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A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts. Get the latest news about Pope Francis and the Vatican, and much more. This is a service of EWTN News.
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1 hour ago
September 21, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
www.catholicnewsagency.com
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Pope Francis extolled Wednesday the “apostolic zeal” of Saint Daniele Comboni, an Italian missionary priest and bishop who fought to end slavery in Africa. Comboni witnessed “the horror of slavery” as a missionary in the mid-19th century in what is now Sudan. Pope Francis shared the “energetic and prophetic” life story of the founder of the Comboni missionary orders during his general audience on September 20. “Saint Daniele testifies to the love of the Good Shepherd who goes in search of the one who is lost and gives his life for the flock. His zeal was energetic and prophetic in being opposed to indifference and exclusion,” Pope Francis said.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255422/pope-francis-lauds-catholic-saint-who-fought-to-end-slavery-in-africa
Ethnic Armenians in the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Artsakh, have agreed to lay down their arms and dissolve their military forces following a short but intense Azerbaijan offensive on September 19. Pope Francis made a public appeal on Wednesday for both sides to “silence the weapons.” “I make my heartfelt appeal to all the parties involved and to the international community to silence the weapons and make every effort to find peaceful solutions for the good of the people and respect for human dignity,” Pope Francis said at the end of his Wednesday general audience.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255426/ethnic-armenians-surrender-and-disarm-following-azerbaijan-offensive
At least 11 people were killed September 15 after members of the Islamic State attacked a village in Mozambique and opened fire on Christians after hand-picking them from Muslims, the Catholic pontifical and charity foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) International reported.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255427/11-killed-as-islamist-jihadists-reportedly-target-christians-in-mozambican-village
The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) has condemned the September 16-17 kidnapping of more than 30 people across Nigeria’s Enugu State, including a Catholic priest, and called on police officials in the Nigerian state to either act on the lack of security in the region or leave office. Father Marcellinus Obioma Okide was abducted September 17 on his way back to Saint Mary Amofia-Agu Affa Parish in the Enugu Diocese, where he serves as parish priest. A prayer appeal has been sent out for the priest’s safe release. Okide is among dozens of people who were taken by armed Fulani bandits in separate locations within Enugu State. Intersociety challenges those in charge of security in Enugu to “retire voluntarily from the army and the police” if they cannot live up to what is expected of them.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255429/human-rights-group-to-nigeria-security-agents-after-priest-s-kidnapping-act-or-resign
Today, the Church celebrates Saint Matthew, also known as Levi, an apostle of Jesus and, according to tradition, the author of one of the four Gospels. Surprisingly little is known for certain about Matthew’s life, even though his Gospel is so crucial for the Church. The manner of Matthew’s calling by Jesus is well-known — Matthew was a Jew, but worked as a tax collector for the Romans in Capernaum near the Sea of Galilee, making him a pariah among his own people. When Jesus called Matthew to follow him, Matthew gave up his presumably materialistic life as a tax collector to follow the Lord.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-matthew-apostle-601
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19 hours ago
September 20, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The blood of the martyr Saint Januarius again liquefied in Naples on Tuesday. The declaration that the miracle had again taken place was made at the start of Mass by Abbot Vincenzo De Gregorio. The archbishop of Naples, Domenico Battaglia, held the relic of the blood, moving the glass ampoules to demonstrate the liquid state of the blood to the sounds of strong applause, while the deputy of the wisdom of the people waved a white cloth. Saint Januarius is a bishop, martyr, and patron saint of Naples, Italy. Traditionally, on September 19 and on two other occasions a year, his blood, which is kept in a glass ampoule in the shape of a rounded cruet, liquifies. It is believed the miracle has taken place since at least 1389, the first instance on record. The liquefaction process sometimes takes hours or even days, and sometimes it does not happen at all. In local lore, the failure of the blood to liquefy signals war, famine, disease, or other disaster.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255410/blood-of-st-januarius-completely-liquefied-on-feast-day
The United States Catholic bishops are calling on the faithful to embrace “radical solidarity” with mothers who are facing difficult or challenging pregnancies this October, which the Church in the United States has observed as “Respect Life Month” since 1973. Arlington Bishop Michael Burbidge, the chairman of the United State Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Pro-Life Activities, echoed Saint John Paul II’s call for “radical solidarity,” which means, according to the bishop, “putting our love for them into action and putting their needs before our own.” The “Walking with Moms in Need” parish-based initiatives, which help parishes become welcoming places for mothers facing difficulties, are a possible option to get involved.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255413/us-bishops-urge-radical-solidarity-with-mothers-for-respect-life-month
Azerbaijan unleashed military strikes against an enclave of about 120,000 Armenian Christians in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region on Tuesday, shelling buildings and firing on Armenian military and civilian positions. Pope Francis made a public appeal on Wednesday for both sides to “silence the weapons.” “I make my heartfelt appeal to all the parties involved and to the international community to silence the weapons and make every effort to find peaceful solutions for the good of the people and respect for human dignity,” Pope Francis said at the end of his Wednesday general audience.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255415/azerbaijan-unleashes-military-strikes-against-armenian-christians-in-nagorno-karabakh
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255421/pope-francis-appeals-for-peace-in-nagorno-karabakh-silence-the-weapons
Today, the Church celebrates Saints Andrew Kim Taegon and Paul Chong Hasañg, who were leaders of the Catholic Church in Korea. Andrew Kim Taegon was born to Korean nobility, and his parents converted when he was 15-years old. He traveled over 1000 miles to study in a seminary and became the first native Korean priest. He was tortured and beheaded in 1846. Paul Choñg Hasang was a Korean Catholic lay leader who defended the faith before the government of Korea, and reunited the Christians in the midst of the persecutions, encouraging them to stay strong in the faith. In response to his direct appeals, the Pope, Gregory the tenth, confirmed the validity of the Korean Church and sent more priests to Korea. He was martyred in 1839.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/sts-andrew-kim-taegon-paul-chong-ha-600
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2 days ago
September 19, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pro-life leaders condemned President Donald Trump for calling a six-week abortion ban a “terrible mistake” during a Saturday NBC interview. Trump made the comments in reference to Florida’s six-week Heartbeat Protection Act abortion ban signed by his chief opponent in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. During Trump’s more than hourlong interview with Kristen Welker, he said: “DeSantis is willing to sign a five-week and six-week ban” and “I think what he did was a terrible thing and a terrible mistake.” After calling a six-week abortion ban a “terrible mistake,” Trump went on to say that he would focus on reaching a consensus between Republicans and Democrats on abortion. Trump’s campaign did not respond to CNA’s request for clarification.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255406/donald-trump-calls-6-week-abortion-ban-a-terrible-mistake
Pope Francis on Monday met with the newly appointed Russian ambassador to the Holy See, Ivan Soltanovsky. The meeting, during which Soltanovsky presented his credential letters to the pontiff, comes days after papal envoy Cardinal Matteo Zuppi visited Beijing to discuss efforts to bring about peace in Ukraine amid the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war. The “atmosphere of the meeting was friendly” and the two men “discussed, in particular, the mission of the papal special envoy to Ukraine, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, aimed at solving a number of humanitarian issues,” Soltanovsky told Russia’s official Tass News Agency. While serving as Pope Francis’ peace envoy, Zuppi has made several diplomatic visits across the world to promote peace between Russia and Ukraine, including stops in Kyiv, Moscow, and Washington DC. Pope Francis has condemned the war and called for peace in Ukraine on numerous occasions, but has also occasionally received criticism from Ukrainians for the way he has expressed himself.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255400/pope-francis-meets-with-new-russian-ambassador-to-the-vatican
Today, the Church celebrates Saint Emily de Rodat, founder of the Religious Congregation of the Holy Family of Villefranche. The congregation was devoted to caring for the elderly, prisoners, and orphans, in addition to the schools for the poor. Some of the nuns were also contemplative and spent their time in prayer and adoration. She died of cancer at Villefranche on September 19, 1852. At the time of her death Saint Emily de Rodat had opened 38 charitable institutions.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-emily-de-rodat-599
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2 days ago
September 18, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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A Catholic priest reputed for rescuing homeless and impoverished children on the streets of Omaha, Nebraska, is expected to soon be declared Venerable by the Vatican, placing him on the path to canonization. Father Edward J Flanagan, who died in 1948, was an Irish-born priest whose saintly life has been narrated in a recent documentary, “Heart of a Servant — the Father Flanagan Story.” In a follow-up interview after the film’s premiere on July 26 in Sligo, Ireland, Bishop Kevin Doran of Elphin, Ireland, told CNA that there is a good reason to hope that Flanagan will soon be declared Venerable by the Vatican. Reflecting on the life of the heroic Catholic priest, Doran told CNA that Flanagan “rescued children from homelessness and poverty in Omaha and provided a place for them that they could call home.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255370/irish-born-founder-of-boys-town-father-flanagan-may-soon-be-declared-venerable
Three pro-life activists who took part in an October 2022 “rescue” in a Washington, DC, abortion facility were each found guilty of felonies that could land them up to 11 years in prison and fines as much as $350,000.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255394/three-more-pro-lifers-guilty-on-face-act-charges-face-up-to-11-years-in-prison
A Catholic priest in China was convicted of “fraud” and “impersonating religious personnel” on September 13. Father Joseph Yang Xiaoming of the Wenzhou Diocese in Zhejiang, China — south of Shanghai — was found to be in violation of the law after he refused to register with the state-sanctioned Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255391/chinese-priest-convicted-of-fraud-for-refusal-to-recognize-state-sanctioned-church
A Christian legal group has filed a petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on behalf of Nicaraguan Bishop Rolando Álvarez, who is serving a prison sentence under the regime of President Daniel Ortega for criticizing the dictatorship’s human rights violations. Álvarez, the bishop of Matagalpa, began serving a 26-year, four-month prison term in February, charged with being a “traitor to the homeland.” The regime’s police trapped him in his chancery for more than two weeks in August 2022 and entered by force in the middle of the night to take him to Managua and hold him under house arrest. Álvarez later refused to leave the country with 222 other political prisoners who were being deported by the dictatorship to the United States, including four priests, a deacon, and two seminarians. ADF International announced the filing of its petition September 14, saying there are “no effective avenues for legal recourse available in Nicaragua” under Ortega, who has effectively ruled the country as a dictator for years.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255390/legal-group-pleads-for-imprisoned-bishop-alvarezs-rights-before-human-rights-commission
Today, the Church celebrates Saint Joseph of Cupertino, a mystic who was perhaps most famous for his ability to fly. Despite being moved from one friary to another, because of the disruption he caused by his ecstasies and the persecutions he endured from some of his brothers who were envious of his gifts, he remained profoundly inundated by the joy of abandoning himself to Divine Providence. He died on September 18, 1663 and was canonized in 1767 by Pope Clement XIII. He is the patron of air travelers and students preparing for exams.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-joseph-of-cupertino-598
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5 days ago
September 15, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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A 108-foot-tall sculpture of Christ the Fisher located in La Concordia in the Mexican state of Chiapas was completely burned down after being struck by lightning September 10. Hours after the incident, the Secretariat for Civil Protection and the local municipal police went to the scene to assess the damage. “Due to the impact of lightning and combustible material, fire spread in its structure; it collapsed and burned,” Civil Protection reported on Facebook. After lamenting the accident, the parish expressed its desire that other “works and projects” be carried out for “the common good” and the “comprehensive growth” of the town. The authorities indicated that the decision to replace the statue had not yet been made.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255375/lightning-strike-destroys-monumental-statue-of-christ-in-mexico
Scandinavia’s top Church leader says he hopes the role of women in the Church’s mission is a focal point at the upcoming synodal assembly on synodality — and, therefore, that the conversation isn’t bogged down on the settled question of whether the Church can ordain women. The Church’s inability to sacramentally ordain women was confirmed in 1994 by Pope John Paul II. Pope Francis has also repeatedly affirmed this truth.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255369/ordination-of-women-should-not-be-focal-point-of-synod-says-scandinavian-cardinal
A foundation that is raising money for the descendants of people who were enslaved by Jesuits announced $27 million in new contributions, more than doubling the total fund, which has now reached $42 million. The new money came from two large donations: a $10 million contribution from Georgetown University and an estimated $17 million from the Jesuits. The Jesuit funding includes the estimated value of a former plantation that is owned by Jesuits and another $10 million. With the additional funding, the Descendants Truth & Reconciliation Foundation’s fund has now reached 42% of its five-year goal of $100 million. The organization’s final goal is to ultimately reach $1 billion. Jesuits participated in the slave trade in North America since colonial times to support missionary efforts and establish educational institutions, including Georgetown. In 1838, the university sold more than 272 enslaved people from their plantations to southern Louisiana to support its financial needs.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255364/jesuits-georgetown-donate-27-dollars-million-to-fund-for-slave-descendants
A panel of judges ruled that a California school district must allow a Christian athletic club to return to public schools after the district banned the group over its adherence to Christian teachings on sexuality.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255372/court-rules-california-district-cant-bar-christian-athletic-club-from-schools
Today, the Church celebrates the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, which commemorates the seven great sorrows which Mary lived in relation to Her Son.
1. At the prophecy of Simeon: "You yourself shall be pierced with a sword - so that the thoughts of many hearts may be laid bare."
2. At the flight into Egypt.
3. Losing the Holy Child at Jerusalem.
4. Meeting Jesus on his way to Calvary.
5. Standing at the foot of the Cross.
6. Jesus being taken from the Cross.
7. At the burial of Christ.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/our-lady-of-sorrows-595
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/252292/our-lady-of-sorrows-what-are-mary-s-seven-sorrows
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Sep 14, 2023
September 14, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The leader of the Catholic Church in Morocco said this week that material support and prayers will be needed for “months, or maybe even years” after the nation of 37 million was rocked by its worst earthquake in decades. In a September 11 interview with Caritas International, Cardinal Cristóbal López Romero, archbishop of Rabat and president of Caritas Morocco, said the situation in the country “varies from day to day, not to say hour to hour.” The 6.8-magnitude earthquake, which hit near the historic city of Marrakesh Friday night, has killed more than 2,900 people as of September 13, the New York Times reported. It is the deadliest earthquake to hit the north African nation since at least 1960. The cardinal, who leads the country’s small Catholic community, said that as of September 11, one of the biggest physical needs of the people of Morocco is for electricity, as well as clothes, medicine, and food. To help the victims of the earthquake and the floods, visit Caritas’ website.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255360/catholic-leader-in-morocco-it-may-take-years-to-rebuild-after-earthquake
An Iraqi Christian figure involved in a dispute with the leader of the Catholic Church in the country was not, as he has implied online, granted a private audience with Pope Francis, the Vatican clarified on Tuesday. Rayan Al-Kildani, whose name means “Rayan the Chaldean,” is a Christian lawmaker and leader of the paramilitary group the “Babylon Brigades.” He has previously been sanctioned by the United States for alleged human rights abuses, and has had public disputes with his Church’s hierarchy. On social media September 7, Al-Kildani shared photos and videos that seemed to imply that he had a private meeting with Pope Francis. Al-Kildani released a statement on Facebook after his visit to the Vatican along with photos of the encounter, one of which had been edited to blur the crowds in the background. The Vatican in a brief Tuesday statement said Pope Francis’ meeting with Al-Kildani was during the weekly general audience, which includes many thousands of people.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255363/controversial-iraqi-christian-didn-t-meet-with-pope-francis-privately-vatican-confirms
Today, the Church celebrates the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, which celebrates two historical events: the discovery of the True Cross by Saint Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine, in 320 under the temple of Venus in Jerusalem, and the dedication in 335 of the basilica and shrine built on Calvary by Constantine, which mark the site of the Crucifixion.
