Catholic News
- Pope, at FAO, says world hunger is a scandal (Vatican Press Office)
Pope Leo XIV visited the Rome headquarters of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on October 16, as the organization celebrated the 80th anniversary of its founding, which coincides with the observance of World Food Day. In his remarks to the FAO, the Pope said that the Catholic Church “keeps alive the confidence that, if hunger is defeated, peace will be the fertile ground from which the common good of all nations will spring.” However, the Pontiff continued, that goal remains distant, as 673 million people go to bed hungry today, and 2.3 million cannot afford a nutritious diet. He said that “to allow millions of human beings to live—and die—in the grip of hunger is a collective failure, an ethical aberration, a historical shame.” - Jerusalem cardinal calls for new generation of leaders who can foster peace (Vatican News)
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, OFM, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, addressed ten questions from Vatican media about the Holy Land and prospects for peace there. “Little by little, we must create the foundations and conditions, with new faces and new leadership, and above all, create environments that gradually foster a culture of respect, which will in turn bring peace,” Cardinal Pizzaballa said. The prelate also spoke about the plight of Palestinian Christians in the West Bank, where Israeli checkpoints hinder movements and officials turn a blind eye to attacks committed by settlers. “There is no authority to appeal to in order to stop these situations,” he said. - Pope emphasizes forgiveness at Jubilee for Indigenous Peoples (Vatican Press Office)
Pope Leo XIV met on October 16 with participants in the Jubilee for Indigenous Peoples, organized by the Latin American bishops’ conference CELAM. The Pontiff said: “Indigenous Peoples, whose history, spirituality and hope constitute an irreplaceable voice within the ecclesial communion.” Acknowledging historical tensions between the indigenous peoples and the missionaries who brought them the Gospel, the Pope suggested that the Jubilee, “a precious time for forgiveness, invites us to ‘forgive our brothers from the heart, to reconcile ourselves with our own history and to give thanks to God for his mercy towards us.” - Pontifical abuse commission presents 2nd annual report (AP)
The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors focused has released its second annual report, underlining the duty of the Church to provide material support for victims of clerical abuse and to punish both abusers and those who protected them. “The church bears a moral and spiritual obligation to heal the deep wounds inflicted from sexual violence perpetrated, enabled, mishandled, or covered up by anyone holding a position of authority in the church,” the report said. While recommending financial support for victims in need of therapy, the commission called attention to the overarching need for pastoral support. - Cardinal Parolin assesses promise, pitfalls of AI in health care (Vatican News (Spanish))
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State of His Holiness, delivered a lecture yesterday on the promise and perils of AI in health care. Speaking at the inauguration of the Center for the Study and Development of Artificial Intelligence at the Italian National Institute of Health, Cardinal Parolin spoke of AI as potentially a “powerful tool at the service of life, an ally of humanity in the fight against disease and suffering.” Cardinal Parolin, however, warned of the potential “dehumanization of care” and said that “an algorithm can provide a diagnosis, but it cannot offer a word of comfort.” He expressed concern that AI could transform a doctor “from a wise clinician into a mere supervisor of an automated process.” He also warned of a lack of accountability for algorithmic errors, which “risks generating ‘systemic irresponsibility’ in which, ultimately, no one is truly responsible.” - Cardinal Czerny: Popular movements are crucial in addressing poverty (Vatican Press Office)
At a press conference yesterday (video) for the upcoming Fifth World Meeting of Popular Movements, Cardinal Michael Czerny, SJ, said that “many development efforts have failed because outsiders, even very qualified ones, seem to think that development can occur without the direct involvement of the poor.” Citing Pope Leo’s apostolic exhortation Dilexi Te, Cardinal Czerny, the prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, said that “when different institutions think about the needs of the poor, it is necessary to ‘include popular movements.’” - Candidates announced for USCCB president, vice president (USCCB)
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has announced the slate of ten candidates for conference president and vice president. The winning candidates will succeed Archbishops Timothy Broglio (Military Services) and William Lori (Baltimore), who were elected to three-year terms as president and vice president in November 2022. At their November meeting, the bishops will also vote for six committee chairmen. - Bishops' pastoral opposes liberalized euthanasia in Australian state (Pillar)
The Catholic bishops of Victoria have joined in a pastoral letter urging opposition to a legislative proposal that would loosen regulations governing assisted suicide. The bill would “further weaken protections for vulnerable patients and reduce protections for medical practitioners who conscientiously object to euthanasia and assisted suicide,” the bishops warn. The proposal would, for the first time, allow doctors to introduce the topic of euthanasia to patients rather than waiting for the patients’ request. - Pope teases Cubs fans (CBS)
Pope Leo XIV engaged in a playful exchange with a Chicago baseball fan during his public audience on October 14. As the Pope toured St. Peter’s Square in the popemobile, someone in the crowd shouted out: “Go Cubs!” Smiling, the Pope replied: “They lost.” The Chicago Cubs were eliminated from playoff contention this week. Pope Leo is a lifetime fan of the crosstown team, the Chicago White Sox. - Walk along the paths of mercy and truth, Pope tells Augustinian nuns (Dicastery for Communication)
In an audience with Augustinian Recollect nuns from Mexico, Pope Leo XIV said that “to encounter the Lord in the life we have so gladly embraced, we must, as pilgrims, walk a path. It is true that there are many paths, but they all boil down to two: ‘mercy and truth.’” During the audience, which took place yesterday in the Auletta of Paul VI Audience Hall, Pope Leo cited St. Thomas of Villanova (1488-1555), a member of the Order of Saint Augustine, eight times. After the audience, Mother Bertha, the nuns’ regional superior, said, “I told him that I respect him as a Holy Father, but I felt him as our brother.” (The Pontiff is a member of the Order of Saint Augustine.) - Cardinals Cupich, Reina appointed to Vatican City State commission (Vatican Press Office)
