Pope Benedict XVI marked the start of the new year with an appeal on Tuesday for world peace, calling it a "divine gift" and stressing the traditional family as the foundation for it.
The Catholic Church celebrates Jan. 1 as World Day of Peace, and the pope used a midmorning Mass and a window appearance before thousands of faithful in St Peter's Square to mark the occasion.
In his homily, he called for "the gift of peace: for our families, our cities and the whole world."
In his New Year's Eve speech the day before, he lamented what he called the "trivialization" of sexuality and the lack of faith among young people
"Not a few people -- especially the young -- are attracted to a false exaltation, or rather, a profanation of the body and the trivialization of sexuality," Benedict said on Monday. "In other words, even in Rome one feels this deficit of hope and faith in life that constitutes the dark evil of modern Western society."
In his sermon on Tuesday, he focused on peace, saying it called for "patience."
"We all aspire to live in peace, but real peace ... is not the simple conquest of man or the result of political agreements. It is, above all, a divine gift," Benedict said. At the same time, the pope said, peace is a "commitment that must be pursued with patience."
Family is the "first and irreplaceable educator of peace," Benedict said. Denying or restricting the rights of the family "threatens the very foundations of peace."
Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of teenage diarist Anne Frank and a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust, has died. She was 96. The Anne Frank Trust UK, of which Schloss was honorary president, said she died on Saturday in London, where she lived. Britain’s King Charles III said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Schloss, who cofounded the charitable trust to help young people challenge prejudice. “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
Cambodia’s government on Wednesday said that it had arrested and extradited to China a tycoon who has been accused of running a huge online scam operation. The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior said that Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi (陳志) and two other Chinese citizens were arrested and extradited on Tuesday at the request of Chinese authorities. Chen formerly had dual nationality, but his Cambodian citizenship was revoked last month, the ministry said. US prosecutors in October last year brought conspiracy charges against Chen, alleging that he had been the mastermind behind a multinational cyberfraud network, used his other businesses to launder
RSS