Catholic News

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The personal secretary of Pope Emeritus Benedict the sixteenth has been in isolation for the past ten days after testing positive for COVID-19, according to German media. Archbishop Georg Gänswein has been in isolation since April 11, a time period that included all of the Easter Triduum and Benedict’s 95th birthday. Benedict has tested negative for COVID-19, according to Gänswein, as have all other residents of the Mater Ecclesiae monastery, the retired pope’s residence inside of Vatican City. Both Benedict and Gänswein have received three doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251023/benedict-xvis-secretary-in-isolation-after-testing-positive-for-covid-19

Pope Francis has joined the head of the United Nations and the leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in a call for a four-day truce in Ukraine for the Triduum and Easter. The Eastern Orthodox churches and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church follow the Julian calendar, meaning they will celebrate Easter on April 24 this year. The Vatican announced on April 21 that Pope Francis had joined the UN chief's appeal, after the pope had called for an Easter truce in Ukraine during Palm Sunday Mass on April 10.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251024/pope-francis-joins-un-chief-s-appeal-for-ukraine-war-easter-truce

A West Virginia priest is speaking publicly about his role in providing a funeral Mass and dignified burial for more than 100 aborted babies that pro-life activists say they rescued outside of a Washington, DC, abortion clinic in March. Father Bill Kuchinsky, 62, a longtime advocate for the unborn who also runs the Catholic prison ministry for the entire state of West Virginia, declined to disclose the burial location other than to say it was in a private cemetery. CNA also found that Kuchinsky’s bishop, Bishop Mark Brennan of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, fully supports the actions Kuchinsky took to ensure the babies’ remains were treated respectfully.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251015/priest-funeral-mass-burial-dc-aborted-babies

Vicki Thorn, Catholic pro-life pioneer, international speaker, author, and a member of the Pontifical Academy of Life, died Tuesday, April 20 at age 72. Thorn founded Project Rachel, a groundbreaking post-abortion healing ministry that started in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and has since spread to dioceses across the US and around the world. As a certified trauma counselor and spiritual director who earned a degree in psychology from the University of Minnesota, Thorn launched Project Rachel in 1984. The ministry was staffed by a team of specially trained priests, spiritual directors, and other caregivers, and received an immediate response from both women and men who had been wounded by the experience of abortion.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251025/vicki-thorn-pro-life-project-rachel-abortion-healing

Today the Church celebrates Saint Anselm, the 11th and 12th-century Benedictine monk and archbishop best known for his writings on Christ's atonement and the existence of God.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-anselm-443

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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Treating the elderly as disposable “is a grave sin,” Pope Francis said on Wednesday. During his weekly meeting with the public in Saint Peter’s Square on April 20, the pope said honoring the elderly is a form of love, giving life not only to those honored, but to those doing the honoring. Pope Francis encouraged parents to bring their children around the elderly often. And if their grandparents are in a nursing home, to visit them.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251014/pope-francis-to-discard-the-elderly-is-a-grave-sin

A Ukrainian military commander has written a letter to Pope Francis asking him to help save the people of Mariupol, who have suffered from limited access to food or water under Russian bombardment for more than 50 days. Major Serhiy Volyna, who has been leading the 36th marine brigade in the battle for the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, described some of the horrors of the war he has witnessed, describing the city as “hell on earth,” and pleaded with the pope to do something to help safely evacuate people from the city. Volyna, who is an Orthodox Christian, said that he was turning to the pope for concrete help “because the time has come when prayers are not enough.”

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251011/ukrainian-soldier-appeals-to-pope-francis-to-help-save-the-people-of-mariupol

Today the Church celebrates Saint Agnes of Montepulciano, a Tuscan woman who was admitted to the Dominican convent at Montepulciano at age nine despite it generally being against Church law to allow a child so young to join. Agnes' reputation for holiness attracted other sisters, and she became an abbess at the unheard of age of 15. She lived on bread and water for 15 years, slept on the ground and used a stone for a pillow. It was said that she had visions of the Virgin Mary and of the infant Jesus.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-agnes-of-montepulciano-442

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 urged 80,000 teenagers gathered in St. Peter’s Square on Monday to turn to the Blessed Virgin Mary to find the courage to say yes to God’s will. From the popemobile, Pope Francis greeted the crowd of young people aged 12-17, who came from across Italy for the pilgrimage on Easter Monday evening. The youth pilgrimage was organized by the Italian bishops’ conference in an effort to reach out to young people whose education and lives were upended during the past two years of isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In his message, Pope Francis told the teens not to be afraid to reach out to others for help when experiencing discouragement or anxiety, saying “crises must be brought to light to overcome them.”

