Daily News

Archives: From marshy to manicured: Gardens’ gruesome past grows into green haven

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Today’s lush and immaculately manicured Vatican Gardens were once just a sprawl of mosquito-infested swamps, clay hillsides and hardy grape vines. The wild, unpopulated landscape on the fringes of early Rome slowly shifted as it changed to accommodate historical events over the course of 2,000 years: the martyrdom and burial of…

“Acts That Diminish or Disregard the Dignity of Any Person or Group of People Should Never Be Normalized in Our Society,” Say Bishop Garcia and Bishop Cahill

WASHINGTON – In light of several recent immigration enforcement encounters resulting in the loss of life, Bishop Daniel E. Garcia, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Subcommittee for the Promotion of Racial Justice and Reconciliation, and Bishop Brendan J. Cahill, chairman of the Committee on Migration, issued the following pastoral reflection:   “As…

Archives: Paul VI accused Archbishop Lefebvre of acting like an ‘antipope’

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Confronting a rebel archbishop’s accusations and acts of defiance was the heaviest cross St. Paul VI had to bear in his pontificate, said a 2018 book based on never-before published notes and documents. After years of correspondence and efforts at convincing Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, founder of the traditionalist Society of St.…

Church needs simpler, better ways to explain synodality, some bishops say

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Hesitation and resistance to the Church’s synodal journey can be addressed with clearer explanations, better training and more hands-on experience of what synodality is, bishops representing North America said. “A very clear takeaway is the need for more formation in synodality, including its meaning, its methods and its spirituality,” Archbishop Paul…

On U.S. Independence Day, Pope Leo honors migrants in Lampedusa

LAMPEDUSA, Italy (CNS) — For more than 30 years, Dr. Pietro Bartolo said he has examined more than 350,000 people and performed postmortem examinations on those who died making the crossing to Lampedusa, where migrants rescued from the Mediterranean first arrived. One story, he said, has stayed with him. After a shipwreck near Malta, a…

Why the SSPX dispute was never really about the Latin Mass

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Vatican declared July 2 that the six bishops involved in the Society of St. Pius X’s unauthorized episcopal consecrations had incurred automatic excommunication and said its clergy “are in schism and therefore must be considered schismatics.” The decree from Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine…

Why the SSPX dispute was never really about the Latin Mass

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Vatican declared July 2 that the six bishops involved in the Society of St. Pius X’s unauthorized episcopal consecrations had incurred automatic excommunication and said its clergy “are in schism and therefore must be considered schismatics.” The decree from Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine…