Catholic News
- Pope venerates the Virgin of Almudena, speaks of tearing down walls (CWN)
Pope Leo XIV visited Almudena Cathedral in Madrid this evening and venerated the Virgin of Almudena, Madrid’s patroness (video). - Pope, in address to Spain's bishops, compares Church's journey to a pilgrimage (CWN)
Pope Leo XIV addressed the bishops of Spain today (video) and offered them the “image of a journey whose destination is God, toward whom we lift our gaze.” - Pope addresses Spanish Parliament, urges respect for dignity of every human person (CWN)
Pope Leo XIV addressed the Spanish Parliament this morning in the Palacio de las Cortes and urged lawmakers to respect the dignity of every human person in their decisions about the unborn, parental rights, migration, peace, religious freedom, and the seal of Confession. - Do not be afraid of Jesus Christ, Pope tells Spanish cultural, business leaders (CWN)
Pope Leo XIV met last evening with Spanish cultural and business leaders and encouraged them not to be afraid of Jesus Christ. - Let Eucharistic piety transform Spanish society, Pope preaches at Mass for 1.2 million (CWN)
Pope Leo XIV celebrated the Mass of Corpus Christi today in Madrid’s Plaza de Cibeles (video 1, video 2) and lauded Spain’s heritage of Eucharistic piety. - Allow God's mercy to renew your hearts, Pope tells participants at world conference on mercy (CWN)
In a video message to the Sixth World Apostolic Congress on Mercy, Pope Leo XIV said that “it is a source of great joy and true hope when we experience how merciful God is towards each one of us and how good it is for us to renew our trust in his mercy.” - Be missionaries of the Gospel, Pope tells over 600,000 Spanish young people (CWN)
Pope Leo XIV presided at a prayer vigil with young people last evening in Madrid’s Plaza de Lima (video) and challenged the Catholic youth of Spain to “be missionaries of the Gospel amid the material and spiritual poverty of our time, knowing full well that our faith is a way of life that is lived out in charity.” - What the June consistory reveals about Pope Leo's style of governance [New Analysis] (CWN)
The program for consistory of cardinals scheduled for June 26-27 reveals several things about how Pope Leo XIV intends to govern the Church. - Communion and unity are a message to the world, Pope tells Augustinians in Spain (Vatican News)
On the afternoon of June 7, the second day of his apostolic journey to Spain, Pope Leo XIV held a private meeting at the apostolic nunciature with over 200 members of the Order of Saint Augustine. The Holy See Press Office said in a statement that “after the Provincial Superior’s greeting, the Pope addressed those present with words of gratitude for the opportunity to meet, emphasizing how communion and unity of heart among Augustinians can serve as a message to the world at this moment in history.” Pope Leo highlighted the importance of the vocation of contemplative sisters, “also in order to give meaning to social action, at a time when silence and humanity’s ability to enter into one’s own heart are being lost,” according to the statement. - Cardinal Koch: There are more martyrs today than in the early Church (CWN)
During a recent homily in Switzerland, the prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity said that “martyrdom truly belongs to the heart of Christianity” and that “today, there are more martyrs than in the first centuries of Church history.” - Orthodox church, cathedral desecrated in Bosnia and Herzegovina (CWN)
A Serbian Orthodox church in Tuzla, the third largest city in Bosnia and Herzegovina, was recently desecrated, the Serbian Times reported. - Pope laments murder of Mozambique bishop (EWTN News)
Referring to the murder of Bishop Osório Cîtora Afonso of Quelimane, Mozambique, the Holy See Press Office said in a statement that Pope Leo “learned with sorrow of the grave act of violence.” The Pope “joins in prayer with the people of the Dioceses and of Mozambique in this hour of bewilderment, so that the Lord may give them consolation, so that he may guard in his love every man and woman and stop the hand of violence,” the press office added. - Pope departs from Rome on 4th apostolic journey, arrives in Madrid (CWN)
Pope Leo XIV departed this morning from Rome Fiumicino Airport for Spain on his fourth international apostolic journey (program), following previous trips to Turkey and Lebanon (November 27-December 2), Monaco (March 28), and Algeria, Cameroon, and Equatorial Guinea (April 13-23). - Federal court permits Nigerian deacon to continue to minister in US (Religion Clause)
A federal judge ruled that a Nigerian deacon whose religious worker visa was set to expire may continue to minister in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe while his case in being adjudicated. Shortly after the archdiocese petitioned for a visa renewal for Deacon Martin Umeatuegbu, the Trump administration designated Nigeria a high-risk country and put visa applications from Nigerians on hold. - Cardinal Müller critiques SSPX's positions (kath.net)
