Catholic News

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A new study from the Pew Research Center found that while Catholicism remains the largest religious group among Latinos in the United States, the number of Latinos who identify as Catholic has declined by 24% since 2010, with the biggest decline seen among young Latinos born in the country. The Washington, DC-based think tank on April 13 released a survey of 7,647 American adults conducted between Aug. 1–14, 2022. According to the study, 43% of Latinos identify as Catholic, a number much lower than the 67% recorded in 2010. The situation is worse among younger Latinos. Of US-born Latinos between the ages of 18 and 29, 49% say they have no religious affiliation and only 30% say they are Catholic. Despite the discouraging numbers, the Pew Research Center survey says that Latinos are still “twice as likely as American adults overall to identify as Catholic and considerably less likely to identify as Protestant.”

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254116/almost-half-of-latinos-born-in-the-us-have-abandoned-religion-study-reveals

A pro-life pregnancy center in Bowling Green, Ohio, was vandalized with “Jane’s Revenge” pro-abortion graffiti on Saturday. The vandalism of Bowling Green Pregnancy Center, also known as HerChoice, is the 62nd pro-abortion attack on a pro-life pregnancy center since May 2022. The attacks began after a leak from the US Supreme Court indicated that the justices were poised to overturn Roe v Wade. The words “Liars,” “Fake clinic,” “Jane’s Revenge,” “Fund abortion,” and “Abort God,” were scrawled across the clinic in blue paint. A photo shows people cleaning the graffiti off in the aftermath.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254117/ohio-pregnancy-center-vandalized-in-jane-s-revenge-attack

A federal judge granted a pro-life health care clinic a temporary exemption from Colorado’s first-in-the-nation ban on the abortion pill reversal regimen after the clinic filed a lawsuit soon after the measure took effect. US District Court Judge Daniel Domenico said in his injunction Sunday that the new law, which was part of a three-bill package expanding abortion in the state that was signed by Gov. Jared Polis on Friday, “burdens their own First Amendment rights.” The plaintiff, Bella Health and Wellness, a pro-life, Catholic-founded nonprofit health care clinic that provides abortion pill reversal with a progesterone treatment, challenged the law on Friday. Progesterone counteracts the effects of the abortion pill mifepristone. Domenico barred the enforcement of the new law against Bella but not against other providers of the reversal regimen, the Colorado Sun reported.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254114/colorado-judge-exempts-pro-life-clinic-from-states-ban-on-abortion-pill-reversal-therapy

Today the Church celebrates Blessed Marie-Anne Blondin, a Canadian woman whose life was a story of obedience in the face of personal setbacks.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/blessed-marie-anne-blondin-440

A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.

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Pope Francis said Friday that he plans to visit Mongolia, the world’s most sparsely populated sovereign country. In off-the-cuff remarks to employees of the Italian airline company that staffs the papal plane for his international trips, the pope said that he will travel to Mongolia after his scheduled trips to Hungary and France in the coming months. An apostolic journey to Mongolia would make Pope Francis the first pope to visit the Asian country that shares a 2,880-mile border with China, its most significant economic partner. Mongolia has a population of about 1,300 Catholics in a country of more than 3 million people. Pope Francis is scheduled to visit Budapest, Hungary, at the end of this month from April 28–30 in what will be his second visit to the central European country in three years.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254107/pope-francis-says-that-he-will-travel-to-mongolia

Pope Francis on Sunday defended Saint John Paul II against a recent accusation that the Polish pope secretly visited women at night. Pietro Orlandi, the brother of Emanuela Orlandi, a 15-year-old girl and Vatican citizen who went missing 40 years ago, insinuated this week that John Paul II secretly left the Vatican at night to engage in immoral behavior. Speaking to the public on Divine Mercy Sunday, a day established by Pope John Paul II in 2000, Pope Francis called the insinuation “unfounded and offensive.” The disappearance of Orlandi was the subject of a Netflix true-crime docuseries, “Vatican Girl: The Disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi,” which came out last year. The final episode of the series puts forward a theory that the Vatican was somehow involved in the disappearance. The Vatican has always denied having any role in the girl’s vanishing and has cooperated with other investigations into the disappearance in recent years.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254109/pope-francis-defends-st-john-paul-ii-against-offensive-conjectures-from-brother-of-missing-vatican-girl

