Catholic News
- Terrorists kill 22 after baptism in Niger (BBC)
Gunmen shot and killed 22 people who had been attending a Baptism in a village in western Niger on September 19, the BBC reports. Details of the attack are unclear. The terrorists arrived on motorcycles, at a village in the Tillaberi region of Niger, which borders Mali and Burkina Faso. All three countries have been besieged by Islamic jihadists. - Pope takes journalists' questions about Gaza, Russia (Vatican News)
As Israel continues its Gaza City offensive, Pope Leo XIV told reporters that many residents “have nowhere to go, and so it is a concern.” “I have also spoken with our people there, with the parish priest,” Pope Leo said as he departed from Castel Gandolfo on September 16. “For now they want to stay; they are still holding on, but we really need to look for another solution.” Asked about Russian claims concerning its drone incursion into Poland, the Pope said, “NATO has not started any war. The Poles are worried because they feel their airspace has been violated; it is a very tense situation.” Pope Leo’s words about NATO stand in contrast to comments made by his predecessor. In 2022, Pope Francis said that the “barking of NATO at the door of Russia” may have provoked Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. - Papal interview touches on homosexuality, Gaza, TLM, China, and more (CWN)
On September 18, the Crux news agency released five excerpts from the July interviews between senior correspondent Elise Ann Allen and Pope Leo XIV. The interviews provided the material for her book, Leo XIV: Citizen of the World, which was published in Spanish this week, with an English-language edition due early next year. - Cardinal Müller speaks bluntly on Charlie Kirk, LGBT pilgrimage, migration, woke ideology (CWN)
“As a dogmatic theologian I don’t want to be diplomatic,” Cardinal Gerhard Müller told journalist Diane Montagna. “The Catholic Church must proclaim the truth but also contradict lies.” - Leo XIV highlights community life, obedience, 'signs of the times' in address to religious institutes (Dicastery for Communication)
Pope Leo XIV received participants in the general chapters of four religious institutes—the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, the Society of Mary, the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, and the Ursuline Sisters Daughters of Mary Immaculate—on September 18. In his address, Pope Leo paid tribute to the institutes’ founders and reflected on community life, obedience, and reading the “signs of the times,” described as an “open and perceptive gaze towards the real demands of our brothers and sisters,” without which “none of your Congregations would have been founded.” “Talking about obedience is not very fashionable today because it is considered a renunciation of freedom,” said the Pope. “But that is not the case. Obedience, in its deepest meaning of active and generous listening to others, is a great act of love by which we accept dying to ourselves so that our brothers and sisters may grow and live.” One of the institutes, the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, was governed by Vatican-appointed apostolic commissioners from 2013 to 2022. - EU pauses support to Israel; Vatican spokesman, newspaper call action 'weak,' 'timid' (CWN)
The European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, announced that it was “putting on hold its bilateral support to Israel.” The Commission also proposed the suspension of its free-trade arrangements with Israel. - Nuclear arms buildup an 'affront to humanity,' says Vatican diplomat (Vatican News)
Speaking at the 69th General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Msgr. Daniel Pacho, the Vatican undersecretary for multilateral affairs, said that military expenditures—and in particular, expenditures on nuclear weapons—are “an affront to humanity as a whole.” The Vatican representative said that the duty of world leaders to halt the proliferation of nuclear arms “is to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons, Msgr. Pacho said, “is particularly evident in the current era, when the incongruity of allocating valuable resources to developing and accumulating nuclear weapons is starkly contrasted with the fact that so many people on this planet are struggling to survive.” - Pontiff urges leading Mexican bishops to walk in communion with one another (@IglesiaMexico)
Pope Leo XIV received the leaders of the Mexican Episcopal Conference on September 18 and urged them to walk in communion with one another. The prelates “shared with the Holy Father the hopes and sorrows of our Church in Mexico,” the episcopal conference tweeted. “He shared with us a word of encouragement, solidarity, and hope, and urged us to walk in communion, as a single Church called by Christ to build peace and to bear witness to the hope that God grants especially through young people and families.” - UN official, Pontiff discuss refugees (@FilippoGrandi)
