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Bishops request USCCB study after transgender hermit announcement Skip to content Several U.S. bishops have requested that the USCCB canonical affairs committee provide guidance and direction on issues raised by the case of a diocesan hermit who publicly identified last month as transgender.  2024 USCCB plenary assembly in Louisville. Screenshot. According to sources close to the conference, a group of bishops requested ahead of this week’s USCCB plenary assembly in Louisville, Kentucky that conference president Archbishop Timothy Broglio commission the canon law committee to discuss and give direction on transgender identity in religious life. “Bishops asked [Broglio] to give all of this to canonical affairs because no one has said anything [about it]. This announcement was made, and...

But the bishops continue with an apologetic tone, writing: “Sadly, many Indigenous Catholics have felt a sense of abandonment in their relationship with Church leaders due to a lack of understanding of their unique cultural needs. We apologize for the failure to nurture, strengthen, honor, recognize, and appreciate those entrusted to our pastoral care.” The document takes into consideration insights from a previous listening session with bishops and Native leaders in 2019 and aims “to lift the major topics and concerns that emerged from those conversations, and to encourage local bishops to engage and deepen the dialogue with the local Native communities.” The text first recalls a history of trauma experienced among Indigenous communities, starting in the...

Angelus Angelus Dómini nuntiávit Mariæ.Et concépit de Spíritu Sancto.Ave Maria… Ecce ancílla Dómini.Fiat mihi secúndum verbum tuum.Ave Maria… Et Verbum caro factum est.Et habitávit in nobis.Ave Maria… Ora pro nobis, sancta Dei génetrix.Ut digni efficiámur promissiónibus Christi. Orémus.Grátiam tuam, quǽsumus, Dómine,méntibus nostris infunde;ut qui, Ángelo nuntiánte, Christi Fílii tui incarnatiónem cognóvimus, per passiónem eius et crucem, ad resurrectiónis glóriam perducámur. Per eúndem Christum Dóminum nostrum. Amen. Gloria Patri… (ter)Requiem aeternam… Benedictio Apostolica seu Papalis Dominus vobiscum.Et cum spiritu tuo.Sit nomen Benedicat vos omnipotens Deus,Pa ter, et Fi lius, et Spiritus Sanctus. Amen. The Angelus Prayer The Angel of the Lord d...

The Vatican said the encounter intends “to celebrate the beauty of human diversity and promote a message of peace, love, and solidarity, and promises to be a meaningful moment of intercultural dialogue and sharing of joy and hope.” Most of the comedians and humorists slated to participate — 67 — are from Italy, while six are from the South American countries of Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia, and 22 from European countries other than Italy. Two comedians from Mexico — Florinda Meza García and Chumel Torres — will also take part. The only Asian country represented is East Timor. Jesuit Father James Martin is also slated to attend. Martin is the former chaplain of “The Colbert Report” and appears to be the only clergy member listed among participants in the June 14 encounter. The audience, ...

Appointment to Lithuania’s capital city of Vilnius is in the works, according to an Italian Catholic news outlet. The long limbo of Pope Benedict XVI’s former longtime personal secretary may be ending soon. Archbishop Georg Gänswein, who fell from influential papal aide to no assignment in the Catholic Church, will soon be appointed papal nuncio to the three Baltic countries, according to a report from an Italian Catholic news outlet. The story, published by La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana and citing unnamed sources, said the archbishop will become papal nuncio to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania — a position that also includes similar duties in neighboring Latvia and Estonia. It’s not the first time the high-profile prelate has been linked to a far-flung foreign post, however. In March 2023,...

The October synod assembly is a continuation of the multiyear Synod on Synodality, which began in October 2021 and has included stages of discernment and discussion at various levels of the Church. The first session of the Vatican assembly on synodality took place in October 2023.  Theologians and other Church experts at the June meeting are reading and discussing new reports from local Churches reflecting on the 41-page Synthesis Report released at the end of the October 2023 gathering. Participants are also considering the question “How to be a synodal Church in mission.” The international experts are also reading and reflecting on material shared by women’s religious orders, university faculties, religious associations, and others, as well as reports from a listening session with 3...

Her case has reignited a contentious debate across Western countries. France is currently debating the legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide, with President Emmanuel Macron pushing for new laws. The Catholic Church has been consistently outspoken in its opposition to euthanasia. Cardinal Willem Eijk, the archbishop of Utrecht, has previously commented on the implications of broadening euthanasia criteria in the Netherlands. In a 2020 interview with CNA, Eijk said: “The respect for the essential value of the life of a human being is eroded ever more in the last half a century, which was inescapable.” The Dutch cardinal, who studied medicine and holds doctorates in medical bioethics and in philosophy, noted: ”For, once accepting the termination of life for a certain measure of suff...

Pope Francis urges world leaders to seek peace between Sudan’s warring parties, as humanitarian organizations say time is running out for millions of people in the African nation. By Devin Watkins & Nathan Morley “I invite everyone to pray for Sudan, where the war that has lasted over a year has yet to find a peaceful solution. May weapons be silenced.” Pope Francis made that appeal on Sunday as he prayed the Angelus in St. Peter’s Square. The Pope urged international leaders and Sudanese authorities to help Sudan and its many displaced people. “May Sudanese refugees find welcome and protection in neighboring countries,” he added. Pope Francis also prayed for peace in “martyred Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, and Myanmar.” “I appeal to the wisdom of leaders, so that escalation may cease an...

“Frail from age and medical complications he eventually succumbed after days of constant prayer for the Church and for vocations to the priesthood and religious life,” the archdiocese said in a May 31 press release. Felix’s funeral will be held at the Minor Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, Castries, on June 12. According to the Archdiocese of Castries, the cardinal’s wish was to be buried on the grounds of the cathedral of Dominica. Pope Francis sent his condolences to the Catholics of the West Indies on Saturday, recalling Felix’s dedication to the education of young people and his contribution to the Church throughout the Caribbean. Felix studied for the priesthood at seminaries in Dominica and Trinidad before being ordained a priest on April 8, 1956 for the Diocese of Roseau. He l...

By Sam Lucero GREEN BAY, Wis. (OSV News) — The U.S. bishops will soon hold a consultation on a petition to open the cause for canonization of Adele Brise, to whom the Blessed Virgin Mary is believed to have appeared in northeast Wisconsin in 1859. Green Bay Bishop David L. Ricken, who declared in 2010 that the apparitions to Brise were worthy of belief, will present the proposal during a consultation at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Spring Plenary Assembly June 12-14 in Louisville, Kentucky. Brise, a Belgian immigrant, was 28 when the apparitions occurred some 18 miles northeast of Green Bay. The first took place while she was walking to a gristmill to grind grain. The last two took place a few days later while she was walking on the way to and from Sunday Mass. “Since being ass...