NATION
WASHINGTON (OSV News) – Catholic Mobilizing Network, a group that advocates for the abolition of capital punishment in line with Catholic teaching, issued a statement Nov. 6 urging President Joe Biden to take action on the practice during the remainder of his presidency while 40 lives on death row “hang in the balance.” Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, CMN’s executive director, noted in a statement that Biden became the first U.S. president in 2020 to have campaigned on an openly anti-death penalty platform. After Biden was elected, his administration declared a moratorium on federal executions, but some activists say he should have gone further to end the practice. Vaillancourt Murphy argued the nation’s second Catholic president should follow through with concrete action in the post-election lame-duck period before President-elect Donald Trump, who has sought to expand the uses of capital punishment, returns to the White House. “As faithful anti-death penalty advocates, we know lives hang in the balance,” Vaillancourt Murphy said. She said CMN would “redouble its efforts to urge President Biden to commute the sentences of all 40 men currently on federal death row before he leaves office in January.” The group invited Catholics to sign a petition, hosted at catholicsmobilizing.org, calling on Biden to do so.

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – The Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ $880 million abuse claims settlement, announced Oct. 16, brings the total payouts of U.S. Catholic dioceses for abuse claims since 2004 to more than $5 billion – and possibly more than $6 billion – OSV News has found. An aggregated total from two decades of reports issued by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops shows the nation’s dioceses and eparchies paid some $4.384 billion to settle claims between 2004 and 2023. Data for fiscal year 2024 is still pending; however, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ $880 million settlement and a $323 million settlement announced Sept. 26 by the Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York, account for $1.2 billion within the span of less than a month. Those two settlements, plus the USCCB total for 2004-2023, add up to $5.59 billion. The USCCB 2004-2023 total does not appear to include a $660 million settlement announced in 2007 by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles which, along with the Oct. 16 settlement, brings that archdiocese’s total to at least $1.54 billion in abuse-related costs over the past two decades. An archdiocesan official told OSV News the archdiocese was looking into how that settlement data was reported. The overall national total of diocesan settlement payouts for the past two decades could exceed $6.24 billion, if the USCCB data does not already include the 2007 Archdiocese of Los Angeles payout. Data from the USCCB’s reports does not include any settlements that dioceses reached with victims prior to 2004.

VATICAN
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – A local Italian group launched an online petition urging Pope Francis, the Vatican and others to stop the “fir tree-icide” of cutting down a 200-year-old red pine to decorate St. Peter’s Square for Christmas. The Bears and Others Association, a land and wildlife conservancy group located in the northern Italian province of Trento, launched the petition on change.org Oct. 13. It had gathered more than 49,800 signatories by midday Nov. 15. Citing the pope’s teachings on caring for creation, the group said, “It is necessary to give clear and concise signals” to change people’s attitudes toward respecting nature, especially given the rapidly evolving climate change. The Christmas tree “is a pagan tradition and has nothing to do with the birth of Christ,” the petition said. Renato Girardi, mayor of Ledro, told the Italian state television network, RAI, that the donated tree comes from a certified sustainable working forest that follows strict forest management practices, which include thinning out towering, older trees to open up the canopy and facilitate the growth of multiple younger trees below. Renato Girardi, mayor of Ledro, said the tree was actually 60 years old, according to Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian bishops’ conference, Nov. 19.

WORLD
MEXICO CITY (OSV News) – The Mexican bishops’ conference expressed deep concern over an initiative in the Mexico City assembly “which seeks to completely eliminate legal protection for life in gestation” and could lead to the further removal of limits on abortion across the country. “This initiative, which seeks the total decriminalization of abortion in Mexico City, and which will probably be extended to other states in the Republic, would not only eliminate the current limit of twelve weeks of gestation, but would also open the door to the termination of pregnancy at any time,” the bishops’ said in a Nov. 6 statement signed by the conference president, Archbishop Rogelio Cabrera López of Monterrey, and its general secretary, Bishop Ramón Castro Castro of Cuernavaca. “As pastors, we cannot remain silent in the face of a measure that, under the pretext of defending rights, in reality ignores the most fundamental human right: ‘the right to life from conception to natural death,’ and abandons women to decisions that can dramatically affect their lives.” A pair of commissions in the Mexico City assembly voted Nov. 4 to eliminate abortion from the criminal code, along with any limits on how late an abortion could occur during pregnancy. Punishments of three to six months in prison or 100 to 300 days of community service for women who abort were also scrapped.

