Bishops praise Biden for committing vaccines to needy
The president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and the chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on International Justice and Peace praised President Joe Biden June 23 for his commitment to provide 500 million Covid-19 vaccines to lower-income countries.
This was recently matched by the G-7 nations, bringing the total of vaccines to 1 billion.
“As world leaders work together to help bring an end to this pandemic, we are grateful for President Biden’s leadership to aid the poor and vulnerable around the world who remain most at-risk,” said Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles, USCCB president, and Bishop David Malloy of Rockford, Illinois.
Priest ordained in diocese after decade without vocations
On June 20, Bishop César Franco of the Diocese of Segovia, Spain, ordained Álvaro Marín Molinera to the priesthood – almost 11 years after the last priest was ordained for the small diocese.
Family, friends and a broad representation of the priests and deacons of the province also attended the ordination ceremony in the cathedral.
Fr Marín, 27, was ordained a deacon in October 2020, and received formation at the University of Ávila and the Pontifical University of Salamanca.
The last ordination of diocesan priests in the diocese was on July 4, 2010. Bishop Franco also ordained a young Claretian religious to the priesthood on June 5.
Marian statue untouched by car bombing at army base
A statue of the Virgin Mary was unharmed by an attack carried out against the 30th Brigade of Colombia’s National Army June 16.
A car bomb exploded at the military base in Cúcuta, injuring 36 people.
The Diocese for the Military of Colombia said on social media that the intact image serves to “maintain the faith among the soldiers”, and that there’s a feeling of “a miracle”.
The military diocese pointed out that the “Virgin of Protection”, which remained intact after the explosions, “was handmade by the soldiers who are stationed with the Land Operations Battalion No. 9, right where the truck with explosives was”.
Kidnappers free Catholic priest and four others in Mali
Kidnappers freed a Catholic priest and four other people last Wednesday in the West African nation of Mali.
Gunmen released Fr Léon Douyon on June 23, 72 hours after seizing him, reported the French public radio service RFI.
The five kidnap victims were dropped off at the roadside between Bankass and Bandiagara, within the Diocese of Mopti.
All five are said to be in good health, reported ACI Africa.
Major Abass Dembélé, the governor of the Mopti region, central Mali, said that the five were freed after the kidnappers’ vehicle broke down not far from Mali’s border with Burkina Faso.
Pro-democracy Hong Kong paper announces closure
Hong Kong’s pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily will print its final edition “no later than Saturday”, bosses confirmed June 23, after police froze accounts and arrested staff using a new national security law.
Apple Daily has shown support for the city’s pro-democracy movement and has criticised China’s authoritarian leaders.
Ucanews.com, citing an Agence France-Presse article, reports Chinese authorities have made no secret of their desire to see the newspaper silenced and have used a sweeping new national security law to bring about its demise.
Apple Daily’s Catholic owner, Jimmy Lai, is in jail and was among the first to be charged under the law.
