U.S bishops distribute $2.6 million to African churches, projects
http://www.myspiritfm.com/News?blogid=Catholic-News&view=post&articleid=287136&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
null / Credit: Sergi Lopez Roig/ShutterstockWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 24, 2025 / 13:35 pm (CNA).The U.S. Catholic bishops' 2024 Solidarity Fund for the Church in Africa has awarded $2.6 million to support 96 pastoral projects across 32 African countries and multinational regions.In a July 22 statement, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) said the "boundless growth of the Catholic faith" throughout Africa "can challenge the Church as much as material poverty does."The "gifts of American Catholics to the USCCB's Solidarity Fund" help preserve a "spirit of unity" within the universal Church, the bishops said.Compared with the 2023 effort, funding has increased by $500,000, expanding grant projects by 28%. "The Solidarity Fund for the Church in Africa makes it possible for African Catholics to carry out vital spiritual and social ministries," said Dubuque, Iowa, Archbishop Thomas Zinkula, chairman of the bishops' Subcommittee on the Church in Africa."The Afric...
null / Credit: Sergi Lopez Roig/Shutterstock
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 24, 2025 / 13:35 pm (CNA).
The U.S. Catholic bishops' 2024 Solidarity Fund for the Church in Africa has awarded $2.6 million to support 96 pastoral projects across 32 African countries and multinational regions.
In a July 22 statement, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) said the "boundless growth of the Catholic faith" throughout Africa "can challenge the Church as much as material poverty does."
The "gifts of American Catholics to the USCCB's Solidarity Fund" help preserve a "spirit of unity" within the universal Church, the bishops said.
Compared with the 2023 effort, funding has increased by $500,000, expanding grant projects by 28%.
"The Solidarity Fund for the Church in Africa makes it possible for African Catholics to carry out vital spiritual and social ministries," said Dubuque, Iowa, Archbishop Thomas Zinkula, chairman of the bishops' Subcommittee on the Church in Africa.
"The African Church gives generously to the U.S. Church as thousands of African priests serve in parishes of the United States," Zinkula pointed out.
The Solidarity Fund for the Church in Africa was created "as a concrete way for Catholics in the United States to express a spirit of unity with their brothers and sisters in Africa," the USCCB says.
The U.S. bishops "created the national collections so that, by combining resources, we can more effectively carry out our mission as Catholics."
The Solidarity Fund last year supported nearly 100 bishop-backed grants, funding projects such as peacebuilding in South Sudan, catechetical training in Zambia, and church administration workshops in Togo.
Also funded was intergenerational teaching in Malawi as well as climate advocacy in Eastern Africa, where parishes are becoming hubs for practical environmental action.
Supported by dioceses across the country, the faithful can contribute year-round through the #iGiveCatholicTogether collection program or participate in their parish's collection on a date scheduled by the local diocese.
Full Article
http://www.myspiritfm.com/News?blogid=Catholic-News&url=10&view=post&articleid=287167&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
In recent months, more than two dozen Planned Parenthood locations have announced they will close. / Credit: Jonathan Weiss/ShutterstockWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 25, 2025 / 17:25 pm (CNA).More than two dozen Planned Parenthood facilities across the country in recent months have announced plans to shut down amid funding concerns caused by new federal rules that prevent the abortion giant from receiving Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements.As of Friday, July 25, the growing number of Planned Parenthood facility closures has reached at least 25, which span across 10 states. The most recent announcement came yesterday, July 24, with Planned Parenthood Mar Monte indicating its plan to shut down five facilities in northern California.On July 4, President Donald Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which put a one-year freeze on Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements for Planned Parenthood. The provision is being challenged in court, but a federal judge this week allowed th...
http://www.myspiritfm.com/News?blogid=Catholic-News&url=10&view=post&articleid=287163&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
Palestinian children shove to receive a meal at a charity kitchen in the Mawasi area of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on July 22, 2025. The head of Gaza's largest hospital said 21 children have died due to malnutrition and starvation in the Palestinian territory in the past three days, amid a devastating assault by Israeli forces. / Credit: AFP via Getty ImagesWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 25, 2025 / 13:23 pm (CNA).The humanitarian organization United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has reported that "1 in every 5 children is malnourished in Gaza City" and cases continue to "increase every day."In a post to the social media platform X, Commissioner General of UNRWA Philippe Lazzarini wrote that "when child malnutrition surges, coping mechanisms fail, access to food and care disappears, famine silently begins to unfold."As "more than 100 people, the vast majority of them children, have reportedly died of hunger," UNRWA is urging "humanitarian partners to bring u...
http://www.myspiritfm.com/News?blogid=Catholic-News&url=10&view=post&articleid=287162&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
Ralph Martin appears on a December 2020 episode of "EWTN Live." / Credit: EWTNNational Catholic Register, Jul 25, 2025 / 13:53 pm (CNA).Prominent Catholic theologian Ralph Martin says Detroit's new archbishop told him he fired him from the archdiocese's seminary faculty over undefined "concerns about my theological perspectives."Martin, 82, who had taught at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit since 2002, said Archbishop Edward Weisenburger told him Wednesday he "was terminating my position at the seminary effective immediately.""When I asked him for an explanation, he said he didn't think it would be helpful to give any specifics but mentioned something about having concerns about my theological perspectives," Martin said in a written statement Thursday afternoon."This news came as a shock," Martin said. "I have contributed much to the seminary over more than 23 years. I even helped introduce and lead, up until yesterday, our flagship pontifical degree program, the Licentia...
