News (and a touch of analysis) from the Vatican today:
- In an address to the 180 ambassadors accredited to the Holy See in an annual event, Pope Francis world leaders to help the record numbers of people fleeing violence today. He also 1) called for a new global debate on nuclear disarmament, 2) criticized "modern forms of ideological colonization," 3) singled out South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Nigeria and the Central African Republic, as places "where the right to life is threatened by the indiscriminate exploitation of resources, terrorism, the proliferation of armed groups and protracted conflict," and 4) a lot more.
- A week from today, Francis will be in Latin America: Pope Francis' trip to Chile, Peru may help restore trust in church
- Michael Sean Winters says that opposition to Pope Francis comes not only from misconceptions about Vatican II but actual hostility to the council and to all the popes since.
If you live on the East Coast of the United States and you are reading this, you survived the bitter deepfreeze of 2018, a weekend that will go into the record books. But take heart, Temperatures on East Coast will inch up after arctic blast
Meanwhile in the land down under: Dangerous heat is roasting parts of Australia with temperatures that haven't been seen in decades. Sydney hit an almost 80-year high of 47.3 degrees Celsius, or 117 Fahrenheit, on Sunday
From the Golden Globes:
- How the "Time's Up" movement owned the night
- Oprah: Is she running for president? She should, they say
- They also handed out awards: Golden Globes 2018 list of winners (video ad included)
Speaking to the Vatican ambassadors today, Pope Francis said that Venezuela has been "experiencing an increasingly dramatic and unprecedented political and humanitarian crisis." Evidence of this assessment abounds: Amid Venezuelan food shortage, sisters strive to save children
Bill Tammeus says that Evangelicals and non-evangelicals are divided by common religion. What baffled non-evangelical Protestants in recent elections was how evangelicals could support people whose actions made a mockery of evangelical ideals.
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Jan. 7-13 is National Migration Week. Here are some resources to mark it. Here's how the Trump administration marked it: US set to expel around 200,000 Salvadoran immigrants
Down and Connor (Northern Ireland's largest Catholic diocese) -- Bishop suspends 'sign of peace' handshake at Mass because of 'Aussie Flu' outbreak
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Pencil Preaching by Pat Marrin. Every morning Pat Marrin breaks open the Word with a pencil sketch and a short meditation.
