Islamic State claims responsibility for attack on Catholic church in Istanbul

Rome Newsroom, Mar 11, 2021 / 12:00 pm (CNA).- Bulldozers have torn into a 135-year-old church dedicated to St. Joseph in northern France — the first of several church demolitions that could take place in the country in the coming months.

The Chapelle Saint-Joseph, built by the Jesuits in Lille between 1880 and 1886, is being bulldozed by the Catholic University of Lille to make way for a new student building. But the nearby Rameau Palace — designed by the same architect, Auguste Mourcou — is being preserved and restored.

A group appealed to the French Ministry of Culture to reclassify the church building as historical. But the ministry rejected the appeal, stressing that “giving up the demolition of the chapel would lead to the abandonment of an important project for the development of higher education, which represents an investment of 120 million euros [around $144 million].”

Voilà ce qu’il reste ce soir de NOTRE chapelle Saint-Joseph .@bernstephane @VSpillebout @Le_Figaro @Lille_actu @FChretienne @oprfrance @vmfpatrimoine @LaCroix @lavoixdunord @Infos_HDF @hautsdefrance @BFMGrandLille pic.twitter.com/A2r6LG2nB0

— La Gazette du Patrimoine (@gazettepatrim) March 3, 2021

Urgences patrimoine, an organization that seeks to preserve French cultural heritage, collected 12,400 signatures on a petition to save the St. Joseph chapel. But the demolition process, captured on video, began in late February regardless.

Meanwhile, discussions have been held to replace the Church of Sainte-Germaine-Cousin in Calais, an early 20th-century building in the Art Deco style, with an apartment complex, according to CNA’s Italian language news partner, ACI Stampa.

The Diocese of Arras announced in August 2020 that the church would no longer be used due to maintenance costs. The church’s 28 stained-glass windows, created by master glassmaker Louis Barillet, have been registered as protected historic architecture with the French government since 1997.

Another church facing potential demolition is the Saint-Èloi du Poirier church, built in 1902 in Trith-Saint-Léger. Local authorities have said that tearing down the church would be less expensive than renovating it, which it estimates would cost around $958,000.

Members of the local community have written letters, made phone calls to authorities, and organized a town hall meeting in an attempt to save the church.

According to French law, local authorities have the final word as to whether to renovate or demolish churches after the French government appropriated all church property in 1907.

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Concert at the Santa Maria dell’Olivo convent in Maciano, Italy, in July 2024. / Credit: Courtesy of Amici della Nave Association

Rome Newsroom, Feb 17, 2025 / 11:05 am (CNA).

Pope Francis received heartfelt letters from inmates at Milan’s San Vittore prison after his hospitalization forced the cancellation of a planned meeting where the prisoners were to perform in a special concert.

The Holy Father knows well that judicial sentences are served behind bars and, above all, in the heart. That’s where he intended to enter this Monday, Feb. 17, when he was scheduled to meet with a group of inmates from San Vittore prison at Rome’s historic Cinecittà studios.

However, the event was canceled following his hospitalization at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital.

“It was difficult for them to accept because it also represented an opportunity to get out into the fresh air, see sunlight, and breathe freedom for a few hours,” explained Eliana Onofrio, president of the Amici della Nave association.

Since 2018, this organization has worked with the La Nave project, which assists Italian inmates dealing with drug and alcohol addiction. In collaboration with the Santi Paolo e Carlo healthcare association, they run a rehabilitation program where music is a fundamental therapeutic tool.

“Music helps them relax and connect with themselves; it’s an essential part of the re-education process that accompanies rehabilitation to help them overcome addictions,” Onofrio said.

Upon receiving official confirmation of the cancellation from the Vatican, some inmates decided to write letters to the pontiff. “It was a spontaneous gesture through which they wanted to express their affection,” Onofrio noted.

In one of the letters, an inmate expressed his sadness, saying that “everything had been organized in great detail” to offer Pope Francis a concert into which they had poured all their effort and affection. The inmate considers the pope a central figure, expressing his closeness and assuring his prayers.

Another detained person laments being unable to meet him but understands this is “a necessary pause due to his constant dedication and efforts.” Nevertheless, he emphasizes that the pope’s health is paramount and promises prayers for a swift recovery. He also asks Francis not to feel “distressed about the event’s cancellation” and wishes him a speedy return to strength.

The power of music and reintegration

For more than two decades, the Amici della Nave association has accompanied these inmates in various events outside prison. A notable highlight was their concert on April 9, 2019, at Milan’s prestigious La Scala theater.

“I still remember the journey and their faces of emotion as they got off the bus and stepped onto such an important stage,” Onofrio recalled.

Currently, 70 Italian prisoners form part of the choir, alongside volunteers and former inmates who have achieved complete reintegration after lives marked by crime.

The cells of San Vittore, small and cold, are filled with stories of stumbles and suffering. There, inmates await their final sentence. Once they reach the third grade, they are transferred to other prisons.

Some have committed serious crimes, but they have a right to a second chance. Sometimes, they just need “a shoulder to cry on to glimpse a new life,” Onofrio affirms.

Even in prison, goodness exists. Indeed, the light of hope and kindness can emerge after years of criminality when all seems lost.

