By Matthew Trojacek with G. Galazka, CNA and CNS photos

ONE MILLION FILIPINO CHILDREN PRAY THE ROSARY FOR WORLD PEACE

Over 1 million children in the Philippines prayed the rosary together for world peace and unity at an event organized by an international foundation founded by Dutch priest Werenfried van Straaten.

The annual program was held on October 18 with participation by children studying in Catholic and government schools and was live-streamed on social media across the archipelago.

“Join us today at 9 am, Philippine time, as we pray the rosary with children all over the world. We will pray for wars to stop, for the pandemic to end, and for peace and unity to reign in the world,” appealed Monsignor Gerry Santos, executive director of the Philippine Aid to the Church in Need, a pontifical charity with the mission to help the persecuted, oppressed and suffering Christians worldwide. (UCANews)

VATICAN: PRO-ABORTION MEMBER OF PONTIFICAL ACADEMY FOR LIFE CONTRIBUTES TO “DIALOGUE”

The Pontifical Academy for Life issued a statement on October 19 defending the recent appointment of an outspoken advocate for abortion rights on the grounds that members are chosen to contribute to “fruitful interdisciplinary, intercultural, and interreligious dialogue.”

An Italian-American economist and professor at University College London, Mariana Mazzucato, was among seven academics appointed by Pope Francis on October 15 to serve five-year terms with the academy. (CNA)

JOURNALISTS: ST. JOHN PAUL II “DID NOT COVER UP ANY ABUSE DURING HIS TIME AS ARCHBISHOP OF KRAKOW”

Journalists investigating secular and Catholic Church sources in Poland have called into question allegations by Dutch writer Ekke Overbeek that St. John Paul II “covered up” for sexual abusers while still a bishop in Poland. “The future Pope knew about it and transferred them anyway, which led to new victims,” he claims.

However, Polish journalists Tomasz Krzyżak and Piotr Litka of Rzeczpospolita published an investigation that countered Overbeek’s accusations, stating St. John Paul II did not cover up any abuse and consistently acted against such cases during his time as archbishop of Krakow from 1964 to 1978.

The Polish reporters cited as a typical example the priest Józef Loranc, who was accused of sexually abusing young girls in 1970. Cardinal Wojtyla’s decisions came just days after learning of the accusation against Loranc, which were “in accordance with canon law,” said Kryzak and Litka.

Wojtyla “made all the necessary decisions at that moment: the quick removal of the priest from the parish, the suspension until the matter was resolved, and the obligation to live in a monastery,” where civil authorities then arrested him.


FATIMA’S SISTER LUCIA IS ONE STEP CLOSER TO BEING BEATIFIED

The cause for beatification of Sister Lucia dos Santos, the eldest child to witness the 1917 Fatima apparitions, has taken a step forward.

In a meeting at the Vatican, the postulators for Lucia’s cause submitted the positio document containing testimonies and information detailing her heroic virtues to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.

Father Carlos Cabecinhas, the rector of the Fatima shrine, announced the update on the October 13 anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun, the last Marian apparition in Fatima in 1917.

The Positio on the Life, Virtues and Reputation for Holiness of Sister Lucia de Jesus dos Santos will now be examined by nine theologians. If the evidence of her heroic virtue is confirmed by the Vatican’s saints office and Pope Francis decides to promulgate a decree, Sister Lucia will be declared as Venerable in the Catholic Church. (CNA)

CATHOLIC SURVIVORS OF NAGASAKI RECALL TRAUMA OF THE BOMBING WHILE TOURING U.S.

When the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, August 9, 1945, Archbishop Joseph Mitsuaki Takami’s mother was three months pregnant with him. While she survived the bombing, much of her family did not.

His maternal grandmother suffered from horrific burns and bodily trauma for eight days before dying. Two of his maternal aunts died in the bombing. The body of one of his aunts was found; the other was not.

Many of the dead were not found because the heat from the bomb incinerated anything close to the epicenter.

It is estimated that between 60,000 and 80,000 people died in Nagasaki, either in the bombing or from exposure to radiation. In Hiroshima, Japan, it is estimated that 70,000 to 135,000 people died when the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on that city August 6, 1945.

