Catholic News
- Becciu: Pope ordered firing of auditor (AP)
Cardinal Angelo Becciu testified at a Vatican trial on May 18 that Pope Francis ordered the ouster of Libero Milone, the Vatican’s auditor general, in 2017, “because Milone had hired an outside investigative firm to spy on Vatican hierarchs like himself,” in the words of the AP report. Milone was the Holy See’s auditor-general from 2015 until his 2017 resignation. Milone and Becciu clashed during Milone’s tenure. Cardinal Becciu oversaw the internal affairs of the Roman Curia as Substitute (Sostituto) of the Secretariat of State from 2011 to 2018. Pope Francis created him a cardinal in the 2018 consistory and named him Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. In 2020, Becciu resigned from the “rights connected to the cardinalate.” - Pope authorizes non-clerics to be major superiors in certain cases (Vatican News)
With the Pope’s approval, the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated and Societies of Apostolic Life has issued an Italian-language document outlining potential dispensations from Canon 588 §2. The dispensations would a religious brother who belongs to a male religious institute of priests and brothers to become a superior in certain circumstances. - Pope: Like St. Charles de Foucauld, return to the essentials of Jesus and charity (Vatican Press Office)
Emphasizing “essentiality” and “universality,” Pope Francis spoke with members of the Charles de Foucauld Spiritual Family Association on May 18, three days after the canonization of St. Charles de Foucauld (1854-1916). There is an odd inaccuracy in the Vatican’s English translation of the Pope’s remarks. The Pope said that when he studied theology, he continually read the books of [Father René] Voillaume, a priest profoundly influenced by de Foucauld. The Vatican’s translators changed “Voillaume” to “Boignot” in the English translation. - French archbishop takes on role of parish priest (L'Osservatore Romano (Italian))
Facing a severe priest shortage, Archbishop Hervé Giraud of Sens, 65, has appointed himself a parish priest for a year while continuing to lead his French archdiocese (map). There are 24 churches in Archbishop Giraud’s rural parish; he is assisted by a priest from the African nation of Togo and by a deacon. - Moscow Patriarch rips Ecumenical Patriarch, calls on belligerents in war to avoid killing civilians (Moscow Patriarchate)
Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, strongly criticized Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople for his 2019 recognition of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which is independent of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate). “Our flock is in both Russia and Ukraine, and we are ardently praying for the restoration of peace, so that the Lord may overthrow the designs of the evil external power feeding hatred,” Patriarch Kirill said on May 17. “The political goal of creating all these autocephalies, all these schisms is to weaken the influence of the ... one Orthodox Church of Rus’, Ukraine and Belarus, with the use of ideological clichés to enkindle enmity and to create new myths that would alienate one people from another.” Patriarch Kirill added, “The exception of prohibited methods of military actions, protection of the civil population, observance of the international humanitarian law, respect for captives and the injured—this is what I as Patriarch of All Russia call upon the parties of the conflict and ask them to do all that is possible to avoid victims among civilians.” - Look at suffering, sickness with the eyes of Jesus, Pope tells Camillians (Vatican News)
Pope Francis has received participants in the general chapter of the Order of Ministers of the Infirm, also known as the Camillians, after their founder, St. Camillus of Lellis (1550-1614). The “style of life and apostolate of yours, dedicated especially to the service of the sick and to the weak and elderly, seems to me to combine well two essential dimensions of the Christian life: on the one hand the desire for an outgoing and tangible witness to others, and on the other the need to understand oneself according to the canons of evangelical smallness,” the Pope said in his address. “I therefore invite you to draw ever anew from the lifeblood of the Beatitudes, to take, with meekness and simplicity, the good news to the poor and least of today’s people,” he added. - 'Politics is encounter, reflection, action,' Pope tells Chemin Neuf's political fraternity (Vatican News)
“Encounter, reflection, action: this is a political program in the Christian sense,” Pope Francis said in an address to members of the Political Fraternity of the Chemin Neuf charismatic community. “From joining in prayer to the Father from whom all things proceed, from imitating Jesus Christ, and from listening attentively to the Holy Spirit, your concern for the common good gains a powerful interior incentive,” the Pope continued. “For in this way, politics can be practiced as ‘the highest form of charity,’ as it was defined by Pope Pius XI.” - 'We are here to assure you that we stand with you': leading Polish bishops visit Ukraine (RISU)
A delegation of Polish bishops, including Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki of Poznan (president of the Polish Episcopal Conference) and Archbishop Wojciech Polak of Gniezno (Primate of Poland), is visiting Ukraine. “If before the war relations were limited to visits by individual groups of people, then with the war the situation has changed, and among European peoples, Poles most want to honor Ukraine and help it prayerfully and financially,” said Archbishop Gadecki. Archbishop Stanislaw Budzik of Lublin “said that thanks to Ukraine, there is no war in Poland. They understand this, help Ukraine, and want Ukraine to win,” according to the report. - Israeli occupation, not Islamic ideology, blamed for violence in Holy Land (Fides)
The Justice and Peace Commission of the Latin-rite Catholic Patriarchate of Jerusalem has issued a statement placing the responsibility for violence in the Holy Land squarely on the Israel. The Justice and Peace Commission explicitly rejects the argument that violence is spawned by “Palestinian, Arab or Islamic ideologies that reject Israel, Israelis and even Jews.” Instead the statement insists that “the root cause and primary context of the violence is the occupation of Palestine, an occupation that has gone on for fifty-five years.” The statement says that the Commission was “stunned” by the killing of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh, an Al-Jazeera correspondent, by Israeli troops on May 11. - Chicago archdiocese settles abuse suit for $1.2M (AP)
