OSV News

Since Hamas' attack on Israel Oct. 7, 2023, and the immediate start of the Israel-Hamas war, Pope Francis has provided daily spiritual solace to Gaza Strip's only Catholic parish.

Relief efforts are under way to help communities across western North Carolina reeling from the impacts of Tropical Storm Helene. Unprecedented flooding from the storm swamped municipal water systems, washed away roads and downed utility lines — leaving many mountain communities cut off Sept. 27 and in critical need of emergency aid.

The Sept. 26, 2014, attack on the students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Normal School, a rural teachers college for young men, shocked Mexico, which had become seemingly inured to grizzly stories of drug cartel violence. Ten years later, the case remains in the realm of impunity, despite widespread societal outrage, parental searches and Mexican and international investigations.

Catholic Mobilizing Network, a group that advocates for the abolition of capital punishment in line with Catholic teaching, urged its supporters to speak out against what it called a "regressive" trend of five executions in five states in the span of one week.

In a summer of firsts, mountain-climbing Benedictine monks of Mount Angel Abbey took to the heights — their locally brewed beer tucked in backpacks — ascending renowned peaks in the Pacific Northwest during the season's brief window of opportunity.

The Franciscan college in New York state will host a two-day gathering on integral ecology and sustainability with a focus on creating a "global vision with local meaning" to care for creation. The free symposium, set to take place both in person and online, will also include several panel discussions, exhibitor displays, prayer and a concluding performance of short plays about climate change, sustainability and climate justice, several of them written and performed by Siena students.

This five-year project called "Nuevo Momento: Leadership and Capacity Building for Ministerial Organizations Serving Hispanic Catholics", supported by a $15 million from the Lilly Endowment Inc., seeks to empower organizations through four building blocks: strong organizational capacity, a path toward economic or financial sustainability, leadership training and renewal, and a grant to strengthen its internal capacity.

Whatever the outcome of America's Nov. 5 presidential election, migrant and refugee advocates are predicting a challenging environment, said participants in a Sept. 24 video conference tackling the topic of how election results may impact Central America and those who are migrating through the region or coming from there to reach the U.S.-Mexico border.

The director of Caritas in Congo was shot and killed by an armed militant group while approaching a roadblock, Caritas Internationalis announced.

Ending poverty, ensuring nuclear disarmament and regulating artificial intelligence, or AI, were among the issues highlighted by the Holy See at the 2024 United Nations Summit of the Future, held Sept. 22-23 in New York at U.N. headquarters.

"And although I understand not everyone shares my views, I am fundamentally and morally opposed to state law enabling someone, even under tragic and painful circumstances, to take their own life," Carney, a Democrat, said in a statement.

The Sunday collection in Polish churches Sept. 22 has been entirely dedicated to Caritas Poland for the flood relief. While numbers from the collection are still unknown, Poles already donated millions to flood relief efforts through the Catholic Church's biggest charity.

The USCCB release highlighted the beginning of National Migration Week —  observed Sept. 23-29 this year —  and calls "attention to the challenges confronting migrants and refugees, from their country of origin to their destination, and how Church teaching calls on Catholics to respond with compassionate acts of love."

Harris and the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump, were expected to share a multi-tiered dais with New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, the event's host, and other church, political, business and social luminaries at the 79th Dinner of the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation. Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, reportedly plans to spend the time campaigning.

The Ohio bishops said, "Throughout our nation's history, Catholic immigrants have come to our shores seeking freedom to worship and raise their families." They quoted Pope Pius XII's 1952 apostolic constitution, "Exsul Familia Nazarethana," in which the pope observed, "Indeed, there never has been a period during which the church has not been active on behalf of migrants, exiles and refugees."

"We are deeply devastated by the flood," Auxiliary Bishop John Bakeni of Maiduguri said in a statement sent to OSV News Sept. 18. "Our hearts go out to the families who have tragically lost their loved ones, homes and livelihoods in this calamity."

A bipartisan, bicameral group of lawmakers gathered Sept. 18 to call for the immediate release from prison of prominent Hong Kong Catholic, philanthropist and media mogul Jimmy Lai, who is facing a trial on what they called bogus charges.

The Diocese of Buffalo, New York, plans to reduce the total number of its 160 parishes by 51% following a Sept. 10 announcement of final decisions on closures and mergers. Father Bryan Zielenieski, vicar for renewal and development, said in the news conference 118 churches would remain open in the Western New York diocese. He said 79 of those would be parishes and 39 would be secondary worship sites (or churches whose functions are restricted).

According to Lebanon's National News Agency, Cardinal Bechara Rai, patriarch of the Maronite Catholic Church, "voiced his profound pain over the catastrophe affecting nearly 3,000 Lebanese citizens, some of whom have died and others who remain in critical condition following an Israeli attack involving the detonation of pager devices."

As the Emmaus Community for the poor investigates accusations of sexual abuse against its once-iconic, now disgraced, founder Abbé Pierre, the case made international headlines as Pope Francis commented on it while on his return voyage to Rome from Asia last week. A few days later, the French national daily Le Monde published an editorial by the president of the French bishops' conference, which urged the Vatican to cooperate in an investigation.