Missouri Christian church wins settlement over coronavirus restrictions on worship

null / Photo Spirit/ShutterstockKansas City, Mo., Oct 20, 2021 / 18:00 pm (CNA).A Kansas City-area Baptist megachurch has reached a $150,000 settlement with the county over coronavirus restrictions, with the church claiming that the county treated them more harshly than secular institutions when it came to COVID protocols. Abundant Life Baptist Church, which has locations in Lee's Summit and Blue Springs, Missouri, filed a lawsuit against Jackson County over a year ago, arguing, as places of worship in other states have, that the county's coronavirus restrictions treated places of worship more harshly than secular institutions such as retail stores. Under the terms of the settlement, Jackson County vowed that in exchange for the church dropping the lawsuit, it would ensure that future enforcement measures would not impose stricter requirements on religious organizations than their secular counterparts, the Christian Post reported. Jackson is one of Missouri's larg...

Benedict XVI is 'full of zest for life,' says Archbishop Gänswein

Archbishop Gänswein and Pope emeritus Benedict XVI. / EWTN/Paul Badde, Mazur/www.thepapalvisit.org.ukVatican City, Oct 21, 2021 / 04:40 am (CNA).Archbishop Georg Gänswein has said that Benedict XVI is "full of zest for life" after the pope emeritus expressed the hope that he would join his friends in heaven in a condolence message. Gänswein, Benedict XVI's private secretary, spoke to Germany's Bild newspaper on Oct. 20 after media reports suggested that the 94-year-old retired pope had a "longing for death," said CNA Deutsch, CNA's German-language news partner. "The art of dying well, that is, ars moriendi, is part of the Christian life. Pope Benedict has been doing that for many years," Gänswein said."Yet he is absolutely full of zest for life. He is stable in his physical weakness, crystal clear in his head, and blessed with his typical Bavarian humor."In a letter dated Oct. 2 and released by Wilhering Abbey in Austria, the retired German pope said that the death of the Austri...

Cardinal Tagle: Digital evangelization cannot replace personal encounter

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle speaks at a Vatican press conference presenting the 2021 World Mission Day, Oct. 21, 2021. / Daniel Ibáñez/CNA.Vatican City, Oct 21, 2021 / 09:00 am (CNA).While the COVID-19 pandemic led many Catholic dioceses and organizations to find creative ways to communicate the Gospel online, digital evangelization is not a replacement for personal encounter, the head of the Vatican's missionary office has said."There are some facts of life that cannot be digitalized and cannot remain digitalized. We are corporeal beings. We need contact," Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle said at a live-streamed Vatican press conference on Oct. 21."As we thank the digital media for its blessings, let us not forget that … there are other intelligences that need to be developed," he said.The cardinal stressed that in addition to their digital savvy, young people need to also develop relational and emotional intelligence. "There is a calling for us in the Church, to develop the other t...

Assisted suicide counseling via Zoom an even worse idea, foes tell Scottish lawmakers

Video_Creative / Shutterstock.Edinburgh, Scotland, Oct 19, 2021 / 18:00 pm (CNA).Videophone evaluations are no way to assess someone for assisted suicide, critics have said, also warning that cost-based analyses which claim legal assisted suicide saves money show "callous indifference." Some Scottish lawmakers are again advocating the legalization of assisted suicide and have now suggested that online consultations with doctors could help fulfil purported safeguard requirements."How can a medic make a decision on the state of mind of an individual on a remote internet connection without being in the physical presence of that person to try and make a measured judgement?" Gordon Macdonald, the chief executive of Care Not Killing, told the Scottish newspaper The Herald.The legislative consultation for the Proposed Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill has suggested purported safeguards like requiring two doctors to confirm a diagnosis of terminal illness and...

Vatican launches prayer website 'to accompany' synod on synodality

A website and smartphone app to help Catholics pray for the synod on synodality was launched Oct. 19, 2021. / Click to Pray 2.0.Vatican City, Oct 20, 2021 / 05:03 am (CNA).The Vatican on Tuesday launched a website and smartphone app to help Catholics pray for the success of the two-year process culminating in the 2023 synod on synodality.At prayforthesynod.va, Catholics can find information in English, Spanish, and other languages about how to support the synod through prayer."This website, together with the app Click To Pray, aims to accompany the synodal way for prayer," the website says on its "About us" page."In order to 'walk together' and listen to the Holy Spirit we need to pray. There can be no synodal way without personal and community prayer. Prayer prepares our hearts to listen carefully to others and helps us to discern the action of the Holy Spirit throughout the world."One way the Vatican has suggested that Catholics and their communities can pray for the synod is ...

