Catholic News
- 'Rome Declaration for a Disarmed and Disarming Peace' being drafted at Castel Gandolfo (Vatican News)
A three-day gathering begins today at Borgo Laudato Si’ to draft the Rome Declaration for a Disarmed and Disarming Peace in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, Nuclear and Autonomous Weapons, New Digital Protocols, and Emerging Models of Digital Development. The Global Nobel Laureates Assembly on Artificial Intelligence and Nuclear War, with the assistance of Domus Communis Foundation and a dozen other institutions, has organized the gathering for 200 people, including Nobel laureates, former heads of state, AI experts, and scholars from universities. The president of the Domus Communis (Common Home) Foundation is Cardinal Silvano Tomasi, C.S., a retired Vatican diplomat. - Retired archbishop defends SSPX, says Pope Leo 'no longer represents the Church' (LifeSite News)
The retired bishop of Karaganda, Kazakhstan, defended the Society of Saint Pius X and offered strong criticism of the Vatican. Archbishop Jan Paweł Lenga, M.I.C., said that “it was worth seeing the consecration of the bishops of the Society of St Pius X: what peace, what joy, what prayerful atmosphere, what solemnity! Nothing like that can be seen in the post-conciliar Church anymore.” “The See of Peter has been occupied by people who have nothing to do with Christ,” Archbishop Lenga continued. “Prevost’s approval of the excommunication is proof that he no longer represents the Church that follows Jesus and leads people to salvation.” AdVaticanum reported that the Diocese of Włocławek, Poland, had earlier imposed restrictions on Archbishop Lenga “after a series of public interventions directed against Pope Francis. The disciplinary measures prohibited him from preaching at Mass and speaking to the media, although Archbishop Lenga immediately rejected the sanctions.” - Gunmen kill 2 Catholic young adults in Pakistan; Islamic State claims responsibility (UCANews)
Gunmen on motorcycles killed two Catholic young adults in Mastung, Pakistan, on July 8. Islamic State – Khorasan Province claimed responsibility for the murders. - In India, mob demands Salesian sisters destroy chapel, cemetery (Catholic Connect)
A mob of 60 people entered the property of the Salesian sisters in Barasat on July 12 and demanded that the sisters destroy a partially constructed chapel and cemetery, according to Catholic Connect, a website of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India. Barasat is located in the state of West Bengal (map), where four incidents of anti-Christian violence took place on July 5. - SSPX appeals excommunication decree (Society of Saint Pius X)
Citing canon 1734 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law, the Society of Saint Pius X announced it filed a preliminary recourse against the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s July 2 decree declaring that six SSPX bishops had incurred automatic excommunication. The Society stated that its request, submitted to the same dicastery, “constitutes the mandatory preliminary step before the possible introduction of a hierarchical recourse” and “has the effect of suspending the execution of the decree.” - Vatican spokesman warns against 'exaggeration' of Pope's role as head of state (Vatican News)
Andrea Tornielli, editorial director of the Dicastery for Communication, warned in an editorial against “any glorification or exaggeration of the Pope’s role as head of state, any emphasis on the importance of this role.” In “The Pope always speaks as a Shepherd,” Tornielli wrote that “it is true that, to guarantee the absolute freedom of the Vicar of Christ, it was established nearly a century ago that there would be a tiny patch of land where the Bishop of Rome and Shepherd of the Universal Church would also be sovereign—and thus head of state. But this was, and remains, an arrangement designed to recognize precisely this need for independence from any other state, and not an affirmation of a dual mission.” Tornielli concluded: When he calls for human life to be respected and protected at every stage of its existence, when he speaks of peace with the good of all peoples in mind and calls for an end to the mad arms race—even going beyond the concept of a “just war”—when he calls for dialogue and negotiation by invoking the Magisterium of Social Doctrine, when he calls for migrants to be regarded as people to be welcomed, without ever forgetting their human dignity; when he reminds us that the poor are at the heart of the Gospel and that we must build more just and equitable societies; when he defends the right to religious