NATION
DENVER (OSV News) – The organization that coordinates efforts related to the National Eucharistic Revival announced Sept. 3 the launch of the Society of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus to boost revival efforts. In an email to supporters, Jason Shanks, CEO of National Eucharistic Congress Inc., described the society as a way people “can help and remain closely connected to the many ongoing efforts of charity and evangelization, of pilgrimage and procession – of mission – to bring Christ to every corner of our nation.” Joining the society requires a minimum $10 monthly donation to National Eucharistic Congress Inc. Members will receive a copy of “For the Life of the World: Invited to Eucharistic Mission” by Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, who serves as board chairman of the National Eucharistic Congress Inc., and Tim Glemkowski, the founding CEO of National Eucharistic Congress Inc., who served in that role until Aug. 1. Society members also receive access to the National Eucharistic Congress digital platform, which includes all of the talks from the July 17-21 National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis, as well as additional Eucharist-related content. Information on joining the society can be found at www.eucharisticcongress.org/donate.

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – Ahead of Hispanic Heritage Month, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat for Cultural Diversity in the Church has released a resource kit “to help illustrate the profound impact of the Hispanic/Latino community within the Catholic Church in the United States,” according to a Sept. 4 press release. This resource kit includes statistical information on the Catholic population in the United States, categorized by race/ethnicity, a statistical profile of Hispanic/Latino ministry, the percentage of Hispanic/Latino Catholics by diocese and the percentage growth of Hispanic/Latino Catholics in the Millennial and Gen Z generations. It also reports on the growth of the Hispanic/Latino population in the church’s 14 episcopal regions and the estimated Hispanic/Latino population in the U.S. in 2022 by country of origin, as well as a timeline of Hispanic/Latino ministry events and milestones spanning from 1945 to 2024. Alejandro Aguilera-Titus, assistant director of Hispanic Affairs under the USCCB’s cultural diversity secretariat, said that through the information in this resource, they hope to “help show the vibrant faith and the richness of the Hispanic and Latino communities within our Church and society.” The resource kit – published in English and Spanish – is available on the USCCB website: usccb.org/committees/hispaniclatino-affairs.

VATICAN
JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNS) – Even members of the most remote, smallest and poorest Christian communities are called to share the Gospel and to do so, first, by the way they live, Pope Francis told the Catholics of Indonesia. With tens of thousands of people gathered in Jakarta’s Gelora Bung Karno Stadium Sept. 5 – and thousands more watching on screens from Madya Stadium, a smaller venue nearby – Pope Francis presided over his only public Mass in Indonesia. He was scheduled to fly to Papua New Guinea the next morning. Seated together wearing the bright green, yellow, white, blue, red or black t-shirts designating the parish, diocese or Catholic organization they belong to, the crowd made the main stadium look like it was built with Lego bricks. The people arrived at the stadium hours early, visiting with each other, singing hymns and lively modern Christian songs and praying the rosary. In his homily, Pope Francis urged Indonesian Catholics “to sow seeds of love, confidently tread the path of dialogue, continue to show your goodness and kindness with your characteristic smile and be builders of unity and peace.” Pope Francis asked the crowd not to forget that “the first task of the disciple is not to clothe ourselves with an outwardly perfect religiosity, do extraordinary things or engage in grandiose undertakings. The first step, instead, is to know how to listen to the only word that saves, the word of Jesus.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The Earth is ailing, and it needs the prayers of Catholics as well as their personal commitment to caring for creation, Pope Francis said. “Let us pray that each of us listen with our hearts to the cry of the Earth and of the victims of environmental disasters and climate change, making a personal commitment to care for the world we inhabit,” the pope said in a video message released Aug. 30 by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network. The network posts a short video of the pope offering his specific prayer intention each month, and members of the network pray for that intention each day. Pope Francis’ intention for September is: “For the cry of the Earth,” which coincides with the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation Sept. 1 and its inauguration of the monthlong “Season of Creation.”

