Catholic News

• Christian unity needed in a divided world, Pope writes (Vatican News)
  Pope Leo XIV strongly reaffirmed the commitment of the Catholic Church to ecumenical progress, in a message to the 2025 Ecumenical Week in Stockholm. The Pope wrote that Vatican II offered “an early witness to the conviction that our shared confession can overcome division and foster communion.” He said that Christian unity is particularly necessary “in ur world bearing deep scars of conflict, inequality, environmental degradation and a growing sense of spiritual disconnection.”
• UN agency classifies Gaza food crisis as famine (Vatican News)
  The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, set up by the UN to assess the severity of food shortages, has officially classified the situation in Gaza as a famine, putting it in the highest level of emergency. Israeli government officials have dismissed the appraisal as unreliable, while UN officials insist that the evidence of catastrophic food shortages is conclusive. The report warns that 500,000 people are suffering famine, with another 1 million people in Gaza facing insecure food supplies, and shortages spreading. The report says that 132,000 children under the age of 5 are in danger of death by malnutrition in coming months.
• Pope Leo encourages moral theologians to follow example of St. Alphonsus Liguori (CWN)
  Pope Leo XIV encouraged moral theologians to follow the example of St. Alphonsus de Liguori, the patron saint of moral theologians.
• Swedish cardinal rebukes SSPX bishop (CNA)
  Cardinal Anders Arborelius has issued a rebuke to Bishop Bernard Fellay, the former superior of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) for exercising episcopal ministry in the Swedish archdiocese “without our bishop’s knowledge.” The cardinal’s statement warned that the unauthorized actions of the traditionalist prelate could cause “division and discord” in the archdiocese, and urged the faithful to maintain the unity of the Church. The statement underlined the irregular canonical status of the SSPX. The Vatican recognizes the bishops of the SSPX as validly ordained, but without properly assigned ministry.
• Independence and peace are precious, Ukraine's leading Latin-rite bishop says (L'Osservatore Romano (Italian))
  The president of the Latin-rite Ukrainian Episcopal Conference expressed gratitude for Pope Leo XIV’s request for prayer and fasting on August 22 for peace, justice, and the victims of war. Bishop Vitaliy Skomarovskyi of Lutsk told the Vatican newspaper that “prayer and fasting are a force that has a great impact on what happens, on history.” “Throughout the war, we saw that placing our hope in people can lead to great disappointment,” Bishop Skomarovskyi continued. “On the contrary, hope in God never disappoints.” The prelate mused: When Ukraine gained independence in 1991, I remember the mood that prevailed then: great happiness that it had happened almost without bloodshed ... But as time has shown, independence is a very precious thing, and now we see how high the price to pay for independence is. ... I think the war also taught us how important it is to appreciate peace. We have always prayed for peace, but I don’t think we were fully aware of how great a gift it is to live in peace, to live without war.
• Vatican newspaper publishes 50,000th edition (L'Osservatore Romano (Italian))
  The August 21 edition of L’Osservatore Romano was the 50,000th, the newspaper’s director noted in a front-page editorial. “Issue one was published 164 years ago, on July 1, 1861,” recalled Andrea Monda, only the twelfth director in the newspaper’s history. The paper, he wrote, originally bore the subheading “Political-Moral Newspaper,” later be replaced by the current “Political-Religious Daily Newspaper”—and thus it is “a political and religious newspaper, aiming to narrate simultaneously the city of God and the city of man.” From the first issue, L’Osservatore Romano has had two Latin phrases on its masthead: Ulpian’s “Unicuique suum” [to each his own], and “Non praevalebunt” [will not prevail], from Christ’s words to St. Peter, that the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church (Matthew 16:18).
• Holy See willing to help broker peace in Haiti, Vatican diplomat says (Vatican News)
  The Holy See is willing to collaborate in any way to help foster peace in Haiti, a Vatican diplomat said. Msgr. Juan Antonio Cruz Serrano, the Holy See’s Permanent Observer to the Organization of American States (OAS), made his remarks on August 20, as the OAS secretary-general presented a peace proposal. Over 20,000 have been killed, and 1.3 million displaced, in the Haitian conflict, which began in 2020.
