Hawaii Catholic Herald

Newspaper of the Diocese of Honolulu

Tourists lift Bethlehem’s spirits

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By Judith Sudilovsky Catholic News Service BETHLEHEM, West Bank — On the third Sunday of Advent the pews of St. Catherine Church were overflowing, with families and young children, teens and older parishioners attending Mass in anticipation of Christmas. Pilgrim groups waited outside in the courtyard and, in the Church of Nativity, adjacent to the […]

Father Kenneth Doyle: Is a funeral Mass required? Do Masses have to include moments of silence?

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QUESTION CORNER Q: My wife and I are in our mid-70s and have bought cemetery plots and made our funeral arrangements. We selected immediate burial, without any rites, ceremony or embalming. But after talking to family members, we are worried that perhaps, in not having a Catholic funeral Mass, we are sinning gravely and making […]

RCIA is now ‘OCIA’: What’s behind name change?

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By Daniel Meloy Catholic News Service IRA TOWNSHIP, Mich. — For anyone interested in becoming Catholic, wishing to complete the sacraments or wanting to learn more about what the church teaches, the answer for decades was “join RCIA.” The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, the process by which the church brings in new converts […]

Value those who have disabilities, pope says

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  By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — Making churches accessible and services understandable is important, but having wheelchair ramps and sign-language interpreters is not enough for a parish to call itself “inclusive,” Pope Francis said. The church also must meet people’s needs for “belonging, relating to others and cultivating their spiritual lives […]

Pope says Mary joins migrants travelling north

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  By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — During this “bitter time” of war, hunger, injustice and poverty, Our Lady of Guadalupe invites everyone to open their lives to her son, Jesus, and to learn to love others like he does, Pope Francis said. “The Lord, through the Virgin Mother, continues to give […]

USPS ‘Virgin and Child’ stamp features one of the world’s most revered images

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By Catholic News Service BOSTON — Every two years the U.S. Postal Service issues a traditional first-class Christmas stamp showing Mary and Jesus, and this year’s stamp features an oil-on-panel painting from the first half of the 16th century titled “Virgin and Child.” Attributed to a Florentine artist known since the late 1960s as the […]

‘Why The Nativity?’ is serviceable addition to stock of Christmas films

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By Kurt Jensen Catholic News Service WASHINGTON — If you get the impression that the film “Why the Nativity?” is ubiquitous this holiday season, that’s no accident. Instead, it’s the conscious intent of the folks at Turning Point Productions, creators of this retelling of the New Testament’s infancy narratives. The dramatization — based on a […]

CNS’ ‘staying power’ credited to quality coverage of church

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By Julie Asher Catholic News Service A hundred years ago the U.S. Catholic bishops were insightful enough to realize there was a role for a news service to provide accurate information about the church, said Thomas Lorsung, retired director and editor-in-chief of Catholic News Service. “And they were smart enough to see this should be […]

Hackers planted false files implicating Indian Jesuit who died in prison

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By Catholic News Service NEW DELHI — Catholic activists and priests want the Indian government to “take full responsibility” for the custodial death of Jesuit Father Stan Swamy after findings by U.S.-based digital forensic experts that false evidence was planted on the priest’s computer. In a recent report, Arsenal Consulting, a Massachusetts-based digital forensics firm, […]

Some U.S. dioceses are lifting restrictions on Communion cup

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By Carol Zimmermann Catholic News Service WASHINGTON — As many restrictions put in place at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic have been lifted, some Catholic dioceses around the country are returning, or already have returned, to offering consecrated wine in the chalice for Communion while others are waiting to do so. Some dioceses lifted […]