Bishop Christopher J. Coyne of Burlington, VT. Courtesy photograph. / null
Vatican City, Jun 26, 2023 / 04:40 am (CNA).
Pope Francis appointed Bishop Christopher Coyne as a coadjutor archbishop of Hartford on Monday.
As coadjutor, Coyne will assist Archbishop Leonard Blair in the administration of the Hartford archdiocese and should succeed him as archbishop upon his retirement, expected once Blair turns 75 next year.
Coyne has led the Diocese of Burlington, Vermont since 2015. The 65-year-old bishop previously served as the auxiliary bishop of Indianapolis from 2011 to 2015.
Originally from Woburn, Massachusetts, Coyne worked as a bartender for two years before entering seminary. He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Boston at the age of 27. After ordination, he studied in Rome at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute, where he earned a doctorate in sacred liturgy in 1994. He became the director of the archdiocese’s Office of Worship in 2000.
Cardinal Bernard Law appointed Coyne as a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Boston in 2002, a role he held for three years at the height of the archdiocese’s sex abuse scandal.
He later served as the chairman of communications for the U.S. bishops’ conference from 2015 to 2018 and as a member of the U.S. bishops’ Evangelization and Catechesis Committee and the Committee on Divine Worship.
Next year, Coyne is expected to succeed Blair, who has led the Archdiocese of Hartford for the past ten years. Before coming to Connecticut, Blair served as the bishop of Toledo from 2003 to 2013 and as an auxiliary bishop of Detroit from 1999 to 2003.
Blair initiated a pastoral plan in 2016 to revitalize the Archdiocese of Hartford, which combined neighboring churches into a single parish, reducing the number of parishes from 213 to 127. He also called for an archdiocesan synod in 2018.
The Archdiocese of Hartford includes the counties of New Haven and Litchfield and has nearly 470,000 Catholics. Pope Gregory XVI established Hartford as a diocese in 1843.
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Believers gather at the Namugongo Shrine in Uganda for this year’s Martyrs’ Day Pilgrimage on June 3, 2024, where the country’s president, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, urged them to be at the forefront of fostering peace in the East African region. Museveni lauded Christians and other believers in the country for “embracing unity” and fostering religious tolerance. / Credit: ACI Africa
Kampala, Uganda, Jun 4, 2024 / 12:25 pm (CNA).
Uganda President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni urged believers gathered at the Namugongo Shrine in Kampala, Uganda, for this year’s Martyrs’ Day Pilgrimage on Monday to be at the forefront of fostering peace in the East African region.
Speaking after the Eucharistic celebration for the event celebrated annually on June 3, Museveni lauded Christians and other believers in the country who have embraced unity and rallied under their religious leaders to foster unity and religious tolerance.
“A Christian must be an example to other people. A Christian must lead by example in fighting for peace,” the Ugandan president said during the event, which was hosted by the Diocese of Nebbi.
Museveni urged Christians to give reconciliation and dialogue a chance, saying: “Our countries have a challenge of peace, and a lack of peace many times is caused by unresolved issues.”
Priests, religious, and laypeople from across Africa gather at the Namugongo Shrine in Uganda for this year’s Martyrs’ Day Pilgrimage on June 3, 2024, where Ugandan president Yoweri Kaguta Museveni urged them to be at the forefront of fostering peace in the East African region. Museveni lauded Christians and other believers in the country for “embracing unity” and fostering religious tolerance. Credit: ACI Africa
He lamented that rather than fostering peace and unity, many in the region, including some Christians, resort to guns and violence to solve issues.
“Therefore, I besiege all believers to do all that is necessary to bring peace in our East African countries,” Museveni said. “It is only after fostering peace in our region that we should now embark on eradicating poverty.”
In his speech, the president also acknowledged with appreciation the collaboration of religious leaders and the government of the East African country in curbing religious and tribal divisions.
“I want to thank the believers in Uganda and their religious leaders… this is because, before the 1960s and even after, Ugandans were divided according to tribes and religion,” he said. “This was part of the chaos that engulfed Uganda.”
Museveni chastised those who have sowed division, decrying what he described as “hypocrisy among religious leaders in the country,” saying: “You who claim to be religious are more unreligious than those who are irreligious, and you were dividing our people.”
But he also added: “I want to thank Ugandans very much because they embraced the call for unity that we are still enjoying up to now.”
Believers gather at the Namugongo Shrine for this year’s Martyrs’ Day Pilgrimage on June 3, 2024, where the country’s president, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, urged them to be at the forefront of fostering peace in the East African region. Museveni lauded Christians and other believers in the country for “embracing unity” and fostering religious tolerance. Credit: ACI Africa
The Ugandan president further lauded the Nebbi Diocese for organizing this year’s pilgrimage, which he described as “enriching.”
He also acknowledged the presence of Mary Nyerere, who he said always attends the pilgrimage at Namugongo to pray for the beatification and canonization of her spouse, Servant of God Julius Kambarage Nyerere, who was former prime minister and then president of what is now Tanzania.
Pope Benedict XVI declared Nyerere a servant of God on May 13, 2005.
“I want to thank Mary Nyerere for coming here every moment we have this pilgrimage to pray for the beatification of Julius Nyerere,” Museveni said. “I am a witness to the good work of Julius Nyerere.”
Museveni, who has led Uganda since 1986, urged all those gathered at the event to emulate the late Tanzanian president for his heroic virtues.
Priests, religious, and laypeople gather at the Namugongo Shrine for this year’s Martyrs’ Day Pilgrimage on June 3, 2024, where the country’s president, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, urged them to be at the forefront of fostering peace in the East African region. Credit: ACI Africa
Ugandan Martyrs’ Day dates back to the first decade of Christian presence in the East African nation when 45 men between the ages of 14 and 50 were killed because of their faith between 1885 and 1887.
