Catholic News

• Vatican: Pope not mediating in North Korea crisis (Vatican Press Office)
  The Vatican press office issued a statement on October 30 denying that Pope Francis has become involved in attempts to mediate the crisis arising from North Korea’s threats to use nuclear weapons. The reports of papal intervention in the crisis arose because of a conference on disarmament that will be held at the Vatican next week. The press statement affirmed that “the Holy Father is working with determination to promote the necessary conditions for a world free of nuclear weapons.”
• Vatican Secretary of State comments on the European project (Vatican Press Office)
  “The European project is undoubtedly a human work,” Cardinal Pietro Parolin said at a conference on Europe’s future. “As such, it has its limitations and can always be perfected ... As Christians, we want to make our contribution inspired and sustained by our faith.”
• Cardinal Müller backs Buttiglione's reading of Amoris Laetitia (Vatican Insider)
  Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has lent his support to the defense of Amoris Laetitia by Rocco Buttiglione. In a preface to a new book by Buttiglione, the cardinal argues that “mitigating factors” could make it possible for Catholics who are divorced and remarried to receive Communion.
• Pope highlights importance of protecting civilians during conflicts (Vatican Press Office)
  The Pope made his remarks to participants in an international conference on humanitarian law.
• Cardinal Marx, at Vatican press conference, praises EU, discusses Christian contribution to its future (Vatican Press Office)
  Climate change, changes in the workplace, and migration are 3 challenges facing “Project Europe,” which has achieved “great results,” said Cardinal Reinhard Marx. “The main question is: what can we do, and what do we want to do, to live together in this Europe and to carry forward ‘Project Europe’?”
• British court upholds university's expulsion of student who wrote that same-sex marriage is sinful (The Guardian)
  Sheffield University expelled the student from its master’s program in social work after he wrote on Facebook that “same-sex marriage is a sin whether we like it or not. It is God’s words and man’s sentiments would not change His words.”
• Honduran bishops, in election statement, call for restoration of democracy, rule of law (Fides)
  The Central American nation of 8.9 million is 97% Catholic.
• Pope Francis recalls 70th anniversary of secular insitutes (Vatican Press Office)
  Pope Pius XII’s decision to create secular institutes “was in a certain sense revolutionary,” said Pope Francis. “Indeed, it outlined a new form of consecration, that of the lay faithful and diocesan priests called to live evangelical counsel[s] in the secular life in which they are immersed.”
• Egypt: Coptic priest conducts sit-in in his closed church (Watani)
  Watani is a weekly Egyptian newspaper.
• University College Dublin: student body president impeached, faces threats for pro-life stance (Irish Times)
  
• Indonesia passes law against radical Islamist organizations (Fides)
  Indonesia, the world’s 4th-most populous nation, is 87% Muslim, 7% Protestant, and 3% Catholic.
• Activists urge removal of Wisconsin bishop after questions on funerals for same-sex couples (Journal-Sentinel)
  Gay activists are demanding the resignation or removal of Bishop Robert Morlino of Madison, Wisconsin, after the diocese cautioned priests to think carefully about scheduling funerals for parishioners engaged in same-sex marriages. The policy (which was not issued by the bishop, although it had his approval) was circulated among diocesan priests, and leaked to the press.
• Cardinal Parolin celebrates Mass for anniversary of Norcia earthquakes (Vatican Press Office)
  Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, celebrated Mass at the facade of the basilica of St. Benedict in Norcia, which was destroyed by earthquakes last year. He remarked that the reconstruction effort now underway is “evidence of the capacity of the human being to rise up again, to return to hope.”
• Papal homily: good pastors are close to their people (Vatican Radio)
  In his homily at morning Mass on October 30, Pope Francis criticized clerics who are more interested in building relationships with powerful people than in bringing comfort to those in need. Good shepherds, he said, are close to their people, while hypocrites—like the Pharisees rebuked by Jesus—take refuge in the letter of the law.
• Santa Fe's Archbishop Wester apologizes for 'betrayal of trust' on sexual abuse (New Mexican)
  
• England's Buckfast Abbey to celebrate 1,000 years (CNA)
  
• Chaldean Patriarch worried by insecurity in Kurdistan (AsiaNews)
  Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako has expressed new concerns about the welfare of Christians in the Nineveh Plains region, as violence has flared following a vote for autonomy in the region of Kurdistan. The Patriarch said that he fears more Christians will flee Iraq because of the mounting insecurity.
• Indiana court rules that sex offenders are not banned from churches (Religion Clause)
  
• Boston archdiocese rescinds ban on pro-life petitions (Catholic Action League)
  Reacting to public protests, the Boston archdiocese has reversed a policy that barred pro-life activists from collecting signatures on church property for a measure that seeks an end to public funding of abortion. The archdiocese announced that pastors would be free to make their own decisions on allowing signature-gathering, provided that the cause “must be in accordance with the teachings of the Church.”
• Dublin archdiocese withholds statistics amid mounting shortage of priests (Irish Catholic)
  The Diocese of Dublin, facing an increasingly acute shortage of priests, has declined to make public the annual figures involving priestly retirements. One figure is available, however: no new students entered seminary training for the diocese this year.
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