Catholic News
- Ecumenical Patriarch hails Pope Leo's Augustinian commitment to Christian unity (CWN)
In a message to Pope Leo XIV, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople hailed the progress made to the restoration of full communion between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox churches. - Leading African, Asian, Latin American prelates issue joint call for climate justice (CWN)
The presidents of CELAM (the Latin American Episcopal Conference), the FABC (Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences), and SECAM (the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar) have issued “A Call for Climate Justice and the Common Home: Ecological Conversion, Transformation and Resistance to False Solutions.” - Vatican cardinal warns of 'danger of extinction' of Christianity in the Middle East (Vatican News (Italian))
Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches, said in an interview that “people are helplessly watching the devastation that is spreading like wildfire” in “the Christian East, a land of martyrs: there is a danger of extinction.” “People are losing what they had built up over the centuries in terms of thought: freedom, individual rights, international rights and humanitarian rights,” Cardinal Gugerotti continued. “It seems that everything is vanishing, and the Pope clearly states this” in a recent address. The prelate added: People witness helplessly the devastation that is spreading like wildfire. And when the powerful of the day are reproached for violating international and humanitarian law, they do not respond—as if to say, it does not interest me. So how can we think of dialogue? ... It is a land of martyrs that continues to be prey to martyrdom. This system of violence forces Christians to flee, effectively eliminating them from their land: and they are one of the cultural, social and political foundations of those same lands ... In a land where schools and churches are destroyed, what future could there possibly be?... The risk is that of losing a treasure made up of the Fathers of the Church, of hymns, of prayers, of traditions. And they cannot be replaced: in the body of Christ there will be a void. - USCCB, in action alerts, urges opposition to environmental, SNAP, Medicaid budget cuts (CWN)
Following the passage of the Senate version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in a 51-50 vote, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) issued two action alerts on July 1. - Syriac Catholic hierarchy meets with Pope (L'Osservatore Romano (Italian))
Pope Leo XIV held a face-to-face discussion with the members of the Ordinary Synod of Bishops of the Syriac Catholic Church on July 1. The Vatican did not release a summary of the topics that were discussed. Headquartered in Beirut, Lebanon, and led by Patriarch Ignatius Joseph III Younan, the Eastern Catholic church has 208,000 members (CNEWA profile). It has eparchies (dioceses) in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, and the United States. - Argentine Cardinal Dri dies at 98 (Vatican News)
Cardinal Luis Pascual Dri, OFM Cap, died on June 30 at the age of 98. Born in Argentina, Dri entered the Capuchin Franciscan seminary in 1938, three months before his 11th birthday. He professed perpetual vows in 1949 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1952. He became known for his ministry in the confessional. Pope Francis, who spoke about Father Dri on several occasions, created him a cardinal in 2023. - Bishop decries renewed violence in South Sudan, calls for peace (Vatican News)
The Italian missionary bishop of Bentiu, South Sudan, denounced renewed violence there, including airstrikes on civilians, five years after the conclusion of a civil war. Bishop Christian Carlassare, MCCI, said that “we must speak openly against the proliferation of weapons, the reckless recruitment of youth [into armies], and all forms of violence and injustice.” At a “very delicate moment” in national life, “we must welcome not the peace the world proposes, brandished by the powerful through military force, but the peace offered as a gift in the Gospel.” The East African nation of 12.7 million (map) is 61% Christian (39% Catholic), 32% ethnic religionist, and 6% Muslim. It gained independence from largely Muslim Sudan in 2011; Pope Francis made an apostolic journey there in February 2023. - Where 'human blood is shed too easily,' the Precious Blood offers hope, Holy Land custos preaches (Custodia Sanctae Terrae)
The custos (Franciscan superior) in the Holy Land celebrated Mass in the Basilica of the Agony in Gethsemane on July 1, the traditional date of the Feast of the Most Precious Blood. In an Italian-language homily entitled “From Nazareth to Gethsemane, from Gethsemane to Calvary, from Calvary to the altar and to each one of us,” Father Francesco Patton concluded: For us who live in a context in which human blood is shed too easily and unscrupulously, in a context in which words such as forgiveness and reconciliation sound distant and almost unrealizable, in a context in which the only alliances we experience are alliances of power and prevarication; for us who live in this context, Jesus’ words acquire an even stronger meaning, the meaning of a possible hope for reconciliation and peace, the meaning of a possible respect for every human life, the meaning of a new covenant because of its radically different quality from that of the covenants we see around us and on a global scale ... Let us ask [the Father] that by celebrating the holy mystery of the Most Precious Blood of His Son Jesus Christ we can truly obtain that fruit of reconciliation and peace, of new and eternal life, of universal redemption which in this mystery is contained, signified and given to us. In the liturgical changes that followed the Second Vatican Council, the Feast of the Most Precious Blood was combined with Corpus Christi on the General Roman Calendar to become the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. The feast is kept on the traditional date in the Holy Land. - Amid Cameroon conflict, situation improves for civilians—but torture continues, prelate says (Vatican News (French))
Archbishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya of Bamenda, the president of Cameroon’s episcopal conference, said that the situation for civilians amid the Anglophone Crisis “has improved significantly, at least in terms of daily life”—but “we still have many cases of kidnappings and ransom demands, torture continues, and the population still lives in fear.” Vatican News, the news agency of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication, reported that the conflict has displaced 800,000 over the past eight years, “making the area the scene of one of the most serious and ignored crises in the world.” The Central African nation of 31 million (map) is 58% Christian (28% Catholic), 22% Muslim, and 19% ethnic religionist. Pope Benedict made an apostolic journey there in 2009. - Vatican newspaper highlights overcrowding, suicides in Italian prisons (CWN)
In the most prominent article in its July 1 edition, L’Osservatore Romano drew attention to Italian President Sergio Mattarella’s denunciation of conditions in the nation’s prisons. - Peter's Pence had $20.4M deficit in 2024 (CWN)
Peter’s Pence has released its annual report for 2024, the last full year of Pope Francis’s pontificate. - Pope ordains 32, urges all priests to frequent the sacraments (Vatican Press Office)
Pope Leo XIV ordained 32 men to the priesthood on June 27, the feast of the Sacred Heart, in a ceremony at St. Peter’s basilica. In his homily the Pope said that all priests are called to conform themselves to Christ, “above all by putting the Eucharist at the center of our lives,” and also by “fruitful reception of the sacraments, especially by the frequent practice of sacramental penance.” Speaking more specifically to the newly ordained priests, the Holy Father said: Love God and your brothers and sisters, and give yourselves to them generously. Be fervent in your celebration of the sacraments, in prayer, especially in adoration before the Eucharist, and in your ministry. Keep close to your flock, give freely of your time and energy to everyone, without reserve and without partiality, as the pierced side of the crucified Jesus and the example of the saints teach us to do. Remember that the Church, in the two thousand years of her history, has had—and today continues to have—wonderful examples of priestly holiness. - More...