Among the 45 were 22 Catholics who were beatified in 1920 and canonized in 1964. These martyrs continue to inspire the Catholic faith in Uganda and around the world.
Pope Francis speaks at his general audience in Paul VI Hall on Jan. 18, 2023. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Rome Newsroom, Jan 28, 2023 / 05:00 am (CNA).
Pope Francis has written a letter to clarify his comments on sin and homosexuality from a recent int… […]
Cardinal Gerhard Müller (center) and Father Joseph Hamilton (at left), personal secretary to the late Cardinal George Pell, were among the priests celebrating the Jan. 10, 2024, Mass held on the first anniversary of the cardinal’s death. / Credit: Elizabeth Alva
Rome Newsroom, Jan 10, 2024 / 16:45 pm (CNA).
A requiem Mass was held in Rome on Tuesday evening to mark the first anniversary of the death of Cardinal George Pell and to celebrate the cardinal’s illustrious ecclesiastical career.
The chapel of the Domus Australia was filled to capacity for the Mass, which was celebrated by Cardinal Gerhard Müller. In attendance were numerous cardinals and bishops, an array of priests from Rome, ambassadors to the Holy See, and faithful from Rome and abroad who came to pray for the beloved cardinal.
The chapel of the Domus Australia was filled to capacity for the Jan. 10, 2024, Mass, which was celebrated by Cardinal Gerhard Müller. Credit: Elizabeth Alva
Father Joseph Hamilton, rector of the Domus Australia and Pell’s former secretary, noted in an exclusive interview with EWTN: “I think His Eminence was very loved here in the city of Rome. His witness was very much appreciated and his loss was very unexpected.”
“I think that a beautiful Mass to commemorate his life, to pray for the repose of his soul, and to ask for his intercession here in the chapel, which he renovated and which he loved, I’m hoping will bring consolation and some degree of closure for those who have been grieving for the cardinal over the last year,” Hamilton added in his interview.
Pell died at the age of 81 on Jan. 10, 2023, after suffering a cardiac arrest following a scheduled hip replacement days prior at Rome’s Salvator Mundi hospital. He previously served as archbishop of Sydney and Melbourne before Pope Francis appointed him to head the Vatican’s Secretariat for the Economy in 2014, making him the most senior Australian prelate.
Cardinal Raymond Burke was among those at the Mass on the first anniversary of Cardinal George Pell’s death Jan. 10, 2024. Credit: Elizabeth Alva
During his homily, Müller reflected on the long illustrious life of the departed cardinal, noting that Pell and Pope Benedict — who passed away less than two weeks before the cardinal — were “role models of the true faith.”
Müller reflected on his early life, noting that the cardinal showed great “athletic abilities” and “high intellectual talent,” which would have brought him “a brilliant career in the world.” But, Müller continued, Pell eschewed worldly goals and opted to “follow Christ’s call to the priestly service.”
Cardinal Gerhard Müller at the requiem Mass on Jan. 10, 2024, marking the first anniversary of Cardinal George Pell’s death. Credit: Elizabeth Alva
Pell was renowned for his quick wit and towering stature. Müller, reflecting on his personal relationship with the late cardinal, highlighted Pell’s commitment to “marriage and family in the spirit of Christ, teachings against relativization by secularist-minded participants in the Synod of this topic.”
Müller also touched upon the darkest chapter of Pell’s life, which stands as “a great testimony of Christian patience.”
Cardinal George Pell gives an interview to EWTN News in Rome, Italy, on Dec. 9, 2020. Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA.
Pell was convicted on Dec. 11, 2018, on five charges of sexual abuse while he served as archbishop of Melbourne in the late 1990s. After serving 404 days in solitary confinement, Australia’s high court unanimously overturned the convictions, based on reasonable doubt of the appellate proceedings, in April 2020.
“He was relentlessly pursued by a bloodthirsty mob and made himself a victim of justice by anti-Catholic agitators in the media and the police apparatus,” Müller remarked regarding the vilification of the late cardinal in mainstream media.
Auxiliary Bishop Richard Umbers of the Archdiocese of Sydney spoke with EWTN after the Mass, noting that the evening was an opportunity to mark “the anniversary of a man who was a lion in the Church. I think it’s giving due recognition to someone who’s been very important in the life of Australia, if not in fact the whole world.”
While recognizing that Pell was a “lightning rod for the Church,” Umbers explained that he was a man “of great strength and tremendous courage.”
Pell’s legacy is not just limited to his theological acumen or reforms of the Vatican’s handling of financial affairs, but it is most tangibly seen in the revitalization of the Church in Sydney.
“I think the impact of Cardinal Pell is very visible in Sydney,” Umbers said. “He was a big man with great vision, and the last 20 years in the Archdiocese of Sydney have seen real growth and leadership amongst a number of young Catholics.”
“You find an environment there which is quite extraordinary. A lot of life, especially in the area of university chaplaincy. He [Pell] invested heavily in that area and took great interest in the next generation of leaders,” Umbers added.
According to Father Hamilton, one of the hallmarks of Pell’s legacy will be his example of strength and unity for the Church as it is going through a period marked by division and is mired in crises.
“We are one Catholic Church, we have one faith, we have one pope, we’re one people. If we stand together, we’re strong. If we’re divided, we’re weak, and I think that his [Pell’s] witness to us and his legacy to the Church is that it is one, holy, catholic, apostolic Church that he was proud to serve and that he was proud, in a very humble way, to be a confessor of. I think that that leaves us an astonishing and shining example,” he said.
Not bad for a bishop who helped Bernard Law cover up the scandal in Boston-guess crime does still pay in the Catholic Church