Emilio Blasco, director of the Center for Global Affairs at the University of Navarra in Spain, says Daniel 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." / Credit: EWTN Noticias/ScreenshotACI 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 thes...
Emilio Blasco, director of the Center for Global Affairs at the University of Navarra in Spain, says Daniel 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." / Credit: EWTN Noticias/Screenshot
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.
Our Lady of Lourdes grotto, Lourdes, France. / Credit: Elise Harris/CNARome 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 Lourdes Grotto in France. Credit: Courtney Mares/CNA The return of the possibility of full immersion in the sacred ...
Our Lady of Lourdes grotto, Lourdes, France. / Credit: Elise Harris/CNA
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 Lourdes Grotto in France. Credit: Courtney Mares/CNA
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 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.
People look on as an excavator helps search for people trapped under debris after a landfill collapsed in Kampala, Uganda, on Aug. 10, 2024. Eight people including two children were killed when mountains of garbage collapsed at a landfill, the city authority said. / Credit: Badru Katumba/AFP via Getty ImagesCNA 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 conveye...
People look on as an excavator helps search for people trapped under debris after a landfill collapsed in Kampala, Uganda, on Aug. 10, 2024. Eight people including two children were killed when mountains of garbage collapsed at a landfill, the city authority said. / Credit: Badru Katumba/AFP via Getty Images
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.
Fellow Ugandans, especially the Bazzukulu, Greetings. This is to convey condolences to the families of the People who died yesterday as a consequence of part of the rubbish heap at Kiteezi (orubuungo), peeling off (kubeguka) and burying People who were living nearby.
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.
null
CNA has reached out to the Ugandan Catholic bishops' conference, the Archdiocese of Kampala, and to Catholic Relief Services, which is active in Uganda.
Anastasia Northrup founded the National Catholic Singles Conference. / Credit: "EWTN News In-Depth" screenshotCNA Staff, Aug 12, 2024 / 16:50 pm (CNA).As the marriage rate continues to decline in 2024 in the U.S., Catholic women discussed the struggles of modern dating in a segment on "EWTN News In Depth." "I didn't expect to be single into my 40s. That was not my plan," said Anastasia Northrup, a Catholic woman who founded the National Catholic Singles Conference.A quarter of 40-year-olds in the U.S. had never been married, Pew Research found in 2021. Meanwhile, the Catholic marriage rate has plummeted by about 70% between 1969 and 2019, according to a recent report from Georgetown University's Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate.There are just over six marriages for every 1,000 people in the United States, compared with a record 16.4 in 1946 after World War II, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statist...
Anastasia Northrup founded the National Catholic Singles Conference. / Credit: "EWTN News In-Depth" screenshot
CNA Staff, Aug 12, 2024 / 16:50 pm (CNA).
As the marriage rate continues to decline in 2024 in the U.S., Catholic women discussed the struggles of modern dating in a segment on "EWTN News In Depth."
"I didn't expect to be single into my 40s. That was not my plan," said Anastasia Northrup, a Catholic woman who founded the National Catholic Singles Conference.
A quarter of 40-year-olds in the U.S. had never been married, Pew Research found in 2021.
Meanwhile, the Catholic marriage rate has plummeted by about 70% between 1969 and 2019, according to a recent report from Georgetown University's Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate.
There are just over six marriages for every 1,000 people in the United States, compared with a record 16.4 in 1946 after World War II, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics.
Amid the difficult dating situation, a resurfaced comment Republican candidate for vice president J.D. Vance made in 2021 about "childless cat ladies" sparked an outcry from single women who feel they aren't to blame for their unmarried status.
"We're effectively run, in this country, via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they've made, and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too," Vance had said on an appearance on Fox News with Tucker Carlson, where he suggested that politicians without kids have less of a stake in the country's future.
"If we're not pursued, then there's not a lot we can do," said Sara Perla, the communications manager for the Catholic Project at The Catholic University of America, in response to "the whole childless cat lady thing."
"It's interesting that women are blamed for the situation in a way that I think is very unfair because we still want to be pursued," Perla explained.
Hundreds of people attended a panel on the challenges of modern dating hosted by the Catholic Project at the recent National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis.
"I did a survey both before and after [the panel], and the No. 1 challenge that the single people were complaining of is just meeting someone," Perla said. "You can't just be Catholic. I can't just meet a Catholic guy. I have to meet a Catholic guy who is interesting and who is interested in me."
