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CNA Staff, Jul 9, 2020 / 08:15 am MT (CNA).- A survey released Thursday found that 30% of German Catholics are considering leaving the Church. The poll, conducted by the research institute INSA Consulere for the Catholic weekly newspaper Die Tagespost, reported that almost a third of respondents agreed with the statement “I am a member of the Church and can imagine leaving the Church soon.” Researchers said July 9 that 54% of Catholics disagreed with the statement, 9% said they did not know, and 7% did not offer a response, CNA Deutsch, CNA's German-language news partner, reported. The survey...

There is a lot of goodness in prisons. At times, I am sure, prisons may be hell on earth. I was fortunate to be kept safe and treated well. I was impressed by the professionalism of the warders, the faith of the prisoners, and the existence of a moral sense even in the darkest places. I was in solitary confinement for thirteen months, ten at the Melbourne Assessment Prison and three at Barwon Prison. In Melbourne the prison uniform was a green tracksuit, but in Barwon I was issued the bright red colors of a cardinal. I had been convicted...

It gives me joy to recall a visit I made many years ago in France to a Benedictine monastery whose monks were living the monastic life to the hilt—chanted solemn liturgy, a demanding horarium, fasting and abstinence, much study and lectio divina, manual labor, the whole nine yards. They were living, in essence, a life indistinguishable from that of the earliest monks, in the days when water wheels represented the height of technology, quite as if the modern world, with its ever-multiplying complexities and ever-deeper confusion, simply had nothing to say to them. And they were right: it could have...

For the last 74 years, one of the most recognizable royal crowns in the world is the one worn by Our Lady of Fatima at her shrine in Portugal. Pilgrims in Fatima can see this crown on the original image of Our Lady of Fatima during the anniversaries of the apparitions and other great celebrations. Her canonical coronation took place in Fatima on May 13, 1946, when Venerable Pope Pius XII sent Cardinal Benedetto Masella, his pontifical legate, to personally preside over this coronation of Our Lady of Fatima, Queen of Peace and of the World, as Pius XII named...

A Virgin Mary statue was set ablaze outside a Boston church Saturday night, said police who are investigating the arson incident. Officers at 10 p.m. responded to a call for a fire in the area of 284 Bowdoin St. in Dorchester. On arrival at Saint Peter’s Parish, officers saw that a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary had been set on fire. A suspect had lit plastic flowers on fire, which were in the hands of the Virgin Mary statue, according to members of the Boston Fire Department Fire Investigation Unit. That caused the statue’s face and upper body to...

July 12 2020 Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Is 55:10-11 Thus says the LORD: Just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down and do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to the one who sows and bread to the one who eats, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; my word shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it. Responsorial Psalm Ps 65:10, 11, 12-13, 14 R. (Lk 8:8)...

[Catholic Caucus] Lone Priest Administers Last Rites to Driver After Deadly Car Crash Father John Killackey came to the aid of several stranded on the road after a tragic six-car pileup in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. Father John Killackey walking down Interstate 81 southbound on July 8, 2020. Father John Killackey came to the aid of several stranded on the road after a tragic six-car pileup in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. A picture of a lone priest walking along Highway 81 piqued the interest of thousands of Catholics this week. Drenched with so much rain, the image appears as a Norman Rockwell work of...

MARION COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) — A man drove his car into an occupied Catholic church Saturday morning, set it on fire, then led deputies on a car chase. The Marion County Sheriff’s Office was called out to the Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Ocala Saturday morning. Deputies said a man drove his car into the front doors and lit a fire while parishioners were inside. The suspect then reportedly led deputies on a car chase before being captured soon after. The sheriff’s office said no serious injuries were reported.

A fire broke out at the San Gabriel Mission early Saturday and burned the roof and much of the church’s interior, officials said. Authorities have not determined what caused the blaze at the 249-year-old church on 428 S. Mission Drive. The San Gabriel Fire Department received a call about the fire at around 4:30 a.m. and arrived at the scene to find flames through the roof, Capt. Antonio Negrete told KTLA. The crews called for additional units after about 5 minutes, Negrete said. Some 50 firefighters responded to the location, and they struggled as parts of the roof began to...

The Diocese of Pittsburgh cited ongoing challenges caused by the covid-19 pandemic as reasons for staff layoffs and the relocation of its central administration. A staff realignment includes eliminating 11 positions and reducing hours for two positions, the diocese said in a news release Tuesday. Diocesan operations are being moved from the Pastoral Center on the Boulevard of the Allies in Downtown Pittsburgh to St. Paul Seminary on Noblestown Road. Staff changes take effect Aug. 1. The move to Saint Paul Seminary — said to be the only diocesan property that can accommodate all employees — will be a gradual...

