Catholic News

  • Help lead society to a God-centered life, Pope tells German Catholic students (CWN)
    Pope Leo XIV told members of German Catholic student associations today that “human beings are always seeking God, and he has revealed himself to us as our Saviour.”
  • What the June consistory reveals about Pope Leo's style of governance [New Analysis] (CWN)
    The program for consistory of cardinals scheduled for June 26-27 reveals several things about how Pope Leo XIV intends to govern the Church.
  • Young missionary dioceses will need to become more financially self-sufficient, Vatican official warns (CWN)
    A Vatican official told national directors of the Pontifical Mission Societies that younger missionary dioceses will need to become more financially self-sufficient because of a decrease in donations from Catholics in the West.
  • Sydney archbishop, in pastoral letter on Eucharistic adoration, emphasizes importance of kneeling (The Catholic Weekly)
    Archbishop Anthony Fisher, O.P., issued a pastoral letter on Eucharistic adoration for the feast of Corpus Christi. In “Adoring the Eucharistic Lord: ‘Let us kneel before the God who made us,’” Archbishop Fisher wrote that kneeling is the posture that “most clearly reveals what we believe about God and our relationship to Him.” Receiving Communion while kneeling, he said, is “a perfectly valid option envisaged in the current Missal.” Archbishop Fisher asked priests to “offer at least one holy hour each week in each parish, and to collaborate with adjoining parishes to increase availability of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, including a Perpetual Adoration chapel in each deanery.”
  • Appeals court rules that sexual assault suit against Father Rosica may proceed (Pillar)
    The Court of Appeal for Ontario ruled that a sexual assault lawsuit filed against Father Thomas Rosica, C.S.B., by a younger priest may proceed. In a 2024 suit, Father Michael Bechard alleged that Father Rosica assaulted him in 2002, when Father Rosica was organizer of World Youth Day in Toronto. The Congregation of St. Basil argued that because both are priests, a canonical court should have exclusive jurisdiction. The appellate court, upholding a lower court ruling, held that civil courts do have jurisdiction in the case. Father Rosica has denied the allegations. After organizing World Youth Day, Father Rosica helped lead Salt + Light Television, a Canadian Catholic network. He resigned in 2019 amid a plagiarism scandal.
  • Jihadists trying to establish a caliphate in northern Mozambique, says bishop (Aid to the Church in Need)
    Jihadists in Mozambique are attempting to establish a caliphate, a local bishop warned. “The signs are all there,” Bishop António Juliasse of Pemba told Aid to the Church in Need. “They speak openly of a caliphate. When they find people, when they kidnap victims, that is what they say, that they are working for a caliphate.” A brutal Islamist insurgency in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province began in 2017. The Southeast African nation of 34.2 million (map) is 57% Christian (32% Catholic), 18% Muslim, and 24% ethnic religionist.
  • Sri Lanka bars travel by former leader as investigation into Easter bombings accelerates (AsiaNews)
    A court in Sri Lanka has imposed a travel ban on the country’s former president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, as part of a renewed investigation into the Easter Sunday Bombings that killed 269 people and injured more than 500 others in 2019. Rajapaksa, who was forced to resign in 2022, is one of several prominent political figures who have come under suspicion in the probe. The court placed also placed travel restrictions on an army colonel and a former intelligence officer. Earlier this year the former head of the government’s intelligence bureau was arrested on conspiracy charges. Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith of Colombo, who in the past had charged that leading government officials were blocking any effective investigation into the Easter bombings, said in April that the new government was more interested in “searching for the truth,” although “some officials of the so-called ‘deep state’ are trying to obstruct the smooth conduct of the investigation.”
  • Record 14 bishops to attend March for Life UK (National Catholic Register)
    March for Life UK announced that a record 14 bishops, led by Archbishop Richard Moth of Westminster, will take part in the march this year. “It is hard to think of another event, or cause, that receives this level of support from the hierarchy of the Church,” organizers said in a statement. “Their presence demonstrates the primary importance that the Church places on this key and fundamental issue.”
  • Catalonian parish church bricked up after vandalism (OIDAC Europe)
    Authorities in Òdena, a small town in Catalonia, Spain, bricked up a parish church after vandals ransacked it, the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe reported. “The attack caused strong indignation among residents and parishioners, particularly because the response ultimately focused on sealing the church rather than immediately prosecuting those responsible,” the Observatory reported. “To prevent further break-ins or acts of desecration, authorities decided to brick up the church, the rectory and the lower parish premises.”
