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St. Padre Pio Rome, Sep 22, 2008 / 12:39 pm (CNA).- In an article published by the L’Osservatore Romano, Francesco Castelli, a biographer of St. Pio of Pietrelcina, has revealed details of the first investigation in 1921 by the Holy Office—now the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith—into the life of the Italian priest and the authenticity of his stigmata.Castelli explained that the recent opening of the archives that contain the information on the first investigations show that it is not true that the Holy Office was suspicious of Padre Pio, but rather that there was admiration and...

http://www.airmaria.com/?sn=37&vp=1988&prefx=finews&plyrnb=1&ttl=FI%20News Video - FiNews #37 - FI Vocations Video (Short Version) FI News #37 - The life and charism of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate. ( 04min) >>> Play Ave Maria! Here is the short version of our vocations video. The long one (8 min) is to come out in a week or two. Enjoy this video of our charism and life as Franciscan friars totally consecrated to the Immaculate and if you know anyone who is discerning a vocation or you think has a vocation, please forward them the link. And most of all, please pray for vocations....

Italians were shocked yesterday by a ferocious assault on Franciscan monks by hooded thugs at a monastery in the foothills of the Alps which has left one of the monks fighting for his life. Father Sergio Baldini, 48, the guardian of the San Colombano Belmonte monastery near Turin, and three elderly monks from the Franciscan order of Friars Minor were having their evening meal when they were attacked by three hooded men who gagged and bound them before punching, kicking and beating them with clubs. Father Baldini suffered severe head injuries but also has "serious respiratory problems" because he choked...

Bishop leads pilgrimage to "Georgia martyrs" site ST. CATHERINES ISLAND - Their last moments must have been lonely. Surrounded by a mob of angry Indians, five Franciscan friars from Spain died trying to bring Christianity to the coast of modern Georgia. More than 400 years later, leaders of the Catholic Diocese of Savannah are working to have those missionaries declared martyrs, and someday, possibly saints. After 23 years of research by church officials, the Rev. Conrad Harkins, a historian at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, hand-delivered documents to the Vatican in April - marking the official start of the argument...

In recent times, an expert on angelology and demonology, the chief exorcist of the Diocese of Rome, Fr. Gabriel Amorth, wrote a most concise and lucid summation of the Franciscan thesis in his book An Exorcist Tells his Story. Before he ‘tells his story’, he begins by “first stating some basic facts about God’s plan for creation.” He writes (in Chapter 1): “All too often we have the wrong concept of creation, and we take for granted the following wrong sequence of events. We believe that one day God created the angels; that He put them to the test, although...

A Son of St. Francis, A Knight of the Immaculate 1923-2007 Br. Francis Mary Kalvelage, FI was born in Portland, Oregon in 1923, the youngest in a family of five brothers. While he was still young the family moved to San Francisco and it was here that he was raised. During the period of World War II, Br. Francis served his country in the United States Air Force as a naval aviator. It was in this period of his life that Our Lord was preparing him to engage in a different type of service. One day Brother attempted to perform...

WAPPINGERS FALLS, N.Y. (CNS) -- In late July, carloads of curious Catholics caravanned north from their church to a mosque in the next county. Three dozen Catholics who regularly attend Mass at the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement's Graymoor Spiritual Life Center in Garrison accepted a Muslim visitor's invitation to attend services at Masjid Al-Noor, his mosque in Wappingers Falls. Entering the two-story white frame building, the visitors placed their shoes alongside their host's on wire racks lining one wall of the foyer. The women, already modestly covered from chin to ankle, pulled on scarves to cover their hair. The...

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Since 1899, a Franciscan monastery in the Brookland neighborhood of Washington has been a popular stop for pilgrims who want a glimpse of the Holy Land. The grounds of the monastery feature dozens of replicas of significant Christian sites from Europe and the Holy Land, including many surrounding the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The friars of Mount St. Sepulcher Franciscan Monastery and Commissariat of the Holy Land represent the Christian interest in the Holy Land, and it shows in the beauty of their church and the surrounding gardens. Brother Maximilian Wojciechowski, a friar of...

Fr. Francis Mary welcomes the The Community of Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal was Established in 1988 under the auspices of John Cardinal O’Connor of New York, with Fr. Andrew Apostoli, CFR, as Founding Father. The aim of the Community is to live the Gospel values in simplicity according to the ideals of Saint Francis as handed on by the Capuchin tradition. The spiritual values uniting the sisters are personal and communal commitment to Jesus Christ through contemplative and liturgical prayer (daily Mass and Divine Office), daily Eucharistic adoration, Fridays as a special day of prayer, a time set...

