This week’s stories ranged from mountain climbing monks and a special blessing of motorcyclists at Fátima to “buffer zones” that will be put in place around all abortion clinics in the UK and five executions in five U.S. states happening in the span of one week. We also had coverage of the war in Ukraine, including this video from near the war front with the metropolitan archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia.
Below is a selection of other stories from this week — keep an eye out for more in your local Catholic news source, and on our social media and our website osvnews.com.
Megan Marley
Digital Editor
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PAPAL TRIP: It’s now become a tradition. A group of homeless people who sleep underneath Bernini’s Colonnade in Rome have a special task on the day Pope Francis departs from the Vatican for his apostolic trips: They greet the pope and wish him “buon viaggio,” or “good trip,” before he leaves Santa Marta and boards his plane to go to other parts of the world, near and far.
BEHIND THE SCENES: “Belgium volunteers, church officials roll up their sleeves for Pope Francis’ visit“
In a Sept. 26 letter to his diocese, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa said the region “plunged into a vortex of violence and hatred never seen or experienced before” as Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in southern communities, taking almost 250 people hostage Oct. 7, 2023. In the subsequent Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, at least 41,467 people, including nearly 16,500 children, have been killed to date, its health ministry said.
A federal judge in North Dakota sided with the Catholic Benefits Association in its lawsuit against the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over two regulations the group says violate Catholics’ religious beliefs.
In one of her strongest statements on restoring a national right to abortion as it existed under the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade ruling of 1973, Vice President Kamala Harris has said she would support eliminating the filibuster in the U.S. Senate in order to bring back federal protections for a woman’s right to an abortion as they existed under Roe.
Three years after being approved by the U.S. Catholic bishops, updates to the ritual texts for distribution of holy Communion outside of Mass and for Eucharistic adoration will be implemented on the First Sunday of Advent, Dec. 1, 2024.
In a statement published on social media Sept. 23, Caritas International said it was “shocked by the news of the death of our colleague, Dieudonné Barondezi, director of the Caritas branch in Kalonge, in the Democratic Republic of Congo.”
Marielle Boutros, project coordinator in Lebanon for the pontifical charity Aid to the Church in Need, said that although Hezbollah is meant to be the intended target of Israel’s attacks, civilians, including Christians, are bearing the brunt of the aggression.
As National Suicide Prevention Month draws to a close, a Catholic mental health expert told OSV News that open, ongoing conversations about suicide are crucial.
INTERNATIONAL: “Swiss bishop warns suicide capsule is ‘dangerous’ as American woman dies in it“
USCCB: “Novena for mental health seeks healing, awareness, action on issue“
INTERVIEW: OSV News recently spoke with Father Michael Bechard, who alleges in a civil lawsuit filed in March with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice that he was sexually abused by Basilian Father Thomas Rosica, a Vatican media expert, founder of a prominent Canadian national Catholic television network and organizer of the 2002 Toronto World Youth Day. The suit also names Father Rosica’s order, the Basilian Fathers of Toronto. For his part, Father Rosica has denied any improper conduct and maintained his innocence.
Can humanity survive the digital age? The answer — according to an Institute for Human Ecology panel convened Sept. 17 at The Catholic University of America in Washington — is basically this: It depends.
