Catholic News

  • Cardinals address Nobel laureates, scholars at Castel Gandolfo gathering (Vatican News)
    Cardinal Fabio Baggio, C.S., pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, and Cardinal Silvano Tomasi, C.S., a retired Vatican diplomat, addressed over 200 Nobel laureates, scholars, AI experts, and former heads of state on July 14. The assembly has gathered to draft the Rome Declaration for a Disarmed and Disarming Peace in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, Nuclear and Autonomous Weapons, New Digital Protocols, and Emerging Models of Digital Development. “At a time when the pace of innovation often exceeds that of reflection, the world stands in need of shared principles capable of guiding progress toward authentically human ends,” Cardinal Baggio told the gathering, organized by the Global Nobel Laureates Assembly on Artificial Intelligence and Nuclear War. “May future generations be able to say that, at a moment when humanity possessed unprecedented power over its own destiny, women and men of conscience chose cooperation over confrontation, dialogue over fear, and hope over resignation,” Cardinal Tomasi added.
  • Cardinal Zuppi visits Ukraine, gives holy cards to Russian POWs (Vatican News)
    At Pope Leo XIV’s behest, Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi of Bologna, Italy, traveled to Ukraine and gave holy cards to Russian prisoners of war near Lviv. Cardinal Zuppi, accompanied by the apostolic nuncio and the Ukrainian ambassador to the Holy See, also gave the prisoners keychains, telling them that he hoped that “soon you will put your house key on it, so you can open your front door and embrace your loved ones.” “Pope Leo sent the nuncio and me here to bring you hope,” added Cardinal Zuppi. “He is praying for you, that the war may end and that you may return home.” Cardinal Zuppi also visited Ukraine in 2023 at the behest of Pope Francis as the Pope’s special wartime envoy.
  • Nigerian president assures Archbishop Gallagher of commitment to freedom of worship (L'Osservatore Romano (Italian))
    Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations, traveled to Nigeria from July 2-7 to mark the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Africa’s most populous nation. In a detailed article on the trip, published on July 14, the Vatican newspaper reported on Archbishop Gallagher’s meeting with President Bola Tinubu, who is Muslim: During the cordial discussion, the good relations between the two parties were highlighted, as was the Catholic Church’s contribution to Nigerian society, particularly in the fields of education and interreligious dialogue. President Tinubu reaffirmed his government’s commitment to promoting religious harmony and guaranteeing freedom of worship for all citizens. He also praised the contribution of Catholic bishops and other religious leaders in fostering peace and tolerance. Located in West Africa, Nigeria, a nation of 243 million (map), is the world’s sixth most populous country. The nation is 47% Muslim, 46% Christian (11% Catholic), and 7% ethnic religionist.
  • West Papua rebels target Catholic Church (Lowy Institute)
    An Indonesian rebel group is targeting the Catholic Church, according to a report published today by an Australian think tank. The Lowy Institute said that the West Papua National Liberation Army, which operates in Western New Guinea, has attacked a Church-run air service and Catholic schools because of the Church’s collaboration with the government and because of the “growing popularity of the Church’s programs among ordinary Papuans.” “The logic is simple: the more popular the Church becomes, the harder it gets for the rebels to recruit and win social support,” according to the report.
  • Latin American bishops sign anti-drug abuse agreement with Organization of American States (Organization of American States)
    The secretary general of the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM) signed an agreement with the Organization of American States (OAS) on July 13 to combat drug abuse. Auxiliary Bishop Lizardo Estrada Herrera, O.S.A., of Cuzco, Peru, said that the “Catholic Church, inspired by its social doctrine, seeks not only to address the structural consequences of drug use, but also to accompany people in their human, social, and spiritual dimensions.” The agreement will focus on “drug use prevention, treatment, recovery, and preventing the recruitment of young people by criminal organizations, combining evidence-based public health approaches with the Catholic Church’s community and pastoral work,” according to the OAS.
  • Mob violence against Pakistani Christian family averted (Vatican News)
    The executive director of the Pakistani bishops’ Catholic Commission for Peace and Justice said in an interview that mob violence against a Christian family in Baldia Town was averted on July 9. Naeem Yousaf Gill told Vatican News that a torn page of the Qur’an, along with a picture of the Christian shopkeeper and his mother, was mailed to someone. Soon, a violent mob gathered outside the shopkeeper’s home. Gill said that the Commission swiftly drew on connections gained through interreligious dialogue. To Gill’s great surprise, Muslim clerics, seminary students, and local politicians intervened, and police dispersed the mob. Thus, said Gill, “interreligious dialogue has great significance. It should be continued. It will break the barriers.” “The Christian community feels unprotected and vulnerable in Pakistan due to repeated incidents,” he said. “The allegation is levelled against one person; however, if the accused is Christian, the whole community pays the price.” “The Catholics in Pakistan are living a hard life,” Gill added. “They are facing discrimination, humiliation and hatred in all spheres of their lives. Still struggling to live with dignity.”
