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Bishop Peter Baldacchino celebrates Mass on Holy Thursday. (David McNamara/Diocese of Las Cruces) Bishop Baldacchino is the first U.S. bishop known to have amended a previously declared diocesan ban on public Masses since the coronavirus pandemic took hold of the U.S. last month. Ed Condon/CNA. WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Bishop of Las Cruces, New Mexico, has lifted a diocesan ban on the public celebration of Mass, issued guidelines for distribution of Holy Communion, and told priests they may resume sacramental ministry if they follow state-ordered health precautions. “We [as priests] have been called by Christ and ordained to serve the people of the Diocese of Las Cruces, to bring them hope and consolation during this difficult time,” Bishop Peter Baldacchino wrote in a letter dated April 15 ...

NEW YORK — As flames engulfed Notre Dame Cathedral one year ago, two critical moments standout among many of the first responders in Paris: The moment the Crown of Thorns was retrieved from a glass safe in the reliquary and the decision to send 50 firefighters into the north tower to directly fight the blaze. The first ensured that one of Christendom’s most prized relics would be saved and the second prevented both of the towers from collapsing, saving the 850-year-old landmark itself. While April 15 may be Tax Day for Americans, for France — and for Catholics around the world — it will forever be remembered as the day that one of the treasures of Western Civilization was spared destruction. Last year’s fire occurred at the start of Holy Week, resulting in Paris’s Archbishop Michel Aupetit...

Cardinal George Pell has revealed he is ashamed of the Catholic Church for the way it dealt with the “cancer” of child sex abuse in the past. In an exclusive world-first televised interview with Sky News Australia presenter Andrew Bolt, Cardinal Pell talks candidly about the scourge of child abuse within his own church and how the many failures to act still haunt him today. “It was like a cancer … we had to cut it out,” he said. “I totally condemn these sorts of activities, and the damage that it’s done to people. “One of the things that aggrieves me is the suggestion that I’m anti-victim, or not sufficiently sympathetic. I devoted a lot of time and energy to try to save them, to get justice, to get help and to get compensation.” Cardinal Pell also shone light on the 405 days he spent lock...

‘Demonic Deal’: Pornography Industry Targets the Isolated in Coronavirus Pandemic Smut is being offered for free — an offer that has drawn harsh criticism from leaders of the fight against sexual exploitation. WASHINGTON — While many Americans are coping with the fear and uncertainty of the global coronavirus pandemic, the pornography industry has responded by providing free access to content — an offer that has drawn harsh criticism from leaders of the fight against sexual exploitation. Global porn consumption rates have gone up significantly with most people confined to their homes. While the Church teaches that pornography is a “grave offense” that “does grave injury to the dignity of its participants,” experts are also cautioning that porn consumption could exacerbate mental-health iss...

Vatican City, Apr 12, 2020 / 05:05 am (CNA).- In his Easter blessing, Pope Francis called on humanity to unite in solidarity and look to the risen Christ for hope amid the coronavirus pandemic. “Today the Church’s proclamation echoes throughout the world: ‘Jesus Christ is risen!’ – ‘He is truly risen,’” Pope Francis said on April 12. “The Risen Lord is also the Crucified One … In his glorious body he bears indelible wounds: wounds that have become windows of hope. Let us turn our gaze to him, that he may heal the wounds of an afflicted humanity,” the pope said in an nearly empty St. Peter’s Basilica. Pope Francis gave the traditional Easter Sunday Urbi et Orbi blessing from inside the basilica following Easter Sunday Mass. “Urbi et Orbi” means “To the City [of Rome] and to the World” and i...

Vatican City, Apr 10, 2020 / 03:50 pm (CNA).- Pope Francis prayed for those who are serving the suffering as he presided at the Stations of the Cross in a deserted St. Peter’s Square on Good Friday evening. At the conclusion of the Stations, the pope prayed: “O God, eternal light and day without sunset, fill with your goods those who devote themselves to your praise and the service of those who suffer, in the countless places of humanity’s sorrow. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.” The official booklet for the ceremony suggested the pope would then offer a short reflection, but instead he simply imparted his apostolic blessing. With Italy under lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, this was the first time in decades that the Via Crucis was not held at the Colosseum, a Roman amphitheater a...

