VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Hope is not built on people's predictions, assurances or line of reasoning, Pope Francis said.               Real Christian hope "is not based on our word, but on God's Word" and promises of salvation and et...
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MUNCIE, Ind. (CNS) – When four graduate students at Ball State University took on an awareness campaign, they hoped it would have a global reach. Then, a global institution reached back.               "I honestly couldn't believ...
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WASHINGTON (CNS) – Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the papal nuncio to the United States, gets plenty of questions about Pope Francis.               A March 27 discussion at Georgetown University, sponsored by the university's Ini...
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A few hours after urging priests to be generously available for the sacrament of penance, Pope Francis went to confession, then offered the sacrament to seven Catholics.    Presiding over the annual Lenten penance service March 17 in St. Peter's Basilica, Pope F...
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Employers who make business deals that threaten people's livelihood commit a sin that robs men, women and their families of their dignity, Pope Francis said.     "Whoever -- because of economic maneuvering and business dealings that are not all clear -- closes f...
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Democrats, once they controlled both houses of Congress and the White House, needed more than a year to piece together the elements to pass the Affordable Care Act with a veto-proof 60-vote majority in the Senate in 2010.    The Republicans, now that they control...
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- When a child-protection advocate resigned from a papal advisory board in early March, she did so because of growing frustration with persistent resistance and a "toxic" sense of superiority from some in the Roman Curia.     A number of church leaders on the fron...
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Like the people of Israel freed from the bondage of slavery, Christians are called to experience the path toward hope and new life during the Lenten season, Pope Francis said.     Through his passion, death and resurrection, Jesus "has opened up for us a way tha...
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Donald Trump campaigned by saying he would aggressively go after the country's 11 million unauthorized immigrants, promising deportation forces and a border wall with Mexico paid for by the United States' neighbor to the south.     Time will tell whether he'll be...
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- People who pretend to be Christians publicly, but follow their own selfish passions privately, destroy themselves and cause scandal to those around them, Pope Francis.     Jesus is severe with those who "lead double lives," because they cause others to see Chris...
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