Catholic News

http://www.myspiritfm.com/News?blogid=Catholic-News&view=post&articleid=282703&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 27, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

More local Catholic Charities agencies across the country have been forced this week to lay off employees and shut down programs as a result of the federal aid funding freeze enacted last month by the Trump administration.

Catholic Charities in Florida, Texas, and Kansas spoke out this week about how the funding freeze has impacted both program-specific and agency-wide efforts. 

Since President Donald Trump issued a directive halting all foreign aid for a 90-day review, federal funding has been blocked for Catholic Charities programs across the U.S., affecting migrant and refugee service programs especially.

Texas Catholic Charities announces closure of refugee program

Catholic Charities of the Texas Panhandle announced Monday it had made the decision "with a heavy heart" that it would indefinitely suspend its Refugee Resettlement Program. 

"Catholic Charities has proudly helped resettle refugees legally authorized to settle here by the U.S. State Department since the mid-'70s," the organization stated in a press release, according to local news reports. "We offer our sincerest gratitude to the organizations and individuals who have partnered with us to provide this ministry over the past 50 years."

"We ask our community partners to assist our team and our clients during this difficult time of transition," the organization added, further noting that it would be moving the program's staff into other departments within the agency.

Catholic Charities Jacksonville lays off 26

Similarly, Catholic Charities Jacksonville said on Wednesday it had laid off 26 employees of the Florida agency's refugee program after the funding freeze resulted in its office not receiving reimbursement for services it had already provided in November, according to a local report. 

The agency was supposed to receive over $600,000 in federal funding for the program. 

The agency's chief executive officer, Anita Hassell, stated in the report that the organization was forced to let employees go without severance following the executive order. 

Now, the Catholic Charities agency is seeking to compensate for the funding freeze by appealing to donors.

"What we have done for each of the programs that we have [is] we have left someone who will be able to pick [up] the loose ends, and we have been appealing to our donors and talking to foundations to see if we can receive money for direct assistance so we can continue providing them with what they need," Hassel stated in the report.

Catholic Charities in Kansas issues 'urgent call for support' 

Catholic Charities of Southwest Kansas issued an "urgent call for support" after the federal government blocked reimbursements it was contracted to receive for its migrant relief program, resulting in an agency-wide financial crisis. 

"In recent weeks, our community and nation have faced unprecedented challenges due to new executive orders impacting the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program and foreign aid," Executive Director Debbie Snapp stated in a letter addressed to supporters of the organization. "The freezing of crucial funds poses a critical threat to Catholic Charities of Southwest Kansas and our ability to continue serving those in need."

Snapp told CNA in an interview that the agency had expected to receive close to $500,000 in reimbursements from both organizations combined for December and January. 

"I find it really disappointing because we have had really good partnerships with our federal funding partners," she said. "That whole idea of a public-private partnership has worked really well in our communities."

Snapp explained that the small agency in southwest Kansas runs "pretty tight margins." So when funding for its migrant program was blocked, the agency was forced to use other undesignated funds, as well as donor funds, to pay its bills. 

As a result, Snapp said, operations across the agency are affected: "The things that we would do, like emergency assistance, some rental assistance, paying utility bills, we're not able to do that for anybody in the community right now."

"I had a gentleman that was in my office last Tuesday," she recalled. "He just completed a treatment program, and he needed a halfway house. He had a small rent payment to make at the halfway house."

"We had to tell him no because we don't have the funds to pay that because we're just trying to pay the bills that we have every month," she said. The agency is now scrambling to come up with ways to provide rental aid as the first of the month approaches. 

While the agency anticipated it would have to make changes to the services it would provide for migrants under the Trump administration, Snapp said the agency was not prepared for an abrupt freeze, having received roughly 70 migrants in the 30 days leading up to the inauguration. 

"We had been provided some assurances that we were going to have administrative funding for the rest of the fiscal year to the end of September so that we would be able to wind down those programs and meet our obligations, particularly to the new arrivals that just came the 30 days before the freeze happened," she stated. 

According to Snapp, the agency plans to continue providing migrant services, including job assistance and English language classes, "because we are hopeful that if the funding freeze is ended and we have those funds that we're still able to provide people with services." In the past year, she said, the agency has served approximately 1,500 people. 

As CNA reported last week, local Catholic Charities agencies in Dallas; Syracuse, New York; and Santa Rosa, California, were also forced to lay off employees and scale back program operations on account of the freeze.

Full Article

http://www.myspiritfm.com/News?blogid=Catholic-News&view=post&articleid=282702&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

Vatican City, Feb 27, 2025 / 06:15 am (CNA).