  • Catholic Theological Society of America honors self-described queer theologian (Outreach)
    The Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA) bestowed its highest honor, the John Courtney Murray Award, on Father Bryan Massingale, a priest of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and professor at Fordham University. “I stand before you as both a Black theologian and a publicly gay/queer/same-gender loving one,” Father Massingale said as he received the award on July 13. He added: Recall that not so long ago, staff from the USCCB’s doctrine committee joined the CTSA and monitored any convention session that examined topics concerning human sexuality. Repressive conditions led many of us to suppress who we are and camouflaged how we love. Tonight’s honor is bigger than me, for it is a recognition of a new kind of theologian for the church: publicly identified LGBTQ Catholic theologians, doing Catholic theology for the sake of the Church and its understanding of God. We have always been here. Tonight we now have a visibility, acknowledgment and recognition never before granted.
  • Kenyan bishop warns women not to tempt priests (Tuko News (Kenya))
    A Kenyan bishop urged women who intend to tempt priests not to do so. “For those intending to tempt priests and force them into affairs that go against their beliefs and priestly calling, please stop,” Bishop Hieronymus Emusugut Joya, I.M.C., of Maralal said yesterday. “These priests are human and have feelings. If you convince them, they might fall.” On July 12, Bishop Joya suspended 15% of his priests and enacted disciplinary measures, including a 7:00 PM curfew and a ban on overnight guests in priests’ residences without his permission.
  • Trump administration grants $235M in food aid to Catholic Relief Services (Catholic Relief Services)
    The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) granted $235 million in food aid to Catholic Relief Services, for use in Ethiopia and Sudan. “This agreement with USDA comes at a critical moment for struggling families in Sudan and Ethiopia,” said Sean Callahan, president and CEO of Catholic Relief Services. “The scale of humanitarian need in Sudan and Ethiopia demands sustained national and international commitment, and strong partnerships are essential to meeting these needs.” Following earlier foreign aid cuts, the State Department granted $240 million to Catholic Relief Services last month for humanitarian and disaster-response needs. The U.S. bishops founded Catholic Relief Services in 1943, and the majority of the members of its board of directors are bishops.
  • Australian Catholic school organization under investigation for political donations (The Guardian)
    The organization that oversees and represents Catholic schools in the Australian state of New South Wales is the subject of an anti-corruption investigation over campaign contributions to the Liberal Party. “It is alleged the donations were arranged and approved by the Catholic Schools NSW chief executive, Dallas McInerney, to recruit or renew members to the party,” The Guardian reported.
  • Catholic teacher says Scottish school fired her for stating pro-life views (Christian Post)
    An American living in Scotland said that she was fired from her high school teaching position after she replied to student questions about her views on abortion. “Government guidelines on political impartiality in the classroom do not prohibit the mention of a teacher’s legally protected beliefs, provided there is no attempt to persuade,” said Michael Robinson, executive director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, as he commented on the dismissal of Sarah Morse, 66, from Arbroath High School. “Our legal team [is] now preparing legal action against the school and the local authority for discrimination, and Sarah is looking forward to her day in court.”
  • Gunmen kill 2 Catholic young adults in Pakistan; Islamic State claims responsibility (UCANews)
    Gunmen on motorcycles killed two Catholic young adults in Mastung, Pakistan, on July 8. Islamic State – Khorasan Province claimed responsibility for the murders.
  • 'Rome Declaration for a Disarmed and Disarming Peace' being drafted at Castel Gandolfo (Vatican News)
    A three-day gathering begins today at Borgo Laudato Si’ to draft the Rome Declaration for a Disarmed and Disarming Peace in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, Nuclear and Autonomous Weapons, New Digital Protocols, and Emerging Models of Digital Development. The Global Nobel Laureates Assembly on Artificial Intelligence and Nuclear War, with the assistance of Domus Communis Foundation and a dozen other institutions, has organized the gathering for 200 people, including Nobel laureates, former heads of state, AI experts, and scholars from universities. The president of the Domus Communis (Common Home) Foundation is Cardinal Silvano Tomasi, C.S., a retired Vatican diplomat.
  • Vatican newspaper highlights European heat waves (L'Osservatore Romano (Italian))
    The Vatican newspaper devoted the most prominent front-page article in its July 14 edition to the ongoing European heat waves. “While June 2026 will be remembered as one of the hottest months on record, the data for July are equally concerning so far,” Davide Dionisi reported in “Nella morsa del caldo” (In the grip of the heat). “Across Europe, France and England experienced their hottest June on record, while the United Kingdom, Germany, and the Netherlands recorded their second-hottest June in history, with all-time temperature records set in several locations.”
  • Vatican spokesman warns against 'exaggeration' of Pope's role as head of state (Vatican News)
    Andrea Tornielli, editorial director of the Dicastery for Communication, warned in an editorial against “any glorification or exaggeration of the Pope’s role as head of state, any emphasis on the importance of this role.” In “The Pope always speaks as a Shepherd,” Tornielli wrote that “it is true that, to guarantee the absolute freedom of the Vicar of Christ, it was established nearly a century ago that there would be a tiny patch of land where the Bishop of Rome and Shepherd of the Universal Church would also be sovereign—and thus head of state. But this was, and remains, an arrangement designed to recognize precisely this need for independence from any other state, and not an affirmation of a dual mission.” Tornielli concluded: When he calls for human life to be respected and protected at every stage of its existence, when he speaks of peace with the good of all peoples in mind and calls for an end to the mad arms race—even going beyond the concept of a “just war”—when he calls for dialogue and negotiation by invoking the Magisterium of Social Doctrine, when he calls for migrants to be regarded as people to be welcomed, without ever forgetting their human dignity; when he reminds us that the poor are at the heart of the Gospel and that we must build more just and equitable societies; when he defends the right to religious freedom; when he emphasizes the importance of caring for Creation so that we may pass it on to our children and grandchildren—the Successor of Peter is not speaking as a head of state. He is simply proclaiming the Gospel. Tornielli’s editorial followed a New York Times interview with Brian Burch, the U.S. ambassador to the Holy See. The newspaper reported that “Mr. Burch argued that when the pope spoke out against the war, he was not doing so as the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, the vicar of Christ, but only as the sovereign political leader of the Vatican City-State.”
  • In India, mob demands Salesian sisters destroy chapel, cemetery (Catholic Connect)
    A mob of 60 people entered the property of the Salesian sisters in Barasat on July 12 and demanded that the sisters destroy a partially constructed chapel and cemetery, according to Catholic Connect, a website of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India. Barasat is located in the state of West Bengal (map), where four incidents of anti-Christian violence took place on July 5.
  • Retired archbishop defends SSPX, says Pope Leo 'no longer represents the Church' (LifeSite News)
    The retired bishop of Karaganda, Kazakhstan, defended the Society of Saint Pius X and offered strong criticism of the Vatican. Archbishop Jan Paweł Lenga, M.I.C., said that “it was worth seeing the consecration of the bishops of the Society of St Pius X: what peace, what joy, what prayerful atmosphere, what solemnity! Nothing like that can be seen in the post-conciliar Church anymore.” “The See of Peter has been occupied by people who have nothing to do with Christ,” Archbishop Lenga continued. “Prevost’s approval of the excommunication is proof that he no longer represents the Church that follows Jesus and leads people to salvation.” AdVaticanum reported that the Diocese of Włocławek, Poland, had earlier imposed restrictions on Archbishop Lenga “after a series of public interventions directed against Pope Francis. The disciplinary measures prohibited him from preaching at Mass and speaking to the media, although Archbishop Lenga immediately rejected the sanctions.”
  • French military school refused to consider pupils from independent Catholic schools (The European Conservative)
    A Le Figaro investigation found that a prestigious French military secondary school refused to consider pupils from independent Catholic schools despite their reputation for academic excellence. The students whose applications were not considered all attended traditionalist Catholic schools, either affiliated with the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest or with the Society of Saint Pius X.
  • Prelates gather in Washington to discuss future of Catholic-Orthodox dialogue (Orientale Lumen Foundation)
    Catholic and Orthodox prelates, including the secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Orthodox co-chairman of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue Between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, are taking part in the 30th Oriental Lumen Conference in Washington. “After three decades of Orientale Lumen conferences, ecumenical dialogue between Eastern Orthodox, Eastern Catholic, and Roman Catholic Christians has reached a critical stage,” according to the Orientale Lumen Foundation. “The central ecclesiological question today is no longer whether consensus is possible, but how this convergence is to be received and embodied in the life of the Church of Jesus Christ.”
  • SSPX appeals excommunication decree (Society of Saint Pius X)
    Citing canon 1734 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law, the Society of Saint Pius X announced it filed a preliminary recourse against the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s July 2 decree declaring that six SSPX bishops had incurred automatic excommunication. The Society stated that its request, submitted to the same dicastery, “constitutes the mandatory preliminary step before the possible introduction of a hierarchical recourse” and “has the effect of suspending the execution of the decree.”
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