catholicnewsagency.com/saint/the-exaltation-of-the-holy-cross-594
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Sep 13, 2023
September 13, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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During his September 13 general audience, Pope Francis presented the life of Blessed José Gregorio Hernández Cisneros as an example of the Gospel in action and service to the greater good. The general audience was the latest installment of the pope’s ongoing series on apostolic zeal, which is an opportunity for the faithful to “meet passionate witnesses to the proclamation of the Gospel,” individuals who embodied “the will and also the inner passion to carry the Gospel forward,” according to the pope. Wednesday’s catechism focused on the Venezuelan Hernández, the “people’s doctor,” and was the 20th installment in the series, which opened January 11 with the life of the Apostle Matthew. Hernández was the first Venezuelan layperson to be beatified. Pope Francis also took a moment to speak about the importance Hernández’s mother played in passing down the faith.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255353/pope-francis-highlights-life-of-service-of-venezuelan-blessed-at-general-audience
A federal appeals court panel has unanimously ruled in favor of a Catholic group that said a local government in Michigan violated federal religious freedom law when it blocked the use of the group’s 40-acre property for a Stations of the Cross trail. In 2020 the organization received a 40-acre wooded parcel in Genoa Township in southeast Michigan as a gift from the Diocese of Lansing. CHI planned to create a prayer trail with Stations of the Cross, a Catholic devotion that meditates on the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, as well as an altar and mural placed in an outdoor grotto formed by the property’s trees. Genoa Township said the prayer path project was the equivalent of a church building and required a special use permit. CHI plans to continue its ongoing lawsuit against Genoa Township over plans to build a small 95-seat eucharistic adoration chapel that the township has rejected.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255352/michigan-township-can-t-ban-catholic-group-s-stations-of-the-cross-court-rules
Archbishop John Wester of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe in a Monday statement defended the New Mexico governor’s recent controversial executive order banning the carrying of guns in the state’s most populated county. “The number of gun deaths we witness here is deplorable and tragic. I hope we can come together in New Mexico to address this issue,” the archbishop said. The order, issued by Lujan Grisham on September 7, temporarily suspends the right of citizens to bear arms in public in Bernalillo County, home to New Mexico’s largest city, Albuquerque. Lujan Grisham issued the order following the deaths by shootings of several Albuquerque children in recent months. The order suspended the carrying of guns by citizens for 30 days and was given on the grounds that gun violence in the state constitutes a “public health emergency.” The Albuquerque mayor and police chief have signaled that they will not enforce the gun ban and that they will leave it to state authorities to do so.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255349/new-mexico-bishop-defends-governor-s-controversial-gun-ban
Today, the Church celebrates Saint John Chrysostom, considered the greatest preacher in the history of the Church, and the most prominent Greek father of the Church. In 398, he was forcefully appointed Patriarch of Constantinople, and fast became very popular with his flock through his example of preaching and courage in front of the imperial power, whose corruption and decadence he never shirked from criticizing in public. Chrysostom's many writings, especially homilies and commentaries on the Gospels, still exist and have exerted great influence over the centuries.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-john-chrysostom-362
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Sep 12, 2023
September 12, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The Vatican will dedicate a new statue of the patron saint of Korea, Saint Andrew Kim Tae-gŏn, in Saint Peter’s Basilica this Saturday. Born in 1821, Tae-gŏn was the first native Korean priest and one of the country’s earliest martyrs. The statue of the Korean martyr was proposed by Cardinal Lazzaro You Heung-sik, a Korean prelate and prefect of the Dicastery for the Clergy, and approved by Pope Francis, according to the Holy See’s news arm, Vatican News. The pope has pointed to Tae-gŏn’s missionary zeal as a model for all Christians to follow. The statue’s dedication will take place on September 16, the anniversary of Tae-gŏn’s beheading by the Korean Joseon Dynasty. To see a picture of the new statue, visit catholic news agency dot com.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255339/statue-of-korea-s-patron-saint-to-be-permanently-installed-at-st-peter-s-basilica
Cardinal-elect Víctor Manuel Fernández, who is poised to take up his position as the head of the Vatican’s chief doctrinal office in the coming days, has signaled an openness to theological debates, saying they help deepen the Church’s understanding of the Gospel. The 61-year-old Argentine theologian also criticized bishops — both “progressive” and those from “traditionalist groups” — who think they have a “special gift of the Holy Spirit to judge the doctrine of the Holy Father,” warning that are on a road to “heresy” and “schism.” For more from Fernández interview, visit catholic news agency dot com.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255343/new-doctrine-chief-welcomes-debate-but-warns-bishops-about-schism-risks
The Swiss Bishops’ Conference on Sunday revealed an ongoing Vatican-ordered investigation into the handling of sexual abuse allegations by Church officials, with the inquiry expected to run until at least the end of the year. The conference said in a statement on Monday that allegations had been made in May of this year “against several emeriti and acting members of the Swiss Bishops’ Conference” as well as against “other clerics in their handling of sexual abuse cases.” Swiss Church authorities forwarded the allegations to the Dicastery for Bishops in Rome. Several weeks later the dicastery “ordered a preliminary canonical investigation into the matter,” appointing Swiss Diocese of Chur Bishop Joseph Bonnemain to lead the inquiry. The primary purpose of the investigation, the announcement said, is “the accusations of covering up cases of abuse.” The criminal allegations of sexual abuse, the statement said, are handled by secular authorities and have been reported to them.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255334/vatican-investigating-swiss-bishops-handling-of-sex-abuse-cases
Today, the Church celebrates Blessed Apollinaris Franco, a Spanish Franciscan who was sent to Japan to head the Japanese Franciscan mission in 1614, the year that the new Japanese shogun had instituted a nationwide ban on Christianity and declared being a Christian a capital offense. Franco evangelized covertly until he was arrested in 1617 and thrown into prison in Nagasaki along with other priests and laymen, for five years to await his execution. The conditions in the prison were exceedingly harsh in an attempt to force the prisoners to reject the faith. Apollinaris ministered to the other prisoners and converted some of the jailers through his example and teaching. On September 12, 1622, he was burned at the stake along with other Franciscans and Jesuits.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/blessed-apollinaris-franco-592
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Sep 11, 2023
September 11, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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On a “day of joy” in Poland, the Catholic Church on Sunday for the first time beatified an entire family at once: Jozef and Wiktoria Ulma and their seven children, who were martyred during World War II for sheltering two Jewish families from the Nazis. Early on March 24, 1944, a Nazi patrol surrounded the home of Józef and Wiktoria Ulma on the outskirts of Markowa. They discovered the Jewish people hiding on the Ulma farm and executed them. The Nazi police then killed 31-year-old Wiktoria, who was pregnant and in premature labor, and 44-year-old Józef outside their home. Beatification in the Catholic Church is one step before canonization, when a person recognized for special holiness is officially declared to be a saint. Those beatified receive the title “Blessed” and may receive public veneration at the local or regional level, usually restricted to those dioceses or religious institutes closely associated with the person’s life.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255332/ulma-family-beatified-on-a-day-of-joy-in-poland
More than 2,000 people have been reported dead after a major earthquake rocked the North African country of Morocco overnight on Friday, the country’s government said Saturday morning. The Moroccan government on Saturday said hundreds more were injured. The US Geological Survey said the earthquake measured a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 near the resort of Oukaïmedene. The USGS in its early report said “significant casualties” were “likely” while “extensive damage is probable and the disaster is likely widespread.” The Catholic charity Caritas Morocco reported some material damage recorded at the Church of Ouarzazate without any human loss in the community as of Saturday. The Caritas Team said it intends to take emergency actions coordinated with other Caritas networks. Cardinal Cristóbal López, Archbishop of Rabat, planned to be present in Marrakech to preside over the Eucharist yesterday, which he said he would celebrate for all the victims. The Archbishop said he appeals to all communities to pray at all Masses to express their compassion to local authorities and to organize solidarity.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255335/pope-francis-urges-faithful-to-be-close-to-the-people-of-morocco-in-wake-of-devastating-earthquake
Today, the Church celebrates Saint Jean Gabriel Perboyre, a missionary to China who became one of the first victims of the persecutions against Christians, dying in a manner which had a striking resemblance to the passion of our Lord. He was betrayed for a sum of silver, stripped of his garments and dragged from tribunal to tribunal, beaten and tortured continuously until he was sentenced to death with seven criminals. He was crucified and died on a cross. Canonized on June 2, 1996 by Pope John Paul II, Saint Jean Gabriel Perboyre is the first saint of China.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-jean-gabriel-perboyre-591
The Church also celebrates Saint Paphnutius, an Egyptian monk who became a bishop, endured torture for the faith, and participated at the Ecumenical Council of Nicea in its confirmation of Christ's divinity.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-paphnutius-709
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Sep 8, 2023
September 8, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Research in the archive of the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome has uncovered a list of the names of thousands of Jewish people who found shelter from Nazi persecution in Catholic religious congregations in Rome from 1943-1944. While some of the information was first published in 1961, the full documentation, particularly the lists of people hidden in the Catholic institutions, had been considered lost, a September 7 press release explained. The Nazis occupied Rome from September 10, 1943, until June 4, 1944, when the city was liberated by the Allied forces. During that nine-month period, approximately 10,000-15,000 Jews faced persecution, and almost 2,000 Jews, including children and adolescents, were deported and murdered. The newly rediscovered documentation references more than 4,300 people hidden by 100 women’s religious congregations and 55 men’s religious congregations during the persecution.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255301/documents-identify-thousands-of-jews-hidden-by-catholic-religious-during-nazi-occupation-of-rome
In a September 6 hearing, Representative Chris Smith accused the government of Azerbaijan of committing genocide against Armenian Christians in disputed territory in the country. During the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission meeting, Smith criticized the Azerbaijani government for continuing its blockade of the Lachin corridor, which is the only road that connects Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255308/lawmaker-accuses-azerbaijan-of-genocide-seeks-answers-on-biden-admin-s-plan
A delegation of 90 Vietnamese Catholics and seven bishops traveled to Mongolia last weekend for the chance to see Pope Francis and deliver a special message. Unlike Mongolia, which has one of the smallest Catholic populations in the world, Vietnam is home to millions of Catholics, yet no pope has ever visited the southeast Asian country. Vietnam and the Holy See have never had full diplomatic relations, a usual prerequisite for a papal trip, but Vietnamese Catholics remain convinced that a papal visit could have a positive impact on the situation facing Christians in the socialist country.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255302/catholics-in-vietnam-ask-pope-francis-to-visit-their-country-next
Today, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The circumstances of the Virgin Mary's infancy and early life are not directly recorded in the Bible, but other documents and traditions describing the circumstances of her birth are cited by some of the earliest Christian writers from the first centuries of the Church. These accounts, although not considered authoritative in the same manner as the Bible, outline some of the Church's traditional beliefs about the birth of Mary, including the belief that her parents decided that she would be offered to God as a consecrated Virgin for the rest of her life, and enter a chaste marriage with the carpenter Joseph.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/the-birth-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary-357
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Sep 7, 2023
September 7, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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During a meeting in Rome Wednesday morning, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic synod of bishops told Pope Francis some of his gestures and statements have been “painful and difficult for the Ukrainian people.” According to a September 6 statement, the bishops said misunderstandings between the Vatican and Ukraine since the start of the full-scale war are used as propaganda by Russia, and so “the faithful of our Church are sensitive to every word of Your Holiness as the universal voice of truth and justice.” The meeting between the pope and 45 bishops of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church lasted nearly two hours in a room off of the Paul VI Hall.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255290/ukrainian-greek-catholic-synod-tells-pope-francis-he-has-made-painful-statements
The trial of three pro-life activists who staged a sit-in protest at a Washington DC abortion clinic in October 2020 began today, just about one week after five of their peers who also participated in the protest were convicted under a controversial federal statute and a civil rights violation. If convicted the defendants could face up to 11 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $350,000 maximum fine. The FACE Act, which is the same law that pro-life father of seven Mark Houck was charged and acquitted under earlier this year, prohibits “violent, threatening, damaging, and obstructive conduct intended to injure, intimidate, or interfere with the right to seek, obtain, or provide reproductive health services.” Pro-life leaders across the nation condemned the conviction of the five in August.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255294/second-trial-of-dc-pro-life-activists-who-staged-protest-begins
The Archdiocese of Baltimore will consider filing for bankruptcy as it awaits the implementation of a new law that will end the statute of limitations for civil lawsuits for negligence in relation to child sexual abuse. Effective October 1, the law will allow a victim of child sex abuse to sue private entities for up to $1.5 million if he or she can show the organization failed to properly respond to sexual abuse that occurred under its watch. Previously, the statute of limitations was seven years after the victim’s 18th birthday. Because the new law will apply retroactively, victims whose statute of limitations had already passed will be able to file lawsuits against private entities. An attorney’s general report from April accused the archdiocese of covering up child sex abuse for decades, and the archbishop believes this law could lead to multiple lawsuits that could have “devastating financial consequences” for the archdiocese.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255295/baltimore-archdiocese-considers-bankruptcy-amid-possible-sex-abuse-lawsuits
Today, the Church celebrates Saint Clodoald, popularly known as Saint Cloud, who escaped from violent political intrigue to pursue holiness as a monk and priest. In 554, Clodoald founded and led a community of monks in the village of Nogent near Paris. There, he was known for his generosity toward the poor, and his attention to the work of religious instruction among the people. He died on September 7, 560, at the age of 38. Under the name of “St. Cloud,” Clodoald became the namesake of several cities and towns.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-cloud-708
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Sep 6, 2023
September 6, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Thousands of people stood up for the unborn on Saturday at the March for Life in London, England. The ninth annual march processed through the city of Westminster in London, and ended at the Houses of Parliament. Law enforcement estimated about 7,000 people attended the march according to a press release from March for Life UK. In 2021, there were 214,256 abortions in England and Wales, according to the UK government’s website. Abortion was legalized in England, Scotland, and Wales, under the Abortion Act in 1967. In 2022, Parliament voted to permanently allow women in England and Wales to self-administer both abortion pills, mifepristone and misoprostol, without first visiting a hospital or clinic.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255281/thousands-march-for-life-in-london
Super Bowl champion Harrison Butker is teaming up with the University of Notre Dame to offer a $10,000 award for the innovative use of Catholic Church property in light of societal and demographic change. The criteria for the award include having a bold vision, being “distinctively Catholic,” having an innovative use of Church property, fulfilling the “highest and best use” of the Church property, and having a focus on scale and sustainability. Any individual or group, which includes the laity, clergy, an organization, or a diocese, may apply.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255280/nfl-kicker-harrison-butker-and-university-of-notre-dame-to-award-innovation-in-church-property
Today, the Church celebrates Blessed Thomas Tzugi. Born to nobility and educated by the Jesuits of the Arima province around 1571, Thomas entered the Jesuit order upon the completion of his schooling at around 17 years old. He quickly developed a reputation for his excellent preaching and evangelical zeal. He was exiled to the island of Macao during a persecution of Christians, yet he managed to return to Japan in disguise and continue his priestly ministry. He was recaptured and sentenced to death, yet he refused to seek his freedom through his family’s political connections. He was burned to death at the stake in 1627 in Nagasaki, Japan, and was beatified by Pope Pius IX in 1867.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/blessed-thomas-tzugi-355
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Sep 5, 2023
September 5, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis has returned home after his trip to Mongolia. Catholics from across Asia traveled to Mongolia to attend the country’s first-ever papal Mass with Pope Francis on Sunday. While papal Masses on the pope’s other international trips can draw hundreds of thousands of people, the Mass in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar only had an estimated 2,000 in attendance — presenting a rare opportunity to personally meet the pope for attendees. Catholics from South Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines, Russia, China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Azerbaijan attended the Mass in the sports arena, according to the Vatican. Among the crowd were Catholics from mainland China, including underground Catholics who risked retribution from their government to attend the Mass with the pope. Pope Francis said that he wanted to “send a warm greeting to the noble Chinese people.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255273/catholics-from-mainland-china-and-across-asia-in-mongolia-for-mass-with-pope-francis
Pope Francis also revealed the existence of a joint China-Vatican commission on the appointment of bishops during an in-flight press conference on Monday — giving the clearest explanation to date as to what could be in the secret Vatican-China deal. The pope said that there is a joint commission between the Chinese government and the Holy See on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China presided over by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin. The pope described the Vatican’s relations with the People’s Republic of China as “very respectful.” The Vatican’s diplomatic relationship with China was a topic of focus during the pope’s four-day trip to Mongolia, which shares a nearly 3,000-mile border with China.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255276/pope-francis-gives-glimpse-into-vatican-china-deal-on-appointment-of-chinese-bishops
Today, the Church celebrates Saint Teresa of Calcutta, a universal symbol of God's merciful and preferential love for the poor and forgotten. She often said that the poorest of the poor were those who had no one to care for them and no one who knew them. And she often remarked with sadness and desolation of milliions of souls in the developed world whose spiritual poverty and loneliness was such an immense cause of suffering. Mother Teresa once said, "A sacrifice to be real must cost, must hurt, must empty ourselves. The fruit of silence is prayer, the fruit of prayer is faith, the fruit of faith is love, the fruit of love is service, the fruit of service is peace." She also said, "give yourself fully to God. He will use you to accomplish great things on the condition that you believe much more in His love than in your own weakness."
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/calendar/2023-9-5
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Sep 4, 2023
Happy Labor Day from Catholic News
Due to the Labor Day holiday today in the U.S., there will be no new news briefing this morning.
Today, the Church celebrates Saint Boniface, Pope. Though few details are known of Boniface's early life, he was elected Pope on December 28, 418. Boniface was highly esteemed for his charitable and learned personality, which were clearly seen and lived through the service of his priestly duties. Boniface's reign was marked by great zeal and activity in disciplinary organization and control. He worked to reform certain corrupt practices and reduced the privileges granted to certain bishops. He ardently supported Saint Augustine in his fight against Pelagianism, and Augustine devoted several works to him.
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Sep 1, 2023
September 1, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis made history Friday morning when he became the first pope to travel to Mongolia, the world’s most sparsely populated sovereign country. The papal plane touched down in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar on September 1. As Pope Francis descended the stairs of the plane at “Chinggis Khaan” International Airport, he was welcomed by the Asian country’s foreign minister and a young woman who offered the pope a cup of traditional Mongolian dried curds. Pope Francis told journalists aboard the chartered ITA Airways plane that to visit Mongolia is to encounter “a small people, but a big culture.” Roughly the size of Alaska, Mongolia has five people per square mile. About 30% of its population is nomadic or semi-nomadic.
https://www.catholicnewsagency…
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Aug 28, 2023
Catholic News will return Sept. 1
Thank you for listening to Catholic News. This news briefing will return on Friday, September first. In the meantime, visit Catholic News Agency dot com for the latest. May God bless you.
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Aug 25, 2023
August 25, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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India’s Catholic bishops celebrated along with the rest of the country this week after an Indian-built lunar lander touched down on the moon’s surface Wednesday morning, a win for the country’s still-developing space program. “The progress made by our scientists and engineers in the field of space research is truly commendable and fills our hearts with pride,” said the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) on August 23. Similar to the Indian bishops, Pope Francis has spoken about space exploration — recalling the 50th anniversary of the moon landing in 2019, the pope encouraged Catholics to look to that great event for inspiration to overcome injustices and mistreatment of the weak.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255179/indias-bishops-elat…
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Aug 24, 2023
August 24, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Our Lady of Guadalupe proclaimed the Gospel in “mother tongue,” Pope Francis said Wednesday in a message that highlighted the important role mothers play in passing on the faith to the next generation. In his catechesis on evangelization on August 23, the pope spoke about how the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe in 1531 helped to spread the Gospel across the Americas, praising her as an inspired model of motherhood and inculturation. Pope Francis said the Virgin Mary always “consoles us, makes us go forward and thus allows us to grow, like a good mother who, while following in her son’s steps, launches him into the world’s challenges.” Pope Francis underscored the importance of Marian shrines and pilgrimage destinations, like the Shrine of Our Lady of Gua…
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Aug 23, 2023
August 23, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone on Monday announced that the archdiocese would be submitting a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. Cordileone earlier in August had warned that the filing was “very likely” in response to the “more than 500 civil lawsuits” alleging clerical sexual abuse filed against the archdiocese. A Chapter 11 filing, the archbishop said at the time, would allow the archdiocese to deal with those cases “collectively rather than one at a time,” resulting in both a “faster resolution” of the crisis as well as “fair compensation” for the victims. Among the other U.S. dioceses that have filed for bankruptcy this year include Oakland; Ogdensburg, New York; and Albany, New York.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255156/san-…
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Aug 22, 2023
August 22, 2023
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The military general and leader of the project to restore Notre-Dame de Paris following its devastating 2019 fire died while hiking in the Pyrenees mountains on Sunday. French President Emmanuel Macron said that French army general Jean-Louis Georgelin’s death meant “the nation lost one of its great soldiers” and “one of its great servants,” while Notre-Dame had lost “the architect of its rebirth.” Macron had appointed Georgelin to the role shortly after the fire, in April 2019. Georgelin in 2021 was confident that the restoration would be able to meet Macron’s proposed five-year working schedule. “The deadlines will be met!” he said that year during a media interview. The cathedral is scheduled to be reopened in 2024.
https://www.catholicnewsagency…
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Aug 21, 2023
August 21, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis announced during an audience with lawyers Monday that he is writing a second part to his 2015 environmental encyclical Laudato Si’. The pope said with this new writing he is updating Laudato Si’ to cover current issues. The Holy See Press Office Director, Matteo Bruni, confirmed to CNA August 21 that “the pope is working on a letter updating Laudato Si' with regard to the recent environmental crises.” He could not provide any information on when the letter will be released. Laudato Si’ is the second of three encyclicals published in Pope Francis’ pontificate thus far. It was released in June 2015. The title, which means “Praise be to you,” was taken from Saint Francis of Assisi’s medieval Italian prayer “Canticle of the Sun,” which pra…
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Aug 18, 2023
August 18, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis met Thursday with the Catholic president of Madagascar, Andry Nirina Rajoelina. The president was accompanied by his wife of 23 years and three young adult children. The 49-year-old politician and businessman has led the country of Madagascar in his current term since January 2019. He also led a provisional government in the country from 2009–2014. According to the Vatican, after a 20-minute private conversation, Pope Francis invited Rajoelina and his family to pray a Hail Mary together before a Marian image he had received from the bishops of Madagascar. The pope and delegation were also photographed together next to a miniature of a ship, a gift Francis received on the occasion of his 2019 visit to the island country.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com…
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Aug 17, 2023
August 17, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals approved additional abortion pill restrictions, including ending mail-order abortions, in a Wednesday ruling in the high-stakes abortion case Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v Food and Drug Administration. The court did not disapprove all use of abortion pills but rather ruled that the FDA must reinstate restrictions in place before 2016, most notably banning administering the pills through the mail or via telemedicine. Because of this finding, variations of the most commonly used abortion pill, such as Mifeprex and generic mifepristone, “will remain available under the safety restrictions that were in effect prior to 2016.” Once reviewed and certified by the Supreme Court, the ruling will mandate that the FDA restore its original…
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Aug 16, 2023
August 16, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin arrived in South Sudan on Monday, August 14, to meet people fleeing violence from neighboring Sudan among other activities lined up for his four-day visit to the east-central African country. In an interview with ACI Africa, CNA’s partner news agency in Africa, ahead of the visit, the apostolic nuncio in South Sudan said the visit by Parolin is an extension of the “care and love” of Pope Francis to the people of South Sudan. Parolin is visiting South Sudan at the invitation of Bishop Stephen Nyodho of the Diocese of Malakal as a follow up to his July 2022 visit to review the situation of internally displaced persons and those fleeing violence in neighboring Sudan. In February, Pope Francis became the first pope…
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Aug 15, 2023
August 15, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Cincinnati Archbishop Dennis Schnurr on Saturday urged Catholics in the state of Ohio to reject a November ballot measure that would enshrine abortion rights under the state's constitution. The amendment, if passed, would dictate that Ohio “shall not, directly or indirectly, burden, penalize, prohibit, interfere with, or discriminate against” a woman’s attempt to get an abortion. State law currently prohibits abortion after the point at which an unborn child’s heartbeat is detected, generally around six weeks of pregnancy. Under the amendment, lawmakers could prohibit abortion “after fetal viability,” or when a child could survive outside its mother’s uterus, generally at around 24 weeks of pregnancy. The state would be prohibited from doing so, however,…
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Aug 14, 2023
August 14, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The devastating Maui fires appear to have spared Maria Lanakila Catholic Church in Lahaina, providing a symbol of hope amid catastrophic destruction. At least 93 deaths had been reported as of Sunday, August 13, making the disaster the deadliest wildfire event in the US since 1918. Authorities expect the death toll to rise. Multiple fast-moving fires, fanned by strong winds and fueled by dry vegetation, swept across the Hawaiian island. The western town of Lahaina, with fewer than 13,000 residents, was particularly devastated. Maria Lanakila Catholic Church, named for Our Lady of Victory, appears to have escaped destruction. Maria Lanakila Catholic Church serves 700 to 800 families and celebrates six Sunday Masses every weekend. It hosts many weddings from visitors from…
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Aug 11, 2023
August 11, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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A Catholic university in the state of Washington recently announced its full divestment from holdings in fossil fuel concerns, a decision one of the school’s leaders says came about as part of a “moral imperative to action” stemming from Catholic teachings. Seattle University, a Jesuit-run school near the city’s downtown, said last month that it had fully “scrubbed its endowment portfolio of fossil fuel investments,” with the school touting itself as “the first university in Washington state and the first Jesuit Catholic university in the country” to do so. The school’s board of trustees in 2018 “became the first Jesuit university in the country to pledge 100% withdrawal from publicly traded fossil fuel investments,” with the school claiming the di…
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Aug 10, 2023
August 10, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis on Thursday named Bishop Rui Manuel Sousa Valério as patriarch of Lisbon, just days after the conclusion of World Youth Day in the capital city of Portugal. The pope on August 10 also accepted the resignation of Cardinal-Patriarch Manuel Clemente, who has led the patriarchate since May 2013.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255058/pope-francis-names-new-patriarch-of-lisbon-following-world-youth-day
Bishop Martin Igwemezie Uzoukwu of Minna, Nigeria, called for prayers for the release of a priest and a seminarian who were kidnapped by armed men on August 3 in the north-central part of the country.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255051/church-prays-for-release-of-kidnapped-priest-and-seminarian-in-nigeria
The Ecuadorian bishops’ conferen…
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Aug 9, 2023
August 9, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis changed canon law on Tuesday regarding the governance of Opus Dei and any future personal prelatures. In a motu proprio issued August 8, the pope assimilated the personal prelature to “public clerical associations of pontifical right with the faculty of incardinating clerics.” It also further defined the role of the prelate as a “moderator endowed with the faculties of an ordinary.” The motu proprio modifies canons 295 and 296 of the Code of Canon Law on personal prelatures and immediately entered into force on the day of its publication. The updated canons now state that the statutes that govern a personal prelature can be “approved or issued by the Apostolic See.” To date, the international Catholic organization Opus Dei is the only personal p…
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Aug 8, 2023
August 8, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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A 16-year-old Spanish World Youth Day pilgrim says she miraculously recovered her sight after receiving the Eucharist at Fátima, Portugal, during a Mass there. This possible miracle has moved hearts and filled with hope all those who have been following the events at WYD, which brought together more than a million young people in the Portuguese capital last week. For two and a half years, Jimena has suffered a loss of sight due to a myopia problem that left her with a 95% vision loss. On the morning of Aug. 5, when the Holy Father was also praying the rosary at the Fátima shrine, Jimena received what she herself describes as a “great gift” from the Virgin Mary. For two and a half years, Jimena has suffered a loss of sight due to a myopia problem that left her with…
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Aug 7, 2023
August 7, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The next World Youth Day will be held in Seoul, South Korea, in 2027, Pope Francis announced at the conclusion of the final Mass of World Youth Day 2023 in Lisbon, Portugal. More than 1,000 Korean Catholics attended WYD 2023 in Lisbon. South Korea has nearly 6 million Catholics, 11% of the total population, according to 2022 statistics from the country’s Catholic bishops’ conference. Pope Francis visited South Korea in 2014. During the five-day trip, he beatified 124 Korean martyrs and took part in the sixth Asian Youth Day.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255018/next-world-youth-day-to-be-in-south-korea-in-2027
Pope Francis celebrated Mass for an estimated 1.5 million participants in Tejo Park in Lisbon, concluding the six-day youth festival and his own f…
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Aug 4, 2023
August 4, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis met with 13 survivors of clerical sex abuse on his first day in Portugal and urged the Church to listen to “the anguished cry of the victims.” The emotional private meeting at Lisbon’s apostolic nunciature, or Vatican embassy, on Wednesday night was a moment of “intense listening” by the pope and lasted more than an hour, according to the Vatican. Representatives from Catholic institutions working for the protection of minors in Portugal accompanied the victims. In a speech to Portuguese clergy immediately before the pope’s encounter with the abuse survivors, Francis acknowledged the “anger with which some people view the Church” due to “the scandals that have marred her face.” Pope Francis called for “a humble, ongoing purification, s…
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Aug 3, 2023
August 3, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Acknowledging the discouragement that can be experienced by Catholic leaders in secularizing societies, Pope Francis on Wednesday urged a gathering of Portuguese clergy, consecrated people, and pastoral workers to stay in the boat with Jesus and revive their “restless” enthusiasm for spreading the Gospel. The pope delivered the encouraging message in his homily for Wednesday vespers, or evening prayer, to bishops, priests, deacons, consecrated persons, seminarians, and pastoral workers gathered in the church of Lisbon’s iconic Mosterio dos Jerónimos, a former monastery now used as a public ceremony hall and museum space. The official welcoming ceremony for World Youth Day with Pope Francis will take place at Meeting Hill (Eduardo VII Park) later today.
