Pope Francis: Catholic healthcare is called to bear witness to human dignity

Pope Francis greets members of the Biomedical University Foundation of the Biomedical Campus University, at the Vatican's Clementine Hall, Oct. 18, 2021. / Vatican Media.Vatican City, Oct 18, 2021 / 08:00 am (CNA).On the feast of the patron saint of doctors, Pope Francis said that Catholic healthcare is called to bear witness to human dignity amid a throwaway culture. "There are no lives that are unworthy or to be discarded because they do not respond to the criterion of utility or to the demands of profit," Pope Francis said on Oct. 18.Vatican Media."We are experiencing a true throwaway culture; this is a bit like the air we breathe and we must react against this throwaway culture."In an audience with medical professionals on the feast of St. Luke, the patron saint of physicians, the pope said that every healthcare facility, especially those with a Christian foundation, should be a place where it is possible to say: "Here you can experience the healing effects of human dignity....

Pope Francis names USCCB evangelization chair as new bishop of Crookston diocese

Bishop Andrew Cozzens. / Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit.Vatican City, Oct 18, 2021 / 06:20 am (CNA).Pope Francis on Monday named the chair of the US bishops' evangelization committee as the new bishop of Crookston, Minnesota.The pope appointed Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens, the 53-year-old auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, to the post that had remained vacant since Bishop Michael Hoeppner resigned on April 13.Hoeppner, who had led Crookston diocese since 2007, was the first U.S. bishop to be investigated under Vos estis lux mundi, Pope Francis' 2019 norms on investigating bishops accused of mishandling or obstructing allegations of clerical sexual abuse.Cozzens said: "I am humbled and honored to be asked by the Holy Father to be the next Shepherd of the Diocese of Crookston. I look forward to getting to know the priests, deacons, consecrated religious and many faithful laity of the diocese." "I pray that together we can grow to be Christ's faithful ...

PHOTOS: Pope Francis ordains Msgr. Guido Marini a bishop in St. Peter's Basilica

Pope Francis lays his hands on the head of Guido Marini during his episcopal consecration in St. Peter's Basilica Oct. 17, 2021 / Daniel Ibanez/EWTN/Vatican PoolVatican City, Oct 17, 2021 / 05:21 am (CNA).On Sunday, Pope Francis consecrated two new bishops for the Catholic Church in St. Peter's Basilica: Bishop Guido Marini of Tortona, Italy, and Bishop Andrés Gabriel Ferrada Moreira, secretary of the Congregation for the Clergy.During the Mass, Pope Francis reminded the bishops-elect to always be close to God, their brother bishops, priests, and the People of God.Two of the most important things a Catholic bishop must do are pray and announce the Gospel, the pope said in impromptu comments during the homily Oct. 17."The first task of the bishop is to pray," he said, "and not like a parrot, to pray with the heart, to pray."Do not make excuses about not having time to pray, he added. "Remove the other things, because praying is the bishop's first duty."Pope Francis also advi...

Did you know Mother Teresa experienced visions of Jesus?

Mother Teresa. / India 7 Network via Flickr (CC BY 2.0).Vatican City, Oct 17, 2021 / 09:42 am (CNA).Even her friend of more than 30 years, Father Sebastian Vazhakala, did not know Mother Teresa had conversations with and visions of Jesus before forming the Missionaries of Charity.It wasn't until after her death, for the vast majority of people, that this part of Mother Teresa's spiritual life was uncovered. “It was a big discovery,” Missionary of Charity priest, Fr. Vazhakala told CNA.  When Mother Teresa's cause for canonization was opened, just two years after her death in 1997, documents were found in the archives of the Jesuits in Calcutta, with the spiritual director and another of Mother Teresa's close priest friends, and in the office of the bishop, containing her accounts of the communications.Fr. Vazhakala, who co-founded the contemplative branch of the Missionaries of Charity alongside Mother Teresa, said he has a document handwritten b...

American missionaries reported abducted in Haiti

null / ContentForAll/ShutterstockWashington D.C., Oct 17, 2021 / 11:55 am (CNA).A group of 17 missionaries and family members were abducted in Haiti on Saturday, the New York Times first reported. The missionaries were part of Christian Aid Ministries, based in Ohio, and were kidnapped while visiting an orphanage.In an update posted to its website on Sunday afternoon, Christian Aid Ministries asked for prayers for a "resolution." It said the group included five men, seven women, and five children; nearly all of those abducted were U.S. citizens, with one Canadian citizen in the group."As an organization, we commit this situation to God and trust Him to see us through. May the Lord Jesus be magnified and many more people come to know His love and salvation," the group stated.A person familiar with the situation said one of those abducted sent a message via WhatsApp, the Washington Post reported. "Please pray for us!! We are being held hostage, they kidnapped our driver. Pray pray...

