Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican’s secretary for relations with states. / Daniel Ibáñez/CNA.
Vatican City, Jun 17, 2021 / 08:00 am (CNA).
The Vatican is partnering in an event that will bring together scientists and leaders of the world’s … […]
Cardinal Péter Erdő. / Screenshot from 52nd International Eucharistic Congress YouTube channel.
Budapest, Hungary, Jun 17, 2021 / 07:05 am (CNA).
A cardinal has said that the lyrics of the official hymn of this year’s International Eucharistic C… […]
The Regensburger Domspatzen, a choir based at Regensburg Cathedral in Bavaria, Germany. / Bistum Regensburg.
Regensburg, Germany, Jun 17, 2021 / 06:15 am (CNA).
A German Catholic diocese announced Tuesday that a cathedral school whose pupils sin… […]
Computer. / UnSplash.
Rome Newsroom, Jun 17, 2021 / 05:00 am (CNA).
The internet enabled human trafficking and sexual exploitation to increase during the pandemic, according to one Vatican official, who has urged that steps be taken to protect h… […]
A prolife memorial at St. Joseph’s church in Port Moody, Canada, that was vandalized June 13, 2021. Credit: St. Joseph’s Catholic Church.
Vancouver, Canada, Jun 16, 2021 / 18:29 pm (CNA).
Two parishes in the Archdiocese of Vancouver were vandalized last weekend.
The incidents come shortly after the discovery of the remains of 215 indigenous children in unmarked graves at the Kamloops Indian Residential School.
At St. Augustine’s parish in Vancouver on June 12, vandals wrote ‘release the records’ and ‘killers’ on the front door of the church.
A parishioner at St. Augustine’s told Global News in an interview that the incident was sad. “We had nothing to do with what happened with those poor kids,” the parishioner said.
St. Joseph’s Church in Port Moody, about 10 miles east of Vancouver, was also found vandalized the morning of June 13. A pro-life memorial gravestone was knocked to the ground, while the stone on which it was standing has been broken.
Fr. Mark McGuckin, pastor of St. Joseph’s, told CNA around the same time the memorial was knocked over, new building developments next to the parish had been burning down in what likely was an incident of arson.
McGuckin considered himself and his church community “very fortunate and blessed” because of the damp weather conditions. “The fire was so hot that flying embers landed on our church roof,” he told CNA, “and had it been three weeks of real dry season that could have really caught on fire.”
“I think it’s unrelated,” Fr. McGuckin said, doubting the connection between the vandalism at St. Augustine’s and the vandalism at his church. “We would have had clearer messaging around the residential school if that was someone who wanted to express themselves that way.”
The pro-life gravestone has been temporarily fixed but lays at a 45 degree angle, while it awaits full refurbishment.
Fr. McGuckin told CNA that over the weekend, there had been peaceful protests at Catholic churches in the area.
On the weekend of May 22, the remains of 215 indigenous children were found in unmarked graves at the Kamloops Indian Residential School. The discovery was made with ground-penetrating radar. It is unclear how the children died.
St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Kamloops was vandalized following the discovery. Graffiti reading ‘banished’, ‘evicted’, and ‘crime scene’ was found spray painted on the walls of St. Joseph’s May 31. An ‘X’ was on the front doors.
The chief of the Tk̓emlúps te Secwépemc, or Kamloops Indian Band, has condemned the vandalism of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Kamloops shortly after the discovery of indigenous children’s graves at a nearby Church-run residential school.
“We are deeply disturbed to learn that the Saint Joseph’s church was vandalized. The church was built from the ground up by Tk̓emlúps te Secwépemc members. We understand the many emotions connected to a Roman Catholic run residential school. At the same time, we respect the choices that Tk̓emlúps te Secwépemc ancestors made, over a 100 years ago, to erect this church,” read a May 31 statement from Rosanne Casimir, the band’s chief.
Daniel Cameron, Attorney General of Kentucky. Credit: Kentucky Office of the Attorney General.
Washington D.C., Jun 16, 2021 / 17:19 pm (CNA).
Kentucky’s Attorney General Daniel Cameron filed a brief on Monday in support of his ability to defend… […]
Credit: sfam_photo/Shutterstock.
Madrid, Spain, Jun 16, 2021 / 16:29 pm (CNA).
A group of young Catholics have launched “1 Week for Life”, a campaign of prayer and fasting for the end of euthanasia in Spain and the world, the conversion of all s… […]
Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the US, addresses the USCCB’s 2020 Fall General Assembly.
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 16, 2021 / 15:19 pm (CNA).
Following the Covid-19 pandemic the Church needs to dialogue with an aim of unity, and emphasize the importance of Christ, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, said to the USCCB’s assembly on Wednesday.
The assembly is taking place virtually via video conference.
“I am firmly convinced that emerging from the pandemic, we need to be a Church that proclaims, with conviction, the basic kerygma and the person of Jesus Christ,” Archbishop Pierre said June 16.
“And we need to be a Church that follows the method of Jesus, which is one of accompaniment and dialogue, a dialogue directed toward salvation.”
Archbishop Pierre said there was a need for unity in the Church in America, noting that while this is a challenge, it is one that has been met before in other trying times.
“In response to the abuse crisis, it answered with a unified and concerted effort that showed care and compassion for the plight of survivors; it provided for the needs of the immigrant community; it stood in solidarity with our persecuted brothers and sisters throughout the world by providing material and spiritual closeness; it came to the rescue of those affected by natural disasters; it spoke with one voice in defense of the dignity of all peoples and against the scourge of racial inequality,” said Archbishop Pierre.