VIENNA (OSV News) – With new reports of human rights organizations in Europe, it is clear that anti-Christian discrimination is a hot-button issue in the old continent, and on the rise. The Vienna-based Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe revealed widespread intolerance and discrimination against Christians in Europe in its Nov. 15 report, published in cooperation with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, or OSCE, and its Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights. OIDAC Europe identified 2,444 anti-Christian hate crimes which were documented by police and civil society in 35 European countries in 2023, including 232 personal attacks on Christians, such as harassment, threats and physical violence. These figures include data requested from governments, which found 1,230 anti-Christian hate crimes recorded by 10 European governments in 2023, up from 1,029 recorded by governments in 2022. While only 10 European governments submitted data on anti-Christian hate crimes in 2023, civil society reported incidents from 26 European countries. The report was published ahead of Nov. 16 observance of International Day for Tolerance, which was established in 1996 by the United Nations General Assembly.

By Carol Glatz
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis announced that he will canonize Blesseds Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati next year and that the Vatican will host a world meeting on the rights of the child Feb. 3.
The pope will canonize Blessed Acutis April 27, during the Jubilee for Adolescents in Rome April 25-27 and Blessed Frassati during the Jubilee of Young People in Rome July 28-Aug. 3.

The pope made the announcement during his general audience in St. Peter’s Square Nov. 20, which is World Children’s Day.

The annual celebration marks the date when the U.N. General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1959 and when the assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989.

“On the occasion of the International Day of the Rights of the Child and Adolescents that is celebrated today,” the pope said he wanted to announce holding a world meeting at the Vatican.

The World Leaders’ Summit on Children’s Rights will be dedicated to the theme of “Let’s love them and protect them,” and it will include experts and celebrities from different countries, the pope said.

“It will be an occasion to pinpoint new paths directed at better assisting and protecting children still without rights who live in precarious conditions. They are exploited and abused and suffer the dramatic consequences of wars,” he said.

A small group of children involved in preparing for the Feb. 3 meeting joined the pope for a photograph after the announcement along with Franciscan Father Enzo Fortunato, coordinator of the church’s first World Children’s Day, which was held in Rome May 25.

Pope Francis also established a new papal committee for World Children’s Day and named Father Fortunato its president.

The new committee, he said, will ensure that “World Children’s Day does not remain an isolated event” and that “the pastoral care for children increasingly becomes a more qualified priority in evangelical and pedagogical terms,” he said in the decree, also known as a chirograph, published by the Vatican Nov. 20.
The aim of the world day, he said, is to make a concrete contribution toward carrying out “the church’s commitment to children” by giving voice to children’s rights and making sure the church’s pastoral activities have the same kind of care and attention toward children Jesus had.

Other goals include helping the Christian community become more of “an educating community capable first of all of being evangelized by the voice of the little ones” and helping the church become more “like children” and let go of “signs of power” in order to become “a welcoming and livable home for all, starting with children,” the decree said.

Pope Francis said he wants the day to be celebrated at the universal, regional, national and local levels and, therefore, the committee will help promote and organize those celebrations with the universal event held “possibly every two years.”

“I entrust the preparation of World Children’s Day to the regional and national bishops’ conferences that will institute local organizing committees,” he said.

NATION
FORT WORTH, Texas (OSV News) – Members of a women’s religious community in Arlington have been dismissed from the Carmelite order and Catholic religious life, according to Oct. 28 statements from Bishop Michael F. Olson of Fort Worth and Mother Marie of the Incarnation, whom a Vatican office appointed as the community’s major superior in April. The bishop and major superior attributed the dismissal to the nuns’ decisions “to break faith with their Mother, the Church of Rome” through denying the authority of the Vatican Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, their bishop and the dicastery-appointed major superior. The nuns also entered into an unlawful, formal association with the Society of St. Pius X Sept. 14 and soon after illicitly transferred ownership of their Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity to a nonprofit organization of laypeople, the statement notes. The affected nuns did not immediately respond on their website, which has been their mainstay for public communication over the past 18 months as they have openly feuded with Bishop Olson following his allegations in April 2023 that their community-elected prioress had committed unspecified sins against chastity. The saga has included church and civil courts, the nuns’ public rejection of the bishop’s governance authority over them, and their formal affiliation with the Society of St. Pius X.