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (CNS) -- Palestinians now can enjoy a new, one-of-a-kind sports center where they can work out, practice on regulation-sized courts and play safely. "It's something good to bring to Bethlehem, such a place. There is no place like this where women and also men can practice sports," said Sylvia Ghattas, 21, as she finished her workout in the gym of the Catholic Action-run sports center. The building, financed by the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land, boasts the only regulation-sized and equipped basketball court in the Palestinian territories, as well as a gym and two multipurpose halls....

Nazi Eichmann's passport found in ArgentinaThe passport used by notorious Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann to enter Argentina in 1950 has been found by accident in an archive in Buenos Aires. The passport, still in good condition, was issued by the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva. Eichmann was one of the main executors of Adolf Hitler's 'final solution', the Nazi genocide of Jews during World War II. A judge, Maria Servini de Cubria, stumbled upon the document in court archives. The passport has been handed over to the Holocaust Museum in Buenos Aires, which confirmed the discovery....

Westerners sometimes assume that Europe and North America are always on the side of the angels when it comes to religious freedom, so that the “reciprocity” question dear to Pope Benedict XVI is largely a matter of bringing the Islamic world up to Western standards of tolerance and liberty. In fact, however, the reciprocity question can be complicated in the West too, in a way that certainly doesn’t escape the attention of Muslim eyes. The rubber hits the road in places such as the blue collar neighborhood of Cornigliano in the Italian port city of Genoa, where plans by Italian...

The Capuchin Franciscans began their 83rd General Chapter this morning in Rome with a Mass celebrated by the community's first cardinal in half a century, Boston's Sean P. O'Malley. The gathering, held at the order's International College of St Lawrence of Brindisi, runs until 17 September. The chief order of business awaiting the 200 or so delegates is the election a new General Minister in succession to Canadian Fr John Corriveau, who has reached the limit of two six-year terms. While the order will release an official summary of each day's activities, interested parties would be wise to keep...

St. Padre Pio during the Offertory of the Latin rite Mass according to the Traditional Missal.

(Taken from the old Breviary) While the Mohammedans were besieging Assisi and trying to seize the monastery of St Clare, she desired, though sick, to be carried to the gate of the city, together with a vessel in which the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist was contained, and there she prayed: "Do not hand over to the beasts, O Lord, the souls confessing you, and guard your maid-servants, whom thou hast redeemed by thy Precious Blood!" At whose prayer, a great voice was heard: "I will always protect you!" Indeed part of the Musselmen betook themselves to flight while...

The Man Who Stepped Out of LineIn this post-feminist age where men are still learning remedial masculinity, we have a model of manhood lived heroically which we would do well to emulate. In the early twentieth century Poland gave us that manly priest, John Paul II, but also his hero, Maximilian Kolbe, priest, missionary, spiritual father and martyr of brotherly love. St. Maximilian’s feast day is August 14th, the vigil of his beloved Virgin Mary’s Assumption and the day which commemorates the conquest of virile love over the totalitarian creeds of his generation. As men, we could all learn a...

The question of Medjugorje is a huge (and often heated) one, and it looks like it's about to get bigger and, well, more heated: VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Cardinal Vinko Puljic of Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, announced a commission would be formed to review the alleged Marian apparitions at Medjugorje and pastoral provisions for the thousands of pilgrims who visit the town each year. "The commission members have not been named yet," Cardinal Puljic told Catholic News Service in a July 24 telephone interview. "I am awaiting suggestions from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith" on theologians to appoint....

Rome, Jul. 11, 2006 (CNA) - The Diocese of Osnabrück in Germany has announced it is building a convent on the site of the Nazi concentration camp of Esterwegen, where four religious sisters of the Franciscans of Münster will take up residence to serve those visiting the camp. The Kath.net news agency reported that the construction of the convent will entail demolishing the old building that housed the offices of the Nazi officials who ran the camp.  The land where the camp is located belongs to the municipality of Emsland, which has granted approval for the construction. The Franciscan sisters...

Bogotá, Jul. 04, 2006 (CNA) - A Franciscan priest was killed this week in Colombia in the northern region of Magdalena.  Initial investigations indicate the 46 year-old priest was assaulted. Father Luis Alfonso Herrera Moreno, who was the accountant at the San Luis Beltran School, operated by the Franciscans in the costal city of Santa Marta, disappeared on Tuesday after he went out to run a few errands for the school.  His body was found one day later and police said it appeared he had been bludgeoned to death.   According to other officials at the school, Father Herrera took...

The great Anthony of Padua has a universal appeal in the Catholic Church (he is truly a "catholic" saint). His statue can be found in churches the world over. He is most famous as the patron of lost articles. God knows how many times I've invoked his intercession in that area. But he has earned another title for his gift of converting the "sheep who had wandered" with his preaching - malleus haereticorum - or "the hammer of heretics." While he is known for being a saint of the Italian city of Padua, St. Anthony was actually from Portugal, and...

