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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 14, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Following the release of their new album, titled "Marigold," the Hillbilly Thomists performed in Washington, D.C., as part of their ongoing Marigold Tour on Aug. 8, the feast of St. Dominic.

Playing at St. Francis Hall to a sold-out crowd of more than 150 people, the band of Dominican friars played various songs from all four of their albums, including their latest album, which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard bluegrass charts after its July 26 release.

"Our music is influenced by the bluegrass genre, but it's become our own thing because we're all Dominicans," shared Father Peter Gautsch, who plays the guitar. "Bluegrass has a tradition of the Gospel, but we bring a Catholic twist to it."

For example, band members spoke of their song "Marigold," sharing how the "marigold flower is associated with Our Lady" and citing their inspiration to write the tune as a "prayer for growing in patience, especially for the good things, and asking [the Blessed Virgin Mary], who is most patient, to pray for us."

The concert's crowd consisted of many young people and families who danced and sang along to songs such as "Marigold" as the Dominican brothers interacted with those in attendance before, during, and after the show.

"I first heard about the Hillbilly Thomists when I was involved in college and the Thomistic Institute, which had an annual leadership conference where Father Jonah Teller and Father Thomas Joseph White spoke," shared Celia Hadjin, a 23-year-old concertgoer. "They played a mini set from their new album at the time, 'Holy Ghost Power,' and I really liked their music, so I looked them up afterwards and became a fan."

Many followed the Dominican brothers throughout their summer tour, which has so far included stops in Knoxville, Tennessee; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Savannah, Georgia. In Savannah, band members were able to visit the birthplace of Flannery O'Connor, a popular Catholic novelist who has inspired many lyrics of the Hillbilly Thomists' songs — as well as the band's name.

"Flannery O'Connor said in one of her letters, 'I am not a hillbilly nihilist, I am a hillbilly Thomist,'" shared Father Thomas Joseph White. "One of her famous stories was called 'A Good Man Is Hard to Find,' so we said that a good band is hard to find."

The band began in 2016 at the Dominican House of Studies (DHS) in Washington, D.C., where the friars often sang as part of their community life and formation.

"As many of you probably know, we don't perform full time. We do this two weeks out of the year and are blessed to be able to share it tonight with you all," the band told concertgoers. "We recorded our first album in the DHS just down the street as a homemade project."

Since then, the Hillbilly Thomists have gone on to engineer-record and release four albums consisting of both original and cover songs as well as perform on tours following each album's release.

Usually consisting of about 15 shows, the Dominican friars often enjoy ending each concert with night prayer. Having reemerged on stage for an encore at St. Francis Hall, the band acknowledged that they are "first and foremost priests and religious," sharing that they had been "praying for [the concert attendees] over the past year."

They then chose to pray by singing the Christian hymn "Just As I Am," which, according to the band, gets "to the real beauty of our faith, which is that God loves us unconditionally. That oftentimes we can fool ourselves and get confused, thinking that we have to do something to prove our worth to Jesus."

"But the reality is that God loves us in the good and the bad times, that he doesn't wait for us to fix our lives to love us, but rather loves us just how we are in the messy, complicated state that we exist in," they shared.

Similar to this hymn, the Hillbilly Thomists' music often delves into the themes of Christian suffering, hope, and determination.

"Music is another way to preach. It's a way into the heart, as you can communicate some beautiful truths about the faith and life through storytelling and music," Father Justin Teller told CNA. "So there's kind of authentic, real-life themes that are taken up in the bluegrass, folk-type music. People respond well and really appreciate that we're singing about maybe some kind of tragedy or suffering that one can go through but also the hope that is given to us as Christians."

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ACI Africa, Aug 13, 2024 / 18:58 pm (CNA).

The number of Catholic priests serving Nigeria's Diocese of Nsukka has surpassed 400 following the ordination of 23 new priests on Aug. 10.

In remarks at the end of the ordination, Bishop Godfrey Igwebuike Onah expressed gratitude and joy for the growing number of priests serving in his diocese. 

