News Briefs by Catholic News Service
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops launched a new website to help college students and campus ministers promote social teaching. You can visit the website at www.usccb.org/campus.
New Website Helps College Students Promote Catholic Social Teaching
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A dozen Catholic organizations, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, have introduced a website to help college students and campus ministers promote Catholic social teaching. Under the banner “Transforming Our World: Our Catholic Faith in Action,” the site includes podcasts, videos, prayer materials, small-group resources and basic information on the social doctrine of the church. The website can be found at www.usccb.org/campus. The site’s development coincides with the 10th anniversary of the U.S. bishops’ statement “Sharing Catholic Social Teaching.” It was developed in response to Pope Benedict XVI’s World Youth Day 2010 message in which he identified several challenges facing the world, such as respect for the environment, the just division of goods, solidarity with poor countries, promotion of dignity in labor, building a culture of life and promoting peace. Visitors to the site can submit resources and features for possible inclusion for others to use.
Pope, at Audience, Calls for Complete Nuclear Disarmament
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI asked world leaders to work calmly and seriously to control the spread of nuclear weapons “in the prospect of their complete elimination from the planet.” At the end of his weekly general audience May 5, the pope made his appeal to participants at the U.N. Review Conference of Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, being held in New York May 3-28. Designed to promote nuclear disarmament, non-proliferation and an equitable development of peaceful nuclear energy, the treaty can succeed only if nations respect the commitments they made in signing it, the pope said. “Peace, in fact, rests on trust and on respect for the obligations assumed and not only on a balance of forces,” he said. “In that spirit, I encourage the initiatives aimed at progressive disarmament and the creation of zones free from nuclear arms in the prospect of their complete elimination from the planet.”
Photo: Pope shakes hands with French Cardinal during luncheon marking the fifth anniversary of his pontificate. (CNS photo/L'Osservatore Romano/Reuters)
Pope Marks Fifth Anniversary, Joining Cardinals for Lunch
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI marked the fifth anniversary of his election with a formal luncheon with 46 cardinals in Rome, thanking God and the cardinals for their help in carrying out his ministry. “After five years, I can only say thank you, thank you especially to the Lord himself who guides me, but also to all of you,” he said at the end of the luncheon April 19 in the frescoed Sala Ducale of the Apostolic Palace. The Vatican did not publish the entire text of the pope’s remarks. The remarks were brief, off-the-cuff and “everyone has a right to some moments of privacy in life, even the pope,” Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, told Catholic News Service. Brief audio and video clips of the meal were distributed by the Vatican Television Center and included the pope’s thanks to the College of Cardinals and to all Vatican staff members, who help him fulfill “the Lord’s mandate to Peter to confirm the brothers in the faith, to proclaim his resurrection and to be witnesses of God’s love.”
2010 Diocese of Shreveport