While I am a member of the Secular Franciscan Order and of St. John the Baptist parish in Schenectady, once again this year, I will fast at least one day during the holy month of Ramadan in the Islamic lunar calendar. (This year, Ramadan lasts from Oct. 15 through Nov. 14.) From early dawn until dusk turns to dark, nothing will pass my lips, neither food nor drink, neither medicine nor toothpaste. While fasting, I will pray. I will remember, in my hunger and with the bad taste of "fasting breath" in my mouth, those who go hungry involuntarily and...

Vera M. Calandra, 69; built shrine to Padre Pio and promoted his cause. Vera M. Calandra, 69, formerly of Norristown, who helped promote the cause for canonization of the Italian Capuchin friar Padre Pio, died Aug. 19 of heart failure at her home in Barto, Berks County. In 1966, Mrs. Calandra gave birth to her fifth child, daughter Veramarie. The baby had severe urinary tract defects and was operated on several times by Dr. C. Everett Koop at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Koop eventually removed the child's bladder and told her parents that she could not survive. At the time,...

In the early morning hours today, 10 June, I was waiting in line with thousands of other mourners on the National Mall in Washington, DC to enter the Capitol Rotunda to pay our respects to our beloved former President, Ronald Reagan. As I entered the queue, I saw two women dressed in Franciscan habits, or at least what I thought were Franciscan habits. As the passed by me in the other direction, I asked to join them in their part of the line. I was wearing a crucifix around my neck which I showed to them. I asked them what...

CHARLOTTE AMALIE, US Virgin Islands - She'd been a spiritual wanderer for 20 years, studying century-old teachings of a Russian philosopher, seeking tranquility in Zen and Hinduism. For Charlene Kehoe, Catholicism was a relic of a past she thought she'd left far behind. Her bond with the Catholic Church of her youth had frayed to little more than a seasonal reflex - one token visit at Christmas that was more social than religious. And even that one service could be a sharp reminder of why she'd left. ''I was so disgusted, I think I walked out after Communion,'' Kehoe said...

The Gray Friars, six Franciscan monks from the Bronx, have set up a mission in one of the poorest areas of London's East End 2 of 8 "We look odd and people are afraid of what looks odd," says Brother John Paul. "People were stand-offish, but now it's great." 3 of 8 The friars open their doors to 30 homeless people. "Poverty here isn't a lack of food, it's not having friendship." 4 of 8 The friars live simply and rely on donations to put a roof over their own heads and to offer shelter and food to others 5...

DEVELOPMENTS - BOOKPROOFS 05/12/03 – 10:03 AMDEVELOPMENTS IN THE LAWTHE LAW OF MARRIAGE AND FAMILY"Great families of yesterday we show,And lords whose parents were the Lord knows who."DANIEL DEFOE, THE TRUE-BORN ENGLISHMANpt. 1, l. 374 (1701)."[G]roups that have historically been the target of discrimination cannote expected to wait patiently for the protection of their human dignity and equal rights while governments move toward reform one stepat a time."Vriend v. Alberta, [1998] 1 S.C.R. 493, 559 (Can.) (Iacobucci, J.)."The possibility of divorce renders both marriage partners stricter in their observance of the duties they owe to each other."DENIS DIDEROT, Observations on...

YONKERS — Cardinal Edward Egan will ordain eight new priests this morning, but only four will go out in the world with the classic parish priest look: all black suits, white clerical collar, neat Eddie Haskell haircuts. The other four will look as if they're auditioning to play medieval monks in some community theater, with their gray, hooded robes, shaved heads and long, unkempt beards of which Mrs. Haskell never would have approved. Few at St. Patrick's Cathedral will stare with wonder at these men, though, because the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal have become a common sight at New...

YONKERS — Cardinal Edward Egan will ordain eight new priests this morning, but only four will go out in the world with the classic parish priest look: all black suits, white clerical collar, neat Eddie Haskell haircuts. The other four will look as if they're auditioning to play medieval monks in some community theater, with their gray, hooded robes, shaved heads and long, unkempt beards of which Mrs. Haskell never would have approved. Few at St. Patrick's Cathedral will stare with wonder at these men, though, because the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal have become a common sight at New...

Nine Days of PrayerFrom the Ascension to Pentecost the Apostles followed the Lord Jesus' command to pray for nine days waiting for the promised Holy Spirit.  We continue to pray these novenas at various points in life.  In common with the first novena, we pray fervently and unceasingly, and we wait on the Holy Spirit to be released to renew the face of the earth. This Novena begins at sunset and concludes at sunset on the ninth day. Centered on the life and ministry of St. Francis, this novena may be undertaken at any time or when there is special...