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Photo: Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I embrace.
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ugcc.org.ua - March 18-19, 2017 St. Anne Ukrainian Catholic Church in Austintown, Ohio (USA) of the Eparchy of St. Josaphat in Parma hosted an annual Lenten Lock-In Retreat for the eparchial youth. This year's theme of spiritual renewal was “To die for Christ means to live forever.”
Over 60 youth, young adults, youth leaders, chaperones, clergy and consecrated persons from the Eparchy of St. Josaphat in Parma and beyond gathered together under the headship of its shepherd, Bishop Bohdan Danylo, at St. Anne Ukrainian Catholic Church in Austintown, OH on March 18-19, 2017 for the annual “Lock-In” Youth Retreat with the theme “To die for Christ means to live forever.” The retreat, planned by the Eparchial Youth Committee under the leadership of Fr. Lubomyr Zhybak, pastor of St. Anne Ukrainian Catholic Church in Austintown, OH and Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic Church in Youngstown, OH and coordinated by Deacon Myron Spak from Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic Church in Carnegie, PA was an opportunity for the eparchy’s young people to pray, reflect, meet others and take time to focus on their spiritual journey to Pascha.
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risu.org.ua - Pope Francis met Monday morning with Bishops from western Canada, who are in Rome for their visit ad limina Apostolorum (to the threshold of the [basilicas] of the Apostles).
The Bishops collectively form the Assembly of Western Catholic Bishops (AWCB). Established in 1974, the Assembly gathers the Bishops of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Catholic Churches of the four Western Canadian provinces, the Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut.
In total, it serves eighteen Roman Catholic [Latin-rite] dioceses (Calgary, Churchill-Hudson Bay, Edmonton, Grouard-McLennan, Kamloops, Keewatin-Le Pas, MacKenzie-Fort Smith, Nelson, Prince Albert, Prince George, Regina, Saint-Boniface, Saint-Paul, Saskatoon, Vancouver, Victoria, Whitehorse, and Winnipeg) and four Ukrainian Greek Catholic eparchies (Edmonton, New Westminster, Saskatoon, and Winnipeg).
Archbishop Richard Gagnon, the Latin-rite Archbishop of Winnipeg, is the current President of the AWCB.
The Bishops of Canada are making their ad limina visits by region, beginning with the Bishops of the Atlantic Episcopal Assembly; the AWCB is the second regional group to come to Rome. In the course of the upcoming weeks, Pope Francis will receive Bishops from the Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Ontario, followed by the Bishops of Quebec, members of L’Assemblée des évêques catholiques du Québec.
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CWN - Egyptian police defused a bomb found inside a Coptic church in Tanta, a city of 420,000.
The bomb was found in Mar Girgis (St. George’s) Church on the evening of March 29, according to Middle East Monitor.
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CWN - The apostolic nuncio in Syria, Cardinal Mario Zenari, decried continued atrocities in the war-torn nation.
“I always say, whoever does not believe in hell, just go to (Syria) and it will convey the weight of hell,” he said, as he called for humanitarian aid to civilians.
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CWN - Bishop Emmanuel Bishay, the Coptic Catholic bishop of Luxor, has announced that “the Pope of peace in Egypt” is the motto of Pope Francis’s upcoming apostolic journey to Cairo.
The papal visit, which will take place April 28-29, follows invitations from President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the nation’s Catholic bishops, Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria, and the Grand Imam of al-Azhar.
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CWN - The Patriarchate of Moscow is backing a proposal to outlaw surrogate motherhood in Russia.
Vakhtang Kipsidze, the vice-chairman of the patriarchate’s department for Church-state relations, said that surrogacy “offends human dignity.” He indicated support for legislation that would impose a temporary ban on the practice, while lawmakers draft more comprehensive proposals to address the issue.
In 2015, Patriarch Kirill said that the Orthodox Church “cannot resign itself to allow a law on so-called surrogate motherhood, which transforms children and women into commercial and non-commercial objects of trade.”
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