Catholic and pro-life leaders lamented Colorado Governor Jared Polis’ final approval of three strongly pro-abortion bills on Friday, objecting that they prioritize abortion “at the cost of countless children’s lives.” The new laws ban abortion-pill reversal treatments, greatly restrict advertising for pro-life pregnancy resource centers, require insurance providers to pay for abortions, and remove parental notification for minors seeking an abortion, among other measures. In an April 14 letter, the Catholic bishops of Colorado said there was “a strong outcry” against the three bills. They said the laws are out of step with the 63% of Coloradans who do not support unrestricted abortion. Most residents do not want to pay for abortion in their health insurance and do not want to penalize health care providers who object to abortion and “gender-affirming care.” Bella Health and Wellness, a pro-life, Catholic-founded health care clinic that provides abortion pill reversal, quickly filed a legal challenge to the abortion pill reversal ban, with the backing of the religious liberty legal group Becket.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254108/colorados-latest-extreme-abortion-laws-will-cost-countless-childrens-lives-pro-life-leaders-warn

Today the Church celebrates Saint Stephen Harding, regarded as the founder of the Cistercian monasteries. Before his death in 1134, Stephen had established 13 monasteries. By the end of the 12th century there were 500 in Europe.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-stephen-harding-439

A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.

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The Vatican announced Thursday the date and theme for the third annual World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly. The event will take place this year on July 23, the Sunday before the feast of Saints Anne and Joachim, the grandparents of Jesus, and the theme for the day, selected by the pope, will be “His mercy is from age to age” (Luke 1:50). According to the Vatican Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life, the theme is linked to the theme for World Youth Day 2023, which also comes from the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke: “Mary arose and went with haste” (Luke 1:39). Pope Francis will preside over a special Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica to mark the grandparents’ day and has invited parishes, dioceses, associations, and communities around the world to celebrate the day “in their own pastoral context.”

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254089/vatican-announces-theme-and-date-for-2023-world-day-for-grandparents-and-elderly

During President Joe Biden’s four-day trip to Ireland, he plans to visit Our Lady of Knock in Knock, County Mayo, which witnesses claim was the site of an apparition of Mary, the Mother of God; Saint Joseph, her spouse; and Saint John the Evangelist in 1879. Biden, who is the nation’s second Catholic president, will be the first American president to visit the shrine. He intends to visit the site on Friday, April 14, on his last day in Ireland. He will then visit Saint Muredach’s Cathedral in Ballina, where he will give an address. About 1.5 million people visit the shrine every year and it is a common destination in Ireland for Catholic pilgrims.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254091/biden-to-visit-our-lady-of-knock-irish-site-of-marian-apparition

Today the Church celebrates Saint Peter Gonzalez, who experienced a true conversion experience thanks to a public humiliation, which set him on the road to sainthood. After being thrown from his horse into a dungheap, and withdrawing into a period of prayer and meditation, he served as the confessor and court chaplain to King Saint Ferdinand III of Castile, and reformed court life. He also worked for the crusade against the Moors, went into the battlefields, and worked for humane treatment of Moorish prisoners. Fearing that the honors and easy life offered by the king’s court would lead him to return to his previous ways, he left the court and evangelized to shepherds and sailors.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-peter-gonzalez-436

A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.