Perla says one of the greatest challenges to Catholic dating today is finding someone who is both a well-formed Catholic and someone you can connect with — it's not just about having the same religious beliefs.
"It's a mistake that some people make when they try to set people up and they say, 'Oh, he's Catholic,'" said Perla, who is a single Catholic woman in her early 40s. "And you're like, that doesn't tell me much at all. Is he funny? Does he have interests? Does he do anything outside of reading theology? Because if not, then we're not going to have anything to talk about."
Northrup founded the National Catholic Singles Conference to encourage formation and community among single Catholics.
"We're called to communion, we're called to fellowship, and we don't live our faith on our own or in a vacuum," she said. "Especially as single people that don't have that built-in family community, having relationships and friendships is very important."
Both Northrop and Perla encourage local Catholic parishes to be more intentional in including unmarried Catholics and fostering community among singles.
Father Denis Martínez-García, was arrested on his way to celebrate Mass in Matagalpa, pictured here. / Credit: AntoLa22, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsACI Prensa Staff, Aug 12, 2024 / 17:32 pm (CNA).Following last week's exile of seven priests to Rome, the Nicaraguan dictatorship has arrested two more priests and two laywomen in Estelí and Matagalpa, both dioceses officially led by Bishop Rolando Álvarez, who has been living in exile in Rome since January.According to the Nicaraguan media outlet Mosaico, on Sunday, Aug. 11, the police arrested Father Denis Martínez García when he was on his way to celebrate Mass in Matagalpa. His whereabouts are unknown.Martínez was a formator at Our Lady of Fatima Interdiocesan Seminary in Managua and on weekends went to Matagalpa to celebrate Mass due to the steep reduction in the number of priests in the diocese as a result of ongoing persecution by the dictatorship.Mosaico also reported that on Saturday, Aug. 10, Father Leonel Balmaced...
Father Denis Martínez-García, was arrested on his way to celebrate Mass in Matagalpa, pictured here. / Credit: AntoLa22, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 12, 2024 / 17:32 pm (CNA).
Following last week's exile of seven priests to Rome, the Nicaraguan dictatorship has arrested two more priests and two laywomen in Estelí and Matagalpa, both dioceses officially led by Bishop Rolando Álvarez, who has been living in exile in Rome since January.
According to the Nicaraguan media outlet Mosaico, on Sunday, Aug. 11, the police arrested Father Denis Martínez García when he was on his way to celebrate Mass in Matagalpa. His whereabouts are unknown.
Martínez was a formator at Our Lady of Fatima Interdiocesan Seminary in Managua and on weekends went to Matagalpa to celebrate Mass due to the steep reduction in the number of priests in the diocese as a result of ongoing persecution by the dictatorship.
Mosaico also reported that on Saturday, Aug. 10, Father Leonel Balmaceda, pastor of Jesus of Charity Parish in the town of La Trinidad in the Diocese of Estelí, was arrested.
Two women abducted by Nicaraguan dictatorship
Also on Aug. 10, the police went to the homes of two laywomen and arrested them apparently without cause, according to Mosaico. Their families have no information about their whereabouts.
One of the women was Carmen María Sáenz Martínez, who holds a master's degree in canon law and worked at the Diocese of Matagalpa on marriage annulment cases.
The other was Lesbia Gutiérrez, former coordinator of the Urban and Rural Financial Support Program through which the Diocese of Matagalpa's Caritas (which was shut down by the government) offered loans to small producers.
Dictatorship seeks to 'exterminate' Catholic Church in Matagalpa
The arrests occurred just three days after the dictatorship of President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, exiled seven priests to Rome, six of whom belong to the Diocese of Matagalpa.
Martha Patricia Molina, researcher and author of the report "Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church?", said on X in reference to the arrest of Martínez that "the Sandinista dictatorship intends to exterminate the presence of the Catholic Church in the Diocese of #Matagalpa."
Matagalpa is the diocese of Bishop 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 questionable judicial process. Álvarez was deported in January to Rome, where he lives in exile.
