Catholic News

• It is illogical to divide peoples or deny hospitality, Pope says in peace message (Community of Sant'Egidio)
  Pope Francis called for prayer and dialogue for peace in a message to Cardinal Carlos Osoro Sierra of Madrid and other participants in a conference marking the 33rd anniversary of the 1986 world day of prayer for peace in Assisi.
• Cardinal Marx: German bishops will proceed with synod despite Vatican warning (National Catholic Register)
  Cardinal Reinhard Marx has indicated that the German bishops’ conference will go ahead with plans to make “binding” decisions on controversial Church teachings, despite a Vatican warning that the proposed German synod would be “not ecclesiologically valid.” Cardinal Marx wrote, “I cannot see why questions about which the magisterium has made determinations should be withdrawn from any debate.”
• Cardinal Pell appeals to Australia's top court (The Australian)
  Cardinal George Pell has appealed to Australia’s High Court to overturn his sex-abuse conviction. The cardinal’s lawyers argue that an appeals court wrongly reduced the burden of proof, requiring the cardinal to prove his innocence rather than forcing the prosecution to establish his guilt.
• Pray for people in government and political leaders, Pope preaches at weekday Mass (Vatican News)
  At a Mass celebrated in the chapel of Domus Sanctae Marthae on September 16, Pope Francis preached on 1 Timothy 2:1-8, the first reading of the day.
• In China, pilgrims flock to save Marian shrine from destruction (AsiaNews)
  The shrine of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows is located in Shanxi Province (map).
• Nicaragua's bishops call nation's crisis of trust 'an omnipresent virus' (CNS)
  The bishops issued their statement as a human rights organization documented the murder of opponents of the Ortega regime.
• Italian polio victim, Dachau martyr beatified (Vatican Press Office)
  Blessed Benedetta Bianchi Porro (1936-1964) was beatified in Forli, Italy (video clip); Blessed Richard Henkes, SAC (1900-1945), was beatified in Limburg, Germany (video).
• Pope encourages Italian Railways to be 'increasingly attractive, sustainable, and supportive' (Vatican Press Office)
  On September 16, Pope Francis received the directors and staff of the Italian State Railways Group in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace.
• Prince Charles to lead UK delegation to Blessed John Henry Newman's canonization (The Tablet)
  Blessed John Henry Newman (1801-1890) will be canonized on October 13.
• At Polish cross festival, Catholics atone for abuse scandals, vandalism (CNS)
  According to the report, the “Poland Under the Cross festival was the spiritual result of two previous events: a Great Penance Day attended by state and government leaders at Jasna Gora national sanctuary in October 2016 for the sins of the Polish nation, and a mass Rosary recitation in October 2017.”
• Vatican abuse commission members discuss vulnerable adults, survivor advisory panels (Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors)
  “The emerging significance of the concept of vulnerable adult, in particular its definition, has been given attention,” the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors said in a September 16 press release.
• Prelates criticize expected cut in US refugee admissions (USCCB)
  As the Trump administration weighs additional refugee resettlement reductions, the president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, joined by the migration committee chairman, said that “further reductions in the number of refugees allowed to seek freedom in the United States would be wholly counter to our values as a nation of immigrants.”
• 'With God, no sin has the last word,' Pope tells pilgrims (Vatican Press Office)
  In his September 15 Sunday Angelus address (video), Pope Francis reflected on Luke 15:1-32, the Gospel reading of the day.
• In kickoff to speaking tour, Irish abuse survivor says she is disappointed with global reforms (Archdiocese of Baltimore)
  Marie Collins resigned from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors in 2017.
• St. Thérèse's relics brought to Scotland's largest prison (Premier)
  The prison, HMP Barlinnie, has 1,600 inmates.
• Pope renews criticism of life imprisonment (Vatican Press Office)
  “Life imprisonment is not the solution to problems, but a problem to be solved,” Pope Francis said in a September 14 audience with Italy’s Prison and Juvenile and Community Justice Administration (video). “Because if hope is locked up, there is no future for society. Never deprive anyone of the right to start over!” In 2015, Pope Francis compared life imprisonment to “hidden death sentences.”
• In Jharkand, man's relatives kill his young wife because she was Christian and Dalit (AsiaNews)
  The eastern Indian state of Jharkand (map) is 68% Hindu, 15% Muslim, and 4% Christian, with 13% adhering to indigenous Sarnaism and other religions. An estimated 30% of India’s Christians are Dalits (once more commonly known as “untouchables”).
• German bishops respond to Vatican criticism of 'synodal path' (German Bishops' Conference)
  Responding to a letter from the prefect of the Congregation for Bishops and assessment from the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, a spokesman for the German bishops said that the assessment “deals with the draft version of the Statutes as of June 2019 and does not yet take into account the version updated in July and after the meeting of the Permanent Council in August, which no longer contains some passages to which the assessment refers.”
• Indian cardinal demands release of priest, catechist arrested for 'forced conversions' (AsiaNews)
  Two priests and a catechist were recently arrested in the eastern Indian state of Jharkand. Police have released one of the priests.
• Pope warns against populism (Vatican Press Office)
  Catholic communion protects a particular identity “from the temptation of closing in on itself and falling into national or ethnic particularisms that exclude others,” Pope Francis told Europe’s Eastern Catholic bishops on September 14. “And this is a danger of the present time in our civilization: particularisms that become populisms and seek to dictate and make everything uniform.”
• More...