Pope Francis spent another restful night at Rome's Gemelli Hospital after being admitted on Friday, Feb. 14, to undergo testing and treatment for bronchitis.

Follow here for the latest news on Pope Francis' health and hospitalization:

Full Article

http://www.myspiritfm.com/News?blogid=Catholic-News&view=post&articleid=282701&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

ACI Africa, Feb 27, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Fear has gripped the Nazaré Training Center in Mozambique's Archdiocese of Beira following a Sunday, Feb. 23, attack that left two priests and a religious brother at the facility injured.

The Conference of Religious Institutes of Mozambique told Catholic pontifical and charity foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) International that a group of men armed with pistols, machetes, and irons entered the institution in the early hours of Feb. 23, violently attacking three missionaries who were there.

According to a Feb. 25 ACN report, the conference "expressed its concern about the insecurity" in the southern African nation following the attack and appealed for prayers for peace in the country.

ACN reported that the two priests and brother were "tied up and tortured by the bandits" at the institution, which engages in various activities, including formation courses for the Mozambican archdiocese.

Fortunately, according to the report, all three men "are out of danger" and suffered only "minor pain and injuries."

One of the victims, Father Timothée Bationo, is a priest from Burkina Faso who celebrated two decades of priesthood in December 2024 and is currently the episcopal vicar for consecrated life of the Archdiocese of Beira. He is responsible for the Nazaré Training Centre.

ACN said the attack on the Catholic institution occurred at a sensitive moment in the political life of the Portuguese-speaking African nation, which has been wreaked by political upheaval following a contested presidential election. 

Mozambique, ACN said, also continues to suffer from attacks by the Al Shahab militants, especially in the country's northern province of Cabo Delgado.

In its report, ACN quotes one of the victims as saying that the robbery incident was being handled by security officials, who he said are yet to provide details about the robbers, including their identity and what they might have stolen. 

This story was first published by ACI Africa, CNA's news partner in Africa, and has been adapted by CNA.

Full Article

http://www.myspiritfm.com/News?blogid=Catholic-News&view=post&articleid=282700&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

CNA Newsroom, Feb 27, 2025 / 07:30 am (CNA).

Pope Francis slept well overnight and his condition continues to improve as he undergoes treatment for a complex respiratory infection at Rome's Gemelli Hospital, the Vatican announced Thursday morning.

The 88-year-old pontiff continues oxygen therapy "with high flow rates" and has begun physiotherapy treatment for his respiratory passages.

While the pope's condition shows signs of improvement, Vatican officials emphasized that "the prognosis remains cautious" as his hospitalization extends into its thirteenth day.

Pope's consolation to grieving mother

The Vatican, meanwhile, has revealed a moving letter the Holy Father wrote shortly before his hospitalization.

In the letter, set to appear in the monthly magazine "Piazza San Pietro," Pope Francis responded to a grieving Roman mother who lost her 21-year-old son.

"Jesus, who weeps with us, will sow in our hearts all the answers we seek," the pope wrote to Cinzia, whose son Fabrizio went out one evening in October 2019 and never returned home.

Meanwhile, the prayer vigils for the pontiff's recovery continue.

According to a Thursday announcement from the Secretariat of State of the Holy See, the Holy Rosary will be prayed again this evening at 9:00 p.m. in St. Peter's Square, with Cardinal Baldassare Reina, the Vicar General for the Diocese of Rome, presiding over the prayer service.

The Vatican also confirmed that "due to the pope's continued hospitalization, the Jubilee audience scheduled for Saturday, March 1, has been canceled."

Full Article

http://www.myspiritfm.com/News?blogid=Catholic-News&view=post&articleid=282686&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

Madrid, Spain, Feb 26, 2025 / 18:07 pm (CNA).

The Poor Clare abbess of the Monastery of Santo Cristo de Balaguer in Lérida province in northeast Spain is criticizing a 2018 rule established by Pope Francis that dissolves communities of women religious with fewer than five nuns, a rule that does not apply to male communities.

Sister María Victoria Triviño, OSC, made her critique in an article published by the magazine Catalunya Cristiana regarding the recent closure of the Monastery of Santa María de Pedralbes in Barcelona that had been in existence for 700 years.

Asked about the reason for the closure, "which people, hurt and perplexed, address to some of the Poor Clares every day," the nun explained that the Holy Father published the apostolic constitution Vultum Dei Quaerere in 2016 but emphasized that the document "did not affect monks."

Similarly, regarding the Cor Orans instruction, published in 2018 to implement Vultum Dei Quaerere, the Poor Clare nun pointed out that "it affects women's monasteries around the world, not men's."