• USCCB urges Trump administration to rescind reinterpretation of HHS benefits (USCCB)
  In a ten-page public comment, attorneys for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops urged the Department of Health and Human Services to rescind its revised interpretation of “federal health benefit” in a 1996 law. In July, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) stated that a 1998 HHS interpretation of the law “improperly extended certain federal public benefits to illegal aliens.” Attorneys for the bishops’ conference commented: The USCCB believes that the [July HHS] Notice was issued in an arbitrary and capricious manner. We urge the Department to rescind the Notice in its entirety ... The USCCB also urges the Administration to avoid limiting lifesaving benefits, including nutrition assistance, for those at the margins of society.
• African Catholic journalists call for regulation of AI (SACBC)
  At the conclusion of their triennial meeting, members of the African Catholic Union of the Press adopted ten resolutions and recommendations. The conference was devoted to the theme of “Balancing Technological Progress and Preserving Human Values in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.” The Catholic journalists called for regulation of AI to “prevent the erosion of truth, manipulation of consciences, and invasions of privacy.” The journalists also called on media organizations to “adopt editorial policies to ensure that AI tools do not replace human judgment, conscience, or responsibility.”
• Federal court halts enforcement of Texas law on Ten Commandments in public schools (Religion Clause)
  A federal district court halted the enforcement of a Texas law that requires the posting of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. Judge Fred Biery, a Clinton appointee, ruled that the law violates the First Amendment’s establishment clause. Referring to a 1932 movie featuring the actress Greta Garbo (p. 54), Judge Biery wrote that “ultimately, in matters of conscience, faith, beliefs and the soul, most people are Garbo-esque. They just want to be left alone, neither proselytized nor ostracized, including what occurs to their children in government run schools.”
• Former Chicago cathedral rector cleared of abuse allegation (Chicago Sun-Times)
  The Archdiocese of Chicago’s independent review board (IRB) cleared Msgr. Daniel Mayall, rector of the cathedral from 2002 to 2016, of an abuse allegation. Earlier this year, the priest was accused of committing abuse in the 1990s, when he was assigned to another parish. Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago wrote on August 20 that the board “determined that there is not a reasonable cause to believe Monsignor Mayall sexually abused the person making the accusation.” “In addition, the IRB recommended that Monsignor Mayall be reinstated to ministry,” Cardinal Cupich continued. “I have accepted their recommendation effective immediately.”
• Pope Leo offers pointed guidance to Amazon region's bishops (CWN)
  Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State of His Holiness, offered pointed guidance from Pope Leo XIV to the bishops of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon as they held their first assembly in Bogotá, Colombia.
• Catholic Church in Finland has 8 parishes, 120 nationalities (Aid to the Church in Need)
  In an interview with Aid to the Church in Need, Bishop Raimo Goyarrola Belda of Helsinki, Finland’s sole diocese, offered insight into the life of the Church in the Scandinavian nations. Only 0.2% of the nation’s 5.5 million people are Catholic. Finland’s Catholics come from 120 nationalities, and 29 priests minister to them in eight parishes. “Every weekend, we cover thousands of miles to bring the heavenly food to our faithful,” said Bishop Goyarrola, ordained a priest of Opus Dei in 2002 and a bishop in 2023. “In Finland, a Catholic will often find himself the only one in his school or place of work. Despite this, Catholics don’t hide and are not afraid to let the people around them know that they are Catholics, or to speak to them about Christ.”
• President of Seychelles meets with Pontiff (Vatican Press Office)
  Pope Leo XIV met on August 22 with President Wavel Ramkalawan of Seychelles. A brief Vatican statement released after the meeting indicated that the conversation had centered on the work of the Church in Seychelles, “with a particular focus on the formation of the archipelago’s young people,” as well as regional and international relations. The Republic of Seychelles is an island nation in the Indian Ocean, almost 1,000 miles off the eastern coast of Africa, made up of 155 islands, with a population of just over 100,000.