freedom; when he emphasizes the importance of caring for Creation so that we may pass it on to our children and grandchildren—the Successor of Peter is not speaking as a head of state. He is simply proclaiming the Gospel. Tornielli’s editorial followed a New York Times interview with Brian Burch, the U.S. ambassador to the Holy See. The newspaper reported that “Mr. Burch argued that when the pope spoke out against the war, he was not doing so as the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, the vicar of Christ, but only as the sovereign political leader of the Vatican City-State.” - Prelates gather in Washington to discuss future of Catholic-Orthodox dialogue (Orientale Lumen Foundation)
Catholic and Orthodox prelates, including the secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Orthodox co-chairman of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue Between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, are taking part in the 30th Oriental Lumen Conference in Washington. “After three decades of Orientale Lumen conferences, ecumenical dialogue between Eastern Orthodox, Eastern Catholic, and Roman Catholic Christians has reached a critical stage,” according to the Orientale Lumen Foundation. “The central ecclesiological question today is no longer whether consensus is possible, but how this convergence is to be received and embodied in the life of the Church of Jesus Christ.” - Lawmakers who vote in favor of euthanasia 'will no longer be able to receive Communion,' French bishop says (France Catholique)
The bishop of Bayonne, France, said in an interview that lawmakers who vote in favor of euthanasia “will no longer be able to receive Communion.” Bishop Aillet said: The Catholic parliamentarians who voted for this bill must weigh the consequences. If they are aware of this inconsistency, they will no longer be able to receive Communion. The Church is justified in reminding them of this, as some bishops have done in the United States. I would like to invite them to a sincere examination of conscience. Do we have the right to make the voluntary suppression of a human life a response to suffering? The prelate also decried the trampling of conscience rights of health care workers who would be compelled to participate in euthanasia if the practice is legalized. - French military school refused to consider pupils from independent Catholic schools (The European Conservative)
A Le Figaro investigation found that a prestigious French military secondary school refused to consider pupils from independent Catholic schools despite their reputation for academic excellence. The students whose applications were not considered all attended traditionalist Catholic schools, either affiliated with the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest or with the Society of Saint Pius X. - Cardinal Pizzaballa: To foster peace, listen and see others as persons (L'Osservatore Romano (Italian))
Speaking at Re-Imagine Peace, an event in Florence that featured Israeli and Palestinian musicians, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem emphasized the importance of seeing the other not as “an enemy, not a threat, nor a category, but a person.” “Listening should be one of the most revolutionary acts at our disposal,” Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, O.F.M., said on July 12. “Listening does not mean agreeing; it does not mean abandoning one’s own convictions. It means acknowledging that the pain of the other exists even when it does not coincide with our own.” - Vatican cardinal's poems published in Italian (Crocetti Editore)
Crocetti Editore, a publisher in Milan, released La Lingua Primitiva, an Italian translation of two Portuguese books of poetry by Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education. According to the publisher, the prelate “reconstructs in a non-narrative form, not confessionally autobiographical but imaginatively lyrical, some moments of his African childhood, with the discovery of a land full of death but larger than life; a gallery of familiar figures of moving intensity; epiphanies associated with bewildered and disorienting contexts, in which everyday life is broken by an unexpected visitation that transfigures the known into the unknown, knowledge into enigma.” “The power of this poetry lies also in its ability to bind the concrete to the intangible, uniting the visible and the invisible, gesture and thought, voice and feeling, the human and the divine,” according to the Vatican newspaper’s favorable review of the book, published in its July 12 edition. - Nigerian bishop welcomes release of 45 kidnapped teachers, students (ACI Africa)