Estelí has ??not had a bishop since mid-2021. Álvarez was then appointed as apostolic administrator, and in his absence, Father Frutos Valle was appointed as administrator "ad omnia" in charge of looking after diocesan assets. Valle has also been arrested by the dictatorship.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Jimmy Lai and other demonstrators had been convicted in 2021 of taking part in what the Hong Kong government had argued was an "unauthorized assembly" at Victoria Park in Hong Kong's Causeway Bay neighborhood. / Credit: ??????, Public domain, via Wikimedia CommonsCNA Staff, Aug 12, 2024 / 14:18 pm (CNA).Hong Kong's high court this week rejected the appeal of Catholic democracy activist Jimmy Lai and six others to overturn their sentences for having participated in protests in 2019.Lai and the other demonstrators had been convicted in 2021 of taking part in what the Hong Kong government had argued was an "unauthorized assembly" at Victoria Park in Hong Kong's Causeway Bay neighborhood. The demonstration was against what activists said was police abuse in Hong Kong.Several of the defendants including Lai had been sentenced to jail terms of varying lengths. The convicted protesters had argued on appeal that the sentences were disproportionate to their human rights.In its ruling on...
Jimmy Lai and other demonstrators had been convicted in 2021 of taking part in what the Hong Kong government had argued was an "unauthorized assembly" at Victoria Park in Hong Kong's Causeway Bay neighborhood. / Credit: ??????, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
CNA Staff, Aug 12, 2024 / 14:18 pm (CNA).
Hong Kong's high court this week rejected the appeal of Catholic democracy activist Jimmy Lai and six others to overturn their sentences for having participated in protests in 2019.
Lai and the other demonstrators had been convicted in 2021 of taking part in what the Hong Kong government had argued was an "unauthorized assembly" at Victoria Park in Hong Kong's Causeway Bay neighborhood. The demonstration was against what activists said was police abuse in Hong Kong.
Several of the defendants including Lai had been sentenced to jail terms of varying lengths. The convicted protesters had argued on appeal that the sentences were disproportionate to their human rights.
In its ruling on Monday the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal said their argument was "unsustainable."
"It is contrary to all established principles governing constitutional challenges in Hong Kong and especially contrary to accepted principles for assessing proportionality," the court wrote. "It is unsupported by legal authority."
The ruling of the court was unanimous.
Lai, an outspoken pro-democracy activist who has cited his Catholic faith as a source of strength and inspiration, has been under various forms of prosecution in China for several years.
He was first arrested in August 2020 and has been permanently detained since the end of that year. In 2022, he was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison on a fraud charge.
The jailed media mogul was the owner of the Apple Daily, which was Hong Kong's most popular Chinese-language newspaper until it was closed in June 2021 after its offices were raided by hundreds of Hong Kong police and its executives detained.
In a petition last November signed by 10 Catholic bishops and archbishops, the prelates "call[ed] on the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to immediately and unconditionally release Lai.
"Mr. Lai's persecution for supporting pro-democracy causes through his newspaper and in other forums has gone on long enough," the bishops wrote.
"There is no place for such cruelty and oppression in a territory that claims to uphold the rule of law and respect the right to freedom of expression," they said.
An aerial view of Baltimore skyline on Dec. 1, 2016. / Credit: Patrick Smith/Getty ImagesCNA Staff, Aug 12, 2024 / 15:03 pm (CNA).A proposal aiming to create a $1,000 bonus that parents would receive upon the birth or adoption of a child in Baltimore is unconstitutional, a Baltimore City Circuit Court judge ruled on Friday.If ultimately approved, the "baby bonus" measure would create a fund that would issue one-time $1,000 payments to parents in the city regardless of their income level, costing Baltimore at least $7 million annually.The plan is reminiscent of others in countries around the world that offer various bonuses, whether in the form of cash or supplies, to new parents in order to help their children thrive and, in many cases, as an attempt to buoy low birth rates.Led by the Maryland Child Alliance (MCA), a volunteer organization mainly composed of teachers, the measure garnered roughly 13,000 signatures and received approval in early July from the Baltimore City Boar...
An aerial view of Baltimore skyline on Dec. 1, 2016. / Credit: Patrick Smith/Getty Images
CNA Staff, Aug 12, 2024 / 15:03 pm (CNA).
A proposal aiming to create a $1,000 bonus that parents would receive upon the birth or adoption of a child in Baltimore is unconstitutional, a Baltimore City Circuit Court judge ruled on Friday.
If ultimately approved, the "baby bonus" measure would create a fund that would issue one-time $1,000 payments to parents in the city regardless of their income level, costing Baltimore at least $7 million annually.