This instruction establishes that "if a monastery has only five nuns, it loses its autonomy and must be affiliated with another monastery." Furthermore, if it falls below that number, it must be abolished, according to Triviño.

In such a case, an apostolic visitor is appointed who, if he issues a negative report to the Roman Curia, "the transfer of the sisters is ordered" and the building is closed.

In the opinion of the abbess, this rule "which in normal circumstances may be opportune, in a difficult time of a vocations crisis, a crisis of values, economic crisis, etc., has had an effect of the confiscation of Church property by the Church itself."

In her dissertation, the abbess noted that, just as the habit of the Poor Clares can be adapted "according to the cold regions" as stated in their rule, "each monastery acquires peculiarities 'according to the region' in which it lives."

"If the closure of a monastery always means the loss of its production of liturgical items, of the intercessory influence on the city, the loss of a presence that bears witness [in an environment], so often secular, to the fact that 'God exists and makes us happy,' to all this we must add distinctive characteristics such as the artistic legacy, the cultural, musical, artisanal influence, etc. After all this, there will always be regret for desacralizing a sacred place," she noted.

In this regard, the abbess also lamented the closure of other monasteries such as that of the Holy Trinity in Valencia (founded in 1242), the Monastery of St. Clare la Real in Toledo (founded in 1254), or the Monastery of St. Clare in Salamanca, founded by St. Clare of Assisi in 1238.

The abbess concluded that "much has already been lost. And only [by the intervention of] the Roman Dicastery for [Institutes of] Consecrated Life [and Societies of Apostolic Life] can we avoid further loss. How? By attenuating the instructions given for all women's monasteries."

In her opinion, it should be the nuns who "when the time comes, can take the options of continuing or closing according to their real situation, like men's monasteries, for which no limits are set."

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Full Article

http://www.myspiritfm.com/News?blogid=Catholic-News&view=post&articleid=282684&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

Vatican City, Feb 26, 2025 / 15:05 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis' mild early-stage kidney insufficiency "subsided" on Wednesday, according to the Vatican.      

"The Holy Father's clinical condition over the past 24 hours has shown further slight improvement," the Holy See Press Office stated. "The mild renal insufficiency noted in recent days has receded."

Despite the improvement, the latest medical report stated the pope's "prognosis remains reserved." 

The 88-year-old pontiff had a chest CT scan Tuesday evening that showed a "normal evolution" of lung inflammation caused by pneumonia.

Blood tests taken Wednesday confirmed the pope, though fragile, is showing signs of recovery. 

"Today's hematochemical and hemacrocytometric examinations confirmed yesterday's improvement," the Vatican's evening statement said.

The pope did not experience an "asthmatic respiratory crisis" on his 12th day of treatment in Gemelli Hospital but continues to undergo "high-flow oxygen therapy" and respiratory physiotherapy to treat his pneumonia.

"During the morning, the Holy Father received the Eucharist. The afternoon was devoted to work activities," the Vatican report concluded.

Though the Holy Father met with Vatican officials at Gemelli Hospital earlier this week — including Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, substitute for general affairs of the Secretariat of State — the pontiff has not received any visitors today, the Vatican said.

In Rome, parishes and religious communities continue to offer Masses and prayers for Pope Francis, his health, and the leadership of the Church while the pontiff remains in the hospital for ongoing medical treatment. 

Since Monday, the Diocese of Rome and the Roman Curia have collaborated to organize nightly prayer events open to the public in St. Peter's Square to pray for the pope's recovery.  

Italian Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals, will lead Wednesday evening's rosary.

Full Article

http://www.myspiritfm.com/News?blogid=Catholic-News&view=post&articleid=282683&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

Vatican City, Feb 26, 2025 / 15:35 pm (CNA).

Father Gabriel Romanelli, IVE, the pastor of Holy Family Parish, the only Catholic parish in the Gaza Strip, was able to speak with Pope Francis on Tuesday despite the fact that the pontiff remains hospitalized in critical condition with bilateral pneumonia.

After the phone call, the parish priest shared how the entire community rejoiced "to hear his voice."

"As he did every day from the beginning of this terrible war, Pope Francis has called us once again to show his closeness, to pray for us, and to give us his blessing," Romanelli said in a video message posted on the website of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

"As the Parish of the Holy Family of Gaza, which belongs to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, we rejoice to hear his voice," he added. 

At the beginning of the war between Hamas and Israel, the parish complex was converted into an improvised shelter where 500 people now live.

The majority who live there are Christians, Orthodox, Protestant, and Catholic, but they have also taken in more than 50 Muslim children with disabilities along with their families.

