Catholic News

• China: still no 'yes' to Vatican agreement (AsiaNews)
  Asked by a Japanese reporter to comment on the extension of provisional Sino-Vatican agreement, the spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry said that the provisional agreement “has been working smoothly since it was reached two years ago” and did not comment on its potential extension.
• Vatican diplomat criticizes UN Covid resolution (Holy See Mission)
  “The Holy See considers it most unfortunate that the adopted resolution includes the deeply concerning and divisive reference to ‘sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights,’” said Archbishop Gabriele Giordano Caccia, apostolic nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations. The resolution was adopted in a 169-2 vote, with the United States and Israel voting against it.
• Pope to Philippine Catholic schools: Form authentic witnesses to Christ (CBCP News)
  The Pope sent a message to the annual conference of the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines.
• US bishops decry new federal executions (USCCB)
  “After the first murder recorded in the Bible, God did not end Cain’s life, but rather preserved it, warning others not to kill Cain (Gn. 4:15),” said the chairmen of the US bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development and Committee on Pro-Life Activities. “In the last 60 years, before the Trump administration restarted federal executions, there were only four federal executions. Since July, there have been five ... We say to President Trump and Attorney General Barr: Enough. Stop these executions.”
• Pope prays for Covid-struck Cuba (Vatican News)
  “I ask the Lord, through the intercession of Our Lady of Charity of Cobre, to free them and alleviate them in these difficult times they are going through because of the pandemic,” Ppe Francis said, as he recalled his 2015 apostolic journey there.
• Vatican silent on the Abraham Accords (Crux)
  Analyzing the Vatican’s silence on recent Middle East peace agreements brokered by President Trump, John Allen writes that “the Vatican can’t object to any step that seems to promote peace, but it also doesn’t have to go out of its way to praise figures [President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] about whom it has reservations on multiple fronts.” In addition, “the Holy See definitely wants peace in the Middle East, but this isn’t really their plan for it.”
• EU bishops urge action to protect asylum seekers (COMECE)
  “These people came to Europe for help, and we left them as refugees in camps,” said Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, SJ, president of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union, following a fire at the Lésvos refugee camp (for whose victims the Pope has expressed solidarity). “It is a shame for Europe. What is on fire is not only the camp of Moria, but also the identity of Europe. We cannot claim Europe’s Christian roots if we leave people in despair.”
• DR Congo bishops call for fair election laws (Vatican News)
  The general secretary of the National Episcopal Conference of Congo (map) called on citizens to “block the path of any majority or minority political party who might want to take our country and our future hostage by political deception.”
• Papal gratitude to Cardinal Sodano on 70th anniversary of priestly ordination (L'Osservatore Romano (Italian))
  Pope Francis thanked the 93-year-old former Vatican Secretary of State (2001-06) and dean of the College of Cardinals (2005-19) for his “faithful and diligent service to the Church and the Holy See.” In 2000, Pope St. John Paul II wrote a letter for the 50th anniversary of the prelate’s ordination.
• Costa Rican bishops criticize nation's economic model (Fides)
  The Central American nation of 5 million (map) is 76% Catholic and 19% Protestant. “Inequality, poverty and unemployment are only consequences of an economic model that does not place the human being at the center of its development,” the bishops said.
• Kenyan government approves Catholic TV station operated by bishops (Vatican News)
  The East African nation of 49.1 million (map) is 61% Protestant, 21% Catholic, 8% Muslim, and 8% ethnic religionist. Pope Francis made an apostolic journey there in 2015.
• Macron decries 'Islamic separatism,' defends blasphemy (AP)
  Freedom in France, the president said at a naturalization ceremony, includes “the freedom to believe or not to believe. But this is inseparable from the freedom of expression up to the right to blasphemy.”
• Displaced persons can be a positive force of change, Vatican cardinal says (Vatican News)
  Cardinal Michael Czerny, SJ, is Undersecretary of the Migrants and Refugees Section of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.
• South Sudanese bishop warns against tribalism (Fides)
  “God your Creator is also the Creator of all, this automatically means that all other human beings are in the image of God and that no tribe is better than other tribes,” said Bishop Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala of Tombura-Yambio in South Sudan, a nation with over five dozen ethnic groups. “Consequently you cannot in the name of your tribe humiliate another tribe, you cannot in the name of your tribe deprive another tribe and you cannot in the name of your tribe oppress other human beings.”
• Knights of Holy Sepulchre give $3.5M in emergency aid to Holy Land (CNS)
  The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem issued a statement on how it will use the aid.
• Pompeo visits Catholic-run refugee center, parish in Brazil (CNS)
  The US Secretary of State said that Brazil has “provided shelter to nearly 265,000 Venezuelans who are deeply in need. Thank you for that. I met with some of these individuals. We spoke to a handful of them. They want what all human beings want: dignity.”
• Vatican Secretary of State pays tribute to UN on 75th anniversary (Holy See Mission)
  “The United Nations is not perfect and it has not always lived up to its name and ideals, and it has harmed itself whenever particular interests have triumphed over the common good,” Cardinal Pietro Parolin cautioned during the September 21 UN virtual meeting. Nonetheless, “the United Nations Organization, where the peoples of the world unite in dialogue and common action, is needed as much today as ever to respond to the undiminished hopes of the peoples of the world.”
• 2 Catholic women judges top short list as possible Supreme Court nominees (CNS)
  The two are Amy Coney Barrett (7th Circuit Court Court of Appeals, Chicago) and Barbara Lagoa (11th Circuit Court Court of Appeals, Atlanta). In 2017, pro-lifers applauded Barrett’s confirmation; during the hearings, Senators Durbin and Feinstein criticized Barrett for her faith.
• Bible translated into Pazande (Vatican News)
  A bishop in South Sudan (map) has announced the translation of Sacred Scripture into Pazande, also known as Zande. Numbering 4 million, the Zande live in South Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Central African Republic (Encyclopaedia Britannica article).
• Catholic schools stay open in Wisconsin; court date set over Covid closure order (Catholic World Report)
  The Wisconsin Supreme Court has issued an injunction that temporarily prevents a county health department from closing in-person schools.
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