The plan is reminiscent of others in countries around the world that offer various bonuses, whether in the form of cash or supplies, to new parents in order to help their children thrive and, in many cases, as an attempt to buoy low birth rates.
Led by the Maryland Child Alliance (MCA), a volunteer organization mainly composed of teachers, the measure garnered roughly 13,000 signatures and received approval in early July from the Baltimore City Board of Elections to appear on the November ballot.
Mayor Brandon Scott had asked to have the question thrown off the November ballot, however, arguing it exceeds the authority of the citizen and goes beyond their right to petition, the Baltimore Sun reported.
The MCA had argued in reply that the city would have discretion to make decisions about how to implement the baby bonus, including whether adoptive parents would be eligible as well as the source of the funds.
The judge ultimately sided with the city, saying the proposal would implement a policy that falls within the purview of the city council, not the citizenry, the Sun reported.
The MCA plans to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court of Maryland.
Despite the proposal's apparently pro-life intentions, the measure's website touts "Pro-Choice Maryland" as one of the groups that has endorsed the proposal. Maryland as a whole is one of several states that will vote on a constitutional amendment to expand abortion this fall.
CNA queried the Archdiocese of Baltimore and the Maryland Catholic Conference for comment on the proposed baby bonus measure but did not receive a response.
The MCA says its push for the bonus program is driven by evidence that mitigating the significant financial costs of bringing home and caring for a newborn can lead to greater success for children and adults in the long run.
"The aim is to improve the well-being of children and families while also having long-term benefits for the economy as a whole," the group says on its website.
"By voting YES on the upcoming November ballot, you can help improve the well-being of children and families in our community while also contributing to long-term economic benefits."
Voters in Baltimore haven't rejected a ballot question since 2004. Election Day is Nov. 5.
Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley Executive Director Sister Norma Pimentel speaks to reporters on May 8, 2023, in Brownsville, Texas. / Credit: Michael Gonzalez/Getty ImagesWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 12, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has issued a statement rejecting "false claims" that Catholic nonprofit organizations are complicit in human trafficking, smuggling, harboring, or child exploitation through the country's southern border."Catholic organizations cooperate in providing humanitarian aid with local, state, and federal officials," the bishops' statement read. "This includes working with law enforcement to identify and counter criminal activity, such as human trafficking, and assisting those who have been victimized by crime."According to the bishops, federal agencies often rely on Catholic organizations as "trusted partners within local communities." Those agencies include U.S. Customs and Border Protection,...
Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley Executive Director Sister Norma Pimentel speaks to reporters on May 8, 2023, in Brownsville, Texas. / Credit: Michael Gonzalez/Getty Images
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 12, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has issued a statement rejecting "false claims" that Catholic nonprofit organizations are complicit in human trafficking, smuggling, harboring, or child exploitation through the country's southern border.
"Catholic organizations cooperate in providing humanitarian aid with local, state, and federal officials," the bishops' statement read. "This includes working with law enforcement to identify and counter criminal activity, such as human trafficking, and assisting those who have been victimized by crime."
According to the bishops, federal agencies often rely on Catholic organizations as "trusted partners within local communities." Those agencies include U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Homeland Security Investigations.
The bishops' statement comes as public officials in Texas and elsewhere have scrutinized Catholic nonprofit organizations about their activities to assist migrants entering the United States through the border with Mexico. Millions of people have entered the United States unlawfully in recent years, with many also applying for asylum status.
"Catholic doctrine distinguishes between persons and their actions," the statement read. "Each person — whether native-born or immigrant, documented or undocumented — is imbued by God with equal dignity. Catholics are compelled by sacred Scripture and Church doctrine to recognize all as brothers and sisters and serve them accordingly."
According to the bishops, Catholic nonprofits provide "spiritual, social, and legal services" to those who enter the country. This includes helping migrants comply with legal obligations and working to protect vulnerable people from exploitation, such as trafficking. The organizations also provide additional support, such as shelter and medical assistance.
"Like all organizations that receive public funds, Catholic organizations are expected to adhere to requirements for the use of those funds, consistent with applicable laws and Church teaching," the statement added.
The bishops referred to allegations that nonprofits are complicit in child trafficking as "completely antithetical to their efforts." Rather, the bishops stated that child migrants can only be placed with a sponsor through the federal government — a process with which Catholic organizations assist federal officials.