Thanks to the mediation of the Vatican’s Department of Culture and Education, the letters will be delivered to the pontiff, who remains hospitalized.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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Pilgrims pray in front of St. Peter’s Basilica / Hannah Brockhaus/CNA

Rome, Italy, May 26, 2022 / 08:37 am (CNA).

When St. Philip Neri came to Rome from Florence in 1533, he encountered a city in upheaval. The Sack of Rome six years prior had left famine and plague in its wake. The Protestant Reformation was in full swing and the Church was rife with corruption.

The young Philip, who would spend around 16 years in Rome as a layman before becoming a priest, soon dedicated himself to caring for the city’s sick and poor.

The saint, whose feast day falls on May 26, also realized that Rome’s people were suffering from a spiritual sickness and tiredness as well, and so he set out to reinvigorate Catholics with the joy of the faith through song and dance — and jokes.

Part of St. Philip’s outreach was the revival of the Seven Churches visit. He may not be the originator of the idea of the pilgrimage to some of Rome’s most important churches, but he is credited with renewing its popularity.

After it fell out of use once again, St. Philip’s congregation of secular priests, the Oratory, revived it in the 1960s, including holding the walk one night each year, as close as possible to the way the saint would have done it.

After a two-year pause, on the evening of May 13 into the morning of May 14, around 800 people walked 15 and a half miles in the footsteps of the saint and his followers.

Police officers in cruisers drove ahead of the urban pilgrimage to block traffic as a sea of Catholics from around Italy crossed busy intersections and passed Friday night diners while praying the rosary in unison and singing the Taizé chant “Laudate Dominum,” whose words say in Latin, “Praise the Lord, all people, Alleluia.”

The rosary was prayed four times during the pilgrimage, which took almost 10 hours to complete, including stops for a sack dinner at midnight and short lessons on the virtues led by priests of the Oratory.

The seven basilicas were chosen by the saint for their importance to Christianity, and the walk on May 13-14 followed the path laid out in a 16th-century document almost certainly seen and used by St. Philip — and likely even written by him.

This document, recreated and printed into a booklet for use on the annual pilgrimage today, gives St. Philip’s guidance for those making the Seven Churches visit.

“Before setting out to make this holy Pilgrimage, each of the Brethren must lift up his mind to God, offering him the sincerity of his heart, with the purpose of desiring the sole glory of his divine Majesty in all actions, and especially in this one,” it says.

Those participating can also earn an indulgence under the usual conditions, and are asked to pray for specific intentions. These include praying for the penance of sins, the amendment of lukewarmness and negligence in the service of God, in thanksgiving for the forgiveness of sins, for the pope and the Church, for sinners still in the darkness of an evil life, for the conversion of heretics, schismatics, and infidels, and for the holy souls in purgatory.

The pilgrimage began at Chiesa Nuova, the church built by St. Philip for the Oratory, and proceeded to St. Peter’s Basilica, reaching the site of St. Peter’s martyrdom at sunset.

From there, the group of 800 people followed a path along the Tiber River to stop at the Basilica of St. Bartholomew on the Island (not one of the official seven churches) on the way to the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.

Each of the seven churches is associated with a moment of Christ’s Passion and Crucifixion. At each stop, an Oratory priest preached on a virtue and its opposing vice, before everyone joined in a prayer for an increase in that virtue and for the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

The virtues and vices were abstinence against gluttony, patience against ire, chastity against lust, generosity against avarice, fervor of spirit against acedia, charity against envy, and humility against pride.

After the Basilica of St. Paul, the pilgrimage followed an ancient street still called Seven Churches Way to arrive at the catacombs and the Basilica of St. Sebastian, a third-century Christian martyr.

As a layman in Rome, St. Philip Neri used to visit the catacombs of St. Sebastian to pray. One night in the catacombs, about 10 years after moving to Rome, as he prayed, a mystical ball of fire entered his mouth and went down into his chest, exploding his ribs and doubling the size of his heart with love of God.

St. Philip was changed, both physically and spiritually, by this event, which he only revealed shortly before his death.

Pilgrims next arrived at the Domine Quo Vadis Church after a silent, moonlit walk through the ancient Appian Way Park, flanked by the silhouettes of Italian cypress trees.

The small church of medieval origin marks the spot where, according to tradition, Jesus appeared to St. Peter as he was fleeing Rome to avoid martyrdom.

Peter asked Jesus, “Domine quo vadis?” (“Lord, where are you going?”), to which Christ said, “Venio Romam iterum crucifigi,” (“I am coming to Rome to be crucified again.”) This rebuke caused Peter to turn around and face his own martyrdom.

The next official pilgrimage church was the Basilica of St. John Lateran, followed by a 10-minute walk to the Basilica of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem.

The Basilica of St. Lawrence Outside the Walls was the penultimate stop. The church, which has the tomb of St. Lawrence, is located next to Rome’s Verano Monumental Cemetery, and was included among the Seven Churches by St. Philip Neri, Father Botta said, as a reminder of mortality.

The final stretch of the walk passed through Rome’s main train station, Termini, where pilgrims sang the Marian antiphon “Salve Regina.”

The pilgrimage finished shortly before 6:00 a.m. at the Basilica of St. Mary Major, the traditional end of the walk, where the “Salve Regina” hymn was sung again in honor of the Virgin Mary.

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