• Indian court acquits bishop in abuse-reporting case (UCANews)
  An Indian court acquitted a retired bishop of an alleged violation of the abuse-reporting requirements of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. According to the court ruling, Bishop Thomas Dabre, the bishop of Pune from 2009 to 2023, asked a police officer whether he should report a priest’s alleged assault of a 15-year-old boy. The officer told him that a bishop could not be compelled to do so—a claim difficult to reconcile with Chapter V of the act, which mandates the reporting of “likely” sexual abuse of minors. The bishop nonetheless directed a subordinate to report the alleged incident to police in a letter. The court ruled that by asking a police officer whether he should file a report, and then directing a subordinate to file a report, the bishop “discharged his duty of communicating the incident to the police.” Father Roque Alphonse, the current diocesan administrator, described the acquittal as a “great relief.” Pune is located in Maharashtra, an Indian state that has experienced a sharp increase in anti-Christian sentiment, according to International Christian Concern.
• 'Hope does not disappoint,' Pope says in message to Rimini meeting (Vatican Press Office)
  In a message to the annual Meeting for Friendship among Peoples, held in Rimini, Italy, Pope Leo XIV said: “We can no longer afford to resist the Kingdom of God, which is a Kingdom of peace.” The Pope said that “where those responsible for state and international institutions seem unable to enforce the rule of law, mediation and dialogue, religious communities and civil society must dare to be prophetic.” He encouraged Christians to work for the transformation of society, saying: Unarmed and disarming, the presence of Christians in contemporary societies must translate, with skill and imagination, the Gospel of the Kingdom into forms of development that provide alternatives to paths of growth without equity and sustainability. The Rimini meeting, which is organized by the Communion and Liberation movement, will take place from August 22 to 27. The Pope’s reflections were conveyed in a message from Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, to Bishop Nicholo Anselmi of Rimini.
• Parish church desecrated, destroyed in Nigeria (Fides)
  Fides, the news agency of the Pontifical Mission Societies, reported that Fulani bandits desecrated and destroyed the parish church in Aye-Twar, a Nigerian village. The Fulani, who are predominantly Muslim, “set fire to the parish office and rectory, and looted or destroyed parish property and vehicles,” according to the report. A Nigerian Capuchin Franciscan priest posted photographs of the destroyed church on social media.
• Trump: 'I want to try and get to heaven' (New York Times)
  During a “Fox and Friends” interview on August 19, President Donald Trump said that he was working for peace in Ukraine because: “I want to try and get to heaven, if possible.” Continuing to talk about his chances for salvation, Trump said: “I’m hearing I’m not doing well... But if I can get to heaven, this will be one of the reasons.”
• In peace negotiations, remember human rights, Ukrainian Catholic leader urges (Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church)
  Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, weighed in on the negotiations to end the Russo-Ukrainian War. “Observing the negotiations at the highest global level, we hope that they will yield results,” said the Major Archbishop. “At the same time, we feel that this is only the beginning—the beginning of a serious search for a way to stop this war.” “Ukraine is its people,” he continued. “And even when it is a question of the occupied territories, we ask at the highest international level to remember those who fell into the clutches of the occupation. We ask that the subject of human rights be returned to the negotiations, above all the right to life and freedom, and in our case, the right to be Ukrainian, to belong to the multimillion-strong Ukrainian people.”
• Jerusalem patriarch: prayer is the only way to move hearts toward peace (Vatican News)
  Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, welcomed the call by Pope Leo for a day of prayer and fasting for peace on August 22, saying: “It is the only thing we can do right now so that the hearts of men may change.” Prayer is particularly essential in the Holy Land, the cardinal said, “where recognizing the other is almost impossible at the moment.” It said that the willingness to acknowledge the humanity of others “finds no ground in the great organizations, whether political or, alas, religious. But it does find ground among many people, movements, groups, associations, and individuals who do not accept the downward spiral.”
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