Cardinal Gerhard Müller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 2012 to 2017, critiqued the Society of St. Pius X’s rejection of the teaching of the Second Vatican Council on religious liberty, as well as the Society’s decision to consecrate new bishops on July 1. “From a purely human and theological perspective, too, it is inconceivable that two thousand bishops at the Council and all the popes to date have erred in dogmatic matters or deviated from the apostolic tradition, save for a single bishop who, through illegal episcopal ordinations alone, ensures the survival of the Church, which Jesus promised to the Apostle Peter,” Cardinal Müller said in an interview with the Austrian news agency kath.net. He added: One would hope that the FSSPX will not remain confined to its own circle, but instead look to the Church as a whole and learn from the mistakes of Church history. The Fraternity should not follow the path of the Donatists, the Jansenists, and the Old Catholics. One extreme does not justify the other. Neither so-called progressivism, which surrenders the revealed truth of Christ to the shifting currents of the zeitgeist, nor traditionalism, which reduces the entire tradition of the Church to a few fixed ideas, can be the way of the Church that the Risen Lord has chosen as a sacrament, that is, as a sign and instrument. - Cardinal Bo: The Pope made us feel that Myanmar is not forgotten (Vatican News)
Following a lengthy June 5 papal audience with the bishops of Myanmar, Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, S.D.B., of Yangon said that “Myanmar is not forgotten, but always in his prayers.” During the audience, which last nearly two hours, “we explained the situation, difficult situation,” Cardinal Bo told Vatican News. The Myanmar civil war began in 2021 following a coup d’état. “At the same time, all the people of Myanmar, bishop, priests, religious and the faithful, they are very much having faith, they have resilience,” Cardinal Bo added. “In spite of the difficult situation, the Church in Myanmar is growing and being strengthened very much.” Buddhism is the official religion of the Southeast Asian nation of 57.9 million (map). Myanmar is 74% Buddhist, 9% ethnic religionist, 9% Christian, and 4% Muslim. - Bishop murdered in Mozambique (Agência ECCLESIA (Portuguese))
The bishop of Quelimane, Mozambique, died this morning after being shot in the heart in his residence. Born in 1972, Bishop Osório Cîtora Afonso, I.M.C., was ordained to the priesthood in 2002, appointed auxiliary bishop of Maputo (the nation’s capital) in 2023, and became bishop of Quelimane last July, according to the Annuario Pontificio. Prior to being named a bishop, he was an an official in the Dicastery for Evangelization; previously, he earned a licentiate at the Biblicum, worked at seminaries, and held regional leadership positions in his order, the Consolata Missionaries. The Portuguese bishops’ news agency reported that the murder was “committed with an AKM-type weapon by individuals who climbed the wall of his residence, having vandalized the electrical security ... There are no detainees so far, and the authorities are investigating the case.” - Bishop Schneider: Pope could permit SSPX episcopal consecrations to proceed (CWN)
Auxiliary Bishop Athanasius Schneider, O.S.C., of Astana, Kazakhstan, wrote in a new essay that “with a spirit of magnanimity, the Supreme Pontiff, as a true father, could build a bridge to the SSPX, this portion of his flock, and permit the episcopal consecrations on an exceptional basis in order to foster a climate in which, through greater mutual trust, a solution to the doctrinal questions and the corresponding juridical arrangements may be found patiently and gradually.” - UNESCO leader hails Pope's stance on AI, commitment to peace (CWN)
The director-general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) praised Pope Leo’s reflections on artificial intelligence and commitment to peace following a June 5 papal audience. - New French ambassador to Holy See sees Lebanon as crucial to future of Middle East's Christians (Vatican News (French))
Pope Leo XIV received Charles Personnaz, France’s new ambassador to the Holy See, on June 5, as he presented his credentials. The ambassador said in an interview that a resolution of the Lebanon war is crucial for the region’s Christians. Ambassador Personnaz, the president of Fonds des écoles d’Orient (Fund for Schools of the East), told Vatican News that he hopes to “maintain and enrich the dialogue between France and the Holy See. Because France and the Holy See are two poles of reason, places where people seek ways and means to ease this international situation, to try to find paths toward greater peace or at least dialogue among peoples.” The ambassador added that “it is clear that the crisis in Lebanon is of critical importance, because Lebanon remains a touchstone for Christians across the region; the hope of all Christian communities in the Middle East therefore hinges on Lebanon’s future.” - More...