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Two Catholic Relief Services (CRS) workers were shot and killed April 9, Easter Sunday, while riding in a CRS vehicle in the Amhara region of Ethiopia on their way back from an assignment in Addis Ababa. In an April 10 statement, CRS, the international Catholic humanitarian aid agency that serves those most in need in more than 100 countries, said it was “devastated to report the loss” of two of its staff workers, Chuol Tongyik, 37, a security manager, and Amare Kindeya, 43, a driver. “The depth of our shock and sorrow is difficult to measure, and we are saddened over this senseless violence,” said Zemede Zewdie, a CRS representative in Ethiopia. According to Reuters, the murders took place during violent anti-government protests in the Amhara region of the country that followed the federal government’s decision to disband regional special forces units.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254077/two-crs-aid-workers-killed-in-ethiopia

A statewide board in Oklahoma voted Tuesday to reject a proposal brought by the Oklahoma Catholic Conference to create a virtual, religious charter school, which would be the first of its kind in the nation if it is ultimately approved. The Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board voted unanimously on Tuesday to disapprove an application, first presented in February, to create Saint Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, pending revisions. The Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, which aims to run the online school in partnership with the Diocese of Tulsa, will have the opportunity to resubmit its application after addressing the board’s concerns, and the board will have 30 days to approve or deny the revised application. Brett Farley, executive director of the Oklahoma Catholic Conference and a board member for the proposed school, told CNA it is “more often the case than not” that the charter school board disapproves the first draft of a school’s application, instead giving the school a chance to go back and address the board’s concerns. He said the plan’s backers are “not discouraged at all” and that they have already submitted some revisions to the board.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254082/oklahoma-board-rejects-initial-proposal-for-catholic-charter-school

Today the Church celebrates Pope Saint Martin I. The saint suffered exile and humiliation for his defense of orthodoxy in a dispute over the relationship between Christ's human and divine natures.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-martin-i-435

A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.

www.catholicnewsagency.com

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At least 94 people reportedly have died in a series of deadly attacks on Christian communities throughout Holy Week in Benue state in north-central Nigeria, an ominous sign of escalating violence blamed on Muslim militias in the country’s Middle Belt region. On April 2, armed men reportedly stormed a Palm Sunday service at a Pentecostal church in Akenawe-Tswarev in Logo county, Benue state, killing a young boy and kidnapping the pastor and other worshipers. Three days later, on April 5, gunmen killed at least 50 people in the village of Umogidi, located in Utokpo county, a Catholic stronghold in western Benue, the Associated Press reported. More recently, on the night of Good Friday, dozens were killed when Muslim gunmen raided an elementary school building in the village of Ngban that serves as a shelter for about 100 displaced Christian farmers and their families.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254060/holy-week-attacks-on-christian-communities-in-nigeria-leave-nearly-100-dead

An arrest has been made in connection with the vandalism of Saint Paulinus Catholic Church in Syracuse, Nebraska, that occurred on Palm Sunday weekend. Travis Ross, 32, was arrested April 6 by the Otoe County Sheriff’s Office after video evidence and witnesses led authorities to name him a suspect. Father Ryan Salisbury, Saint Paulinus' pastor, told CNA April 3 that when he walked into the church on April 1, he discovered that the altar had been tipped over, a statue desecrated, and several other objects damaged. A Sacred Heart of Jesus statue was also broken beyond repair and candlesticks were damaged. as well as the altar stone. The damage amounted to $5,000, he said. The tabernacle and the Eucharist remained untouched.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254058/arrest-made-in-connection-with-vandalism-of-nebraska-catholic-church

Today the Church celebrates Saint Stanislaus of Krakow, the 11th-century bishop and martyr who died for the faith at the hands of King Boleslaus II. Canonized in 1253, Saint Stanislaus is a beloved patron of the Polish nation and people. In his own country he is commemorated May 8, the date of his death in 1079.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-stanislaus-433

A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.

www.catholicnewsagency.com

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Pope Francis encouraged Christians to not be held back by fear of judgment, but to share the good news of Christ’s resurrection with others.Pope Francis addressed a crowd of people in St. Peter’s Square from a window of the Apostolic Palace for Monday of the Angel. Following his brief message, he recited the Regina Caeli, a Latin antiphon honoring the Virgin Mary which is prayed during the Easter Season. From Easter Sunday to Pentecost, Pope Francis will pray the Regina Caeli instead of the Angelus on Sundays.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254057/pope-francis-share-the-good-news-of-christ-s-resurrection-with-others