LONG BEACH, Calif. (OSV News) – This year’s National Catholic Youth Conference theme “El Camino / The Way,” seeks to resonate with attendees, said Natalie Ibarra, the communications manager for the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry, emphasizing the focus is on walking alongside peers and families in faith. The three-day conference, scheduled for Nov. 14-16 in Long Beach, California, is designed for high school students and their chaperones, and provides a central location that is more accessible for West Coast participants. NCYC 2024 will include a variety of engaging activities, including over 20 youth breakout sessions on topics ranging from pro-life activism to vocational discernment. Notable speakers and artists will enhance the experience, while an interactive exhibit hall will allow youth to explore various aspects of Catholic life and ministry. Ibarra noted efforts to reach Latino youth, acknowledging the financial barriers some families face. Organizers stressed that NCYC aims to unite young Catholics from across the country, fostering a sense of belonging and shared faith among participants. Pat Clasby, a parish director of confirmation and youth ministry at St. Patrick Church in Carlsbad, California, who is involved in organizing this year’s NCYC, said the conference will allow youth to see the larger Catholic Church. “It’s an opportunity for the youth to see other young people from around the country practicing their faith and realize they are not the only ones that are teenagers who are Catholic,” he said. “They are not the only ones trying to live their faith out loud.”

VATICAN
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Migrants demonstrate what hope is, and the Catholic Church must support them to keep that hope alive, Pope Francis said. “If migrants are to preserve the strength and resilience necessary for them to continue on their journey, they need someone to attend to their wounds and to care for them in their extreme physical, spiritual and psychological vulnerability,” the pope told members of the Scalabrinians during an audience at the Vatican Oct. 28. “Effective pastoral interventions that demonstrate closeness on the material, religious and human levels are required in order to keep their hope alive and to help them advance on their personal journey toward God, their faithful companion on the way,” he said. The pope lamented “the hostility shown by rich countries that perceive those knocking at their door as a threat to their own well-being.” Migrants are to be welcomed, accompanied, supported and integrated in the host communities, he said. Regardless of who they are or where they came from, all immigrants are to be “viewed as a gift of God, unique, sacred, inviolable, a precious resource for the benefit of all,” he said.

WORLD
DHAKA, Bangladesh (OSV News) – Amid signs of changes and more religious inclusivity in the country, church leaders in Bangladesh called for Easter Sunday to be a public holiday. The United Church Council of Bangladesh, the Catholic bishops’ conference and Bangladesh’s Christian Association have separately demanded a public holiday from the interim government on Easter Sunday. On Oct. 17, Bangladesh’s United Church Council president, Archbishop Bejoy Nicephorus D’Cruze of Dhaka, sent a letter to the chief adviser to the interim government. After the student uprising in August that left hundreds of people dead, the country’s prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, stepped down and fled the country to India. In his letter, Archbishop D’Cruze welcomed the interim government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus and said that Easter Sunday celebrates “the triumph of Lord Jesus Christ over sin and death” and is an important day for Christians. “Unfortunately, the government has not given it a (status of) holiday, despite repeated appeals to the previous government. As a result, many Christians cannot observe Easter Sunday,” the archbishop of Dhaka wrote. According to the 2022 national census by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, the Muslim-majority country has about 500,000 Christians out of about 180 million, including 400,000 Catholics told ACN. “But even if the terrorists burned everything, they didn’t burn our faith!”

VALENCIA, Spain (OSV News) – The archbishop of Valencia expressed “grave concern” and said Mass for those affected after at least 72 people died, and many more went missing amid torrential rains that caused massive flooding in southeastern Spain. The flooding turned roads into rivers of floating cars and cut off highways and access points, with water reaching the first floor of buildings. Archbishop Enrique Benavent said Oct. 30 he “hopes that the victims and missing persons will be found safe and sound as soon as possible,” according to Spanish Catholic news outlet Alfa y Omega. The archbishop celebrated Mass for all those affected on the morning of Oct. 30 in a local basilica. In a letter sent to Archbishop Benavent and Msgr. Julián Ros, apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Albacete, West from Valencia, Spanish bishops said that they share “their pain at the difficult times that they are experiencing in their dioceses.” The horrendous flooding that left piles of cars stuck in between buildings in historical narrow streets of Valencia and trapped dozens of residents was caused by storm Dana – described as an “unprecedented phenomenon” by Spain’s defense minister, Margarita Robles. King Felipe VI spoke of his “devastation and concern” over the flash flooding. Speaking of “enormous destruction” Oct. 30, he said accessing some areas was still difficult. Spain declared three days of mourning after the flash floods devastated parts of the country.