“These examples point to the undeniable truth that unity is possible and that the Church in the United States has numerous experiences of it.”
The bishops, he said, have a particularly important role to play in ensuring that this unity is achieved. He noted that the four dimensions of dialogue described by St. John Paul II in the 1995 encyclical Ut unum sint “can be helpful to illumine the path towards greater unity,” even though they were not written with this particular situation in mind.
Those four dimensions–the dialogue of charity, of conversion, of truth, and of salvation–all play a role in helping to better unite the Christian people.
Archbishop Pierre highlighted the need for the Church after the pandemic to center its evangelical efforts on the saving work of Christ, pointing out that “Christianity offers more than an NGO or a social service organization.”
“The Church offers salvation in the person of Jesus Christ,” he said.
“What is often lacking in the process of evangelization, and we certainly need to evangelize and catechize now more than ever, is ‘beginning again from Jesus Christ,’’’ said Archbishop Pierre. ’
“The starting point, therefore, cannot be to shame the weak, but to propose the One who can strengthen us to overcome our weaknesses, especially through the sacraments of reconciliation and the Eucharist,” he said.
“With respect to the latter, Holy Communion is not merely a ‘thing’ to be received but Christ Himself, a Person to be encountered.”
Archbishop Pierre stressed the need to center the Church on Christ, saying that “a Catholicism that confuses itself with a mere cultural tradition or which cannot distinguish itself from other proposals, including political or ideological ones that are based on certain values, will never be convincing to this generation or to new ones.”
“Jesus Christ is a Person, not a concept,” he said.
USCCB fall 2019 meeting, Baltimore, Maryland / Christine Rousselle/CNA
Washington D.C., Jun 16, 2021 / 14:57 pm (CNA).
While some U.S. bishops on Wednesday pushed for no time limits in debating a motion to draft a teaching document on the Euchar… […]
Archbishop Gomez addresses his brother bishops after being elected to a three-year term as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops during the USCCB’s fall meeting in Baltimore, Nov. 11, 2019 / Christine Rousselle/CNA
Washington D.C., Jun 16, 2021 / 14:20 pm (CNA).
In his opening address at the 2021 spring meeting of the U.S. bishops on Wednesday, conference president Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles made a passionate call for unity.
Archbishop Gomez reminded fellow bishops that “only a Church that is united can heal the brokenness and challenge the injustices that we see more clearly now.”
“We have been living through some extraordinary times,” the archbishop said. “We’ve seen a pandemic shut down our civilization, including the Church, for more than a year. We’ve lived through riots in our major cities, rising social divisions and unrest, and maybe the most polarized election our country has ever seen.”
He also said that “the Church’s mission will be shaped for years to come by the troubles of these recent months.”
“I was noticing, even before the pandemic, how often Pope Francis talks about the importance of unity — not only among peoples, but also unity within the Church,” Archbishop Gomez said, as he quoted Pope Francis’ encyclical Fratelli Tutti in its call for unity among the human family.
Gomez observed that it is “not realistic to expect the Church to stay immune from the pressures of division. Those pressures are all around us. The Church is divine, she is the Body of Christ. But we are all human in the Church, after all. And we are living in a secular society where politics is becoming the substitute religion for a lot of people.”
“So, we need to guard against the temptation to think about the Church in simply political terms,” he said.
He then quoted Pope Francis’ recent homily for Pentecost Sunday: “Today, if we listen to the Spirit, we will not be concerned with conservatives and progressives, traditionalists and innovators, right and left. … The Paraclete impels us to unity … the harmony of diversity. He makes us see ourselves as parts of the same body, brothers and sisters of one another.”
“Unity in the Church,” Archbishop Gomez continued, does not mean conformity of opinion or automatic agreement among bishops. “The apostles argued passionately. They disagreed over pastoral strategies and methods. But never about the truth of the Gospel.”
“Only a Church that is united can heal the brokenness and challenge the injustices that we see more clearly now in the wake of this pandemic,” he added.
According to the USCCB president, “the power of our Catholic vision flows from our profound awareness of the unity of life, from conception to natural death, and the unity of the human family, every person a child of God.”
He acknowledged that “there are forces at work right now in our culture that threaten not only the unity of the human family, but also the very truth about God’s creation and human nature.” He quoted Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, saying, “This is the age of sin against God the Creator.”
“My brothers,” Gomez stated, “we stand at a historic crossroads, as our Holy Father is telling us. It falls to the Church in this moment to defend the truth about God the Creator, and the truth about the sanctity of the human person and the unity of the human family in God’s plan for creation.”
“My prayer is that we all remain united in what is essential — our love for Jesus and our desire to proclaim him as the living God and the true path for humanity.”
In concluding, referring to his Mexican roots, Archbishop Gomez reminded his fellow bishops that “as you know, I have a deep devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe. When I was growing up my family went on pilgrimage to the shrine in Mexico City nearly every summer.”
“And I find myself turning to her a lot during these days,” he continued. “I was reflecting today how the Popes see her apparition as a sign of unity for the continent. St. John Paul II called her shrine ‘the Marian heart of America’.”
May she help us to keep our hearts humble and united in the service of Jesus, as we seek to continue the evangelization of our country and our continent in this moment.
Archbishop Gomez addressed the spring meeting of the U.S. bishops, which is taking place virtually from June 16-18. The bishops will deliberate and vote on several agenda items, including approving of two causes of canonization, approving a pastoral statement on marriage ministry, and authorizing statements on Native American ministry and the Eucharist in the life of the Church.
© Catholic World Report