Rome Newsroom, Feb 23, 2021 / 07:05 am (CNA).- Catholic leaders in Europe have urged the European Union to be guided by solidarity, fraternity, and social justice as it distributes and administers the COVID-19 vaccine.
In a joint statement Feb. 2… […]
CNA Staff, Feb 23, 2021 / 06:00 am (CNA).- Pope Francis has asked the new bishop of a divided Swiss diocese to remain in the post for at least five years, serving beyond the customary retirement age of 75.
Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Bishops, conveyed the pope’s request in a letter dated Feb. 15, the day that the Vatican announced Msgr. Joseph Bonnemain’s appointment as bishop of Chur in eastern Switzerland.
Normally, the 72-year-old bishop-elect would be expected to offer his resignation to the pope when he reaches his 75th birthday on July 26, 2023. But he will remain in post until at least 2026 if his health permits.
CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner, reported that the Diocese of Chur announced the pope’s request on Feb. 22.
In his letter, addressed to Bonnemain, Ouellet indicated that the pope knew that there were serious divisions within the diocese, which dates back to 451 and today covers seven of the 26 cantons of Switzerland, including the canton of Zürich.
He wrote: “The Holy Father is aware of the complexity of the situation in the diocese. Your Excellency is called to promote, above all, the communion and unity of the local Church, and to work generously in the service of evangelization.”
“Aware of the demanding dimensions of the mission entrusted to you, and considering your age, Pope Francis has decreed that, should your health permit, your mandate should last at least five years.”
Pope Francis stepped in last week to end the deadlock over the appointment of a new bishop in the diocese, which traditionally holds episcopal elections.
The see became vacant when Bishop Vitus Huonder retired on May 20, 2019, at the age of 77.
Local media reported last November that Chur’s cathedral chapter had rejected all three candidates to succeed Huonder proposed by the pope.
The 22 members of the cathedral chapter were due to elect a successor on Nov. 23. The list of candidates was supposed to remain secret, but local media reported that the three people proposed for the vacant see were Bonnemain, Abbot Vigeli Monn von Disentis, and Abbot Mauro-Giuseppe Lepori.
CNA Deutsch said at the time that the cathedral chapter saw the list of three candidates as an “attempt at interference” by neighboring dioceses. It quoted an insider as saying that the three names indicated that “the voice of the Diocese of Chur, which has previously deviated from the social mainstream, is being silenced” — a reference to the diocese’s reputation as a bastion of conservative Catholicism.
Pope Pius XII established the current rules for the selection of bishops in the diocese in the 1948 decree “Etsi salva,” giving the cathedral chapter the privilege of electing a bishop from among three priests proposed by the Holy See.
When the cathedral chapter is unable to choose a bishop, the pope is free to appoint the new bishop directly. Pope Francis did so, selecting Bonnemain, a member of Opus Dei who previously served as judicial vicar and canon of the cathedral chapter of Chur diocese.
Preaching at Mass in Chur Cathedral on Feb. 15, Bonnemain announced that he would not be adopting an episcopal coat of arms.
He said: “The cross is the sign of Christ’s loving devotion to the world. Therefore, do not expect me to design and use a bishop’s coat of arms, which is usually the case. The sign of the cross of Christ is enough for me. And this, only this, I will use.”
CNA Staff, Feb 23, 2021 / 04:00 am (CNA).- A Vatican archbishop celebrated the 90th anniversary of the first Divine Mercy apparition on Monday in the Polish city of Płock.
Archbishop Jan Romeo Pawłowski, an official at the Vatican Secretariat of … […]
Washington D.C., Feb 22, 2021 / 06:00 pm (CNA).- President Joe Biden’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) received the praise of pro-euthanasia organizations during his time as attorney general of California.
… […]
Paisley, Scotland, Feb 22, 2021 / 05:19 pm (CNA).- A Scottish bishop has encouraged families and individuals to join him in a consecration to Mary by a less conventional means – a children’s book.
“Child Consecration: To Jesus through Mary… […]
Washington D.C., Feb 22, 2021 / 04:00 pm (CNA).- Virginia is expected to become the first southern state to abolish the death penalty, after its general assembly voted on Monday to end the practice.
The state senate voted 22 to 16 to approve H… […]
Panama City, Panama, Feb 22, 2021 / 03:07 pm (CNA).- The Archdiocese of Panama warned the country’s faithful that “Catholics for the Right to Decide” (CDD in Spanish), which is trying to establish a presence in the country, is actually a partner organi… […]
Washington D.C., Feb 22, 2021 / 02:23 pm (CNA).- As President Joe Biden re-established a key White House faith-based office last week, former political liaisons to religious groups commended the move—but warned that the office might be misused.
… […]
CNA Staff, Feb 22, 2021 / 12:00 pm (CNA).- Catholics are pressing for further changes to Scotland’s controversial hate crime bill amid a last-minute consultation.
The Scottish Parliament’s justice committee gave the public just four d… […]
Washington D.C., Feb 22, 2021 / 10:00 am (CNA).- The Supreme Court will consider a case involving federal funding of domestic pro-abortion groups.
The court on Monday morning granted petition to review a case about the Trump administration’s Protect Life Rule. The Baltimore mayor and city council challenged the rule, supported by a number of states and pro-abortion groups.
According to SCOTUSBlog, the case will be argued in the fall of 2021.
The 2019 rule of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) prohibited grant recipients in the federal Title X family planning program from referring for abortions, or being co-located with abortion facilities. The rule was meant to implement the program’s original stated purpose that funds would not be used for abortion as a method of family planning.
Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, withdrew from the program rather than comply with the rule, forfeiting an estimated $60 million in annual Title X funding.
In September, the Fourth Circuit court ruled 8-6 against the rule, in the case of Cochran v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore. The majority ruled that HHS “failed to recognize and address the ethical concerns of literally every major medical organization in the country” by implementing the rule.
In a separate challenge to the Protect Life Rule, the Ninth Circuit court upheld the rule in Feb., 2020.
In November, a group of pro-life obstetricians and gynecologists and a Christian medical association had asked the Supreme Court to take up the case. The group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed the amicus brief on their behalf.
“The Supreme Court has already recognized that the federal government has the authority to prevent Title X funds from being used for abortion,” stated John Bursch, senior counsel and vice president of appellate advocacy for ADF.
The American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians & Gynecologists, which claims 4,000 OB-GYN members and associates, and the Christian Medical and Dental Associations, which claims 20,000 members and 329 chapters in the United States, had petitioned the court to take the case.
The court, Bursch said, needs to “make clear that any administration, including future ones, can enforce a rule like this one if it so chooses, and that the courts can’t interfere with that.”
On Jan. 28, President Biden took the first step toward repealing the Protect Life Rule by instructing HHS to review the rule “and any other regulations governing the Title X program that impose undue restrictions on the use of Federal funds or women’s access to complete medical information.”
A COVID relief bill under consideration in Congress would increase funding for Title X by $50 million. Some House Republicans have warned that the funding increase, coupled with the Biden administration eventually repealing the Protect Life Rule, would benefit abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood.
According to the group’s latest annual report, it performed nearly 355,000 abortions in the 2020 fiscal year and received more than $618 million in government funding—both figures representing an increase from the year before.
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