NATION
WASHINGTON (OSV News) – National Eucharistic Pilgrimage organizers are seeking eight young adults to spend six weeks traveling with the Eucharist from Indiana to California next summer as perpetual pilgrims in the United States’ second national Eucharistic pilgrimage. The route is scheduled to begin Pentecost Sunday, May 18, following a Mass of thanksgiving in Indianapolis and end in Los Angeles on the feast of Corpus Christi June 22 with a special event hosted by the National Eucharistic Congress Inc. and a citywide Eucharistic procession. The pilgrimage route will cover several Southwestern states, with route details forthcoming in early 2025. The pilgrimage expects to visit the tomb of Father Emil Kapaun, a servant of God, in Wichita, Kansas, and the Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine in Oklahoma City. The route’s perpetual pilgrims will be accompanied by two chaplains and participate in weekly service projects in communities they visit. The 2025 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage was inspired by last year’s first-ever National Eucharistic Pilgrimage that preceded the National Eucharistic Congress in July. Perpetual pilgrim applications are due Nov. 1. More information is available at eucharisticpilgrimage.org.

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – The U.S. bishops are gathering in Baltimore Nov. 11-14 for their 2024 fall general assembly, which takes place just weeks after the conclusion of the second session of the Catholic Church’s synod on synodality in Rome. Only two days of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ meeting, Nov. 12-13, will be public and livestreamed on the conference’s website. As in years past, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the papal nuncio to the U.S., and Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, president of the USCCB, will both address the assembly. Although the conference said its agenda for the November assembly is subject to change, the bishops plan to consider updates for a collaborative effort on Dignitas Infinita which concerns human dignity; an update on the interim implementation of Antiquum Ministerium, which concerns the ministry of the catechist; the pastoral implementation of Pope Francis’ teaching document Laudato si’, which concerns environmental stewardship; as well as the conference’s mission directive for the years 2025-2028. The bishops also plan to have a consultation on the sainthood causes of Sister Annella Zervas, a professed religious of the Order of St. Benedict, and for the Servant of God Gertrude Agnes Barber. During the assembly, the bishops will vote for the new conference treasurer, as well as chairmen-elect of five conference committees.

VATICAN
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis called on the faithful to yearn to serve, not thirst for power, as he proclaimed 14 new saints, including Canada-born St. Marie-Léonie Paradis, founder of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family, and 11 martyrs. “Those who dominate do not win, only those who serve out of love,” he said Oct. 20, World Mission Sunday, in St. Peter’s Square. “When we learn to serve, our every gesture of attention and care, every expression of tenderness, every work of mercy becomes a reflection of God’s love,” he said. “And so, we continue Jesus’ work in the world.” The pope said the new saints lived Jesus’ way of service. “The faith and the apostolate they carried out did not feed their worldly desires and hunger for power but, on the contrary, they made themselves servants of their brothers and sisters, creative in doing the good, steadfast in difficulties and generous to the end.” “This is what we should yearn for: not power, but service. Service is the Christian way of life,” he said.

WORLD
LIVERPOOL, England (OSV News) – A court has convicted a British army veteran of violating a “buffer zone” around an abortion clinic after he prayed silently within the boundary. Adam Smith-Connor was given a conditional discharge – in which a fine or prison sentence will be imposed if he repeats his offense in the next two years – and ordered to pay prosecution costs of 9,000 British pounds (US $11,700). The Oct. 16 judgment of the Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole Council, or court, on England’s south coast, represents the first time anyone has been convicted for praying silently outside an abortion facility in the U.K. The court decided that his posture had expressed “disapproval for abortion,” noting that his hands were joined in prayer and his head was bowed solemnly. Afterward, Smith-Connor said: “Today, the court has decided that certain thoughts – silent thoughts – can be illegal in the United Kingdom. That cannot be right. All I did was pray to God, in the privacy of my own mind – and yet I stand convicted as a criminal.” Jeremiah Igunnubole, legal counsel for ADF UK, described the ruling as “a legal turning point of immense proportions.” “A man has been convicted today because of the content of his thoughts – his prayers to God – on the public streets of England,” he said.

