Hawaii Catholic Herald

Newspaper of the Diocese of Honolulu

Guidelines needed for use of deconsecrated churches, cardinal says

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By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — The Vatican is helping organize an international conference meant to help dioceses work with their local communities in finding appropriate uses for decommissioned churches. The Pontifical Council for Culture, together with Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University and the Italian bishops’ conference, will sponsor the gathering, titled “Doesn’t […]

Congolese cardinal does not fear death but watches what he eats

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The persecuted church By Deborah Gyapong Catholic News Service OTTAWA, Ontario — There is no room for fear in the life of Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya of Kinshasa, Congo. “A cardinal does not have fear,” said the outspoken leader of one of most violent and volatile countries in Africa. “It is a mission to defend […]

Book review: Forceful smack down of atheism’s claims

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By Brian Welter Catholic News Service “Inside the Atheist Mind: Unmasking the Religion of Those Who Say There Is No God” by Anthony DeStefano. Nelson Books (Nashville, Tennessee, 2018). 222 pp., $24.99. Readers of “Inside the Atheist Mind” expecting a tame rebuttal to atheists such as Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins are in […]

Provincial says Carmelite nuns in Aleppo live in ‘heroic situation’

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The persecuted church By Doreen Abi Raad Catholic News Service BEIRUT — Amid the destruction in war-torn Syria, a community of Discalced Carmelites in Aleppo perseveres in its mission of continuous prayer and help to families in need. The Carmelite nuns, four of whom are Syrian and two French, are in their quiet demeanor “a […]

Jesuit aims to stem decline of faith with catechetical website

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By Maureen Pratt Catholic News Service ANAHEIM, Calif. — Jesuit Father Robert J. Spitzer, former president of Gonzaga University, launched a cutting-edge catechetical website to confront the rising tide of unbelief spurred by an increasingly skeptical, science-saturated society. Developed through Father Spitzer’s Magis Center, based in Garden Grove, Credible Catholic offers 20 downloadable “modules” that […]

Father Kenneth Doyle: ‘Last rites’ for a comatose person?

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QUESTION CORNER Q: My daughter, who was 50 years of age, became deathly ill, spent six weeks in the intensive care unit, then entered hospice to die. When death was imminent, a nurse finally found a priest to administer last rites. (It was a Jewish hospice, and they weren’t used to calling a priest.) By […]

Father Eugene Hemrick: More eloquence please

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THE HUMAN SIDE After making a giant step forward in modern communications, have we also taken two steps backward? Thanks to the internet, people are communicating with each other in wonderful ways. For example, shut-ins once disconnected from society are able to stay connected with friends, and we now have all sorts of libraries at […]

Pope Francis’ World Day of Poor message: Listen to those in need

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By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — How is it that God in heaven can hear the cries of the poor, but so many people watching or standing nearby either cannot or just do not care, Pope Francis asked. People must make “a serious examination of conscience to understand whether we are really […]

50TH ANNIVERSARY: ‘Humanae Vitae’

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Blessed Paul VI’s encyclical reaffirmed the church’s moral teaching on the sanctity of life, married love, the procreative and unitive nature of conjugal relations, responsible parenthood and its rejection of artificial contraception By Dennis Sadowski Catholic News Service WASHINGTON — Fifty years ago, an encyclical was released affirming a long-held teaching of the Catholic Church, […]