Catholic News
- Remain 'poor in spirit and therefore blessed,' Pope tells Roma, Sinti peoples at Jubilee (CWN)
Pope Leo XIV addressed the 1,500 participants in the Jubilee of the Roma, Sinti and Travelling Peoples and encouraged them to “remain itinerant in the Spirit, poor in spirit, and therefore blessed.” - Pope Leo: Usury is a 'grave sin, at times very grave' (Dicastery for Communication)
Pope Leo XIV told members of the Italian National Anti-Usury Council that usury is “a grave sin, at times very grave.” Usury can affect “those who have to face difficult moments, such as for instance extraordinary medical treatment or unexpected expenses beyond their means or those of their families,” Pope Leo said during the October 18 audience, which took place in Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace. “And [this] even happens at the level of countries around the world. Unfortunately, usurious financial systems can bring entire peoples to their knees.” “When the pursuit of profit prevails, others are no longer people, they no longer have a face, they are just objects to be exploited; and so we end up losing ourselves and our souls.” the Pope added. “The conversion of those who engage in usury is just as important as closeness to those who suffer from usury.” - Archbishop appointed for massive Caribbean see; described defense of life, marriage as top priority (CWN)
Pope Leo XIV has appointed Bishop Carlos Tomás Morel Diplán as coadjutor archbishop of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic—a massive archdiocese that retained 2.54 million Catholics after it was recently split in two. - Papal message: St. Thérèse's parents show us that marriage is a path to holiness (Dicastery for Communication)
The tenth anniversary of the canonization of Saints Louis and Zélie Martin, the parents of St. Thérèse, “highlights marriage as a path to holiness,” Pope Leo XIV wrote in a message to Bishop Bruno Feillet of Séez, France. “Louis and Zélie did not fulfil their desire to become saints and educate their children in holiness by withdrawing from the world,” Pope Leo wrote in his message, dated October 1 and released by the Vatican on October 18. “They assumed their duty in the ordinary course of everyday life,” in “the Norman society of their time through their parish, their professional activities, their charitable works, their circles of friends and, of course, their family life.” “In these troubled and confused times, when so many counter-models of unions, often fleeting, individualistic and selfish, with bitter and disappointing fruits, are presented to young people, the family as the Creator intended it may seem outdated and dull,” the Pope added. “Louis and Zélie Martin testify that this is not the case: they were happy—deeply happy!—giving life, radiating and transmitting the faith, seeing their daughters grow and flourish under the gaze of the Lord.” - 7 saints canonized during Mass in St. Peter's Square (CWN)
Pope Leo XIV canonized seven saints yesterday during a Mass in St. Peter’s Square (video, booklet). - USCCB committee chairmen condemn Trump administration's push for IVF expansion (USCCB)
Reacting to a Trump administration announcement, the chairmen of three USCCB committees said that they “strongly reject the promotion of procedures like IVF” that “freeze or destroy precious human beings and treat them like property.” “Every human life, born and preborn, is sacred and loved by God,” said the chairmen of the bishops’ Committees on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth; Religious Liberty; and Pro-Life Activities. “Without diminishing the dignity of people born through IVF, we must recognize that children have a right to be born of a natural and exclusive act of married love, rather than a business’s technological intervention. And harmful government action to expand access to IVF must not also push people of faith to be complicit in its evils.” At the same time, the bishops welcomed aspects of the administration’s announcement, including “comprehensive and holistic restorative reproductive medicine, which can help ethically to address infertility and its underlying causes.” - Vatican diplomat weighs in on draft treaty to punish crimes against humanity (Holy See Mission)
Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, apostolic nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, weighed in on a draft UN treaty on crimes against humanity. “The Holy See has long called for renewed efforts to strengthen the international legal framework for the prevention and punishment of crimes against humanity,” the prelate said at a recent UN meeting. Negotiations, he said, “must remain focused and constructive” and should focus “more on existing customary international law than on progressive development.” “In this context, the Holy See supports maintaining the customary understanding of gender ... which refers to the two sexes, male and female,” the prelate continued. “This language does not exclude any person or group from protection; rather, it affirms that every human being, regardless of status or characteristic, must be safeguarded from persecution and violence.” - Ukraine is walking the path of kenosis, Major Archbishop says in Norway (Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church)