Pope Leo XIV received Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, on September 18. “What an extraordinary privilege to meet Pope Leo XIV and what a great encouragement to hear him affirm the Catholic Church’s commitment to humanity—especially the poor, the victims of war, the refugees, the displaced people,” Grandi tweeted. “Much needed light amidst the darkness.” - Papal visit to Vatican Tribunal's new courtroom (Vatican News)
Pope Leo XIV visited the new courtroom of the Vatican Tribunal on September 18 and spoke with the tribunal’s leading officials, Venerando Marano (its president) and Alessandro Diddi (its promoter of justice). The Vatican Tribunal—the tribunal of the Vatican City State—attracted worldwide attention during the trials of Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu and others associated with the Secretariat of State’s ill-fated London real estate transactions. The new courtroom is located in the Apostolic Palace, in a room used as the Synod Hall during the earliest synods of the Synod of Bishops in the late 1960s. Previously, the hall was known as the Hall of Broken Heads, as it was a storage room for broken statues. - Pope pays tribute to St. Stanislaus Kostka; entrusts Poland, world peace to his intercession (CWN)
At the conclusion of his September 17 general audience, Pope Leo XIV paid tribute to St. Stanislaus Kostka (1550-1568) and entrusted Poland and the cause of world peace to his intercession. - Highlighting contemporary art exhibit, Vatican holds 'Restoring a face to the human' (CWN)
Two Vatican dicasteries organized “Restituire un volto all’umano” [Restoring a face to the human], a September 16 evening event with five speakers. - Irish Catholic columnists receive 'anthrax' threat (Pillar)
Police in Dublin are examining a package of white powder that was delivered to the offices of the Iona Institute with a note that began “Happy Anthrax.” The note was addressed to David Quinn, the founder of the Iona Institute and a columnist for the Independent, and Breda O’Brien, who writes for the Irish Times. Both are known for advancing Catholic viewpoints, and Quinn said, of whoever delivered the package: “I’d be amazed if it’s not somebody with a big dislike of the Church.” The Iona Institute is dedicated to “the advancement and promotion of the Christian religion, its social and moral values.” Police have not yet identified the white powder, but do not believe it is actually anthrax, a deadly poison. - Vatican diplomat pushes back against UN document linking women's development, abortion (Holy See Mission)
Commenting on a new UN Human Rights Council report, a Vatican diplomat pushed back against a section that linked women’s social development to legalized abortion (n. 44). “This implies that social development is linked to the denial of the right to life to the child in the womb,” said Archbishop Ettore Balestrero, apostolic nuncio and Permanent Observer to the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva, Switzerland. The prelate added: It is true that women in many parts of the world face difficult, or even tragic, situations involving suffering, violence, loneliness, a total lack of economic prospects, and depression and anxiety about the future. We should be honest and admit that it is by addressing these dramatic human situations that we can reach social development and the good of the world’s women and not by proposing false solutions, such as denying another person’s inviolable right to life, which is always a failure of law, of justice and ultimately of the entire society. Archbishop Balestrero called for “a serious commitment to creating equal conditions, including providing [women] with access to education, quality healthcare, decent work, participation in every sphere of life, measures to alleviate poverty, and freedom from violence and discrimination.” - USCCB publishes guide to Islamophobia (USCCB)
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs has published “Islamophobia: A Guide for U.S. Catholics on Anti-Muslim Bigotry,” a 15-page text by Jordan Denari Duffner. The co-chairmen of the National Catholic-Muslim Dialogue—Auxiliary Bishop Elias Lorenzo, OSB, of Newark and Imam Kareem Irfan—commended the guide “to all Catholics, Muslims, and people of good will so they may understand and address the disturbing phenomenon of anti-Muslim sentiment in our times.” The guide states that “In the United States today, Muslims often face prejudice and discrimination—not unlike what Catholics faced in earlier generations of American history. Anti-Muslim bigotry is both a religious freedom concern and a social justice issue. Fortunately, our Catholic faith inspires and equips us to identify and address bigotry, no matter whom it targets, and to build up a world defined by fraternity and hospitality.” - At least 64 dead in Islamist attack on Catholic parish in DR Congo (Aid to the Church in Need)
