Sagrada Familia basilica 
Glenmary Challenge editor wins St Francis de Sales Award
John Feister, assistant editor of Glenmary Challenge, is the recipient of the 2020 St Francis de Sales Award from the Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada.
The award – named for the patron saint of writers and journalists – recognises “outstanding contributions to Catholic journalism” and is the highest honour given by the CPA.
The announcement was made on July 2, via a pre-recorded video released as a premiere on social media during the 2020 Catholic Media Conference, which was held virtually using digital technology due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Catholic college cemetery reconsecrated after vandalism
Two days after a vandal defaced some of the gravestones and a central cross with swastikas at the Dominican Cemetery at Providence College in the US, Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence reconsecrated and rededicated the sacred grounds where Dominican friars have been buried since the college’s founding in 1917.
“Today we come to pray that God will cleanse us. That God will cleanse our world, our nation, our community, our church and this place of vandalism from all sense of anger and division, violence and vandalism, leaving a kind of peace that only the presence of God in the end can give us,” Bishop Tobin said.
Argentina government urged to increase Covid-19 response
A bishop and priests serving the shanty towns surrounding Buenos Aires, Argentina, warn of Covid-19 spreading through their densely populated communities and said an inadequate response from health authorities is causing people to turn to parishes.
“We are entering the most critical moment of the pandemic and our parishes are accompanying their communities with many different actions. We cannot, nor do we want to, to replace the state. But we can and do want to collaborate,” said in a statement signed by Bishop Eduardo Garcia of San Justo, in suburban Buenos Aires, and 11 of his priests.
US state bans abortion on sex, race, genetic disability
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed the Life Equality Act into law last week, banning abortion based on sex, race or genetic abnormality. The law went into effect upon passage.
About two thirds of all children prenatally diagnosed with Down syndrome are aborted. Several countries have prohibited ultrasounds to determine the sex of an unborn child due to the prevalence of sex-selective abortions. The Life Equality Act was authored by Rep. Carolyn Crawford.
Sagrada Família in Spain reopens
The Sagrada Família in Spain [pictured], designed by Antoni Gaudí, reopened its doors on July 4 following a more than 100-day closure due to the coronavirus crisis.
The unfinished basilica, which was forced to close to tourists on March 13, offered free entry to medical workers and their families in the first phase of its reopening.
Cardinal Juan José Omella, the archbishop of Barcelona and president of the Spanish bishops’ conference, met with the presidents of the colleges of physicians, pharmacists, nurses, and physiotherapists on the same day.
