Catholic News

• 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.
• USCCB president announces legislative priorities (USCCB)
  In a letter to all members of Congress, Archbishop Timothy Broglio, the president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, outlined the USCCB’s legislative priorities, under the headings “Strengthen support for women, children, and families,” “Address the needs of the poor and marginalized at home and abroad,” and “A humane response to newcomers and a commitment to fixing our broken immigration system.” Under the first heading, he discussed abortion, gender ideology, pornography, parental choice in education, human trafficking, and drug abuse, as well as “a strengthened child tax credit, paid family leave, and stronger maternal and child healthcare.”
• American tourist desecrates statue of Christ in Catholic church in Jerusalem (CNA)
  The vandalism took place at the Church of the Flagellation. As he was arrested, the tourist reportedly shouted, “You can’t have idols in Jerusalem, this is the Holy City!”
• Tweet on the middle finger posted, deleted from Pope's Twitter account (Our Sunday Visitor)
  Pope Francis tweeted a series of reflections on the fingers, excerpted from an address in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. “The middle finger, which is higher than the others, reminds us of something essential: honesty. To be honest means not getting entangled in the snares of corruption,” he tweeted.
• 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.
• Over Catholic protests, Minnesota lawmakers enact extreme abortion law (Our Sunday Visitor)
  The new law “is part of the most extreme abortion legislative agenda in Minnesota history, allowing for abortion for any reason and at any time without regulation,” said Archbishop Bernard Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis. “How disturbing that a pre-born child whose heart is beating, who can feel pain and who may even be viable outside the womb is treated with such disdain.”
• Catholic leaders applaud Pope's call for 'hands off' Africa (Crux)
  
• 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.’”
• Cardinal George Pell's funeral, in 6 magnificent dimensions (National Catholic Register)
  “In its 150-plus years, St. Mary’s [Cathedral in Sydney] has never been witness to an event quite like the funeral of the late Cardinal George Pell, a great drama in its own right,” writes Father Raymond de Souza. “It was a sacred pageant which unfolded in six magnificent dimensions — liturgical, musical, spiritual, historical, hagiographical and memorial.”
• Retired Italian bishop: Abortion is not murder before the 4th or 5th month of pregnancy (L'Espresso)
  Bishop Luigi Bettazzi said that a fetus does not become a person until the fourth or fifth month of pregnancy. The 99-year-old prelate was Auxiliary Bishop of Bologna (1963-66) and Bishop of Ivrea (1966-99).
• 'Mending the nets' --USCCB education chair Daly on Catholic schools (Pillar)
  “You can’t have a Catholic school if you don’t have it solid in its theology and if you aren’t clear on its mission,” said Bishop Thomas Daly of Spokane, chairman of the US bishops’ Committee on Catholic Education.
• President Biden urges unity at National Prayer Breakfast (AP)
  “Every time I’d walk out of my Grandfather Finnegan’s house in Scranton, he’d yell, ‘Joey, keep the faith,’” President Biden said on February 2. “And my grandmother would yell, ‘No, Joey, spread it. Spread it.’”
• Pope urges youth in Congo toward prayer, peace (Vatican Press Office)
  “Life is more than just tapping a screen with a finger,” Pope Francis told an audience of young people in the Democratic Republic of Congo on February 2. The Pope told the youngsters that “we need prayer, a living prayer.” Pope Francis opened his talk by inviting the members of the young audience to “look at your hands.” He told them that in their hands, God has placed the future of their nation. But in an obvious reference to the civil war still plaguing the Congo, he reminded them that Cain “raised his hand against his brother.” He implored them to be instruments of peace.
• Courage leader challenges Father Martin's tweets on same-sex marriage (National Catholic Register)
  According to its mission statement, “Courage members are men and women who experience same-sex attractions and who have made a commitment to strive for chastity. They are inspired by the Gospel call to holiness and the Catholic Church’s beautiful teachings about the goodness and inherent purpose of human sexuality.”
• Archbishop Aquila responds to Cardinal McElroy's article on 'radical inclusion' (Catholic World Report)
  Responding to an article by Cardinal Robert McElroy of San Diego, Archbishop Samuel of Aquila of Denver writes that “Cardinal McElroy’s reflection paints the Church as an institution that harms due to its incapacity to welcome everyone into full participation in the life of the Church.” “According to His Eminence, the Church categorically discriminates, but did not Jesus himself put demands on his disciples which distinguished them from those who did not respond to the radical and costly call of the Gospel?”
• USCCB president: bishops are united against evil of abortion (USCCB)
  Responding to President Biden’s suggestion that Pope Francis and some US bishops support federal funding of abortion, Archbishop Timothy Broglio, the president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, said that “the Catholic bishops of the United States are united in our commitment to life and will continue to work as one body in Christ to make abortion unthinkable.” He added, “As the Holy Father, Pope Francis, has said, ‘It is not right to ‘do away with’ a human being, however small, in order to solve a problem. It is like hiring a hitman.’”
• +Metropolitan John Zizioulas, 92 (Orthodox Times)
  Metropolitan John Zizioulas of Pergamon, a leading Greek Orthodox theologian, died at the age of 92. In 2015, he spoke at the Vatican press conference for the presentation of Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato si’. The following year, he retired as co-president of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue Between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church.
• Cardinal George Pell: Mourners and protesters clash at Sydney funeral (BBC)
  
• Stop blaming apartheid regime for South Africa's failures, bishops say (ACI Africa)
  “We deplore the use by some political leaders of the legacy of apartheid as an excuse for their failure to do their job and deliver the necessary services,” the bishops said. South Africa’s apartheid regime of racial segregation ended in the early 1990s.
• Victims of violence in Congo share their grief with Pope (CNS)
  On February 1, the second day of his apostolic journey to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Pope Francis met with victims of violence from the eastern part of the nation (map), the site of the Kivu conflict. The meeting took place in the apostolic nunciature in Kinshasa, the nation’s capital.
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