WORLD
KATSINA, Nigeria (OSV News) – Back to school will be especially tough in Nigeria this year as a new report shows that Fulani herders, or ethnic militia, are killing Nigerian civilians unopposed. Mass killings, abductions and the torture of whole families go largely unchallenged as government forces pursue targets hundreds of miles away, according to the research findings. As the security situation in Nigeria worsens, an increasing number of schools, especially in the northern part of the country, face forced shutdown on the verge of a new academic year. This has led to a significant decline in student enrollment, with many citizens relocating within the country or going abroad. A new report published Aug. 29 by the Observatory of Religious Freedom in Africa – a four-year data project on religious persecution in Nigeria – showed that the most populous African country was an extremely violent and insecure place to live in the reporting period from October 2019 to September 2023, at least in parts of the country. In total, 55,910 people were killed in 9,970 attacks, while 21,621 people were abducted in 2,705 attacks, the report said. “Many civilians lived in high levels of insecurity and fear of the unexpected,” the report said. The data shows that more Nigerian Christians were victims of violence than Nigerians with other religious affiliations.

JERUSALEM (OSV News) – The Holy Land’s sacred sites overflow with tourists in normal times, but with war in Gaza, most airlines have canceled flights to the region. The streets of the Old City of Jerusalem are deserted with merchant’s stalls shuttered. Yet for two Catholic peace activists from the United States, it was the perfect time to visit. Invited by Palestinian Christian groups, they joined with 10 other U.S. Christians and flew to neighboring Jordan. From there they journeyed overland to Palestine and Israel. “Church leaders here asked people from the United States to come and stand in solidarity with their brothers and sisters. That concept of solidarity is central to my faith, to the way that I think about the cross,” said Kelly Johnson, an associate professor of religious studies at the University of Dayton, Ohio. The death toll in Gaza has surpassed 40,000 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Scott Wright, a 74-year-old Pax Christi member from Washington who worked for years with refugees in Central America, said he wanted to come precisely because it was a difficult time. The U.S. Catholic delegation’s schedule included interviews with church leaders, clerics, nonviolent activists, Palestinian farmers and urban residents whose lands have been appropriated by army-backed settlers, and families whose homes have been demolished in East Jerusalem. In Rahat, Israel, the group helped local residents pack food boxes for distribution inside Gaza.

NATION
WASHINGTON (OSV News) – Celebrating an Aug. 3 Mass for the Outreach 2024 LGBTQ Catholic Ministry Conference at Georgetown University, Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory of Washington stressed the need for sincere dialogue in seeking unity in the Catholic Church. “In many respects, you are engaging in an act of synodality – the vision and invitation proposed by Pope Francis that sincerely and openly speaking and listening to one another under the light and guidance of the Holy Spirit is the way that the church grows in perfection,” Cardinal Gregory said in his homily at the Mass, which was celebrated at the university’s Dahlgren Chapel of the Sacred Heart. The annual Outreach conference – held Aug. 2-4 this year – brings together Catholics who identify as LGBTQ and supporters of that community. According to the conference’s website, the gathering is held to “build community, share best practices and worship together.” The cardinal praised the Outreach conference attendees for their willingness to engage in discussions at a challenging time for the Catholic Church and the United States. Concluding his homily, the cardinal said, “The presence and the pastoral needs of our LGBTQ sisters and brothers may often be viewed as a volatile topic, but they must be faced with sincerity and genuine compassion. I pray that this conference advance that goal and make us a stronger, holier, and more welcoming church and nation.”

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – The Catholic Benefits Association filed a motion July 24 in federal court for preliminary injunction against the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over two regulations it says violates Catholics’ religious beliefs. The group objects to two regulations issued earlier this year. One is the final regulation issued for the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, granting workers protections for time off and other job accommodations for pregnancy-related medical conditions such as miscarriage, stillbirth and lactation – but also for abortion, which was opposed by many of the bill’s supporters, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The other was a provision of the EEOC’s “Enforcement Guidance on Harassment,” which CBA CEO Doug Wilson argued in a statement means that “if an employer declines to use an employee’s preferred pronouns or refuses to grant him or her access to bathrooms or locker rooms for the opposite sex, such decisions would constitute actionable sexual harassment.” Both regulations, Wilson said, “imposed mandates unacceptable for Catholic employers and never intended by Congress.” Martin Nussbaum, CBA’s general counsel at the Colorado Springs-Colorado-based First and Fourteenth law firm, explained to OSV News the Supreme Court’s recent overturning of its Chevron doctrine eliminates the courts’ deference to regulatory agencies’ interpretation of law that would have put a heavier burden on the CBA’s legal challenge. The CBA’s membership comprises Catholic dioceses, hospitals, school systems, religious orders and other entities that offer their employees insurance and benefit programs that adhere to Catholic teaching.