"Accusations that the Church is betraying the United States, violating its tax-exempt status, or seeking new members through its ministries serving newcomers are nothing new," the bishops added. "Anti-Catholic bias, political motivations, and misinformation have long undergirded these claims. Assisting newcomers, however, is one of the corporal works of mercy and integral to Catholic identity."
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton discussing the border crisis in Washington, D.C. on May 12, 2021. Credit: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
In February, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued a Catholic nonprofit called Annunciation House based on allegations that the organization facilitates illegal immigration, harbors people who entered the country illegally, and participated in human trafficking. Annunciation House denied those allegations and a judge blocked Paxton's effort to revoke the group's license to operate. Paxton has subsequently appealed the decision and continued to investigate the nonprofit.
Paxton is also investigating Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley based on allegations the group is facilitating illegal immigration. Paxton is Protestant, but Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who asked Paxton to investigate nonprofits who might be facilitating illegal immigration, is Catholic.
In June, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry — who is Catholic — vetoed $1 million in funding for Catholic Charities based on allegations it has facilitated illegal immigration.
In April, Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, a Catholic, and Rep. Monica de la Cruz, R-Texas, a Protestant, accused Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of San Antonio of inappropriately using federal funds to provide airfare to migrants. José Antonio Fernández, CEO of Catholic Charities San Antonio, told CNA at the time that providing airfare to migrants does not violate the grant rules.
Former immigration judge Andrew Arthur, a Catholic and current fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, told CNA he believes it's appropriate to investigate allegations of wrongdoing, to "follow the evidence," and to respond accordingly.
"I don't think that anybody asserts that these issues are system-wide, but it is one of those things that it's appropriate for state and federal governments to take a look at to make sure there are no violations of the law and that funding is being used appropriately," Arthur said.
Bishop Mark Seitz of the Diocese of El Paso, who heads the USCCB Committee on Migration, has been critical of the Texas state government's efforts to restrict border crossings. He also criticized President Joe Biden's executive action in June to prevent migrants from entering the country when border crossings surge.
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin (left) and Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian. / Credit: Horacio Villalobos#Corbis/Getty Images; Majid Saeedi/Getty ImagesRome Newsroom, Aug 12, 2024 / 10:25 am (CNA).The Vatican has urged Iran to avoid escalating "in any way" the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican's secretary of state, spoke on the phone on Monday morning with Iran's new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, in a conversation that underlined the need for dialogue, negotiation, and peace. According to Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni, the cardinal "expressed the Holy See's serious concern about what is happening in the Middle East, reiterating the need to avoid in any way the widening of the very serious ongoing conflict and preferring instead dialogue, negotiation, and peace."The Aug. 12 phone call by the Vatican secretary of state to congratulate the Iranian president on beginning his term in office occurred as the threat of a r...
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin (left) and Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian. / Credit: Horacio Villalobos#Corbis/Getty Images; Majid Saeedi/Getty Images
Rome Newsroom, Aug 12, 2024 / 10:25 am (CNA).
The Vatican has urged Iran to avoid escalating "in any way" the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican's secretary of state, spoke on the phone on Monday morning with Iran's new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, in a conversation that underlined the need for dialogue, negotiation, and peace.
According to Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni, the cardinal "expressed the Holy See's serious concern about what is happening in the Middle East, reiterating the need to avoid in any way the widening of the very serious ongoing conflict and preferring instead dialogue, negotiation, and peace."
The Aug. 12 phone call by the Vatican secretary of state to congratulate the Iranian president on beginning his term in office occurred as the threat of a retaliatory attack by Iran looms.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered a guided missile submarine to the Middle East amid reports that Iran may attack within days, The Guardian reported Monday.
Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said in a statement on his official website that revenge is "our duty" following the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31.
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Sunday that it is on high alert for potential retaliation from Iran and its proxies.
The United States, Qatar, and Egypt have been working to broker an agreement to end the Israel-Hamas war.
Pezeshkian assumed office in Tehran at the end of July after winning Iran's runoff presidential election as a reformist candidate promising to reach out to the West. As president, Pezeshkian is the top elected official and second in rank to Iran's supreme leader, who wields power as commander-in-chief and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Iran is one of the least Catholic countries in the world. Conversion from Islam to Christianity can be a crime meriting a sentence of more than 10 years of imprisonment.
