Catholic News
- Pope concludes Week of Prayer for Christian Unity with call for renewed commitment to mission (CWN)
Pope Leo XIV concluded the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity with the celebration of Vespers this evening in the Papal Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls (video). - Pope, in World Mission Day message, calls for unity for sake of evangelization (CWN)
In his message for World Mission Sunday, Pope Leo XIV encouraged the faithful to be united with Christ and one another for the sake of the mission of proclaiming God’s love. - God calls us to proclaim the Gospel in 'inopportune' times and places, Pope tells pilgrims (CWN)
Jesus Christ offers his followers an example of proclaiming the Gospel in seemingly inopportune times and places, Pope Leo XIV said today. - Papal appeal for Ukraine, 'hit by continuous attacks' (CWN)
At the conclusion of his Angelus address today, Pope Leo XIV appealed for peace in Ukraine. - Pope encourages Italian Catholic Action to bear witness to the Gospel in daily life (Azione Cattolica Italiana)
Pope Leo XIV received Giuseppe Notarstefano, national president of Italian Catholic Action, on January 24. Following the meeting, the apostolate released a detailed statement on the audience. “Attention focused on the Association’s commitment to peace, cooperation among peoples and the construction of relationships inspired by fraternity, in a time marked by conflicts,” according to the statement. A topic that “emerged forcefully” was “the responsibility of the laity to bear witness” to the Gospel amid the “challenges of our time.” Catholic Action, a lay apostolate under the direction of the hierarchy, arose in the 1860s in response to anti-clericalism in Italy, the New Catholic Encyclopedia notes in its article on the movement. - USCCB president, Minnesota archbishop call for prayer, calm in Minneapolis (CWN)
The president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis issued statements following the killing of Alex Pretti. - New Philippine bishop said he wished the Church would 'come up with a reasonable teaching' on contraception (CWN)
Pope Leo has appointed Father Cyril Villareal, a priest of the Archdiocese of Capiz in the Philippines, as the bishop of Kalibo. - Cardinal Parolin begins visit to Denmark (@TerzaLoggia)
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State of His Holiness, began a three-day visit to Denmark on January 24. Cardinal Parolin took part in ecumenical Vespers at Copenhagen’s Lutheran cathedral, visited a Carmelite monastery and a Benedictine convent, and celebrated Mass in the Catholic cathedral in commemoration of the 1200th anniversary of St. Ansgar’s evangelizing mission in Denmark. Today, Cardinal Parolin is scheduled to meet with Denmark’s king and minister of foreign affairs. He will also visit a seminary. - Archbishop Gänswein: With Pope Leo, 'normality' is returning to the Vatican (EWTN News)
The former Prefect of the Papal Household private secretary of Pope Benedict XVI said that “normality is slowly returning” to the Vatican under Pope Leo. Archbishop Georg Gänswein, now the apostolic nuncio to Lithuania, told EWTN News that the new pope has brought a “whole new positive dimension ... When you read his catechesis or sermons, you can sense that this is a man who lives and proclaims the faith with an Augustinian spirit.” Archbishop Gänswein also criticized the Synodal Way in his native Germany. While “no doubt there is indeed a need to change and reform certain things here and there,” the Synodal Way, he said, “is not about a return to a deepening of the faith but about a watering down of the faith.” - Latin American energy sector leaders meet with Pontiff (Informe Digital (Argentina))
Pope Leo XIV received over a dozen leaders from Argentina’s energy sector on January 24. Participants discussed the “goal of promoting economic development compatible with socio-climate justice and a dignified and abundant life for all, in tune with the message of the Church,” the Argentine news site Informe Digital reported. “We thought it was useful to bring together leading entrepreneurs from the energy and mining industries with His Holiness to discuss issues such as caring for our common home, climate change and the strong demand for minerals that is growing due to artificial intelligence,” said José Luis Manzano. - Mexico's Primate defends Queen Isabella's beatification cause (Zenit)
Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes, archbishop of Mexico City and Primate of Mexico, spoke out in defense of the beatification cause of Queen Isabella I. In a recent visit to the diocesan commission for her beatification cause in Valladolid, Spain, Cardinal Aguiar “said that years of study had led him to a firm conviction about Isabella’s personal sanctity and the urgency of making it better known,” according to the ZENIT news agency. The report continued: He pointed in particular to the queen’s landmark Royal Decree of 1503, which affirmed that the indigenous peoples of the newly encountered territories were to enjoy the same rights as subjects in Spain itself—an extraordinary position for its time. - Sri Lanka: 6 police officers arrested for alleged assault on priest (Daily Mirror (Colombo))
Six police officers have been arrested for allegedly assaulting a priest in Negombo, a Sri Lankan city, after the priest, riding on a motorcycle, reportedly failed to stop. “The incident occurred on Saturday night when the officers ordered a motorcyclist travelling along the Kirindiwita-Udugampola Road to stop,” a leading Sri Lankan newspaper reported. “The motorcyclist reportedly failed to comply, prompting the officers to pursue and arrest him.” - Man arrested for setting fire to Tennessee parish (WBIR-TV)
