Ecuadorian priest awarded for feeding hundreds daily The Mayor’s Office of Guayaquil awarded Fr Wilson Malavé Parrales, director of the Lord of Good Hope Soup Kitchen for the Brother in Need, with the Urban Heroes Medal of Merit. The July 25 award ceremony commemorated the 486th anniversary of the founding of the city. The Archdiocese…
Category: World Report
Former Cardinal McCarrick charged with 1970s assault case
The Boston Globe reported July 29 that police in the Boston suburb of Wellesley have charged former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick with three counts of indecent assault and battery on a person over 14 in a criminal complaint filed by Wellesley Police in a district court in nearby Dedham, Massachusetts. A summons has been issued ordering…
US Supreme Court to rule on abortion x-case
Many would like to believe the US Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalising abortion settled the issue “once and for all”, but instead “all it did was establish a special-rules regime for abortion jurisprudence”, said Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch. This “has left these cases out of step with other court decisions and neutral principles…
Champion weightlifter’s faith inspires her homeland
Philippine weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz lifted not only weights, but her entire country following her gold medal success at the Tokyo Olympics. Ms Diaz’s victory came in the women’s 55-kilogram weightlifting event July 26, which saw her set an Olympic record after lifting a combined weight of 224 kg. Following her final lift, Ms Diaz, 30,…
Sympathisers in Nigeria stall fight against militants, priest says
Boko Haram sympathisers and others who support Nigeria being an Islamic State are stalling the fight against militants in the West African country, a local priest has said. According to Fr George Ehusani, a priest of the Diocese of Lokoja and executive director of the Lux Terra Leadership Foundation, many of those secretly backing the…
Vatican reports €66.3 million deficit, also releases APSA report
The Vatican reported the Roman Curia had a €66.3 million deficit in 2020, and on the same day, the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See, which administers Vatican properties and investments, made a summary of its annual budget public for the first time. Releasing both reports July 24, the Vatican said the coronavirus pandemic had a serious negative impact…
Ethiopia’s bishops plead for peace in Tigray
As the war over control of Ethiopia’s Tigray region expands into neighbouring regions, the country’s bishops on Saturday urged an end to the violence. “It saddens our hearts hearing about war while we all would like to hear about peace and reconciliation,” read a July 17 statement from the Ethiopian bishops’ conference. The conference had…
Cuban government preparing a law regulating dissidents’ defence lawyers
Cuba’s communist government has drafted a law that would equate the role of dissidents’ defence lawyers with that of public officials. In May, the People’s Supreme Court, Cuba’s highest judicial authority, drew up a series of legislative proposals that it sent to the island’s legislature, the National Assembly of People’s Power, for passage. Among these…
USCCB general secretary resigns; reports allege ‘improper behaviour’
Msgr. Jeffrey D. Burrill, the general secretary of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops since November, has resigned from the post after the USCCB “became aware of impending media reports alleging possible improper behaviour by Msgr. Burrill”, said Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, USCCB president. In a July 20 memo to bishops, Archbishop…
Cardinal seeks saint’s intercession to save Lebanon from ‘total collapse’
Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai has implored Lebanon’s patron saint to help save the country from “total collapse” amid one of the worst financial crises the world has seen in decades. In a homily for the feast of St Charbel, the leader of Lebanon’s Maronite Catholics said that he sought the intercession of the 19th-century Lebanese…