"I must render one apology to all the Nsukka priests who are not in the sanctuary. With the ordination today we are now 417 priests in this diocese," Onah said during the Mass at St. Theresa Cathedral. "Now you understand why some of you for the past 10 years have not been able to impose hands on your newly ordained brothers, because if all of us were to impose hands, we would still be [doing it]."

"But in the future, we will find a way to [allow] as many of you as possible to exercise this gesture," the bishop said.

In his homily, Onah issued a caution about the use of social media platforms in a priest's ministry.

"There are certain places priests must avoid, certain websites they must not visit, certain apps they must not download, and certain networks they must not engage with. Even their attire must reflect their sacred calling," he said.

"As priests, they must be discerning about where they go and what they do. They must remember that they are earthen vessels carrying a precious treasure, and they must guard it carefully," the bishop added.

Onah reiterated the importance of priests living lives that reflect their sacred calling, not only in their ministry but also in all aspects of their behavior.

"Priests are called to stand between the people and God, to offer prayers on behalf of the Church, and to convey God's message to the people. While the temptation for priests to become activists is great, their true calling is to be men of prayer, leading the faithful in holiness," Onah said.

He further highlighted the global context of their calling, reminding the 23 deacons being ordained to the priesthood that they belong not just to their local diocese but to the worldwide Catholic Church. 

"Although every priest is ordained for a particular diocese or religious institute, every priest belongs to the Catholic Church and for the whole world. From this moment on, their personal ideas, interests, and charisms will be put in the service of God's word," he said.

Drawing parallels to the prophet Jeremiah, who was called to prophesy to the nations, Onah urged the new priests to see their mission as one that transcends borders and to be prepared for the difficult tasks ahead.

"As long as they are faithful to this mission, they need not fear. In Christ, the roles of shepherd, priest, and prophet are combined, and your brothers and friends are now assuming this responsibility," Onah said.

Onah, who has led Nigeria's Nsukka Diocese since July 2013, told the newly ordained priests that they are now "profoundly transformed and configured to Christ." He reminded them that the grace they receive through ordination equips them to fulfill their sacred duties.

"[They will draw people away from sin through baptism, reconcile them through the sacrament of penance, strengthen them in Christ through the Eucharist, and heal them through the sacrament of anointing. Satan will not be pleased with their work. Therefore, they must be cautious, mindful of their fragility as earthen vessels and the preciousness of the treasure they carry," Onah said.

He told the 23 new clergy that they are not the "result of an accident, no matter what science suggests. Every human being is a unique expression of God's love — unique and irreplaceable."

Onah called on the faithful to support the new priests with prayers and to allow them to exercise their ministry without interference. 

He expressed gratitude to "families, parish communities, and all who contributed to the formation of these young men, recognizing the collective effort required to prepare them for their lifelong commitment."

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

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 13, 2024 / 19:18 pm (CNA).

Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Superior, Wisconsin, has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a decision to remove its religious organization designation and bar it from receiving a religious tax exemption.

The agency, which operates under the purview of the Diocese of Superior and has programs for the disabled, elderly, and impoverished, argued caring for those in need is part of its religious mission. 

"Catholic Charities Bureau carries out our diocese's essential ministry of caring for the most vulnerable members of our society," Bishop James Powers of Superior said in a statement released on the day of Catholic Charities' appeal to the Supreme Court.

"We pray the court will recognize that this work of improving the human condition is rooted in Christ's call to care for those in need," Powers added.

Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Superior is appealing a March ruling by the Wisconsin Supreme Court that said the organization isn't entitled to receive a religious exemption and must pay into the state unemployment system. The 4-3 ruling said that because Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Superior's activities are not "primarily" religious the group does not qualify as a religious organization.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court also said that to successfully challenge the state's primarily religious standard, Catholic Charities would have to prove it was unconstitutional "beyond a reasonable doubt."

On Aug. 9 Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Superior appealed the March ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. The group is being represented by Becket, a firm that specializes in religious liberty cases and has been involved with several high-profile Supreme Court cases.

In its appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, Catholic Charities called the Wisconsin court's ruling "absurd" and argued that it curtails its First Amendment rights by "penalizing Catholic Charities for engaging in critical parts of its ministry" including "serving those in need without proselytizing."

