Canada awaits Pope Tickets for the Pope’s first public Mass in his 24-29 July “Walking Together” visit to Canada were snapped up as soon as they were released. The first issue was a block of 16,000 free tickets for the 26 July Mass at Edmonton’s 65,000-seater Commonwealth Stadium. The Pope’s visit comes after he apologised in April to Indigenous delegates at the Vatican for the Church’s role in the suffering and abuse of attendees at Canada’s residential schools. Fr Cristino Bouvette, 36, from Calgary, the national liturgical director for the visit, is Italian through his mother and Cree and Métis through his father. His kokum, or grandmother, was a residential school survivor. Pope Francis will make pastoral visits to the Italian cities of Assisi and Matera at the end of September, he will visit Assisi on 24 September to attend a meeting with young people participating in an Economy of Francesco event at a conference hall near Assisi’s Basilica of St Mary of the Angels. The Economy of Francesco project connects younger and older economists and entrepreneurs to look for ways to make the economy better for more people and for the environment. Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States, told Italian TV news programme Tg1 that preparations for a papal visit to Ukraine will begin after Francis returns from Canada, and the Pope could travel to Kyiv as early as August.
Seven people were killed and dozens wounded when a gunman opened fire at a 4 July parade in Highland Park, Illinois. Cardinal Blase Cupich celebrated Mass the next day near the site of the attack. “The right to bear arms does not eclipse the right to life, or the right of all Americans to go about their lives free of the fear that they might be shredded by bullets,” Cupich said. The bishops’ conference repeated its support for a ban on assault weapons.
Six victims of sexual abuse in the Church in France are the first to have been compensated by a special fund that the bishops set up after the Sauvé report last October estimated the number of abuse cases since 1950 at 330,000. An independent commission on Church abuse, established after the report to verify accusations for the fund, last month said 736 people had reported their cases to it. The names of the six compensated victims and sums involved were not made public.
The Congregation of Holy Cross has elected the Connecticut-born Brother Paul Bednarczyk C.S.C. as superior general. He is the first non-priest to head the congregation, as allowed under a change to Church law approved by Pope Francis. The congregation helped found the University of Notre Dame in Indiana and still plays a leading role at the university.
The Mexican bishops’ conference, the Jesuits and Mexican conference of religious superiors, have asked dioceses, parishes and religious congregations to celebrate Masses and pray for peace on Sunday 10 July in “significant places” that represent the more than 250,000 Mexicans murdered and 100,000 disappeared over the past 15 years of violence related to drug cartel confrontations. The day of prayer follows the murders on 20 June of Jesuit Fathers Javier Campos Morales and Joaquín César Mora Salazar in their parish in Chihuahua state, while sheltering a man fleeing a known crime boss.
Franciscan Cardinal Claudio Hummes of Sao Paulo, Brazil died on Monday last week, aged 87. His ministry was dedicated in particular to the Indigenous peoples, whose voice he brought to the Synod for the Pan-Amazonian Region in 2019. When the 2013 conclave elected Jorge Mario Bergoglio on 13 March, Hummes whispered in his ear: “Don’t forget the poor.” “Immediately, in relation to the poor, I thought of Francis of Assisi,” Francis told journalists.
A few weeks after declaring he was gay, a Brazilian Catholic singer’s appearance at a Catholic music festival was cancelled. Bruno Camurati has sung several times at the Halleluya Festival, organised by Shalom, part of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal movement. Camurati said no reason was given for cancelling his performance, scheduled for 23 July. “As soon as I made my online declaration [on being gay], they excluded me without any clarification,” he told Crux.
Dutch farmers last week blockaded 20 roads and distribution centres, resulting in shortages of foodstuffs in supermarkets. They were protesting against the government’s imposition of ever-increasing targets on nitrogen emissions as part of its climate policy. In Poland, Monika Przeworska, director of Poland’s Agricultural Institute, told the Catholic broadcaster Radio Maryja that the Dutch government was treating farmers “like terrorists”. Footage from the protests showed shots being fired in the direction of the blockading tractors.
In a ceremony on Thursday last week before religious and civil authorities, Cardinal Pietro Parolin blessed the foundation stone of the new Apostolic Nunciature of South Sudan. The building, designed by architect Pasquale Gandolfi from Bergamo, Italy, will be located in the north of the capital, Juba. The nunciature is temporarily located in a building in Juba rented from a private individual, until what Parolin called “the house of the Pope” is ready.
The European Parliament has called on the Vatican “to give full support to Cardinal Joseph Zen” and to “strengthen its leverage on the Chinese authorities”. A 7 July resolution condemned the arrest of the 90-year-old former bishop of Hong Kong by Chinese authorities on charges linking him to a fund that pays prodemocracy activists’ legal fees.
Loading ...