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (OSV News) – In an early October massacre, at least 150 people, including many Christians, were killed in northeastern Burkina Faso’s town of Manni, in what turned out to be a brutal terrorist rampage. Days after the massacre, Aid to the Church in Need, a pontifical charity working for the cause of persecuted Christians globally, learned that the attack had occurred Oct. 6. Manni is home to a large Catholic community, and many Christians, as well as Muslims, were killed in the massacre, ACN said on the organization’s website. Sources told ACN that the terrorists first cut mobile phone networks before attacking the local market, where many people had gathered after Sunday Mass. “They then opened fire indiscriminately, looted shops and set fire to several buildings, burning some victims alive. The same sources reported that the next day, the perpetrators returned to attack medical staff and kill the many wounded in the city’s hospital,” ACN said. A new incursion took place two days later, when the terrorists again invaded the town of Manni, massacring all the men they could find. Many of the victims were residents from nearby villages who had sought refuge in Manni after being driven out of their homes by terrorists. “The situation is beyond horrific,” one of the local sources told ACN. “But even if the terrorists burned everything, they didn’t burn our faith!”

NATION
WASHINGTON (OSV News) – Thousands of pilgrims from across the country gathered at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington Sept. 28 to honor Mary, the Mother of God, and her gift of the rosary. “I am entirely yours, Mary, I am entirely yours,” the crowd sang in Latin as the second annual Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage opened with a procession of a statue of Mary, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary. “All that I have, Mother of Christ, all that I have is yours.” More than 3,000 people registered for the free, daylong pilgrimage celebrating the rosary hosted by the Dominican Friars of the Province of St. Joseph and their local charters of the Confraternity of the Most Holy Rosary, a spiritual association dedicated to the rosary. Dominican friars and sisters dotted a diverse crowd of men and women, young and old, individuals and families of different cultures and backgrounds. The event at the basilica, the largest Roman Catholic church in North America, included preaching, adoration, confession, book signings, a recitation of the rosary, enrollment in the confraternity, Mass and an evening concert with the Hillbilly Thomists, a bluegrass band of Dominican friars. Founded in 1216 by St. Dominic de Guzmán, the Dominican Order, also known as the Order of Preachers, has a special relationship with the rosary: According to tradition, Mary appeared to St. Dominic, entrusting the rosary’s promotion to him.

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – Three years after being approved by the U.S. Catholic bishops, updates to the ritual texts for distribution of holy Communion outside of Mass and for Eucharistic adoration will take effect. The revised version of “Holy Communion and Worship of the Eucharistic Mystery outside Mass” will be implemented on the First Sunday of Advent, Dec. 1, 2024. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops had signed off on the fresh texts in 2021, with the revisions reviewed by the USCCB’s Secretariat for Divine Worship and confirmed by the Vatican in March 2023. Father David R. Price, associate director of the USCCB’s Secretariat of Divine Worship, told OSV News that “the main thing to keep in mind” regarding the revisions is that “this is a new translation of the ritual book that was given in Latin in the 1970s – so it’s a new translation, it’s not a new ritual book per se.” He emphasized that “the discipline of distribution of holy Communion outside Mass that is in place now is not changing.” The new translation “should hopefully be a way for people to continue to grow and deepen in their faith and to have a sense of unity with the universal church, in that we are praying with words in English that are similar, that are the same in meaning, as words that people are praying these same prayers in other languages – and that the translations are consistent in their meaning between these different languages,” said Father Price. “And that shows the universality of the church.”