"The state denied Catholic Charities an exemption precisely because its religious beliefs and exercise differed from what the Wisconsin Supreme Court thought were 'typical' religious activities," Catholic Charities wrote in its appeal. "That wrongly disfavors those religious traditions that ask believers to care for the poor without strings attached."

The appeal states that a ruling by the Supreme Court would resolve religious liberty questions impacting churches and faiths beyond just Wisconsin.

The questions Catholic Charities, represented by Becket, are posing to the Supreme Court are: 1) whether a state violates the First Amendment by denying tax breaks to one religious group while denying them to another; and 2) whether a state can impose a beyond a reasonable doubt standard for constitutional challenges.

According to the appeal, the Wisconsin Supreme Court's decision "deepens a split among lower courts over whether federal constitutional violations must be proven 'beyond a reasonable doubt.'"

The appeal argues that this case is the "ideal vehicle" to resolve the split and to "set this important area of law onto a firmer — and constitutionally sounder — footing."

"It shouldn't take a theologian to understand that serving the poor is a religious duty for Catholics," Eric Rassbach, vice president of Becket, said in a statement. "But the Wisconsin Supreme Court embraced the absurd conclusion that Catholic Charities has no religious purpose. We're asking the Supreme Court to step in and fix that mistake." 

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 13, 2024 / 11:42 am (CNA).

Vice President Kamala Harris' selection of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate for the 2024 presidential election last week was met with concern from Catholic leaders, some of whom cited his "extreme" views that they say put him at odds with Catholic teaching. 

Based on his record as governor, here's a look at where he stands on issues that matter to Catholics.

Gender ideology

During Walz's tenure as governor, he has supported the promotion of gender ideology in the classroom setting, backed laws to ensure doctors can perform sex-change operations on minors, and supported a ban on counseling services that discourage minors from changing their gender.

In March 2023, Walz signed an executive order that directed that state agencies must "protect" people who seek sex-change operations, including children, and must refuse to cooperate with other states that are trying to penalize anyone for facilitating a sex-change operation on a minor.

The following month, he signed a bill that allows Minnesota courts to take temporary emergency jurisdiction over child custody disputes if one parent takes a child into the state to obtain a sex-change operation or sex-change drugs. The bill prohibits Minnesota courts from cooperating with court orders from other states if the other parent is trying to prevent the child from obtaining the drugs or the operation.

In April 2023, Walz also signed a bill that prohibits mental health professionals from providing "conversion therapy." The bill's definition of conversion therapy includes counseling services that help children with gender dysphoria become more comfortable with their biological sex. Rather, the law explicitly protects counseling that seeks to socially transition a child's gender. 

Walz's support of gender ideology also extended to the classroom.

He signed legislation that prohibits local school boards from removing books from school libraries that promote gender ideology and contain controversial material that some parents believe are sexually explicit. The law also prohibits public libraries and colleges from restricting such material. The law states that only professional librarians or someone with certain qualifications can determine what books are provided in the libraries.

Another law signed by Walz requires that schools make tampons and other menstrual hygiene products available in both male and female bathrooms. Republicans sought an amendment to limit the requirement to only female bathrooms, which failed.

Abortion and IVF

Minnesota has some of the most pro-abortion laws in the country: Elective abortions are legal through the entirety of pregnancy, until the moment of birth. Abortionists can also perform an abortion on a minor of any age and at any stage of pregnancy without notifying the child's parents.

In January 2023, Walz signed the Protect Reproductive Actions Act, which ensures those standards remain in place. The bill states that every person has a right to "obtain an abortion" and prohibits local governments from imposing limits on that right.

Walz signed another bill in April 2023 that prohibits the extradition of someone who is accused of performing an illegal abortion in another state. The law also states that Minnesota won't recognize civil or criminal subpoenas from other states related to investigations into illegal abortions.

In March, Walz joined Harris during her visit to a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Minnesota. Harris' visit was the first time a sitting vice president visited an abortion clinic.