A top US military hospital ended its contract with a community of Franciscan friars just before Holy Week, putting a for-profit firm in charge of Catholic pastoral care, according to the Archdiocese of the Military Services. Archbishop Timothy Broglio, the head of the archdiocese, blasted the move by Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, calling it “incomprehensible.” The medical center ended its contract with the friars of Holy Name College in nearby Silver Spring, Maryland, on March 31, the archdiocese said in a statement. The friars have ministered at the medical center for nearly two decades, the archdiocese said. The archdiocese, which serves US military personnel and veterans and their beneficiaries at military facilities around the world, said medical center awarded the contract for Catholic pastoral care to a secular for-profit company.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254054/broglio-blasts-walter-reed-for-putting-for-profit-firm-in-charge-of-catholic-pastoral-care

Today the Church celebrates Saint Fulbert, a scholar and philosopher, and also the bishop of Chartres, France. He spent much of his time as bishop rigorously defending monasticism and orthodoxy.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-fulbert-432

We will be back with new episodes on April 10.

In the meantime, we wish you a blessed Holy Week.

Thank you for listening.

Sincerely,

The Catholic News Team

A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.

www.catholicnewsagency.com

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Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore apologized to abuse survivors on Wednesday following the release of a Maryland attorney general’s report chronicling hundreds of alleged abuses committed by clergy in the archdiocese, dating back to the 1940s. Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown on Wednesday released the 463-page redacted report detailing alleged sexual abuse committed by 156 people — most of them clergy — with connections to the Archdiocese of Baltimore, including 10 names that are redacted. The report notes the redactions were made in accordance with a court order because the individuals accused “were not known to be deceased at the time of the report and had not previously been listed as credibly accused by the Archdiocese of Baltimore or otherwise publicly identified.” The report made extensive use of records provided by the archdiocese as well as information gathered from a tipline, interviews with alleged victims, and public records. Lori noted that instances of clerical abuse in the archdiocese peaked in the 1960s and 1970s, and fewer incidents took place “every year and every decade since then,” alongside the development of canon and criminal law and archdiocesan accountability standards and policies designed to protect children.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254035/maryland-attorney-general-report-on-abuse-claims-to-identify-more-than-600-victims

The dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, hasn’t declared a truce in its persecution of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, not even during Holy Week. Félix Maradiaga, a former political prisoner and also a former presidential candidate who was deported to the United States, told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, that the dictatorship expelled Panamanian priest Father Donaciano Alarcón from the country on Monday of Holy Week. Alarcón, who worked at Mary Help of Christians Parish in the town of San José de Cusmapa in the Diocese of Estelí, was arrested by the police after celebrating Mass. According to information from the Archdiocese of Panama, “Father Alarcón was accused of violating the decrees that prohibit public expressions [of faith] during Holy Week.”

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254034/no-let-up-from-ortega-during-holy-week-priest-expelled-traditions-banned-in-nicaragua

Today the Church celebrates Blessed Pierina Morosini, the patron saint of rape victims and a martyr to chastity.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/blessed-pierina-morosini-428

A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.

www.catholicnewsagency.com

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A Chinese bishop was installed Tuesday as the bishop of Shanghai without the Vatican’s approval, according to Asia News. The report says Bishop Joseph Shen Bin of Haimen was appointed to lead the Diocese of Shanghai by the Council of Chinese Bishops, the state-sanctioned bishops’ conference. Shen Bin is also the head of the Council of Chinese Bishops, Asia News reported. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said Tuesday that “the Holy See had been informed a few days ago of the decision of the Chinese authorities to transfer [Shen Bin from Haimen to Shanghai] and learned from the media of the installation this morning.” He said he had nothing to add to the Holy See’s assessment of the bishop’s transfer for the time being. The Asia News report said the installation of Shen Bin as bishop of Shanghai happened without the Vatican’s approval and therefore in violation of the Vatican-China deal on the appointment of bishops.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254017/chinese-bishop-appointed-to-shanghai-without-vatican-approval