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Aug 2, 2023
August 2, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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World Youth Day 2023 kicked off in Lisbon, Portugal, August 1 with an opening Mass before a crowd of hundreds of thousands. Cardinal Manuel Clemente, the patriarch of Lisbon, was the main celebrant for the Tuesday evening outdoor liturgy, held at Eduardo VII Park. “Let us learn from Mary to greet each and every person. Let us intensely put it to practice this World Youth Day,” he said. “The new world begins in the newness of every encounter and in the sincerity of the greeting we exchange, so that we may be people among people, in a mutual and constant visitation. “I wish you all a happy and inspiring World Youth Day,” he said. Pope Francis is expected to arrive for the festivities today, Wednesday the second.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254967/wo…
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Aug 1, 2023
August 1, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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World Youth Day begins today in Lisbon, Portugal. Pope Francis arrives on August 2 in the morning and returns to Rome on August 6 in the afternoon. Over the five days, some of the events he will attend are public while others will be more institutional or by invitation only. Follow all the action at Catholic News Agency dot com.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254921/8-unique-things-to-know-about-wyd2023-in-lisbon
Johnny Johnson, a Saint Louis-area man and convicted murderer, is scheduled to die this evening. Catholics in St. Louis and across Missouri — as well as Pope Francis himself — had advocated for a stay of Johnson’s execution, citing the Church’s teaching on the admissibility of the death penalty as well as arguments from Johnson’s attorneys…
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Jul 31, 2023
July 31, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis made a direct call to Russia on Sunday to renew the deal that allowed Ukraine to export grain to countries in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. “I appeal to my brothers, the authorities of the Russian Federation, that the Black Sea Initiative be restored and grain be transported safely,” the pope said July 30 at the end of his weekly Angelus prayer and address. The Kremlin announced July 17 that the wartime grain deal would be suspended until “the part of the Black Sea deal related to Russia is implemented.” Russia has also bombed Ukraine’s Black Sea ports since quitting the agreement. The move by Russia has sparked fears for even higher food prices and increased poverty in countries already suffering from hunger. Pope Francis also repeated Sunda…
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Jul 28, 2023
July 28, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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World Youth Day begins next week, August 1, in Lisbon Portugal. WYD is a weeklong celebration that attracts hundreds of thousands of young people from all over the world. The event was initiated by Pope John Paul II in 1985. It is celebrated every two to three years and is open to all young people who want to experience Jesus Christ with their peers. It is a way to grow in your faith and strengthen your relationship with Christ through prayer and the sacraments. WYD takes place every two to three years. This WYD would have taken place in 2022, but was delayed due to the pandemic.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254908/here-are-answers-to-your-questions-about-world-youth-day
A federal judge on Tuesday blocked a new Biden administration rule limiting which migra…
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Jul 27, 2023
July 27, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on Tuesday evening granted a stay of execution for Johnny Johnson, a Saint Louis-area man who had been scheduled to die August 1. Catholics in Saint Louis and across Missouri had advocated for a stay of Johnson’s execution, citing the Church’s teaching on the admissibility of the death penalty as well as arguments from Johnson’s attorneys that he is not mentally fit to understand his punishment. The Missouri Catholic Conference, which represents the state’s Catholic bishops, in a July 24 letter formally requested clemency on Johnson’s behalf, asking Republican Governor Mike Parson to commute his sentence to life imprisonment without parole. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, reflecting an update promulgated by…
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Jul 26, 2023
July 26 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Washington, DC’s Metropolitan Police Department has launched an investigation after two pro-life sidewalk counselors were allegedly attacked outside of a Planned Parenthood clinic on July 22. A group of pro-life sidewalk counselors, who were there to encourage women to choose life for their preborn babies rather than obtain an abortion, were gathered along with other pro-life activists outside of the Planned Parenthood location at 4th Street, Northeast, on Saturday morning. A verbal altercation between pro-abortion passersby and one of the activists ensued around 11:40 am and quickly turned violent. A spokesperson for Washington, DC’s Metropolitan Police Department confirmed with CNA that detectives are investigating the incident.
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Jul 25, 2023
July 25 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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More than 28,600 young adults from 1,300 US groups are headed to Lisbon, Portugal, for World Youth Day next week. The pilgrims number more than twice the amount of U.S. attendees who went to the 2019 World Youth Day in Panama, according to numbers from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The celebration in Panama took place in January. The last World Youth Day celebration to take place in the summer was when it was held in 2016 in Krakow, Poland, when more than 40,000 Americans were registered to attend. World Youth Day, a global event for young people that takes place about every three years, offers a deeper encounter with Jesus Christ through liturgical celebrations, networking, faith sharing, catechetical sessions, and prayer with the Holy Father. Estab…
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Jul 24, 2023
July 24, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Calling for “a new bond between the young and old,” Pope Francis marked the third annual World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly with an intergenerational Mass Sunday in Saint Peter’s Basilica. Old age is a “blessed time,” the pope affirmed in his homily, “for it is the season to be reconciled, a time for looking tenderly at the light that has shone despite the shadows, confident in the hope that the good wheat sown by God will prevail over the weeds with which the devil has wanted to plague our hearts.” Sunday marked the first time Pope Francis presided over the special papal Mass since initiating the World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly in 2021. The celebration is now held on the fourth Sunday of July — the Sunday closest to the July 26 feast o…
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Jul 14, 2023
July 14, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The US House of Representatives passed two amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Thursday evening mandating the military stop its programs paying for abortion travel and transgender surgeries for service members. Under a policy laid out by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, the military has been granting paid leave and subsidizing service members’ travel to obtain abortions. Transgender and gender-identity treatments and surgeries also have been subsidized by the military under the Biden administration. Two amendments passed by the House Thursday evening would undo those military policies. The NDAA is an annual must-pass spending package that sets the military’s budget for the next fiscal year. Both the House and Senate advance their own versions…
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Jul 13, 2023
July 13, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Authorities have arrested a suspect in the murder last week of a teacher from Kentucky on the campus of The Catholic University of America. On July 5, 25-year-old Maxwell Emerson was shot and killed on the university’s Washington DC campus. The DC Metropolitan Police Department said in a statement this week that it had made an arrest in the case, apprehending 22-year-old DC resident Jaime Maceo and charging him with first-degree murder. Police reportedly identified Maceo from security camera footage showing the altercation that led to Emerson’s death.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254784/arrest-made-in-murder-of-kentucky-teacher-on-catholic-university-of-america-campus
A new national survey shows students in the United States are still struggling to make…
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Jul 12, 2023
July 12, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis has named Dominican Father Steven Maekawa, a former active duty military chaplain, as the next bishop of Fairbanks, Alaska. The Vatican announced the appointment on July 11. Maekawa will take on the role of leading a diocese that spans more than 400,000 square miles, the largest diocese in the United States geographically. The 55-year-old Dominican friar has been based in Alaska since 2016, serving as the pastor of Holy Family Old Cathedral in Anchorage. Maekawa was awarded a special medal in active duty for his work as a military chaplain in the U.S. Navy Reserve, serving a tour of duty with ground troops in Afghanistan in 2004. In Fairbanks, Maekawa will succeed Bishop Chad Zielinski, whom Pope Francis appointed as the bishop of New Ulm, Minnesota, last y…
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Jul 11, 2023
July 11, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Arrests were made Saturday in two separate vandalism incidents at Catholic churches in the Diocese of Brooklyn, New York. At Resurrection Church in Brooklyn, a white marble statue of the Blessed Mother was spray-painted with black graffiti on her face, shoulders, and hands. The word “fake” was written on the statue as well as what appears to be an upside-down cross. Jonathan Bulik, 37, of Brooklyn, was charged with criminal mischief as a hate crime in connection with the attack. He was seen spray-painting the statue by two parishioners who stopped him in the act on Saturday. Another incident occurred on Saturday at Saint Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church in Astoria by the same man who allegedly desecrated the church in early June.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/…
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Jul 10, 2023
July 10, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis said on Sunday that he will create 21 new cardinals, including the Vatican’s recently appointed doctrinal chief Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández, at a consistory on September 30. The 86-year-old pope made the announcement from a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square after reciting the Angelus prayer on July 9. A few of the notable names on the list include Archbishop Christophe Pierre, Apostolic Nuncio to the US; Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem; and Bishop Stephen Chow Sau-yan, SJ, Bishop of Hong Kong. Since his election in 2013, Pope Francis has created 121 cardinals from 66 countries at eight consistories. The last consistory to create new cardinals took place on August 27, 2022. The new cardinals included Cardi…
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May 9, 2023
Catholic News will return on May 15
Thank you for listening to Catholic News. This podcast will take two brief summer breaks to allow the producers to go on vacation. The first break will be from today until May 15. The second will be for one week in July. As always, the latest news will be available at CatholicNewsAgency.com. God bless you.
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May 8, 2023
May 8, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis on Sunday warned against the danger of living life without a sense of purpose or a destination to set our course by, reminding the faithful that Jesus is “our compass for reaching heaven,” our true home. Speaking to pilgrims gathered on a sunny day in Saint Peter’s Square to pray the Regina Caeli, the pope reflected on the day’s Gospel reading, in which Jesus consoles his disciples before his ascension, telling them, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” John 14:6. “Jesus uses the familiar image of home, the place of relationships and intimacy. In the Father’s house — he says to his friends, and to each one of us — there is space for you, you are welcome, you will always be received with the warmth of an embrace, and I am in heaven to…
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May 5, 2023
May 5, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis has sent a video message to the teens and young adults preparing to attend World Youth Day in Lisbon, Portugal, in August. World Youth Day was established by Pope John Paul II in 1985. The weeklong gathering usually attracts hundreds of thousands of young people. Pope Francis announced that the Portuguese capital would host the global Catholic gathering of young people at the closing Mass of the last international World Youth Day in Panama City in January 2019. In his video message, Pope Francis also shared “a secret” to preparing well for World Youth Day. “To prepare well, it’s good to look towards your roots,” he said, encouraging young people to spend time with the elderly before the gathering. “Many of you have grandparents. Visit your grand…
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May 4, 2023
May 4, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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For the first time since the Reformation, a Catholic prelate will be formally participating in the coronation of King Charles III on Saturday, May 6, along with other Christian leaders across the country who have been invited to formally bestow a blessing on the new king. The Order of Service, released by the Church of England, explains: “The progress of ecumenical relations since 1953 means that for the first time, this blessing is to be shared by Christian leaders across the country.” The blessings will take place shortly after the archbishop of Canterbury formally crowns King Charles III, after which Westminster Abbey’s bells will peal for two minutes and then the official blessings will commence. Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Catholic archbishop of Westminster, wi…
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May 3, 2023
May 3, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis’ prayer intention for the month of May is for ecclesial movements and groups. “Ecclesial movements are a gift; they are a treasure in the Church,” the Holy Father said in a video released by the Vatican on May 2. “These movements renew the Church with their capacity for dialogue at the service of her evangelizing mission,” he said. “Each day, they rediscover in their charism new ways of showing the attractiveness and the newness of the Gospel.” “How do they do this? Speaking different languages, they seem different, but it is their creativity that creates these differences. But always understanding themselves and making themselves understood.” Pope Francis encouraged members of ecclesial groups to “remain in harmony with the Church, sinc…
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May 1, 2023
May 1, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Speaking at a Catholic university in Hungary on Sunday, Pope Francis warned of the risk of technological domination and the threat it poses to culture and to our human ecology. He also spoke about the false freedoms offered by both communism and consumerism, and encouraged people to seek out Christ’s truth. The visit marked the final meeting in Francis’ three-day trip to Hungary’s capital. Pope Francis’ visit to Budapest included meetings with President Katalin Novák and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. He also spent time with visually impaired children, young adults, and clergy. On the morning of April 30, he celebrated Mass for 50,000 people gathered in and around Kossuth Lajos Square.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254208/hundreds-of-faithful-gather-i…
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Apr 28, 2023
April 28, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis’ new appointments to the Dicastery for Evangelization include several prominent American Catholics. They include Monsignor Eugene (Geno) Sylva of the Diocese of Paterson, New Jersey. Pope Francis also appointed 14 consultors to advise the members of the dicastery. American layman Curtis Martin, founder of the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS), was named to this advisory group. Another new consultor for the dicastery is Petroc Willey, a theology professor at Franciscan University of Steubenville. For the complete list and to read interviews with the new consultors, visit catholic news agency dot com.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254185/pope-francis-names-several-americans-to-dicastery-for-evangelization
The United States Catho…
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Apr 27, 2023
April 27, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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More than 450 men are set to be ordained priests this year in the United States, and the survey of their ordination class shows that the overwhelming majority of priests-to-be were raised Catholic in intact families and individually showed habits of frequent church service and regular prayer life. The seminarians to be ordained, also known as ordinands, are overwhelmingly “cradle Catholics.” About 93% of ordinands were baptized Catholic as infants. Another 96% were raised by their biological parents. About 92% were raised by a married couple living together. For 84% of ordinands, both parents were Catholic. One in three respondents had a relative who is a priest or religious. More than 63% of survey respondents said their parish priest had been an encouraging influe…
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Apr 26, 2023
April 26, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The Vatican announced Wednesday that there will be laypeople participating as voting members in the Synod on Synodality’s October assembly, a break with past custom. Pope Francis also approve every member in advance. Previously, synodal gatherings have allowed laypeople to participate as auditors, without the right to vote. The general assembly of the Synod on Synodality will take place in two sessions, in October 2023 and October 2024. After the vote on a final document for the assembly, the pope alone decides whether to take any actions based on the recommendations in the final text or whether to adopt it as an official Church document. In past synods, auditors included priests, religious, and laypeople, who did not have the right to vote in synod deliberations. Now…
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Apr 25, 2023
April 25, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis has said he would like to visit his home country of Argentina in 2024. Since his election to the papacy in 2013, Francis has never returned to his home country of Argentina. In a March interview with La Nacion, he explained that a trip to Argentina had been planned in 2017 but had to be canceled because of elections. The pope does not travel to a country in an election year.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254162/pope-francis-says-he-wants-to-visit-argentina-in-2024-ganswein-to-leave-vatican-apartment
Pope Francis will receive the prime minister of Ukraine, Denys Shmyhal, at the Vatican on Thursday morning. The two last met at the Vatican in March 2021 amid clashes between Ukraine and Russia in the Donbas region. Shmyhal has been Ukraine’s prime…
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Apr 21, 2023
April 21, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The Archdiocese of Boston is responding to the Satanic Temple’s “SatanCon” event in Boston with scheduled eucharistic adoration, Catholic devotions, and “intense prayer.” “SatanCon,” as the Satanic Temple calls the event, is sold out and is being held from Friday to Sunday, April 28–30, at the Boston Marriott Copley Place to celebrate the organization’s history and values. The Satanic Temple, which, according to its website, denies the existence of God and Satan, is a political activist group known for protesting religious symbolism in public spaces and mocking Christianity. The archdiocese is offering parishes prayer cards while encouraging the recitation of the Saint Michael the Archangel prayer.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254141/call-t…
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Apr 20, 2023
April 20, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito issued a ruling Wednesday extending the court’s temporary pause on all restrictions on the abortion pill mifepristone. The extended pause will last for two more days and expire at 11:59 pm Friday, April 21. The court’s action is the latest development in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v US Food and Drug Administration, a high-stakes case impacting abortion pill access across the country. Alito’s extension means that for the time being mifepristone continues to remain legal and approved for use up to 10 weeks of pregnancy. It can be mailed and administered via telemedicine without an in-person doctor’s visit. Chemical abortions now account for over half of all US abortions.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254137/brea…
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Apr 19, 2023
April 19, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The criminal complaint filed in Wisconsin this week against former cardinal Theodore McCarrick was revealed to have come from James Grein, who has previously accused the laicized clergyman of serially abusing him over many years in several US states. Grein filed the only previous criminal complaint against McCarrick, now facing adjudication in Massachusetts court. McCarrick, 92, was laicized by Pope Francis in 2019 after a Vatican investigation found him guilty of sexually abusing minors and adults. The complaint, filed in Wisconsin in Walworth County Court, says McCarrick abused an unnamed victim with an unnamed accomplice at Geneva Lake in April 1977, according to the Washington Post. McCarrick faces a criminal charge of fourth-degree sexual assault for the alleged in…
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Apr 18, 2023
April 18, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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A new study from the Pew Research Center found that while Catholicism remains the largest religious group among Latinos in the United States, the number of Latinos who identify as Catholic has declined by 24% since 2010, with the biggest decline seen among young Latinos born in the country. The Washington, DC-based think tank on April 13 released a survey of 7,647 American adults conducted between Aug. 1–14, 2022. According to the study, 43% of Latinos identify as Catholic, a number much lower than the 67% recorded in 2010. The situation is worse among younger Latinos. Of US-born Latinos between the ages of 18 and 29, 49% say they have no religious affiliation and only 30% say they are Catholic. Despite the discouraging numbers, the Pew Research Center survey says tha…
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Apr 17, 2023
April 17, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis said Friday that he plans to visit Mongolia, the world’s most sparsely populated sovereign country. In off-the-cuff remarks to employees of the Italian airline company that staffs the papal plane for his international trips, the pope said that he will travel to Mongolia after his scheduled trips to Hungary and France in the coming months. An apostolic journey to Mongolia would make Pope Francis the first pope to visit the Asian country that shares a 2,880-mile border with China, its most significant economic partner. Mongolia has a population of about 1,300 Catholics in a country of more than 3 million people. Pope Francis is scheduled to visit Budapest, Hungary, at the end of this month from April 28–30 in what will be his second visit to the central E…
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Apr 14, 2023
April 14, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The Vatican announced Thursday the date and theme for the third annual World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly. The event will take place this year on July 23, the Sunday before the feast of Saints Anne and Joachim, the grandparents of Jesus, and the theme for the day, selected by the pope, will be “His mercy is from age to age” (Luke 1:50). According to the Vatican Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life, the theme is linked to the theme for World Youth Day 2023, which also comes from the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke: “Mary arose and went with haste” (Luke 1:39). Pope Francis will preside over a special Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica to mark the grandparents’ day and has invited parishes, dioceses, associations, and communities around the world to cel…
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Apr 13, 2023
April 13, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Two Catholic Relief Services (CRS) workers were shot and killed April 9, Easter Sunday, while riding in a CRS vehicle in the Amhara region of Ethiopia on their way back from an assignment in Addis Ababa. In an April 10 statement, CRS, the international Catholic humanitarian aid agency that serves those most in need in more than 100 countries, said it was “devastated to report the loss” of two of its staff workers, Chuol Tongyik, 37, a security manager, and Amare Kindeya, 43, a driver. “The depth of our shock and sorrow is difficult to measure, and we are saddened over this senseless violence,” said Zemede Zewdie, a CRS representative in Ethiopia. According to Reuters, the murders took place during violent anti-government protests in the Amhara region of the coun…
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Apr 11, 2023
April 11, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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At least 94 people reportedly have died in a series of deadly attacks on Christian communities throughout Holy Week in Benue state in north-central Nigeria, an ominous sign of escalating violence blamed on Muslim militias in the country’s Middle Belt region. On April 2, armed men reportedly stormed a Palm Sunday service at a Pentecostal church in Akenawe-Tswarev in Logo county, Benue state, killing a young boy and kidnapping the pastor and other worshipers. Three days later, on April 5, gunmen killed at least 50 people in the village of Umogidi, located in Utokpo county, a Catholic stronghold in western Benue, the Associated Press reported. More recently, on the night of Good Friday, dozens were killed when Muslim gunmen raided an elementary school building in the vil…
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Apr 10, 2023
April 10, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis encouraged Christians to not be held back by fear of judgment, but to share the good news of Christ’s resurrection with others.Pope Francis addressed a crowd of people in St. Peter’s Square from a window of the Apostolic Palace for Monday of the Angel. Following his brief message, he recited the Regina Caeli, a Latin antiphon honoring the Virgin Mary which is prayed during the Easter Season. From Easter Sunday to Pentecost, Pope Francis will pray the Regina Caeli instead of the Angelus on Sundays.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254057/pope-francis-share-the-good-news-of-christ-s-resurrection-with-others
A top US military hospital ended its contract with a community of Franciscan friars just before Holy Week, putting a for-profit firm in charg…
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Apr 7, 2023
Holy Week 2023 Announcement
We will be back with new episodes on April 10.