For Romanelli, Pope Francis' daily call, which was only interrupted last Saturday when he suffered a prolonged respiratory crisis that forced him to wear an oxygen mask, "is always comforting."

Especially "knowing that despite his delicate state of health, he continues to think and pray for everyone, for peace in Gaza," he said in the video recorded in English. He also thanked the pontiff for his "constant prayers."

"It gives us great joy even in the midst of so many trials," Romanelli said, adding that "we follow all the information about the pope's health, like all of you, from the official channels of the Holy See."

Finally, he asked for prayers for the end of the war and for "peace for the entire Holy Land and the entire Middle East."

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Full Article

http://www.myspiritfm.com/News?blogid=Catholic-News&view=post&articleid=282682&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

Puebla, Mexico, Feb 26, 2025 / 16:05 pm (CNA).

Faced with uncertainty about the impact of the policies of U.S. President Donald Trump, especially regarding America's relationship with Mexico, the Mexican bishops are calling for the strengthening of "authentic national unity."

Last month, at the beginning of his second term in office, Trump announced various measures that directly affect Mexico, including the declaration of an emergency on the U.S. southern border, the designation of drug cartels as "foreign terrorist organizations," and the threat of imposing 25% tariffs on Mexican and Canadian imports unless these issues are quickly addressed by those countries.

In this context, the Mexican Bishops' Conference (CEM, by its Spanish acronym) published a message on Feb. 24 addressed to Mexican society stating that the actions announced by the U.S. government seek to "pressure our country to achieve very specific goals in government planning."

"Fighting the activities of organized crime dedicated to drug trafficking, addressing the immigration issue, and overcoming the disadvantages in economic relations between the two countries that, according to its criteria, are unfavorable for America" are the issues at stake, the bishops said in a statement.

However, they expressed their confidence that these challenges can be faced "in a climate of unity between the different Mexican political forces to promote a respectful dialogue and a prudent openness toward the American government to agree on mutual collaboration."

'The real enemy is in our own country'

The CEM also emphasized that, beyond foreign policy, "the real enemy is in our own country where we need authentic national unity to overcome our serious internal problems that have not been properly addressed for years and are becoming increasingly worse."

They pointed to problems such as "corruption that continues to invade all our environments," "insecurity that spreads its bloodthirsty fury in ever-widening territories," "institutional deterioration to the point where the law no longer governs but rather the will of whoever prevails," among others.

Despite the numerous challenges, the bishops indicated that many problems can be overcome "through inclusive government strategies that take into account the different political forces, organized civil society, religious associations, and citizen participation in general."

They called on all Mexicans to join in prayer for their country, to be peacemakers in their daily lives, and to actively commit themselves to the search for the common good.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Full Article

http://www.myspiritfm.com/News?blogid=Catholic-News&view=post&articleid=282681&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 26, 2025 / 16:50 pm (CNA).

President Donald Trump's administration is appealing a federal court decision that ordered the government to resume foreign aid grants by late Wednesday evening as many Catholic groups that receive those grants are still without funds.

The attorney general's office filed an appeal late Tuesday night after U.S. District Judge Amir Ali ordered the administration to supply those funds by 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday. The same judge, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, had ordered the government to resume its foreign aid funding on Feb. 13. However, the Trump administration has not complied with that order.

Numerous Catholic organizations have lost grant money due to the foreign aid funding freeze, including Catholic Relief Services and Jesuit Relief Services.

Ali ruled in his decision that Trump's blanket freeze on foreign aid funding likely violates the Administrative Procedure Act and violates the separation of powers because Congress approved the money to be used in foreign aid programs.

In its appeal, the administration asserts that the judge's order forces the government to "pay arbitrarily determined expenses on a timeline of the district court's choosing" and claimed the court "creates a payment plan" that is contrary to the president's obligations under Article II of the Constitution and the principles of "federal sovereign immunity."

The court filing also argues that United States Agency for International Development (USAID) leadership has determined that the court's order to resume funding "cannot be accomplished in the time allotted by the [court]."

"The district court has ordered the federal government to pay nearly $2 billion in taxpayer dollars within 36 hours, without regard to payment-integrity systems that would ensure that the monies claimed are properly owed, without regard to the federal government's meritorious arguments to the contrary, and without so much as addressing the government's sovereign-immunity defense," the court filing states.

Additionally, the administration claims in its appeal that the judge's order will cause "grave and irreparable harm to the government" because it "has no practical mechanism to recover wrongfully disbursed funds that go out the door to entities that have complained that they are near insolvency."

On his first day in office on Jan. 20, Trump issued an executive order to pause all foreign aid grants for 90 days. He argued in the order that the funding was not aligned with the interests of the United States and worked to "destabilize world peace by promoting ideas in foreign countries that are directly inverse to harmonious and stable relations internal to and among countries."