The Archdiocese of Chicago has now paid over $12 million to the victims of Daniel McCormack, a former priest who was born in 1968, ordained in 1994, and named dean of a deanery in 2005. He pled guilty to sexually abusing minors in 2007. - Vatican Secretary of State launches Catholic app for military personnel (CNS)
“I believe that the app will be immensely helpful to all military personnel and, in a particular way, to young men and women who in this important sector of civil service, seek to grow in personal friendship with Jesus Christ and in the understanding and appreciation of the beauty and richness of our Catholic faith,” Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Holy See’s Secretary of State, said of the Catholic Military Connect app. - Papal condolences following death of United Arab Emirates leader (Vatican Press Office)
Pope Francis has sent a message of condolence to the new president of the United Arab Emirates (map) following the death of Sheikh Khalifa ibn Zayed Al Nahyan, president from 2004 to 2022. Pope Francis made an apostolic journey to the nation in 2019. “I am particularly grateful for the solicitude shown by His Highness to the Holy See and to the Catholic communities of the Emirates, and for his commitment to the values of dialogue, understanding and solidarity between peoples and religious traditions solemnly proclaimed by the historic Abu Dhabi Document and embodied in the Zayed Award for Human Fraternity,” Pope Francis wrote in his message. “May his legacy continue to inspire the efforts of men and women of good will everywhere to persevere in weaving bonds of unity and peace between the members of our one human family.” - Pope speaks on Book of Job, 'tenacity for awaiting God' (Vatican Press Office)
At his weekly public audience on May 18, Pope Francis spoke on the Book of Job, “a universal literary classic,” saying that Job is rewarded because “he understood the mystery of God’s tenderness hidden behind his silence.” The Pope told his audience that faithful Christians trust in God even in difficulties, and remarked that “we have also stood in admiration at the firmness of their faith and love in their silence.” Pope Francis paid special tribute to elderly people who have suffered, but “turn their resentment for their loss into a tenacity for awaiting God’s promises.” - Top Vatican diplomat visiting Ukraine (Vatican News)
Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States, arrived in Ukraine on May 18 to begin a three-day visit. Archbishop Gallagher—who emphasized the hope of the Holy See for a negotiated end to the bloodshed—is the third ranking Vatican official to visit Ukraine since the war began. He follows Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the papal almoner, and Cardinal Michael Czerny, the prefect of the Dicastery for Integral Human Development. - Pope will preside at Pentecost Mass, Vatican announces (Vatican Press Office)
The Office for the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff has announced that Pope Francis will preside at the Pentecost Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on June 5. The Pope, who suffers from a painful knee condition, did not preside at the Masses of Easter Vigil and the Second Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday), but did preside at a two-hour Mass on May 15 for the canonization of ten blesseds. - Jimmy Lai faces new indictment, possible life sentence, in Hong Kong (AsiaNews)
Jimmy Lai, the Catholic publisher and democracy activist, faces new criminal charges for violation of Hong Kong’s national-security law. Lai appeared in court on May 18 to answer charges of conspiring with “foreign elements” and sedition. If convicted he could face life imprisonment. Lai has been jailed since December 2020. Although he expected his arrest, he refused to leave Hong Kong, choosing to take a stand against the crackdown on dissent. - Follow Pauline Jaricot's example, Pope tells Pontifical Mission Societies (CWN)
Emphasizing missionary conversion, prayer, and the “concreteness of charity,” Pope Francis encouraged the Pontifical Mission Societies to “walk the path traced” by Venerable Pauline Jaricot (1799-1862), the laywoman from Lyon, France, who founded the Society of the Propagation of the Faith and the Association of the Living Rosary. - The Church is a 'field hospital for vulnerable,' Pope tells French organization (Vatican News)
“When Étienne Villemain [the executive director], the ‘enfant terrible,’ who brought this project together with so many others, first told me about it, I could not help but tell him that I was wary of what the Holy Spirit might inspire in him,” Pope Francis said in an address to members of Village de François. “The Village de François was conceived on the basis of the conviction that ‘everything is linked,’ and you experience this concretely by associating the environment and respect for human life from conception to natural death, prayer and fraternity, and also by bringing different generations together,” the Pope continued. “I count on your testimony to show that life according to the Gospel is found in the balanced consideration of all these aspects.” - Pope expresses closeness to people with Cornelia de Lange Syndrome (Vatican News)
A genetic condition, Cornelia de Lange syndrome “causes discomfort and great difficulties for those who are affected by it and for their family members,” Pope Francis said in an address to members of the Cornelia de Lange Association. “I would like to express my appreciation to the volunteers of your Association, who caringly stand beside these most fragile of our brothers and sisters, supporting those who look after them,” he continued. “In volunteering, the fundamental dimension of the Christian image of God and man is involved: love of God and love of neighbor.” - Tackle poverty to protect children from child labor: papal message (Vatican News)
Pope Francis has sent a message to Guy Ryder, Director-General of the International Labour Organization, for the 5th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour. The May 15-20 conference is taking place in Durban, South Africa. - More...