VATICAN
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis said he dreams of visiting China one day and, especially, praying at the Shrine of Our Lady of Sheshan near Shanghai. In an interview with Jesuit Father Pedro Chia, director of communications for the Jesuit’s Chinese Province, the pope said he also would want to meet with the country’s bishops and with all Chinese Catholics, who “are indeed a faithful people who have gone through so much and remained faithful.” Vatican-Chinese relations have been difficult for decades with the country’s communist authorities being suspicious of Catholicism as a “foreign” influence on their people. The interview, conducted in Spanish, was filmed in the library of the Apostolic Palace May 24, the feast of Our Lady of Sheshan, also known as Our Lady Help of Christians. The Jesuit’s Chinese Province released the video on YouTube Aug. 9.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – More than a week after the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games, the Vatican joined people who complained that a segment of the show featuring drag performers offended Christians. “The Holy See was saddened by certain scenes in the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Paris and can only join the voices that have been raised in recent days to deplore the offense caused to many Christians and believers of other religions,” said the statement published by the Vatican press office late Aug. 3. The Vatican statement did not specifically identify the July 26 performance, which featured drag performers, including one wearing a crown, seated at a table in a scene that reminded many people of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting of the Last Supper. “In a prestigious event where the whole world gathers around common values, there should be no allusions that ridicule the religious convictions of many people,” the Vatican statement said.

WORLD
MANAGUA, Nicaragua (OSV News) – At least 11 churchmen have been detained by police and paramilitaries over a weeklong assault in northern Nicaragua, depleting the already demoralized Diocese of Matagalpa – whose leader, Bishop Rolando Álvarez, lives in exile. Nine priests and a deacon were detained Aug. 1 and 2 – with some taken from parishes and parish residences – according to independent Nicaragua media. An octogenarian priest was also detained July 27 in the Diocese of Estelí, where Bishop Álvarez is apostolic administrator. “The Diocese of Matagalpa practically no longer has any clergy. We’ve been expelled, pressured and forced to flee. Parishes are on their own,” an exiled priest, familiar with the diocese, told OSV News. “(The church) has been attacked from all sides. They’ve removed clergy, they’ve frozen its accounts. The church has survived,” he added. But he said of the ruling Sandinista regime, “Their ultimate goal is is to exterminate the diocesan church where Monsignor Rolando (Álvarez) is still bishop.” The arrests reflected the deepening repression of the Catholic Church in the Central American country, which has careened toward totalitarianism. President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosarillo Murillo, continue to crack down on dissent, close spaces for civil society and infringe on freedom worship – with priests being spied upon and forced to watch their words during Mass.

SÃO PAULO (OSV News) – The Aug. 9 passenger plane crash in the city of Vinhedo, Brazil, killed all 62 on board, greatly touching different Catholic communities in the country. Pope Francis prayed for the victims of the crash during his Aug. 11 Angelus prayer in the Vatican: “Let us … pray for the victims of the tragic air crash in Brazil,” he said. A twin-engine turboprop plane, traveling from Cascavel, in Paraná state, to Guarulhos airport, in the São Paulo metropolitan area, crashed close to residential buildings, dropping 17,000 feet in just one minute, only 45 miles away from its destination. Many of Voepass Brazilian airline passengers lived in the region of the Archdiocese of Cascavel, which released a letter of condolences a few hours after the incident and informed that all Masses celebrated over the following three days would be dedicated to the victims. “Our Archbishop, José Mário Scalon Angonese, expresses his deepest solidarity to the families affected by this tragedy. He joins the community in prayer and offers his spiritual support, wishing that divine comfort can alleviate the sorrow and pain of everyone who is suffering,” the note, posted on the archdiocese’s Facebook page, read. The parish church of St. Peter the Apostle in Guaratinguetá, in São Paulo state, was also affected by the tragedy. Local churchgoers Maria Auxiliadora Vaz de Arruda and her husband José Cloves Arruda were among the victims. Father Aloísio dos Santos Mota released a statement in order to express his special sorrow for the loss of the couple. The wife, called Dona Dôra in her church community, was known all across the region. “I’ve been her parish priest for five years, since I arrived in Guaratinguetá. She had an iconic presence in our church, a protagonism that everybody could notice,” Father Mota told OSV News.

