Catholic News

• In World Day of Peace message, Pope bids politicians build culture of peace (CWN)
  In his message for the 52nd World Day of Peace, Pope Francis emphasizes the importance of political leadership in building a culture of peace.
• Ukrainian Catholic leader welcomes independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church)
  “Let me heartily congratulate our Orthodox brethren on the Unity Council,” said Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. “At this historic moment, I want to extend the fraternal hand on behalf of our Church to the newly elected Primate and all the Orthodox brethren, saying that from now on we go together in history, to unity, to the truth. Because the future of the Church, the people and the Ukrainian free, independent, European state depends on how we today nurture unity and overcome what separates us.”
• Man arrested for planning Christmas attack on St. Peter's Basilica (ANSA)
  With assistance from the FBI, Italian police arrested Mohsin Ibrahim Omar, 20, a Somali national linked to ISIS.
• Vatican Insider's Tornielli assumes leading Vatican communications role (Vatican Press Office)
  Pope Francis has named Andrea Tornielli as the Dicastery for Communication’s new editorial director. Tornielli coordinates La Stampa’s Vatican Insider website.
• Moscow-affiliated Ukrainian Orthodox Church decries independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate)
  The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) decried the formation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from the union of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Kyiv Patriarchate) and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. The Moscow-affiliated church also strongly criticized the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (which holds a primacy of honor in Eastern Orthodoxy) as well as Eastern Catholics united to the Pope.
• Organizers of February conference tell bishops to meet with abuse victims (Vatican Press Office)
  The chief organizers of a February Vatican conference on sexual abuse have written to the presidents of the world’s episcopal conferences, asking them to meet with abuse victims, “to learn first-hand the suffering that they have endured.” The organizing committee, which includes Cardinals Blase Cupich and Oswald Gracias, also asked the bishops’ representatives to complete a questionnaire that was designed to help prepare for the meeting. The organizers stressed the need for “a comprehensive and communal response” to the problem.
• Pope appoints new editor-in-chief of L'Osservatore Romano (Vatican Press Office)
  Andrea Monda, the Vatican newspaper’s new editor, coordinated the preparation of the texts for this year’s Via Crucis at the Colosseum. A religion teacher at a classical high school in Rome, he has written on Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, G. K. Chesterton, and Padre Pio. Monda, 52, succeeds Giovanni Maria Vian, 66, the paper’s editor-in-chief since 2007; Vian assumes the title of editor emeritus.
• Catholic groups criticize 'lack of ambition' in UN climate conference's final document (CNS)
  The 24th UN Climate Change Conference (COP24) recently concluded in Katowice, Poland.
• Pope encourages nations to show compassion to migrants (Vatican Press Office)
  “Last week the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, intended to be a framework of reference for all the international community, was approved in Marrakech, Morocco,” Pope Francis said following his December 16 Angelus address. “I therefore hope that, thanks to this instrument, the international community may work with responsibility, solidarity and compassion towards those who, for various reasons, have left their own country, and entrust this intention to your prayers.”
• Archbishop Nienstedt welcomes investigation (AP)
  Archbishop John Nienstedt has told the Associated Press that he would welcome a further Vatican investigation into sexual-misconduct charges. The archbishop, who resigned in 2015, has been barred by his successor in the St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese from celebrating Mass in public there. Archbishop Bernard Hebda said that the disciplinary action was in place until the charges against Archbishop Nienstedt are resolved.
• Report: home on Gonzaga University's campus housed at least 20 accused Jesuits (Reveal)
  “The abusive Jesuits at Cardinal Bea House were part of the Oregon Province’s outsized problem with sexual misconduct,” according to the report. “The province had 92 Jesuits accused of sexual abuse, by far the most of any province in the country.”
• UNESCO leader meets with Pope Francis, who affirms importance of humanities (@AAzoulay (French))
  Audrey Azoulay, director-general of the United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organization (UNESCO), met with Pope Francis on December 17. Following the meeting, she said that the Pope “reaffirmed his support for UNESCO, and in particular shared our holistic vision of education, which accords a large place to humanities.”
• Catholics call Assam church attack a hate crime (UCANews)
  The northeastern Indian state of Assam (map) is 61% Hindu, 34% Muslim, and 4% Christian.
• Bishop in Central African Republic saved dozens from massacre, priest reports (Fides)
  A bishop in the Central African Republic saved dozens of people from a November massacre by urging them to flee a refugee camp, a missionary reports. Bishop Cyr-Nestor Yapaupa of Alindao warned refugees that they would not be safe at the cathedral and told them to seek refuge in the bush. The bishop himself stayed behind, survived a massacre that took more than 40 lives, and helped other survivors find new shelter.
• 45 states are seeking Church documents on abuse, Pennsylvania attorney general says (USA Today)
  A landmark state grand jury report found that more than 300 Pennsylvania priests abused over 1,000 minors since the 1940s.
• Former Buffalo seminary rector cleared of abuse allegations (Buffalo News)
  Stating that he bears no animosity toward his accuser, Msgr. Frederick Leising, a former president-rector of Christ the King Seminary, has been cleared of abuse allegations. Another rector of the seminary, Father Joseph Gatto, was recently placed on leave following allegations of misconduct with an adult.
• 'I'm not a dictator,' Texas bishop says in response to public criticism (Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
  Bishop Michael Olson, 52, was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Fort Worth in 1994 and Bishop of Fort Worth in 2014.
• Detroit archbishop 'tempted to discouragement' by lack of progress on abuse (ClickOnDetroit)
  In an Advent Letter to the faithful of the Detroit archdiocese, Archbishop Allen Vigneron admitted that he is “tempted to discouragement in the face of the ongoing abuse crisis,” and voiced his regret at the Vatican directive that stopped the US bishops from approving new policies to hold bishops accountable.
• Primate chosen for independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church (CWN)
  Meeting in Kiev on December 15, Ukrainian Orthodox bishops elected Metropolitan Epifanyj of Perejasalv-Khmel'nitsky to become the primate of an autocephalous (self-governing) Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
• Pope sharpens attack on death penalty, a 'state crime' (CWN)
  Pope Francis has sharpened his criticism of the death penalty, saying that previous Church teachings in support of capital punishment were “more legalistic than Christian.”
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