Catholic News

  • Theme of Pope's general audience: 'St. Joseph, father in tenderness' (CWN)
    At his January 19 general audience—the eight in a series of Wednesday audiences on St. Joseph—Pope Francis reflected on St. Joseph’s tenderness, as well as Jesus’ teaching on God the Father’s tenderness.
  • Macron wants abortion in European charter of rights (CNA)
    French President Emmanuel Macron has said that legal abortion should be enshrined in the European Charter of Fundamental Rights. Speaking on January 19 to the European Parliament, Macron said that the charter should be revised to “be more explicit on environmental protection or the recognition of the right to abortion.”
  • Philadelphia's Ukrainian archbishop assesses Russia-Ukraine crisis (Pillar)
    “Putin has repeated that the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century was the collapse of the Soviet Union, and he wants to reconstitute it,” said Archbishop Borys Gudziak of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia. “So the corruption and the authoritarianism, which is drifting towards totalitarianism, the post-truth disinformation in propaganda, all of that is threatened by vibrant democracy [in Ukraine].” “I find it flabbergasting to see conservative Catholics look to Putin or to Russia as a bastion of traditional values,” Archbishop Gudziak added. “Russia has the highest abortion rate in the world. . . .How this kind of regime that crushes human dignity, that poisons dissidents, or has them shot in the capital of the country—how this can be a source of interest and hope or inspiration for people with traditional Christian values is completely beyond me.”
  • Milwaukee archdiocese sets policy against 'gender theory' (Milwaukee archdiocese)
    The Archdiocese of Milwaukee has issued a clear response to gender theory, directing that “in all interactions and policies, parishes, organizations, and institutions are to recognize only a person’s biological sex.” “A person’s ‘gender’ is inseparable from biological sex,” the archdiocese says in a note explaining the new policy. The note says that every human person is “a unified creature composed of body and soul,” and that respect for God’s creation entails respect for one’s sex. The policy stipulates that in archdiocesan institutions, there will be no use of “preferred pronouns,” no mixed-sex lockers or bathrooms. Individuals will be expected to “follow the dress code or uniform that accords with their biological sex.”
  • Myanmar's army bombs Christian refugees (Fides)
    Following a Christmas massacre in Mo So village in Kayah State (map), Christians fled to refugee camps near the state’s capital, Loikaw. On January 17, they were bombed by the nation’s military. The Vatican newspaper devoted its most prominent front-page coverage to the attack.
  • Top Knight of Malta: Vatican reforms threaten sovereignty (AP)
    The top official of the Knights of Malta has warned that a Vatican move to rewrite the group’s constitution could threaten the sovereignty of the ancient order. Grand Chancellor Albrecht von Boeselager said that the recent Vatican announcement violated promises made by Pope Francis that the sovereign status of the Knights of Malta would not be challenged. Von Boeselager also said that he had been unable to register his concerns with the Vatican because “that avenue has been closed to me”—suggesting a breach in relations. Such a breach would be both significant and ironic, since in 2017 the Vatican intervened in an internal dispute within the Order of Malta, to restore Von Boeselager to office after he had been removed by the Order’s top leaders. At the time, the leaders complained that the Vatican intervention violated the Order’s sovereignty. The Sovereign Military Order of Malta, a worldwide charitable group, energetically defends its sovereign status, which guarantees its ability to maintain diplomatic relations with other states, easing the process of providing humanitarian aid.
  • USCCB calls for greater federal funding to protect houses of worship (USCCB)
    The USCCB’s Committee for Religious Liberty has issued an action alert asking Catholics to call for increased congressional funding of the Nonprofit Security Grant Program. “There have been over 100 reported incidents of vandalism, arson, and other destruction at Catholic sites in the United States since May of 2020, as well as attacks on the property of other faith groups, such as the hostage incident at a synagogue in Texas on Jan. 15,” the action alert notes. “The USCCB’s Committee for Religious Liberty is asking Congress to double the funding to $360 million.”
  • Italian court decision did not favor Vatican finance-trial defendant (Pillar)
    An Italian court’s decision last October, which defendants in the Vatican’s finance trial hailed as a vindication of their cause, was actually a mixed result, a Pillar analysis shows. The Italian court had quashed an arrest warrant for Gianluigi Torzi, a key figure in the Vatican case, and the defendant’s lawyers had said that the decision favored their argument that Torzi faced unfair prosecution in the Vatican trial. But in fact the court—whose decision only recently was made public—found that argument “without foundation.” The court’s decision was based on procedural grounds, Pillar explains. The full decision does not entirely favor the Vatican prosecutors, but shows that Torzi’s defense will be based on a claim that the Vatican tribunal does not provide adequate protection for defendants.
  • Vatican announces motto of Jubilee Year 2025: 'Pilgrims of Hope' (Vatican News)
    Since the 15th century, it has been customary for the Church to celebrate a jubilee every 25 years. The Church has also celebrated extraordinary jubilee years, most recently the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy (2015-16).
