Pope Francis offers prayers for earthquake victims in Indonesia

Vatican City, Mar 31, 2017 / 04:42 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Members of EWTN’s Rome Bureau on Friday met Benedict XVI in the Vatican Gardens to explain their work and thank him for his service to the Church, while he in turn thanked them for their efforts.

“Thank you for your work,” the emeritus Pope said March 31 to the six persons present at the encounter, who represented the various programs produced at the bureau.

Had the immense blessing of mtg Benedict XVI today w some colleagues from @EWTN – I can only be #grateful! pic.twitter.com/Wb0pBgXSsG

— Elise Harris (@eharris_it) March 31, 2017

EWTN’s Rome bureau has roughly 25 employees, producing both print and television news.

Members who attended audience were selected to represent each of the entities produced in the office, and included bureau chief Alan Holdren; office manager Emanuele Latini; head of production Pilar Piero; EWTN News Nightly producer Mary Shovlain; CNA correspondent Elise Harris; and ACI Prensa correspondent Alvaro de Juana.

The team met Benedict in the Vatican Gardens at 4:30 in the afternoon, when the emeritus Pope prays his daily rosary. He was accompanied by Archbishop Georg Ganswein, prefect of the papal household.

After finishing his prayer, Benedict removed his hat and stood up to greet the team.  

Benedict was clear and alert, and interested in each person as they approched him.

Leading the delegation, Holdren gave a brief introduction to the organization; the emeritus Pope marvelled at the size of the bureau.

Benedict greeted each member of the group individually, learning about their families and their work.

Holdren gave the Bavarian personal letters from all those present. He in turn offered each of them  a medal and commemorative cards of his 2012 visit to Lebanon, the last he took as Roman Pontiff.

He then gave the group his blessing and departed for his residence in the Vatican’s Mater Ecclesiae monastery.

The audience was granted to mark the one-year anniversary of the March 27, 2016 death of Mother Angelica, foundress of EWTN.

She launched the network in 1981, and it today transmits programming to more than 264 million homes in 144 countries. What began with approximately 20 employees has now grown to nearly 400.

The religious network broadcasts terrestrial and shortwave radio around the world, operates a religious goods catalog and publishes the National Catholic Register and Catholic News Agency, among other publishing ventures.

Among the television coverage produced through the Rome office are EWTN’s 30-minute weekly news program “Vaticano,” as well as a portion of “EWTN News Nightly.”

In addition, there are eight correspondents who write print news for Catholic News Agency and two of her sister-agencies, ACI Prensa and ACI Stampa.

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Vatican City, May 19, 2018 / 04:19 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Following a meeting between the Council of Cardinals and Pope Francis Saturday, the Vatican announced that Bl. Pope Paul VI and Bl. Oscar Romero will be canonized together on Oct. 14, 2018.

During an ordinary consistory May 19, Francis decreed that the two blesseds will be canonized alongside four others: Bl. Francesco Spinelli, a diocesan priest and founder of the Institute of the Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament; Bl. Vincenzo Romano, a diocesan priest from Torre de Greco in Italy; Bl. Maria Caterina Kasper, a German nun and founder of the Institute of the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ; and Nazaria Ignazia of Saint Teresa of Jesus, founder of the Congregation of the Misioneras Cruzadas de la Iglesia Sisters.

As expected, the canonizations will take place during the 2018 Synod of Bishops on the topic of young people, the faith and vocational discernment, which is set to take place Oct. 3-28, 2018.

The Vatican had announced March 7 that Pope Paul VI and Archbishop Oscar Romero would be canonized following the recognition of a second miracle through their intercession.

Born Giovanni Montini in 1897 in the town of Concesio, Italy, the future Pope Paul VI was ordained a priest at the age of 22. He served as Archbishop of Milan prior to his election as Bishop of Rome in 1963.

As pope, he oversaw much of the Second Vatican Council, which had been opened by Pope St. John XXIII, and in 1969 promulgated a new Roman Missal. He died in 1978, and was beatified by Pope Francis Oct. 19, 2014.

Pope Francis himself unofficially confirmed the news of Paul VI’s canonization during his annual meeting with the priests of Rome Feb. 17.

Apart from his role in the council, Paul VI is most widely know for his landmark encyclical Humanae Vitae, which was published in 1968 and reaffirmed the Church’s teaching against contraception in wake of the sexual revolution. This year marks the 50th anniversary the historic encyclical.

Both miracles attributed to Paul VI’s intercession involve the healing of an unborn child.

Bl. Oscar Romero, who was beatified by Pope Francis May 23, 2015, in El Salvador, was the archbishop of the nation’s capital city of San Salvador. He was shot while celebrating Mass March 24, 1980, during the birth of a civil war between leftist guerrilla forces and the dictatorial government of the right.

An outspoken critic of the violence and injustices being committed at the time, Romero was declared a martyr who was killed in hatred of the faith for his vocal defense of human rights.

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Vatican City, Dec 2, 2020 / 04:00 am (CNA).- Pope Francis said Wednesday that God does not wait for us to stop sinning to start loving us, but always holds out hope for the conversion of even the most hardened sinner.

“There is no sin that can c… […]