During Biden's administration, some foreign aid programs were leveraged to promote LGBTQI+ policies in other countries and to pressure governments into ending discrimination based on a person's "gender identity and expression." One priority was to combat so-called "conversion therapy practices," which include therapies that discourage a person from adopting a "gender identity" inconsistent with the person's biological sex.

Some programs also include humanitarian assistance provided by faith-based organizations like Catholic Relief Services and Jesuit Relief Services, which offer food, shelter, health care, and other services to people in foreign countries. 

Earlier this month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Department of State would exempt certain programs from the foreign aid funding freeze.

A spokesperson for Jesuit Relief Services (JRS) told CNA that Trump's stated mission to make the world "respect and admire America … has been obscured by a slapdash ban on foreign assistance carried out by people without the institutional expertise or constitutional authority to do so." 

"Making matters worse, these bureaucrats are doing this despite orders from President Trump and Secretary Rubio to grant waivers to restore funding for lifesaving projects," a spokesperson said. 

"Weeks later, few, if any, of these are back online, in obvious contradiction to the White House's directives. The result includes things like American-grown food rotting at ports and already-purchased vaccines not being administered — literally hundreds of millions of dollars wasted," the spokesperson said.

The representative from JRS said that those who report to Trump and Rubio must "follow their directives" and court orders "to resume funding these initiatives obligated by our federal government and already paid for by American taxpayers."

"If they do, we and other Catholic organizations should shortly be able to resume providing food assistance, shelter, and medical care in parts of the world like Ethiopia and Iraq, where there have been lengthy and devastating displacement crises," the spokesperson said.

A spokesperson for Catholic Relief Services declined to comment. 

CNA reached out to the White House for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

Full Article

http://www.myspiritfm.com/News?blogid=Catholic-News&view=post&articleid=282680&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

Madrid, Spain, Feb 26, 2025 / 18:07 pm (CNA).

The Poor Clare abbess of the Monastery of Santo Cristo de Balaguer in Lérida province in northeast Spain is calling out for criticism the 2018 rule established by Pope Francis according to which communities of women religious with less than five nuns must be dissolved, a rule that does not apply to male communities.

Sister María Victoria Triviño, OSC, made her critique in an article published by the magazine "Catalunya Cristiana" regarding the recent closure of the Monastery of Santa María de Pedralbes in Barcelona that had been in existence for 700 years.

Asked about the reason for the closure, "which people, hurt and perplexed, address to some of the Poor Clares every day," the nun explained that the Holy Father published the apostolic constitution Vultum Dei Quaerere in 2016 but emphasized that the document "did not affect monks."

Similarly, regarding the Cor orans instruction, published in 2018 to implement Vultum Dei Quaerere, the Poor Clare nun pointed out that "it affects women's monasteries around the world, not men's."

This instruction establishes that "if a monastery has only five nuns, it loses its autonomy and must be affiliated with another monastery." Furthermore, if it falls below that number, it must be abolished, according to Abbess Triviño.

In such a case, an apostolic visitor is appointed who, if he issues a negative report to the Roman Curia, "the transfer of the sisters is ordered" and the building is closed.

In the opinion of the abbess, this rule "which in normal circumstances may be opportune, in a difficult time of a vocations crisis, a crisis of values, economic crisis, etc., has had an effect of the confiscation of church property by the Church itself."

In her dissertation, the abbess noted that, just as the habit of the Poor Clares can be adapted "according to the cold regions" as stated in their rule, "each monastery acquires peculiarities 'according to the region' in which it lives."

"If the closure of a monastery always means the loss of its production of liturgical items, of the intercessory influence on the city, the loss of a presence that bears witness [in an environment], so often secular, to the fact that 'God exists and makes us happy,' to all this we must add distinctive characteristics such as the artistic legacy, the cultural, musical, artisanal influence, etc. After all this, there will always be regret for desacralizing a sacred place", she noted.

In this regard, the abbess also lamented the closure of other monasteries such as that of the Holy Trinity in Valencia (founded in 1242), the Monastery of St. Clare la Real in Toledo (founded in 1254) or the Monastery of St. Clare in Salamanca, founded by St. Clare of Assisi in 1238.

The abbess concluded that "much has already been lost. And only [by the intervention of] the Roman Dicastery for Consecrated Life can we avoid further loss. How? By attenuating the instructions given for all women's monasteries."

In her opinion, it should be the nuns who "when the time comes, can take the options of continuing or closing according to their real situation, like men's monasteries, for which no limits are set."

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Full Article