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251010/pope-francis-tells-80000-teens-to-ask-our-lady-for-courage-to-do-god-s-will

Burger King has withdrawn and apologized for an offensive ad campaign in Spain that sparked outrage among Catholics during Holy Week. The fast-food chain chose to use on billboards throughout Spain the words of Jesus at the Last Supper consecrating the bread, modifying them to promote a new vegetarian burger. The ad campaign provoked the outrage of thousands of Catholics, several priests, and a bishop, and a petition circulated calling for the removal of the ads, an apology, and the firing of a top executive.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251006/burger-king-in-spain-apologizes-pulls-offensive-holy-week-ads

Today the Church celebrates Blessed James Oldo, who experienced a radical conversion that led him to become a Franciscan priest.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/blessed-james-oldo-441

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The Vatican adapted Pope Francis’ Way of the Cross on Good Friday after an outcry in Ukraine over a Station involving Ukrainian and Russian families. The meditation for the 13th Station, “Jesus dies on the Cross,” was written by members of a Ukrainian and a Russian family. During the event, that meditation was not read out. The Way of the Cross was held at Rome’s Colosseum on April 15. The original plan for the Via Crucis was strongly criticized by Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, who described it as “untimely, incoherent, and offensive.”

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250997/vatican-adapts-via-crucis-after-outcry-in-ukraine

In his Urbi et Orbi blessing on Easter 2022, Pope Francis lamented an “Easter of War” as he prayed for peace in Ukraine and around the world. Pope Francis gave the traditional Urbi et Orbi blessing following Easter Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square. Local authorities estimate that 100,000 people were present at the Vatican and in the surrounding area for the blessing. In addition to Ukraine, Pope Francis named Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and South Africa as three countries in particular need of prayers due to violence, and humanitarian and environmental crises.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251004/urbi-et-orbi-2022-pope-francis-laments-easter-of-war-in-ukraine-and-world

Today the Church celebrates Blessed Marie-Anne Blondin, a Canadian woman who founded the Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Anne. Though she was the founder and superior, Sister Marie-Anne faced much oppression from the congregation’s chaplain, who eventually had her removed from her position, and she was prohibited from holding any administrative roles for the rest of her life. She spent her last 32 years without complaining, working in the order’s laundry and ironing room. Despite her demotion, her order continued to grow and spread across Canada and the United States.

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

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A special collection will be taken on Good Friday to support Christians in the Holy Land in Catholic churches throughout the world. In an interview with EWTN, Vatican Cardinal Leonardo Sandri said that the Good Friday Collection is a moment for all Catholics to be united in supporting the places where Jesus lived, died, and rose again. This year’s Good Friday collection will be taken in parishes worldwide on April 15. It is the main source of material support for Christian life in the region. U.S. Catholics can donate to the collection online, as well as at churches.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250982/how-the-good-friday-holy-land-collection-unites-catholics-with-the-places-of-christ-s-passion

https://myfranciscan.org/donation-page-pontifical-good-friday-collection/

More than 70 bishops from around the world signed an open letter this week to Germany's bishops, warning that sweeping changes to Church teaching advocated by the ongoing process known as the “Synodal Path” may lead to schism, or a formal break from the Catholic Church. More signatories have added their names to the letter since its release Tuesday morning. The letter comes after the German Synodal Path assembly voted in favor of draft texts calling for same-sex blessings and changes to the Catechism of the Catholic Church as a part of a “re-evaluation of homosexuality” in February. More recently, in an interview published on March 31, German Cardinal Reinhard Marx asserted that the Catechism’s teaching here is “not set in stone” and “one is also allowed to doubt what it says.”

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250973/cordileone-on-signing-letter-to-german-bishops-christ-s-teaching-is-timeless

Catholics around the world are being invited to congratulate Pope emeritus Benedict the sixteenth on his 95th birthday, which he will celebrate on April 16. The Tagespost Foundation for Catholic Journalism has created a website to collect messages to show to the pope emeritus on his birthday. Go to catholic news agency dot com to find the website. The pope emeritus was born Joseph Alois Ratzinger in 1927 in Marktl am Inn, a small Bavarian town not far from Austria, also on a Holy Saturday.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250977/catholics-invited-to-congratulate-benedict-xvi-on-95th-birthday

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

Today is also Holy Thursday. Check out catholic news agency dot com to find out how to receive a plenary indulgence this Holy Week. Also, at catholic news agency dot com, you can find the complete schedule of Holy Week Masses that EWTN will be airing on television and online.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/246665/how-to-obtain-a-plenary-indulgence-during-holy-week

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250974/ewtn-holy-week-easter-schedule-2022

There will be no news briefing tomorrow, Good Friday. From all of us at Catholic News Agency, we wish you a blessed rest of Holy Week, and a joyful Easter.

