House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reportedly received Holy Communion at a Mass with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Wednesday.
Pelosi was banned from receiving Holy Communion in her home diocese, the Archdiocese of San Francisco, in May.
San Francisco’s Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said Pelosi should not be admitted to Communion, nor should she present herself to receive the Eucharist, until she publicly repudiates her support for abortion.
Pelosi, who is in Rome on a family vacation, attended Pope Francis’ Mass for the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul in St. Peter’s Basilica.
Cordileone said on May 20 that the step to bar Pelosi from Communion was “purely pastoral, not political” and came after Pelosi, D-Calif., who has described herself as a “devout Catholic,” repeatedly rebuffed his efforts to reach out to her to discuss her abortion advocacy.
Pope Francis met with Pelosi at the Vatican in October last year.
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St. John’s Seminary, Boston / Archdiocese of Boston
Washington D.C., Aug 11, 2021 / 12:03 pm (CNA).
Catholic seminaries in the northeast are requiring COVID-19 vaccination for their seminarians before the coming semester begins.
Mt. Saint Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Maryland is one of the colleges requiring students and seminarians to be vaccinated before coming to campus in August 2021.
Students were given at least a few months to apply for a religious or medical exemption to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, but the deadline was July 30, Donna Klinger, director of public relations and communications for the university, told CNA in a phone call
Students still seeking an exemption will not be allowed to physically return to campus, Klinger told CNA, but they will have the opportunity to work with the university administration to attempt online learning. Not all university classes are offered online.
At St. John’s Seminary in Boston, vice rector Fr. Thomas Macdonald said seminarians are “expected” to be vaccinated.
The job of a priest requires being close to the people, Macdonald noted, telling CNA that a priest needs access to places that house vulnerable people such as nursing homes. St. John’s is allowing seminarians to opt out of vaccination, but in such cases the seminarian must explain his reasoning for doing so.
Most of the seminarians are already vaccinated, according to the vice rector.
Macdonald told CNA that requesting religious exemptions to the vaccine also raises “theological questions,” as the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has already clarified that the use of COVID-19 vaccines with connections to cell lines derived from abortions is not immoral.
According to the same December 2020 doctrinal note of the congregation, the Vatican also stated that “vaccination is not, as a rule, a moral obligation” and “therefore, it must be voluntary.” The note went on to recognize conscientious refusal of vaccines, explaining that those who refuse COVID-19 vaccines with connections to cell lines derived from abortions, “for reasons of conscience,” must take appropriate precautions to avoid transmitting the virus.
Seton Hall University is requiring its students and seminarians to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as well. These students may still opt-out “while COVID-19 vaccines are authorized on an emergency-use basis.”
Although the three vaccines authorized for use in the United States have only an emergency use authorization of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the administration reportedly might issue full approval of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine within weeks.
“We do recognize the legitimate concerns of individuals in the Seton Hall community around COVID-19, and there are exemptions for religious beliefs, pre-existing health conditions or personal reasons while COVID-19 vaccines are authorized on an emergency-use basis,” said the university’s director of media relations, Laurie Pine, to CNA in an email statement.
An emergency use authorization allows the FDA to expedite its approval of a medical product during public health emergencies.
In its July 2 statement on vaccine mandates, the National Catholic Bioethics Center cautioned against mandates, especially when the COVID vaccines have yet to be fully approved by the FDA. The center said “it would be a radical departure from past practice to impose a mandate involving an unapproved vaccine available only under an Emergency Use Authorization.”
It is unclear whether Seton Hall will no longer allow exemptions after COVID-19 vaccines are fully approved.
Grace and Daniel have been stuck in Cyprus’ buffer zone for more than six months after they fled Cameroon. / Alexey Gotovskiy/EWTN
Rome Newsroom, Dec 3, 2021 / 13:00 pm (CNA).
As a sign of Pope Francis’ concern for migrants, the Vatican announced Friday that it is helping to arrange the transfer of about 12 refugees from Cyprus to Italy.
Among the migrants that Pope Francis is helping to bring to Italy are Grace, 24, and Daniel, 20, Christians who fled Cameroon after schools were shut down due to the Anglophone Crisis, provoked by tensions between the English-speaking minority and French-speaking majority.
The two migrants met after paying the same smuggler to help them cross from Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus to the Greek-speaking south, where they hoped to find asylum in the European Union.
“We were misled,” Grace said. The smuggler told them where to cross over the 16-foot-high wall that divides the Cypriot capital of Nicosia, but they were promptly taken into custody by the United Nations forces stationed in the demilitarized buffer zone.
“The most scary moment in my life so far,” said Grace, who injured her leg after jumping from the wall.
Since crossing over the wall last May, Grace and Daniel have been stuck in the buffer zone that divides Cyprus, which is also called “no man’s land,” living in a tent for more than six months.
In an interview with EWTN News ahead of Pope Francis’ arrival in Cyprus, Grace said that faith in God helped to give her strength in the difficult times in Cyprus. She hopes for a better future in which she can find work.
Daniel, a Catholic, said that he would like to be able to continue his studies once he receives asylum in Europe.