Texas abortion law survives injunction effort; Supreme Court challenge next

The Texas capitol. / f11photo/ShutterstockDenver Newsroom, Oct 15, 2021 / 18:12 pm (CNA).A federal appeals court has allowed a heartbeat-based Texas ban on abortion to remain in effect, rejecting the U.S. Department of Justice's efforts to reinstate an injunction. Biden administration officials have pledged to ask the Supreme Court to reinstate an injunction.A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Oct. 14 ruled 2-1 that the Texas Heartbeat Act, Senate Bill 8, may continue. Their decision follows a temporary ruling last week that overturned an injunction against the law.Texas' law, which is designed to be enforced through private lawsuits, prohibits abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, around six weeks gestation, except in medical emergencies.The law allows for awards of at least $10,000 for successful lawsuits against those who perform or "aid and abet" illegal abortions. Women seeking abortions cannot be sued under the law, which ...

Los Angeles renames Father Junipero Serra Park, despite Catholic praise for sainted missionary

Photograph of a bronze statue of Saint Father Junipero Serra in the Gardens of the Carmel Mission Basilica in Carmel, California / Terry Huntingdon Tydings/ShutterstockDenver Newsroom, Oct 16, 2021 / 17:00 pm (CNA).While Catholic leaders have made strong defenses of St. Junipero Serra after a wave of vandalism and crime targeted Catholic statues and churches last year, political leaders in California continue to remove markers of the missionary whom Pope Francis canonized as the first Hispanic American saint. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced Oct. 11 that the city would no longer call the park across from Union Station by its informal name, Father Junipero Serra Park. A statue of Serra had been in the park from the 1930s until 2020, when protesters toppled it amid racial tensions and claims the saint, who died in 1784, was involved in injustices of the Spanish colonial period. The park will be called La Plaza Park until a new name is adopted. The park is walkin...

'One million children praying the rosary': Kids join rosary initiative inspired by St. Padre Pio

Photo courtesy of Aid to the Church in NeedRome Newsroom, Oct 15, 2021 / 05:30 am (CNA).Children in South Sudan, Burma, and Lebanon have joined a worldwide initiative to get one million kids to pray the rosary this year on Oct. 18."One million children praying the rosary" is a prayer campaign by the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) held annually on the feast of St. Luke.This year, the organization has provided meditations on the mysteries of the rosary for children in 24 languages, along with printable coloring pages and a prayer to St. Joseph.More than 100,000 children from 44 countries, including the United States, Spain, Kenya, India, Colombia, and the Philippines, have already registered to take part in the rosary campaign, according to an online map published by the pontifical charity.Children in South Sudan participating in the rosary campaign. ACNAmong the participating dioceses is a Catholic community in Myanmar, also known as Burma. A Catholic leader fro...

What is the seal of confession? A Q&A with Cardinal Mauro Piacenza

Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, Major Penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary / / Gianluigi Persi (public domain).Vatican City, Oct 15, 2021 / 04:30 am (CNA).The release this month of a watershed report on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in France has sparked another debate over the secrecy of confession.The Catholic Church declares that every priest who hears confessions is obliged, under the severest legal penalties, to keep absolute secrecy concerning everything learned in the context of sacramental confession. French law has long recognized the Church's strict rules about the confidentiality of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, but the government is contemplating amending the law for confessors, as it has done with lawyers and other secular professionals, who are required to report child sexual abuse if they learn of it. In comments to the National Catholic Register on Wednesday, the spokeswoman for France's bishops' conference, Karine Dalle, clarified that the country's Cat...

As Catholic dioceses across the world embark on the synodal path, experts offer advice

Cardinals and bishops in the Vatican's Synod Hall, Oct. 14, 2015. / Daniel Ibáñez/CNA.London, England, Oct 15, 2021 / 03:00 am (CNA).This weekend, dioceses in the U.S. and around the world will formally launch a local consultation process leading to the 2023 synod on synodality in Rome. Supporters bill it as one of the most important events in the Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council and the greatest consultation exercise in human history.But as the diocesan phase of the ambitious two-year project begins, many Catholics are either wholly unaware of the "synodal path" or unsure of its significance. The synodal process starts with a diocesan consultation lasting from October 2021 to April 2022. A second, continental phase will take place from September 2022 to March 2023.The third, universal phase will begin with the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, on the theme "For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, and Mission," at the Vatican in Octob...