  • In Spain, 7 cardinals, 61 bishops implicated in covering up abuse, newspaper charges (El País )
    On the eve of Pope Leo’s apostolic journey to Spain, a leading Spanish newspaper reported that since 1952, “94 senior Church officials have covered up complaints, protected clerics or silenced victims.” “Of those, seven are cardinals, 61 are bishops and 26 are superiors of religious orders,” El País reported. “Two other cases are particularly striking because the accused [i.e., those accused of covering up abuse] are in the process of beatification.”
  • Survey: 55% of US adults view Pope Leo favorably (The Economist/YouGov Poll)
    A survey of 1,604 U.S. adult citizens, conducted between May 29 and June 1, found that 55% had a favorable opinion of Pope Leo XIV. 23% expressed an unfavorable opinion, and 21% said they “don’t know.” Kamala Harris voters (84%), liberals (79%), Democrats (79%), and college graduates (65%) were more likely to have a favorable opinion of the Pontiff than Trump voters (37%), conservatives (42%), Republicans (42%), and those with no degree (50%).
  • Miami archbishop ordains 12 FSSP priests (Archdiocese of Miami)
    Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami, Florida, ordained 12 members of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter on May 28 at Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary in Nebraska. The priests of the institute offer the Latin Mass in the extraordinary form. Founded in 1988, the institute, in 2024, had 139 religious houses, 567 members, and 375 priests, according to the Annuario Pontificio.
  • Syrian refugee athletes, 104-year-old WWII vet, ping pong executive meet with Pontiff (CWN)
    At the conclusion of his June 3 general audience, Pope Leo XIV met with seven Syrian refugee girls who left the Azraq refugee camp in Jordan to compete in a tae kwon do tournament in Rome.
  • Pope Leo encourages Corpus Christi processions (CWN)
    At the conclusion of his June 3 general audience, Pope Leo XIV encouraged Corpus Christi processions.
  • Video surfaces of Vatican appointee saying it's 'wrong' to believe all Jews should become Christians (LifeSite News)
    Following the appointment of Maria Montserrat (Montse) Alvarado as prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, a “video clip surfaced from 2022 of her stating it ‘obviously is wrong’ to believe ‘that all Jews should become Christians,’” LifeSiteNews reported. Prior to her 2023 appointment as president and chief operating officer of EWTN News, Alvarado worked for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, where she served as vice president and executive director. She will succeed Paolo Ruffini, the layman who has led the dicastery since 2018, on November 1.
  • Cardinal McElroy removes Msgr. Rossetti, prominent exorcist (CWN)
    Cardinal Robert McElroy of Washington, D.C., announced on June 3 that he had removed Msgr. Stephen Rossetti, a famed exorcist, “as an exorcist of the Archdiocese of Washington, and ended all affiliation between the archdiocese and the Saint Michael Center for Spiritual Renewal located in Washington, D.C.”
  • Leading Italian prelate deplores gruesome murder of migrants (CWN)
    The vice president of the Italian Episcopal Conference deplored the gruesome murder of four migrants from Afghanistan and Pakistan who were working in slave-like conditions in Amendolara, a small town in Calabria.
  • Pope recalls that June is the month of the Sacred Heart (CWN)
    Pope Leo XIV reminded pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square that June is the month dedicated to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.
  • Mexican bishops form exorcist ministry team (EWTN News)
    Bishop José Trinidad Zapata Ortiz of Papantla, Mexico, discussed the work of the Mexican bishops’ recently established exorcist ministry team, the Pastoral Care of Consolation and the Ministry of Exorcism (DEPAC). Bishop Zapata told ACI Prensa that “many of our parishioners who are baptized do not live out their faith in an orthodox manner” and take part in “spiritist practices or other types—satanic ones, or the so-called ‘Santa Muerte.’” The bishops thus saw a “growing need to address these situations of spiritual, moral, and physical suffering of some persons, which may have a malevolent origin” and to “support the exorcists who were already undergoing training courses,” the prelate said. Bishop Zapata warned that if Satan “wreaks havoc upon us, it is because we first allowed him to do so. We venture onto his paths and let him into our lives.” When a bishop appoints an exorcist, the priest should be “a Eucharistic priest, a Marian priest, a priest who enjoys caring for those in need, especially the sick.”
  • Bangladeshi Catholics demand justice, 25 years after church bombing (UCANews)
    Catholics and other Christians in Bangladesh marked the 25th anniversary of the Gopalganj Catholic church bombing, which left ten dead and 26 injured. For a quarter century, the police investigation “has remained stalled, with frequent changes of investigating officers hindering progress,” UCA News reported. Nirmol Rozario, president of the ecumenical Bangladesh Christian Association, said that “for 25 years we have been making the same demands for a proper investigation and justice, but nothing has happened.” Located in South Asia, Bangladesh (map), a nation of 170 million—the world’s eighth most populous—is 89% Muslim and 9% Hindu.
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