“That’s what is keeping us strong because, like our faith, we believe that in any circumstances that you find yourself, never give up in life, so that saying has been keeping us strong and I believe God can do something,” Grace said.
Elizabeth Kassinis, the executive manager of Caritas Cyprus, told EWTN that the numbers of migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers arriving in Cyprus “have been really dramatic.”
“Cyprus right now receives more asylum seekers per capita than anywhere in Europe,” Kassinis said.
“It is a frontline state … all of the local systems are overwhelmed,” she added.
Recently, Kassinis has noted the arrival of people from Lebanon, which is in the midst of an economic crisis, in addition to the flow of migrants from Syria and African countries.
The Caritas Cyprus migrant services center in Nicosia receives about 300 people requesting assistance each day.
“Most of the numbers that we’re getting now are people who’ve just arrived,” she said.
Pope Francis is currently in Cyprus, where he met on Dec. 3 with a group of migrants, who shared their stories with the pope in an ecumenical prayer service in Nicosia.
“It is he, the Lord Jesus, whom we encounter in the faces of our marginalized and discarded brothers and sisters. In the face of the migrant who is despised, rejected, put in a cage … but at the same time … in the face of the migrant journeying to a goal, to hope, to greater human companionship,” Pope Francis said.
“Reportedly”? If true, then we might be reminded of the communal kiss of Judas and, then later on the road to Calvary, the smiley folks at the periphery who refrained from calling for blood, but who also discretely remained silent. The lukewarm and useless.
One possibly rational explanation for the reported event might be what has traditionally been understood as “invincible ignorance.” Is Pelosi a cretin and totally beyond reach in dealing with elementary moral contradictions, and so defective as to be possibly not morally responsible?
Or, perhaps this reported event is a synodally inclusive symbol to the effect that the Eucharist is so fluidly universal that it even includes unrepentant Aztec practitioners (in addition to Pachamama).
But, then, there’s the scandal thing and the warning from Christ (!) about the millstone…
Sorry, there is only one way to interpret these (repeated) gestures, but the usual spinmeisters will quickly show up to explain it all away for us. Thank goodness we have Catholic (or at least papal) apologists to prevent us from sinning by drawing some obvious conclusions! When Francis compares abortion to hiring a hitman to solve a problem, it is not at all apparent to me that he means to condemn the practice.
As to general attempts to explain away this new stunt by Pontiff Francis, I offer the suggestion that while Jesus called his followers his sheep, he didn’t call us to act like cattle.
St. Paul explains in 1 Corinthians that “whoever…eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself.”
‘ Dickson recalled to LifeSiteNews how at one point during the Amarillo hearings, interestingly, the Lilith Fund attorney clarified to the judge that their lawsuit did not take issue with a reference by Dickson to Lilith, the mythological figure for which the group is named, as “a demon that preys on women and children.”
“I thought that was kind of funny because Lilith is a demon that preys on women and children,” Dickson told LifeSiteNews, adding that he sees the fund as just that. He pointed to his 2019 comment, “Perhaps they have a desire to live up to their name.”
‘
“Reportedly”? If true, then we might be reminded of the communal kiss of Judas and, then later on the road to Calvary, the smiley folks at the periphery who refrained from calling for blood, but who also discretely remained silent. The lukewarm and useless.
One possibly rational explanation for the reported event might be what has traditionally been understood as “invincible ignorance.” Is Pelosi a cretin and totally beyond reach in dealing with elementary moral contradictions, and so defective as to be possibly not morally responsible?
Or, perhaps this reported event is a synodally inclusive symbol to the effect that the Eucharist is so fluidly universal that it even includes unrepentant Aztec practitioners (in addition to Pachamama).
But, then, there’s the scandal thing and the warning from Christ (!) about the millstone…
In a more complete report, we find that Communion was distributed by priests who likely would not even recognize Pelosi.
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGpGdnzggzkHwVhNcJfsnLZCDWS
As to that particular explanation, prudence might counsel that it strains credulity.
Sorry, there is only one way to interpret these (repeated) gestures, but the usual spinmeisters will quickly show up to explain it all away for us. Thank goodness we have Catholic (or at least papal) apologists to prevent us from sinning by drawing some obvious conclusions! When Francis compares abortion to hiring a hitman to solve a problem, it is not at all apparent to me that he means to condemn the practice.
As to general attempts to explain away this new stunt by Pontiff Francis, I offer the suggestion that while Jesus called his followers his sheep, he didn’t call us to act like cattle.
St. Paul explains in 1 Corinthians that “whoever…eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself.”
‘ Dickson recalled to LifeSiteNews how at one point during the Amarillo hearings, interestingly, the Lilith Fund attorney clarified to the judge that their lawsuit did not take issue with a reference by Dickson to Lilith, the mythological figure for which the group is named, as “a demon that preys on women and children.”
“I thought that was kind of funny because Lilith is a demon that preys on women and children,” Dickson told LifeSiteNews, adding that he sees the fund as just that. He pointed to his 2019 comment, “Perhaps they have a desire to live up to their name.”
‘
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/pro-life-activist-sued-for-calling-abortion-murder-takes-case-to-texas-supreme-court/