In the meantime, we wish you a blessed Holy Week.
Thank you for listening.
Sincerely,
The Catholic News Team
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Apr 6, 2023
April 6, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore apologized to abuse survivors on Wednesday following the release of a Maryland attorney general’s report chronicling hundreds of alleged abuses committed by clergy in the archdiocese, dating back to the 1940s. Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown on Wednesday released the 463-page redacted report detailing alleged sexual abuse committed by 156 people — most of them clergy — with connections to the Archdiocese of Baltimore, including 10 names that are redacted. The report notes the redactions were made in accordance with a court order because the individuals accused “were not known to be deceased at the time of the report and had not previously been listed as credibly accused by the Archdiocese of Baltimore or otherwise pub…
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Apr 5, 2023
April 5, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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A Chinese bishop was installed Tuesday as the bishop of Shanghai without the Vatican’s approval, according to Asia News. The report says Bishop Joseph Shen Bin of Haimen was appointed to lead the Diocese of Shanghai by the Council of Chinese Bishops, the state-sanctioned bishops’ conference. Shen Bin is also the head of the Council of Chinese Bishops, Asia News reported. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said Tuesday that “the Holy See had been informed a few days ago of the decision of the Chinese authorities to transfer [Shen Bin from Haimen to Shanghai] and learned from the media of the installation this morning.” He said he had nothing to add to the Holy See’s assessment of the bishop’s transfer for the time being. The Asia News report said the installation…
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Apr 4, 2023
April 4, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The pastor of a Catholic church in Syracuse, Nebraska, was shocked when he discovered Saturday morning that the altar had been tipped over, a statue desecrated, and several other objects damaged. A Sacred Heart of Jesus statue was broken beyond repair and candlesticks were damaged as well as the altar stone. The damage amounted to $5,000, he said. The tabernacle and the Eucharist remained untouched. The church was able to be cleaned up in time before a Mass and baptism on Saturday. Police are currently investigating the crime, which was not captured on video.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254013/another-act-of-vandalism-nebraska-catholic-churchs-altar-flipped-over-statue-destroyed
Christian leaders of Jerusalem on March 31 issued a joint statement calling on…
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Apr 3, 2023
April 3, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis was discharged from the hospital Saturday morning after a three-night stay in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital. Before departing by car, the pope greeted the crowd gathered outside of the hospital. In an emotional moment, he stopped to embrace and pray with a sobbing mother whose 5-year-old daughter died in the hospital the night before. When asked by a journalist how he was feeling, the pope quipped: “Still alive!” Pope Francis’ first stop before returning to Vatican City was to pray in the Roman Basilica of Saint Mary Major, where he entrusted the sick children he met at the hospital as well as all who are sick and suffering from illnesses to the care of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Pope Francis was released from the hospital one day before the start of Holy W…
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Mar 31, 2023
March 31, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis is exhibiting “marked improvement” after being admitted to the hospital on Wednesday with difficulty breathing, which was later diagnosed as bronchitis. On Friday, the Vatican said that Pope Francis may be discharged from the hospital on Saturday after responding well to treatments yesterday and sharing a pizza dinner with those assisting him. “Pope Francis spent the afternoon at [Gemelli Hospital] devoting himself to rest, prayer, and some work duties,” Holy See Press Office Director Matteo Bruni told reporters Thursday evening. “As part of scheduled clinical checks, the Holy Father was found to have a bronchitis infection that required the administration of antibiotic therapy through infusion, which produced the expected effects with a marked im…
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Mar 30, 2023
March 30, 2023
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Pope Francis will be hospitalized for “some days” after being diagnosed with a respiratory infection, the Vatican said Wednesday. “In recent days Pope Francis has complained of some difficulty breathing and this afternoon went to [Gemelli Hospital] to carry out some medical tests. The results of these tests showed a respiratory infection (a COVID-19 infection was excluded) that will require some days of opportune medical treatment in the hospital,” Holy See Press Office Director Matteo Bruni said Wednesday evening. “Pope Francis is touched by the many messages he received and expresses his gratitude for the closeness and prayer,” Bruni added. Bruni had issued a brief statement earlier in the afternoon of March 29 to say the pope was at Gemelli Hospital “fo…
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Mar 29, 2023
March 29, 2023
A new poll of U.S. residents suggests that certain values such as religiosity and having children have receded in importance over the past 25 years, while people’s opinion of the importance of money increased during the same period. When asked about certain values and whether they consider them to be “very important,” 39% said “religion” was very important to them. By contrast, in 1998, 62% of respondents to the same question said religion was very important to them. The poll, released March 27, was conducted earlier this month by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago and funded by The Wall Street Journal. Faith was one of several indicators of more traditional values that the survey showed are less important to Americans than they were 25 years ago. The 2023 survey found that these values are less important than in 2019, the last time the survey was done.
An arrest has been made in the March 16 act of vandalism committed at a pro-life preg…
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Mar 28, 2023
March 28, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Nashville police fatally shot a school shooter on Monday after the suspect killed three students and three adult staff members at The Covenant School, a private Christian school for students in preschool through sixth grade. According to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD), the shooter was a 28-year-old woman. The police believe the woman was a former student, the Associated Press reported, and said she was from the Nashville area. As of Monday evening, the police department has not yet released more information about a possible motive. Students who survived the attack were bused to Woodmont Baptist Church, where they could reunite with their parents.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253950/nashville-police-fatally-shoot-woman-who-killed-3-studen…
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Mar 27, 2023
March 27, 2023
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Pope Francis on Sunday offered prayers for the victims of a deadly tornado that struck parts of Mississippi and Alabama Friday night. Cutting a swath of ruin across the impoverished Mississippi Delta, the tornado killed at least 26 people and left twisted piles of debris where homes, businesses, and neighborhoods once stood. The death toll is expected to rise, the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) warned. Speaking after his weekly Angelus reflection in Saint Peter’s Square March 26, the pope included victims of the storm among those suffering around the world from war and natural disasters. “Let us continue to pray for the tormented Ukrainian people. And let us stay close also to the earthquake victims of Turkey and Syria,” he said. “Let us also pra…
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Mar 24, 2023
March 24, 2023
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The US bishops’ doctrine committee on Thursday issued a statement reiterating the Church’s preference for burial of the deceased and stating that newer methods — namely alkaline hydrolysis and human composting — do not show respect for the human body. The process of human composting — also known as natural organic reduction — is a relatively new phenomenon in the US and has been legalized in a handful of states, most recently California. When a body is composted, it is placed in a reusable container where microbes and bacteria decompose it into soil over the course of 30-45 days. Alkaline hydrolysis is a process whereby a human body is broken down in a tank of chemicals at high pressure and heat, resulting in a few bone fragments and a large quantity of wast…
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Mar 23, 2023
March 23, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis has invited Catholics to annually renew an act of consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on March 25. The solemnity of the Annunciation on Saturday marks one year since Pope Francis consecrated Russia and Ukraine to the Blessed Virgin Mary in Saint Peter’s Basilica with a prayer asking for peace in the world. At the end of his general audience on March 22, the pope recalled his historic act of consecration and called on parish communities and prayer groups to annually renew the Marian consecration. Pope Francis also urged people not to forget to pray for “martyred Ukraine, which is suffering so much.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253911/pope-francis-invites-catholics-to-renew-consecration-to-immaculate-heart-of-mary-on-march-25
A po…
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Mar 21, 2023
March 21, 2023
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Legislation that would end the statute of limitations for lawsuits against entities that are accused of negligence involving incidents of child sexual abuse overwhelmingly passed the Maryland Senate last week. The Maryland Catholic Conference criticized the bill for its unequal treatment of private groups. The legislation creates a different set of rules for public entities than it does for private entities. The legislation would fully eliminate the statute of limitations for a victim to file a lawsuit related to child sexual abuse against private and public entities. The proposed bill would cap the amount of money that victims could receive but at different levels, depending on whether the lawsuit is filed against a private or a public entity. A victim who sues a publi…
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Mar 20, 2023
March 20, 2023
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Pope Francis heard confessions at a parish in Rome on Friday and encouraged people to remember that God “holds out his hand and lifts us up whenever we realize that we are ‘hitting rock bottom.’” In the presence of eucharistic adoration, the pope presided over a Lenten penitential service on March 17 to open “24 Hours for the Lord,” an initiative in which certain Catholic churches around the world will remain open 24 consecutive hours with round-the-clock confession and adoration. The pope underlined that God waits for us, especially in the sacrament of penance, where he said the Lord touches our wounds, heals our hearts, and leaves us with inner peace.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253886/pope-francis-hears-confessions-at-roman-parish-god-lifts-u…
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Mar 17, 2023
March 17, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Today is Saint Patrick’s Day. As of yesterday, 72.6% of dioceses in the United States are offering some relief from the no-meat-on-Fridays-during-Lent rule for Saint Patrick’s Day. 93 diocesan bishops are providing a dispensation with no strings attached — although many of those bishops suggest extra prayers or spiritual exercises or abstaining from meat on another day. Thirty-four diocesan bishops said yes but gave additional conditions, requiring a substitute through what canon law calls a ‘commutation’ of the requirement, such as attending Mass on Saint Patrick’s Day, saying the Breastplate of Saint Patrick prayer, praying the rosary, abstaining from meat another day, or helping the poor. Also in the yes-but category is the Archdiocese for the US Military…
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Mar 16, 2023
March 16, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis said Wednesday that everyone in the Church is equal in dignity, thus a focus on hierarchical advancement is “pure paganism.” “Within the framework of the unity of the mission, the diversity of charisms and ministries must not give rise, within the ecclesial body, to privileged categories,” the pope said at his March 15 general audience in Saint Peter’s Square.“There is no promotion here, and when you conceive of the Christian life as an advancement, that the one above commands others, because he has succeeded in climbing, that is not Christianity,” he said. “That is pure paganism.” At his weekly meeting with the public, Francis reflected on the call to apostleship as part of the larger theme of evangelization. The pope said if you see some…
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Mar 15, 2023
March 15, 2023
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Today, the Church celebrates Saint Louise de Marillac, a spiritual directee of Saint Vincent de Paul who founded the Daughters of Charity, a group of women dedicated to serving the sick, the poor and the neglected. She was declared patroness of social workers in 1960.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-louise-de-marillac-178
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Mar 14, 2023
March 14, 2023
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The first hearing in what could be the most consequential abortion case since the overturning of Roe v. Wade is set for this Wednesday, March 15. The Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine (AHM), along with several other medical organizations and doctors, is suing the Federal Drug Administration for its approval and expansion of the abortion drug mifepristone. On January 3, the FDA changed its policy to allow pharmacies, such as CVS and Walgreens, to sell mifepristone. Previously, the FDA only allowed certified doctors, clinics, and some mail-order pharmacies to dispense the drug. After the FDA’s policy change, any patient with a prescription can obtain mifepristone from her local retail pharmacy. Represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), AHM is alleging that th…
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Mar 13, 2023
March 13, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis asked for prayers as he spoke about the future of the Church and his pontificate so far in an interview published in the early hours of Sunday. Speaking to the Italian daily Il Fatto Quotidiano, Francis declined to evaluate his pontificate so far, saying the Lord will judge his life one day based on whether he practiced the Corporal Works of Mercy as taught by Jesus. “The Church is not a business, or an NGO, and the pope is not an administrator who has been commissioned to balance the numbers at the end of the year,” he said, according to an English transcript published on Il Fatto Quotidiano March 12. According to the pope, it’s not easy to pay attention to God’s will and put it into practice: “It’s necessary to attune yourself with the Lord, n…
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Mar 10, 2023
March 10, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Saint Peter’s Basilica will now host an hour of Eucharistic adoration on its front portico once a month. Beginning March 14, adoration will take place every second Tuesday from 8-9 pm on the parvise in front of the Vatican basilica leading to St. Peter’s Square. The March 14 adoration will be led by Cardinal Mauro Gambetti who is the archpriest of Saint Peter’s Basilica. The prayer will be offered for Pope Francis in light of his 10th anniversary as pope. Saint Peter’s Basilica is typically open every day from 7 am to 6:30 pm in the winter or 7 pm in the summer. The Eucharist is also exposed in Saint Peter’s Basilica for adoration in the Chapel of the Most Blessed Sacrament from approximately 9 am to 4:45 pm Monday through Saturday.
https://www.catholicnewsa…
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Mar 9, 2023
March 9, 2023
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Pope Francis met Wednesday with two young Nigerian girls who suffered horrendous violence at the hands of the Boko Haram terrorist group. Sixteen-year-old Maryamu Joseph, who escaped from the Boko Haram in July after being held against her will for nine years, greeted the pope with Janada Marcus, also a victim of Boko Haram kidnapping, at the end of his general audience on March 8. Both girls saw members of their families murdered by Boko Haram. The pontifical charity Aid to the Church in Need arranged for the girls to meet the pope on International Women’s Day. Pope Francis recently wrote a book preface in which he condemned violence against women. “We must find the cure to heal this plague and not leave women alone,” the pope said.
https://www.catholicnewsagenc…
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Mar 8, 2023
March 8, 2023
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Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, whose spire and roof were destroyed by an April 15, 2019, fire, is expected be rebuilt within the five-year deadline set by the French government. As confirmed by the head of the construction site, French Army General Jean-Louis Georgelin, in an interview with the Associated Press, the faithful and tourists should have access to the site again by the end of 2024. Reconstruction work only began some 24 months after the tragic incident occurred, with the first phase consisting of cleaning and securing the site, involving more than 200 different companies. Although the beloved cathedral will not be ready for the Olympic Games to be held in the French capital in July and August 2024, it should have regained its former shape by then, with the r…
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Mar 7, 2023
March 7, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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A group of Catholic bishops will visit San Quentin Prison’s death row inmates on Tuesday as inmates await transfer to other facilities in light of California’s moratorium on executions. In 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom imposed a moratorium on executions and ordered the closure of the execution chamber at San Quentin Prison, the Marin County facility near San Francisco that dates back to the 19th century. The state of California aims to move 671 death row inmates, 21 of whom are women, to high-security units at other prisons. After Newsom announced the death penalty moratorium, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco issued a statement on behalf of the California Catholic Conference encouraging the governor to “use well the time of the moratorium to promote…
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Mar 6, 2023
March 6, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Thousands gathered Friday for the funeral of slain Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell, who was remembered as “a friend of Jesus Christ” and the poor. Archbishop José Gomez presided over the funeral Mass, held at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles. Speaking briefly at the conclusion of the liturgy, Gomez said “Bishop Dave,” as O’Connell was affectionately known, would be sorely missed, but “we know that he’s in heaven.” O’Connell, 69, a popular Irish-born priest who worked on myriad social causes in South LA for the past 45 years, died February 18 after being shot multiple times in his Hacienda Heights home, according to District Attorney George Gascón. Carlos Medina, the husband of O’Connell’s housekeeper, has admi…
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Mar 3, 2023
March 3, 2023
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Today, the Church celebrates Saint Katharine Drexel, a Philadelphia heiress who abandoned her family’s fortune to found an order of sisters dedicated to serving the impoverished African American and Native American populations of the United States.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-katharine-drexel-166
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Mar 2, 2023
March 2, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Today, the Church celebrates Saint Angela of the Cross, the Foundress of the Institute of the Sisters of the Company of the Cross.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-angela-of-the-cross-165
The Church also celebrates Saint Agnes of Prague, a relative of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary. She entered the Order of Saint Clare in the monastery of Saint Saviour at Prague, which she herself had erected. She was elected abbess of the monastery, and through this office became a model of Christian virtue and religious observance for all. God favored her with the gift of miracles, and she predicted the victory of her brother Wenceslaus over the Duke of Austria.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-agnes-of-prague-170
Finally, the Church celebrates Blessed Charles th…
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Mar 1, 2023
March 1, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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This week a federal Texas judge could stop over half of the abortions happening in the country in what may be the most consequential abortion ruling since the reversal of Roe v Wade. US Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk for the Northern District of Texas is set to issue a decision in the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine’s (AHM) suit against the Federal Drug Administration that alleges the agency ignored its own research and testing standards when approving the abortion drug mifepristone. Mifepristone is the first of two drugs used in chemical abortions, which account for 53% of all abortions in the country. If Kacsmaryk rules against the FDA, the administration could be forced to rescind its approval of the drug, bringing its legal distribution to a halt across the country, ev…
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Feb 28, 2023
February 28, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Former cardinal Theodore McCarrick, 92, filed a motion in a Massachusetts court claiming he is “legally incompetent” to stand trial for sex abuse charges, citing “significant, worsening, and irreversible dementia.” McCarrick, laicized by Pope Francis in 2019, held one of the highest offices in the Catholic Church and has been accused of serially abusing his priestly authority by sexually abusing minors and seminarians. McCarrick is charged with three counts of indecent assault and battery on a person over the age of 14. The state of Massachusetts told CNA that it wants an opportunity to examine McCarrick’s competency to stand trial. It would be a violation of McCarrick’s 14th Amendment right in the Constitution and Article XII of the Massachusetts Declaratio…
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Feb 27, 2023
February 27, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The Vatican announced Saturday that Pope Francis will visit Hungary for the second time, from April 28-30. According to today’s announcement, the three-day papal trip to Budapest will include meetings with Hungary President Katalin Novák, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a private visit with children at the Blessed László Batthyány-Strattmann Institute, and meetings with poor people and migrants, young people, clergy, academics, and members of the Society of Jesus. Pope Francis met Orbán during his 2021 visit to Hungary and in the Vatican in 2022. Novák, who was elected president of Hungary in March 2022, met Pope Francis at the Vatican last August. A Christian wife and mother, Novák was formerly Hungary’s family minister. Pope Francis is returning to the centra…
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Feb 24, 2023
February 24, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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On Thursday, Pope Francis approved a miracle to advance the cause of canonization of Venerable Servant of God Elisabetta Martinez, an Italian nun and founder of the Congregation of the Daughters of Santa Maria di Leuca. The miracle involved the healing of an unborn baby girl in Rimini, Italy. Ultrasound imagery in 2017 revealed to the child’s mother that her baby was suffering from several severe life-limiting and potentially life-ending conditions. A family friend informed the Daughters of Santa Maria di Leuca, whose various congregations began praying novenas for a miraculous healing through the intercession of their founder Elisabetta Martinez. In January 2018 new ultrasound imagery shocked doctors by revealing regular quantities of amniotic fluid and regular fetal…
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Feb 23, 2023
February 23, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Carlos Medina, the suspect in the murder of Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell, was arraigned in state court Wednesday and formally charged with one count of murder and a special allegation that he personally used a firearm. O’Connell was found dead with “at least” one gunshot wound to his upper body on February 18 in his bedroom at his Hacienda Heights home, Los Angeles Sheriff Robert Luna said in a Monday press conference. News of O’Connell’s death shocked the nation and rocked the local and international Catholic community. Offering remarks at Monday’s press conference, Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez broke into tears and struggled to complete his brief comments on Bishop O’Connell. “Out of his love for God, he served this city for more…
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Feb 21, 2023
February 21, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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A suspect has been arrested in connection with the February 18 shooting homicide of Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department (LASD) said Monday. In a press conference Monday, Los Angeles Sheriff Robert Luna announced that charges would be brought against 65-year-old Carlos Medina, the husband of O’Connell’s housekeeper. Prior to the arrest, there was a standoff between the subject and law enforcement in the city of Torrance, about a 45-minute drive southwest from Hacienda Heights, where O’Connell was found dead. Police discovered O’Connell with “at least” one gunshot wound to his upper body while in his bedroom, Luna said. Luna said there was no evidence of a “forced entry” or “burglary” and added that no…
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Feb 20, 2023
February 20, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The shooting death of Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell Saturday is being investigated as a homicide, authorities have confirmed. The shooting happened around 1 pm local time Saturday inside a home in the 1500 block of Janlu Avenue in Hacienda Heights, Los Angeles County, the sheriff’s department said. Sheriff deputies called to the scene for a medical emergency found O’Connell suffering from a gunshot wound to his torso. He was pronounced dead at the scene, the LASD said. A native of Ireland, O’Connell, 69, ministered to immigrants, the poor, and victims of gang violence for 45 years in the South Los Angeles area. Pope Francis made him a bishop in 2015. O’Connell’s friends and fellow bishops reacted with shock and sadness to the news of his death…
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Feb 17, 2023
February 17, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis addressed once again the question of whether he will resign the papacy in two conversations with Jesuit priests in Africa this month, saying he believes a Pope’s ministry is for life. The pope, repeating information he had revealed in a prior interview, said that he signed a resignation letter two months after his election as pope in case he should become incapacitated. He mentioned again the letter he signed in case his health should deteriorate to a point he could not resign and pointed to the resignation letter Venerable Pope Pius XII prepared in case he should be kidnapped by Hitler.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253663/pope-francis-i-believe-that-the-pope-s-ministry-is-for-life
Two UK Catholics, one of whom is a priest, were acquitted Thu…
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Feb 16, 2023
February 16, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The US bishops on Tuesday opened registration to attend the first National Eucharistic Congress in 83 years. The National Eucharistic Congress will take place in Indianapolis July 17-21, 2024, and will be “a defining moment in our generation,” according to the website for the event. A five-day event of prayers, speakers, and liturgical celebrations, the congress will be the capstone of the bishops’ three-year National Eucharistic Revival campaign, which began June 19, 2022. The congress is expected to have a festival-like atmosphere, similar to World Youth Day, and will likely draw a crowd of 80,000 faithful. The decision to undertake the initiative followed a 2019 Pew survey that revealed that only 31% of Catholics believe that the Body and Blood of Christ are tr…
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Feb 15, 2023
February 15, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The Vatican is joining the Italian government and NGOs in sending help to the suffering people of Turkey and Syria. According to Vatican News, Pope Francis has provided 10,000 thermal shirts for people who do not have adequate shelter in Turkey and Syria. The pope has also sent financial aid to Syria through the country’s apostolic nunciature, Vatican almoner Cardinal Konrad Krajewski told Vatican News. Boxes of thermal shirts took sail from the port of Naples, Italy, on the morning of February 15, together with other aid from NGOs and the Italian government. The shirts were brought to the southern port city on the evening of February 14 by Krajewski. The shirts and other supplies are expected to arrive in Turkey’s port city of Iskenderun in two days. The small city…
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Feb 14, 2023
February 14, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The Diocese of San Juan de Los Lagos in Jalisco state, Mexico, mourned the February 10 shooting death of one of its priests, Father Juan Angulo Fonseca. According to the Mexican newspaper El Financiero, the 53-year-old priest was shot from behind with two blasts of a shotgun. The homicide occurred in the Atotonilco el Alto district of the state of Jalisco. According to the initial investigation, the murder was apparently due to a dispute over land. The priest had been working since 2017 at Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in the town of Valle de Guadalupe.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253627/priest-shot-to-death-in-mexico
The chief law enforcement officers from 20 states signed a letter to US Attorney General Merrick Garland condemning a since-retracted “anti…
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Feb 13, 2023
February 13, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis prayed Sunday for the people of Turkey and Syria who are suffering after devastating earthquakes killed more than 28,000 people. “Dear brothers and sisters, let us continue to be close with prayer and concrete support to the earthquake victims in Syria and Turkey,” the pope said in his Angelus address on February 12. Speaking from the window of the Apostolic Palace, Pope Francis described how he was moved by the images of pain and suffering from the catastrophe that he saw on television and urged people to “pray and think of what we can do for them.” The pope spoke as rescue efforts continued over the weekend with rescuers pulling more than a dozen survivors out of the rubble on Saturday. Catholic charities are working to respond to the disaster by…
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Feb 10, 2023
February 10, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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A little more than a third of Catholic parents say it is extremely or very important for their children to grow up to have religious beliefs similar to their own, according to a recent Pew Research Center report. In the study released last month and expounded further in a February 6 article, 35% of Catholic parents with children under 18 said it is extremely or very important for their children to grow up to share their religious beliefs. A crucial note to the study is that parents who attend services weekly or more were more than three times as likely to say having their children share their beliefs is important, 76% versus 21%, Pew said. In total, 65% of Catholics said it was either extremely, very, or somewhat important for their children to hold their Catholic belie…
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Feb 10, 2023
February 10, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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A little more than a third of Catholic parents say it is extremely or very important for their children to grow up to have religious beliefs similar to their own, according to a recent Pew Research Center report. In the study released last month and expounded further in a February 6 article, 35% of Catholic parents with children under 18 said it is extremely or very important for their children to grow up to share their religious beliefs. A crucial note to the study is that parents who attend services weekly or more were more than three times as likely to say having their children share their beliefs is important, 76% versus 21%, Pew said. In total, 65% of Catholics said it was either extremely, very, or somewhat important for their children to hold their Catholic belie…
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Feb 9, 2023
February 9, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The Claretian Missionaries’ Independent Delegation for the Antilles reported that on February 7 one of its priests was kidnapped in Haiti. Father Antoine Macaire Christian Noah was abducted in the morning when he was going to his missionary community in Kazal, about 20 miles north of Port-au-Prince, the country’s capital. The kidnappers have contacted “the superior of his missionary community asking for money in exchange for his release,” according to the Claretians. Macaire is originally from Cameroon and has been the parochial vicar at Saint Michael the Archangel Parish in Kazal for one year. In recent months, armed gangs have gained significant control over the country in Haiti and also are attacking Catholic schools and hospitals.