  • Egyptian parliament to approve new law on status of Christians (Vatican News)
    Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Egypt’s president since 2014, “has made a number of friendly gestures towards the local Christian churches,” the report notes. “The drafting of the new legislation, which includes provisions on sensitive issues relating to family law, has been a long process that started in 2014 and in which all Egyptian Churches have been involved.” The nation of 106 million is 90% Muslim and 9% Christian; Islam is the state religion.
  • Polish priest arrested for trading fake Covid passports (Notes from Poland)
    The priest, who has been detained but is not identified under Polish privacy law, allegedly “received between 100 and 200 zloty [$25 and $50] from six people whose certificates he facilitated,” according to the report. He faces a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
  • Citing abortion views, DC restaurant boots pro-life group (CNA)
    Democrats for Life of America has issued a statement on the cancellation of the March for Life Breakfast by Busboys and Poets, a Washington restaurant. The restaurant “stands firmly on the belief that women have the right to make their own reproductive health decisions,” a spokeswoman said.
  • New Jersey bishops decry passage of expansive new abortion law (CNS)
    The Freedom of Reproductive Choice Act “codifies into state law an individual’s right to an abortion, including late-term abortions,” the state’s bishops said in their statement. “This law departs from the fundamental Catholic teaching that all life is sacred from conception to natural death,” they added. “Even more distressing is that the legal and ethical calculus that underlies this new legislation absolutely and forthrightly extinguishes the human and moral identity of the unborn child.”
  • Hundreds die daily in troubled Ethiopian region, diocese reports (Fides)
    The Ethiopian Catholic Eparchy of Adigrat reports that a humanitarian crisis is deepening in the Tigray region, where since June of last year fierce fighting has driven thousands from their homes and blocked the delivery of relief supplies. Millions are malnourished, disease is spreading unchecked, and violence has escalated, the diocese says. “The entire population has been deprived of all the fundamental rights of every human being: the right to live with dignity, the right to security, education, food, water, to receive humanitarian assistance, etc.”
  • Pope Tawadros: For Copts there is no longer any ban on visiting Jerusalem (Fides)
    Born in 1952, Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria has led the Coptic Orthodox Church (CNEWA profile) since 2012. The church is among the Oriental Orthodox churches that ceased to be in full communion with the Holy See following the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon in 451. Pope Tawadros’ predecessor, Pope Shenouda III, led the church from 1971 to 2012; he banned the Coptic Orthodox faithful from visiting Israel, in part because in 1970, the Israeli government confiscated Deir es-Sultan (a Coptic Orthodox monastery in Jerusalem) and gave it to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
  • Bishops in Central African Republic decry exploitation of resources (Fides)
    The Catholic bishops of the Central African Republic concluded their annual assembly with a statement that the “degradation and destruction of our ecosystem is frightening.” The bishops reported that the rich natural resources of their country are being taken by foreign corporations, “with the complicity of some of our compatriots.” They called for transparency in deals involving the use of natural resources, and curbs on corruption in government.
  • Papal donations for Philippine typhoon victims, migrants on Belarus-Poland border (Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development)
    Pope Francis has sent 100,000 euro ($113,500) to assist victims of Typhoon Rai, and the same amount to assist migrants on the Belarus–European Union border.
  • New York priest receives 1st John Paul II Prize for Catholic?Jewish Studies (Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity)
    Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and of the Commission for Religious Relations with Judaism, has awarded the first John Paul II Prize for Catholic‒Jewish Studies. The winner of the prize was Father Ryan Muldoon, who was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of New York in 2019. Rabbi Jack Bemporad, founder of the John Paul II Center for Interreligious Dialogue located at the Angelicum, presented the prize in recognition of Father Muldoon’s doctoral thesis, “The Land of Our Fathers in Faith: The Theological Role of the Land of Israel for Contemporary Jewish‒Catholic Dialogue.”
  • In Israel, number of Christians rises, but percentage continues to decline (Fides)
    Since 1949, the number of Christians in Israel has risen from 34,000 to more than 180,000; during the same time, the number of Muslims rose from 111,000 to 1.6 million, and the number of Jews rose from 1.17 million to 6.9 million. According to the report, Christian families have fewer children under 18 (1.93 on average) than Muslim (2.60) or Jewish (2.43) families. Nearly 77% of Israel’s Christians are Palestinian Arabs, and Israel’s Christians are “the component with the highest average level of education, especially among the female part of the population.”
  • Cancel culture targets charity donors (Wall Street Journal)
    A coalition of leftist groups known as “Unmasking Fidelity” is putting pressure on Fidelity Investments to end charitable donations to conservative organizations. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Jeremey Tedesco, the senior counsel of the Alliance Defending Freedom, shows that the “cancel culture” is now threatening support for conservative causes.
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