Catholic News
- 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.” - 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.” - 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.” - 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. - 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. - 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. - Leaders from Lesotho, Uruguay, Azerbaijan meet with Pontiff (CWN)
Pope Leo XIV received three international leaders in separate audiences on October 17: - New Jersey man charged with stealing $500,000 from parish (New Jersey Attorney General)
The office of New Jersey’s Attorney General Matthew Platkin has filed criminal charges against a former parish finance director for misappropriation of church funds. Joseph Manzi, who was responsible for financial affairs at St. Leo’s parish in Linmount, New Jersey, allegedly diverted more than $500,000, which he used for his own purposes. - Pope to receive King Charles and Queen Camilla at the Vatican (Vatican News)
King Charles III and Queen Camilla will take part in an official state visit to the Vatican on October 23. The visit—postponed from April—will focus on the unity of Christians and care for the environment. Pope Leo and the Anglican archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, will lead an ecumenical prayer service for the care of creation in the Sistine Chapel. - Catholic journalist assaulted at Lateran University event (Pillar)
At an event celebrating the saints canonized on October 19, held at the Lateran University, a Catholic journalist was assaulted when he tried to ask a ranking Vatican official questions about the Holy See’s policy toward Venezuela. Edgar Beltran, a reporter for The Pillar, had asked Archbishop Pena Parra, the sostituto, about Vatican policy, when he was confronted by an unidentified man—apparently Venezuelan—who shoved him, grabbed his phone, shouted that he could not ask such questions. After the man was restrained and removed, Beltran again approached Archbishop Pena Parra, who answered his questions. But Beltran, shaken by the incident, reflected on reports “that people connected to the Venezuelan government are ordering the killing of Venezuelans abroad, for their political positions.” - Vatican newspaper focuses on poverty (CWN)
L’Osservatore Romano devoted seven articles in its October 17 edition to poverty. - Pope Leo appoints new archbishop of Vienna (Vatican Press Office)
Pope Leo XIV today named Msgr. Josef Grünwidl, 62, as the new archbishop of Vienna, a see whose last ten archbishops have been created cardinals, dating back to 1858. Ordained to the priesthood in 1988, Archbishop-designate Grünwidl was appointed by Pope Francis as the archdiocese’s apostolic administrator in January upon the retirement of Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, OP. The Austrian bishops’ news agency noted that the archbishop-designate has called several times for the end of the discipline of mandatory priestly celibacy in the Latin rite—a discipline highly praised by the Second Vatican Council in its Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests. The bishops’ news agency also reported that the archbishop-designate believes that the discussion of the ordination of women to the diaconate “should not be suppressed,” and that he is open to the appointment of women as cardinals. - State of Washington will not enforce law on seal of Confession and abuse (Washington State Attorney General)
Following a court ruling, the State of Washington’s attorney general said he has agreed “not to enforce reporting requirements for information clergy learn solely through confession or its equivalent in other faiths.” In May, the state enacted a law requiring priests to report information about child abuse, even if it is given in a sacramental confession. Under the agreement, clergy remain mandatory reporters of abuse, with the exception of abuse learned about in the confessional. - Vatican diplomat renews call for debt relief for poor nations (Holy See Mission)
At a UN meeting devoted to “countries in special situations,” Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, apostolic nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, renewed the Holy See’s call for debt relief for impoverished nations. “My delegation recognizes that the most pressing and unifying concern for countries in special situations is the unsustainable debt burden,” he said. “The global financial system must be directed towards the goal of attaining the common good of the human family.” - Cardinal Parolin praises Father Romanelli, other priests who remain in conflict zones (Vatican News (Italian))
In an address at the awarding of the Ambassadors to the Holy See Literary Prize, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State of His Holiness, paid tribute to priests and religious who remain in conflict zones. After praising the example of Father Gabriel Romanelli and other priests and religious who have remained at Gaza’s sole parish, Cardinal Parolin recalled the last Mass in Baghdad’s cathedral before the American attack in 2003. The prelate also praised the example of priests elsewhere in Iraq, in Sarajevo, and in Chile, during the 1973 coup. The winner of the prize was Andrea Angeli, for a book on faith in conflict zones. - 9 US bishops call for peaceful, prayerful public witness on behalf of migrants (Diocese of Tucson)
The archbishops of Denver, Las Vegas, and Santa Fe, joined by six other bishops, called on Catholics to engage in “peaceful and prayerful public witness” on behalf of migrants. The prelates called on “each Catholic” to engage in a series of actions on behalf of migrants, including: “Prepare a Catholic vigil for migrants, following the guidelines and suggestions of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.” The bishops suggested October 22 as a “Catholic Day of Action.” - More...