Saint John XXIII and Saint John Paul II

I was overjoyed at the canonizations this past Sunday, especially of Pope John Paul II, who means so much to me and to my family. I loved seeing Pope Francis embrace Pope Emeritus Benedict. The whole "day of four popes" (John XXIII, John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis) was a sign of continuity in the church, a sign that while different popes have different styles and different emphases, we are still one church, with Christ as our head.

If you missed the canonizations, here is the complete video, first from the Vatican and then from EWTN:





On the first video, click on "English" at the top of the video to hear commentary and translations in English. (English audio starts around 4:22 in the video.)

For more videos about the canonizations and other Catholic news and events, check out the Vatican YouTube Channel and the EWTN YouTube Channel.

Fr. Robert Barron on the Pope Francis Interview

I am a bit late in posting this video, but here is some commentary from Fr. Barron, regarding the big interview with Pope Francis that was all over the media several weeks ago:



If you would like to read the entire interview, you can find it here. (I admit I got only about halfway through it, but I hope to finish reading it when I get some time.)

The Election of Pope Francis - Remixed

The same gentleman who created the video which I posted as "Pope John Paul II Remixed" has done another video for the election of Pope Francis. This one is not quite as good as the first one, but it's entertaining, and it was nice to revisit Pope Francis's election:



In the video description on YouTube, the video creator says that he already has plans for a third video. I will watch for it and try to post it here when it's available.

Join Pope Francis in Fasting and Praying for Peace in Syria

Pope Francis invites us to participate in a day of prayer and fasting for peace in Syria, to be observed on Saturday, September 7, 2013. Here is a quote from Pope Francis:

To this end, brothers and sisters, I have decided to proclaim for the whole Church on 7 September next, the vigil of the birth of Mary, Queen of Peace, a day of fasting and prayer for peace in Syria, the Middle East, and throughout the world, and I also invite each person, including our fellow Christians, followers of other religions and all men of good will, to participate, in whatever way they can, in this initiative.

Here are links for more information:

Full Text of Address by Pope Francis

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Joins Pope Francis’s Call for Day of Fasting and Prayer for Peace in Syria

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops - Issues and Action - Syria

Catholic News Agency: Pope’s Vigil for Syrian Peace Expected to be Biggest in Decades

World Youth Day 2013 - Live Video Coverage

World Youth Day events begin today, as Pope Francis arrives in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for World Youth Day 2013. Salt & Light TV has live coverage:

http://wydcentral.org/live/

You can also see live coverage and related programming on EWTN; here is their World Youth Day page:

http://www.ewtn.com/rio2013/index.asp

(Right now, I am not seeing any of the text on EWTN's World Youth Day page, but it was there earlier today. If the problem is on their end, hopefully they will get it fixed soon. UPDATE: It appears that my ad-blocking extensions in Firefox and Chrome were hiding some of the text on that EWTN site. If you are seeing big blank spaces where you should see text on that site, try disabling your ad-blocking extension.)

CatholicVote.org Video on the Election of Pope Francis

(Found at Conversion Diary.)

Video Report on Pope Francis

We have a pope!