March 3, 2015
By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — When the Bible says, “though your sins be like scarlet” God will make them “white as snow,” it exaggerates, just like God exaggerates in his willingness to forgive people, Pope Francis said.

“The Lord forgives generously,” the pope said March 3 during his early morning Mass. God never says, “‘I will forgive you just this much, then we’ll see about the rest.’ No. The Lord always forgives everything.”

“The Lord exaggerates. But it is the truth,” the pope said at the Mass in the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where he lives.

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Posted February 27, 2015
Coleen Gibson, Global Sisters Report

Every morning you have to wake up and say yes!
That’s one of the single most quoted pieces of advice I got in the lead up to my first profession of vows. No one promised me the road ahead would be smooth, nor did they say that my first year of profession would be easy. To be honest, among all the other pieces of advice I received, the admonition that I’d need to say yes everyday seemed like a euphemistic response to the question of what it means to live a vowed life. Yet, just six months later I found myself sitting across the table from an acquaintance saying just that: “Every day I have to choose to say yes.”

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February 25, 2015
Dennis Sandowski, Catholic News Service

PETIONVILLE, Haiti — The beaming smile on Stephan Destin’s face said it all.
Destin was standing on the foundation of the new St. Theresa Church in this suburb of Port-au-Prince, watching dozens of construction workers on the job under a blazing midday sun.
“This is what it’s all about for you,” I said.
“It is,” Destin told me, his smile widening. “It is.”
In reality, working to better his country is what he’s always wanted to do.

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February 2015
Tracy Kemme, Global Sisters Report
The snow began falling steadily just before prayers Monday morning, and Tuesday we awoke to a world completely covered in white. It was a gentle snow, albeit persistent. My housemate Maureen commented, “It looks like nothing is happening!” But before we knew it, schools were closed, appointments were canceled and the plows were hard at work.
It’s quite remarkable to consider that the culprits of this topsy-turvy day are snowflakes. Each one is a tiny, delicate crystal of ice, or cluster of ice crystals, that may be just a fraction of a centimeter and melts instantly upon contact. On its own, it doesn’t pack much punch.

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February 18, 2015
Carol Glatz, Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Liberty and equality are not enough for the well-being of a nation, there must also be a strong sense of brotherhood that is first developed and nurtured in the family, Pope Francis said.

Without seeing each other as brothers and sisters, a nation’s citizens may distort these values, letting freedom and equality “be filled with individualism and conformity,” he said at his general audience Feb. 18.

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February 18, 2015
Joyce Meyer, PBVM- international liaison for Global Sisters Report.

Ash Wednesday is one of my favorite days. I love being part of the lines of people, young and old, slowly snaking forward towards the altar to have the mud of ashes and water marked in a cross on our foreheads. As I walk along, I wonder what is so attractive about this day. I remember one place I worked, where a non-practicing Catholic colleague always asked me to share my ashes with her. She wanted to be part of the day. So what is it about this annual marking?

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FEBRUARY 12, 2015
Carol Zimmerman, Catholic News Service

Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, gave Catholic social ministry leaders these words of advice before they went to Capitol Hill to meet with lawmakers: “Be courageous, be compassionate, be civil, stay calm. Do not fear. Go forth.”

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Feb. 9, 2015
Brian Roewe, National Catholic Reporter

Acts of conservation of the earth are not “going green” but being Christian, Pope Francis said Monday during his morning Mass.

Vatican Radio reported that the remarks came as Francis reflected on the creation of the universe passage in the Book of Genesis, what he referred to as the “first creation.”

“In the ‘first creation’ we must respond with the responsibility that the Lord gives us: ‘The earth is yours, take it forward; let it grow.’ Even for us there is a responsibility to nurture the Earth, to nurture Creation, to keep it and make it grow according to its laws. We are the lords of creation, not its masters,” he said.

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February 5, 2015
Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) — House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, announced Feb. 5 that Pope Francis will address a joint meeting of Congress Sept. 24.

The pontiff’s “historic visit” would make him the “first leader of the Holy See to address a joint meeting of Congress,” Boehner said in a statement, adding that he was “truly grateful that Pope Francis has accepted our invitation.”

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February 3, 2015
Joshua J. McElwee, National Catholic Reporter

VATICAN CITY- Several Vatican congregations and leaders of the global representative groups of men and women religious are teaming up for a new global initiative to fight human trafficking, a scourge Pope Francis has called a modern “crime against humanity.”

With the new International Day of Prayer and Awareness Against Human Trafficking, the Catholic leaders hope to draw attention to what many have called the modern slave trade and what the United Nations says has affected some 21 million around the globe.

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