Catholic News
- Pope recalls Vatican II's teaching on social, political, and economic life (CWN)
Continuing his series of Wednesday general audiences on the Second Vatican Council and its documents, Pope Leo XIV devoted his November 4 audience (video) to the relationship between faith on the one hand and social, political, and economic life on the other. - Papal encouragement for symposium on Eastern Christians and peace (CWN)
Pope Leo XIV offered encouragement to representatives of two French organizations as they prepared to host a symposium on Eastern Christians and peacebuilding. - Chile's President Kast, Pope Leo discuss peace, falling birth rates (CWN)
Pope Leo XIV received President José Antonio Kast of Chile on November 4. - Pope Leo pays tribute to Cardinals Wyszyński and Mindszenty (CWN)
Pope Leo XIV paid tribute to Blessed Stefan Wyszyński (1901-1981) and Venerable József Mindszenty (1892-1975), two prelates who were imprisoned by Communist regimes in Eastern Europe in the decade following the Second World War. - Curbing infections, not people—Part II (CWN)
An exclusive CWN report by Phil Lawler - Papal praise for martyrs of Guatemala, Spain (CWN)
Pope Leo XIV paid tribute to martyrs in Guatemala and Spain who will be beatified on November 7. - Follow the example of St. Charles Borromeo, Pope advises (CWN)
At the conclusion of his November 4 general audience, Pope Leo XIV encouraged young people, the sick, and newlyweds to follow the example of St. Charles Borromeo (1538-1584). - Curbing infections, not people—Part I (CWN)
An exclusive CWN report by Phil Lawler - Vatican diplomat renews call for protection of civilians in armed conflicts (Holy See Mission)
Addressing a meeting on international humanitarian law (IHL), a Vatican diplomat emphasized the importance of protecting civilians in armed conflicts. “The Holy See wishes to recall that the protection of civilians from the effects of hostilities is not merely a means of giving concrete expression to the principle of distinction,” Archbishop Ettore Balestrero Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations and other International Organizations in Geneva, said on November 3. “It also represents the indispensable condition for safeguarding those minimum standards of humanity which bind all parties without exception, and which no circumstance may justify setting aside.” The prelate also said that “a true and lasting peace” can “only be achieved through the renewal of the heart and mind. Education for peace is a crucial means to that end.” Archbishop Balestrero delivered his remarks in one of two statements he made at the meeting. In the other statement, he also called for the protection of houses of worship in wartime. - Representatives of Blessed Karl Prayer Union meet with Pontiff (CWN)
Representatives of an apostolate that fosters devotion to Blessed Charles of Austria (1887-1922) met with Pope Leo XIV at the conclusion of his November 4 general audience. - Bob Dylan meets with Pope Leo (Vatican News)
Pope Leo XIV received Bob Dylan, the American singer-songwriter and Nobel laureate, on November 4. Vatican News reported that the meeting was “brief, consisting of greetings and a few lighthearted exchanges.” The Pontiff gave Dylan a Rosary; Dylan gave Pope Leo a copy of his autobiography. - Pope requests prayers for trip to Latin America (CWN)
Pope Leo XIV asked the faithful to pray for him as he prepares for his apostolic journey to Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru. - Pope, in World Youth Day message, emphasizes Christ's words: 'Take courage, I have overcome the world' (CWN)
“Take courage: I have overcome the world!” is the theme of Pope Leo XIV’s World Youth Day message, released by the Vatican on November 3. - Ethiopian Catholic bishops condemn massacre of Orthodox Christians (ACI Africa)
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Ethiopia deplored the recent killing of 60 Orthodox Christians in two massacres in Oromia state. “The Ethiopian Catholic Church expresses its deep sadness that such acts continue to occur repeatedly and strongly condemns these inhumane actions,” the bishops said, adding, “We also wish to express our deep sorrow over additional conflicts and killings of innocent people that have taken place in the Wollega and Moyale areas.” - Updated app features interactive Shroud of Turin room (Magis Center)
The Magis Center, founded by Father Robert Spitzer, S.J., announced the release of MagisAI 2.0, an app that features an interactive Shroud of Turin focus room. Father Spitzer recently published the Science, Reason, and Faith Catholic Study Bible (reviewed here by Dr. Jeff Mirus). - No changes to schedule of Pope's Latin American journey despite surgery, Vatican officials say (Vatican News)
At a November 3 press conference, Vatican officials presented an overview of Pope Leo’s upcoming apostolic journey to Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru. Maria Montserrat Alvarado, the new prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, and Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office, said that no changes have been made to the scheduled itinerary, despite the Pontiff’s recent lung surgery. Alvarado said that Pope Leo asked her to share a message to journalists: He is personally looking forward to this journey and hopes that you will help share his message of peace and encounter with the world, so that others can see what he knows through personal experience: the wonderful way the Church is expressed in Latin America through its diverse peoples and cultures. - USCCB, Catholic colleges call for changes to Trump administration's racial nondiscrimination regulations (USCCB)
The general counsel of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, joined by the president of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities and the general counsel of the Catholic University of America, called for changes to the Trump administration’s proposed regulations on racial nondiscrimination in private schools. The bishops’ general counsel and the other signatories called on the administration to “limit the rule to invidious discrimination and make explicit that sincerely religious curricular and other decisions by religious schools furthering their religious mission do not violate a fundamental public policy.” They also described the regulations as “particularly problematic for Catholic schools since a majority of them admit students based on the co-extensive boundaries of the parish churches they serve.” They explained: If all trait-conscious assistance could be conflated with discrimination, these non-discriminating churches and their schools may be subject to repeated, resource-intensive inquiries to attempt to prove they are not discriminating. Of course, no Catholic schools to our knowledge use race or ethnicity for admissions. But where schools draw from homogenous geographic communities, the proposed rule could subject them to charges of discrimination based on the composition of the student body. More concerning is that the breadth of this new rule makes the line between a religious criterion and an ethnic one the IRS’s to draw and usurps the role of the Church in determining how best to serve its communities. - Pope, in video, prays for detachment, sharing of money, time, talents (CWN)
In a video message associated with his November prayer intention (for the proper use of wealth), Pope Leo XIV said that “a heart detached from possessions transforms the world: it opens paths of justice, tears down walls of indifference, and sows hope among the poor.” - Head of German bishops: We want 'full communion' with the Pope (Catholic Herald)
The chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference told fellow European bishops that “we want to walk this [synodal] path as the Catholic Church, in full communion with the Holy Father and in fidelity to the Church’s Magisterium.” “We do not want to set out on our own or isolated path,” Bishop Heiner Wilmer of Münster said at a recent meeting of the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences. “We do not want a specifically German path that distances us from the universal Church.” In 2023, Pope Francis said that the German Synodal Path threatens Church unity. Prefects of Vatican dicasteries objected to the creation of a German Synodal Conference to govern the Church there, leading to the conference’s indefinite postponement. - Viriginia voters approve abortion, same-sex marriage constitutional amendments (VPM)
Voters in Virginia approved ballot initiatives enshrining abortion and same-sex marriage as state constitutional rights. 61% of voters approved the abortion amendment; 56% of voters approved the same-sex marriage amendment. The state’s bishops had urged the faithful to reject the initiatives. - More...