Walz has also been a strong supporter of in vitro fertilization (IVF), which the Catholic Church opposes because it separates the marriage act from procreation and destroys embryonic human life. In his first rally as the Democratic candidate for vice president, Walz spoke about his and his wife's struggle with infertility and his support for IVF.

Religious freedom

As governor of Minnesota, Walz backed several policies that drew the ire of religious freedom advocates. However, in some of those cases, the governor ultimately made changes to those policies after religious groups took legal action.

When Walz began to scale back some COVID-19 restrictions in May 2020, he issued an executive order that reopened some elements of the economy but maintained harsh restrictions on religious services. Under the order, retail stores could open at 50% capacity, but churches were limited to only 10 people.

Catholic bishops and The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod sent letters to Walz, informing him they would reopen for religious services despite the restrictions. Both groups argued that the unequal treatment violated the First Amendment. Less than a week later, Walz reached an agreement with the churches and issued a new executive order that permitted them to open at 25% capacity. 

In May 2023, Walz again faced legal action from religious groups — this time from Christian schools. The schools challenged a law he signed that would have prevented any school that requires students to submit a statement of faith from participating in a program that allows high school students to earn college credits. A month later, the state agreed it would not enforce the law while the litigation is ongoing but has continued to defend the law in court.

Walz also signed a bill in 2023 that amended the Minnesota Human Rights Act to include a ban on discriminating against a person's "gender identity." The Minnesota Catholic Conference and other religious groups were critical of the law because it did not contain exemptions for religious institutions. About a year later, Walz signed another amended version, which added religious exemptions to the law.

As governor, Walz has also consistently opposed school choice policies such as education savings accounts. A law establishing education savings accounts would allow parents to use public funds to support private education costs, such as home schooling or sending their child to a private or Catholic school. In an interview in August of last year, Walz criticized those proposals, saying: "[What] we end up doing is subsidizing folks who are already attending private religious schools … or home schooling."

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CNA Staff, Aug 13, 2024 / 12:12 pm (CNA).

A measure to enshrine abortion into the Arizona Constitution will appear on the November ballot.

"The Arizona Abortion Access Act is on the ballot as Proposition 139!" Arizona for Abortion Access announced on its Facebook page on Monday. "This is Arizona's chance to restore and protect the right to access abortion care, once and for all."

The pro-abortion activists were required to collect about 380,000 signatures to place the measure on the ballot; they reportedly collected more than 575,000 signatures.

The proposal, if passed, would create "a fundamental right to abortion under Arizona's constitution." The government would "not be able to interfere with this fundamental right" prior to "fetal viability" absent a "compelling reason."

Either before or after viability, meanwhile, the state "will not be able to interfere with the good-faith judgment of a treating health care professional that an abortion is necessary to protect the life or health of the pregnant [woman]."

Arizona currently bans abortion after 15 weeks. 

Nearly a dozen states are considering pro-abortion measures ahead of the November elections. 

Abortion advocates have made gains in recent weeks to place pro-abortion measures on their respective state ballots. 

In June, activists in Nevada succeeded in placing a proposal on the 2024 ballot that would expand abortion by establishing it as a "fundamental right" to be exercised up until fetal viability "without interference from the state." That amendment will have to be approved by a simple majority of voters in two consecutive elections.

In New York in June, meanwhile, an appellate court ruled in favor of putting a proposed abortion amendment on the Nov. 5 ballot after a lower court had ordered it removed. 

And in Arkansas in July, a pro-abortion group announced that it obtained the necessary signatures to put an abortion proposal on the state ballot. The proposal was rejected by the Arkansas secretary of state; the pro-abortion group is contesting the decision. 

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CNA Staff, Aug 13, 2024 / 14:25 pm (CNA).

The Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board on Monday unanimously rescinded the contract for what would have been the nation's first religious charter school. 

St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School would have been the first religious charter school in the nation, but in late June the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled against its establishment and ordered the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board to drop the Catholic institution's contract. A charter school is a privately run, publicly funded school. 

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, a Republican who has opposed the school on religious freedom grounds, requested the Oklahoma school board rescind the contract or face contempt charges. 

