Catholic News

• Pelosi defends taxpayer-funded abortion while citing Catholic faith; Archbishop Cordileone responds (CNA)
  As “a devout Catholic and mother of five in six years, I feel that God blessed my husband and me with our beautiful family,” said the Speaker of the House. “It’s not up to me to dictate that that’s what other people should do, and it [funding of abortion in Medicaid] is an issue of fairness and justice for poorer women in our country.”“Let me repeat: no one can claim to be a devout Catholic and condone the killing of innocent human life, let alone have the government pay for it,” Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco responded. “The right to life is a fundamental – the most fundamental – human right, and Catholics do not oppose fundamental human rights.”
• 'Profound sorrow': Cardinal Burke issues statement on Pope's restrictions on traditional Latin Mass (Cardinal Raymond Burke)
  “Those who are attached to the Usus Antiquior (More Ancient Usage) [UA], what Pope Benedict XVI called the Extraordinary Form, of the Roman Rite are deeply disheartened by the severity of the discipline which the Motu Proprio imposes and offended by the language it employs to describe them, their attitudes and their conduct,” said the former Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura. “As a member of the faithful, who also has an intense bond with the UA, I fully share in their sentiments of profound sorrow.”
• Sisters of Charity deny involvement with Biden town hall at Catholic college (CNS)
  Mount St. Joseph University, a Cincinnati Catholic college affiliated with the Sisters of Charity, hosted a CNN town hall with President Biden.The Archdiocese of Cincinnati said that Archbishop Dennis Schnurr was not consulted, “nor would he have granted his approval for any such event to occur on Catholic premises. Mount St. Joseph University operates under the sponsorship of the Sisters of Charity and not under the direct oversight of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.”
• Pope still recovering from surgery, will not celebrate Mass on Sunday (Reuters)
  Pope Francis will not celebrate a special Mass on Sunday, July 25, as he continues his recovery from intestinal surgery. However, the Pontiff will make his regular Angelus audience at noon on Sunday, the Vatican has announced. The Pope had been scheduled to celebrate a Mass for grandparents and the elderly. In his absence, the principal celebrant will be Archbishop Rino Fisichella, the president of the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization.
• USCCB issues renewed plea for action on abortion funding (USCCB)
  “The House Committee on Appropriations voted to push through four of the most extreme pro-abortion bills EVER,” in the words of the USCCB action alert. “The full House is expected to begin voting on these bills during the week of July 26. It’s time to make Congressional office phones ring off the hook!”
• New Hampshire bishop accused of abusing teenage boy in 1980s (AP)
  Bishop Peter Libasci, 69, was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Rockville Centre (NY) in 1978. He was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Rockville Centre in 2007 and Bishop of Manchester (NH) in 2011.
• In Indonesia, bishops support government's tough anti-Covid restrictions (AsiaNews)
  The Southeast Asian nation (map) of 267 million reported over 350,000 new Covid cases last week—the highest in the world.
• Oregon senator weighs in on data tracking and former USCCB general secretary (AP)
  Commenting on the use of phone records and the resignation of the USCCB general secretary, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) said that “experts have warned for years that data collected by advertising companies from Americans’ phones could be used to track them and reveal the most personal details of their lives. Unfortunately, they were right.”“Data brokers and advertising companies have lied to the public, assuring them that the information they collected was anonymous,” he added. “As this awful episode demonstrates, those claims were bogus.”
• Multiple arrests under anti-conversion law in Uttar Pradesh (AsiaNews)
  At least 30 Christians have been arrested in July under the terms of a new anti-conversion law in India’s state of Uttar Pradesh. Police raided one prayer meeting, charging that participants had forced Hindus to embrace the Christian faith. A minister who runs an orphanage was arrested on the same charge, along with his family. Those who have been arrested have been denied bail.