At Pope Francis' most recent general audience, the Holy Father said he was following the situation in the Middle East with great concern.
"I reiterate my appeal to all the parties involved that the conflict does not spread and that there may be an immediate cease-fire on all fronts, starting with Gaza, where the humanitarian situation is very serious and unsustainable," Pope Francis said Aug. 7.
"I pray that the sincere search for peace will extinguish strife, love will overcome hatred, and vengeance will be disarmed by forgiveness."
Holy Mass at Mount Calvary Catholic Church in Baltimore. The pastor, Father Albert Scharbach, told CNA that "families need to be fed spiritually; that's the priority." / Credit: Photo courtesy of Mount Calvary Catholic ChurchWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 12, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).Turn down "Shadyvilla," an unassuming residential street in Houston, and you will be greeted by a surprising sight: an imposing white stone neo-Gothic church that wouldn't be out of place in 14th-century England.The Cathedral of Our Lady of Walsingham in Houston is the beating heart of the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter. Surrounded by rows of white stone columns, the front of the cathedral is marked by a castle-like tower with four figures representing the four Gospels jutting out of the top. Credit: Photo courtesy of the Cathedral of Our Lady of WalsinghamThis is the Cathedral of Our Lady of Walsingham, the beating heart of one of the most unique dioceses in the Catholic Church, the Personal...
Holy Mass at Mount Calvary Catholic Church in Baltimore. The pastor, Father Albert Scharbach, told CNA that "families need to be fed spiritually; that's the priority." / Credit: Photo courtesy of Mount Calvary Catholic Church
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 12, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).
Turn down "Shadyvilla," an unassuming residential street in Houston, and you will be greeted by a surprising sight: an imposing white stone neo-Gothic church that wouldn't be out of place in 14th-century England.
The Cathedral of Our Lady of Walsingham in Houston is the beating heart of the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter. Surrounded by rows of white stone columns, the front of the cathedral is marked by a castle-like tower with four figures representing the four Gospels jutting out of the top. Credit: Photo courtesy of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Walsingham
This is the Cathedral of Our Lady of Walsingham, the beating heart of one of the most unique dioceses in the Catholic Church, the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter.
Though in full communion with the Catholic Church, the ordinariate's liturgical practice is deeply steeped in age-old English-Anglican traditions. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the ordinariate, however, is that despite the rapidly secularizing culture in the U.S., many of the ordinariate's parishes, known for their reverent liturgies and respect for tradition, are flourishing.
According to several priests in the ordinariate, the diocese's growth is primarily sparked by young people, especially young families. So, what's going on and why are so many young people and families being drawn to the ordinariate?
What is the Anglican Catholic ordinariate?
When King Henry VIII broke with Rome and became the head of the Church of England in 1534, he ruptured centuries worth of religious tradition and practice developed between the English and the Latin Church.
Almost five centuries later, following growing requests from members of the Anglican Church, Pope Benedict XVI promulgated a document called Anglicanorum Coetibus that laid out a pathway for both individuals and congregations to be received into full communion with the Catholic Church.
Two years later three ordinariates — the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter in the U.S. and Canada, the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in the U.K., and the Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross in Oceania — were founded.
Father Albert Scharbach, pastor of Mount Calvary Catholic Church in Baltimore, elevates the holy Eucharist on the feast of Corpus Christi, May 30, 2024. Scharbach told CNA that "families need to be fed spiritually, that's the priority." Credit: Photo courtesy of Mount Calvary Catholic Church
Since then these ordinariates have offered former Anglicans, Episcopalians, and Methodists a pathway to enter communion with the Catholic Church while retaining much of their English patrimony.
Just over 10 years after its founding, the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter numbers 11,255 faithful, 81 priests, seven seminarians, and 36 parishes and communities in 15 states and three Canadian provinces.
The ordinariate's growth has yet to slow down. There are currently 14 communities in formation and several new parishes were established just this past year.
Presentation of the Lord Catholic Church in Montgomery, Texas, is one such community that after starting with 90 members in 2019 now has over 600 faithful attending Mass every Sunday.
Because of this growth, Presentation of the Lord was elevated to the status of a parish in the ordinariate six months ago. The church building was formerly a simple barn in the woods of southeast Texas. Today, that barn has been beautified and consecrated, and is the spiritual home of hundreds of families.