https://www.catholicnewsag…
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Feb 8, 2023
February 8, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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During his 2023 State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Joe Biden called on Congress to codify Roe v Wade and pass legislation banning discrimination based on a person’s sexual orientation and gender identity. Codifying Roe v Wade would establish federal abortion laws that mirror the standards that were set under the now obsolete Roe v Wade decision. Such a law would prohibit states from banning abortion and would prevent certain state-level abortion restrictions. Although Biden is the nation’s second Catholic president, he remains at odds with American Catholic bishops and Catholic Church teaching.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253582/biden-calls-to-codify-roe-pass-equality-act-in-sotu-speech
Pope Francis concluded his public audience on Wed…
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Feb 7, 2023
February 7, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis and local Church leaders on Monday reacted with dismay and calls for prayer following a devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria. According to Reuters, the series of earthquakes — up to 7.8 magnitude — killed about 5,400 people and injured thousands more, with many people still trapped under the rubble. A “deeply saddened” Pope Francis sent “heartfelt condolences to those who mourn their loss” in telegrams addressed to the apostolic nuncios of Turkey and Syria. Among the many victims, the body of Father Imad Daher, a priest of the Greek Melkite Catholic Parish of Our Lady, was found under the rubble — after many hours of searching for the priest.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253564/pope-francis-syriac-patriarch-call-for-prayers-a…
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Feb 6, 2023
February 6, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis was greeted by cheers on Saturday as he arrived at a meeting with roughly 2,500 South Sudanese refugees. The meeting with internally displaced persons (IDPs) took place at Freedom Hall in South Sudan’s capital of Juba, where Pope Francis is undertaking a pilgrimage of peace from February 3-5. “You, from all your different ethnic groups, you who have suffered and are still suffering, you who do not want to respond to evil with more evil. You, who choose fraternity and forgiveness, are even now cultivating a better tomorrow,” he encouraged those present. South Sudan has the largest refugee crisis in Africa, with 2 million IDPs due to conflict, insecurity, and environmental challenges, the UN Refugee Agency reports. There are also more than 2 million Sou…
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Feb 3, 2023
February 3, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis on Friday became the first pope to visit South Sudan — fulfilling a yearslong hope to carry out an ecumenical trip to the war-torn country. Pope Francis had spoken about the possibility of the trip as early as 2017, fewer than four years after the outbreak of civil war in 2013. He has personally intervened to send aid to the country and to encourage South Sudan’s leaders to reach a real and lasting peace agreement — including inviting President Salva Kiir Mayardit and his former rival Vice President Riek Machar for a retreat at the Vatican. The pope has called his February 3-5 visit to Juba, South Sudan’s capital, a “pilgrimage of peace.” His Anglican counterpart, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, along with the moderator of the Church of S…
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Feb 2, 2023
February 2, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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To bring about peace, “prayer is the most powerful weapon there is,” Pope Francis told thousands of young adults and catechism teachers in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Thursday. The meeting in Martyrs’ Stadium in Kinshasa, the capital city of the DRC, took place on February 2, the third day of the pope’s visit to the central African country. On February 3, Francis will fly to Juba, South Sudan, for the second leg of his peace pilgrimage. Pope Francis on Thursday interacted with an enthusiastic crowd of around 65,000 young people and adults, some of whom traveled days to be present for the papal visit. During the second half of his speech, the pope was repeatedly drowned out by the energetic audience, which broke out in cheering, singing, and dancing despi…
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Jan 31, 2023
January 31, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis visited the Basilica of Saint Mary Major on Monday to entrust his upcoming trip to Africa to the Blessed Virgin Mary. And before departing on his flight to Africa on Tuesday morning, the pope met with a group of refugees and migrants from the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan at the Vatican. Pope Francis landed Tuesday morning in the capital city of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country home to more than 52 million Catholics. It will be the first papal trip to Congo in 37 years, since John Paul II visited Kinshasa in 1985 when it was the capital of Zaire. Pope Francis will visit Kinshasa Jan 31-February 3 before traveling to Juba, the capital of South Sudan, February 3-5. Francis has called his visit to South Sudan “an ecumeni…
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Jan 30, 2023
BREAKING: Pro-life activist Mark Houck acquitted of federal charges
Pro-life activist Mark Houck was found not guilty Monday on federal assault charges stemming from a shoving incident outside a Philadelphia abortion clinic.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253477/breaking-mark-houck-cleared-of-face-act-charges-in-rebuke-to-justice-department
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Jan 30, 2023
January 30, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis appealed for peace in the Holy Land on Sunday, calling the recent spike in Israeli-Palestinian violence a “spiral of death” that accomplishes nothing. In his Sunday Angelus address on January 29, the pope expressed “great sorrow” for the death of Palestinians killed in an Israeli military raid as well as seven Israelis killed in a shooting outside of a synagogue in east Jerusalem. The pope spoke following a wave of violence in Israel and Palestine this week. On Friday night, seven Israelis were killed and three wounded in a shooting outside of a synagogue in east Jerusalem on the Jewish Sabbath, the deadliest attack on Israelis in 15 years, according to the Associated Press. The synagogue shooting occurred the day after an Israeli military raid in t…
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Jan 27, 2023
January 27, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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A sacristan was killed and a priest wounded during a suspected terrorist attack Wednesday on two Catholic churches in Spain. According to police sources, the sacristan of the Church of Our Lady of La Palma was murdered and the pastor of St. Isidore Church was wounded. Both churches are in the city of Algeciras near the far southern end of the Iberian peninsula across the strait of Gibraltar from Morocco. The National Court has initiated the investigation as an alleged jihadist terror attack. In wake of the attacks, the mayor of Algeciras, José Ignacio Landaluce, decreed a day of official mourning, with flags at half staff on municipal buildings, and announced that a rally will be held in front of the city’s largest church. Various Spanish bishops condemned the attack…
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Jan 26, 2023
January 26, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The Department of Justice on Tuesday indicted two suspects accused of vandalizing three pro-life pregnancy centers in Florida in June 2022, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v Wade. Pro-life pregnancy centers, also known as crisis pregnancy centers, provide free services and resources to pregnant women, including alternatives to abortion.The indictment against the two Floridians accuses them of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which is also known as the FACE Act. The indictment alleges that their actions amount to a conspiracy to prevent the employees from providing services. They could face up to 12 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and up to $350,000 in fines. CNA has independently tracked and confirmed n…
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Jan 25, 2023
January 25, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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A Catholic priest who blocked access to a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic could face up to one year in prison after being found guilty Monday of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, also known as the FACE Act. On the morning of July 7, 2022, Father Fidelis Moscinski, 52, a priest of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, effectively shut down the Planned Parenthood of Greater New York clinic in Hempstead for about two hours using padlocks, chains, and his own body, according to the DOJ. On Monday, the court delivered a guilty verdict from the bench. Sentencing is scheduled for April 24. Moscinski has garnered media attention in recent years for his prayerful protests in the face of pro-abortion opposition and his work with the group Red Rose Rescue…
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Jan 24, 2023
January 24, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez on Sunday offered prayers for victims of a Saturday shooting at a Monterey Park, California, ballroom dance studio. “We pray for those killed and injured in this shooting, we ask that God stay close to their families and loved ones,” the archbishop said in a statement released Sunday. “We pray for the wounded to be healed, and we ask that God give strength and guidance to the doctors and nurses who are caring for them.” Ten people were killed and at least 10 more were wounded after a gunman opened fire late Saturday night at Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park. Twenty minutes after the shooting, the 72-year-old suspect entered another nearby dance studio but was disarmed by two community members, the Los Angeles Times r…
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Jan 23, 2023
January 23, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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At least 11 people, most of them Catholics, were killed January 19 when alleged Fulani herdsmen attacked a village near a refugee camp in Nigeria’s Makurdi Diocese, a diocesan official has reported. In an interview with ACI Africa, CNA’s sister news partner, Father Moses Aondover Iorapuu, the diocese’s vicar general, recounted the “horrifying” persecution that Catholics were subjected to during the attack. “The images of the attack are horrifying, and I keep saying that not even ISIS is capable of such brutality,” he said. “After killing, these guys decapitated some and took the parts away as proof to whoever is the sponsor.” Aondover said the attacks took place Thursday about 9 p.m. in a village near Makurdi, the Benue State capital, where there is a…
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Jan 20, 2023
January 20, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pro-life Americans from across the country attending the March for Life — which calls itself the largest annual human rights demonstration in the world — today, January 20, in Washington, DC. This is the first March for Life held in a post-Roe v Wade America. Catholic pro-life leaders agree that this year’s demonstration is more important than ever, to provide a prayerful witness to the sanctity of life in the face of a push for abortion legalization at the federal level and in many states. Stay tuned to Catholic News Agency dot com for the latest updates today from the March for Life.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253393/live-updates-the-march-for-life-2023
Like the two years’ prior, Pope Francis and the Roman Curia will again do the Vatican’s ann…
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Jan 19, 2023
January 19, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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A new poll has found that a majority of Americans support some limits on abortion and that Americans’ attitudes toward abortion have not significantly changed since last January, even with the overturning of Roe v Wade taking place last June. Conducted by Marist and sponsored by the Knights of Columbus, the 2023 poll found that when asked whether they identify as “pro-life” or “pro-choice,” 61% of Americans identify with the latter, compared with 39% who describe themselves as pro-life. However, the poll also found that 69% of Americans support limiting abortion to, at most, the first three months of pregnancy. That figure is comparable to the 2022 poll, conducted before the overturning of Roe, in which 71% of respondents agreed that abortion should not be all…
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Jan 18, 2023
January 18, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Sister Andre Randon, a French nun and the oldest person in the world, died on Tuesday at the age of 118. Randon became the world’s oldest person on April 19, 2022, when Kane Tanaka of Japan died at the age of 119. Born in 1904 in Alés, France, Sister Andre converted from Protestantism to Catholicism when she was 19. She joined the Daughters of Charity — founded by Saint Vincent de Paul — in 1944. She took the name Sister Andre in honor of her deceased brother. In 2021 she tested positive for COVID-19. She was isolated from the other residents but displayed no symptoms. For her 115th birthday in 2019, Sister Andre received a card and a blessed rosary from Pope Francis, which she used every day. When she turned 116 in 2020, the Vincentian nun shared her “recipe f…
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Jan 16, 2023
No new news briefing, in observance of MLK Day
Thank you for being a Catholic News listener. Due to the Martin Luther King Junior Day holiday in the United States on January 16, there will be no news briefing today, and also no new news briefing tomorrow, January 17. This podcast will return the morning of Wednesday, January 18. As always, visit www.catholicnewsagency.com for the latest news. Have a blessed day.
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Jan 13, 2023
January 13, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Catholics in Argentina are being invited to celebrate “with joy and fervor” the 10th anniversary of the election of Pope Francis as the successor of Saint Peter. Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, then archbishop of Buenos Aires, was elected pontiff on March 13, 2013, on the second day of the conclave following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI. Francis is the first Latin American pope and the first Jesuit to serve as pontiff in the history of the Catholic Church. In a letter, the Argentine bishops, headed by Bishop Óscar Ojea, encouraged the dioceses of Argentina to join the celebrations from March 11–19, marking the 10th anniversary of the start of Pope Francis' Petrine ministry, in order to “renew along with our holy faithful People of God the affection” for the…
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Jan 12, 2023
January 12, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The funeral Mass of Cardinal George Pell will be held in Saint Peter’s Basilica at 11:30 am on Saturday, January 14, the Vatican announced Thursday. Pell, the prefect emeritus of the Secretariat for the Economy, died suddenly in Rome on January 10, at the age of 81. The funeral will be celebrated at the Altar of the Chair by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the deacon of the College of Cardinals, with other cardinals and bishops concelebrating. Pope Francis will preside over the rite of Final Commendation and Farewell. Following the funeral, Pell’s body will be brought back to Australia, where he will be buried in Saint Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney. Pell served for many years as archbishop of Melbourne and then Sydney before Pope Francis appointed him to lead the Vati…
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Jan 11, 2023
January 11, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Cardinal George Pell, prefect emeritus of the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy, died on Tuesday at the age of 81. The Australian cardinal suffered a cardiac arrest following a routine hip replacement surgery. Pell served for many years as archbishop of Melbourne and then Sydney before Pope Francis appointed him to lead the Vatican’s economy department in 2014. In 2017, Pell left Rome for Australia to defend his innocence of abuse charges. After 404 days in prison he was ultimately acquitted in 2020. He returned to live in Rome on Sept. 30, 2020. Pope Francis on Wednesday praised Pell’s witness, dedication, and faith. “I offer sentiments of heartfelt condolence,” the pope said in a January 11 message, “remembering with a grateful heart his consistent and com…
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Jan 10, 2023
January 10, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The top two spots on Apple Podcasts are currently held by Catholic podcasts — “The Catechism in a Year” and “The Bible in a Year,” both produced by Catholic publisher Ascension. Father Mike Schmitz, a priest of the Diocese of Duluth, Minnesota, and host of both podcasts, told CNA last week that in the course of recording hundreds of episodes of the podcast, he has been struck by the “beautiful” composition of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, a hefty volume that serves as the definitive summary of the Church’s teaching. Although the Catechism is specific to the Catholic Church, Schmitz said he believes anyone can listen to his podcast and learn from it. Schmitz said reading through the Catechism has served as a helpful reminder to him, personally, ab…
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Jan 9, 2023
January 9, 2023
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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On the eve of President Joe Biden’s Sunday visit to the US-Mexico border to meet with local officials and border enforcement agents, the US Catholic bishops announced their opposition to the administration’s recent crackdown on illegal immigration to the United States. Biden announced Thursday that the US will step up enforcement at the border and begin to turn away Cubans, Nicaraguans, and Haitians who try to cross the US-Mexico border illegally. The new rules would also allow up to 30,000 people to come into the US each month from Cuba, Nicaragua, and Haiti. Migrants would be able to come for two years and receive work authorization, provided they have an eligible sponsor and can pass vetting and background checks. In his statement, Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso de…
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Jan 3, 2023
New briefings Monday, Jan. 9
Thank you for listening to Catholic News. The production staff for this podcast are attending a conference this week, and thus there will be no new news briefings. This podcast will return on Monday, January 9. As always, catholicnewsagency.com is the place to go for the latest Catholic news, including all the news about Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI's funeral, taking place on January 5. Have a blessed day, and thank you again for being a valued listener.
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Dec 31, 2022
BREAKING: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI dies at age 95
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, a leading theologian of the 20th century and the first pope to resign from office in nearly 600 years, has died at the age of 95, the Vatican announced.
His death was announced in Rome on Dec. 31. His funeral Mass will be held on Jan. 5, 2023, in St. Peter’s Square, the Vatican said.
The Vatican press office director, Matteo Bruni, said Dec. 31: “With sorrow I inform you that the Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI, passed away today at 9:34 in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican.”
Benedict XVI’s body will lie in state in St. Peter’s Basilica beginning on Jan. 2, 2023.
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Dec 29, 2022
December 29, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Emeritus Benedict the sixteenth’s medical condition is serious but stable, the Vatican said on Thursday. Pope Francis, at the end of his general audience on December 28, asked for prayers for a “very ill” Benedict, who, “in silence, is sustaining the Church.” The Vatican confirmed later the same day that Benedict was under medical care following a sudden decline in his health. Stay tuned to Catholic News Agency dot com for the latest on Pope Benedict’s condition.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253176/vatican-benedict-xvi-s-condition-serious-but-stable
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253169/vatican-shares-prayer-for-benedict-xvi-s-health
Today, the Church celebrates Saint Thomas Becket, a twelfth century English bishop who was famousl…
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Dec 22, 2022
Merry Christmas from Catholic News — New episodes Dec. 29
Thank you for listening. This daily news briefing will return on Thursday, December 29. In the meantime, visit www.catholicnewsagency.com for the latest news. Christ is born! Merry Christmas from your friends at Catholic News.
