Catholic News

• Haitian police fire tear gas at conclusion of Mass celebrated by 11 bishops (Miami Herald)
  “A Catholic Mass led by Haiti’s leading bishops to bring attention to the country’s surging violence amid a rash of killings and kidnappings . . . ended Thursday in tear gas, gunshots and chaos,” the report begins. The Mass took place after the bishops asked Catholic institutions to take part in a national strike.
• German Catholics plan huge blessing of same-sex unions on May 10 (Crux)
  According to the report, Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck of Essen said that his diocesan priests “will face no canonical consequence if they decide to bless gay and lesbian couples next month as part of the event called ‘Love wins, blessing service for lovers.’”
• USCCB letter campaign urges abortion-free vaccines (CNS)
  The US bishops’ conference has launched a letter-writing campaign, asking Catholics to write to pharmaceutical companies and urge the development of Covid vaccines that do not involve the use of fetal tissues from abortions. The bishops’ pro-life office provides draft letters to the different manufacturers, thanking them for providing the vaccines but encouraging them “to stop the use of abortion-derived cell lines.”
• German legislators consider ending state payments to churches (CNS)
  “The Catholic and Protestant churches received combined state benefits of more than $650 million in 2020,” according to the report. “Most of the state payments date back to 1803, when German imperial princes received expropriated church property as compensation for a loss of territory. In return, the princes paid the churches money on a regular basis.”
• Pope calls on every diocese to accompany popular movements for work, wages, and housing (Vatican News)
  In his video message to the conference, Pope Francis paid tribute to the work of the US bishops’ Catholic Campaign for Human Development.
• Scientists create embryos mixing human, monkey cells (NPR)
  Scientists have produced embryos that have both human and monkey cells. The process is seen as a step toward the production of organs that could be used for transplantation. In response to obvious ethical concerns, the scientists involved in the work say that they have no intention of allowing the embryos to come to term.
• Notre-Dame Cathedral 'holding up' 2 years after Paris fire (Reuters)
  French President Emmanuel Macron visited the cathedral on April 15, the second anniversary of the devastating fire.
• Pope Francis: 'Brazil's Covid crisis has left no one untouched' (Vatican News)
  “I ask God to grant eternal rest to those who have died and to console the suffering hearts of their family members who were often unable to say good-bye to their loved ones,” Pope Francis said in a video message to the Brazilian bishops’ conference.
• Irish Church leaders meet with premier: ban on Mass not discussed (Irish bishops' conference)
  The leaders of Ireland’s largest Christian groups met on April 15 with Taoiseach (prime minister) Micheal Martin. A statement issued after the meeting indicated that the discussion had centered on violence, the situation in Northern Ireland, and the National Economic Recovery Plan. No mention was made of the ban on the public celebration of Mass in Ireland, aside from a vague reference to “the importance of faith to the spiritual and mental well-being of many people.”
• 'Look reality in the eye,' nuncio tells Mexican bishops (CNS)
  “The decline in the Catholic population in this land of Guadalupe is extremely worrying,” said Archbishop Franco Coppola. “From 2010 to 2020, the decline in the Catholic population has benefited atheists more than Protestants.”
• Irish bishops: Further delay in resettling refugee children 'appalling' (Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference)
  “I was deeply saddened to hear recent reports that plans to resettle children seeking refuge from the Moria camp in Greece, to Ireland – originally scheduled for September 2020 and again last month – have been further delayed,” said Bishop Denis Brennan, chair of the Bishops’ Council for Immigrants. “I call on government to act as quickly and decisively as possible in this case to bring these children to safety and shelter.”
• Father Kapaun's remains to return to Kansas, family says (National Catholic Register)
  The remains of the Servant of God Father Emil Kapaun (1916-1951), a military chaplain in the Korean War, were identified last month.
• The Chinese government is 'relentlessly suppressing' the Church, priest warns (AsiaNews)
  “Although China is the most important missionary zone for the Church in Asia, Church affairs in China are no longer handled by the Congregation of Evangelization of Peoples, which is responsible for missionary work, but are now in the hands of the Secretariat of State, the political arm of the Holy See,” said a priest in northern China. “The actions of the Church have become political in order to serve political ends.”
• Accountability, transparency, due process still needed, abuse experts say (CNS)
  Archbishop Charles Scicluna, adjunct secretary of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, called for a universal application of the principle that “the victim has a right to be advised of the outcome of the investigation”; the principle was established in the Pope’s apostolic letter Vos estis lux mundi [You Are the Light of the World] in certain cases.
• Vatican statement for Muslims at Ramadan: focus on hope (Vatican Press Office)
  “We, Christians and Muslims, are called to be bearers of hope,” the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialog says in a message to the Islamic world for the season of Ramadan. The message emphasizes the virtue of hope, which “has its basis on something religious: God loves us, and therefore cares for us through his providence.”
• Kerala: 42-year-old nun found dead inside the well (The Times of India)
  The southwestern Indian state of Kerala (map) is 55% Hindu, 27% Muslim, and 18% Christian. Two Eastern Catholic churches (the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church and the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church) have their headquarters there.
• Pennsylvania diocese launches 'Year of the Real Presence' (Allentown Morning Call)
  Bishop Alfred Schlert of Allentown announced the year in a pastoral letter.
• Missionary priest assesses US withdrawal from Afghanistan (AsiaNews)
  “The desire for peace prevails among the population, but also a great fear that the Taliban will return,” said Father Giuseppe Moretti, who led the Catholic mission in Afghanistan from 2002 to 2014.
• As policies shift, Protestants and other faith groups join Catholics in helping immigrants at the border (RNS)
  “This has become an ecumenical effort not by design, but by Providence,” said Catholic activist Dylan Corbett, a Catholic who works as executive director of the Hope Border Institute.
• Archbishop Gomez: 'The Church is not a political party, and we are not activists' (CNS)
  Archbishop José Gomez, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, delivered an address on “The Catholic difference on social justice.”
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