Catholic News

  • Pope Francis: Use the time God gives us to convert our lives (Vatican Press Office)
    “May the Virgin Mary help us to live each day, each moment as the time of salvation, in which the Lord passes and calls us to follow him, every second of our life,” Pope Francis said at the conclusion of his January 24 Sunday Angelus address, delivered in the library of the Apostolic Palace (video). “And may she help us to convert from the mentality of the world, that of worldly reveries which are fireworks, to that of love and service.”
  • Ailing Pope, reducing appearances, prays for homeless dead (AP)
    On January 23, the director of the Holy See Press Office announced that because of recurrent sciatica, Pope Francis would miss three important events on January 24 and 25. The Pontiff, however, did deliver his January 24 Sunday Angelus address in the library of the Apostolic Palace, after which he prayed for a Nigerian homeless man founded dead near St. Peter’s Square.
  • US bishops' pro-life chairman decries Biden-Harris statement on anniversary of Roe v. Wade (USCCB)
    “Roe’s elevation of abortion to the status of a protected right and its elimination of state restrictions paved the way for the violent deaths of more than 62 million innocent unborn children and for countless women who experience the heartache of loss, abandonment, and violence,” Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City (Kansas), chairman of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, said in response to a statement from President Biden and Vice President Harris on the 48th anniversary of Roe v. Wade (full text).
  • Draw near to others, as God drew near to us, and read God's word: papal homily (Vatican Press Office)
    Ailing from sciatica, Pope Francis did not celebrate Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on January 24; Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization, read the papal homily for the Sunday of the Word of God (video, booklet).
  • US bishops lament President Biden's executive order on gender identity, sexual orientation (USCCB)
    A presidential executive order “threatens to infringe the rights of people who recognize the truth of sexual difference or who uphold the institution of lifelong marriage between one man and one woman,” said five bishops who chair committees or subcommittees of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. “This may manifest in mandates that, for example, erode health care conscience rights or needed and time-honored sex-specific spaces and activities.”
  • 'Come and see': theme of papal message for World Communications Day (Vatican Press Office)
    In a message issued on the vigil of the memorial of St. Francis de Sales (patron saint of journalists), Pope Francis expressed concern that “original investigative reporting in newspapers and television, radio and web newscasts is being replaced by a reportage that adheres to a standard, often tendentious narrative . . . ‘Come and see’ is the simplest method to get to know a situation.”
  • Pope recalls Sunday of the Word of God, urges all to read Bible (Vatican News)
    Pope Francis made his comments on January 24, following his Sunday Angelus address.
  • Pope pens foreword to book on human trafficking victim (Vatican News)
    Pope Francis has written the foreword to Mariapia Bonanate’s Io sono Joy, a work about a 23-year-old Nigerian human trafficking victim. The Pope writes, “I can’t help but ask the reader a question: since there are countless young women, victims of trafficking, who end up on the streets of our cities, how much does this reprehensible reality stem from the fact that many men, here, demand these ‘services’ and show themselves willing to buy another person, annihilating her inalienable dignity?”
  • Listen to the faithful and to be united in prayer, Pope says to leaders of Church in Latin America (Vatican News)
    Pope Francis delivered a Spanish-language video message to the first Ecclesial Assembly of the Church in Latin America and the Caribbean.
  • In Northern Ireland, government, bishops extend shutdown of churches until March 5 (Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference)
    “We once more make this decision reluctantly, conscious of the pain that not being able to gather for public worship causes for all the faithful, but in the hope that this period of sacrifice is inspired by the command of Jesus to love our neighbors and undertaken for the protection of life and health and for the common good,” the bishops said in their statement.
  • Family ministry begins with listening, recognizing grace, Vatican cardinal says (UCANews)
    Cardinal Kevin Joseph Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, said that priests and seminarians “need more and better education” so as to offer “morally and scientifically sound responses to questions about procreation, reproductive technologies and educating children about morality, affectivity, and sexuality,” according to the report.
  • Sign nuclear weapons treaty, Australian bishops urge prime minister (Australian Catholic Bishops Conference)
    The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons entered into force on January 22.
  • Caritas leader calls on US, European nations to renounce 'vaccine nationalism' (Vatican News)
    Stating that vaccination is a “basic human right,” the secretary general of Caritas Internationalis, the Church’s federation of relief and development agencies, regretted that “around a sixth of the world population has already reserved more than half of the vaccines for their own national population.”
  • Hundreds reportedly dead after massacre at church in Ethiopia (CNA)
    The attack on the Ethiopian Orthodox parish took place in Axum, an historic city in the northern part of the nation. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (CNEWA background) is among the Oriental Orthodox churches that ceased to be in full communion with the Holy See following the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon (451).
  • Young people are bearing the pandemic's greatest burden, leading Italian cardinal says (Corriere dell'Umbria (Italian))
    Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti of Perugia, the president of the Italian Episcopal Conference, said on January 24 that adolescents who have given up in-person schooling, normal social interactions, and athletics have been forgotten during the pandemic. The 78-year-old prelate was hospitalized with Covid in November and has recovered.
  • Vatican tribunal convicts three laymen in financial scandal (AP)
    A Vatican tribunal has convicted two former executives of the Institute for Religious Works (the IOR, commonly known as the Vatican bank) on embezzlement and money-laundering charges. Angelo Caloia, who was president of the IOR from 1999 to 2009; and two lawyers who had acted as IOR consultants, were found guilty of arranging to profit from the sale of Vatican properties. Caloia was sentenced to a prison term of just under nine years. His attorney said that the former IOR chief would appeal, charging that the Vatican’s judicial system had not provided a fair trial.
  • Biden, Harris underline commitment to abortion on Roe anniversary (CNA)
    On the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris issued a statement proclaiming their firm commitment to unrestricted legal abortion, which they said “has been under relentless and extreme attack.” Biden has promised to issue an executive order reversing the “Mexico City policy,” which bars the use of taxpayer funds to promote abortion.
  • US bishops' conference president welcomes President Biden's call for national healing, emphasizes 'we cannot stay silent' on abortion (USCCB)
    “For the nation’s bishops, the continued injustice of abortion remains the ‘preeminent priority,’” said Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles, citing the bishops’ statement on faithful citizenship. “Preeminent does not mean ‘only.’ We have deep concerns about many threats to human life and dignity in our society. But as Pope Francis teaches, we cannot stay silent when nearly a million unborn lives are being cast aside in our country year after year through abortion.”
  • Pope Francis sends message to President Biden (Vatican Press Office)
    “At a time when the grave crises facing our human family call for farsighted and united responses, I pray that your decisions will be guided by a concern for building a society marked by authentic justice and freedom, together with unfailing respect for the rights and dignity of every person, especially the poor, the vulnerable and those who have no voice,” the Pontiff said in his message. Similar papal messages were sent for the inaugurations of President Obama in 2009 and President Trump in 2017.
  • Archbishop Gomez repeats: Abortion is the 'most fundamental' injustice (@ArchbishopGomez)
    “Friends, there are many injustices in our society, but the most fundamental is the one our society rarely acknowledges — the routine taking of innocent human life every day through abortion. So let us pray and work for an end to this injustice,” the president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops tweeted after his Inauguration Day statement, which placed some emphasis on abortion, and was met with unusual public criticism from Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago.
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