Catholic leader says his archdiocese won't take part in global synodal process, citing 'ideological' risk

Archbishop Wolfgang Haas of Vaduz, Liechtenstein. / Monegasque2 via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Vaduz, Liechtenstein, Oct 20, 2021 / 09:00 am (CNA).A Catholic leader has said that his archdiocese won't take part in the two-year global synodal process, saying that it would run "the risk of becoming ideological."Archbishop Wolfgang Haas of Vaduz, Liechtenstein, announced his decision on Oct. 15, reported CNA Deutsch, CNA's German-language news partner."I am of the opinion that in our small archdiocese it is possible for good reasons to refrain from carrying out such a complex and sometimes even complicated procedure, which in our parts runs the risk of becoming ideological," the 73-year-old archbishop wrote.The archdiocese is based in the capital of Liechtenstein, a German-speaking microstate located in the Alps between Austria and Switzerland. The wealthy tax haven, which is smaller than Washington, D.C., has a population of 38,000 people, around 73% of whom are Catholic.Haas, who w...

Pope Francis wants seminarians to read this letter from a clerical abuse survivor

null / alphaspirit via Shutterstock.com.Vatican City, Oct 20, 2021 / 08:00 am (CNA).Pope Francis has shared a letter written by a clerical sexual abuse survivor with candidates preparing for the Catholic priesthood."For years I was mistreated by a priest who I should have called 'little brother,' and I was his 'little sister,'" the letter writer said. "If we want to live the truth, we cannot close our eyes!" Addressing priests, the abuse survivor wrote: "Please realize that you have received a huge gift. The gift of being an 'alter Christus,' of being the incarnation of Christ here in the world. People, and especially children, do not see a person in you, but Christ Jesus, in whom they trust without limits.""It is something HUGE and STRONG, but also very FRAGILE and VULNERABLE. PLEASE BE A GOOD PRIEST!" she said. The letter, with the survivor's name removed, was published on the website of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors (PCPM) on Oct. 18.In a brief introd...

Godfather ban: Sicilian Catholic diocese suspends naming of godparents at baptism for 3 years

Baptism. / Josh Applegate via Unsplash.com.Rome Newsroom, Oct 20, 2021 / 06:10 am (CNA).There will be no godfathers named in the Sicilian archdiocese of Catania for the next three years due to a decree issued by the archbishop that came into full effect this month.Archbishop Salvatore Gristina of Catania has said that he decided to temporarily suspend the naming of godparents and Confirmation sponsors because the tradition had become a "social custom in which the dimension of faith is hardly visible."Catania is the Italian island of Sicily's second-largest city, located on the base of the active volcano, Mount Etna. The city has a long Catholic history, tracing its first bishop back to the first-century St. Birillus, whom local tradition holds was ordained by St. Peter himself.But the archbishop said that in today's "socio-ecclesial context" in Catania, particularly with "the irregular family situation of so many people," often those who were selected by families to be the godpa...

Poland commemorates anniversary of Blessed Jerzy Popieluszko's martyrdom

A Mass in honor of Blessed Jerzy Popieluszko at St. Stanislaus Kostka Church, Warsaw, Poland, Oct. 19. 2021. / Muzeum, Osrodka Dokumentacji Zycia i Kultu oraz Sanktuarium, Blogoslawionego Ks. Jerzego Popieluszki.Warsaw, Poland, Oct 20, 2021 / 13:00 pm (CNA).Catholics in Poland have commemorated the martyrdom of Blessed Jerzy Popieluszko, the priest killed for his defiance of the communist authorities.The focal point of the nationwide observance on Oct. 19 was a Mass at St. Stanislaus Kostka Church in the capital, Warsaw, where the blessed's tomb is located.Muzeum, Osrodka Dokumentacji Zycia i Kultu oraz Sanktuarium, Blogoslawionego Ks. Jerzego Popieluszki.Preaching at the Mass, the former Warsaw auxiliary Bishop Tadeusz Pikus said: "In his teaching, he was guided above all by the argument of faith. He was convinced that he did not have to give way either to the argument of dictatorial ideological violence or to the argument of brute force."The anniversary had an added significan...

Pope Francis officially recognizes Amazon region ecclesial conference

Pope Francis at the opening Mass for the Amazon synod Oct. 6, 2019. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA.Vatican City, Oct 20, 2021 / 12:00 pm (CNA).Pope Francis has approved the establishment of an ecclesial conference for the Amazon region, the Vatican announced Wednesday.The Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon was created by bishops in Latin America in 2020 at the recommendation of the 2019 Synod of Bishops on the Pan-Amazonian Region.The new body, which has the task of expressing "the Amazonian face" of the Church, goes by the acronym CEAMA, based on its Spanish title, Conferencia Eclesial de la Amazonía."Well disposed to favor such an initiative … Pope Francis instructed the Congregation for Bishops to follow and accompany the process closely, lending whatever help was needed to give the body an adequate form," the Holy See press office said on Oct. 20.The pope canonically erected the ecclesial conference as a "public ecclesiastical juridical person" during a meeting on Oct. 9 with Cardinal ...