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, “Christ Crucified”, c. 1677 Good Friday is the most somber day of the Christian year. Here are 9 things you need to know… Good Friday is the most somber day of the Christian year. It is the day our Savior died for us. It is the day we were redeemed from our sins by the voluntary death of God Himself at the hands of man. Here are 9 things you need to know. 1. Why is this day called “Good Friday” It’s not for the reason you might think. Despite the fact that “good” is a common English word, tempting us to say the name is based on the fact that something very good (our redemption) happened on this day, that’s not where the name comes from. Precisely where it does come from is disputed. The Catholic Encyclopedia explains: The origin...

CNA Staff, Apr 8, 2020 / 03:02 pm (CNA).- St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne was vandalized overnight Wednesday, hours after Cardinal George Pell was acquitted by Australia’s High Court of a sexual abuse conviction and released from prison. The door to the cathedral was spray-painted with a cartoon image of a devil, along with the message “ROT IN HELL, PELL.” Other doors were daubed with upside-down crosses and the words “NO JUSTICE,” “PAEDO RAPIST,” and: “The law protects the powerful.”  Archbishop Peter Comensoli of Melbourne told Australian media that while he was upset about the vandalism, he was “not entirely surprised.”  “There remains such strong emotions around all of these matters,” Comensoli told Australian news network 3AW. Images taken of the cathedral showed ...

Cardinal Pell is expected to celebrate with a private Mass of thanksgiving, the first he will celebrate since his incarceration in February 2019. Ed Condon and JD Flynn/CNA. WASHINGTON, D.C. — After an ordeal that began nearly four years ago, and more than 13 months of imprisonment, Cardinal George Pell is expected to be released from prison imminently, after his conviction for five alleged counts of sexual abuse was overturned Tuesday by Australia’s High Court. Cardinal Pell is expected to be released from prison within two hours. “The High Court found that the jury, acting rationally on the whole of the evidence, ought to have entertained a doubt as to the applicant’s guilt with respect to each of the offences for which he was convicted, and ordered that the convictions be qua...

Turin, Italy, Apr 6, 2020 / 04:00 am (CNA).- Catholics around the world will be invited to pray virtually before the Turin Shroud on Holy Saturday as the world struggles to contain the coronavirus pandemic, Church officials have said. The Shroud, which bears the image of a crucified man and has been venerated for centuries as Christ’s burial cloth, will be displayed via livestream at 5pm local time April 11.  Archbishop Cesare Nosiglia will preside over a liturgy from the chapel of Turin cathedral where the Shroud is kept in a climate-controlled vault. It will be broadcast live on television and social media.  The archbishop said he was responding to thousands of requests from people asking to venerate the Shroud amid a global crisis that has so far claimed nearly 70,000 lives.&n...

Vatican City, Apr 5, 2020 / 05:00 am (CNA).- On Palm Sunday, Pope Francis offered Mass in a nearly empty St. Peter’s Basilica and urged Catholics quarantined at home to remember “what really matters” in life: loving God and serving others. “The tragedy we are experiencing summons us to take seriously the things that are serious, and not to be caught up in those that matter less; to rediscover that life is of no use if not used to serve others. For life is measured by love,” Pope Francis said April 5 in his Palm Sunday homily. Holy Week liturgies at the Vatican are taking without the presence of the public this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. During the Palm Sunday broadcast, the pope said that Catholics can look to the suffering Christ as an example of a life lived co...

Denver, Colo., Apr 3, 2020 / 11:55 pm (CNA).- Thomas Sowell and his wife own Southeast Palm and Foliage in Astor, Florida, in the middle of the state, about 40 miles west of Daytona Beach. “It’s in the middle of nowhere, actually,” Sowell told CNA in January. Sowell isn’t Catholic, but his business supplies palms to hundreds of Catholic parishes across the country— in every state, as well as in Canada— not to mention the many Episcopal, Eastern Orthodox, and Lutheran communities that also use palms. Last year, the Sowells’ farm shipped over four million palm leaves. “There’s not many of us that do this. There’s not many people, not many companies do what we do,” Sowell told CNA. “I know that there have been, over the past, say, 50 years, quite a few other companies embark...