A 29-year-old man has been arrested for setting fire to a Knoxville, Tennessee, parish in 2024. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has documented over 400 acts of vandalism, arson, and other destruction at parishes and other Catholic sites in the United States since 2020. - Background: Sunday of the Word of God (CWN)
On Sunday, January 25—the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time—the Church commemorates the 7th Sunday of the Word of God. Pope Francis instituted the commemoration with his 2019 apostolic letter Aperuit illis; it was first celebrated in 2020. - New Israeli law threatens existence of Jerusalem's Christian schools, Franciscan official warns (L'Osservatore Romano (Italian))
The head of the schools of the Franciscan province in the Holy Land warned that a new Israeli law threatens the existence of Christian schools in Jerusalem. The new law, approved by the Knesset (parliament), “prevents graduates of universities that follow the curriculum of the State of Palestine from teaching in schools in Israel, unless they also possess a specific accreditation from the Israeli authorities,” the Vatican newspaper reported. Father Ibrahim Faltas, OFM, of the Custody of the Holy Land, said that “all Palestinians from the West Bank who studied at Palestinian universities, such as the one in Bethlehem, which is Christian, or Hebron, will no longer be able to teach in schools in Israel: this is truly very serious.” The 15 Christian schools in Jerusalem, with 12,000 students, “are the ones that will primarily bear the consequences of this decision,” Father Faltas added. “There are many teachers who come from the West Bank and especially from the Bethlehem area: as many as 235. It would mean closing all these schools because there are no teachers in Jerusalem, they cannot be found.” - Orthodox prelate calls for greater Christian unity in Ukraine to resist evil (Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church)
A prelate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine called for greater unity among Ukraine’s Christians in order to “overcome the evil that has come upon our land.” “Only by being united can we overcome the evil that has come upon our land today,” said Archbishop Agapit of Vyshgorod. “I want to wish that the Lord, through our prayers and seeing our intentions, will help us Ukrainians to unite first and foremost—to unite around Christ, around God.” The prelate made his remarks at a January 22 service for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. The service, led by the apostolic nuncio, took place in a Latin-rite church whose stained-glass windows were shattered in a recent Russian attack. - Papal message: Catholic social teaching shows path to peaceful coexistence (Vatican News)
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State of His Holiness, sent a message in Pope Leo’s name to participants in a conference on Catholic social thought and peacebuilding in Europe. The conference was organized by the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice (CAPP) Foundation, named after Pope St. John Paul II’s 1991 social encyclical. No continent can “live in peace and thrive without commonly held truths that inform its norms and values,” the papal message stated. Catholic social teaching “has much to offer as it goes beyond borders and provides a platform for collective interests and way of living, thus making peaceful coexistence possible,” the message added. - Pope encourages Puerto Rico's bishops to promote peace within dioceses (Vatican News (Spanish))
Pope Leo XIV received the bishops of Puerto Rico and encouraged them to be “bearers of fraternal communion and to strive for peace in all our dioceses,” according to a bishop who was present at the meeting. Auxiliary Bishop Tomás González made his remarks in an interview with Vatican News following the January 23 audience. Bishop González also said that synodal meetings in Puerto Rico’s dioceses have “blessed us enormously as we live this process as children of God, all the baptized, faithful and pastors together.” - Pontiff to celebrate Sunday Mass at 5 Roman parishes (Diocese of Rome (Italian))
The Diocese of Rome has announced that on each of the first five Sundays of Lent, Pope Leo XIV will visit a parish in Rome: Santa Maria Regina Pacis in Ostia Lido, Sacred Heart of Jesus in Castro Pretorio, Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Santa Maria della Presentazione, and Sacred Heart of Jesus in Ponte Mammolo. “They will be real pastoral visits,” said Cardinal Baldassare Reina, vicar general of His Holiness for the Diocese of Rome. “Pope Leo XIV will meet with participatory bodies, pastoral animators and some youth organizations. The culmination of the visit will be the Eucharistic celebration with the entire parish community.” - Guatemalan Primate suspends some Sunday Masses (ADN CELAM (Spanish))
As gang violence and prison riots led Guatemala’s president to declare a state of emergency, the nation’s Primate suspended Sunday evening Masses in his archdiocese on January 18. Archbishop Gonzalo de Villa y Vásquez, SJ, also called for prayers for peace. The prelate subsequently discussed the violence in the Central American nation in an interview with Vatican News. - More...