Polish priest attacked in sacristy during apparent robbery

CNA Staff, Nov 19, 2020 / 05:30 am (CNA).- The archdiocese of Vienna has reported a rise in the number of men training for the priesthood. 

Fourteen new candidates entered the archdiocese’s three seminaries this autumn. Eleven of them are f… […]

Paris, France, Jan 22, 2018 / 04:51 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Heavy rains did not deter huge crowds from gathering in the streets of Paris for the city’s March for Life on Sunday.

Organizers estimated that about 40,000 people showed up for the march, which had as its theme, “From darkness to light.”

Despite the heavy rain, the marchers completed the entire route. The march lasted about four hours, starting from Porte Dauphine and ending in the Trocadero esplanade, in downtown Paris.

A minute of silence was held during the march for those who have lost their lives to abortion.

More than 200,000 abortions are performed each year in France, according to government statistics.

March for Life spokesman Emil Dupont told CNA’s Spanish-language sister agency ACI Prensa that “it is important to break the silence and speak about the consequences of abortion, which no one want to say anything about. So we’ve got to do it.”

“It is very important to work together for life,” he stressed. 

Ana del Pino, the European coordinator of the OneOfUs Federation, agreed, emphasizing the need for unity and cooperation among all the European pro-life groups “to present a common front in defense of motherhood, the family and life.” 

In addition to protection for the unborn, this year the March for Life placed special emphasis on end-of-life issues.

Although active assisted suicide is illegal in France, a bill passed in January 2016 allows for “terminal sedation.” For those who are determined to be near death, the law permits “heavy and continuous sedation,” administered until the patient dies either from the illness or starvation. 

In addition to the tens of thousands of French who took to the streets to demonstrate for life, several pro-life groups from Holland, Spain, Germany, Italy and Portugal also joined in the march.

Pablo Siegrist from the Jerome Lejeune Foundation in Spain told ACI Prensa that his group participated in this demonstration in France because the laws on surrogate motherhood, abortion and euthanasia have “a clear crisscross effect between countries, and that’s why we believe we have a much more encompassing goal to offer, which is to defend everyone’s life.

“We believe that life is a treasure regardless of the physical or mental abilities a person may have and that everyone has a lot of contribute. We stand up for everyone, no matter what their situation is,” Siegrist stressed. 

Alvaro Ortega, president of the Spanish +Life Foundation, one of the numerous groups of young people attending the March for Life, said the reason they came was because “we believe it is absolutely necessary to defend the most innocent and defenseless which is the child who has been conceived but not yet born.”

Ortega also stressed the importance of an international presence in demonstrations such as this one because issues like abortion and euthanasia “come from an agenda organized on the international level, and so the response has to also be international.”

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Utrecht, Netherlands, Feb 20, 2019 / 06:54 pm (CNA).- St. Catherine’s Cathedral in Utrecht is expected to be closed and sold due to an ongoing decrease in attendance, as the aging building has become more expensive to maintain.

The cathedral will likely be sold to the Museum Catharijne Convent, a former convent that was turned into a religious art gallery. A hearing for the sale was held Feb. 18.

An online petition has been opened by a group of parishioners who believe there is still a possibility for Catholic growth in the city. The petition has received 1,655 signatures.

“Closing the cathedral and thus removing the visibility of Catholicism in the inner city will prevent growth of the community in the future,” the petition reads.

St. Catherine’s was initially built as part of a Carmelite friary, between the 15th and 16th centuries. When the Archdiocese of Utrecht was suppressed in 1580 amid the Dutch Revolt and the Protestant Reformation, the church was given over to Calvinists.

It was returned to the Catholic Church in the 19th century, and it became the cathedral when the Utrecht archdiocese was re-established in 1853.

Church historian Peter Nessen told NOS, a Dutch public broadcaster, that “the criticism comes not only from the parishioners and the pastor, but also from social media, which is why it is so amazing that Archbishop Eijk has not resisted so far, which will not increase his moderate popularity.”

Nessen added that should St. Catherine’s be sold, the bishop’s cathedra could be moved to St. Augustine parish in Utrecht, or to a church in Apeldoorn, more than 40 miles east of Utrecht.

The historian added that it would be the first time a Dutch cathedra has had to be relocated because of insufficient funds and a low number of parishioners.

From a high of 942,000 Catholics in 1980, the Utrecht archdiocese fell to 750,000 Catholics in 2014. By 2017, the number of Catholics in the archdiocese had risen moderately, to nearly 754,000.

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