Hawaii Catholic Herald

Newspaper of the Diocese of Honolulu

Pew: Social hostility toward religion down, government hostility high

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By Mark Pattison Catholic News Service WASHINGTON — Social hostilities against religious believers and churches dipped in 2019, according to a Pew Research Center report issued Sept. 30. Government hostilities toward religion, though, remained at their highest level since Pew started conducting this research a dozen years ago. In 2019, 43 countries had either “high” […]

Report: 330,000 children abused in French church since 1950s

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By Barb Fraze Catholic News Service An independent report on sexual abuse in the French Catholic Church estimates 330,000 children have been abused since the 1950s. Most of the victims were pre-adolescent boys of all social backgrounds, and more than a third of the assaults were committed by laypeople. The report did not attempt to […]

Father Kenneth Doyle: Why hasn’t the church condemned boxing? And what’s the church say about flags on the altar?

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QUESTION CORNER Q: Why has the Catholic Church not condemned boxing? It is the only sport in the world whose purpose is to hurt your opponent, even to knock him out. People in other sports get hurt, but the purpose is not evil. The goal is to get a home run or a basket or […]

Maryknoll Sisters celebrate 100 years of ministry in China

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By Mark Pattison Catholic News Service WASHINGTON — It was 100 years ago — on Sept. 12, 1921 — when the Maryknoll Sisters assigned its first group of sisters to China, the order’s first mission. One sister has been there nearly half that time, 49 years to be exact. To mark the 100th anniversary, Maryknoll […]

Pope: Bishops must act as shepherds, not with censures

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By Junno Arocho Esteves Catholic News Service ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT FROM SLOVAKIA — The debate about denying Communion to politicians who support abortion must be handled in a pastoral way, not by public condemnations that seek to “excommunicate” Catholics who are not in line with church teaching, Pope Francis said. During his return flight […]

Vatican says tourism should foster culture of encounter, safeguard planet

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By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — Tourism needs to protect both people and the planet as well as promote a more inclusive economy, the Vatican said. People need to support “an inclusive approach to tourism and resist the temptations of individualism and nationalism that are too common in our contemporary society,” said […]

Photo: Vatican in 67,000 pieces

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Rocco Buttliere, a LEGO architect from Chicago, stands next to the Vatican City State replica he created that was on display Aug. 14-15, 2021, at the LEGO BrickUniverse convention at the Pontchartrain Center in Kenner, La. He spent three months in 2020 creating the scale model from 67,000 LEGOS pieces. He also completed a 114,000-piece […]

Vatican to require vaccination proof or negative COVID test

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By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — Visitors, tourists and employees who want to enter Vatican territory will be required beginning Oct. 1 to show proof of vaccination, recovery from the coronavirus or a negative COVID-19 test. The anti-COVID ordinance, which was approved by Pope Francis and signed by Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, president […]

Greg Erlandson: Lethal tenderness

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AMID THE FRAY By the time Dr. Jack Kevorkian was put in prison for second-degree murder, he had helped an estimated 130 patients kill themselves. The first person he “helped” was an Oregon teacher suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. It was hardly “death with dignity.” With a suicide machine he had rigged up inside his rusty […]

Father Kenneth Doyle: Did God ‘require’ sacrifice of Jesus? Plus: What to do about a regularly disruptive adult at Mass?

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QUESTION CORNER Q: I wonder about Jesus being a “sacrifice” for the expiation of sins. Why did God the Father “require” that Christ be a “sacrifice” for the forgiveness of the sins of mankind? (Louisville, Kentucky) A: I don’t believe that God the Father “required” that Jesus die such a gruesome death to redeem us […]