Catholic News

• Pope Francis decries 'resurgent, barbaric' anti-Semitism (Simon Wiesenthal Center)
  “May the anniversary of the unspeakable cruelty that humanity learned of 75 years ago serve as a summons to pause, to be still, and to remember,” Pope Francis said to a delegation from the Simon Wiesenthal Center on January 20. “An increase in selfishness and indifference … creates a fertile ground for the forms of factionalism and populism we see around us, where hatred quickly springs up.”
• Cardinal Turkson urges World Economic Forum to address climate change (@CardinalTurkson)
  As the 2020 World Economic Forum opened in Davos, Switzerland, the Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development tweeted, “Official opening of World Economic Forum = today. Climate crisis will stall events. Governments found money to prevent collapse of banks. Why can’t we find resources to prevent & stop climate crisis?”
• Maronite patriarch slams Lebanese politicians responsible for country's 'shame and disgrace' (AsiaNews)
  Headquartered in Bkerké, Lebanon, the Maronite Catholic Church (CNEWA profile) is an Eastern Catholic church in full communion with the Holy See.
• Duterte resumes attacks on Philippine bishops (UCANews)
  Rodrigo Duterte, 74, has been president of the largely Catholic nation since 2016.
• 'Defy the Apocalypse': Influential Jesuit journal examines Pope's view of global politics (La Civiltà Cattolica)
  “Defy the Apocalypse,” an article written by Father Antonio Spadaro, SJ, includes sections entitled “Hold back the end: the Empire or the Church?”; “The task of the Church in the face of the apocalypse”; “The global role of Catholicism in today’s context”; “Against the temptation of tribal Catholicism”; “Saint Francis on the throne of Saint Peter”; “The primacy of spiritual authority and the end of ‘Christianity’”; and “The challenge to the apocalypse after the Bomb and the Wall: human fraternity.”
• One Nigerian seminarian released, badly injured (CNA)
  One of the four Nigerian seminarians who were kidnapped 10 days ago has been released, having sustained serious injuries—apparently incurred when he resisted his captors. He was dumped by the side of the road, and rescued by passersby; he is now in intensive care.
• As political tensions rise, Guinea's bishops declare 3 days of prayer and fasting (RECOWA)
  The West African nation of 12.2 million (map) is 88% Muslim, 8% ethnic religionist, and 3% Christian.
• More than 67,000 Austrian Catholics left the Church last year (SIR)
  The Austrian Catholic bishops’ conference reports that 67,583 people formally left the Catholic Church in 2019. That number is a 15% increase from the previous year’s total.
• Nigerian bishops call for release of kidnapped seminarians (Vatican News)
  Four seminarians were kidnapped on January 8 in Kaduna, in central Nigeria. “The assault on the seminary was all too familiar in a region where Boko Haram and other Islamist groups use brutal and brazen methods to reinforce their reign of terror,” Vatican News noted.
• Researchers 'reconsider fetal pain' (National Review)
  According to a report based on a new study in the Journal of Medical Ethics, “unborn human beings likely are able to feel pain at an earlier point than previous research has suggested.”
• Trust in God makes us free, Pope preaches at weekday Mass (Vatican News)
  At a Mass celebrated in the chapel of Domus Sanctae Marthae on January 20, Pope Francis preached on 1 Samuel 15:16-23 and Mark 2:18-22, the readings of the day.
• Bishop Gumbleton: 'Refuse cooperation with United States wars' (CounterPunch)
  “The endless War on Terrorism has fallen short of the Church’s Just War requirements on multiple fronts,” writes retired Detroit Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, 89. “All Catholics should refuse to kill and should refuse cooperation with United States wars. Catholic taxpayers should make every effort to avoid paying for war and weapons.”
• Recalling his family's flight from Czechoslovakia, new cardinal emphasizes service to migrants, refugees (Crux)
  Cardinal Michael Czerny, SJ, took possession of his titular parish on January 19. He said that his pectoral cross, made from wood recovered from a Mediterranean migrant boat, “reminds us of the cross on which Jesus, the Son of God, was crucified to take away the sins of the world. The nail struck clearly reminds us that Jesus was nailed to the cross.”
• Claims against Notre Dame, federal government over contraceptive coverage move ahead (Religion Clause)
  The case “is the latest installment in the dispute over the extent to which [the University of Notre Dame] must provide contraceptive coverage in its health insurance plans for employees and students,” according to the report.
• US bishops' novena for life begins (USCCB)
  “The pro-life novena is an opportunity for recollection and reparation in observation of the anniversary of Roe v. Wade—the Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal throughout the United States,” the US Conference of Catholic Bishops stated in a news release.
• Syro-Malabar bishops warn faithful against 'love jihad' conversions (AsiaNews)
  “The Indian bishops are concerned about the alleged conversions forcibly extracted from Christian girls, seduced and then radicalized in the Islamic ‘holy war,’” according to the report.
• Pope Francis: The essence of life is our relationship with God (Vatican News)
  The Pope made his remarks at a Mass celebrated on January 17.
• Cardinal Farrell outlines Vatican's vision for the Catholic charismatic renewal (CHARIS)
  Speaking in Brazil at the first international conference for leaders of charismatic communities, the prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life outlined the Vatican’s vision for CHARIS, founded in 2019. Cardinal Farrell said that Pope Francis “is convinced that Baptism in the Holy Spirit is a grace that every baptized person can and should receive. It is an experience of a personal Pentecost, an eruption of the Holy Spirit into the life of the baptized person, accompanied by an experience of conversion and an encounter with the living Jesus. All this should be part of the normal life of every baptized person called to holiness.”
• 'Had the Church sidelined me earlier, I would have stopped earlier,' notorious French ex-priest testifies (AP)
  Bernard Preynat, 74, testified that his bishop knew of his pedophilic tendencies when he was a seminarian yet ordained him to the priesthood after a period of psychotherapy. “This chance, the first of many, to keep him away from children was spurned by the Church hierarchy, which instead consistently — and successfully — long kept his abuses under wraps,” the Associated Press reported.
• CAFOD calls on UK to end 'all forms of public support for fossil fuels overseas' (CAFOD News & Policy)
  CAFOD (the Catholic Agency For Overseas Development) is the English and Welsh bishops’ relief and development agency.
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