• Taizé leader: Young people are longing to meet together again

  Rome Newsroom, Apr 7, 2021 / 02:30 am (CNA).- The prior of Taizé has said that his community sees how young people are longing to meet together again in Christian fellowship as France and other European countries remain under strict lockdowns this spring.Br. Alois Leser has led the Taizé Community for more than 15 years. The ecumenical monastic community based in a rural area in Burgundy, France, is known for drawing tens of thousands of young people together each year to live and worship together.He said that the coronavirus pandemic had caused the community some difficulty, but also provided the[…]

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• Catholic teaching on Communion applies to politicians who support abortion, too, bishop says

  Phoenix, Ariz., Apr 6, 2021 / 08:01 pm (CNA).- Catholic teaching sees the Eucharist as Christ’s transformative sacrifice on the cross and this Holy Communion must only be received worthily. This teaching is not partisan, but it certainly applies to political leaders who back abortion and euthanasia, Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix has said in an apostolic exhortation on the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.   “Holy Communion is reserved for those, who with God’s grace make a sincere effort to live this union with Christ and His Church by adhering to all that the Catholic Church believes and proclaims[…]

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• L.A. archdiocese to close, consolidate six elementary schools

  CNA Staff, Apr 6, 2021 / 07:32 pm (CNA).- The Archdiocese of Los Angeles announced this week that six Catholic elementary schools in the area will close and be consolidated with other schools, due to ongoing financial difficulties exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.    “These six schools had been trying to overcome financial challenges long before the pandemic,” said Paul Escala, superintendent of Catholic Schools, according to NBC Los Angeles. Challenges facing the schools include  low enrollment, financial difficulties, and a shift in demographics.   “After careful discernment with Archdiocesan and school leadership, the decision was reached to consolidate these[…]

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• Utah to require fathers to pay for half of pregnancy costs

  Salt Lake City, Utah, Apr 6, 2021 / 06:19 pm (CNA).- A new law in Utah will require fathers to pay for half of the mother’s cost of pregnancy, making Utah the first state to mandate prenatal child support from the father.  HB 113, sponsored by Rep. Brady Brammer, stipulates that the baby’s biological father must pay half of the mother’s insurance premiums while she is pregnant, as well as pregnancy-related medical costs, including the hospital birth of the child. The father would only be required to pay those expenses after his paternity is confirmed, the law stipulates. “We want[…]

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• White House: Biden has ‘difference of opinion’ from Catholics concerned about Equality Act

  Washington D.C., Apr 6, 2021 / 05:00 pm (CNA).- The White House on Tuesday said that President Joe Biden “has a difference of opinion” from Catholics concerned that the Equality Act would trample conscience rights. At Tuesday’s White House press briefing, Owen Jensen of EWTN News Nightly asked what Biden would say to Catholics concerned about conscience rights in health care. “What does the President, who we know is Catholic, say to Catholic doctors, Catholic institutions, who are fearful that if the Equality Act passes, it has the potential to trample on their conscience rights,” Jensen asked White House press[…]

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• Nebraska dioceses to restore Sunday Mass obligation in May

  Lincoln, Neb., Apr 6, 2021 / 04:01 pm (CNA).- The bishops of the three local Churches in Nebraska will each restore the obligation to attend Mass on Sundays and holy days next month. The obligation will be restored May 23 in the Archdiocese of Omaha and the Dioceses of Lincoln and Grand Island. “I would like to use the occasion of this announcement by recalling the deepest reasons why Catholics have a grave obligation to attend Mass as well as clarify, in light of COVID-19, when the obligation does not apply,” Bishop James Conley of Lincoln wrote in his March[…]

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• Judge puts three dozen lawsuits against Buffalo parishes on hold amid bankruptcy

  CNA Staff, Apr 6, 2021 / 03:02 pm (CNA).- A federal bankruptcy judge last week put 36 lawsuits against Buffalo Catholic parishes and schools on hold until this fall, stating that the lawsuits’ advancement would interfere with the Buffalo diocese’s bankruptcy reorganization.    New York’s 2019 Child Victims Act (CVA) created a one-year “lookback” window where abuse victims could file lawsuits long after their statute of limitations had ended.    The window opened in August 2019, and alleged victims have since filed hundreds of lawsuits— 260 against Buffalo parishes and schools alone, the Buffalo News reported.    The Buffalo diocese[…]

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• Controversial Way of the Cross in Mexico depicts radical feminists beating Christ

  Tabasco, Mexico, Apr 6, 2021 / 02:59 pm (CNA).- A modern day reenactment of the Way of the Cross held Good Friday in southern Mexico drew criticism in local media for its depiction of militant feminists beating Christ, who had fallen to the ground.The ceremony was organized and broadcast on Facebook by Life Online Oficial, an evangelization platform with ties to Saint Joseph’s parish in Ciudad Pemex, Mexico, which is under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Tabasco.Life Online Oficial members describe themselves as “young Catholics” who are interested in “talking about many topics that help us to be better[…]

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• American priest reveals communication ‘mix-up’ about end of Vatican job

  Rome Newsroom, Apr 6, 2021 / 02:00 pm (CNA).- Msgr. Robert Oliver, a priest of the Archdiocese of Boston, said last week that due to a “mix-up,” he was not told in advance that his service on the Vatican’s safeguarding commission was ending after six years.Oliver had been secretary of the Vatican’s Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors (PCPM) since its beginning in 2014. For the two years prior, he had been promoter of justice at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.On March 24, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis had extended the terms of 15 members[…]

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• Arkansas legislature overrides veto of gender-transitioning ban

  Washington D.C., Apr 6, 2021 / 01:15 pm (CNA).- The Arkansas state legislature voted on Tuesday to override a veto by Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) of a bill prohibiting gender-transitioning procedures for children. Last month, the state’s Senate had approved House Bill 1570, the “To Create The Arkansas Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act.” The bill prohibited a “physician or other healthcare professional” from providing “gender transition procedures to any individual under eighteen (18) years of age.”  In addition to banning the procedures for minors, the bill also blocked referrals and public funding for these procedures.  Hutchinson had been expected[…]

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