The Vatican’s charity office is holding a drive to collect thermal shirts for people in Ukraine as they face an energy emergency amid the war.
Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the pope’s almoner, said Dec. 5 that the charity office of the Vatican is “already stocking up” on thermal shirts for men, women, and children.
Others are encouraged to join the initiative by bringing or shipping shirts to the Dicastery for the Service of Charity by the beginning of January, when the shipment of shirts will be brought to Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital city, by truck.
“The Ukrainian people are experiencing an emergency related not only to the war but also to the lack of electricity, gas, and the very cold winter weather,” Krajewski said.
“We can help them this Christmas,” he added, “with the gift of thermal shirts, suitable for maintaining body temperature, for men, women or children.”
Systematic bombing by Russia has damaged Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, and the country’s government has warned that the networks will not withstand winter’s increased demands.
People in Ukraine are facing freezing weather without electricity, heat, or water, as January, the country’s coldest month of the year, approaches.
Temperatures in Kyiv are already below freezing, with a mixture of rain and snow in the near forecast.
Thermal shirts help retain heat and maintain body temperature in cold weather and are usually worn as a base layer under other clothing.
Cardinal Krajewski has traveled to Ukraine by truck several times since Russia’s invasion in February, bringing food and supplies to be distributed to those in need.
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Thomas Monaghan, founder of Domino’s Pizza, spoke to Colm Flynn on EWTN News In-Depth on June 23, 2023. / Photo credit: EWTN
Denver, Colo., Jul 6, 2023 / 12:30 pm (CNA).
Thomas Monaghan, the founder of Domino’s Pizza, sat down with EWTN News InDepth on June 23 to share how he went from living in an orphanage to becoming one of the wealthiest men in the world. He now devotes his time and money to helping young people receive a well-formed Catholic education.
Monaghan was 4 years old when his father passed away on Christmas Eve. Unable to cope with the death of her husband, his mother placed her two sons into St. Joseph’s Home for Boys, an orphanage in Jackson, Michigan.
“The orphanage was basically like a prison,” Monaghan told Colm Flynn in an interview with EWTN News In-Depth on June 23. “It was 50 boys, Polish nuns, very strict, very holy.”
One of Monaghan’s daily tasks during his time in the orphanage was to clean the small chapel. This mundane task ended up bringing him closer to the Blessed Sacrament.
“I felt I was in a special place and I, of course, knew that Jesus was in the tabernacle up there,” he said.
Despite the hardships the young boy faced in the orphanage, he managed to focus on what he would achieve once he was out of the orphanage. Monaghan shared that he was always “looking ahead.”
“I was going to do all the things I’m capable of doing and want to do and should do when I’m 18 years old and on my own,” he told Flynn.
After leaving the orphanage Monaghan joined the United States Marine Corps. Once he finished his time with the Marines, he was looking for a job and a purpose in life. That is when his brother gave him the idea to borrow a couple of hundred dollars to buy a pizzeria that was for sale in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The pizzeria was called ‘Domi-Nick’s.’
“It was a hole in the wall,” he said. “It was 500 dollars down, but became the largest pizza chain in the world.”
Monaghan went on to change the name from ‘Domi-Nick’s’ to ‘Domino’s’ and opened two other locations in Michigan. Over the next two decades, he redesigned the pizza box so that it would keep the pizza hotter for longer. He decided to focus on takeaway and delivery, instead of dining in, and he designed the conveyor belt pizza oven to cook the pizzas faster.
However, the marketing strategy that would change the course of his life was his guarantee to customers that they would receive a hot pizza in 30 minutes or get their money back.
Thomas Monaghan, founder of Domino’s Pizza, speaks with Mother Angelica at EWTN. Photo credit: EWTN
“Finally, after 20 years, I got everything worked out,” Monaghan told Flynn, “I started in 1960. This was 1980 and we took off like a rocket. We were the fastest-growing restaurant chain in the history of the world. In 1985 we opened 954 stores. More than anybody ever did in one year.”
“In 1980 we had about 300 stores, in about 1986 or seven we had about 5,000,” Monaghan added.
As the business grew exponentially, Monaghan shared that he began to lose sight of what was truly important and was distracted by material possessions.
“I wasn’t as ready for it as I thought I was,” he admitted. “I was going to Mass every day, practicing my faith, reading a lot of spiritual books, and I thought ‘I can handle it, I can handle it,’ but I got into the toys; I justified the yachts, the airplanes.”
Monaghan was once quoted saying, “My life had become a high-speed train going down the tracks, but was about to become a train wreck.”
It wasn’t until he read a book from C.S. Lewis that Monaghan realized he was only chasing material goods in order to prove to others that he was successful in life.
“C.S. Lewis said that the reason that you aim so high and want so much, it’s not what you want, it’s what you want is more than other people, sell more pieces than anybody else, have more money than anyone, and I thought, ‘that’s not what I want to be,’” he shared.