NATION

LAFAYETTE, La. (OSV News) – Gov. Jeff Landry, R-La., vetoed $1 million in state funds for an emergency homeless shelter run by Catholic Charities of Acadiana over the organization’s work with migrants, he acknowledged in press statements. Landry, a Catholic, said that he vetoed the funds for the largest homeless shelter in Lafayette on the basis of his allegation that the shelter’s operator, Catholic Charities of Acadiana, facilitates illegal immigration, a charge the Catholic Church’s charitable arm denied. The move comes as some elected officials have grown increasingly hostile toward nongovernmental organizations, including Catholic ones, that provide resources such as food and shelter to migrants, including those at the U.S.-Mexico border. In July, a state judge denied Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s effort to shut down Annunciation House in El Paso, Texas, a Catholic nonprofit serving migrants, finding his office “failed to establish probable grounds for the proceedings” and violated the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act. In February, Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Religious Liberty, issued a statement expressing solidarity with faith-driven ministries to migrants, saying it was the “strong tradition of religious liberty” that allows Catholics “to live out our faith in full.”

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (OSV News) – The Knights of Columbus announced July 11 the organization will cover mosaics by ex-Jesuit Father Marko Rupnik at the St. John Paul II National Shrine in Washington and the Holy Family Chapel at the Knights’ headquarters in New Haven, Connecticut. In a statement, the Knights said the decision came at “the conclusion of a careful and thorough process.” The mosaics will be obscured by fabric “which will remain in place at least until the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) issues its decision on the pending sexual abuse cases against artist Father Marko Rupnik.” After that “a permanent plaster covering may be in order.” Father Rupnik, whose distinctive mosaics are known for their oversized black, almond-shaped eyes, was expelled from the Society of Jesus in 2023 after refusing to obey their measures imposed in response to credible accusations that he spiritually, psychologically or sexually abused some two dozen women and at least one man. He remains a priest living and working in Rome as the director of art and dean of theology at Centro Aletti, the religious art community he founded in 1991. Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly said in the statement that the Knights had to prioritize the needs of abuse victims, especially as “the allegations are current, unresolved and horrific.” He noted the Knights’ commitment to proclaim Jesus Christ’s Good News and said, “Shrines are places of healing, prayer and reconciliation. They should not cause victims further suffering.”

EXTON, Pa. (OSV News) – “The Bible in 10 Minutes,” a new viral video offering by Father Mike Schmitz and Ascension, earned 358,000 views in just 24 hours, according to a July 10 news release from Exton-based Ascension, a multimedia Catholic network and a leader in Catholic faith formation and digital content. The audience response makes this Father Schmitz’s most “viral video ever, more than doubling his previous one-day record of 160,000 views set with his 2022 review of ‘The Sound of Freedom,'” the release said. Father Schmitz, a priest of the Diocese of Duluth, Minnesota, has gained a national following for, among other things, his popular “The Bible in a Year” and “The Catechism in a Year” podcasts from Ascension. He will be a featured keynote speaker during the National Eucharistic Congress July 17-21 in Indianapolis. Father Schmitz and Mother Olga of the Sacred Heart, founder and servant mother of the Daughters of Mary of Nazareth in the Archdiocese of Boston, are scheduled to address the congress’s July 18 evening revival session 7-9:30 p.m. at Lucas Oil Stadium. “The Bible in 10 Minutes” can be found on the “Ascension Presents” YouTube channel.

VATICAN

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The working document for the October assembly of the Synod of Bishops on synodality called for responses to how all the baptized can better serve the Catholic Church and help heal humanity’s “deepest wounds.” The document said the synod should spur the church to become a “refuge” and “shelter” for those in need or distress and encourage Catholics to “allow themselves to be led by the Spirit of the Lord to horizons that they had not previously glimpsed” as brothers and sisters in Christ. “This is the ongoing conversion of the way of being the Church that the synodal process invites us to undertake,” the document said. The 30-page document, called an “instrumentum laboris,” was released at the Vatican July 9. It will serve as a discussion guideline for the synod’s second session Oct. 2-27, which reflects on the theme: “How to be a missionary synodal Church.” The reflections are the next step in the synod’s overarching theme: “For a synodal Church: communion, participation and mission.” Synodal practice “calls us to mutual care, interdependence and co-responsibility for the common good,” it said, and it is willing to listen to everyone, in contrast to methods “in which the concentration of power shuts out the voices of the poorest, the marginalized and minorities.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis prayed in thanksgiving for the release of two Ukrainian Catholic priests who were held in Russian captivity for more than 19 months, calling on Christians to pray for the release of all prisoners of war. “I give thanks to God for the freeing of the two Greek Catholic priests,” he said after praying the Angelus June 29, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. “May all the prisoners of this war soon return home.” The pope expressed his sorrow for all people suffering because of war around the world, asking Christians to “pray for all populations wounded and threatened by fighting, that God may free them and support them in the struggle for peace.” The two priests, Redemptorist Fathers Ivan Levytsky and Bohdan Geleta, were arrested in the occupied city of Berdyansk Nov. 16, 2022, according to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, which said that after military items were placed in a church in the town the two priests were arrested for the “illegal possession of weapons.” Fathers Levystky and Geleta were among 10 prisoners who were released to Ukrainian authorities, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote in a June 28 post on X. “I would also like to recognize the Holy See’s efforts to bring these people home,” the president said in his post.

