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On the Mendicant Orders "The Proposal of a 'Lay Sanctity' Won Many People" VATICAN CITY, JAN. 13, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI delivered today during the general audience in Paul VI Hall. * * * Dear Brothers and Sisters, At the beginning of the new year, we look at the history of Christianity, to see how a history develops and how it can be renewed. In it we can see that it is the saints, guided by the light of God, who are the genuine reformers of the life of the Church and of...

They've been mistaken for Jedi-wannabes headed to a Star Wars convention. They've been investigated by police, approached by strangers, gawked at from cars and offered gifts of crumpled dollar bills and Little Debbie snacks. After trekking along more than 300 miles of dusty Virginia country roads and suburban highways, six Franciscan friars reached Washington on Tuesday, having seen it all during an offbeat modern-day quest for God. For six weeks, the brothers walked from Roanoke with only their brown robes, sandals and a belief in the kindness of strangers to feed and shelter them. The sight of six men in...

Turn up the sound and groove.

Formal fiddleback chasubles and modest Franciscan sandals come together in the Extraordinary Form of the Mass (Traditional Latin Mass) at Our Lady of Guadalupe Friary of the Franciscans of the Immaculate. The video is put to beautiful music from the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate, our sister order. The music was recorded in Italy and is a fine example of the high quality of their music which, combined with the friars in Italy, are playing a major part in spearheading the reform of liturgical music in Italy.

In Memoriam: Br. Francis Mary Kalvelage, FI (1923-2007)THE EARLY YEARSBorn Martin Kalvelage on April 9, 1923, Bro. Francis Mary was raised in San Francisco, California. During World War II he served with the armed forces as a pilot in the Pacific theatre of operations. Such initial training prepared his natural propensities for the gift of grace: discipline, fidelity, hard working and above all a deep sense of purpose. The angelic doctor St. Thomas confirms that grace is built upon nature. A humorous account Bro. Francis used to tell his confreres that served as one of the factors for him to...

The thin stream of blood extended the length of the sidewalk running by the Catholic monastery's front door, trickled around the corner and ended midway down the block. The friars who live inside assumed a gunshot victim had collapsed. There, the monks gathered one night last summer and prayed, as residents of 13th Avenue in Newark's West Ward looked on. Two months later, the friars showed up in religious garb at a fu neral for another young area gunshot victim, and they again drew stares. Last autumn, the friars learned that people liked having them in the neighborhood. A man...

Sainthood sought for slain 16th-century Ga. missionaries By RUSS BYNUMAssociated Press Writer SAVANNAH, Ga. - The report took 23 years to compile, with each of its nearly 500 pages individually notarized to ensure authenticity, before the Rev. Conrad Harkins carried it across the Atlantic Ocean in a box sealed by the Catholic Diocese of Savannah. Harkins arrived at the Vatican with the package in late March. After 410 years, five Spanish missionaries slain by Guale Indians on what's now the Georgia coast were on the path to possible sainthood. The documents delivered by Harkins make up the official case urging...

Rome (AsiaNews) – Hundreds of faithful in the Xian diocese, along with their friends and relatives, protested in the streets of the city yesterday to call for justice against a group of “thugs” who, on the night of November 23, brutally attacked 16 nuns of the Congregation of the Franciscan Sacred Heart Missionaries. These nuns have been admitted to hospital: one has lost her eyesight and another is also in serious condition. The nuns were attempting to prevent the demolition of a school that belongs to the diocese but that city authorities sold to a commercial company. The nuns had...

I took this right off the Jihad Watch website. Mr. Spencer received it from a reader. Pax Christi involvement... From a Jihad Watch reader: "I am rather upset this wonderful morning in NYC. I arrived this morning at a Catholic retreat sponsored by Pax Christi at the NYU Catholic Center. The retreat was titled "Peacemaking Beyond Ourselves, Beyond Our Borders with Francis and Claire." It was led by Kevin Queally, TOR. The day was to focus on St. Francis, his outreach to others, including a Muslim Sultan during the Crusades. As I proceed to look at the literature handed out,...

LOUIS IX Also known asLouis Capet Memorial25 AugustProfileKing for 44 years, being crowned at age 12; his mother ruled as regent until he reached 22. Founded monasteries, built leper hospitals, and collected relics. Married at age 19, and father of eleven. Franciscan tertiary. Led two Crusades and died on one. Born25 April 1214 at Poissy, FranceDied25 August 1270 at Tunis, AlgeriaCanonized1297 Name Meaningfamous warrior Patronagearchdiocese of Saint Louis, Missouri, barbers, builders, button makers, construction workers, Crusaders, death of children, difficult marriages, distillers, embroiderers, French monarchs, grooms, haberdashers, hairdressers, hair stylists, kings, masons, needle workers, parenthood, parents of large families, prisoners, sculptors, sick people, soldiers, stone masons, stonecutters, tertiariesRepresentationcrown of thorns; king holding a cross king...

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...

Westcott's Peace-Movement No true Christian loves war. A Bible believer takes the premillenial view and realizes that war is caused by the sinful nature of mankind-James 4:1. He understands that this will all be changed at Christ's return-Philippians 3:21.

Taking issue with the Vatican Monday, October 21, 2002 By JOHN CHADWICK Staff Writer As he left church Sunday, parishioner Peter Melchiano said Catholics should consider sending a simple but powerful message to the Vatican about its handling of the clergy sexual abuse scandal. "I think it comes down to either zero tolerance, or zero donations," Melchiano said. A schoolteacher in Paterson, Melchiano said he's outraged over Rome's rejection last week of the American church's tough new rules for priests who abuse children. The rules, which called for removing any priest for a single instance of sexual abuse, are in...

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) — The priest in charge of the Church of the Nativity left the besieged compound Sunday for the first time in a month so he could celebrate Mass at a nearby church. The Rev. Ibrahim Faltas and another monk from inside the church were escorted by Palestinian and Israeli vehicles to St. Anthony's Church, about 1 1/2 miles from the Church of the Nativity. They returned a few hours later. More than 200 Palestinians, including about 30 gunmen, took cover in the compound April 2 in a hail of gunfire during an Israeli invasion, part of...

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian gunmen hiding in Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity have exchanged fire with Israeli soldiers who have surrounded the traditional birthplace of Jesus in a two-week-old standoff. Fransiscan Father Seweryn Lubecki, who is one of several dozen Christian clerics stranded in the church after Palestinian gunmen burst in two weeks ago, said the fighting lasted for about an hour. "We could hear heavy rifle and tank shooting. It is hard for us to determine who started the shooting. We are locked up and we could not see the whole thing," he told Reuters by telephone....

ROME (Reuters) - Pope John Paul has telephoned Franciscan monks holed up in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem to express his solidarity with them, the Vatican said Tuesday. Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the Pope spoke Monday afternoon to Father Ibrahim Faltas, Catholic head of the shrine. "The Pope thanked them for their Christian witness and sent them his blessing in this moment of particular difficulty," the statement said. Israeli soldiers have surrounded the church which Christians believe stands on the site of the birthplace of Jesus, for about two weeks in a standoff with about 100 Palestinians...