Rome Newsroom, Jul 7, 2020 / 12:00 pm MT (CNA).- More Christian families left the Nineveh Plains than returned to their hometowns last year amid ongoing security concerns in northern Iraq, according to a recently published report by Aid to the Church in Need. The report, “Life after ISIS: New challenges to Christianity in Iraq,” documents how Iraqi Christians’ worries over Iran-backed militias operating in their region drive emigration and economic insecurity. “Christians who have returned to their homes still feel unsafe, and substantially more insecure than other groups in the region mostly because of the violent activity of local...

July 11 2020 Memorial of Saint Benedict, Abbot Reading 1 Is 6:1-8 In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, with the train of his garment filling the temple. Seraphim were stationed above; each of them had six wings: with two they veiled their faces, with two they veiled their feet, and with two they hovered aloft.They cried one to the other, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts! All the earth is filled with his glory!” At the sound of that cry, the frame of the door shook...

Leaked internal letter shows Vatican finances in full crisisDear friends and enemies of Stilum Curiae, we have received a letter which the prefect of the Secretariat of the Economy and Finance, Juan A. Guerrero, S.J., sent to the heads of all Vatican departments, essentially to ask that they close all current "external" accounts of the various dicasteries and offices and transfer the money preserved in these accounts to APSA, the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See, which is managed by the former secretary of the Italian bishops' conference, Bp. Nunzio Galantino, and by Bp. Gustavo Zanchetta. Zanchetta is...

EL PASO, Texas -- Citing a "steep rise" in Covid-19 cases in the El Paso community, Bishop Mark Seitz is rolling back some of the provisions in Phase II of the El Paso Catholic Diocese's reopening plan. Phase II allows for private visits to churches, the offering of regular times for confession and the celebration of daily masses, Monday through Saturday, at 25 percent capacity or less, among other religious ceremonies and events. But as of Thursday, he will prohibit weddings, funeral masses and word services or rosaries held at funeral homes. Seitz made the announcement in a pastoral letter...

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. Roman Catholic Church used a special and unprecedented exemption from federal rules to amass at least $1.4 billion in taxpayer-backed coronavirus aid, with many millions going to dioceses that have paid huge settlements or sought bankruptcy protection because of clergy sexual abuse cover-ups. The church’s haul may have reached -- or even exceeded -- $3.5 billion, making a global religious institution with more than a billion followers among the biggest winners in the U.S. government’s pandemic relief efforts, an Associated Press analysis of federal data released this week found. Houses of worship and faith-based...

In a tweet to mark the International Day of Cooperatives, Saturday, Pope Francis notes that cooperatives across the globe are making a real difference in the fight against climate change.For the past 97 years, the International Day of Cooperatives has been celebrated each year on the first Saturday of July. Since 1995, the United Nations and the International Cooperative Alliance have chosen the theme of the annual day. The focus for this year is on climate action for sustainable development for a healthier, fairer and more united economy. In a tweet for Saturday’s observance, Pope Francis also focused on the...

Trump, violence, racism. A slap by a nun and a response from Archbishop Viganò Open letter of Sister Antonietta Potente to Monsignor Carlo Maria Viganò and answer of Monsignor to the SisterDear friends of Duc in altum, the religious sister and theologian Antonietta Potente has written a letter to Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò in which she expresses strong criticisms of the affirmations made by the Archbishop to the President of the United States, Donald Trump. Here I publish her letter and the response of Monsignor Viganò.***We are deeply indignant at the words that you, a christian and a bishop, have written in support of president Trump, the...

[Barf Alert] Why White House Catholics are concerned about Trump’s Catholic tweets Officials working in the Trump administration have told CNA that they have been frustrated by recent presidential tweets elevating controversial Catholic figures, saying the tweets undermine the work many Catholics in the administration hope to accomplish.In recent weeks, the president’s Twitter account has cited support from two figures with polarizing reputations among Catholics: former papal nuncio to the United States Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, and the author and online polemicist Taylor Marshall.While both men have been publicly supportive of the president, both are better known for their criticism...

Posted on July 5, 2020July 5, 2020 by Msgr. Charles Pope An Insight on Hope from St. Augustine The word “hope” in modern English has lost much of the vigor assigned to what we call the theological virtue of Hope. In English hope often means merely a vague wish, as in, “I hope it doesn’t rain.” But the theological virtue of Hope (which I capitalize to distinguish it from worldly hope) is more vigorously defined as the confident expectation of God’s help in attaining eternal salvation. Notice therefore it is no mere wish, it is a confident expectation based...

July 10 2020 Friday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Hos 14:2-10 Thus says the LORD: Return, O Israel, to the LORD, your God; you have collapsed through your guilt. Take with you words, and return to the LORD; Say to him, “Forgive all iniquity, and receive what is good, that we may render as offerings the bullocks from our stalls. Assyria will not save us, nor shall we have horses to mount; We shall say no more, ‘Our god,’ to the work of our hands; for in you the orphan finds compassion.” I will heal...