Catholic News
- Prayer and social justice are inseparable, Pope tells Society of St. Vincent de Paul (CWN)
Pope Leo XIV said that St. Vincent de Paul (1581-1660) “demonstrated that prayer and social justice are not merely complementary but are in fact inseparable.” - Pope applauds institute's attention to AI, warns against entrusting decisions about life to machines (CWN)
Pope Leo XIV praised the International Institute of Administrative Sciences for its reflections on artificial intelligence and warned that “one of the serious problems facing us today is the fact that decisions concerning human life are being entrusted to machines.” - Pope mourns passing of Norway's King Harald (Vatican Press Office)
Pope Leo XIV mourned the passing of King Harald V, Norway’s head of state from 1991 until his passing on August 28. In a telegram to the new king, Haakon VIII, Pope Leo sent condolences to the royal family and the nation, prayed for the repose of the soul of the late monarch, and invoked God’s blessings on the Norwegian people and all who mourn King Harald’s death. - Leading French prelates meet with Pontiff (Vatican Press Office)
Pope Leo XIV received the president and two vice presidents of the Bishops’ Conference of France in an August 28 audience. The bishops’ conference has not published a news report on the audience, which took place four weeks before the Pontiff’s scheduled apostolic visit to France. - In Paraguay, an ordinary becomes an auxiliary bishop (Vatican Press Office)
In a rare but not unprecedented decision, Pope Leo XIV transferred Bishop Gabriel Narciso Escobar Ayala, S.D.B., who has led the apostolic vicariate of Chaco Paraguayo since 2013, to the Archdiocese of Asunción, where he will serve as an auxiliary bishop. As vicar apostolic, Bishop Escobar served as ordinary of an ecclesiastical circumscription with 16,200 Catholics, 10 parishes, 10 diocesan and religious priests, and six seminarians. The 55-year-old prelate will now serve as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Asunción which, despite having more than 1.9 million Catholics, has lacked an auxiliary bishop since 2003. - India's leading bishops met with Pope Leo (Vatican Press Office)
Pope Leo XIV received the president, vice president, and secretary-general of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) in an August 28 audience. The CBCI has not published a news report on the audience, which comes amid the persecution of Catholics in some parts of the world’s most populous nation. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), whose members include Latin and Eastern-rite bishops, is distinct from the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI), whose members include Latin-rite bishops only. - Vatican announces public papal Masses for September, October (Vatican Press Office)
Archbishop Diego Ravelli, Master of Pontifical Liturgical Celebrations, announced the public Masses over which Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to preside in September and October. In addition to the Masses celebrated during the Pontiff’s apostolic journey to France (September 25-28), Pope Leo will celebrate Masses at the Basilica Shrine of the Mother of Good Counsel in Genazzano, Italy (September 7) and in St. Peter’s Basilica (October 8 and 14). At the Mass on October 8, the Pope will inaugurate the academic year at Rome’s pontifical universities; at the Mass on October 14, he will conclude the meeting of the world’s episcopal conference presidents for the tenth anniversary of Amoris Laetitia. - Portugal's leading prelates meet with Pope (Agência ECCLESIA)
The president, vice president, and secretary of the Portuguese Episcopal Conference met with Pope Leo on August 27 for 35 minutes. “We expressed to the Holy Father our communion with the Church in all the dioceses of Portugal, our desire to stand with him and accompany him, and we also renewed the invitation we had previously extended to him to visit Portugal when it is opportune, as soon as possible,” said Bishop Virgilio do Nascimento Antunes of Coimbra, the president of the episcopal conference. “It was a very friendly, very fraternal, very brotherly dialogue.” - Chairman, CEO of Europe's leading electric utility meet with Pontiff (Tribuna de Burgos)
Pope Leo XIV received the chairman and CEO of Iberdola, Europe’s leading electric utility, in an August 28 audience. The business leaders, according to a Spanish media report, “informed the Pontiff of Iberdrola’s trajectory and international expansion, as well as the processes of electrification of economies and the company’s commitment to sustainability and the environment.” - Report: At least 10 underground bishops have been consecrated in China since 2018 (Catholic World Report)
A Chinese bishop said that at least ten bishops have been secretly consecrated in China’s Fujian province since the 2018 Sino-Vatican provisional agreement on episcopal appointments. Anthony Clark, PhD, professor of Chinese History at Whitworth University, wrote: During an animated and candid discussion with a Chinese bishop who is unaffiliated with the Patriotic Association (anonymous to protect his well-being), our chat began with the “terrible things happening to Catholics in China, especially in Fujian.” After the 2018 Sino-Vatican agreement was codified between the Holy See and China’s government, Fujian experienced what the bishop has defined as “a state of emergency.” The faithful of the underground community have grown continually fearful that, as government influence over the bishops increases, “the integrity of the Catholic faith will suffer.” To “assure the survival of China’s Church,” new bishops have been “secretly consecrated.” The number is unknown, but he suggested that “at least ten new bishops” were ordained for the underground community there. This proliferation of surreptitious consecrations, the bishop informed me, represents only Fujian province; he did not discuss other areas of China. - USCCB committee backs bipartisan Right to Worship Act (USCCB)
The chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee for Religious Liberty thanked four members of Congress for introducing the Right to Worship Act. “Religious liberty is ‘Our First, Most Cherished Liberty,’ and people of faith should be able to attend religious services without fear of intimidation or harassment,” Archbishop Alexander Sample of Portland, Oregon, wrote on August 26. “The Right to Worship Act will establish a zone of protection around houses of worship during religious services to prevent deliberate disruption of scheduled services.” The four members of Congress who introduced the legislation are Rep. Brad Knott (R-NC), Rep. Thomas Suozzi (D-NY), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI). - Pontiff, leading Argentine prelates discuss upcoming papal visit (Conferencia Episcopal Argentina)
The president and secretary-general of the Argentine Episcopal Conference met with Pope Leo XIV on August 27. “The meeting took place in a cordial and affable atmosphere and provided an opportunity to discuss various aspects of the life of the Church in Argentina, as well as to converse about preparations for the Holy Father’s visit to the country,” the bishops’ conference said in a statement. “During the audience, the Pope expressed his enthusiasm for the trip and demonstrated that he was well-informed about the various options currently under consideration for its organization,” the statement continued. “In this context, particular emphasis was placed on the desire for the visit to have an eminently pastoral character and to have an impact that extends beyond the days of the trip itself, bearing fruit for the life of the Church and also for Argentine society.” The Pontiff is scheduled to visit Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru in November; visits to Buenos Aires, Córdoba, and Luján are planned in Argentina. - USCCB responds to proposed regulations on sponsors for unaccompanied immigrant minors (USCCB)
The general counsel of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops warned that the Trump administration’s proposed regulations on sponsors for unaccompanied immigrant minors could deter the reunification of families, particularly the reunification of minors with parents who are not present in the United States legally. “We fear, without guaranteeing adequate flexibility, that the Agency’s newly proposed sponsor requirements for proof of identity and proof of income could exclude otherwise eligible parents and relatives from sponsoring children, creating excessive barriers to reunification and unnecessarily prolonging children’s stays in government custody,” William J. Quinn wrote in an August 21 letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Quinn added: Under federal law, prospective sponsors may be noncitizens, including those without lawful immigration status—and this is as it should be, since “unaccompanied alien children,” by definition, are themselves noncitizens who lack lawful immigration status. Nevertheless, one’s immigration status can limit access to certain forms of identification, including many of the forms of identification enumerated in the proposed changes ... For instance, a driver’s license is one of the most common forms of identification, but only select states allow persons without lawful status to be issued licenses. - 1st Jewish president of a Catholic university discusses his work (Forward)
A synagogue president who has led Assumption University in Massachusetts since 2013 discussed his work as the first Jewish president of a Catholic university. “I never had any hesitation at all about whether being a Jewish president would work—quite the opposite,” Greg Weiner said in an interview. “The divide in society between people who do and don’t treat religion seriously is much wider than between particular religions.” - Cardinal Sarah: Aversion to Latin, Gregorian chant will die with the generation of 1968 (Diane Montagna's Substack)
The prefect emeritus of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments said in an interview that aversion to Latin and Gregorian chant within some sectors of the Church will pass away with the generation of 1968. Nico Spuntoni asked Cardinal Robert Sarah, “Your Eminence, do you believe there is an aversion to Latin and Gregorian chant in certain parts of the Church?” Cardinal Sarah replied: It strikes me as an aversion confined to a few self-referential cultural circles—more a matter of psychology than of substance—and I think it’s simply a generational issue: once the ’68 generation has passed, these baseless, one-sided positions, which diminish the very cultural stature of Latin Catholicism, will pass with it. Cardinal Sarah also called for the repeal of Pope Francis’s restrictions on the celebration of the traditional Latin Mass. “Access to ritual forms recognized and in use for centuries can never be artificially restricted by decree,” he said. “If a rite ceased to serve the faith, it would die out on its own; but if it preserves and nurtures the faith, may we never limit it—because in doing so we would be restricting the preservation and spread of the faith itself.” - The Order of Saint Augustine: a numerical overview (CWN)
The Church today commemorates the memorial of St. Augustine (354-430), whose rule was adopted by Order of Saint Augustine, to which Pope Leo XIV belongs. - Pope mourns victims of Nepal floods (CWN)
Pope Leo XIV today mourned the victims of devastating floods in Nepal and offered prayers for the deceased and for emergency personnel. - Father Reese discusses his hatred for traditional Latin Mass (RNS)
A prominent American Jesuit discussed “why I hate the old Latin Mass.” “The old Latin Mass is like a zombie,” said Father Thomas Reese, S.J., in an op-ed published by Religion News Service. “We thought it was dead, but it keeps coming back.” - Pope Leo: 'There is no better defense against drugs than a good family' (CWN)
Pope Leo XIV said today that “there is no better defense against drugs than a good family.” - Archbishop Gallagher in Moscow: The war must end (Vatican News)
Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations, visited Moscow and met with Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations. “The position of the Holy See is clear: the conflict [with Ukraine] cannot be resolved by military means,” Archbishop Gallagher said in Moscow. “It is urgent and necessary to end the hostilities and plan future relations so as not to remain prisoners of the wrongs of the pass.” - More...