Sunday, July 03, 2011

Pope asks Christians to pray for AIDS patients



Pope asks Christians to pray for AIDS patients

The following excerpt is from RomeReports.com:

(Romereports.com) - The Pope has asked all faithful to pray for AIDS patients, especially those in developing countries. He's also asking Christians to help ease their physical and spiritual suffering.

This is his intention for the month of July, according to the pope's Apostolic Letter, an initiative followed by roughly 50 million people worldwide.

In its hospitals, the Catholic Church cares for one of every four patients with AIDS. In some areas, especially in Africa, Catholic hospitals are the main source of care for these patients.

Miracle claimed for Pope Pius XII

AP Exclusive: Miracle claimed for WWII-Era Pope - Times Union

The following excerpt is from TimesUnion.com:

CASTELLAMMARE DI STABIA, Italy (AP) — Maria Esposito was ready to give up. Wasted away at 42 kilos (92 pounds), she couldn't bear another dose of chemotherapy to fight the Stage IV Burkitt's lymphoma that had invaded her body while she was pregnant with her second child.

But as she and her family had done since she was diagnosed with the rare and aggressive form of cancer in July 2005, Esposito prayed to the man who had appeared to her husband in a dream as the only person who could save her: Pope Pius XII.

Esposito survived, cured after a single, six-week cycle of chemotherapy — a recovery that, she says, stunned her doctors and convinced her that the World War II-era pope had intervened with God to save her.

Esposito's case, which the 42-year-old teacher recounted to The Associated Press in her first media interview, has been proposed to the Vatican as the possible miracle needed to beatify Pius.
Pius' main biographer, American Sister Margherita Marchione, has championed Esposito's miracle case and personally presented it to the Vatican's No. 2 official, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

Pope Benedict XVI moved Pius one step closer to possible sainthood in December 2009 when he confirmed that Pius lived a life of "heroic" Christian virtue. All that is needed now is for the Vatican to determine a "miracle" occurred.

Read more: Pope Pius XII Miracle