Twenty-one years ago, on June 12, 1993, Pope John Paul II ordained two Filipino priests, Fr. Stephen Simangan and Fr. Gregory Gaston, in Seville, Spain. The two priests consider their ordination by the pope himself the turning point of their lives.
We attended the Catholic Mass Media Awards in 1981 where my mom was to receive an award. It was a small private ceremony at Radio Veritas in Quezon City.
A group of nuns in Spain got a New Year surprise when they checked their answering machine to discover they had missed a call from the Pope, who left a message asking why they didn’t pick up.
It is with such exuberant and hopeful fondness for the new pope that many Catholics greet one another these days. Indeed, particularly for us borderline, estranged or otherwise marginalized members of the church, Francis is so easy to love.
Although she must have been 20 years older than me, Dr. Carmen Enverga-Santos became a steadfast friend because of our common involvement in Zonta, an international organization dedicated to the advancement of the status of women.
Vanity Fair in Italy on Wednesday named Pope Francis its "Man of the Year," saying the pontiff's first 100 days at the Vatican had already made him one of the world's top leaders.
When news of the new Pope broke out in the early morning of Thursday, it was greeted with much joy and hope.
In his first public Mass as the new head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis signaled a striking liturgical difference with Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI by facing the people, not turning his back, which the retired Pontiff had done in a controversial attempt to bring back the Latin Mass banished by Vatican II.
Nobody knows what the measurements of the next pope will be so Gammarelli -- tailors to the papacy since the 18th century -- have produced vestments in small, medium and large just in case.