Archbishop Takami, now retired archbishop of Nagasaki, was part of a small peace delegation of atomic bomb survivors that visited the Sheil Catholic Center at Northwestern University on September 28 for a Blessed Are the Peacemakers event. (UCANews)

FILIPINO BUSINESSMEN MAKE CHRISTMAS NON-PROFITEERING VOW

The Catholic Businessmen Association of the Philippines, a group of more than 3,000 entrepreneurs, agreed on November 8 to put a ceiling price on goods in order not to take advantage of the high demand during the Christmas season.

People in the Catholic-majority nation are expected to begin partying from the beginning of December, which tempts businessmen to raise the prices of commodities due to high demand.

The business group said having a price cap would remind every Catholic entrepreneur of his mission to God and country.

“The purpose of putting a price cap on goods and commodities is, in fact, a gentle reminder to each member of the association that although we are in business for profit, we still have a moral obligation to our fellow men,” the association’s president Larry Valdez stated. (UCANews)

UKRAINIAN ARCHBISHOP APPEALS FOR RELEASE OF CATHOLIC PRIESTS CAPTURED BY RUSSIAN TROOPS

Two Catholic priests captured by Russian troops are “being tortured without mercy,” the leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church said December 1. Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk (photo below) issued an appeal to international authorities to help facilitate the release of Redemptorist Fathers Ivan Levitskyi (above left) and Father Bohdan Heleta (above right) who have been held in captivity for more than two weeks. They are the parish priest and chaplain in the city of Berdyansk, near Zaporizhzhia.

“We have received the sad news that our priests are being tortured without mercy,” Shevchuk said. “According to classic Stalinist methods of repression, confessions to crimes they did not commit are being extracted from them. In fact, our two heroic pastors are daily threatened under torture with death.” The Ukrainian archbishop asked Catholics around the world to pray for the release of the priests. (CNA)

Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, major archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, speaks at the Vatican Press Office (CNS photo/Max Rossi, Reuters)


EASTERN RITE PRELATE TO HEAD INDIAN BISHOPS’ CONFERENCE

Archbishop Andrews Thazhath of the Eastern Rite Syro-Malabar Church has been elected the new president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI).

Archbishop Thazhath of Thrissur was elected on the penultimate day of the November 6-11 biennial meeting of the CBCI in Bengaluru, the provincial capital of the southern state of Karnataka.

The Catholic Church in the country comprises three rites — the Latin rite and two Oriental rites called Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara. The inter-ritual national conference’s head is conventionally elected from all three rites on a rotating basis. (UCANews)

CARDINAL’S VILLAGE HIT AS MYANMAR (BURMA) JUNTA STEPS UP ATTACKS

Hundreds of homes in the Catholic village of Mon Hla in central Sagaing — the home of Cardinal Charles Bo — in Myanmar have been burned down by junta forces as the regime steps up attacks in Myanmar’s Bamar-majority region.

Villagers said the homes were torched on November 24 during a raid on Mon Hla village where Catholics and Buddhists have lived in harmony for decades. The exact number of houses destroyed remains unclear and it is not known whether Saint Michael Church, the convent, and the priest’s house in the village were also set on fire.

This latest attack on a Catholic village came a day after fighting broke out between the military and people’s defense forces near Mon Hla where scores of junta troops were killed. (UCANews)

GERMAN SYNODAL WAY DESIGNED TO CREATE “PRESSURE” ON THE CHURCH, FOUNDING PRESIDENT SAYS

The German Synodal Way was designed from the outset to avoid legal sanctions while simultaneously creating “pressure” on the Church to change Catholic teaching, one of the founders of the process told German media December 2.

Thomas Sternberg, former president of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), said the controversial process wanted to achieve changes to the Church’s teaching on homosexuality, the ordination of women, and other topics.

Speaking to German diocesan broadcaster Domradio, Sternberg said the Synodal Way was proceeding “much more successfully than I had thought.”

In light of the Vatican’s interventions against the Synodal Way, he said it had become clear “it was right not to use the form of a synod, as that would have been sanctioned by canon law” and “would have given canon law properly then also the possibility to prohibit something like that.” (CNA)

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