Catholic News

• Pope Leo appoints new archbishop of Vienna (Vatican Press Office)
  Pope Leo XIV today named Msgr. Josef Grünwidl, 62, as the new archbishop of Vienna, a see whose last ten archbishops have been created cardinals, dating back to 1858. Ordained to the priesthood in 1988, Archbishop-designate Grünwidl was appointed by Pope Francis as the archdiocese’s apostolic administrator in January upon the retirement of Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, OP. The Austrian bishops’ news agency noted that the archbishop-designate has called several times for the end of the discipline of mandatory priestly celibacy in the Latin rite—a discipline highly praised by the Second Vatican Council in its Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests. The bishops’ news agency also reported that the archbishop-designate believes that the discussion of the ordination of women to the diaconate “should not be suppressed,” and that he is open to the appointment of women as cardinals.
• State of Washington will not enforce law on seal of Confession and abuse (Washington State Attorney General)
  Following a court ruling, the State of Washington’s attorney general said he has agreed “not to enforce reporting requirements for information clergy learn solely through confession or its equivalent in other faiths.” In May, the state enacted a law requiring priests to report information about child abuse, even if it is given in a sacramental confession. Under the agreement, clergy remain mandatory reporters of abuse, with the exception of abuse learned about in the confessional.
• Vatican diplomat renews call for debt relief for poor nations (Holy See Mission)
  At a UN meeting devoted to “countries in special situations,” Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, apostolic nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, renewed the Holy See’s call for debt relief for impoverished nations. “My delegation recognizes that the most pressing and unifying concern for countries in special situations is the unsustainable debt burden,” he said. “The global financial system must be directed towards the goal of attaining the common good of the human family.”
• Cardinal Parolin praises Father Romanelli, other priests who remain in conflict zones (Vatican News (Italian))
  In an address at the awarding of the Ambassadors to the Holy See Literary Prize, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State of His Holiness, paid tribute to priests and religious who remain in conflict zones. After praising the example of Father Gabriel Romanelli and other priests and religious who have remained at Gaza’s sole parish, Cardinal Parolin recalled the last Mass in Baghdad’s cathedral before the American attack in 2003. The prelate also praised the example of priests elsewhere in Iraq, in Sarajevo, and in Chile, during the 1973 coup. The winner of the prize was Andrea Angeli, for a book on faith in conflict zones.
• 9 US bishops call for peaceful, prayerful public witness on behalf of migrants (Diocese of Tucson)
  The archbishops of Denver, Las Vegas, and Santa Fe, joined by six other bishops, called on Catholics to engage in “peaceful and prayerful public witness” on behalf of migrants. The prelates called on “each Catholic” to engage in a series of actions on behalf of migrants, including: “Prepare a Catholic vigil for migrants, following the guidelines and suggestions of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.” The bishops suggested October 22 as a “Catholic Day of Action.”
• Church burned down, children kidnapped as Islamist violence intensifies in Mozambique (Fides)
  Discussing the Islamist insurgency in Mozambique, a local bishop warned that “the situation continues to deteriorate and violence.” Bishop Osório Citora Afonso, IMC, told the Fides news agency that jihadists recently burned down a church and kidnapped children. “More than one million people have been displaced and 6,000 killed,” but “not much has been said about this” in the international media in recent years, the prelate added.
• Pope greets Russian pilgrims (Vatican News)
  Pope Leo XIV met on October 17 with a group of pilgrims from Russia, and encouraged them to take advantage of their stay in Rome, “where the heart of the Christian soul beats.” The Pope reminded his visitors that last year Pope Francis gave the beloved icon of Salus Populi Romani to the Church in Russia for the Jubilee Year. He said: “May the pilgrimage of this Icon in the Catholic dioceses of Russia be a source of comfort for you and for your families, especially the sick and the suffering.”
• 2 historic churches reopen in Mosul, 8 years after liberation from ISIS (Vatican News)
  Following lengthy restoration work, two Christian churches have reopened in the Iraqi city of Mosul, eight years after its liberation from three years of rule by ISIS. The Syriac Orthodox Church of Mar Toma dates to the 7th century; the Chaldean Catholic Church of Al-Tahira dates to the 18th.
• USCCB publishes DACA update (USCCB)
  The Office of Policy and Advocacy of the US bishops’ Department of Migration and Refugee Services has published a three-page “DACA Update.” The DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program “was first created in 2012 to provide limited protection from deportation and access to legal work authorization for certain undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children, commonly known as ‘Dreamers,’” the USCCB office stated. “Since then, the legality of DACA has been considered in several lawsuits.”
• Pushback from some parishioners after Spokane bishop removes priest amid allegations (InvestigateWest)
  Some parishioners have pushed back after the Diocese of Spokane removed a priest from ministry. “Bishop Thomas Daly has taken unusually public steps to disclose the nature of the allegations against Mejía and to brief parishioners on evidence of sexual and financial wrongdoing, a level of transparency rarely seen in the Catholic Church,” InvestigateWest reported. But some parishioners “see it as a politically or personally motivated purge—an effort by a conservative bishop to oust a popular priest whose warm, pastoral style clashed with Daly’s more hard-line approach.”
