Heart to Heart

The first act of the apostles after the Ascension of Jesus was to find a replacement for Judas. With all the questions, doubts, and dangers facing them, they chose to focus their attention on finding a twelfth apostle. Why was this important? Twelve was a very important number to the Chosen People...

Bishop of Alexandria; Confessor and Doctor of the Church; born c. 296; died 2 May, 373. Athanasius was the greatest champion of Catholic belief on the subject of the Incarnation that the Church has ever known and in his lifetime earned the characteristic title of "Father of Orthodoxy", by which he has been...

The Feast of St. Joseph the Worker was instituted by Pope Pius XII in 1955. On this date we also again recall Jesus' two natures - He was both Human and Divine. He was one person, a divine person, but he had two natures. Today we recall St. Joseph the Worker and remember that ...

Professor Le Kim Ngoc, 79, and her husband Tran Thanh Van, are widely known not only for their scientific achievements but their big hearts, which droves of disadvantaged children have benefited from.

St. Catherine was born at Sienna, in 1347. Her father, James Benincasa, by trade a dyer, was a virtuous man; and though blessed with temporal prosperity, always chiefly solicitous to leave to his children a solid inheritance of virtue, by his example, and by deeply instilling into them lessons of piety.

The second Gospel was written by St. Mark, who, in the New Testament, is sometimes called John Mark. Both he and his mother, Mary, were highly esteemed in the early Church, and his mother's house in Jerusalem served as a meeting place for Christians there. St. Mark was associated with St. Paul and St. Barnabas (who was ...

Following is the official biography, published on the occasion of the Conclave by the Holy See Press Office with the information provided by the cardinals themselves.

The Old Testament and the New Testament feature stories of women who suffer through life's pains and take pleasure in life's joys. Biblical women express unyielding courage as they lead tribes, and physically or spiritually birth nations. As you begin to read these women's stories, certain...

Trois encycliques en huit années de pontificat : deux sur une vertu théologale, la troisième sur la doctrine sociale... Pour surmonter la crise économique globale et les inégalités sociales de plus en plus évidentes, il est nécessaire de recommencer à valoriser le capital le plus important : le capital humain. Le primat de l’homme ...

I have heard people say that thousands of people used to come to see Pope John Paul II, people come in even greater numbers to hear Pope Benedict. He's a great teacher, a great speaker a great writer. I don't think everyone has to agree with ...

L'attention portée par Benoît XVI à la nouvelle évangélisation est antérieure au début de son pontificat. Cet élan s'est concrétisé par un nouveau dicastère, l'annonce de l'Année de la foi et un Synode.

La foi chrétienne tient en haute estime la raison humaine. Benoît XVI, après son prédécesseur Jean-Paul II (encyclique Fides et ratio de 1998), est souvent intervenu sur la relation profonde entre la foi et la raison.

It is well nigh impossible to offer an appreciation of Pope Benedict XVI’s theological accomplishments in a short column. But on the occasion of his resignation, perhaps a few of his noteworthy achievements can ...

Founder of the Salesian Society. Born of poor parents in a little cabin at Becchi, a hill-side hamlet near Castelnuovo, Piedmont,Italy, 16 August, 1815; died 31 January 1888; declared Venerable by Pius X, 21 July, 1907...

Basil and Gregory were born in Asia Minor in the year 330. This area is modern-day Turkey. Basil's grandmother, father, mother, two brothers and a sister are all saints. Gregory's parents are St. Nonna and St. Gregory the Elder.

As his illness increased he was removed to the monastery of Ubeda, where he at first was treated very unkindly, his constant prayer, "to suffer and to be despised", being thus literally fulfilled almost to the end of his life. But at last even his adversaries came to acknowledge his sanctity, and his funeral was the occasion of a great outburst of enthusiasm.

In the Western Church the feast appeared (8 December), when in the Orient its development had come to a standstill. The timid beginnings of the new feast in some Anglo-Saxon monasteries in the eleventh century, partly smothered by the Norman conquest, were followed by its reception in some chapters and dioceses by the Anglo-Norman clergy.

He was one of the most illustrious Fathers and Doctors of the Church, and fitly chosen, together with St. Augustine, St. John Chrysostom, and St. Athanasius, to uphold the venerable Chair of the Prince of the Apostles in the tribune of St. Peter's at Rome.

The true story of Santa Claus begins with Nicholas, who was born during the third century in the village of Patara. At the time the area was Greek and is now on the southern coast of Turkey. His wealthy parents, who raised him to be a devout Christian, died in an epidemic while Nicholas was still young.

Born in the family castle of Xavier, near Pamplona in the Basque area of SpanishNavarre on Apr. 7, he was sent to the University of Paris1525, secured his licentiate in 1528, met Ignatius Loyola and became one of the seven who in 1534, at Montmartre founded the Society of Jesus. In 1536 he left Paris ...

Around 15% of the world’s population, or one billion people, live with disabilities. People are often unaware of the great number of persons living with disabilities around the world and the challenges they face.

Jean Vanier, the founder of the L’Arche Community and of the Faith and Light Association, is speaking [Friday] at the Pontifical Gregorian University.

Un ancien prisonnier, gangster et toxicomane à présent moine bénédictin et prêtre, vous y croyez? C'est l'histoire bien réelle du père Francis-Xavier Tran An que j'ai rencontré à La Vang dans la maison qu'il a fondée pour accueillir des drogués. Thérapie appliquée: rosaires et culture de bonsai!

The Church celebrates all its holy ones on a feast with the rank of "solemnity" and rightfully so. These after all, are the heroes and heroines of humanity, the people who knew what humanity is about — that we are more about God than about us, and that we owe him the worship and love of our lives.

Her parents, Don Alfonso Sanchez de Capeda and Dona Beatriz Davila y Ahumada, his second wife, were people of position in Avila, a city of Old Castile, where Teresa was born on March 28, 1515. There were nine children of this marriage, of whom Teresa was the third, and three children of her father's first marriage.

... j’ai eu l’occasion de m’arrêter également sur certains saints et saintes qui ont été proclamés docteurs de l’Eglise en raison de leur éminente doctrine. Aujourd’hui, je voudrais commencer une brève série de rencontres pour compléter la présentation des docteurs de l’Eglise. Et je commence par une sainte qui représente l’un des sommets de la spiritualité chrétienne de tous les temps: sainte Thérèse d’Avila...

Founder of the Franciscan Order, born at Assisi in Umbria, in 1181 or 1182 — the exact year is uncertain; died there, 3 October, 1226.

Therese was born in France in 1873, the pampered daughter of a mother who had wanted to be a saint and a father who had wanted to be monk. The two had gotten married but determined they would be celibate until a priest told them that was not how God wanted a marriage to work!

Michael (Who is like God?) was the archangel who fought against Satan and all his evil angels, defending all the friends of God. He is the protector of all humanity from the snares of the devil. Gabriel (Strength of God) announced to Zachariah the forthcoming birth of John the Baptist, and to Mary, the birth of Jesus.

One of our world’s great witnesses to Jesus Christ died on 16 September 2002 at the age of 74. Cardinal François-Xavier Nguyên Vãn Thuân, President of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, succumbed to cancer.