Catholic News

• New scandal in Mexico rocks Legion (AP)
  The Legion of Christ, whose leaders assemble in Rome this week for a general chapter, face a new crisis involving sexual abuse of students at a prestigious school in Cancun, Mexico. The new charges underline concerns that a papal investigation in 2010 failed to root out the corruption begun by the founder of the Legion, the disgraced Father Marcial Maciel.
• John the Baptist invites us to turn to Christ, Pope Francis tells pilgrims (Zenit)
  Reflecting on John 1:29-34 during his January 19 Sunday Angelus address(video), Pope Francis prayed, “May the Virgin Mary obtain for us the strength to render witness to her Son, Jesus, [and] to proclaim Him joyfully with a life freed from evil and a word full of amazed and grateful faith.”
• Cardinal Farrell outlines Vatican's vision for the Catholic charismatic renewal (CHARIS)
  Speaking in Brazil at the first international conference for leaders of charismatic communities, the prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life outlined the Vatican’s vision for CHARIS, founded in 2019. Cardinal Farrell said that Pope Francis “is convinced that Baptism in the Holy Spirit is a grace that every baptized person can and should receive. It is an experience of a personal Pentecost, an eruption of the Holy Spirit into the life of the baptized person, accompanied by an experience of conversion and an encounter with the living Jesus. All this should be part of the normal life of every baptized person called to holiness.”
• Cardinal Dolan investigating complaint against Brooklyn's Bishop DiMarzio (CNA)
  New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan has revealed that he is conducting an investigation into abuse charges leveled against Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn. Bishop DiMarzio disclosed in November that he faces an abuse charge, which he denies. Cardinal Dolan’s investigation is guided by the papal document Vos Estis, which sets policy for handling accusations against bishops.
• Planned Parenthood announces record spending on election contests (CNA)
  Planned Parenthood has laid out plans to spend $45 million on election contests in the US this year. The campaign—which targets federal, state, and local candidates—is the largest in the group’s history.
• Chinese bishop, in isolation since 2007, freed for holiday (AsiaNews)
  A Chinese archbishop of the ‘underground’ Church, who has been living in isolation since 2007 has been temporarily released to be with his family during the celebration of Chinese New Year. But Archbishop Augustine Cui Tai will be taken back into custody after the holiday, sources say. The archbishop has been living under house arrest, periodically removed to detention centers.
• Pope appeals for a peaceful solution to the crisis in Libya (Vatican News)
  The Libya Civil War began in 2014. Islam is the official religion of the North African nation of 6.9 million (map), and 99% of its people are Muslim. The Pope issued his appeal on January 19, the day of a peace conference in Berlin.
• Churches critical in fighting human trafficking, members of Congress told (CNA)
  On January 15, the United States Congress’ Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission heard testimony on human trafficking (video).
• Archbishop Vigano joins Munich protest of German 'synodal path' (LifeSite News)
  Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, who has been in hiding for more than a year, made a public appearance in Munich, joining in a public protest against the liberal policies of the German episcopal conference.
• As Xi visits Myanmar, bishops concerned about China-backed dam (UCANews)
  Buddhism is the official religion of the Southeast Asian nation of 56.1 million (map); the nation is 76% Buddhist, 8% ethnic religionist, 8% Christian, and 4% Muslim. Pope Francis made an apostolic journey there in 2017.
• Pope praises work of nurses, midwives (Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development)
  “I am pleased to recall that 2020 has been internationally designated as the Year of Nurses and Midwives,” Pope Francis said on January 19. “Nurses are the most numerous and closest to the sick, and midwives are perhaps the noblest of the professions. Let us pray for all of them, that they may do their precious work in the best possible way.”
• President Trump pays tribute to religious freedom (White House)
  The president issued a proclamation for Religious Freedom Day, which commemorates the anniversary of Thomas Jefferson’s landmark Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom.
• Mexican bishop urges charitable treatment of Honduran migrants (Fides)
  As a massive caravan of Honduran immigrants approaches, Bishop Jaime Calderon Calderon has asked the people of his Tapachula diocese to “treat them like brothers, just as we would like our illegal compatriots to be treated in the United States.” The bishop remarked that the Mexican government’s policy regarding the caravan has been “ambiguous and hesitant.”
• English weekly sees upcoming Assisi meeting as 'papal anti-Davos' (The Economist)
  The Economist believes that “Pope Francis hopes to anoint a new economic model” at the the Economy of Francesco, a meeting for young economists and entrepreneurs that will take place March 26-28 in Assisi. Cardinal Peter Turkson, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, tweeted that the French finance minister believes that young people “are asking for a new economic model now.”
• Don't follow Texas' example on refugees, Miami archbishop urges (Miami Herald)
  The bishops of Texas denounced Gov. Greg Abbott’s recent decision not to accept refugees.
• German bishops welcome new organ transplant law (SIR)
  The bishops supported a new law under which Germans “will be asked when renewing their national identity cards if they’d like to donate organs.” Lawmakers rejected a rival bill that would have presumed consent to organ donation. The law that was passed “can transform people’s willingness to help into an individual desire to donate one’s organs, while ensuring the highest possible degree of freedom,” said Cardinal Reinhard Marx, president of the bishops’ conference.
• In India, Jesuit human rights activist calls for civil disobedience against citizenship law (Times of India)
  Father Cedric Prakash, SJ, called for civil disobedience against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act of 2019, which discriminates against Muslims. In an interview published on January 19 in the Vatican newspaper (Italian-language link), Father Prakash decried widespread human rights violations in India.
• Pope encourages fishermen in their faith, work, ecological commitment (Vatican Press Office)
  On January 18, Pope Francis received fishermen from the city of San Benedetto del Tronto in Italy’s Marche region (map). The fishermen, through the volunteer initiative “Fishing for Plastic” (Italian Facebook page), have reclaimed 24 tons of plastic from the Adriatic Sea, the Vatican newspaper reported (Italian-language link).
• Rome's mayor meets with Pope (Il Tempo (Italian))
  Virginia Raggi, 41, has been the city’s mayor since 2016. The following year, Raggi asked the Italian government to stop the flow of migrants into the country’s capital; in 2019, the Pontiff visited Rome’s municipal headquarters and called on the city to welcome migrants.
• Nigerian archbishop: country is 'under siege' (Fides)
  “No other country would tolerate this type of insecurity,” Archbishop Matthew Man-oso Ndagoso of Kaduna said, reacting to latest act of violence against Catholic clerics: the January 8 kidnapping of four seminarians. The archbishop said that many people “seem to have given up on the security situation.”
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