• Cuban-American bishop deplores Communist regime's actions (Archdiocese of Newark)
  “The hour has come to say ‘enough,’ Auxiliary Bishop Manuel Cruz of Newark said at a prayer vigil. “Our people, the Cuban people, helpless as they are, are being massacred by the tyranny of the Cuban regime. Today we say ‘enough is enough’ to that genocide.”
• Polish bishop cleared after abuse investigation (CNA)
  A Vatican-ordered investigation has concluded that abuse charges against Bishop Jan Szkodon are “not proven,” and he will remain an auxiliary of the Krakow archdiocese. However the investigation concluded that he “acted imprudently” with a young person, and he has been ordered to make a three-month retreat.
• Cardinal Hummes calls for action on implementing Amazon synod (CNS)
  “Amazonia: new paths for the Church and for an integral ecology” was the theme of the 3-week Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region (2019). The synod resulted in the Pope’s 2020 apostolic exhortation, Querida Amazonia. Cardinal Cláudio Hummes, 86, was the synod’s relator general, and is currently president of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon.
• Canadian police probing 15 suspicious church fires (Wall Street Journal)
  Police across Canada are now investigating at least 15 fires that have destroyed or damaged churches in recent weeks. The spate of suspicious fires has followed revelations about unmarked graves at “residential schools” that were administered by religious orders. To date police have no clues about the origins of the fires.
• Belarus: churches under pressure to support embattled regime (Forum 18)
  The secret police of Belarus is putting pressure on religious bodies to support the government, after a disputed presidential election. The Belarusian Orthodox Church removed Archbishop Artemy of Grodno, who said he was deposed “on the orders of the state,” as part of a “general purge” of clerics who resist demands to pray for the regime and to drop prayers for political prisoners. The government has put heavy pressure on Catholic priests who are deemed sympathetic to pro-democracy protesters. One such priest, Father Vyacheslav Barok, fled to Poland after receiving a warning from the regime.
• Background: 1st World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly (July 25) (CWN)
  On January 31, Pope Francis announced that he was establishing the World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly, “which will be held throughout the Church every year on the fourth Sunday of July, close to the feast of Saints Joachim and Anne, Jesus’ ‘grandparents.’”
• Religious and political persecution continue in Turkmenistan (AsiaNews)
  The Central Asian nation of 5.5 million (map) is 97% Muslim. President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, often described as authoritarian, assumed office in 2006.
• Nigeria has lost its soul, bishops tell Buhari (The Guardian (Nigeria))
  The nation of 214 million (map), the most populous in Africa, is 46% Muslim, 46% Christian (36% Protestant, 10% Catholic), and 7% ethnic religionist. Since 2015, Muhammadu Buhari has been the nation’s president.
• Congressional testimony highlights China's persecution of religious believers (US House of Representatives)
  Bob Fu, founder and president of the China Aid Association, testified before the House of Representatives’ Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission.“Today, as the world witnesses the worst religious persecution seen in China since Mao’s Cultural Revolution in the 1960s, the rule of man has replaced the rule of law and rule by law,” said Fu. “Regardless of China’s attempts to block information on persecution from reaching the outside world, ChinaAid’s research shows that religious oppression continues to increase with each passing year since 2017.”
• Venezuela's Maduro rips Vatican 'compendium of hatred' (Reuters)
  Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro condemned a statement by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, as a “compendium of hatred” against his country. Cardinal Parolin had sent a message to a businessmen’s organization, saying that political and economic crisis in Venezuela would end only “if Venezuelans, and especially those who have some political responsibility, are willing to sit down and negotiate in a serious way.” Maduro has clashed frequently with the country’s Catholic bishops, who have condemned the government’s suppression of democracy.
• Washington's Cardinal Gregory calls for immigration reform (National Catholic Reporter)
  The prelate spoke at a press conference organized by the American Business Immigration Coalition; he was joined by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senators Dick Durbin and Chris Coons, and Vincentian Father Dennis Holtschneider, president of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities.
• More...