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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Bishop Robert Brennan of Brooklyn urged prayer for those injured in a shooting at a subway station in the New York City borough on Tuesday, and for the first responders and transit workers. At least 23 people were injured amid a shooting on an N train at the 36th Street station on Tuesday morning. The shooter is at large, having thrown a smoke bomb to distract the crowd at the subway. Bishop Brennan visited Sunset Park, the Brooklyn neighborhood where the shooting occurred, yesterday afternoon.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250957/bishop-horrified-by-brooklyn-shooting-asks-prayers-for-injured-and-first-responders

The head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) expressed concern on Tuesday at plans for Ukrainian and Russian families to carry a cross together at the Stations of the Cross led by Pope Francis at Rome’s Colosseum on Good Friday. Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk said: “I consider such an idea untimely, ambiguous, and such that it does not take into account the context of Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine.” Shevchuk said he had “received many appeals from the faithful of the Church and civil society, both from Ukraine and abroad,” asking him “to convey to the Holy See the great indignation and rejection of this plan by Ukrainians around the world.”

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250955/an-untimely-idea-ukrainian-catholic-leader-concerned-by-format-of-pope-s-good-friday-via-crucis

Today the Church celebrates Pope Saint Martin the first, who ​​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.

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Pope Francis plans to visit Kazakhstan in September for an interreligious meeting. The pope intends to visit the Central Asian country for the seventh edition of the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, taking place in the Kazakh capital of Nur-Sultan in mid-September. Kazakhstan has also been proposed as a potential country that could serve as a location for a meeting between Pope Francis and Kirill, the Russian Orthodox Patriarch, who is thought to have some influence on Vladimir Putin.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250949/pope-francis-plans-to-visit-kazakhstan-in-september

Seven people were killed when a tank fired on a Caritas office in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol. The Catholic charitable organization Caritas-Spes announced April 11 that among the seven people killed by the Russian attack were two women staff members of Caritas Mariupol. Mariupol, a port city in southeastern Ukraine, was attacked by Russian forces on February 24, the first day of the full-scale invasion of the country. Ukrainian fighters have continued to resist the Russian advance on the city despite relentless bombing, which has destroyed many buildings and killed thousands of people.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250941/seven-people-killed-at-caritas-office-in-beseiged-city-of-mariupol

After almost a decade of death and destruction, and one year after the historic visit of Pope Francis to Iraq, more than 25,000 Assyrian Christians celebrated Palm Sunday in northern Iraq over the weekend. The town of Qaraqosh became the Christian epicenter of Iraq during a procession and a Mass on April 10. Qaraqosh has been only partially rebuilt after years of assaults by ISIS, and it is estimated that only half of its original Christian population has returned. The Palm Sunday procession was decorated with palm fronds, roses, bright colors, and folkloric costumes characteristic of Holy Week and Easter.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250940/iraqi-christians-return-nineveh-holy-week

A jury has convicted Ali Harbi Ali for the murder of British politician Sir David Amess, a pro-life Catholic. Ali stabbed Amess more than 20 times during an October 2021 attack at a Methodist Church in Essex, England. Amess had served in Parliament since 1983 and was a champion of pro-life causes. He also was instrumental in arranging Pope Benedict the sixteenth’s visit to the UK Parliament in September 2010.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250944/guilty-verdict-for-murderer-of-catholic-mp-david-amess

Today the Church celebrates Saint Giuseppe Moscati, the first modern medical doctor to be canonized. The Catholic understanding of body and soul informed his understanding of illness and medicine, as he saw Confession and Communion as the “first medicine.” To help the poor, he often donated his medical services or paid for his patients' prescriptions. He lived out the Gospel through his position as a teacher and physician.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-joseph-moscati-55

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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Thieves tried to desecrate a tabernacle and got away with an estimated $150,000 in technology used to livestream services from Saint Monica Church in Santa Monica, California late last month. Surveillance video showed three people inside the church with flashlights removing the church’s audiovisual equipment at about 9:30 pM on Thursday, March 24. They also removed four candle boxes with donations, and tried unsuccessfully to pry open the church’s tabernacle with consecrated hosts inside. Parish officials believe the burglars may have entered the church in the late afternoon and hid inside while the church was being closed for the night.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250934/livestream-equipment-donations-stolen-from-california-parish

The new U.S. ambassador to the Holy See officially began his term on Monday with an audience with Pope Francis. Ambassador Joe Donnelly presented his credentials to the pope at the Vatican’s apostolic palace on April 11. Donnelly, a former senator for Indiana, was nominated for the post by President Joe Biden last fall.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250936/pope-francis-receives-new-us-ambassador-to-the-holy-see-joe-donnelly

