News Briefs

Archbishop Naumann encourages Catholics to get vaccinated, accommodate consciences

August 28, 2021 Catholic News Agency 1
Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City in Kansas celebrates Mass with members of the U.S. bishops’ Region IX at the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome on Jan. 14, 2020, during their ad Limina Apostolorum visit. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA

Washington D.C., Aug 28, 2021 / 12:01 pm (CNA).

More U.S. bishops this week issued statements on COVID-19 vaccine mandates and conscientious objection.

As employers and public places have begun mandating that workers and customers have received a COVID-19 vaccine, bishops around the country have begun issuing statements for Catholics regarding mandates and conscience exemptions.

This week, Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City in Kansas – who is also chair of the U.S. bishops’ pro-life committee – encouraged Catholics to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, in a statement issued in his capacity as archbishop of Kansas City. 

“The Church upholds the permissibility of receiving the vaccines, because vaccination is by itself not evil. In fact, it is normally a virtuous act, attempting to protect the health of others as well as your own health,” he stated in an Aug. 26 press release.

Archbishop Naumann noted the ethical problems posed by the vaccines’ connection to cell lines derived from abortions decades ago. Of the three COVID-19 vaccines approved for use in the United States, two of them – produced by Pfizer and Moderna – were tested using the controversial cell lines. One of the vaccines, produced by Johnson & Johnson, utilized the cell lines in both production and testing.

Naumann clarified that the act of receiving such a vaccine is not in itself supportive of legal abortion.

“The intrinsic evil of an abortion committed almost 50 years ago or the grave injustice almost a half of century ago of a researcher taking cells from an aborted child without donor consent are not aided or encouraged by the individual receiving the vaccination,” he said.

However, he added that those receiving such a vaccine are “obligated” to advocate for ethical vaccines with no connection to the controversial cell lines. Furthermore, Naumann affirmed the conscience rights of Catholics who refuse a COVID vaccine because of its connection to abortion.

“The most charitable and just posture is to seek to accommodate the consciences of all persons,” he said. “A society that fails to respect the rights of conscience lacks a key element of the common good.”

Priests, he added, are not obliged to issue letters in support of Catholics seeking conscience exemptions to vaccine mandates.

“In pastoral care, priests are called to help Catholics to form their consciences well and obey their conscientious judgments. However, priests need not feel compelled to sign exemption letters,” he said.

“Lay Catholics can and should insist on their conscience rights and religious liberties based on the authoritative teachings of the Church found in the Catechism, papal and ecumenical council documents, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and other sources,” he said.

Bishop Frank Caggiano of Bridgeport, in an Aug. 17 letter to clergy, said that while all Catholics have a “moral obligation” to protect the health of others during the pandemic, Catholics may refuse the vaccine if they “feel obligated in conscience” to do so.

However, he added, priests should not issue a letter on behalf of those refusing a COVID-19 vaccine out of conscience, as such a decision is a personal one and reflects “a more rigorous religious practice than recommended by the Roman Magisterium.” The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in December 2020 said the reception of a COVID vaccine with connections to the controversial cell lines is morally permissible, if no other ethical option is available.

Other U.S. bishops have also made statements on vaccine mandates and exemptions.

Bishop Edward Weisenburger of Tuscon said that the interest of promoting the common good during the pandemic – in receiving a vaccine – supersedes personal preferences against a vaccine. His letter to priests of the diocese, reported by KGUN 9 local news, also instructed priests not to support Catholics seeking religious exemptions to vaccine mandates.

“I fail to see how a Catholic could ask for an exemption from a vaccine mandate or mask mandate based upon their Catholic faith,” he wrote.

The Diocese of Las Vegas will not be issuing religious exemptions, according to KSNV News.

“We’re calling everyone, all people of faith and goodwill to see in the decision of the diocese the weighing of various goods, the common good and the good of health and the good of following one’s conscience,” stated Bishop Gregory Gordon of Las Vegas, reported by KSNV News.


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Pope Francis makes changes to the Vatican’s Chapter of St. Peter

August 28, 2021 Catholic News Agency 5
St. Peter’s Basilica / Vatican Media

Vatican City, Aug 28, 2021 / 08:20 am (CNA).

Pope Francis on Saturday made several temporary changes to the Vatican’s Chapter of St. Peter, a group of retired priests who pray and assist in the liturgical activities of St. Peter’s Basilica.

The new norms cut the chapter’s expenses and move its financial management under the Fabric of St. Peter, the office which manages St. Peter’s Basilica.

The pope issued the changes to the Chapter of St. Peter Aug. 28. They go into effect Oct. 1 and have a duration of one year while the chapter’s juridical statutes are under revision.

Pope Francis said the changes have been made “in order to facilitate the start of the reform of the Chapter of St. Peter in the Vatican.”

The Chapter of St. Peter was established in 1043 by St. Leo IX to guarantee regular prayer in St. Peter’s Basilica and, in the earlier years, to assist the pope in managing patrimonial goods donated to the papacy, including real estate.

The group is chaired by the archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica, currently Cardinal Mauro Gambetti. It has a vicar and 34 members. The members are chosen from among the most remarkable personalities in the Catholic Church when they retire.

Many of them come from the Roman Curia and receive a Vatican pension in addition to the fee paid to chapter members for their service. One of Pope Francis’ Aug. 28 reforms was to state that members can only receive the emolument from the chapter if they are not also receiving another commission, pension, or salary from the Vatican.

