Catholic News

• Cardinal Pell's conviction upheld; Vatican, Australian bishops react (CWN)
  In a 2-1 ruling, an Australian appeals court has upheld the conviction of Cardinal George Pell on charges of sexually abusing two choir boys in the Melbourne cathedral in 1996.
• Beware of hypocrisy, Pope warns in general audience devoted to fraternal charity (Vatican News)
  On May 29, Pope Francis began a series of audiences devoted to the Acts of the Apostles. On August 21 (video), he reflected on Acts 4:32-35.
• Fearing Turkish invasion, Christians in northeastern Syria appeal for prayer, safety (CNS)
  Turkey has “massed its army and allied jihadists along the border,” three Syriac Christian organizations warned. “Even though the US and French armies are present in northeast Syria, we know that Turkey will attack and destroy us.”
• Mexican bishops: It is urgent to stop violence against women (Fides)
  After protesters damaged a national monument, Archbishop Víctor Sánchez Espinosa said that “the recent protests by women, accompanied by vandalism, are not the best way to express dissent.”
• Muslim-Catholic committee created to promote document signed by Pope, grand imam (Vatican News)
  Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar signed the Document on Human Fraternity in Abu Dhabi in February.
• Holy See, Vietnam begin 8th round of talks toward diplomatic relations (Vatican News)
  The first meeting of the Vietnam — Holy See Joint Working Group was held in 2009. Vietnam, a Communist nation of 97 million, is 7% Catholic.
• Chinese Christian prisoner released; pastor's whereabouts unknown (AsiaNews)
  “Persecution is a price worth paying for the Lord,” said Li Yingqiang, an elder at Early Rain Covenant Church, an independent Chinese Protestant community.
• Contribute to Congo's development, bishops' conference urges multinational corporations (CNS)
  “Instead of contributing to our country’s development and benefiting our people, however, our mineral, petrol and forest resources have become the cause of our misfortune,” said Msgr. Donatien Nshole, secretary-general of the bishops’ conference. “Our fellow-citizens find themselves stripped of their lands, without any reward or compensation, through concessions and sales made to this or that mine or forest exploiter.”
• LCWR resolves to focus on migration, racism, and climate change (Leadership Conference of Women Religious)
  The religious superiors who belong to the Leadership Conference of Women Religious represent nearly 80% of the 44,000 religious sisters in the United States; they voted to affirm the resolution at their 2019 assembly.
• Planned Parenthood withdraws from Title X program over Trump administration's abortion rule (NPR)
  In March, the chairman of the US bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, while restating the Church’s “strong objections to government promotion and funding of contraceptives,” praised the Trump administration’s new rule separating abortion from Title X family planning.
• India expels 86-year-old Spanish nun who helped the poor (UCANews)
  The Indian government did not state why it declined to renew the visa of Sister Enedina, a Daughter of Charity who first came to India in 1965.
• Scranton diocese begins probe of national shrine's rector (CNA)
  “Approximately one year ago, concerns were raised in the public sector regarding Msgr. Walter Rossi, a priest who was incardinated in the Diocese of Scranton but who has served more than 20 years at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception,” the Pennsylvania diocese said in a statement. “The Diocese of Scranton referred those initial concerns to the Archdiocese of Washington, which investigated certain specific allegations and determined them to be unfounded. Additional concerns have now surfaced, however, requiring a broadened investigation.”
• In book preface, Pope Francis gives boost to popular movements (Vatican News)
  Pope Francis has written the preface to the Pontifical Commission for Latin America’s new work, “La irrupción de los movimientos populares: Rerum novarum de nuestro tiempo” [The Emergence of Popular Movements: Rerum Novarum of Our Time]. Rerum Novarum is Pope Leo XIII’s landmark 1891 social encyclical.
• 'False and gratuitous': Indian bishop criticizes judge's comments (AsiaNews)
  “This court feels it appropriate to point out that Christian missionaries are always the source of attack in one way or the other and, in the present era, there are several accusations against them for indulging in compulsory conversion of people of other religions into Christianity,” a state high court judge recently said.
• Minnesota archdiocese names abuse survivor to coordinate outreach efforts (The Catholic Spirit)
  “I was blessed in that I never blamed God for it,” said Paula Kaempffer, Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ new Outreach Coordinator for Restorative Justice and Abuse Prevention. “We have to be careful of the language we use. We often say, ‘the Church did that to me.’ The Church didn’t do that. The clergy, or the hierarchy, did that to you.”
• Hong Kong priest decries government oppression (AsiaNews)
  “This is about people being abused by the government, people being falsely arrested by the police, people being unfairly prosecuted by the Department of Justice,” said Father Carlos Cheung. “As Christians who are well familiar with words of justice, do we choose to remain silent when the world needs us to speak up?”
• Myanmar fighting forces people to take shelter at churches, monasteries (CNS)
  Rebels backed by China have targeted Christians in Myanmar’s Shan State (map). The state is 81% Buddhist, 10% Christian, and 7% animist.
• Pope Francis blesses 6,000 rosaries, gifts to console Syrian families (Aid to the Church in Need)
  “The rosaries, made at the initiative of Aid to the Church in Need, are a sign of my closeness to our brothers and sisters in Syria,” Pope Francis said following his August 15 Angelus address. “We continue to pray the Rosary for peace in the Middle East and around the world.”
• Papuans seek Vatican probe into deaths of churchmen (UCANews)
  “Many Catholics in Papua believe the recent deaths of several indigenous priests and a bishop were not due to illness but the result of a conspiracy to end their fight for the rights of local people,” according to the report.
• Flood of claims emerges as NY suspends its statute of limitations on child sex abuse (PBS NewsHour)
  427 lawsuits were filed against dioceses, the Boy Scouts, and other entities on the first day of the yearlong suspension of the statute.
• More...