"While it is appalling that the Statewide Charter School Board took so long to recognize the authority of the Oklahoma Supreme Court, I am pleased that board members finally fulfilled their duty," Drummond said in a statement Monday.

St. Isidore has appealed the decision to the United States Supreme Court and requested a stay of the court order for the duration of the legal process, but the request was denied last week. 

Meanwhile, the Virtual Charter School Board — which has since been incorporated into the Statewide Charter School Board — delayed rescinding the contract pending the outcome of the appeal. The school board had met two times previously without complying with the court order to rescind the contract.

The board rescinded the contract on Monday but voted that St. Isidore's contract would be immediately reinstated if a court were to reverse or nullify the current orders.

While Drummond and others argue that funding the school with taxpayers' money would violate religious freedom, proponents of St. Isidore argue that rescinding its contract violates religious freedom. 

"The proposed state-sponsored religious charter school, funded by our tax dollars, represents a serious threat to the religious liberty of all Oklahomans," Drummond said. 

A 2022 Supreme Court ruling found that Maine couldn't exclude religious schools from a tuition aid program because it violates the free exercise clause. Other states have established voucher systems allowing tuition aid for students to attend private religious schools.

One proponent of St. Isidore's, Oklahoma state superintendent Ryan Walters — who recently mandated using the Bible as a historical document in schools  — called the decision "shameful."

"The Oklahoma Supreme Court has failed Oklahomans in their latest dismal ruling against parents and kids," he said in a statement Monday. 

"They have chosen the path of liberal extremism and Marxism by depriving parents of a choice," Walters continued. "It's shameful but predictable from a failed judicial system. They do not represent conservative Oklahoma values."

St. Isidore is currently working with attorneys from the Notre Dame Religious Liberty Clinic, part of the Notre Dame Law School Religious Liberty Initiative, to appeal the decision. 

St. Isidore was initially set to launch in August as an online, tuition-free, Catholic K–12 charter school managed by the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa, with 200 students registered to start in the fall.

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ACI Digital, Aug 13, 2024 / 15:02 pm (CNA).

"We are hurting, traumatized, dejected, but not defeated, not destroyed, because whoever eats this Bread will live forever," said Father Aloísio Motta, pastor of St. Peter the Apostle Parish in the town of Guaratinguetá, São Paulo state, in Brazil at an Aug. 11 Mass celebrated for the souls of two extraordinary ministers of holy Communion at the parish who died in a plane crash in the town of Vinhedo on Friday, Aug. 9.

"This disaster took away people very dear to us and to Brazil," Motta told the hundreds of faithful who filled the church to remember María Auxiliadora Vaz de Arruda, 74, and her husband, José Cloves Arruda, 76. "It tore away a piece of our beloved parish of St. Peter in the small town of Guaratinguetá."

The Voepass Airlines plane crashed into the garden of a house inside a gated community in Vinhedo, Brazil, killing all 62 people on board. The plane took off Aug. 9 from the town of Cascavel in Paraná state at 11:46 a.m. bound for Guarulhos International Airport in São Paulo state, about 450 miles away.

Aboard the plane was the couple, who were returning from a visit to their daughter, Priscila Vaz de Arruda, a professor at the Federal Technological University of Paraná, who lives in Toledo, also in Paraná state.

"This accident in Vinhedo once again brings us to reflect on the brevity of life and the important things we cannot forget: to love, to forgive, and to fill our innermost selves with absolute and eternal truths," the priest continued in his homily.

María Auxiliadora, known as Doña Dora, was the coordinator of the extraordinary ministers of holy Communion in St. Peter Parish. Her husband also served as an extraordinary minister of the Eucharist in the same parish.

"In this little place here, in the third row," Motta said, "there was not a Sunday when Doña Dora was not there. There was not a Thursday when she was not there."

"I was wrong when I said that the Catholic Church needs people like Doña Dora, because the Catholic Church depends on people like Dona Dora," the pastor said. "We depend on a multitude of Catholics who make a difference."

"We have to be a little bit like Doña Dora here among us. Let's transform our pain into victory. Let's transform our mourning into victory," Motta encouraged. "We do depend on Doña Doras all over the world, men and women like her."

