Catholic News
- Flood Peru with the Good News of Christ, Pope asks young people (Dicastery for Communication (Spanish))
In a Spanish-language address to a group of Peruvian pilgrims attending the Jubilee of Youth, Pope Leo reflected on the parables of the mustard seed and of leaven, mentioned in the Gospel reading of the day. “In these days of joy of the Jubilee of Young People, all of you will have the beautiful experience of feeling part of the People of God, part of the universal Church, which encompasses and embraces the whole earth, without distinction of race, language or nation; spreading like the mustard bush and fermenting like yeast,” Pope Leo said to the pilgrims during the July 28 audience in Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace. “I would like you to keep everything you experience during these days in your hearts, but not to keep it only for yourselves,” the Pope continued. “I would like you to flood those lands with the joy and strength of the Gospel, with the Good News of Jesus Christ, when you return to Peru.” - Pontiff renews call for peace negotiations (Vatican Press Office)
At the conclusion of his July 27 Angelus address, Pope Leo XIV called for “negotiations aimed at securing a future of peace for all peoples, and for the rejection of anything that might jeopardize it.” After offering prayers for victims of the Thailand-Cambodia border conflict and of violence in southern Syria, Pope Leo said, “I am following with great concern the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, where the civilian population is suffering from severe hunger and remains exposed to violence and death. I renew my heartfelt appeal for a ceasefire, the release of hostages, and the full respect of humanitarian law.” “Every human person possesses an inherent dignity, bestowed by God himself,” he added. “I urge all parties involved in conflicts to recognize this dignity and to end every action that violates it.” - Cardinal Pell ordered probe of 'potentially illegal' bank transactions (Pillar)
During his term as prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, the late Cardinal George Pell uncovered evidence of “potentially illegal” banking transactions by the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA), The Pillar has reported. In a 2016 memo, which The PIllar has obtained, Cardinal Pell instructed Libero Milone, then the Vatican’s auditor general, to investigate APSA transactions that appeared to have been deliberately altered to “shield the true identity of owner/source of funds.” Such alteration of records could be classified as bank fraud, and could support charges that the Vatican was open to money-laundering. The results of Milone’s investigation into Cardinal Pell’s findings have not been made public. Milone, who was forced to resign in 2017, has said that he was fired because he had discovered widespread financial corruption, and has threatened to make public the evidence of what he discovered. - Build a culture of peace, Pope urges 'digital missionaries' (Vatican News)
Speaking on July 29 to participants in the Jubilee for Digital Missionaries, Pope Leo XIV exhorted them to “work together to develop a way of thinking and a language of our time, that gives voice to love.” The Pope spoke of the role that every Christian can play in promoting peace: Peace needs to be sought, proclaimed, and shared everywhere; both in the tragic places of war and in the empty hearts of those who have lost the meaning of existence and the taste for interiority, for spiritual life.” Pope Leo spoke at a Mass at which the celebrant, Cardinal Luis Tagle, said in his homily that the social media could promote a culture of peace. “Daily life is a tapesty of criss-crossing influences,” the cardinal observed, and participation the social media have an impact on families, neighborhoods, schools, and communities. - Russian Orthodox official meets with Pope Leo (Moscow Patriarchate)
Pope Leo XIV received Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, the chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, on July 26 (photographs). Metropolitan Anthony conveyed best wishes and congratulations to Pope Leo from Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, for Leo’s election as Pope. The Pontiff, in turn, “expressed gratitude to Patriarch Kirill for his good wishes and emphasized the importance of strengthening relations with the Russian Orthodox Church,” according to the Moscow Patriarchate. “The discussion touched on numerous issues, including the state of Orthodox-Catholic dialogue and ongoing global conflicts, particularly in Ukraine and the Middle East,” the Patriarchate added. The Russian Orthodox Church, with 164.1 million members, is the largest of the Orthodox churches (CNEWA profile). - Use social media with faith and love, Cardinal Parolin tells Catholic influencers (CWN)
Leading Vatican officials, including the Secretary of State of His Holiness and the prefects of two curial dicasteries, addressed participants in the Jubilee of Digital Missionaries and Catholic Influencers on July 28. - Vatican 'foreign minister,' in Mexico, notes Pope's commitment to multilateralism, pays tribute to martyrs (CWN)
Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations, underscored Pope Leo XIV’s commitment to multilateralism during an address delivered at the apostolic nunciature in Mexico. - Wounded Gaza Catholic, a Vatican newspaper contributor, writes about Israeli strike on parish (L'Osservatore Romano (Italian))
Suhail Abu Dawood, a young Gaza Catholic who writes regularly for L’Osservatore Romano, described the recent Israeli military strike on his parish, during which he was severely wounded. “The bomb was so strong that I couldn’t protect myself from the shrapnel, so unfortunately I was injured in the lower back; the shrapnel came out of my right leg, causing serious injuries inside my stomach and abdomen,” he wrote. “I felt excruciating pain, fell facedown to the ground, and my body began to bleed profusely.” “I will never forget what the priests told me when my pain became excruciating,” he added. “They said: Remember Calvary! Jesus was there on the Cross, suffering and dying, and you too placed all your suffering and pain on the Cross.” - USCCB files brief in suit challenging Washington Confession law (USCCB)
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops filed an amicus curiae [friend of the court] brief in Etienne v. Ferguson, a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of SB 5375. a Washington state law that requires clergy to violate the seal of Confession when child abuse or neglect is confessed. After recalling St. John Nepomucene, who suffered martyrdom rather than violate the seal of Confession, the brief stated: As a court in the Western District of Washington recently held, this affront to a core tenet and essential practice of the Catholic faith blatantly violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, as well as binding Supreme Court and Ninth Circuit precedent. - Pope mourns Congo church attack (Vatican Press Office)
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State of His Holiness, sent a French-language telegram in the Holy Father’s name to the president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s episcopal conference following a terrorist attack on a parish there. Pope Leo, said Cardinal Parolin, learned of the attack “with consternation and profound sorrow” and assured local Christians of his closeness and prayers. “This tragedy further calls upon us to work for the comprehensive human development of the wounded population of this region,” Cardinal Parolin wrote in his July 28 telegram. “His Holiness implores God that the blood of these martyrs may be a seed of peace, reconciliation, brotherhood, and love for all the Congolese people.” - New Holy Land custos makes solemn entrance into Cenacle, Holy Sepulchre, Bethlehem (Custody of the Holy Land)
On July 24-26, Father Francesco Ielpo, OFM, the new custos (custodian) of the Holy Land, made his solemn entrance into the Cenacle and the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, and the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem. As head of the region’s Franciscan province, the custos is responsible for pastoral care at these and other shrines in the Holy Land, as well as in 17 schools and in the parishes entrusted to it by the Latin Patriarchate. - Economists worry about 'depopulation bomb' (Wall Street Journal)
Two economists at the University of Texas at Austin warned of depopulation in a new book, After the Spike: Population, Progress, and the Case for People. Dean Spears and Michael Geruso warned “fellow liberals and progressives” that after peaking in 2080, population “will not fall to 6 billion or 4 billion or 2 billion and hold there” if birth rates remain below replacement levels in much of the world. Rather, “humanity could hasten its own extinction if birth rates stay too low for a long time.” - Holy See, Azerbaijan sign agreement on interreligious dialogue (Vatican News)
Representatives of the Holy See and Azerbaijan signed a memorandum of understanding on interreligious dialogue on July 28. Cardinal George Koovakad, prefect of the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, expressed hope that the “friendly bilateral relations” will “receive renewed impetus to progress and be further strengthened, as we seek to promote truth, justice, and peace for all humanity.” Azerbaijan, a Caucasus nation of 10.7 million (map), is 97% Muslim and 2% Christian (primarily Orthodox). Seven priests minister to 600 Catholics in two parishes. - Terrorist massacre at Congo Catholic church (AP)
At least 34 people were killed when Islamic terrorists attacked a Catholic church in the Democratic Republic of Congo on July 27. The church in Komanda—in the eastern Ituri province—was apparently the main focus of the attack, but several houses and shops were also torched. Five other deaths were reported in an earlier attack in a neighboring village. Authorities attribute the killings to the Allied Democratic Force, a group backed by the Islamic State. - Vatican News director: In the face of Gaza horror, we cannot look away (Vatican News)