Complimentary not competition
In an interview with CNA, Father Charles Hough, rector of Our Lady of Walsingham in Houston, explained that the ordinariate is not in competition with the rest of the Church but rather is meant to be complimentary.
"This isn't a competition by any means; it's actually complementary to the mission of the Church," he explained. "While we're enriching, we're also being enriched as well by those very faithful Catholics around us."
Hough said the ordinariate exists to further the Catholic Church's evangelizing mission to save souls and to simultaneously enrich and be enriched by the Church. He believes the ordinariate can deepen the faith life of anyone, even those who have been Catholic all their lives.
While serving as an Episcopal priest in Dallas, Hough decided to convert to the Catholic Church in 2011. Through special provisions granted by the Vatican, he was able to be ordained a Catholic priest a year later.
Father Charles Hough, a former priest in the Episcopal Church, is rector of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Walsingham in Houston. By being allowed to retain many of the Church of England's traditions Hough said that the ordinariate ordinariate reimbues over 500 years of liturgical practice including sacred liturgy, music, and art back into the Church. Credit: Peter Pinedo/CNA
By being allowed to retain many of the Church of England's traditions, Hough said, the ordinariate reimbues over 500 years of liturgical practice including sacred liturgy, music, and art back into the Church.
While its core aspects are recognizable to any Latin-rite Catholic, the ordinariate's liturgy uses the Book of Divine Worship, a missal approved by the Vatican in 2015 that draws from Anglican sources and has many Anglican particularities. In an ordinariate Mass, the priest faces the altar for most of the liturgy and the prayers are said in an older form of English — called "the king's English" — which Hough said helps to further elevate the Mass as a sacred space set apart from ordinary, daily life.
Children in the ordinariate receive the sacrament of confirmation at a younger age than in most dioceses, often at the same time they receive holy Communion at the age of reason.
Ordinariate members also participate in several unique traditions such as the observance of extra fasting days, called "ember days," and the English tradition of choral evensong.
Parents help children light candles at a "Children's Liturgy of Light" celebrated on Palm Sunday at Mount Calvary Catholic Church in Baltimore. Father Albert Scharbach, pastor of Mount Calvary, told CNA that the median age at the parish is 12. He said that "our primary focus here is to bring forward the roots of the faith with newness and vitality. That's what families are after." Credit: Photo courtesy of Mount Calvary Catholic Church
While partaking in these Anglican traditions, ordinariate members get to also experience the fullness of the heart and soul of the Christian faith that is in receiving the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ in the holy Eucharist.
"Allowing for those who have been enriched by an ordinariate patrimony," Hough said, "what we have received from our fathers and been grafted back into the Church is something that is enriching to other people, even cradle Catholics."
Why are young families joining?
While many churches, Catholic and non-Catholic, have struggled to fill the pews since coming back from the COVID lockdowns, several ordinariate parishes, including parishes in Texas, Florida, and California, have been growing since the pandemic.
Father Albert Scharbach, pastor of Mount Calvary, a historic Episcopal parish in Baltimore that joined the ordinariate in 2012 and has been growing since the pandemic, told CNA that young families are the heart of this growth.
According to Scharbach, the median age at his parish is 12. When he speaks to these families, Scharbach said he has noticed a consistent answer for why they keep coming back to the parish.
"Families need to be fed spiritually, that's the priority," he said. "So, our primary focus here is to bring forward the roots of the faith with newness and vitality. That's what families are after. It has to be alive; it's got to be fresh, but it has to have roots."
Father Albert Scharbach, pastor of Mount Calvary Catholic Church in Baltimore, blesses Mass attendees with holy water during the Easter Vigil liturgy. Just over 10 years after being founded, the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter has 11,255 faithful, 81 priests, seven seminarians, and 36 parishes and communities across the U.S. and Canada. Credit: Photo courtesy of Mount Calvary Catholic Church
Christopher Pagel, a soon-to-be-ordained deacon in the ordinariate, told CNA that he has seen the ordinariate growing across southern California.
After being raised Episcopalian and converting to Catholicism in the 1990s, Pagel said that he was "blown away" when he discovered the ordinariate. Since 2015 he and his wife, Ashley, and their now five children have been attending St. John Henry Newman, an ordinariate parish in Irvine, California.
He attributes the ordinariate's success to its emphasis on evangelization.