VATICAN
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Following an investigation into an influential Peru-based Catholic movement that has expanded across Latin America and the United States, Pope Francis has expelled 10 members from its ranks for physical and spiritual abuse. The group, Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, which operates in seven Latin American countries and has communities in the archdioceses of Denver and Philadelphia, was subject to a Vatican investigation in 2023 for alleged abuses. In a letter from the apostolic nunciature in Peru posted on the Peruvian bishops’ conference website Sept. 25, the Vatican announced the expulsion of the 10 members, including the former superior general, a retired archbishop and three other priests. The 68-year-old Peruvian Archbishop José Antonio Eguren of Piura, the highest-ranking expelled member, resigned from leading his archdiocese in April, eight years shy of the mandatory retirement age for bishops, amid an investigation into Sodalitium. The forms of abuse listed in the Vatican letter include: physical abuse “including sadism and violence,” deploying tactics to “break the will of subordinates,” spiritual abuse, abuse of authority including the cover-up of crimes and abuse in the administration of church goods. “Abuse in the exercise of the apostolate of journalism” was also cited as a form of abuse committed; the list of those expelled included Peruvian journalist Alejandro Bermudez, founder and former executive director of Catholic News Agency, which is now owned by EWTN.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Calling St. John Paul II “one of the men who most shaped the last century,” Pope Francis encouraged Catholics to get to know him better, especially through what he did and wrote before being elected pope Oct. 16, 1978. “Saint John Paul II, despite the time that has passed since his pontificate, continues to be a source of inspiration and draws people to Christ through his way of life, the depth of his teachings, and his ability to connect with the lives of people,” Pope Francis wrote in the introduction to a book titled, “The Goal is Happiness.” Published in Italian, the book offers 366 short passages from St. John Paul’s writings, “most of them unpublished outside of Poland, and some even unpublished within Poland,” Pope Francis noted in the introduction, which was translated into English and posted on Vatican News Sept. 26.

WORLD
MEXICO CITY (OSV News) – Six migrants were killed after soldiers shot at a vehicle evading a military checkpoint in Mexico’s southern Chiapas state – a tragedy condemned by Mexico’s bishops as “the disproportionate use of lethal force on the part of agents of the state.” The Mexican bishops’ conference’s migrant ministry expressed solidarity with the victims and called for a “serious, impartial and investigation” of the shooting. A green truck carrying 33 migrants failed to stop at a checkpoint roughly 50 miles from the Guatemala border, at 8:50 p.m. on Oct. 1, drawing fire from two soldiers, according to an army statement the following day. Six migrants were killed in the incident while 10 were injured and 17 escaped unharmed. The migrants hailed from Nepal, Pakistan, India, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Cuba. The army said two soldiers opened fire on the vehicle, which was traveling at high-speed and taking evasive actions. It added that two other trucks, “similar to those used by criminal groups in the region,” were following behind. “Military personnel reported hearing shots, so two (soldiers) fired their weapons, stopping one of the flatbed trucks,” the statement said. A collective of human rights and migration organizations sponsored by the Jesuit-run Iberoamerican University condemned the army’s actions, along with the Mexican government’s militarized response to migration enforcement. The stepped-up enforcement ahead of the November U.S. election has coincided with the Biden administration placing restrictions on asylum-seekers.

NATION
DUTCHESS COUNTY, N.Y. (OSV News) – James Earl Jones, a distinguished actor known for his resonant voice and a Black Catholic, died Sept. 9 in Dutchess County at age 93. His numerous and versatile roles over an illustrious 70-year career included the voice of Darth Vader in “Star Wars,” beginning in 1977, and Mufasa in “The Lion King” (1994); a reclusive author in “Field of Dreams” (1989); and Admiral James Greer in “The Hunt for Red October” (1990), as well as Broadway and Shakespearan plays. He was also the dramatic voice behind CNN’s tagline “This is CNN.” A convert to the Catholic faith as a young man while serving in the U.S. Army, Jones wrote in 1993, “Perhaps my greatest honor came when I was asked to read the New Testament on tape,” pointing to an unabridged recording of the King James Version of the New Testament he made in the 1980s that was remastered for CD in 2002. His talent earned him the elusive “EGOT,” having garnered Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards. The Oscar was an honorary Academy Award granted in 2011. Jones’ passing coincided with the feast of St. Peter Claver, a patron saint of Black Catholics.

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – Sen. JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, repeated – without evidence – claims about Haitian immigrants eating the pets of residents in Springfield, Ohio. But Vance’s fellow Ohio Republican officials have said such claims are false, and Catholic leaders have called for respect for migrants. At a Sept. 10 debate, former President Donald Trump also repeated the viral, unverified claims – refuted by local authorities – about Haitian migrants, a largely Catholic population, living in the city of Springfield, Ohio, that accuses them of abducting pets and eating them. In a Sept. 15 interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Vance was confronted by anchor Dana Bash about that claim, which he has also repeated. “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do, Dana, because you guys are completely letting Kamala Harris coast,” Vance said. Vance’s fellow Ohio Republicans including the state’s governor and Springfield’s mayor, called the claims that Haitian migrants are kidnapping and eating pets false. “We have a big-hearted community, and we’re being smeared in a way we don’t deserve,” said Mayor Rob Rue, also a Republican. Credible estimates vary, but a few thousand immigrants from Haiti have settled in Springfield, Ohio, city officials said, and most have legal status. Most came as a result of a local Chamber of Commerce effort to revive Springfield as a manufacturing hub.