"We will strengthen the Catholic faith as they always wanted. As she always did, based on zeal, dedication, commitment, responsibility, and love for the Eucharist," the priest said.

Dora was a retired teacher and also worked at the Association of Parents and Friends of the Exceptional (people with physical and intellectual disabilities) in the city of Guaratinguetá. The association published this recollection in her honor: "Always with a smile on her face, a friendly word, serving God and her neighbor. Here is our eternal gratitude for everything she cultivated."

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

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ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 13, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).

The dictatorship of President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, in Nicaragua has been on a long campaign of retaliating against the Catholic Church dating back to 2018, when Church leaders expressed support for the people who were demonstrating against proposed reforms and Ortega's authoritarian rule.

One of the regime's tactics in response has been abducting and exiling priests. In the most recent sweep beginning July 26, police abducted nine priests from their dioceses and sent them to Our Lady of Fatima Interdiocesan Seminary in the country's capital, Managua. Of these, seven were exiled to Rome.

Two experts explained why the regime in the Central American country is ramping up its repressive tactic at this time.

Emilio Blasco, director of the Center for Global Affairs at the University of Navarra in Spain, told "EWTN Noticias" that "all that effort that the government is making to persecute any hint of opposition, not only political but also cultural and religious, shows that the government's intention is to shore itself up and to remove, sometimes eliminate, people who think differently."

For Blasco, Ortega persecutes the Catholic Church because "he perceives it as a stronghold of opposition, of people who think for themselves and that he cannot dominate as he dominates other sectors of society."

This is further aggravated by the fact that in Nicaragua "the power of the Catholic Church remains great, and one way to control everything is to go against the Church, eliminating those voices that [Ortega] considers most critical."

For the Spanish analyst, these deportations are taking place in light of "what is happening in Venezuela: international opinion, the attention of the media in Latin America is focused on Venezuela and that makes it so that perhaps [Ortega] can feel that he has a freer hand to carry out these arrests in Nicaragua."

Miguel Mendoza, a Nicaraguan journalist living in exile in the United States, also told "EWTN Noticias" that what the Nicaraguan dictatorship is seeking to do is to "put an end to a religion that is so important to all Nicaraguans."

Dictatorship may be seeking deal like China-Vatican accord

Mendoza also commented that these days "there is speculation that the dictatorship was uneasy, believing that from Rome, Bishop Rolando Álvarez continued giving guidance to these priests. [Matagalpa] is the diocese that they see as totally adversarial. That's the reason, because it makes no other sense since the priests are silenced under the threat of being abducted."

Matagalpa is the diocese of Álvarez, a human rights defender and critic of the dictatorship, who beginning in August 2022 was put under house arrest and finally sentenced in February 2023 to 26 years in prison in a controversial judicial process. He was deported in January of this year to Rome, where he now lives in exile.

The journalist also charged that these days "Sunday and weekday Masses are not taking place in a peaceful atmosphere, but rather there are police officers, harassment, and repression."

"It is also believed that Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo are trying to pressure the Vatican to … have a model similar to that of China" regarding the selection of new bishops, as established in the provisional agreement signed in 2018, renewed in 2020 and 2022 between the Holy See and the Vatican.

"It is presumed that this is the tactic" of the Ortega and Murillo dictatorship to get "bishops who are in line with their politics because there are also priests close to the regime," Mendoza noted.

According to researcher Martha Patricia Molina, author of the report "Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church?", the priests detained by the dictatorship in recent days are Monsignor Ulises Vega Matamoros, Monsignor Edgar Sacasa Sierra, Father Victor Godoy, Father Jairo Pravia Flores, Father Marlon Velasquez, Father Harvin Torrez, and Father Raul Villegas, all of them from the clergy of the Diocese of Matagalpa.

Completing the list are Friar Silvio Romero of the Diocese of Juigalpa and Father Frutos Constantino Valle Salmerón, who as administrator "ad omnia" of the Diocese of Esteli is in charge of the administration of its material assets in the absence of the actual apostolic administrator, exiled Bishop Rolando Alvarez.