"The principal mission of the ordinariate is evangelization," he explained. "It's sharing with people that might have grown up separated from the Catholic Church the fullness of the sacraments, saying, 'Come take a look.'"
"Everybody's story about how they found the truth of the faith is so different," he went on. "Yet there's this common thread where then we're in and we're in our parishes and we are all committed to that evangelization and that growth."
Sacraments and all-night barbeques
Luke and Paula Stuckey, a married couple with five children in Houston, backed up Scharbach's hypothesis.
The Stuckeys have been attending the Cathedral of Our Lady of Walsingham since 2020. While there are many reasons they chose to make the cathedral their spiritual home — such as the tradition, reverence, and community — Luke Stuckey was quick to say that the easy availability of the sacraments was crucial for him.
"The first thing that really made us fall in love with Walsingham was regular confession that was easy to get to," he explained. "Every Saturday, every Sunday, and multiple times throughout the week."
Luke and Paula Stuckey and their five children stand outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of Walsingham after Easter Mass. The Stuckeys have been parishioners of Our Lady of Walsingham since 2020. "The first thing that really made us fall in love with Walsingham was regular confession that was easy to get to," Luke Stuckey explained. "Every Saturday, every Sunday, and multiple times throughout the week." Credit: Photo courtesy of Luke Stuckey
"In more than five years in attendance at another parish in town, I was never able to go to confession with a priest at my home parish because the schedule was that tight, even during Lent," he said. "I think the priority at Walsingham focuses on the needs of the flock."
It's not just families; young adults of all stages of life are flocking to the ordinariate.
Alexis Kutarna, principal of Walsingham's Cathedral High School, told CNA that young people are drawn in because of the ordinariate's intentionality in making the Catholic faith a "concrete reality."
"Young people are looking for meaning in their lives," she said. "They're seeking a true, meaningful relationship, and they are drawn in by those signs of that relationship with Christ."
Reflecting the ordinariate's values, Kutarna said the four pillars of education at Cathedral High are worship, wisdom, music, and art.
"These give us an approach to truth as a concrete person. We are encountering someone who's really here, he's not an idea," she explained.
Alexis Kutarna has a doctorate in liturgical studies with a concentration in church music and is principal of the ordinariate-run Cathedral High School in Houston. Reflecting the ordinariate's values, Kutarna said that the four pillars of education at Cathedral High are worship, wisdom, music, and art. "Young people are looking for meaning in their lives," she said. "They're seeking a true, meaningful relationship, and they are drawn in by those signs of that relationship with Christ." Credit: Peter Pinedo/CNA
Kutarna said the ordinariate offers a community life that is rooted firmly in its relationship with Christ.
At Walsingham, this is expressed not just in the Mass and sacraments but also in more mundane ways, such as with its all-night Easter barbeque, which the cathedral holds annually after the vigil Mass. This year, more than 450 parishioners of all ages gathered for the party that went well into the morning.
Kutarna said there is "a sense of intentionality in community life" in the ordinariate that is not often found in today's society.
"It's almost like a medieval English monastery or an English cathedral where you have an intellectual life that's centered around the church, and you have an artistic life that develops around it, not only in architecture but in sacred art and sacred music," she said. "This is all fostered in the local community around the church."
United with the Church
Eduardo Brand, a 19-year-old rising sophomore at Mercer University and a lifelong parishioner at Walsingham, told CNA that the special gift the ordinariate brings to the wider Church is its emphasis on "the beauty of holiness."
Ordinariate members have a great devotion to Our Lady of Walsingham, evidenced by the Houston cathedral's replica of the Our Lady of Walsingham shrine in the United Kingdom. Eduardo Brand, a lifelong ordinariate member, said the special gift the ordinariate brings to the wider Church is its emphasis on "the beauty of holiness." Credit: Photo courtesy of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Walsingham
Pausing for a moment to reflect, he said: "Ultimately I think what this brings is this great feeling of connection to the faith."
"I'm connected to all the parishioners here, to the parishioners who made this church what it is; I'm preparing myself to be the future of the parish and I feel the connection to Our Lady of Walsingham and her love, and to all the English martyrs and saints who built up this patrimony," he explained. "I think it's ultimately a feeling of really being united with the Church."
Emilio Blasco, director of the Center for Global Affairs at the University of Navarra in Spain, says Daniel 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." / Credit: EWTN Noticias/Screenshot
