Catholic News
- Syriac Catholic Patriarch alleges Vatican prefect is seeking his ouster (Pillar)
The Patriarch of the Syriac Catholic Church alleged that Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches, is pushing for his ouster, as well as the ouster of other Eastern Catholic patriarchs. Patriarch Ignatius Joseph III Yonan, 81, told The Pillar “most of the patriarchs are not so happy with the prefect’s behavior” and that “he has spread the news for the past two years that he is trying to get several patriarchs dismissed, and he says that openly.” On August 29, Pope Leo XIV amended the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches to grant Eastern Catholic synods the authority to remove Patriarchs and Major Archbishops when communion between the church’s head and synod has been “seriously and irreparably damaged.” The synod of bishops of the Syriac Catholic Church soon began the process of deposing the Patriarch, who has led the Syriac Catholic Church since 2009. - Pope issues appeal for migrants, refugees (CWN)
At the conclusion of his September 23 general audience, Pope Leo XIV issued an appeal for migrants and refugees. - Pope Leo pays tribute to Padre Pio, Fulton Sheen (CWN)
Pope Leo XIV paid tribute to Padre Pio and Archbishop Fulton Sheen during his September 23 general audience. - Cardinal Parolin addresses UN meetings on AI, Declaration on Right to Development (CWN)
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State of His Holiness, addressed two UN meetings yesterday. - USCCB files new brief in Supreme Court case involving Colorado Catholic preschools (USCCB)
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops filed a new brief supporting a Denver Catholic parish and other plaintiffs in a case involving Colorado’s universal preschool program. The Becket Fund explained that Colorado’s Department of Early Childhood excluded Denver archdiocesan schools from the program “by claiming the Archdiocese’s religious exercise—asking all families who enroll to support and uphold the Catholic Church’s teachings—was inconsistent with the preschool funding program’s requirements” regarding sexual orientation and gender identity. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the state; the Supreme Court agreed to hear the plaintiffs’ appeal. The original 21-page USCCB brief was dated December 2025; the new 27-page USCCB brief was dated July 2026 and posted on the USCCB website yesterday. Neither brief was prepared by the USCCB’s general counsel; instead, both were prepared by attorneys from Lehotsky Keller Kohn. - Brazil's president calls for ordination of women as priests, bishops (EWTN News)
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva called for end of the discipline of priestly celibacy and the ordination of women as priests and bishops. At a September 16 meeting with members of an evangelical organization, the president said that “as long as the Catholic Church doesn’t end celibacy and allow women to be priests, to be bishops—allow women to speak, you know?—we’re going to see the Catholic Church face difficulties.” “We are seeing politicians trying to tell the Church what it should do,” Bishop Devair Araújo da Fonseca of Piracicaba responded in a homily. “They even try to speak about priestly celibacy, when they ought to be looking after the country. And they are doing a very poor job of it.” - Cardinal McElroy sees peacebuilding as eclipsing just war tradition, says Catechism's teaching 'unfortunate' (National Catholic Reporter)
Cardinal Robert McElroy of Washington, D.C., said in a recent address that during the past six months, “tremendous progress has been made toward eclipsing the role of the just war tradition in Catholic teaching, and moving peace-building, multilateralism and active nonviolence toward the center of Catholic thought.” “The just war framework has been distorted to become a source of justification for those inclined to go to war, rather than a constraint on war,” Cardinal McElroy said in an address to the September 9-10 meeting of Pax Christi International in Rome. “One of the accelerants for this trend is the unfortunate statement in the Catechism of the Catholic Church that the evaluation of the just war criteria belongs to those who have responsibility for the common good.” - Dates announced for 2028 International Eucharistic Congress (The Catholic Weekly (Sydney))
The 54th International Eucharistic Congress will be held in Sydney, Australia, from September 24 to October 1, 2028. The most recent international Eucharistic congresses took place in Cebu City, Philippines (2016); Budapest, Hungary (2021); and Quito, Ecuador (2024). Sydney also hosted the 29th International Eucharistic Congress in 1928. - Kentucky priest resigns amid allegations he mishandled assault complaint (Louisville Courier Journal)
A priest of the Archdiocese of Louisville, Kentucky, resigned from his parish after a former janitor alleged in a lawsuit that he dismissed claims she was being assaulted by her lay supervisor at the parish. The woman alleged in her lawsuit that Father David Sanchez said he was “very good friends” with the supervisor, that she was “lying about her claims,” and that “her family would be threatened” if she reported the alleged incidents. Archbishop Shelton Fabre placed Father Sanchez on administrative leave. - Sri Lankan court sentences 15 men to life in prison for roles in deadly 2019 Easter bombings (AP)
At the conclusion of a five-year trial, 15 men were convicted, and nine were acquitted, of participating in the 2019 Sri Lanka Easter bombings, perpetrated by the Islamic State. The coordinated attacks on three churches and three hotels left 267 dead. The 15 men who were convicted were each sentenced to at least 200 years in prison. All of the suspects at the trial are “members of Sri Lanka’s Muslim minority,” the Associated Press reported. - Vatican diplomat decries hate speech, says it 'cannot claim the protection of liberty' (Holy See Mission)
A Vatican diplomat said that the inviolable dignity of every human person, created in the image of God, leads to the “moral imperative to reject every form of intolerance, discrimination, and hate speech that wounds the human family and undermines the conditions for peaceful coexistence.” “Hate speech—whether directed against individuals or communities on the basis of their religion, ethnicity, nationality, or any other characteristic—contradicts the commandment to love one’s neighbor, poisons public discourse, inflames division, and too often prepares the ground for violence and persecution,” Archbishop Christophe-Zakhia El-Kassis, apostolic nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, said yesterday at a UN conference (part 1, part 2). “Freedom of expression is a fundamental right that must be protected. Yet this freedom carries corresponding responsibilities,” he added. “Speech that deliberately incites hatred or violence cannot claim the protection of liberty; rather, it erodes the very conditions in which genuine freedom can flourish.” Archbishop El-Kassis’s statement yesterday was his first since his appointment as Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations. In 2018, one of his predecessors, Archbishop Bernardito Auza, also decried hate speech but warned that some governments were using regulations against “hate speech” and “hate crimes” as pretexts for “discriminatory or repressive measures against those, for example, who defend the dignity of every human life or uphold the dignity of marriage and the family.” Likewise, in 2023, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations, told the UN General Assembly that “the term ‘hate crime’ or ‘hate speech’ is now being used subjectively and manipulated to keep people from expressing their religious beliefs, equating the practice of religion to violence. This purposefully dishonest, politically motivated agenda, especially egregious in the West, must end.” - More...