The priests will be appointed by Pope Francis for two roles: canon or coadjutor, according to the new norms. Canons will “provide the service of liturgical and pastoral animation at St. Peter’s Basilica.”

Coadjutors will “work in liturgical celebrations, in pastoral works and in other tasks that can be entrusted to them by the Archpriest together with the Chapter.”

Pope Francis also transferred some of the economic activities of the chapter, the Treasury Museum and sale of religious objects, to the management of the Fabric of St. Peter.

The chapter will continue to administer the real estate and financial assets already under its management, though a large part of the patrimony had already been transferred under the Administration of the Apostolic See (APSA), according to a former member of the chapter.

Priests of the Chapter of St. Peter are “professionals of prayer,” Benedict XVI said in a private audience with the group in 2007.

The commitment to prayer is central to their activity. Until the middle of the 20th century, the chapter members had to be in the basilica on a daily basis to pray the hours, be in adoration, and serve in the liturgical celebrations.

The chapter is now mainly involved on Sundays and feast days, or in celebrations with the pope.

The reform of the Chapter of St. Peter is happening alongside a reform of the organization and schedule of St. Peter’s Basilica. Pope Francis forbid private Masses in the upper part of the basilica earlier this year. Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, the new archpriest, wants to go further and have only two Masses per day, in Italian, broadcast by the Vatican communications service.


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$1.25M donation will transform University of Maine’s Newman Center chapel

August 28, 2021 Catholic News Agency 4
An artist’s rendering of the planned renovation of the University of Maine’s Newman Center chapel. / Courtesy of Pepperchrome

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 28, 2021 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Situated among fraternity houses along College Avenue, the University of Maine’s Newman Center in Orono, Maine could easily be mistaken for another Greek house.

Save for the sign out front displaying Mass times, and a “RUSH JESUS” banner on the side of the building, there is little that indicates the Newman Center is the spiritual home of the university’s Catholics. 

There’s no tower, no church bells, and no visible stained glass windows or other things one would typically associate with a Catholic church. 

But now, thanks to an anonymous $1.25 million donation, that will all be changing soon, as the center plans on breaking ground next year on a “truly Catholic” renovation of the building. 

“The spiritual state of the Newman Center is amazing. There is so much good happening there for so many,” Fr. Kyle Doustou, pastor of The Parish of the Resurrection of the Lord and priest at the Newman Center, told CNA on Aug. 27. The Newman Center is one of the churches in the parish’s cluster. 

The physical state of the building, however, falls short of amazing. In addition to the structural problems inherent to a building dedicated in 1969, the center is “impossible to heat efficiently,” and is liturgically problematic as the building’s chapel is open to the rest of the Newman Center, Fr. Doustou said. 

“With our new plans, the structure will be rebuilt to handle the Maine winters, reconfigured so that we have more space for all of our formation programs, and we will have a separate chapel with beautiful stained glass windows, statues, etc.,” Fr. Doustou explained. 

In addition to Mass, adoration, and other sacraments, the Newman Center is a place to “pray, study, play, and serve,” and is the closest Catholic church to the University of Maine’s campus. Fr. Doustou told CNA that the renovations will be key in establishing the church’s identity and helping with the mission of evangelization. 

According to the Diocese of Portland’s website, the planned renovations include a “quiet, beautiful narthex where one can transition into the presence of God;” different entrances for the chapel and for the main hall, a separate chapel “featuring a new sacristy, tabernacle, altar, ambo, and main crucifix,” a steeple with a bell, a Marian garden, and spaces for students to have meetings and foster community.

“The building is essential. We’re right on College Avenue, right in the midst of all the frat houses, right in the the midst of all the traffic and energy,” Fr. Doustou said.

The church building, he said, does four important things: It sends a message that the Catholic community exists at the University of Maine; it evangelizes; it “physically provides a roof over our heads as we engage in our mission” and, as the closest tabernacle to the university, “it houses the mysteries of God, particularly the Eucharist.” 

Fr. Doustou told CNA that it was particularly important that the chapel transform into a “truly sacred” place.

“[The chapel] needs to be a place where our students can experience something different, other-worldly, and supernatural,” he said. “They need a place that is quiet and contemplative to pray, but also one dripping in Catholicism so that they can learn the faith.”

Maine is one of the least-religious states in the country, and surveys have found that Mainers report praying less than any other state, and only 48% say they believing in God. The Pew Research Center reported in 2016 that 22% of people in Maine say they attend a weekly religious service, and barely a third of the state says that religion is “very important” in their lives. There are seven seminarians in formation for the diocese, and only two of them are Maine natives.

That, coupled with Gen Z’s apathetic feelings on religion, means that Fr. Doustou and the campus ministry staff at the Newman Center have their work cut out for them. But Fr. Doustou said that even so, he has “a little miracle happening on College Avenue.” 

“People often think I’m exaggerating about what goes on at the Newman Center. They see Maine as so secular,” he said. 

“I have multiple young men discerning a vocation to the priesthood, and two will likely go to the seminary next fall. I have young women discerning religious vocations. I have many young couples getting married and choosing to stay in the area because there’s such a robust Catholic community here,” Fr. Doustou explained.

“And it’s growing. You have to see it to believe it.”


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