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Dec 21, 2022
December 21, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis has urged Catholics not to forget the many children in Ukraine this Christmas who are suffering without electricity and heating amid the war. Speaking near a large nativity scene in Paul VI Hall on December 21, the pope recalled an encounter that he had with Ukrainian war refugees in which the children seemed unable to smile. “On this feast of God becoming a child, let us think of Ukrainian children. … These children bear the tragedy of that war which is so inhuman, so harsh,” he said. “Let us think of the Ukrainian people this Christmas, without electricity, without heating, without the main things necessary to survive, and let us pray to the Lord to bring them peace as soon as possible.” In his last general audience before Christmas, Pope Franci…
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Dec 20, 2022
December 20, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The Vatican investigator who uncovered allegations of sexual and spiritual abuse by Jesuit artist Father Marko Ivan Rupnik says the claims are true, according to a letter he sent to Italian priests obtained by the Associated Press. Bishop Daniele Libanari also said the women Rupnik is alleged to have abused have “seen their lives ruined by the evil suffered and by the complicit silence” of the Church, the AP reported Monday. He urged the members of the hierarchy who hid his crimes to “humbly ask the world to forgive the scandal.” Libanori’s letter comes on the heels of revelations in the past week that Rupnik, a Slovenian priest well-known for his mosaics that adorn chapels and churches around the world, had been excommunicated for abusing the sacrament of con…
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Dec 19, 2022
December 19, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Frank Pavone, the national director of Priests for Life, has been dismissed from the priesthood by the Vatican. In a statement addressed to Church leaders and posted on his organization’s website Saturday, Pavone vowed to continue his ministry despite his dismissal from the clerical state. Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the apostolic nuncio to the United States, wrote in a letter on December 13 that Pavone had been dismissed from the clerical state for “blasphemous communications on social media” and “persistent disobedience of the lawful instructions of his diocesan bishop.” Pavone contends that he was not properly informed of the Vatican’s decision, and has vowed to take legal action and make a direct appeal to his supporters. An outspoken supporter of form…
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Dec 16, 2022
December 16, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis has decided to give the Greek Orthodox archbishop of Athens three fragments of Parthenon sculptures that have been kept in the Vatican Museums for centuries.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253091/pope-francis-gives-greek-orthodox-archbishop-fragments-of-parthenon-sculptures-from-vatican-museums
After a five-day journey meeting with Church hierarchy and government officials in Poland and Ukraine, Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly of the Knights of Columbus said American Catholics must continue to stand in solidarity with the suffering Ukrainian people this winter. Kelly emphasized that Ukraine is headed toward a difficult trial with the coming winter cold, as the country is already suffering from major power outages nationwide, something that he experi…
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Dec 15, 2022
December 15, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The Jesuit Superior General, Father Arturo Sosa, has confirmed that Jesuit artist Father Marko Rupnik incurred an automatic excommunication in 2019 for abusing the sacrament of confession, a fact his religious order was aware of but did not disclose until now. Rupnik is a world-renowned artist whose works include projects in the Apostolic Palace of the Vatican, the Knights of Columbus' National Shrine to John Paul II in Washington, DC, the Cathedral of Santa María la Real de Almudena in Madrid, and the Fatima Shrine. Abusing the sacrament of confession in the manner that Rupnik did is one of the most serious crimes in the Catholic Church. Rupnik, 68, is also alleged to have sexually abused members of a women’s institute of religious life in Ljubljana, Slovenia, while…
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Dec 14, 2022
December 14, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Yesterday, December 13, marked Pope Francis’ fifty third anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood. Happy anniversary, Pope Francis.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253064/pope-francis-celebrates-53-years-as-a-priest
The pope is inviting everyone to have “a more humble Christmas” this year. At the end of his weekly general audience on December 14, the pope asked people to consider spending less on gifts and parties in order to help the people of Ukraine. “It is good to celebrate Christmas, to have parties — but let’s lower the level of Christmas spending,” he encouraged. “Let’s send what we save to the Ukrainian people, who are in need, suffering so much; they go hungry, they feel the cold, and so many die because there are no doctors,…
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Dec 13, 2022
December 13, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Cardinal Raymundo Damasceno Assis presided December 10 at the solemn ceremony of beatification for Isabel Cristina Mrad Campos, a young martyr known as “the Maria Goretti of Brazil.” The Archdiocese of Mariana in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais reported the Mass was held at the Shrine of Our Lady of Mercy in Barbacena before thousands of faithful present. The newly beatified Brazilian was 20 years old when she was brutally murdered in 1982 by a man who unsuccessfully tried to rape her, as also happened with Saint Maria Goretti, the Italian girl who died defending her virtue and who before dying forgave her murderer. Isabel’s tomb is located in Barbacena, where she was beatified. She also was baptized and received her first Communion there. The church is now a…
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Dec 12, 2022
December 12, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis said Sunday he is concerned about recent deadly clashes in the northern part of South Sudan. “I follow with sorrow and concern the news from South Sudan about the violent clashes of the past few days,” he said December 11 at the end his Sunday Angelus message. Pope Francis is scheduled to travel to South Sudan’s capital city, Juba, in just under eight weeks. “Let us pray to the Lord for peace and national reconciliation, so that the attacks may cease and that civilians may always be respected,” Francis said Sunday, after violence broke out in South Sudan’s Upper Nile state, in the northeastern part of the country, last week. United Nations agencies said more than 9,000 people were displaced in the clashes, and an unknown number of people were ki…
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Dec 9, 2022
December 9, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The US House of Representatives voted 258-169 to pass the Respect for Marriage Act (RFMA) on Thursday, sending it to President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature. A total of 219 Democrats, along with 39 Republicans, voted “yea” to the bill. One hundred sixty-nine Republicans voted against it. One Republican voted “present” — neither yes or no — and four Republicans were recorded as not voting. The bill, which would repeal the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and recognize same-sex marriages on a federal level, has drawn criticism from Catholic leaders for not providing strong enough protections for those who believe marriage is between one man and one woman — a belief in line with Church teaching. President Joe Biden, a Catholic, has pledged to sign i…
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Dec 8, 2022
December 8, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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According to a report published by Reuters on Wednesday, a massive forced abortion program has been carried out by the Nigerian military on at least 10,000 women since 2013. In addition to exposing the Nigerian government’s forced abortion campaign, Reuters’ findings further evidence the use of rape as a weapon of war carried out by Islamist insurgents on Nigerian civilians. 7 Division, the Nigerian military force in charge of countering the insurgents, has been forcing chemical and surgical abortions on tens of thousands of women who have been raped by Islamist insurgents such as Boko Haram and the Islamic State-West Africa Province (ISWAP), a self-proclaimed regional “caliphate” of ISIS. Reuters verified that the Nigerian military has beaten and coerced women,…
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Dec 7, 2022
December 7, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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A judge in Baltimore this week ordered all proceedings, filings, and communications related to the release of a major attorney general’s report on clerical sexual abuse to be made confidential. Judge Anthony Vittoria of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City issued a confidentiality ruling December 2 in response to a request from an anonymous group of people named in the report but who were not accused of abuse, the Baltimore Sun reported. At issue is a 456-page report compiled by the office of Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, consisting of information given by the Archdiocese of Baltimore along with information gathered from interviews that claims to identify more than 600 victims of clerical abuse in the archdiocese dating back eight decades. It is currently unc…
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Dec 6, 2022
December 6, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The Vatican’s charity office is holding a drive to collect thermal shirts for people in Ukraine as they face an energy emergency amid the war. Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the pope’s almoner, said December 5 that the charity office of the Vatican is “already stocking up” on thermal shirts for men, women, and children. Others are encouraged to join the initiative by bringing or shipping shirts to the Dicastery for the Service of Charity by the beginning of January, when the shipment of shirts will be brought to Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital city, by truck. Systematic bombing by Russia has damaged Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, and the country’s government has warned that the networks will not withstand winter’s increased demands. People in Ukraine are facing fr…
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Dec 5, 2022
December 5, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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A Catholic campus ministry center at the University of Nebraska received a purported death threat Saturday morning in a note signed “Jane’s Revenge,” a calling card used by pro-abortion activists. The note was addressed to Father Dan Andrews, pastor of the Saint John Paul II Newman Center in Bellevue. The threat is the latest in a series of intimidation tactics used against pro-life organizations. In other instances, the threats have come in the form of spray-painted messages with a variation on the words, “If abortions aren’t safe, neither are you.” The University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Department of Public Safety said in a Saturday statement that the Douglas County Sheriff’s office and the Omaha Police Department are working together to investigate the…
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Dec 2, 2022
December 2, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis’ prayer intention for the month of December is for volunteer not-for-profit organizations. The pontiff called volunteers who work with not-for-profit organizations “artisans for mercy.” He said: “Being a volunteer who helps others is a choice that makes us free; it opens us to other people’s needs — to the demands of justice, to the defense of the poor, to the care of creation. It means being artisans of mercy: with our hands, with our eyes, with our attentive ears, with our closeness…Let us pray that volunteer not-for-profit and human development organizations may find people willing to commit themselves to the common good and ceaselessly seek out new paths of international cooperation.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/252961/this-…
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Nov 30, 2022
November 30, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis has recommended a daily examination of conscience as an “indispensable” practice in spiritual life. An examination of conscience is a prayerful reflection on one’s thoughts, words, and deeds that helps to identify moments of sin and ask for God’s mercy. This daily examination can be “an invitation to learn from our experiences” and “not to continue to repeat the same mistakes,” the pope said. Speaking at his general audience on November 30, Pope Francis said that the devil’s temptation “starts from what is most dear to us and then, little by little, reels us in.” The pope noted that prayer during the day should not be viewed as a way to avoid a job or task that needs to be done, as in “every time I have to wash the dishes or clean th…
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Nov 29, 2022
November 29, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Saint Peter Catholic Church in Covington, Louisiana, says its community has been “rocked” by news of a double homicide that local police announced Monday morning, amid an unconfirmed report that the victims were the parish’s former pastor and a former employee. A local Covington man has been arrested and charged in connection with the murders. A local reporter posted online that the parish’s former pastor and an employee of his at the church were reported to be the victims by “multiple people with knowledge of the situation,” but the Covington Police Department has yet to officially release the identities of the victims. The parish has asked for prayers for the victims and their families.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/252931/breaking-louisiana-cat…
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Nov 28, 2022
November 28, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Cardinal Richard Kuuia Baawobr, bishop of Wa, Ghana, died in Rome on Sunday evening at the age of 63. The cardinal had been hospitalized for heart problems after arriving in Rome in late August and was therefore unable to attend the Vatican ceremony at which he was elevated to the College of Cardinals August 27. Baawobr, a member of the Society of the Missionaries of Africa, commonly known as the “White Fathers,” was known in Ghana for his charity and for his care for people with mental disabilities in a country where the stigmatization of mental illness is still high.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/252922/new-cardinal-from-ghana-with-heart-problems-dies-at-63
Pope Francis has spoken out against violence in the Holy Land after one teenager died in a blast…
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Nov 24, 2022
Happy Thanksgiving from Catholic News
Thank you for listening to Catholic News. In the United States, today, November 24, is observed as Thanksgiving Day. Because our staff will be taking time off to observe the holiday, there will not be a new Catholic News briefing until Monday, November 28. As always, you can visit catholicnewsagency.com for the latest. God bless you, and Happy Thanksgiving.
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Nov 23, 2022
November 23, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis gave a shoutout to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar at the end of his weekly audience on Wednesday. Speaking to a crowd of people from around the world November 23, the pope expressed his hope the international soccer competition would foster fraternity and peace. Pope Francis added to his appeal for peace, asking for prayers for an end to all conflicts, especially the conflict in Ukraine. The choice of Qatar as host country for the men’s soccer tournament has been criticized due to conditions in the country, including the situation of Christians. Non-Islamic religions, including Christianity, which are strongly represented among migrant workers, are granted freedom only to a limited extent in the Middle Eastern nation.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com…
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Nov 22, 2022
November 22, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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A Catholic parish in southern Wisconsin suffered a graffiti attack overnight on Sunday that saw a large tiled display of the Divine Mercy image defaced with green spray-painted letters. Run by the Stockbridge, Massachusetts-based Marian Fathers, Saint Peter Parish is located in Kenosha, on Lake Michigan north of Chicago near the Illinois border. A photo shared on social media by Father Donald Calloway shows green spray-painted graffiti on one of the exterior granite shrines near the entrance to the church. The shrine will need to be professionally cleaned with help from insurance money. The Kenosha Police Department said the department did receive the criminal complaint, but they do not yet have any leads in the case. The parish’s administrative assistant requested pr…
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Nov 18, 2022
November 18, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The Carmelite nuns in Cuba announced that thanks to the donations of wheat flour they have received in recent days, they will again be able to make the Communion hosts to supply the island’s churches. In a November 14 statement, the Discalced Carmelite Sisters of Havana expressed their joy for having “experienced once again that the barque of the Church is the Lord who leads it.” The Monastery of the Discalced Carmelites of Saint Teresa in the Cuban capital had informed all the dioceses November 2 that it could no longer produce any more hosts because it had run out of wheat flour, a product that has been in short supply for months in the island. Just days later, Father José Luis Pueyo of the Diocese of Villa Clara told the newspaper catorcemedio that they would…
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Nov 16, 2022
November 16, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis has expressed his condolences for the victims of a deadly bombing on a busy pedestrian street in Istanbul over the weekend. The Vatican published a message on November 15 that expressed the pope’s spiritual closeness to the injured and those who mourn the loss of their loved ones who died in the explosion in Turkey’s capital. “His Holiness prays that no act of violence will discourage the efforts of the people of Türkiye to build a society based on the values of fraternity, justice and peace,” it said. The explosion on Istanbul’s Istiklal Avenue, a popular shopping street, on November 13 killed six people and led around 80 others to be hospitalized, according to the Associated Press. Among the victims were two girls, ages 9 and 15. Funerals were…
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Nov 15, 2022
November 15, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The Archdiocese of Washington, DC., announced that its annual Youth Rally and Mass for Life, which both typically take place in conjunction with the national March for Life in Washington DC, have been canceled. The reason given is that many US dioceses are now focusing on their state level pro-life rallies. The announcement comes about five months following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade, the 1973 landmark case that legalized abortion nationwide. The annual March for Life, which is now in its 50th year, began in opposition to Roe. The Youth Rally and Mass for Life had been held for over 25 years, and aims to “encourage the youth participating in the national March for Life in their witness as disciples of Christ and promoters of the Gospel of Li…
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Nov 14, 2022
November 14, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church last week met Pope Francis as well as Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, and other dicastery heads. In Rome for the first time since the war in Ukraine began, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk also celebrated the Divine Liturgy in St. Peter’s Basilica. On November 12, the major archbishop met with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State. Shevchuk said they spoke in detail about “the efforts of pontifical diplomacy in favor of peace, and above all of the efforts to assist the Ukrainian people.” According to the major archbishop, “the Russian people must realize that the Ukraine exists, admit the Ukrainian state’s right to resistance, and reconcile with the reality that…
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Nov 11, 2022
November 11, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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As pro-abortion measures won on state ballots and pro-life measures faced defeat, Catholic bishops responded to election results with profound disappointment. They professed resolve to continue to work to defend unborn human life and support pregnant women in need. Some called for prayer and fasting and emphasized that millions of lives are at stake. On Election Day about 56.7% of Michigan voters, more than 2.4 million, voted for Proposal 3 to add a broad right to abortion into the state constitution. It removes a longtime ban on abortion from state law that has not been enforced since 1973. In California, the strong pro-abortion-rights constitutional amendment Proposition 1 was projected to win. As of Thursday evening, it had 65% of the vote, with more than 3.5 million…
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Nov 9, 2022
November 9, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Nov 8, 2022
November 8, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Nov 7, 2022
November 7, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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In Bahrain on Sunday morning, Pope Francis prayed with Catholics from the Arabian Peninsula and encouraged them to be bold in proclaiming the Gospel in their countries. “All who are baptized have received the Spirit and so become prophets. As such, we cannot pretend not to see the works of evil, so as to live a ‘quiet life’ and not get our hands dirty,” he said November 6 in Sacred Heart Church in Manama. “How is it possible for a Christian who wants to live his faith not to get his or her hands dirty?” the pope reiterated. “On the contrary, we received a Spirit of prophecy to proclaim the Gospel by our living witness.” Pope Francis met with Catholic priests, religious, and lay people on the last day of his historic visit to Bahrain, an overwhelmingly Mu…
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Nov 4, 2022
November 4, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis landed in the Kingdom of Bahrain on Thursday, becoming the first pope to visit the Muslim island nation located in the Persian Gulf. On the flight from Rome November 3, the pope told journalists aboard the papal plane it is “an interesting trip [that will] make us think about sharing good news.” Francis, who usually walks around the plane to greet media members, said he was in a lot of pain, and asked journalists to approach him where he was seated instead. Pope Francis is visiting Bahrain November 3-6. Located to the east of Saudi Arabia and west of Qatar, the country has a total population of 1.5 million. There are around 161,000 Catholics in Bahrain, many of whom are migrants from Asia, particularly the Philippines and India, according to 2020 Vatica…
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Nov 2, 2022
November 2, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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On All Souls’ Day, Pope Francis urged Christians not to “compromise with the Gospel” but to take Jesus’ words seriously when he says we will be judged by how we treat the poor. “Often, out of convenience or comfort, we tend to tone down Jesus’ message, to water down his words. Let’s face it, we have gotten pretty good at compromising with the Gospel,” the pope said in Saint Peter’s Basilica on November 2. Pope Francis offered Mass on All Souls’ Day for the repose of the souls of more than 150 deceased bishops and cardinals who died in the past year. In his homily, the pope reflected on Jesus’ words in the Gospel of Matthew: “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you c…
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Nov 1, 2022
November 1, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis’ prayer intention for the month of November is for children who suffer, including war victims and orphans. “There are still millions of boys and girls who suffer and live in conditions very similar to slavery,” the pontiff said. “They aren’t numbers. They are human beings with names, with a face of their own, with an identity that God has given them. Let us pray for children who are suffering, especially for those who are homeless, orphans, and victims of war,” the pope said in a video message published October 31.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/252691/why-pope-francis-november-prayer-intention-is-for-children-who-suffer
More than 10,000 unborn babies are alive today because of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade, a…
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Oct 31, 2022
October 31, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis prayed on Sunday that God may “convert the hearts of the violent” after an al-Qaida-affiliated terrorist attack in Somalia. “As we celebrate Christ’s victory over evil and death, we pray for the victims of the terrorist attack in Mogadishu that killed more than 100 people, including many children. May God convert the hearts of the violent,” Pope Francis said on October 30. Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud reported that at least 100 people were killed and nearly 300 other people were wounded by two car bombings in the country’s capital on Saturday. Al-Shabab, a Somali-based branch of al-Qaida, claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the Associated Press. The extremist group said that it targeted the country’s education mi…
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Oct 26, 2022
October 26, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The Diocese of Mamfe in Cameroon has called for prayers of thanksgiving for the release on Saturday of nine people who were abducted in September from a local parish. The nine were released October 22. “I urge each of you to pray a decade of the rosary in thanksgiving to God for the safe release of our brothers and sisters who were kidnapped,” Bishop Aloysius Fondong Abangalo of Mamfe said. On September 16, unidentified gunmen attacked St. Mary parish in Nchang, in Cameroon’s Southwest Region. Nine people were abducted and buildings on the parish premises, including the church, were burned down.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/252644/cameroonian-diocese-urges-prayers-of-thanksgiving-for-release-of-captives
For the second time in less than two years, EWTN…
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Oct 25, 2022
October 25, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Today the Church honors Saints Crispin and Crispinian, brothers who together evangelized Gaul in the middle of the third century. They preached in the streets by day and made shoes by night. Their charity, piety, and contempt of material things impressed the locals and many were converted to Christianity.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-crispin-and-st-crispinian-32
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Oct 24, 2022
October 24, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis offered a prayer for Italy on Sunday as Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni became the country’s first female leader. “And today, at the start of a new government, let us pray for unity and peace in Italy,” the pope said at the end of his Angelus address on October 23. Meloni has described herself in speeches as a Christian and has publicly expressed her admiration for St. John Paul II and her desire to meet Pope Francis in person.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/252628/pope-francis-prays-for-italy-as-giorgia-meloni-becomes-first-female-prime-minister
Archbishop Charles Chaput, emeritus of Philadelphia, said on Saturday that President Joe Biden “is not in communion with the Catholic faith” and that “any priest who now provides Communion to t…
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Oct 21, 2022
October 21, 2022
Today the Church honors Saint Ursula and the Virgins of Cologne. In the year 383 Saint Ursula and her 11,010 companions were all found slaughtered for their purity and their Faith. This great martyrdom occurred in Cologne, Germany, and a shrine has been erected to them there, containing as many of their bones as could be rescued. A Religious Order of nuns in the Catholic Church was established by Saint Angela Merici in honor of Saint Ursula in the year 1535, known as the Ursulines.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-ursula-and-the-virgins-of-cologne-27
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Oct 20, 2022
October 20, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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A major study of US Catholic priests, released Wednesday, found that despite relatively high levels of personal well-being and fulfillment among priests as a whole, a significant percentage of priests have issues with burnout, distrust in their bishop, and fears of being falsely accused of misconduct. A large percentage of the priests and bishops surveyed reported high levels of well-being: 77% of priests and 81% of bishops can be categorized as “flourishing,” based on a measurement called the Harvard Flourishing Index. The report also says that 45% of priests surveyed reported at least one symptom of ministry burnout. Many fear that a single false allegation of sexual abuse could ruin them, the report states. Among the priests surveyed, a large majority — 82% —…
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Oct 17, 2022
October 17, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis announced on Sunday that the Synod on Synodality will be extended to 2024. Speaking in his Angelus address on October 16, the pope shared his decision to divide the Synod of Bishops into two sessions that will meet in Rome in October 2023 and October 2024. Pope Francis explained that he made the decision “in order to have a more relaxed period of discernment.” “The fruits of the synodal process under way are many, but so that they might come to full maturity, it is necessary not to be in a rush,” Francis said. The two sessions of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops will take place from October 4 to 29, 2023, and in October 2024, bringing together bishops from across the world to discuss and prepare a document to counsel the pop…
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Oct 14, 2022
October 14, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Bishop Hugo Torres Marín of Apartadó, Colombia, said October 11 that there is a humanitarian crisis near the border with Panama as there are thousands of people risking their lives to cross the Darién jungle on their way to the United States. For several days, thousands of migrants, many of them Venezuelans, have been arriving in the area of Colombia that lies across the Gulf of Urabá from Panama and are waiting in the town of Necoclí on the Colombian coast for the opportunity to cross by boat to Capurganá in Panama, and from there cross the Darien Gap on their way north to the US, a journey of more than 3,000 miles. However, along the route they are exposed to theft, human trafficking, and death. The bishop has asked the authorities to find adequate solutions.