In 1988, Monaghan sold Domino’s Pizza for a reported one billion dollars. With that money, he went on to build a church and Ave Maria University. In addition to the church and university, he built an entire town called Ave Maria, where young Catholics could study, live their faith with their families, and grow in community.
“I want to be a beacon for Catholic higher education. Show that orthodoxy sells,” he said.
Today, there are about 33,000 people living in the town of Ave Maria. The area has its own neighborhoods, restaurants, bars, parks, and the church, which is at the center of the town. The university has over 1,200 students who study a range of subjects from economics and business to biochemistry and physics.
Monaghan hopes that every student comes out “being a well-formed Catholic” and wants “to teach courses that the Church needs the most.”
“When I get to the pearly gates — God’s been very good to me — I want to be able to say, ‘I used what you gave me well,’” he said.
Since the filming of the interview, Monaghan’s wife of more than 60 years, Marjorie Monaghan, died. She passed away at home surrounded by loved ones on July 3. The couple has four daughters, ten grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.
The entire interview on EWTN News In-Depth can be viewed below.
CNA Staff, Oct 22, 2020 / 09:28 am (CNA).- Fr. Antonio Spadaro, SJ, director of the Jesuit magazine La Civiltà Cattolica, said on Wednesday evening that an expression of support for same-sex civil unions from Pope Francis is “nothing new” and does not signify a change of Catholic doctrine. But the priest’s remarks have raised some question about the origin of comments from Pope Francis on civil unions, which were featured in the newly-released documentary “Francesco.”
In a video released by Tv2000, a media apostolate of the Italian bishops’ conference, Spadaro said that “the director of the film ‘Francesco’ compiles a series of interviews that have been conducted with Pope Francis over time, giving a great summary of his pontificate and the value of his travels.”
“Among other things, there are various passages taken from an interview with Valentina Alazraki, a Mexican journalist, and within that interview Pope Francis speaks of a right to the legal protection of homosexual couples but without in any way affecting doctrine,” Spadaro said.
Tv2000 is not affiliated with the Vatican, and Spadaro is not a Vatican spokesman.
On Wednesday, the documentary’s director, Evgeny Afineevsky, told CNA and other journalists that the pope’s statement in support of legalizing same sex civil unions was made during an interview the director himself conducted with Pope Francis.
But the interview Pope Francis gave to Televisa’s Alazraki is shot in the same place, with the same lighting and the same appearance as the pope’s comments on civil unions that were aired in “Francesco,” suggesting that the remarks came from the Alazraki interview, and not an interview with Afineevsky.
Spadaro said Oct. 21 that “there is nothing new” in the pope’s remarks on civil unions.
“This is an interview given a long time ago that has already been received by the press,” Spadaro added.
And on Wednesday, the priest told the Associated Press that “there’s nothing new because it’s a part of that interview,” adding that “it seems strange that you don’t remember.”
While Alazraki’s interview was released by Televisa June 1, 2019, the pope’s comments on civil union legislation were not included in the published version, and had not previously been seen by the public in any context.
In fact, Alazraki told CNA she has no recollection of the pope making remarks about civil unions, although comparative footage suggests the remark almost certainly came from her interview.
It is not clear how unpublished footage from Alazraki’s interview, of which Spadaro seemed aware in his remarks on Wednesday, became available to Afineevsky during the production of his documentary.
On May 28, 2019, Vatican News, the official news outlet of the Vatican, published a preview of Alazraki’s interview, which also did not contain reference to the pope’s remarks on civil unions.
In a 2014 interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Pope Francis spoke briefly about civil unions after he was asked about them. The pope distinguished between marriage, which is between a man and a woman, and other kinds of government-recognized relationships. Pope Francis did not weigh in on during the interview on a debate in Italy over same-sex civil unions, and a spokesman later clarified that he had no intention of doing so.
Pope Francis is also on record speaking about civil unions in the little known 2017 book “Pape François. Politique et société,” by French sociologist Dominique Wolton, who wrote the text after several interviews with Pope Francis.
In the English translation of the book, titled “A Future of Faith: The Path of Change in Politics and Society,” Wolton tells Pope Francis that “homosexuals aren’t necessarily favorable toward ‘marriage.’ Some prefer civil union (sic) It’s all complicated. Beyond the ideology of equality, there is also, in the word ‘marriage’, a search for acknowledgment.”
In the text, Pope Francis briefly responds: “But it isn’t a marriage, it is a civil union.”
Based on that reference, some reviews, including one published in America magazine, claimed that in the book, the Pope “repeats his opposition to gay marriage but accepts the civil union of people of the same sex.”
Journalists from CNA and other media outlets have asked the Vatican press office for clarification on the source of the pope’s interview, but have not yet received a response.
Jen Psaki, White House Press Secretary. / EWTN News Nightly YouTube
CNA Staff, Apr 14, 2021 / 14:18 pm (CNA).
Earlier today, EWTN’s White House Correspondent Owen Jensen questioned White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki about the proposed reversa… […]
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