Preaching at an ecumenical prayer service in Norway, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church said that “today Ukraine—our people and our Churches—are walking the path of kenosis [emptying] proclaimed to us” in St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians. “Every loss of a loved one, every destroyed city and village, leaves in our hearts an irreparable emptiness that nothing can fill,” said Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk. “The whole world witnesses Ukraine’s tragedy: some with awe, others with indifference; still others raise their hands in helplessness and turn our pain and suffering into material for media battles and manipulations, using it to polarize their own societies and gain political advantage.” The prelate added: Today our nation endures its own crucifixion before the eyes of the world community, and it seems to us that the Apostle Paul speaks precisely about us when he says: “We have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to mortals” (cf. 1 Cor. 4:9). Yet the power and glory of the Lord’s Cross are revealed in our sufferings—and in our word of hope, both for Ukraine and from Ukraine, to contemporary humanity. - Vatican foundation presents award to archbishop tortured by ISIS (Vatican News)
The John Paul II Vatican Foundation, founded by the late Pontiff in 1981, presented its prize to Archbishop Julian Yacoub Mourad, the Syriac Catholic archbishop of Homs, Syria. The award was presented “in recognition of his lifetime of service, his witness of faith, Christian love, interreligious dialogue, and his dedication to peace and reconciliation,” said Cardinal Kurt Koch, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity. Vatican News noted that the future archbishop was “kidnapped in 2015 by ISIS terrorists and tortured in a bid to make him renounce his faith, even subjected to a staged execution.” He “endured five months of captivity without denying Christ.” - USCCB committee chairman reflects on reparations and racial justice (USCCB)
Bishop Joseph Perry, chairman of the US bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism, has published a reflection marking the upcoming first anniversary of Dilexit Nos, Pope Francis’s encyclical on the human and divine love of the Heart of Jesus Christ. “Just as the Sacrament of Penance invites physical expressions of contrition—making the sign of the cross, performing a penance, offering restitution—so too do acts of reparation in communal life require gestures of sincerity, and concrete actions,” said the retired Chicago auxiliary bishop, who added: Authentic reparation demands more than regret or distancing ourselves from past wrongs. It requires communal courage, sincere acknowledgment, and a willingness to ask forgiveness... To confront racism, we must begin with reparation. We must name the sin, seek forgiveness, and commit to healing, and concrete actions to correct past wrongs and present-day inequities. - Cardinal Farrell expresses hopes for Communion and Liberation (Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life)
Cardinal Kevin Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, expressed his hopes for the Communion and Liberation movement at an event marking the 25th anniversary of its international center. The center “is called to embody the desire of the entire Communion and Liberation Movement to stand alongside the Successor of Peter in his mission of proclaiming and bearing witness to Christ,” said Cardinal Farrell. Citing the movement’s founder, the Servant of God Father Luigi Giussani (1922-2005), Cardinal Farrell said that Communion and Liberation “must regard the Church as ‘the place of authentic realism,’ as well as ‘the place of permanent criticism of every ideology.’” Founded in 1954, Communion and Liberation was recognized as an international association of the faithful in 1982. - Pope holds first meeting with abuse-victims group (Reuters)
Pope Leo XIV met on October 20 with representatives of Ending Clergy Abuse, an organization that has called for a zero-tolerance policy worldwide for abuse by Catholic clerics. The Pontiff reporting told members of the group that “there was great resistance” to the proposal. Members of the group indicated a willingness to work with Vatican officials to overcome that resistance. The Pope’s meeting with the group—which included several abuse victims—came shortly after the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors issued its annual report, calling for greater emphasis on support for abuse victims. - Archbishop Broglio protests cancellation of contracts at Army chapels (CNA)
Archbishop Timothy Broglio has protested the cancellation of US Army contracts for help at military chapels, saying that “this action disproportionately harms Catholics.” Archbishop Broglio, who heads the Archdiocese for the Military Services, referred to the decision to drop contracts for religious-education coordinators and musicians at Army chapels. He said that decision is particularly damaging to Catholic chaplaincies because “the Catholic faith requires continuing religious education and sacramental preparation that can only be accomplished through competent support.” - Supreme Court declines to review school policy on hiding students' gender dysphoria from parents (Religion Clause)