h…
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Oct 13, 2022
October 13, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Two new Catholic movies that debuted in theaters in September and October are coming back to the big screen for encores by popular demand. American moviegoers will be able to see “Saint Michael: Meet the Angel” in theaters October 12 and October 13 and “Mother Teresa: No Greater Love” on November 2. “Mother Teresa: No Greater Love” chronicles the life of the 20th-century saint and the impact both she and her religious order, the Missionaries of Charity, have had on the people they have served throughout the world. “Saint Michael: Meet the Angel” highlights the power and nature of Saint Michael the Archangel and other angelic beings.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/252530/two-catholic-movies-back-in-theaters-for-encores-after-stellar-showings
To…
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Oct 12, 2022
October 12, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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One or more unidentified individuals entered and desecrated a Catholic church in Brazil, destroying all 28 statues of saints, to the pain and outrage of the faithful. The attack took place October 10 around noon in São Mateus church in the town of São Mateus do Sul located in Paraná state in southern Brazil. “Our statues were broken, but our faith is firm,” said the pastor of the parish, Father José Carlos Emanoel dos Santos, at an October 11 press conference. The priest said he was grateful for the many expressions of solidarity they have received. At the press conference, it was also reported that the local police already have a suspect.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/252525/catholic-church-brazil-desecrated-28-statues-saints-destroyed
Bishop Jeffre…
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Oct 11, 2022
October 11, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The Vatican confirmed Tuesday that Pope Francis will join other religious leaders at a prayer service for peace at Rome’s Colosseum later this month. The Oct. 25 prayer meeting is part of a three-day interreligious summit called “The Cry for Peace,” organized by the Community of Sant’Egidio. Sant’Egidio has held an international conference on the subject of peace every year since 1986, when Pope John Paul II convened the first World Day of Prayer for Peace in Assisi, Italy. The conference’s final event will be the interreligious prayer service from 4:30 to 6 p.m. at the Colosseum. The famous monument is believed by some historians to be a site of early Christian martyrdom. Representatives of the world’s major religions will take part in the prayer service…
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Oct 10, 2022
October 10, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Today the Church celebrates Saint Francis Borgia, a reformer of the Jesuit order. Francis introduced so many reforms to the society of Jesus that he was considered in some ways to be its second founder. Francis was a man of contemplation and action in the fullest sense, and clearly drew much strength from the silence of his prayer.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-francis-borgia-389
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Oct 7, 2022
October 7, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis has expressed deep sorrow and mourning at the news of a deadly rampage at a day care center in Thailand that left at least 34 people dead — 23 of them children. “Deeply saddened to learn of the horrific attack that took place at a child-care centre in Uthai Sawan, His Holiness Pope Francis offers his heartfelt condolences and the assurance of his spiritual closeness to all those affected by this act of unspeakable violence against innocent children,” the pope’s message said. The pope prayed that grieving families and all those injured would receive support from their neighbors and concluded his message with “blessings of peace and perseverance in every good.” According to media reports, the massacre was perpetrated by a single man, armed with a…
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Oct 6, 2022
October 6, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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On the first-ever papal visit to the Kingdom of Bahrain, Pope Francis will close a forum on dialogue, meet with the grand imam of al-Azhar, and pray at a new Catholic cathedral. The Vatican released the full itinerary for the pope’s November 3-6 trip to the Muslim island nation in the Persian Gulf. The theme of the visit is “Peace on earth to people of goodwill,” inspired by Luke 2:14. The logo is a stylized image of two hands open toward God: one in the colors of the Vatican flag and one with the flag of Bahrain. An olive branch represents peace, while the text “Pope Francis” is in the color blue to represent the visit’s entrustment to the Virgin Mary. Bahrain, located to the east of Saudi Arabia and west of Qatar, has a population of 1.7 million. The popul…
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Oct 5, 2022
October 5, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Today, the Church celebrates the Memorial of Saint Mary Faustina Kowalska. Throughout her life, Jesus appeared to Sr. Faustina. He asked her to become an apostle and secretary of his mercy, by writing down his messages of Divine Mercy for the world in her diary. Jesus also asked Saint Faustina to have an image painted of his Divine Mercy, with red and white rays issuing from his heart, and to spread devotion to the Divine Mercy novena. Saint Faustina and Jesus’ message of Divine Mercy impacted the future Pope Saint John Paul II greatly, and he canonized her in 2000 and instituted Divine Mercy Sunday on the Sunday after Easter.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-faustina-virgin-737
The Church also celebrates Saint Luigi Scrosoppi. With other priests and a gr…
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Oct 4, 2022
October 4, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Most Catholics believe that President Joe Biden, the nation’s second Catholic president, should not run for a second term in 2024, according to a new EWTN News/RealClear Opinion Research Poll of likely Catholic voters released Monday. A majority of Catholics (58%) feel that Biden should not run for a second term in 2024, while only 22% support a possible re-election bid; 19% of Catholics are not sure. Most Catholics (67%-27% with 10% not sure) also do not want former President Donald Trump to run for president again in 2024. Among other highlights of the poll, Catholic voters rank inflation and the economy as the most critical issues facing the country, and most say they are very concerned about the state of education, especially after the lockdowns caused by the COVI…
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Oct 3, 2022
October 3, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis met with Apple CEO Tim Cook at the Vatican on Monday morning. Cook heads up a company whose stock market value hit $3 trillion in June. He spoke privately with Pope Francis on Oct. 3, the eve of the feast day of the pope’s namesake, St. Francis of Assisi — known for embracing radical poverty. The technology executive has been in Italy since Sept. 28. He first traveled to Naples, where he launched the first Apple Developer Academy in Europe and received an honorary degree from the University of Naples Federico II. Pope Francis has often met with tech company executives in recent years. Elon Musk, the head of Tesla and SpaceX, posted a photo with the pope on Twitter in June.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/252448/pope-francis-meets-apple-ceo-tim-…
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Sep 28, 2022
September 28, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The Vatican confirmed Wednesday that Pope Francis will travel to the Kingdom of Bahrain, a Muslim island nation in the Persian Gulf, from November 3–6. The possibility of a papal trip to the Islamic monarchy was mentioned on the pope’s return flight from Kazakhstan on September 15. Bahrain, located to the east of Saudi Arabia and west of Qatar, has a population of 1.7 million people. The population is nearly 70% Muslim, with the majority belonging to the Shiite branch of Islam, the country’s state religion.
Today, the Church celebrates Saint Wenceslaus, a Central European ruler who died at the hands of his brother while seeking to strengthen the Catholic faith in his native Bohemia.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-wenceslaus-608
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Sep 26, 2022
September 26, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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A suspect was quickly arrested in the vandalism of a Denver-area Catholic pro-life medical clinic, Bella Health and Wellness. It is not clear whether the clinic was targeted for its pro-life Catholic mission, though the various graffiti included a reference to Satan and a stylized depiction of a devilish character. Bella is a nonprofit medical practice that operates in alignment with Catholic teaching.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/252386/denver-area-pro-life-medical-practice-vandalized
Cardinal Joseph Zen and five others stood trial in Hong Kong on Monday for failing to properly register a fund to provide legal aid to pro-democracy protesters. The 90-year-old cardinal and retired bishop of Hong Kong arrived at the court in West Kowloon on September 26 using…
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Sep 23, 2022
September 23, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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In the aftermath of the fire that gutted a church in Cameroon, Bishop Aloysius Fondong of the Diocese of Mamfé entered the ruins to retrieve the Blessed Sacrament and found the sacred Hosts and the ciborium containing them to be intact. On the night of September 16, armed men set fire to Saint Mary’s church in the town of Nchang, located in the Diocese of Mamfé, and kidnapped five priests, a nun, and three lay people. The archbishop of Bamenda, Andrew Nkea Fuanya, said that the kidnappers have demanded a ransom. The prelate commented that there are groups that see the Church as an “easy target to make money.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/252363/blessed-sacrament-found-intact-in-tabernacle-of-church-burned-by-armed-men-in-cameroon
President Joe Biden…
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Sep 22, 2022
September 22, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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A Catholic church in Tangamandapio and seven other Catholic churches were damaged in the state of Michoacán by a 7.6-magnitude earthquake that struck Mexico on Monday, September 19. The earthquake’s epicenter was 49 miles from the town of Coalcomán in the state of Michoacán. So far, two people have reportedly died. The earthquake, which was felt in other parts of the country such as Mexico City, occurred on the anniversary of two other major earthquakes in 1985 and 2017, which claimed many lives.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/252354/eight-churches-damaged-by-sept-19-earthquake-in-mexico
The vice president of the German bishops’ conference said Thursday he had thought about resigning after the publication of a report claiming he mishandled abuse cases,…
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Sep 21, 2022
September 21, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis has called on Christians to support communities in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico devastated by Hurricane Fiona. The pope expressed his solidarity with all affected by the category 3 hurricane in a telegram sent on September 21 to bishops in the Caribbean countries. More than 1.3 million homes and businesses were left without power in Puerto Rico after the storm dumped 30 inches of rain, causing surging floodwaters, submerged homes, and damaged roads. Catholic Charities USA is currently coordinating distributions of food, water, and other essential items. Kim Burgo, vice president of Catholic Charities USA’s disaster operations, told CNA that many families are still recovering from Hurricane Maria, the 2017 storm that the government says caused $9…
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Sep 20, 2022
September 20, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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A Vatican envoy in Ukraine prayed in silence at the recently discovered mass grave in Izium on Monday while forensic experts in white protective suits exhumed bodies, at least 146 so far. Cardinal Konrad Krajewski said during his visit to the grave site on September 19 that “seeing so many [dead] in one area is a difficult thing … to explain.” “The words of Sacred Scripture came to mind that evil must always be overcome with good,” he told Vatican News. It is the Polish cardinal’s fourth trip to Ukraine since the start of the war. Pope Francis sent the cardinal as his personal representative to “be with the people who are suffering.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/252338/cardinal-konrad-krajewski-prays-at-mass-grave-in-ukraine
The Synod on Syn…
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Sep 19, 2022
September 19, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral is today, and many Catholics are praying for the repose of her soul, and for the new King, Charles III. The Catholic bishops of England and Wales have released statements, made comments, and issued pastoral letters about the death of Her Majesty. “Our prayer is that she is now received into the merciful presence of God, there to be reunited with her beloved Prince Philip. This is the promise of our faith, and our deep consolation,” Cardinal Vincent Nichols f Westminster said. “Even in my sorrow, shared with so many around the world, I am filled with an immense sense of gratitude for the gift to the world that has been the life of Queen Elizabeth II,” he said. The cardinal said on September 8 that the queen’s “Christian faith ma…
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Sep 16, 2022
September 16, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Speaking to priests, religious sisters, and missionaries living in Kazakhstan, where Catholics make up less than 1% of the population, Pope Francis on Thursday said that God’s power is made manifest when “we acknowledge our littleness.” “The Gospel says that being little, poor in spirit, is a blessing, a beatitude, and indeed the first of the beatitudes,” Pope Francis said in Nur-Sultan’s Cathedral of Our Lady Of Perpetual Help on September 15. Kazakhstan is a majority-Muslim country home to an ethnically diverse minority of Catholics — an estimated 125,000 out of the Central Asian country’s population of 19 million.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/252297/pope-francis-tells-kazakhstan-s-small-catholic-community-being-little-is-a-blessing
Discus…
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Sep 14, 2022
September 14, 2022
September 14, 2022 by Catholic News Agency
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Sep 13, 2022
September 13, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis has arrived in Kazakhstan for a brief visit to attend an interreligious meeting. The pope was welcomed by a delegation of civil and religious leaders, including President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. On Wednesday, the opening and plenary session of the VII Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions will take place at the Palace of Independence. At the conference, Pope Francis will have the opportunity to meet with several Muslim leaders attending the congress, including representatives from Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, Turkey, and across Central Asia.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/252271/why-is-pope-francis-going-to-kazakhstan-here-s-what-he-plans-to-do
The prelate of Opus Dei, Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz, has asked the members of the Catholi…
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Sep 12, 2022
September 12, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis in his Angelus address on Sunday honored an Italian missionary sister who was killed by Islamist terrorists in Mozambique. Speaking from the window of the Apostolic Palace on September 11, the pope said: “In this moment of prayer, it is dear to me to remember Sister Maria de Coppi, Combonian missionary, killed in Chipene, Mozambique, where she served with love for almost 60 years.” “May her witness give strength and courage to Christians and all the people of Mozambique.” Sister Maria de Coppi was shot and killed last week as terrorists ransacked and burned the Catholic mission where she served in Mozambique’s Diocese of Nacala. The Italian priests and sisters who served at the mission were able to evacuate 68 students who were living at the missi…
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Sep 8, 2022
September 8, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster, England, offered prayers on Thursday for Queen Elizabeth II, who is reportedly under medical supervision at Balmoral Castle in Scotland with multiple family members traveling to be by her side. The 96-year-old British monarch has been on a summer break at her Scottish home since July, the BBC reported. As of Thursday afternoon, all the queen’s children were traveling to or had arrived at the castle. Since her reign began in 1952, Queen Elizabeth has met five popes. In 2010, she welcomed then Pope Benedict XVI to the UK, the first state visit of a pope to the country. Saint John Paul II had visited the UK and met with the queen in 1982, but his was a pastoral rather than a state visit.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/25…
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Sep 6, 2022
September 6, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis beatified John Paul I, who reigned as pope for only 33 days, amid a thunderstorm in Saint Peter’s Square on Sunday. In his homily for the rainy beatification Mass on September 4, Pope Francis said that John Paul I “embodied the poverty of a disciple” through his “victory over the temptation to put oneself at the center, to seek one’s own glory.” Often called “the smiling pope,” John Paul I died unexpectedly on September 28, 1978, a month after the conclave that elected him. In one of the shortest pontificates in papal history, John Paul I gained a reputation for his humility and his dedication to teaching the faith in an understandable manner.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/252206/pope-francis-beatifies-john-paul-i-pope-for-33-days…
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Sep 2, 2022
September 2, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope John Paul the first will be beatified this Saturday. Venerable John Paul I was born Albino Luciani on October 17, 1912 in the town of Canale d'Argordo in northern Italy’s Belluno province. He was the most recent pope to be born in Italy and the first pope to be born in the twentieth century. He was elected to the papacy on August 26, 1978. He would be dead just a month later. Though his time as Roman Pontiff was brief, he had such an impact that some Catholics have sought his intercession as a saint. The photogenic smile of the pope helped cement his reputation and his nickname, the Smiling Pope. John Paul I was pope for 33 days, from August 26 to September 28, 1978. His 33-day pontificate was the 10th shortest in history. The last pope to have such a brief ponti…
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Sep 1, 2022
September 1, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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An American religious sister ministering in Burkina Faso who was kidnapped in April is free and safe after nearly five months of captivity, according to her congregation and the local diocese. Suellen Tennyson, 83, a New Orleans native, has served at a missionary outpost in northern Burkina Faso since 2014. She was abducted by unidentified armed men on April 5 from the small home she shared with two other members of her congregation, the Marianites of Holy Cross. Reportedly abducted without shoes, she also left behind her glasses and blood pressure medication. Sister Ann Lacour, the current Marianite congregational leader, confirmed August 30 that Tennyson is now safe and in the hands of US authorities. The FBI had issued a missing person notice for the sister, but unti…
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Aug 30, 2022
August 30, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The Holy See said Pope Francis’ recent comments on a car bombing that killed the daughter of an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin should not be interpreted as a “political stance.”