• Theft, vandalism at 15 churches in German diocese (Domradio.de (German))
  In September, 15 churches in the Diocese of Passau (map) were targets of theft and vandalism, according to the German Catholic radio station Domradio. “We usually have about 15 to 20 burglaries in a whole year, and now we only have 15 cases in the month of September,” said Josef Sonnleitner, the diocesan finance director.
• Background: World Mission Sunday (CWN)
  On October 19, the Church around the world commemorates World Mission Sunday. The theme of the Pope’s message for the day—written by Pope Francis and published in January, three months before his passing—is “Missionaries of Hope Among all Peoples.”
• Pope, at FAO, says world hunger is a scandal (Vatican Press Office)
  Pope Leo XIV visited the Rome headquarters of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on October 16, as the organization celebrated the 80th anniversary of its founding, which coincides with the observance of World Food Day. In his remarks to the FAO, the Pope said that the Catholic Church “keeps alive the confidence that, if hunger is defeated, peace will be the fertile ground from which the common good of all nations will spring.” However, the Pontiff continued, that goal remains distant, as 673 million people go to bed hungry today, and 2.3 million cannot afford a nutritious diet. He said that “to allow millions of human beings to live—and die—in the grip of hunger is a collective failure, an ethical aberration, a historical shame.”
• Jerusalem cardinal calls for new generation of leaders who can foster peace (Vatican News)
  Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, OFM, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, addressed ten questions from Vatican media about the Holy Land and prospects for peace there. “Little by little, we must create the foundations and conditions, with new faces and new leadership, and above all, create environments that gradually foster a culture of respect, which will in turn bring peace,” Cardinal Pizzaballa said. The prelate also spoke about the plight of Palestinian Christians in the West Bank, where Israeli checkpoints hinder movements and officials turn a blind eye to attacks committed by settlers. “There is no authority to appeal to in order to stop these situations,” he said.
• Pope emphasizes forgiveness at Jubilee for Indigenous Peoples (Vatican Press Office)
  Pope Leo XIV met on October 16 with participants in the Jubilee for Indigenous Peoples, organized by the Latin American bishops’ conference CELAM. The Pontiff said: “Indigenous Peoples, whose history, spirituality and hope constitute an irreplaceable voice within the ecclesial communion.” Acknowledging historical tensions between the indigenous peoples and the missionaries who brought them the Gospel, the Pope suggested that the Jubilee, “a precious time for forgiveness, invites us to ‘forgive our brothers from the heart, to reconcile ourselves with our own history and to give thanks to God for his mercy towards us.”
• Pontifical abuse commission presents 2nd annual report (AP)
  The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors focused has released its second annual report, underlining the duty of the Church to provide material support for victims of clerical abuse and to punish both abusers and those who protected them. “The church bears a moral and spiritual obligation to heal the deep wounds inflicted from sexual violence perpetrated, enabled, mishandled, or covered up by anyone holding a position of authority in the church,” the report said. While recommending financial support for victims in need of therapy, the commission called attention to the overarching need for pastoral support.
• Cardinal Parolin assesses promise, pitfalls of AI in health care (Vatican News (Spanish))
  Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State of His Holiness, delivered a lecture yesterday on the promise and perils of AI in health care. Speaking at the inauguration of the Center for the Study and Development of Artificial Intelligence at the Italian National Institute of Health, Cardinal Parolin spoke of AI as potentially a “powerful tool at the service of life, an ally of humanity in the fight against disease and suffering.” Cardinal Parolin, however, warned of the potential “dehumanization of care” and said that “an algorithm can provide a diagnosis, but it cannot offer a word of comfort.” He expressed concern that AI could transform a doctor “from a wise clinician into a mere supervisor of an automated process.” He also warned of a lack of accountability for algorithmic errors, which “risks generating ‘systemic irresponsibility’ in which, ultimately, no one is truly responsible.”
• Cardinal Czerny: Popular movements are crucial in addressing poverty (Vatican Press Office)
  At a press conference yesterday (video) for the upcoming Fifth World Meeting of Popular Movements, Cardinal Michael Czerny, SJ, said that “many development efforts have failed because outsiders, even very qualified ones, seem to think that development can occur without the direct involvement of the poor.” Citing Pope Leo’s apostolic exhortation Dilexi Te, Cardinal Czerny, the prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, said that “when different institutions think about the needs of the poor, it is necessary to ‘include popular movements.’”
• Candidates announced for USCCB president, vice president (USCCB)
  The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has announced the slate of ten candidates for conference president and vice president. The winning candidates will succeed Archbishops Timothy Broglio (Military Services) and William Lori (Baltimore), who were elected to three-year terms as president and vice president in November 2022. At their November meeting, the bishops will also vote for six committee chairmen.
• Bishops' pastoral opposes liberalized euthanasia in Australian state (Pillar)
  The Catholic bishops of Victoria have joined in a pastoral letter urging opposition to a legislative proposal that would loosen regulations governing assisted suicide. The bill would “further weaken protections for vulnerable patients and reduce protections for medical practitioners who conscientiously object to euthanasia and assisted suicide,” the bishops warn. The proposal would, for the first time, allow doctors to introduce the topic of euthanasia to patients rather than waiting for the patients’ request.
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