Judge Janet Protasiewicz, who garnered numerous endorsements and campaign funding from pro-abortion organizations during a contentious race for a seat on Wisconsin’s Supreme Court, emerged as the victor Tuesday night in what proved to be the most expensive state Supreme Court race in history. The 2023 Wisconsin judicial race, which might have remained obscure in other years even within Wisconsin, garnered national media attention and record fundraising numbers this spring. Pro-life and pro-abortion advocates agree that Protasiewicz’s win could tip the scales against the state’s current abortion ban, which is currently being challenged in court. The April 4 election featured former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly and current Milwaukee judge Protasiewicz. Throughout the campaign, Protasiewicz has spoken openly about her pro-abortion views while insisting that she has made “no promises” to pro-abortion groups that she will seek to overturn the state’s current abortion ban.

Pope Francis on Tuesday accepted the resignation of Archbishop Michael Jackels of the Archdiocese of Dubuque, Iowa. An April 4 statement from the United States bishops’ conference said Jackels’ resignation was for health reasons. Bishop Emeritus Richard Pates of Des Moines, Iowa, has been appointed apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Dubuque, the USCCB communication said. Jackels, who will turn 69 on April 13, has been archbishop of Dubuque since May 2013. He is scheduled to offer the archdiocese’s Chrism Mass in the Cathedral of St. Raphael in the afternoon on April 4. The archbishop was hospitalized for a heart attack in early May 2019. He returned to ministry six weeks later with the permission of his cardiologist.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254016/archbishop-michael-o-jackels-of-dubuque-iowa-resigns-for-health-reasons

Two more individuals have been indicted for violating the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE), in connection with a string of pro-abortion attacks against pro-life pregnancy centers in Florida.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254023/face-act-charges-brought-against-two-more-abortion-activists-in-florida-jane-s-revenge-attack

Today the Church celebrates Saint Vincent Ferrer, a Dominican preacher who brought thousands of Europeans into the Catholic Church during a period of political and spiritual crisis in Western Europe.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-vincent-ferrer-426

A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.

www.catholicnewsagency.com

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The pastor of a Catholic church in Syracuse, Nebraska, was shocked when he discovered Saturday morning that the altar had been tipped over, a statue desecrated, and several other objects damaged. A Sacred Heart of Jesus statue was broken beyond repair and candlesticks were damaged as well as the altar stone. The damage amounted to $5,000, he said. The tabernacle and the Eucharist remained untouched. The church was able to be cleaned up in time before a Mass and baptism on Saturday. Police are currently investigating the crime, which was not captured on video.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254013/another-act-of-vandalism-nebraska-catholic-churchs-altar-flipped-over-statue-destroyed

Christian leaders of Jerusalem on March 31 issued a joint statement calling on governing authorities to enhance security at holy sites as Easter approaches. Some churches, funeral processions, and public gathering venues have become “targets of attack,” lamented the group of Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant leaders. Christianity, Judaism, and Islam all consider Jerusalem a holy city, and all three religions have major religious observances in the coming weeks. Many will crowd Jerusalem’s Old City during this time. Easter falls on April 9 for Christians who follow the Gregorian calendar, while many Orthodox Christians will celebrate Easter the following Sunday. For Jews, Passover observances will last from sunset on April 5 through April 13. Muslims began their observance of the holy month of Ramadan on March 22.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254011/church-leaders-in-jerusalem-call-for-enhanced-security-during-holy-week

Today the Church celebrates Saint Isidore of Seville, a bishop and scholar who helped the Church preserve its own traditions, and the heritage of western civilization, in the early middle ages.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-isidore-of-seville-425