Bishop Emmanuel Adetoyese Badejo of Oyo, Nigeria, welcomed the release of 45 students and teachers who were kidnapped from schools in Ogbomoso on May 15. “May this ugly episode serve as a wake-up call to all of us, government and citizens, to collaborate more and do our utmost to secure our lives and property together,” said Bishop Badejo. - Counterterrorism police take control of investigation into Ann Widdecombe's murder (OSV News)
British counterterrorism police took control of the investigation into the murder of Ann Widdecombe, an English pro-life Catholic politician who was killed last week. Neil Farage, head of the Reform UK party, paid tribute to Widdecombe as “without doubt, the best-known and most outstanding female politician in Britain since Margaret Thatcher.” - Statistician analyzes parish consolidations in Detroit archdiocese (Graphs about Religion)
Statistician Ryan Burge said that the Archdiocese of Detroit has posted workbooks that offer “unprecedented access into what is happening at the parish level across hundreds of churches in Michigan.” In this article, Burge, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis and a former Baptist pastor, offers a “30,000 foot view of the Archdiocese of Detroit based on the metrics provided in these workbooks.” Burge writes: In 2011, the average weekend Mass attendance in the Archdiocese was about 231,000 people. That dropped below 200,000 by 2015, it declined to 163,000 by 2019. The most recent data that these workbooks provide is from 2024, when Mass attendance was just under 140,000. According to their own reports, the Catholic Church in Detroit is recording an attendance decline of 4% per year ... If Mass attendance had simply kept pace with population growth since 2011, roughly 236,000 Catholics would show up to a Detroit-area parish this weekend. The actual number is 139,000—about 40% lower. The archdiocese is currently filling about 29% of its available pew space on a given weekend. If current trends hold, that number could slip below 20% within a few years. That’s a church with an empty building problem. - 25 Caracas churches damaged in June earthquakes (EWTN News)
The vicar general of the Archdiocese of Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, said that 25 churches there were damaged in the recent earthquakes. Father Neptalí Balza said at the majority of these churches, Masses are now being held outdoors. - God the Father continues to sow the seed of Jesus in our hearts, Pope tells pilgrims (CWN)
The parable of the sower (Matthew 13:1-23) describes the “generosity and trust with which God sows his Word in our hearts and his power in us,” Pope Leo XIV said during his July 12 Sunday Angelus address (video). - Pope renews appeal for peace; recalls Sea Sunday, Jasna Góra pilgrimage (CWN)
At the conclusion of his July 12 Sunday Angelus address, Pope Leo XIV renewed his appeal for peace. - Nigerian priest commits suicide in Massachusetts (National Catholic Register)
A 54-year-old Nigerian priest who ministered in the Archdiocese of Boston for the last five years killed himself as his religious-worker visa was set to expire and his superior directed him to return to his home Diocese of Abakaliki. “We are still in shock and trauma processing the sudden death of our beloved priest,” Father Benjamin Madu, said Bishop Ernest Obodo, apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Abakaliki. - Pope recalls Soviet persecution, restoration of hierarchy in Ukraine (CWN)
In a Latin-language letter, Pope Leo XIV recalled the persecution of the Church in Ukraine after the Second World War and the restoration of the hierarchy there following the Soviet Union’s collapse. - Kenyan bishop suspends 15% of his priests; imposes curfew, bans overnight rectory guests (Tuko News (Kenya))
Enacting disciplinary measures on his priests, a Kenyan bishop imposed a 7:00 PM curfew, banned alcohol in Church residences, banned overnight visits and lay guests without his permission, and forbade cohabitation and intimate relationships “with members of either sex.” Bishop Hieronymus Emusugut Joya, I.M.C., of Maralal, who has led the diocese since 2022, also suspended six of his priests. The diocese has only 15 parishes and 39 priests—30 diocesan and nine religious—according to the Annuario Pontificio. “It is painful to state that I found the diocese with multiple problems, but no one was willing to tell me the cause of the problems and how to get the solution,” said Bishop Joya, who said he suspended the priests to “protect the integrity of the priesthood and the proper stewardship of Church property.” - More...