In a statement released Aug. 30, the Vatican also called the Russia-Ukraine conflict a “large-scale war in Ukraine, initiated by the Russian Federation.” Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, some of Pope Francis’ comments have come under criticism, including a statement he made in an interview in June that Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine was “perhaps somehow provoked.” He was also rebuked by Ukraine’s Vatican Ambassador last week for his characterization of the August 20 death of Darya Dugina, a 29-year-old journalist and political commentator known for her support of…
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Aug 29, 2022
August 29, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis created 20 new cardinals for the Catholic Church during a liturgy in Saint Peter's Basilica on Saturday. “Jesus calls us by name; he looks us in the eye and he asks: Can I count on you?” Pope Francis said in a homily addressed to the College of Cardinals and its new members on August 27. “The Lord,” he said, “wants to bestow on us his own apostolic courage, his zeal for the salvation of every human being, without exception. He wants to share with us his magnanimity, his boundless and unconditional love, for his heart is afire with the mercy of the Father.” During the ceremony, the new cardinals made a profession of faith by reciting the Creed. They then pronounced an oath of fidelity and obedience to the pope and his successors. Each cardinal th…
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Aug 26, 2022
August 26, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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In response to a question from EWTN, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday that the Biden administration condemns recent attacks on democratic leaders in Nicaragua, without specifically mentioning those targeting priests and other Catholic leaders. Since 2018, under the Ortega dictatorship, there have been more than 190 attacks against the Catholic Church, its bishops, priests, faithful, and houses of worship, Catholic officials in Nicaragua have said. Both the current and former White House administrations have condemned Ortega for these acts.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/252126/white-house-press-secretary-responds-to-ewtn-s-question-about-nicaraguan-persecution-of-catholics
Catholic bishops from two US dioceses have issued policies…
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Aug 25, 2022
August 25, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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A team of archaeologists uncovered new evidence this month about location of the house of Saint Peter. While excavating a fifth-sixth century Byzantine basilica at the el Araj archaeological site located on the shores of the Sea of Galilee in Israel, the team discovered a large Greek mosaic that seems to bolster the theory that the church was built over the home of Saints Peter and Andrew. The mosaic is inscribed with a petition that asks for the intercession of Saint Peter, who is referred to as “the chief and commander of the heavenly apostles.” The next excavation will take place in October. The team will complete the cleaning of the church, and hopes to uncover more inscriptions.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/252110/st-peter-s-house-believed-found-sho…
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Aug 24, 2022
August 24, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Four religious sisters who were kidnapped while on their way to Mass August 21 have been released, according to their order. Sisters Johannes Nwodo, Christabel Echemazu, Liberata Mbamalu, and Benita Agu were kidnapped August 21 in Nigeria’s Imo state, located in the south of the country. After two days of seeking “intense prayer” for their “quick and safe release,” the Sisters of Jesus the Saviour announced the abductees’ “unconditional and safe release” in a statement August 23. The Sisters of Jesus the Saviour is a Nigerian order that cares for the poor, elderly, and sick. The order did not provide any details about who may have perpetrated the kidnapping. Kidnappings of Christians in Nigeria have multiplied in recent years, a situation that has prompt…
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Aug 23, 2022
August 23, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The Vatican released the logo and motto for Pope Francis’ September trip to Kazakhstan Tuesday. The motto of the September 13-15 visit, “Messengers of Peace and Unity,” is written in Kazakh across the top of the logo and Russian across the bottom. Russian and Kazakh are the two official languages of the Central Asian country. Pope Francis will travel to the city of Nur-Sultan for the VII Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions. The sky blue and yellow logo includes two hands forming the image of a dove with an olive branch. The blue and yellow of the logo are the colors of the Kazakhstan flag. A heart on the dove's wing “represents love, fruit of reciprocal understanding, cooperation, and dialogue.” The olive branch has been drawn in the shape o…
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Aug 22, 2022
August 22, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The Sisters of Jesus the Saviour announced that four of their Sisters were kidnapped in Nigeria’s Imo state on Sunday while they were on their way to a Mass. Those kidnapped were Sisters Johannes Nwodo, Christabel Echemazu, Liberata Mbamalu and Benita Agu. The Sisters of Jesus the Saviour is a Nigerian order that cares for the poor, elderly, and sick. Kidnappings of Christians in Nigeria have multiplied in recent years, a situation that has prompted Church leaders to express serious concern about the security of their members and to call on the government to prioritize the security of its citizens.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/252087/four-religious-sisters-kidnapped-in-nigeria
Pope Francis called for “peaceful coexistence” between people and instituti…
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Aug 19, 2022
August 19, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Police have arrested and charged the man believed to have vandalized St. Anthony School in Washington, DC, last week. The property destruction led to national outcry and support for a Catholic school celebrating its 100th year this fall. Saint Anthony’s principal of 12 years, Michael Thomasian, believes the incident was a hate crime targeted at the school’s Catholic witness. The school serves grades Pre-K-8 in the Brookland neighborhood. The incident is being investigated as a potential hate crime, the Washington Metropolitan Police Department said, in which 32-year-old Demitrius Hansford of Northeast Washington vandalized the school’s Saint Anthony of Padua statue, stole $1,400 in cash, and trampled areas on the property in two incidents, on August 10 and August…
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Aug 18, 2022
August 18, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The three abortion clinics in Louisiana are leaving the state following the state’s Supreme Court August 12th decision that an abortion ban will remain in effect while it is being challenged in the judiciary. It is unclear when the clinics will have finished the process of leaving and where they will relocate. Under Louisiana’s trigger laws, abortions may be provided only when "necessary in reasonable medical judgment to prevent the death or substantial risk of death due to a physical condition, or to prevent the serious, permanent impairment of a life-sustaining organ of a pregnant woman.” The laws will continue to be challenged by the state’s three abortion clinics: Hope Medical Group for Women in Shreveport, Women’s Health Care Center in New Orleans, and De…
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Aug 17, 2022
August 17, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Three online shops that sell rosaries have reported a boost in sales following a controversial article published Sunday in The Atlantic magazine which attempted to link the rosary to right-wing extremism in the United States. The article sparked a frenzy of comments on social media, as Catholics shared photos of their rosaries. Some observed that the article's thesis had an anti-Catholic bias. Shannon Doty, CEO of Rugged Rosaries, told CNA Monday that she saw “a pretty good boost in sales” on both of her websites, RuggedRosaries.com and MonkRosaries.com amid the reaction to the article.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/252046/rosaries-atlantic-extremism
More than a dozen people, including several Catholic nuns, have been charged under the Philippines’ str…
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Aug 16, 2022
August 16, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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A Maronite Catholic archbishop was bringing aid back to Lebanon when he was wrongly detained by Lebanese authorities at the Israeli border, his supporters say. The US bishops have spoken in his defense, objecting to the confiscation of medical aid and hundreds of thousands of dollars in monetary aid. “The archbishop was returning from one of his regular visits to the Holy Land and bringing much-needed aid that the Lebanese diaspora in Israel wanted to send to family members in Lebanon,” the US bishops said. “All this was confiscated by Lebanese security forces, along with his cell phone and passport.” The Maronite Catholic Church is the largest Christian group in Lebanon, where Christians make up almost 35% of the country’s 7 million people. An estimated 60% o…
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Aug 15, 2022
August 15, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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At least 40 people — most of them children — died in a fire in a Coptic Orthodox church in Giza Governorate, Egypt, on Sunday, according to government and church officials. The cause of the blaze has so far not been established. Reuters reported that an electrical fire broke out at the church where people gathered during the Divine Liturgy celebration. The blaze reportedly blocked the exit from the church and caused a stampede.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/252035/reports-of-at-least-40-people-most-of-them-children-killed-in-church-fire-in-egypt
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that he spoke with Pope Francis over the phone on Friday and thanked the pope for his prayers and humanitarian support. In a tweet posted on August 12, Zelenskyy…
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Aug 11, 2022
August 11, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Experts have warned that Catholic school leaders need to be aware that their schools could be cut off from the federal government's free and subsidized lunch program if their policies don't comply with the Biden administration's revised rules against LGBTQ discrimination.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/252011/catholic-schools-free-lunch-funding-threatened-by-biden-lgbt-rule-change
The Mexican Bishops’ Conference expressed its solidarity with the Church in Nicaragua, whose freedom of speech and religion is under attack by the dictatorship of President Daniel Ortega. “At this time of profound suffering, the bishops of Mexico wish to convey to you our fervent prayer, closeness, and support, imploring the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, the much-longed-for pea…
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Aug 10, 2022
August 10, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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An arrest has been made after an 18-year-old student in Kansas was allegedly attacked while knocking on doors to encourage citizens to vote for a pro-life amendment. 18-year-old Grace Hartsock from Austin, Texas, an incoming freshman at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, was canvassing for the amendment when a woman allegedly shoved her in the chest with both hands, began violently hitting her in the head with closed fists, and verbally assaulted her. Police said that a 37-year-old suspect was arrested and charged in Leawood Municipal Court with misdemeanor battery and released. Harstock was not injured, and said she will continue with her pro-life advocacy.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/252002/kansas-woman-arrested-after-allegedly-striking-pro-life-tee…
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Aug 9, 2022
August 9, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The regime of President Daniel Ortega has ordered police in Nicaragua to launch an investigation into the Catholic bishop of Matagalpa, who they have detained for allegedly trying to "organize violent groups" to destabilize the government. Bishop Rolando José Álvarez, who was placed under house arrest and threatened with prison, has been openly critical of the abuses and human rights violations being committed by the Sandinista regime. In a press release published Aug. 5, the Nicaraguan national police accused high-ranking leaders of the Catholic Church in Matagalpa, and Álvarez in particular, of “using the communications media and social media” to try to “organize violent groups, inciting them to carry out acts of hatred against the population, creating an atm…
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Aug 8, 2022
August 8, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Twelve Polish pilgrims bound for Medjugorje in Bosnia and Herzegovina were killed Saturday when their bus crashed into a ditch, authorities said. Another 31 people were injured, some critically. The accident happened at around 5:40 a.m. local time when the bus veered off the A4 road between Jarek Bisaski and Podvorec, northeast of Zagreb, Croatia. The pilgrims included three priests and six nuns, the BBC reported. The news agency said the trip to Medjugorje, the site of alleged apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Bosnia and Herzegovina, was organized by the Brotherhood of Saint Joseph Catholic group.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251987/13-polish-pilgrims-bound-for-medjugorje-killed-in-bus-crash
Archie Battersbee, the 12-year-old British boy whose fami…
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Aug 5, 2022
August 5, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The Vatican announced Thursday that Pope Francis has appointed a “personal health care assistant.” Pope Francis has selected Massimiliano Strappetti, a Vatican nurse whom the pope has credited with saving his life, to provide additional assistance as the 85-year-old pope faces mobility problems.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251958/pope-francis-appoints-nurse-as-his-personal-health-care-assistant
Pope Francis has asked the Catholic Church to pray for small businesses during the month of August. “As a consequence of the pandemic and the wars, the world is facing a grave socio-economic crisis,” the pope said in a video message released Aug. 2. “And among those most affected are small and medium-sized businesses.” “With courage, with effort, with…
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Aug 4, 2022
August 4, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The defeat of a proposed pro-life amendment in Kansas is in large part due to confusion and fear-mongering in the wake of the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, one leading supporter on the ground has said. Kansas voters defeated the Value Them Both amendment by about 59% to 41% in the Aug. 2 referendum. The proposed amendment would have allowed restrictions on abortion to the extent allowed by the US Constitution. It was a response to a 2019 Kansas Supreme Court decision that ruled that a woman has a right to an abortion under the state constitution. Kansas will now have an increasingly large role as a destination for abortions, which means parishes and pregnancy crisis centers need to be prepared to provide alternatives to “meet the needs of these women that ar…
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Aug 3, 2022
August 3, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Kansas citizens rejected a pro-life amendment — known as the “Value Them Both” amendment — during their state’s primary election Tuesday. The referendum represented the first major statewide vote on abortion following the overturning of Roe v Wade. The amendment needed a simple majority to pass. It would have reversed the Kansas Supreme Court’s 2019 ruling that the state’s constitution protects a woman’s right to abortion. Currently, state lawmakers are, in most cases, prohibited from passing any type of abortion restriction. The amendment would have enabled state lawmakers to pass legislation to regulate or restrict abortion, and did not propose a total ban on abortion.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251946/kansas-abortion-vote-pro-life-amendm…
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Aug 2, 2022
August 2, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Amid record flooding in Kentucky that has left at least 30 people dead, Catholic Charities of Lexington is collaborating with other Christian churches as well as Catholic Charities USA to provide aid to those affected. The flooding began with heavy rains on July 27, leading to widespread flooding across at least five eastern Kentucky counties by the weekend. At least 18,000 people remained without power Monday, and reports suggest that entire towns — many of which are in already impoverished areas — have been inundated. The Catholic churches in the diocese have a strong collaborative partnership with other Christian communities, since at only 3% to 4% of the population, the majority of the people in eastern Kentucky are not Catholic, especially in the countryside. H…
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Aug 1, 2022
August 1, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Plans are now set for Pope Francis to visit Kazakhstan in September for an interreligious meeting. Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev announced in April that a papal visit was possible. In his meeting with the media on his return flight from Canada Saturday, Pope Francis confirmed his intention to travel to the Central Asian country from September 13th to 15th, saying, “That wouldn’t be too rigorous a journey.” In Kazakhstan, there are five Catholic dioceses and approximately 250,000 Latin Rite Catholics, according to 2008 statistics, making up a small minority of its population of 18 million people. The first pope to travel to Kazakhstan was Pope Saint John Paul II, who visited the country, together with Armenia, in September 2001.
https://www.catholicne…
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Jul 29, 2022
July 29, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Today marks the last day of Pope Francis' visit to Canada. He will be meeting with members of the Society of Jesus and a delegation of indigenous peoples in Québec. From there, he will fly to Iqaluit, where he will meet with students of former residential schools, young people, and elders, and attend a farewell ceremony. Home to only 7,740 people, Iqaluit is the capital — and only city — of Nunavut, Canada’s northernmost and most sparsely populated territory. The first Catholic mission in Nunavut was founded by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in Chesterfield Inlet in 1912. There is one Catholic parish in Iqaluit: Our Lady of the Assumption. According to the pastor, Father Daniel Perreault, only a handful of his parishioners are Inuit. The rest are from different c…
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Jul 27, 2022
July 27, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis concluded his second full day in Canada with a visit to Lac Ste. Anne, the site of one of Canada’s most famous Catholic pilgrimages and a place of spiritual significance for the nation’s indigenous people. The pope celebrated a Liturgy of the Word at the Shrine of Ste. Anne, with a crowd of mostly indigenous people in attendance, estimated at around 10,000. The large, shallow, and muddy lake — about an hour’s drive from Edmonton — has been revered as a place of spiritual significance, and of healing, for centuries. Known as Wakamne, “Lake of God,” by the Nakota Sioux and “Lake of the Spirit” by the Cree people, it received the name “Lac Ste. Anne” from Father Jean-Baptiste Thibault, the first priest to establish a permanent Catholic mi…
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Jul 26, 2022
July 26, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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In a speech in rural Canada before a crowd of indigenous Canadian people, Pope Francis publicly apologized for the Catholic Church’s role in running much of Canada’s government-sponsored residential school system. During more than a century of operation, the system worked to stamp out aspects of native culture, language, and religious practice. “I am here because the first step of my penitential pilgrimage among you is that of again asking forgiveness, of telling you once more that I am deeply sorry,” Pope Francis said in his July 25 speech. “Sorry for the ways in which, regrettably, many Christians supported the colonizing mentality of the powers that oppressed the indigenous peoples. I am sorry. I ask forgiveness, in particular, for the ways in which many me…
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Jul 25, 2022
July 25, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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At least one person was killed and several were injured Sunday in an attack on the inauguration of a Greek Orthodox church in Syria’s Hama Governorate. There are reports of one or two deaths from the attack, and as many as 12 wounded. The July 24 attack targeted Hagia Sophia Church in Al-Suqaylabiyah, about 30 miles northwest of Hama. The church was being built as a replica of Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia by the governments of Bashar al-Assad and Vladimir Putin in response to the Turkish government’s converting that building to a mosque. The Syrian Arab News Agency, the country’s state media, attributed the attack to “terrorist organizations.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251867/attack-on-syrian-church-inauguration-kills-at-least-one
Pope Francis arr…
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Jul 22, 2022
July 22, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Cardinal Wilton Gregory announced Friday that the Traditional Latin Mass will be restricted to three locations in the Archdiocese of Washington. Starting September 21, the Extraordinary Form of the Mass will only be allowed to be offered at the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in Washington DC, Saint John the Evangelist in Silver Spring, Maryland, and Saint Dominic in Aquasco, Maryland. The new protocol requires priests in the archdiocese to obtain permission to offer the Ordinary Form of the Mass ad orientem, “to the east” in Ecclesiastical Latin, in which the priest and the congregation together face the tabernacle during the Mass. Weddings and baptisms in the Extraordinary Form will not be allowed in the Archdiocese of Washington under the new limitations, w…
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Jul 21, 2022
July 21, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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A new poll shows that a pro-life amendment on the ballot in Kansas is enjoying a narrow lead. The August 2 referendum represents the first major statewide vote on abortion following the overturning of Roe v Wade. The survey, conducted by co/efficient and shared by FiveThirtyEight, found that 47% of likely primary voters in Kansas say they plan to vote for the pro-life amendment, 43% say they plan to vote against it, and 10% are undecided.
The amendment needs a simple majority of 51% to pass. The amendment would reverse the Kansas Supreme Court’s 2019 ruling that the state’s constitution protects a woman’s “right” to abortion.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251838/first-statewide-abortion-vote-after-roe-is-leaning-pro-life-kansas-poll-shows
The US Ho…
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Jul 20, 2022
July 20, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Following the kidnapping of two Catholic priests in central Nigeria last week, the local diocese announced July 19 that one of the two priests had escaped, while the other was “brutally” killed. Father John Mark Cheitnum and Father Denatus Cleopas were abducted at around 5:45 pm on July 15 at the rectory of Christ the King Catholic Church, in the town of Lere in Nigeria’s northern Kaduna State. Cleopas escaped with his life, but Cheitnum was “brutally killed” by his abductors on the day of his kidnapping, a letter from the diocese of Kafanchan says. His burial is scheduled for July 21 at the Kafanchan’s Cathedral of Saint Peter. The diocese did not say who the kidnappers were thought to be, or whether any ransom was demanded for the two priests. At least sev…
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Jul 19, 2022
July 19, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The Catholic bishops of the United States have condemned a bill passed by the US House of Representatives that would expand abortion access rather than help women and children. “Answering the needs of women by promoting taxpayer-funded elective abortion, as this bill would do, is a grave evil and a failure to love and serve women,” the bishops said. “Offering free or low-cost abortions, instead of increasing the resources women need to care for themselves and their children, is not ‘choice’ but coercion and callous abandonment," they said. Because Democrats lack the necessary votes to overcome a Republican filibuster, the bill is not expected to win passage in the Senate. The US bishops promoted a pro-life alternative to abortion: a parish-based ministry run b…
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Jul 18, 2022
July 18, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis’ trip to Canada next week will be a “penitential pilgrimage” to bring healing and reconciliation, Francis said Sunday. The pope is scheduled to travel to the Canadian cities of Edmonton, Quebec City, and Iqaluit from July 24-29. There he will meet members of Canadian indigenous groups, residential school abuse survivors, and Catholics. Pope Francis is expected to issue an apology in Canada on behalf of the Catholic Church for abuses committed against indigenous students in Catholic-run residential schools. The Canadian bishops said last year that they would welcome Francis’ visit as a “pilgrimage of healing and reconciliation.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251808/pope-francis-canada-visit-will-be-a-penitential-pilgrimage
The Nigeria…
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Jul 11, 2022
We will be on summer break July 11-15
Thank you for listening to Catholic News. We will be taking our summer break the week of July 11-15. While there won't be a new audio news briefing on those days, you can always visit catholicnewsagency.com for the latest news. We will return with a brand new news briefing on Monday, July 18. Thank you again for listening, and God bless you.
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Jul 7, 2022
July 8, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, which has been in power for 15 years, expelled 18 Missionaries of Charity from the Central American country on July 6. According to the newspaper El Confidencial, the nuns were taken by the General Directorate of Migration and Immigration and the police from the cities of Managua and Granada, where they had been serving the poor, to the border country of Costa Rica. Of the 18 sisters, there are seven Indians, two Mexicans, two Filipinos, two Guatemalans, two Nicaraguans, one Spaniard, one Ecuadorian, and one Vietnamese. The religious order was founded by Saint Teresa of Calcutta. The dissolution of the Missionaries of Charity and another 100 NGOs in Nicaragua was approved June 29 by the National Assembly on an “urg…
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Jul 7, 2022
July 7, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Four Catholic churches in Wisconsin's Chippewa county were vandalized in the past week with what appear to be pro-abortion messages. The churches are Holy Ghost Catholic Church, Notre Dame Catholic Church, and St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Chippewa Falls, and St. Peter the Apostle Catholic Church in Tilden. The perpetrator can be seen wearing a hood, a mask, and dark clothing, caught on camera during the act of the vandalism. Police said that a person of interest has been identified in the vandalism of the Chippewa Falls churches.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251736/four-catholic-churches-in-wisconsin-vandalized-with-pro-abortion-graffiti
Human rights advocates have raised concerns about heightened restrictions on Christians in China after P…
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Jul 6, 2022
July 6, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis has said he would announce the appointment of two women to the Vatican committee that elects bishops. In comments to Reuters published Wednesday, the pope said “two women will be appointed for the first time in the committee to elect bishops in the Congregation for Bishops." In the July 2 interview in the Vatican, Francis did not identify the women or say when their appointment would be announced officially, instead saying he was “open to giving [women] an opportunity" and wanted to open things “up a bit.” Asked which Vatican department could perhaps be headed by a lay man or woman, Francis suggested that they could include the department for Catholic Education and Culture and the Apostolic Library. The ultimate decision in appointing bishops rests…
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Jul 5, 2022
July 5, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis has expressed shock and sadness over the mass shooting that led to the death of at least six people and wounded some 30 others at a Fourth of July parade in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park on Monday. The pope said he joined “the entire community in praying that Almighty God will grant eternal rest to the dead and healing and consolation to the injured and bereaved.” “With unwavering faith that the grace of God is able to convert even the hardest of hearts, making it possible to depart from evil and do good,” the message continued, and Pope Francis prayed “that every member of society will reject violence in all of its forms and respect life in all of its stages.” In a statement, Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago said he was praying for the vi…
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Jul 1, 2022
July 1, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis has asked the Catholic Church to pray in a special way for the elderly during the month of July. The prayer intention follows requests to pray for families in June and for young people in May, and coincides with the celebration of the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly on July 24. Pope Francis said: “let us remember: grandparents and the elderly are the bread that nourishes our lives, the hidden wisdom of a people. That is why we must celebrate them, and I have established a day dedicated to them.” “Let us pray for the elderly, that they may become teachers of tenderness so that their experience and wisdom may help young people to look towards the future with hope and responsibility,” he said.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251682/…
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Jun 30, 2022
June 30, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The Archbishop of San Antonio is set to hold a memorial Mass on Thursday following the discovery of dozens of migrants who died in an abandoned tractor-trailer in Texas. Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller, and Auxiliary Bishops Michael Boulette and Gary Janak will preside at a memorial Mass for the migrants June 30. The migrants were found dead in an abandoned tractor-trailer baking in extreme heat in San Antonio, Texas on the evening of June 27. The official death toll has risen to at least 53, and the dead include 22 Mexicans, 7 Guatemalans, and 2 Hondurans, with the others not yet having been identified. Four people have so far been charged in the deaths.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251674/san-antonio-archbishop-to-preside-at-memorial-mass-after-texas-mig…
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Jun 29, 2022
June 29, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis condemned an attack on a shopping mall in Kremenchuk, central Ukraine, as “barbaric,” during a public address on Wednesday. A Russian missile strike hit a shopping mall in Kremenchuk on June 27. Ukrainian authorities said the next day that at least 18 people were killed in the attack and another 36 were missing. “I pray that this foolish war may soon see an end, and I renew the invitation to persevere, without tiring, in the prayer for peace: may the Lord open those paths of dialogue that men are unwilling or unable to find,” he said. “And let us not neglect to come to the aid of the Ukrainian people, who are suffering so much.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251670/pope-francis-condemns-barbaric-attack-on-ukraine-mall
Cardinal Franci…
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Jun 28, 2022
June 28, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Pope Francis has asked people to pray after 46 migrants were found dead in a Texas trailer truck on Monday. “I sorrowfully heard the news of the tragedy of the migrants in Texas and Melilla,” the pope said in a social media post on June 28. “Let us Pray Together for these brothers and sisters who died following their hope of a better life; and for ourselves, may the Lord might open our hearts so these misfortunes never happen again.” The migrants were found dead in an abandoned tractor-trailer in San Antonio, Texas on the evening of June 27. Sixteen other people were hospitalized, including four children, according to the Associated Press.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251658/draft-pope-francis-expresses-sorrow-for-migrant-deaths-at-texas-border
St.…
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Jun 27, 2022
June 27, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 Monday in favor of a high school football coach in a First Amendment case concerning his right to pray on the field. Kennedy, a Christian, lost his job as a public school football coach in Bremerton, Washington, for refusing to stop praying at the 50-yard line after games.The court ruled that the school district breached Kennedy’s free exercise and free speech rights.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251647/supreme-court-opinion-football-coach-prayer
Two priests were killed over the weekend in Nigeria, one in Kaduna state and one in Edo state. Father Vitus Borogo, a priest serving in the Archdiocese of Kaduna, was killed June 25 after a raid on a the farm by Terrorists, the chancellor of the Kaduna archdiocese said in a statement s…
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Jun 24, 2022
June 24, 2022
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
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Breaking:
The US Supreme Court has overturned Roe v Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide. In a 6-3 decision released today, June 24, the court ruled that abortion is no longer legal nationwide — the legality of abortion will now be determined at the state level. More about this story is available at Catholic News Agency dot com.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251247/supreme-court-roe-v-wade-dobbs-decision
The Vatican has released the itinerary for Pope Francis’ visit to Canada, during which he will meet with representatives of indigenous peoples, and with indigenous Catholics. The visit to Canada will take place July 24-29, with a return flight to Rome landing on the 30th, the Vatican said Thursday. While in Canada, Francis is expec…
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