Members of an Islamist rebel group, the Allied Democratic Forces, attacked a parish in North Kivu, a province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (map). At least 64 people were killed, many of them by beheading. “The victims were caught off guard at a mourning ceremony in the village of Ntoyo at around 9:00 PM, and most of them were killed with machetes,” a local official said. “The attackers used firearms and hammers, and some homes were selectively set on fire,” Aid to the Church in Need reported. “To all the families affected by this umpteenth and horrible carnage,” said Bishop Melchisédech Sikuli Paluko of Butembo-Beni, “and to all the faithful of the parish, we express our spiritual closeness. May God, the Master of Life, strengthen us through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, consoler of the afflicted, and lead us beyond the desert of present-day suffering to lasting peace.” In July, at least 34 people were killed in an Islamist terrorist massacre at a parish in the adjacent Ituri province. - Congo's Cardinal Ambongo: Fiducia Supplicans 'caused a lot of harm' (Our Sunday Visitor)
Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu of Kinshasa said that the Vatican document Fiducia Supplicans, allowing for blessings of same-sex couples, “caused a lot of harm to the Catholic faithful, and even beyond,” in an interview with OSV News. The cardinal spoke to OSV while in Poland, where he was speaking about an initiative to promote negotiations that might end the bloodshed in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He said that the initiative, backed by the Church, was gaining wide support, although the country’s government is “not very enthusiastic.” Questioned about Pope Leo XIV, the cardinal said that the new Pope “is a man who speaks very little but listens a lot.” He added that he believed Pope Leo will “listen widely before making a decision, to avoid what we had with Fiducia.” - Disabled Iraqi Christian killed in France while speaking about his faith online (CNA)
Ashur Sarnaya, a disabled Iraqi Christian who emigrated to France a decade ago to escape the advance of the Islamic State, was stabbed to death in Lyon as he spoke about his faith on TikTok. “He did live videos on TikTok to spread the word of God,” his sister said. The president of the Assyro-Chaldean Association of Lyon described the victim as “a very kind, discreet person, deeply believing, who liked to speak about the Christian faith.” CNA reported that Sarnaya previously complained that his “content was frequently blocked or suspended due to reports from Muslim users. In March, he claimed to have been physically attacked by Muslims.” - 'There is no hope without God,' Vatican cardinal tells interreligious gathering (Vatican News (Italian))
Cardinal George Jacob Koovakad, prefect of the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, addressed the 8th Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, held in Astana, Kazakhstan. “We are here,” Cardinal Koovakad said, “to reflect on our shared responsibility: to change the course of history from violence to peace, to bring hope to a desperate world, and to safeguard the environment.” Three factors, the prelate continued, are “essential for building peace and interreligious cooperation”: “the need for social, economic, cultural, and spiritual development of every person”; “vertical dialogue” with God, who “opens a new vision of hope for humanity and for the Earth”; and “we do not save ourselves alone; we are interconnected and interdependent.” “There is no hope without God, who is the supreme truth,” he added. “It is our duty, as religious leaders, to instill in earthly society the universal values present in our respective religious traditions to redirect history toward a harmonious world.” - Nepal's Catholic leader welcomes new government (Fides)
Father Silas Bogati, the apostolic administrator of the Vicariate Apostolic of Nepal, welcomed the appointment of interim Prime Minister Sushila Karki amid Gen Z protests. Father Bogati expressed “confidence in Sushila Karki, who, among other things, in the past, when she was still a lawyer, defended one of our priests and some religious sisters who had been wrongly accused in several court cases.” “The position of the Catholic Church in Nepal is clear,” the priest added. “We say ‘no’ to any form of violence and work for a peaceful development of the situation, hoping for a good government that can effectively combat one of the scourges afflicting the country: corruption.” There are 8,000 Catholics in Nepal. The South Asian nation of 31.1 million (map) is 64% Hindu, 13% ethnic religionist, 12% Buddhist, 6% Christian, and 4% Muslim. - More...