The US Supreme Court, on technical grounds, declined to hear an appeal of a court decision on a parental lawsuit against a school district in Wellington, Colorado. A lower court had dismissed the lawsuit on technical grounds. The parents of two sixth graders filed suit against the district “after their children were invited by teachers to a Gender and Sexuality Alliance meeting,” the Religion Clause blog reported. “After the meeting, one of the students decided that she was transgender and the other started to suffer from suicidal ideations. The parents claimed that the school’s policy of discouraging disclosure to parents of a child’s transgender status violates parents’ substantive due process rights.” While declining to hear the appeal, Justice Samuel Alito wrote that “petitioners tell us that nearly 6,000 public schools have policies ... that purposefully interfere with parents’ access to critical information about their children’s gender identity choices and school personnel’s involvement in and influence on those choices.... The troubling—and tragic—allegations in this case underscore the great and growing national importance of the question.” - German bishop admits to civil marriage (Catholic Herald)
A German bishop has acknowledged that his resignation in 2004 was caused not by health concerns, as originally reporter, but by the fact that he had taken a wife in a civil marriage. Bishop Reinhold Nann had been leading the territorial prelature of Caraveli, Peru, when he formed a relationship with a Peruvian woman, with whom he is still living. He said that in his service to the Church, “I saw too much, and it horrified and depressed me.” He planned to leave his ministry, but contracted a civil marriage before seeking laicization. Bishop Nann said that the Church’s “desperate clinging” to the discipline of clerical celibacy does “far more harm than good.” - Pope boards peace sailboat, addresses young adults (CNS)
On October 17, Pope Leo XIV visited a sailboat whose young adult crew members have traveled the Mediterranean over the past month to promote peace. In his remarks, Pope Leo, accompanied by Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline of Marseille, highlighted three themes: dialogue, building bridges, and learning to be builders of peace. - Caritas calls for immediate humanitarian access to Gaza, prosecution of war crimes (Caritas Internationalis)
Caritas Internationalis, the Church’s federation of relief and development agencies, called for “immediate and unrestricted humanitarian access” to Gaza, as well as “full accountability for all perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity before national and international courts.” “We urge both sides to honor and implement the peace deal, and need immediate access to get urgent lifesaving assistance to Palestinians in Gaza who have been pushed to the edge of existence,” said Alistair Dutton, Caritas’ secretary general. “There is a short window of opportunity to provide relief and an end to this inhuman suffering.” - Greece reports agreement to protect Mt. Sinai monastery (Ekathimerini)
The Greek foreign ministry has reported a tentative agreement with Egypt that would protect the status of the venerable Orthodox monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai. The future of St. Catherine’s, the world’s oldest Christian monastery, has been in question since an Egyptian court ruling that surrounding land belonged to the government, and subsequent plans for a major commercial development there. According to the Greek government—which had intervened diplomatically on behalf of the monks—a new agreement to protect the autonomy of the monastery will be presented to the monks for approval. - Latin American bishops hold virtual jubilee for the indigenous (L'Osservatore Romano (Italian))
CELAM (the Episcopal Conference of Latin America) conducted a virtual Jubilee of the Indigenous People of Latin America and the Caribbean. Cardinal Michael Czerny, SJ, the prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, said in a message that “your love for the earth, your respect for the elderly, your sense of community, and your ability to live in harmony with creation are a gift to the whole Church ... I invite you to continue caring for your communities, passing on the wisdom of your ancestors to new generations and joyfully proclaiming the Good News of Jesus.” The jubilee’s three principal themes were “Amazonian identity, indigenous inclusion in cities, and pastoral action in the face of discrimination, poverty, and land loss,” the Vatican newspaper reported. - Cardinal urges international community not to impose sanctions on Madagascar (Vatican News (Italian))
Cardinal Désiré Tsarahazana of Toamasina, Madagascar, urged the international community not to impose sanctions on his nation following a coup in which army leaders backed youth protestors and then suspended the constitution and dissolved the senate and high court. Sanctions “would be illogical and immoral,” Cardinal Tsarahazana told Vatican media. “Supporting young people who demand a better life and then killing them with sanctions would make no sense.” Cardinal Tsarahazana spoke of a climate of widespread corruption and fear in the island nation. - More...