandard performance”–which could trump all the accolades he has received in almost 20 years of military service and throw his professional life into ruin.
A largely overlooked column by human rights advocate Armando Valadares raises questions about the initiative of Pope Francis toward the “island-prison” of Cuba.
Pope Francis returned to the topic of the West’s ageing population Wednesday, insisting that when the birthrate of a society barely makes it to one percent, “we can say that this society is sad and gray because it is left without children.”
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) approved redefining marriage in the church constitution Tuesday to include a “commitment between two people,” becoming the largest Protestant group to formally recognize gay marriage as Christian and allow same-sex weddings in every congregation.
As Israelis vote Tuesday, one critical factor may be the youth vote, newly-energized by a contested race (and by millions of dollars in foreign donations, including from U.S. taxpayers, to left-wing get-out-the-vote efforts). One critical factor in the expected strong performance by the Zionist Union opposition to incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party is that young Israelis voting for the first time will have had no real memory of the Oslo peace process–and its failure.
Though a staunch defender of a human right to migration, Francis addressed the immense damage done to nations when their best and brightest leave home for greener pastures, a reality that has struck Bosnia and Herzegovina with a special vengeance.
Recent years have seen an increasing reluctance on the part of the Vatican to speak of the traditional “Just War Doctrine,” as Church officials have urged the exhaustion of diplomatic solutions before even considering the use of force. This reluctance seems now to be giving way to a grittier realism in the face of a relentless enemy with whom constructive, rational dialogue is impossible.
