Catholic News

• Pope Francis criticizes those who have 'exploited' Pope Benedict's death (Vatican News)
  Returning to Rome from South Sudan, Pope Francis was joined by the leaders of the Church of England and Church of Scotland at his in-flight press conference. The Pope described the arms trade as a “plague” and said that God accompanies persons with same-sex attractions. “I believe that Benedict’s death has been exploited by people who want to add grist to their mill,” he added, as he said he “was able to talk about everything with Pope Benedict. [Also] to change opinion. He was always by my side, supporting me, and if he had any issue, he would tell me and we would talk.” “And those who exploit such a good person, such a man of God, I would say a holy father of the Church, well I would say they are unethical people, they are people belonging to a party, not to the Church,” Pope Francis continued. “You can see everywhere the tendency to make theological views parties. These things will fall on their own, or if they don’t they will go on as has happened many times in the history of the Church. I wanted to say clearly who Pope Benedict was: he was not embittered.”
• Praying with South Sudan's Christians, Pope, other Christian leaders urge new steps toward unity (CNS)
  As part of his apostolic journey to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan, Pope Francis was joined by Anglican Archbishop Justin Welby and Rev. Iain Greenshields in an ecumenical peace pilgrimage. Welby is Primate of the Church of England; Greenshields is head of the (Presbyterian) Church of Scotland.
• Vatican foreign minister: Pope wants to meet with Patriarch Kirill, but in peaceful conditions (Tass)
  Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations, told Tass that Pope Francis would like to meet with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, but not during the war. Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill met in Havana in 2016; a subsequent meeting was canceled after the Russian invasion.
• 'Your humility to us was not in vain,' South Sudan's president tells Pope (Radio Tamazuj)
  The South Sudanese Civil War began in 2013 and officially ended in 2020. In 2019, Pope Francis kissed the feet of the president and an opposing leader as he appealed for peace.
• Europe's synodal continental assembly begins in Prague (Pillar)
  Bishops from Austria, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, and Switzerland are expected to favor women’s ordination, a change to the Church’s discipline of clerical celibacy, and/or the blessing of homosexual unions. Bishops from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Hungary, the Nordic countries, and Poland are expected to oppose these changes. “But beyond that, the delegations’ stances are hard to decipher,” according to the Pillar’s analysis of the meeting. “Where do the French, Irish, Portuguese, and Spanish stand?”
• Catholicism must reckon with the risks of a 'Saffron Taliban' in India (Crux)
  “Saffronization,” the report notes, refers to India’s transformation “from a multi-cultural state, in which identity is premised on citizenship, into a Hindu-dominated society in which national and religious identity are intertwined.”
• Cardinal Zen and Jimmy Lai among Hong Kongers nominated for Nobel Peace Prize (CNA)
  
• Religious freedom summit brings together politicians from both sides of aisle for global event (Fox News)
  The International Religious Freedom Summit 2023 brought together speakers from both political parties and from around the world (Twitter coverage).
• Largest Catholic parish church in North America opens in California (Modesto Bee)
  The parish, St. Charles Borromeo Church in West Visalia, CA, cost $21 million and seats 3,200 people.
• New convent beckons Christians to return to Iraq (Aid to the Church in Need)
  In 2014, the Islamic State destroyed Batnaya, a Chaldean Catholic village in northern Iraq. “Your name and identity are in Batnaya and your roots are in Batnaya, not in the places of emigration,” Archbishop Paul Thabet said of those who had to flee, but have not returned. “I also encourage you to support the village and be present in it, because otherwise these roots will dry up, and if that happens then the branches will surely die.”
• Teacher says Denver Catholic school fired her because of her same-sex relationship (9 News)
  “The school was made aware that one of their teachers is in a same-sex relationship, and after discussing this with the teacher, learned that she intends to persist in violating the standards she previously agreed to uphold,” the Archdiocese of Denver said in a statement. “That a Catholic school employee experiences same sex attraction in itself is not a cause for termination.”
• President of Malawi lauds Church's 'enormous socioeconomic impact' (ACI Africa)
  Malawi, a southeastern African nation of 20.8 million (map) is 80% Christian (32% Catholic), 14% Muslim, and 5% ethnic religionist.
• Religious have 'special role' in the Church: Pope's message for World Day of Consecrated Life (CNA)
  February 2, the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, was also the 27th World Day for Consecrated Life, a commemoration instituted by Pope St. John Paul II in 1997.
• Pope arrives in South Sudan, beginning 2nd leg of African voyage (Vatican News)
  Pope Francis arrived in South Sudan in the mid-afternoon (local time) of February 3, beginning a long-awaited 3-day visit to the war-torn young nation. The Pope had long hoped to visit South Sudan, to make an appeal for peace in a country that has been torn by fighting between rival factions since shortly after it won independence in 2011. In 2019 he had invited the political and religious leaders of the country to Rome for a spiritual retreat. Thousands of people lined the streets from the airport to the capital city of Juba as the Pope’s motorcade passed.
• Be prophets of hope, Pope asks Congo's bishops (Vatican Press Office)
  Meeting with the country’s Catholic bishops before his February 3 departure from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Pope Francis called upon them to be “prophets of hope for the people.” In his remarks before leaving for South Sudan, the Pope said that the rich resources of the Congo “remind us that we are called to protect the beauty of creation.” At the same time, he said, the struggles of the impoverished nation have left a “people crucified and oppressed, devastated by ruthless violence, marred by innocent suffering, forced to live with the tainted waters of corruption and injustice.” He urged the bishops to remain close to their people, avoiding the temptations of worldliness.
• European Court: Russia violates human rights by not permitting same-sex marriage (Religion Clause)
  The European Court of Human Rights, citing the European Convention on Human Rights (1950), ruled against Russia in a same-sex marriage case. Last year, Russia, by a decision of the Council of Europe, ceased to be a party to the convention following the invasion of Ukraine; the plaintiffs filed suit when Russia was party to the human rights treaty.
• Top Vatican diplomat: reform UN to improve peacemaking power (Vatican Press Office)
  At a February 2 conference on Vatican diplomacy, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Secretary for Relations with States, called for a reorganization of the United Nations, to strengthen its peace-making capability. The top Vatican diplomat observed that it is wrong that a permanent member of the UN Security Council—Russia—could be the aggressive party in a major European war.
• Pope pleads for peace at Mass in Congo (Vatican News)
  Celebrating Mass for an estimated 1 million people in Kinshasa on the 2nd day of his visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Pope Francis made a plea for peace in the war-torn country. In his homily the Pope encouraged the country’s people to maintain their hope for peace, assuring them that “evil never wins; evil never has the last word.” He reminded them of the bitter sorrow that Christ’s followers felt as they saw Him crucified. Their greatest joy came, he said, after “everything seemed to be over for them, without even a glimmer of peace.” The Pope made a special appeal to “all of you in this country who call yourselves Christians but engage in violence.” To them, he said: “The Lord is telling you: ‘Lay down your arms; embrace mercy.’”
• Catholic leaders applaud Pope's call for 'hands off' Africa (Crux)
  
• Orthodox Church of Ukraine backs government's restrictions on Moscow-allied group (Il Sismografo)
  After an “expert group” established by the Ukrainian government reported that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) remains allied with the Moscow patriarchate, the Synod of the rival Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) issued a statement supporting the government’s efforts to restrict the work of the UOC, “protecting national security in the religious sphere.”
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