Pope Leo XIV appointed Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago and Cardinal Baldassare Reina, vicar general of His Holiness for the Diocese of Rome, as members of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State. The commission, led by Sister Raffaella Petrini, FSE, is the state’s legislative body. Pope Leo also affirmed the mandates of four of the commission’s members: Cardinals Kevin Farrell, Arthur Roche, Lazarus You Heung-sik, and Claudio Gugerotti, all prefects of Vatican dicasteries. The Pope, however, did not affirm the appointments of 81-year-old Cardinal Leonardo Sandri (Argentina) and Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, who remains vicar general of His Holiness for Vatican City as well as archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica. The Pope’s appointment of Cardinal Cupich to the commission comes less than a month after several US bishops criticized his decision to give Sen. Richard Durbin a lifetime achievement award. - Jordan's king meets with Pontiff, affirms efforts to preserve Christian sites (Jordan Times)
Pope Leo XIV held his first meeting yesterday with Abdullah II, Jordan’s king since 1999. The king “highlighted efforts to preserve Christian religious sites in Jordan, particularly the Baptism Site of Jesus Christ,” The Jordan Times reported. The king invited the Pontiff to visit the site and recalled the historic Hashemite custodianship of Jerusalem’s holy sites. Earlier this year, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of His Holiness, hailed the strong ties between the Vatican and Jordan and consecrated the Church of the Baptism of the Lord at the site of the Lord’s Baptism, on land donated by King Abdullah II. - Former Vatican auditor general brings wrongful-termination suit to top court (National Catholic Register)
Libero Milone, the Vatican’s former auditor general, whose wrongful-termination lawsuit was dismissed by a Vatican appeals court, is now taking that appeal to the Court of Cassation, the top court for the Vatican city-state. At an October 14 press conference, Milone stressed that Vatican courts have “never once” addressed the substance of his complaint, instead inventing procedural reasons to deny his claim. He charged that the Vatican judicial system seems “not to wish the truth to be recognized.” Milone—who contends that he was fired because he was exposing corrupt practices at the Vatican—continues to hope for a settlement of his claim. He has asked for a meeting with Pope Leo XIV, explaining that he believes he can help alert the Pontiff to continued problems in the Vatican’s financial situation. - Consecrated religious, at jubilee, ask forgiveness for failure to listen, care (Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life)
At the recent Jubilee of Consecrated Life, some 4,000 participants issued a final message. “The Jubilee is an opportunity to ask forgiveness for the times when we failed to be a presence of listening and care, when we closed our eyes and hearts,” the participants stated. “It is also an opportunity to rejoice and give thanks for the good given and received.” The message also called for “respect for the rights of all, beginning with the poorest, the exploited, and the invisible, and appealing to those who hold responsibility in civil society, so that over the logic of profit that crushes the small may prevail the care that helps every seed of life to blossom.” - Patriarchs welcome Gaza peace agreement (Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem)
The patriarchs and heads of churches in Jerusalem, echoing an earlier statement by the Latin Patriarch, welcomed the Gaza peace agreement. The Christian leaders paid tribute to the “enormous efforts of all those in the international community who worked relentlessly to accomplish this major achievement,” as well as to the perseverance of Gaza’s Christians. At the same time, they expressed “great concern” about “the increasing violence against local communities in the West Bank in connection with [Israeli] settlement expansions there.” - Mozambique bishop reports on growing Islamic threat (Fides)
“The situation continues to deteriorate and violence is spreading” in northern Mozambique, BIshop Osorio Citora Afonso of Quelimane told the Fides news service after a visit to the region, where Islamic militants have attacked Christian communities. The bishop said that he had met with Muslim leaders, “who initially viewed me with great suspicion,” hoping to establish common ground. In the past, he said, the two faiths lived together peacefully, “but not the trend is toward the Islamization of the country.” - Development extends beyond economic development, Vatican diplomat tells UN (Holy See Mission)
Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, apostolic nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, said in a statement for a recent UN meeting that “development cannot be comprehended exclusively in economic terms; it must also foster the cultural and spiritual development of all people.” “Integral development is therefore the overarching metric against which the collective efforts of the international community should be measured,” Archbishop Caccia said. In his statement, the prelate also emphasized the “moral imperative for the eradication of poverty,” praised multilateralism as “the sole viable avenue for progress” in development, and lamented rising military expenses. - Congo's Cardinal Ambongo seeks solution in troubled Congo diocese (ACIAfrica)
Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo of Kinshasa has disclosed that he has been asked by the Vatican to intervene in an ecclesiastical dispute that has created an impasse in the Diocese of Wamba, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Bishop Emmanuel Ngona Ngotsi was appointed to head the Wamba diocese in January 2024, and ordained in September of last year. But he has not yet been able to assume his role, because of resistance from local clergy who insist that the diocese should have a native-born bishop. Earlier this week the Vatican announced that the training of seminarians in the Wamba diocese would be suspended. - Chad's president meets with Pontiff (Vatican Press Office)
Pope Leo XIV met on October 16 with Chad’s President Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, A brief Vatican statement released after the meeting indicated that the conversation had centered on Church-state relations, and on “peaceful coexistence between religions and the promotion of peace” in Chad and the African region. - Younger American priests more conservative, traditional, survey shows (CWN)
An extensive new survey of American Catholic priests has found major differences between older and young priests, strong confidence in Pope Leo, but less confidence in the American Catholic hierarchy. - More...