Vatican News reported that the names of the priests who arrived in Rome on Aug. 7 are Ulises Vega, Edgar Sacasa, Víctor Godoy, Jairo Pravia, Silvio Romero, Harvin Torres, and Marlon Velázquez.

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

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Rome Newsroom, Aug 13, 2024 / 09:08 am (CNA).

The baths at the Marian shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in France have fully reopened for the first time in four years for France's national pilgrimage for the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary this week. 

More than 30,000 pilgrims are expected in Lourdes for the Aug. 15 feast day, according to the news station Europe 1. The weeklong celebration will culminate in a Mass and candlelight rosary procession with thousands of sick in wheelchairs leading the way. 

The immersion pools at Lourdes have been closed since 2020 due first to the pandemic and later to renovation work. During the closure, pilgrims were invited to participate in a "water gesture" by washing their face, hands, and forearms with holy water from the miraculous spring.

 The return of the possibility of full immersion in the sacred water has been welcomed by the thousands of sick, disabled, and volunteers taking part in France's 151st national pilgrimage for the Assumption solemnity.

"It is a return to normal," Father Sébastien Anthony, the president of the pilgrimage, told a French radio station. 

"Our teams have mobilized to make this possible, so that we can welcome the sick and pilgrims with dignity," he added. 

During the pilgrimage, which lasts from Aug. 12–16, the swimming pools will be open from 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. with more than 3,000 people volunteering to enable as many pilgrims as possible to wash in the baths and take part in the processions, according to the pilgrimage organizers.

The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes is one of the most visited religious shrines in the world, attracting more than 5 million visitors each year. It marks the site where a young St. Bernadette Soubirous witnessed 18 Marian apparitions beginning on Feb. 11, 1858.

During the ninth apparition, the Blessed Virgin Mary told Bernadette: "Go and drink at the spring and wash yourself there." The miraculous spring that appeared after Bernadette humbly dug in the dirt with her hands resulted in the healing of a woman with a paralyzed hand in the presence of more than 1,500 people in 1858. 

Since then, doctors on the International Medical Committee of Lourdes have certified 70 medical cures from the spring as being "unexplained on the basis of current medical knowledge." 

The most recent medical miracle at Lourdes took place in 2008 when Sister Bernadette Moriau was cured of total paralysis resulting from cauda equina syndrome, a disorder of the nerves and lower spine.

The Marian shrine also places an emphasis on spiritual healing through the sacrament of reconciliation, offering confessions in French, Italian, English, Spanish, German, Dutch, and other languages in response to Our Lady of Lourdes' request to Bernadette to pray for the conversion of sinners.

More than 7,000 people have reported that they experienced a physical healing because of a pilgrimage to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes.

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CNA Staff, Aug 12, 2024 / 15:54 pm (CNA).

A massive landslide at a garbage dump on Sunday in Kampala, Uganda, has killed at least 21 people, according to local police.

The 36-acre garbage dump known as Kiteezi is the only one serving the whole of the Ugandan capital, a city home to an estimated 4 million people, the BBC reported. The high piles of garbage were loosened by recent heavy rains, sending it tumbling down onto houses that had been constructed near the dump. Despite the death toll, at least 14 people have been rescued alive so far, according to Kampala police spokesman Patrick Onyango. 

Writing on social media Aug. 11, Ugandan President Yoweri K. Museveni conveyed his condolences and prayed that "Almighty God rest the souls of our departed people in eternal peace and heal the injured." He said he has directed a government inquiry into "why human settlement was allowed near the heap" and has also directed that all houses in the "danger zone" be removed. 

Onyango also said that more than 1,000 people have been displaced by the landslide. 

The garbage landslide is not the first of its kind, Reuters noted: In 2017 at least 115 people were killed by a garbage landslide in Ethiopia, and in Mozambique, at least 17 people died in a similar 2018 disaster. 

The Red Cross is on the ground assisting victims of the Uganda disaster, with emergency shelter tents erected yesterday to accommodate the displaced families.

CNA has reached out to the Ugandan Catholic bishops' conference, the Archdiocese of Kampala, and to Catholic Relief Services, which is active in Uganda. 

This is a developing story.

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