In an editorial, the Vatican official who leads Vatican Radio and Vatican News warned against indifference to suffering in Gaza. “In Gaza, death comes not only from bombs or bullets, but from hunger,” said Massimiliano Menichetti, deputy editorial director of the Editorial Directorate of the Dicastery for Communication. “Children no longer cry. The elderly cease to sustain. Adults no longer walk. Hearts stop beating: exhausted, breathless, depleted.” “In a world that is informed and connected, where every event is documented and broadcast in images and sound, people are dying of deprivation,” he added. “Technology records suffering but does not cure it. Faced with such inhumanity, indifference is not an option.” - Quebec Catholic churches sold, put to new secular uses (AP)
In Quebec, where the rate of Catholic Mass attendance was once among the highest in the world, a steep decline in Catholic activity has led to the sale of many old parish churches. An AP story sketches the different uses to which former Catholic churches are now put: including a restaurant, apartments, museums, and a concert hall that “has hosted meditation, Zumba lessons, even a fetish party that organizers touted as ‘Montreal’s most kinky, freaky and sexy Halloween event.’” - As jihadists advance, 30% of Niger's Catholics have fled their villages (CWN)
Father Mauro Armanino, SMA, a missionary in Niger, estimated that 15,000 of the nation’s 50,000 Catholics have fled their villages in the wake of a jihadist advance. - Cardinal Sarah: 'Do not profane France, for it is holy ground' (Diana Montagna's Substack)
At a solemn Mass marking the 400th anniversary of the apparition of St. Anne in Sainte-Anne-d’Auray, Cardinal Robert Sarah preached that “God has chosen France to be as it were a holy land, a land set apart for Him.” “Do not profane France with your barbaric and inhuman laws that promote death, when God wills life,” said Cardinal Sarah, whom Pope Leo XIV appointed as his envoy for the occasion. “Do not profane France, for it is holy ground, a land reserved for God.” The prefect emeritus of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments continued: Our first task is to adore and glorify God ... There are sacred places, places set apart for God, chosen by God—these places must not be profaned by any activity other than prayer, silence, and the liturgy. Our churches are not theatres, nor concert halls, nor venues for cultural or recreational events. The church is the house of God ... Your baptized soul is a sacred place—do not profane it by giving it over to disordered passions and to the spirit of the world ... It is time for you to go to confession: confess the sins you have committed in word or in deed, by night or by day; confess now, in this favorable time, and on the day of salvation receive the heavenly treasure. - God the Father 'never turns his back on us when we come to him,' Pope tells pilgrims (Dicastery for Communication)
Reflecting on the Gospel reading of the day (Luke 11:1-13), Pope Leo XIV said on July 27 that Christ speaks about “the characteristics of God’s fatherhood through vivid images: that of a man who gets up in the middle of the night to assist a friend in welcoming an unexpected visitor; and that of a parent who is concerned about giving good things to his children.” “God never turns his back on us when we come to him, even if we arrive late to knock at his door, perhaps after mistakes, missed opportunities, failures,” Pope Leo told pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his Sunday Angelus address. “The Lord always listens to us when we pray to him. If he sometimes responds in ways or at times that are difficult to understand, it is because he acts with wisdom and providence, which are beyond our understanding.” “When we recite the Our Father, in addition to celebrating the grace of being children of God, we also express our commitment to responding to this gift by loving one another as brothers and sisters in Christ,” the Pope added, concluding: Dear brothers and sisters, today’s liturgy invites us, through prayer and charity, to feel loved and to love as God loves us: with openness, discretion, mutual concern, and without deceit. Let us ask Mary to help us respond to this call, so that we may manifest the sweetness of the Father’s face. - Pope upholds Vietnamese protomartyr as model for nation's catechists (Dicastery for Communication)
In a video message to Vietnamese catechists, Pope Leo XIV upheld the example of Blessed Andrew of Phú Yên, the protomartyr of Vietnam, on the 400th anniversary of his birth. “Today, we ask the Patron of Catechists to intercede for us, so that like him we may, with unshaken faith, invoke the name of Jesus, even when we find ourselves in difficulty,” Pope Leo said in his July 25 message, as he thanked 64,000 Vietnamese catechists for their generosity. “Never underestimate the gift you are: by your teaching and example, you draw children and youth into friendship with Jesus,” the Pope continued. “You are sent by the Church to be living signs of God’s love: humble servants like Blessed Andrew, full of missionary zeal. The Church rejoices in you and encourages you to walk with joy in this noble mission.” - More...