Government soldiers departed from the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart and its compound in downtown Mandalay, Myanmar, on Saturday after a search for weapons turned up only two ceremonial swords given to Archbishop Marco Tin Win. Several dozen soldiers had entered the cathedral Friday afternoon prior to a Lenten service and for several hours detained parishioners, the archbishop, archdiocesan officials, and a CNA correspondent. A local informant allegedly alerted authorities that Win Tin was hiding and supplying weapons to rebels throughout the country, but no actual weapons were found.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250929/soldiers-searching-for-weapons-leave-burma-cathedral

In her first public comment on the case, Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser gave no indication Friday that the city intends to autopsy the remains of five aborted babies that anti-abortion activists claim to have rescued from being disposed as medical waste. Instead, in a letter responding to Republican lawmakers in Congress who wrote to her calling for the city to investigate whether the abortionist broke the federal law, Bowser said one of the activists may have broken federal law. Nearly 70 lawmakers on Friday called on the Justice Department and the FBI to investigate the babies’ deaths.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250925/dc-mayor-aborted-babies-activist-federal-law

Today the Church celebrates Saint Stanislaus of Krakow, the 11th-century bishop and martyr who is a beloved patron of the Polish nation and people. In his own country he is commemorated on 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.

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The US Senate voted 53-47 Thursday to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson, a federal judge who also served as a federal public defender and a private practice lawyer, to become the first black woman to sit on the Supreme Court. At age 51, Jackson could serve on the nation’s highest court for decades to come. Her nomination drew strong opposition from pro-life groups. They pointed to the enthusiastic support her nomination received from Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the US, and a legal brief she co-authored as a private practice lawyer they say denigrated pro-life sidewalk counselors.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250910/senate-confirms-ketanji-brown-jackson-first-black-woman-on-supreme-court

A new documentary highlighting the transformative power of the Holy Eucharist will be debuting for one day only in more than 700 theaters across the United States on Monday, April 25. Directed and produced by Spanish filmmakers, the documentary “ALIVE: Who is there?” features the testimonies of five men and women who share how the true presence of Jesus in the Eucharist has transformed their lives. For its US debut, new bonus content will be featured, including exclusive commentary from Diocese of Crookston Bishop Andrew Cozzens, who is the US bishops’ conference chair on evangelization and catechesis, and is leading a three-year national eucharistic revival that will begin in June of 2022.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250912/alive-eucharist-movie-documentary

Washington DC officials have yet to comment publicly after members of an anti-abortion group announced Tuesday they had intercepted a box from the clinic containing the discarded remains of 115 aborted babies, five of which they fear were aborted in violation of federal laws. Several pro-life groups have issued demands that the DC medical examiner perform autopsies on the five babies. The mayor’s office and the DC medical examiner’s office have not responded to CNA’s requests for comment.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250915/aborted-babies-found-in-dc-officials-silent-on-investigation

Today the Church celebrates Saint Julie Billiart, a French woman who opened her home as a hiding place for loyal priests during the French Revolution, and received a vision that she would start a religious institute for the Christian education of young girls. Julie and a rich young woman co-founded the Congregation of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in 1803.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-julie-billiart-430

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An American religious sister kidnapped in West Africa this week is a former international leader of her congregation, who was moved to start a missionary outpost in Burkina Faso after a 2011 visit to the country. Sister Suellen Tennyson, a New Orleans native, had served at a missionary outpost in northern Burkina Faso since 2014. She was reportedly abducted by unidentified armed men on April 5 from the small home she shared with two other members of her congregation, the Marianites of Holy Cross. Tennyson, 83, was the only one of the sisters kidnapped during the assailants’ invasion of the home. The current Marianite congregational leader said they are praying for Sister Tennyson’s release, and are working with governmental leaders in Burkina Faso.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250904/abducted-american-religious-sister-a-former-leader-of-her-congregation-whose-heart-turned-to-missionary-work

Pope Francis on Thursday received the new Ukrainian ambassador to the Holy See, Andrii Yurash. Yurash said the Vatican is a sincere partner of Ukraine, “doing everything possible to stop the war.” Yurash took his post just weeks after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Since his arrival, he has participated in Catholic liturgies, spoken about the war, given interviews to media, and held meetings with other diplomats and Vatican officials.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250905/pope-francis-receives-ukraine-s-new-vatican-ambassador

Today the Church celebrates Saint John Baptist de la Salle, known for promoting and reforming Christian education, especially amongst the poor. He is the founder of the Institute of the Brothers of Christian Schools, which teaches around the world.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-john-baptist-de-la-salle-429