WORLD

PARIS (OSV News) – The capital of France’s Normandy region held its breath on July 11 as reports and social media pictures spread that the Rouen Cathedral’s spire was on fire, causing the building to be evacuated. Around 70 firefighters brought the blaze under control in less than two hours, much to everyone’s relief. “In the end, there was more fear than harm,” Archbishop Dominique Lebrun of Rouen told OSV News on July 12. “Today, the cathedral is reopened,” he said. Rouen Cathedral is the tallest church in France. It was in Rouen that St. Joan of Arc was burned alive in 1431, during the Hundred Years’ War between France and England. As in Paris, the Seine River flows through the city. “The fire started inside the spire, right at the edge,” Archbishop Lebrun said. “But in the end it only burned a large plastic casing from the restoration work currently underway. The rest was untouched.” The origin of the fire, thought to be accidental, is not yet known. “I am very grateful to the entire rescue chain, including the sacristans, firefighters, contractors, police and civil authorities, who acted with great professionalism,” Archbishop Lebrun told OSV News. The spire of the cathedral, unlike Notre Dame’s in Paris, is made of cast iron, so the fire did not spread, but four construction site workers were injured by smoke inhalation and were psychologically shocked.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (OSV News) – The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem issued a strong condemnation after the Israeli military targeted a Catholic school in Gaza that killed four people, including a senior Hamas official. In a statement published July 7, the patriarchate said it was monitoring reports of a strike on Holy Family School, which “has, since the beginning of the war, been a place of refuge for hundreds of civilians.” “The Latin Patriarchate condemns, in the strongest terms, the targeting of civilians or any belligerent actions that fall short of ensuring that civilians remain outside the combat scene,” the statement read. The patriarchate called for a cease-fire agreement “that would put an immediate end to the horrifying bloodbath and humanitarian catastrophe in the region.” According to multiple news reports, including by The Associated Press, Israeli airstrikes took place overnight July 6-7 in Gaza, killing 13 Palestinians. The strike against Holy Family School, which was operating as a shelter, claimed the lives of four people, including Ihab al-Ghussein, Hamas’ undersecretary of labor. In a statement, Hamas mourned the death of al-Ghussein, whose wife and daughter were killed in strikes in the early days of the war, AP reported. Israeli military officials justified the attack on the school, arguing that the bombing struck a Hamas military building and a weapons-making facility “in the area of a school building.”

KYIV, Ukraine (OSV News) – A July 8 attack by Russia on a children’s hospital and other civilian targets throughout Ukraine is “a sin that cries out to heaven for revenge,” said the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. At least 42 have been killed and over 190 injured as Russian bombers pummeled Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and numerous cities throughout the nation with more than 40 missiles and guided aerial bombs. Among the sites struck was the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital in Kyiv, where two adults died and about 50 were injured, including seven children. Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, father and head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, released a July 8 statement denouncing the strike. “In the name of God, with all determination, we condemn this crime against humanity. … This is a sin that cries out to heaven for revenge,” he said. He noted that doctors, medical workers and volunteers bloodied in the strike were digging through the hospital’s wreckage “to save even those children whose hearts are beating there under the rubble.” “Today we cry with all the victims. Today we want to pray for all the dead … (and) wrap our Christian love around all the wounded,” said Major Archbishop Shevchuk. He concluded his statement with a prayer “for the protection and victory of the lives of our children and women.