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Father Matthew Elshoff. Credit: Laura Hipke/Angelus News Elshoff, 67, is a Capuchin Franciscan friar who is a licensed marriage and family therapist. Originally from Cincinnati, he studied at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley, California, before making his perpetual profession as a Capuchin in 1979 at the age of 23. He was ordained a priest in 1982. The Franciscan friar holds a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy from the California Family Study Center and received his license in marriage and family therapy in 1990. He spent time as a high school campus minister, vocations director, and novice master before becoming the provincial minister at St. Francis of Assisi Friary in Burlingame in 2008. He is currently the pastor of St. Lawrence of Brindisi Churc...

‘The growth of Catholic theology’ – Pope Francis’ doctrinal chief speaks Skip to content Earlier this month, Pope Francis appointed Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernandez as prefect of the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith.  The archbishop, an Argentine, had been since 2018 the Archbishop of La Plata, and was before that the rector of Argentina’s Catholic University — a role to which he was appointed by then-Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio. Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernandez with Pope Francis. Credit: Archbishop Fernandez via Twitter. Widely regarded as the author of the 2016 apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, Fernandez has long been a close collaborator of the pope. Since his July 1 appointment, Fernandez has made waves — because of comments on the possibility of same-sex liturgi...

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...

California Democratic legislators on Thursday hastily voted an anti-child-trafficking bill through a key committee after significant backlash to their initial scuttling of the measure.  Legislators on the state Assembly’s Public Safety Committee had earlier this week voted down Senate Bill 14, which would elevate child trafficking to a “serious felony” in the state. The committee is controlled by six Democrats, with two Republicans also sitting on the panel.  Committee Chair Member Reginald Jones-Sawyer said in a statement earlier this week that the committee was unwilling to “build on a deeply flawed sentencing system that unfairly punishes disadvantaged communities.”  But the decision to vote the measure down led to bipartisan backlash, with spectators openly criticizing t...

At a press conference in Rome earlier this week, Natalina confirmed that her uncle had made unwanted verbal advances when they worked together in 1978 but said that this stopped quickly once she made it clear that she was not interested. “I had only spoken about it with the confessor,” she said, noting that she had also told her boyfriend at the time.  In the Vatican statement published the day after the press conference, Bruni clarified that the confessional seal had not been broken in the Orlandi investigation. “Regarding the reports involving a relative of Emanuela, it is noted that the correspondence in question expressly indicates that there was no violation of the sacramental seal of confession,” Bruni said on July 12. “The Holy See shares the family’s desire to arrive at the tr...

Born in Seattle on Nov. 22, 1967, Maekawa earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture at the University of Washington before entering religious life in the Dominicans’ Western U.S. province.  He studied at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley, California, where he earned a master of divinity degree in 1998, the same year he was ordained to the priesthood. Maekawa has served as the chaplain of the Newman Center at the University of Washington (1998–2002) and as the vocations director of the Western Dominican Province (2007–2015). He ministered in San Francisco and Seattle before moving to Anchorage seven years ago. In Fairbanks, Maekawa will succeed Bishop Chad Zielinski, whom Pope Francis appointed as the bishop of New Ulm, Minnesota, last year. The Diocese of Fa...

For the cardinal-designate, the goal is to enable each young person to say: “‘I think differently, I feel differently, I organize my life in a different way, but we are brothers and we go together to build the future.’ This is the main message of this encounter with the living Christ that the pope wants to provide to young people.” “We don’t want to convert the young people to Christ or to the Catholic Church or anything like that at all,” Aguiar continued. “We want it to be normal for a young Catholic Christian to say and bear witness to who he is or for a young Muslim, Jew, or of another religion to also have no problem saying who he is and bearing witness to it, and for a young person who has no religion to feel welcome and to perhaps not feel strange for thinking in a different way.” T...

More in Vatican Three are over the age of 80: (Story continues below) Subscribe to our daily newsletter At Catholic News Agency, our team is committed to reporting the truth with courage, integrity, and fidelity to our faith. We provide news about the Church and the world, as seen through the teachings of the Catholic Church. When you subscribe to the CNA UPDATE, we’ll send you a daily email with links to the news you need and, occasionally, breaking news. As part of this free service you may receive occasional offers from us at EWTN News and EWTN. We won’t rent or sell your information, and you can unsubscribe at any time. Archbishop Diego Rafael Padrón Sánchez, Archbishop Emeritus of Cumanà (Venezuela) Father Luis Pascual Dri, OFM Cap., Confessor at the Shrine of Our Lady of ...

Catholics in Goa threatened by calls to ‘wipe out’ history of Portuguese presence Skip to content Catholics in the Indian state of Goa are feeling unease amid calls by the state’s Chief Minister, Pramod Sawant, to “wipe out” signs of the Portuguese presence in the region.  Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Church in Goa. Credit: Paulo Miguel Costa / Shutterstock. Share While most of India achieved independence from Britain in 1947, Portugal ruled Goa as a colony from 1510 to 1961, when the recently independent Indian Union invaded, sounding the death knell for European power on the subcontinent.  Some Goans, mostly Christians, left for Portugal or for its remaining colonies, especially Angola or Mozambique, but the majority stayed behind, and Goa remains one of the most Chris...

In addition to the American prelates chosen by Pope Francis, the U.S. bishops’ conference has elected five members to attend the synod assembly: Cardinal Timothy Michael Dolan of New York; Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas; Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota; Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, and Archbishop Timothy Broglio, president of the U.S. bishops’ conference. During the nearly monthlong Vatican assembly, the delegates will discuss questions posed in the recently released Instrumentum laboris, which covers such hot-button topics as women deacons, priestly celibacy, LGBTQ outreach, and highlights a desire for new institutional bodies to allow for greater participation in decision-making by the “People of God.” The 50-page text also ...

VATICAN CITY — Cardinal Gerhard Müller has confirmed the Vatican’s doctrinal office had a file containing theological concerns about Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernández, whom Pope Francis last week appointed to head that office.  The file, also confirmed by a second senior Church source, dates to when Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires appointed then-Father Fernández rector of the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina in 2009.  In July 5 comments to the Register, Archbishop Fernández downplayed the file’s contents, saying the Vatican’s concerns related to “accusations” based on his writings “were not of great weight,” and that after an exchange of letters with Vatican officials in which he “clarified” his “true thinking, everything was resolved serenely.”  On July...