In brief

In brief Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco. Photo: CNS
Cardinal hospitalised with Covid after attending Eucharistic Congress

Cardinal and President of the Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe, Angelo Bagnasco, has been hospitalised with Covid after travelling to the International Eucharistic Congress in Budapest.

The cardinal, 78, had been fully vaccinated since May. He tested positive for Covid upon his return to Italy from Hungary and was hospitalised immediately after.

He is one of a number of Catholic cardinals to have contracted Covid since the pandemic began, the most notable being Cardinal Raymond Burke, whose hospitalisation and subsequent recovery from the virus drew attention in light of his previous anti-vaccine sentiments.

 

Colombian bishop implores ill woman to not be euthanised

The head of the Colombian bishops’ Commission for the Promotion and Defence of Life on Wednesday addressed a video message to Martha Liria Sepúlveda Campo, a 51-year-old woman who is sick but not terminally so, urging her to renege her decision to be euthanised.

In an October 6 message addressed to Ms Campo, Bishop Francisco Antonio Ceballos Escobar of Riohacha said that “your affliction can find a transcendent meaning if it becomes a call to love that heals, love that renews, love that forgives.”

Ms Campo, 51, has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which last year made her unable to move her legs.

 

300,000 attend pro-life march in Mexico City

More than 300,000 people participated in a march in favour of women and life in Mexico City, with more than 1 million people involved associated marches across the country.

The participants of the march listened to testimonies and messages. On stage, a doctor performed an ultrasound on a mother 38 weeks pregnant, allowing the participants in the march to hear the baby’s heartbeat.

The coordinator of the march, Marcial Padilla, shared his testimony with his wife Mayela Sepúlveda and their 9-year-old daughter Ana Paula, who has a “very severe brain injury.”

While “some might think that Ana Paula is worthless, or that her life has no meaning, it is exactly the opposite. Her life is wonderful by itself”, she said.

Cuban priest denounces socialism as a ‘failure’

Fr Alberto Reyes Pías, a priest of the Archdiocese of Camagüey, pleaded via Facebook with those possessing left-wing tendencies in the socialist hegemon and asked them to recognise the failure of the socialist model that was imposed on Cuba 62 years ago.

Addressing the country’s hierarchy, Fr Alberto stated that, “the Cuban model has been a failure, and I humbly ask the Left to end up accepting that, because while you refuse to accept it and boast of continuing to say to a dead person: ‘come on, you can do it,’ my people suffer.”

“We suffer from the uncertainty of a social model where we have practically no control over our present or our future”, the priest submitted.

 

A 1,200-year-old Vatican Library manuscript is on display at Dubai Expo

The Vatican Library has a ninth-century manuscript currently on display at the Dubai Expo.

Three original manuscripts from the Vatican Apostolic Library are part of a Holy See exhibit on display until March 31, 2022, at the world’s fair in the United Arab Emirates.

The oldest of the documents is an Arabic translation of the Greek scholar Theon of Alexandria’s introduction to Ptolemy’s, “Handy Tables” produced between 800 AD and 830 AD by the Bayt al-Ḥikmah, or House of Wisdom, in Baghdad.

It is the first time that the manuscript has left the Vatican Library.