VATICAN
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The second session of the Synod of Bishops on synodality, set to bring 368 bishops, priests, religious and laypeople to the Vatican, will begin by asking forgiveness for various sins on behalf of all the baptized. As synod members did before last year’s session, they will spend two days on retreat before beginning work; that period of reflection will conclude Oct. 1 with a penitential liturgy presided over by Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Basilica, the Vatican announced. The liturgy will include time to listen to the testimonies of three people: one who suffered from the sin of abuse, one from the sin of war and third from the sin of indifference to the plight of migrants, according to a Vatican statement announcing the liturgy. Afterward, “the confession of a number of sins will take place,” said the statement, released Sept. 16. “The aim is not to denounce the sin of others, but to acknowledge oneself as a member of those who, by omission or action, become the cause of suffering and responsible for the evil inflicted on the innocent and defenseless.” The liturgy is open to all but is specifically geared toward young people, as it “directs the church’s inner gaze to the faces of new generations,” the Vatican said.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Maybe it is a sign of aging, Pope Francis said, but he is increasingly concerned about what kind of world he and his peers will leave for younger generations – and the prognosis is not good. “This isn’t pessimism,” the pope told about two dozen representatives of popular movements and grassroots organizations meeting Sept. 20 at the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. Pope Francis said he feared adults are leaving behind “a world discouraged, inferior, violent, marked by the plundering of nature, alienated by dehumanized modes of communication,” and “without the political, social and economic paradigms to lead the way, with few dreams and enormous threats.” But, he said, if people join forces, especially with those who are most often the victims, things can change.

WORLD
HANOI, Vietnam (OSV News) – More than 100 people, including a Catholic religious sister, are still listed as missing after Typhoon Yagi, the most powerful storm to hit Asia this year, left at least 233 dead in northern Vietnam. Sister Maria Nguyen Thi Bich Hang from the Lovers of the Holy Cross congregation is believed by her family to have been killed in the storm. On Sept. 9, heavy rain collapsed the Phong Chau Bridge over the Red River in Phu Tho province and eight people, including 35-year-old Sister Maria Nguyen, were washed away. With winds of up to 92 mph, Typhoon Yagi, the most powerful typhoon to hit Asia in 2024, wreaked havoc in northern Vietnam Sept. 7-11. Besides the death toll, the subsequent landslides and floods also left 807 people injured and 103 missing, according to government figures. In a Sept. 12 telegram signed by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, the pope said he was “deeply saddened” to learn of the destruction wrought by Typhoon Yagi, offering his “spiritual solidarity to the injured and to all those suffering the continuing effects of this disaster.” The church and the government agencies have provided aid to victims of the storm that hit 20 out of Vietnam’s 25 northern provinces. In the Hung Hoa Diocese in Phu Tho province, Caritas workers were distributing instant noodles, milk, rice and clean water to flood victims.

KRAKOW, Poland (OSV News) – Poland’s government is preparing a decree of a state of natural disaster as the southwestern part of the country was severely flooded by torrential rains caused by Storm Boris. Throughout the weekend of Sept. 14-15, the storm continued to wreak havoc across Central and Eastern Europe. In Austria, Poland and Czech Republic, 11 people were confirmed dead in the regions affected. “I want to express our sympathy to those who have experienced this great drama, but at the same time assure them that they are not left alone,” Archbishop Tadeusz Wojda of Gdansk, president of the Polish bishops’ conference, said in a Sept. 16 statement as thousands of people were evacuated from the flood-affected region of the country. “Water, after heavy rains, flooded many houses, schools, kindergartens, and hospitals. Many homes and public buildings have been destroyed, and the entire road infrastructure in that area has been badly damaged,” the archbishop said. A 17th-century Franciscan monastery in Klodzko was dramatically affected by the flood. “The whole main church was flooded,” said Father Ignacy Szczytowski, guardian of the monastery. “We’re located right at the curve of the Nysa Klodzka River. There were no chances that with this amount of water we would manage to stop it from coming,” he said, estimating the monastery’s losses at $3.5 million.