Vatican

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  Pope: Church of today is a "Church of martyrs", many whose throats are cut, who are burnt alive or thrown into the sea "because they are Christians"

  Apr 22, 2015

  The Church of today is "Church of martyrs", whose throats are cut, who are burnt alive or thrown into the sea "because they are Christians" and also the "hidden martyrs" who are looking for new ways to help brothers and for this are persecuted by "modern Sanhedrins”.

  
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  Pope Francis and his growing litany of modern-day martyrs

  Apr 22, 2015

  Amid a torrent of recent news reports on persecuted Christians, Pope Francis reflected on those killed for their faith and said that these modern “Stephens” suffer as the Church's first martyr did.

  
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  Pope: Blood of Christians is crying out to anyone who can still tell good from evil

  Apr 21, 2015

  He said this in a message Monday to His Holiness Abuna Matthias, patriarch of the Ethiopian Tewahedo Orthodox Church, after the Islamic State (ISIS) released a video Sunday showing the execution of 30 people said to be Ethiopian Christians.

  
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  For pope, Jews and Christians have a responsibility to preserve the religious sense of the men and women of today, and that of our society

  Apr 21, 2015

  "In a society increasingly marked by secularism and threatened by atheism," Jews and Christians "have the blessing but also the responsibility to help preserve the religious sense of the men and women of today, and that of our society, by our witness to the sanctity of God and human life.

  
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  Pope on ISIS killings: Blood of Ethiopian Christians 'cries out to be heard'

  Apr 21, 2015

  Pope Francis voiced his distress at the news of a reported mass execution of Ethiopian Christians in Libya at the hands of ISIS, pleading that their deaths may not go ignored.

  
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  Will the US greet first Latino Pope by kicking out Junipero Serra?

  Apr 21, 2015

  As the U.S. prepares for Pope Francis' trip later this year, one Vatican official says efforts to remove the statue of Spanish missionary Blessed Junipero Serra from the capital offers a poor welcome for history's first Latin American pontiff.

  
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  Pope leads faithful in prayer for victims of Sunken migrant boat

  Apr 20, 2015

  Although Italian border police have rescued 28 people, an estimated 700 people are feared dead in what may be the worst disaster in the Mediterranean. So far, rescue workers have recovered only 24 bodies.

  
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  Pope: Doomed migrants were looking for happiness

  Apr 20, 2015

  Pope Francis led a moment of prayerful silence on Sunday for the hundreds of migrants killed off the coast of Lampedusa, saying they were like us in their search for happiness.

  
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  Pope: Denounce and combat trafficking in human beings, a hidden evil

  Apr 20, 2015

  There is an ‘urgent’ need to report and combat "trafficking in human beings" this new evil that the globalized world wants to hide because it is scandalous and politically incorrect".

  
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  Is a 'springtime' of leadership blooming for women in the Vatican?

  Apr 20, 2015

  With more opportunities opening for women to take leadership roles in Vatican councils and congregations, women are filling the ranks of the Roman Curia on a historically unprecedented level.