Flag of Mexico. / Credit: David Ramos/ACI PrensaACI Prensa Staff, Jun 3, 2023 / 08:00 am (CNA).Recent episodes of violence against the Catholic Church, including the murder of a priest and the attempted murder of an archbishop, once again bring to the fore the persecution of the faith in Mexico and the power of organized crime.On May 22, Augustinian priest Javier García Villafañe was found shot to death in his car on the Cuitzeo-Huandacareo highway. The Michoacán state attorney general s office stated that he "was killed by several gunshots."Days before, an 80-year-old assailant tried to stab to death the archbishop of Durango, Faustino Armendáriz, in the cathedral sacristy after Mass was finished. Fortunately, the prelate was barely injured in the failed attempt.In addition, in recent weeks there have been various cases of desecration and sacrilege in different churches in the country.Is Mexico still a Catholic country?In a May 25 interview with CNA s Spanish-language ne
Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, archpriest of St. Peter s Basilica, presides over a penitential rite on June 3, 2023, two days after a Polish man stripped naked and stood on the basilica s high altar. / Vatican MediaWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 3, 2023 / 08:04 am (CNA).Two days after a naked man stood on the high altar of St. Peter s Basilica in a shocking security breach, the basilica s archpriest on Saturday reconsecrated the altar during a penitential rite as required by canon law in cases where sacred places are desecrated.Vatican News reported that the unidentified man was a Polish national who approached the high altar on June 1 as the basilica was about to close. He quickly undressed, and climbed onto the altar. Photos posted online showed the words "Save children of Ukraine" written in marker on his back."As officers of the Vatican Gendarmerie approached, the man did not resist but cooperated as they led him to the police station inside the Vatican," the Vatican
Cardinal Robert Sarah speaks with students and faculty at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas on May 25, 2023. / Credit: Benedicte Cedergren/AngelicumRome Newsroom, Jun 1, 2023 / 10:15 am (CNA).Cardinal Robert Sarah urged students studying at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas to ask in prayer for "an intimate and profound union with the Lord and with one another."Speaking at a Mass to mark the close of the academic year at the university in Rome known as the Angelicum, the Guinean cardinal spoke about the danger of division in the Church and the importance of prayer."Jesus asks that each person may live in love and in true unity, a deep communion, in the image of the Trinitarian communion. A union that immerses our lives fully in Jesus, just as Jesus life is immersed in the Father," Sarah said in his homily.He added: "Such a union is undoubtedly expressed in a Christian life of deep and intense prayer addressed to the Lord, which in d
Fulgence Kayishema, a former Rwandan police officer suspected to have ordered the killing of at least 2,000 Tutsis who were seeking refuge at St. Paul s Nyange Catholic Parish during the 1994 genocide, was arrested May 24, 2023. / Credit: Courtesy photoACI Africa, Jun 1, 2023 / 13:00 pm (CNA).Fulgence Kayishema, a former Rwandan police officer who is suspected of having ordered the killing of at least 2,000 Tutsis who were seeking refuge at St. Paul s Nyange Catholic Parish in the current Nyundo Diocese during the 1994 genocide, has been arrested in South Africa.Reuters reported May 25 that Kayishema, one of the top suspects in the genocide, which claimed some 800,000 lives, was arrested May 24 on a grape farm in South Africa while using a false name, Donatien Nibashumba.The suspect has been on the run since 2001 when the now-defunct International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) accused him of genocide for his role in the destruction of the Nyange Catholic church.Serge Bram.
"Padre Pio," starring Shia LaBeouf, airs in theaters June 2, 2023. / Credit: Gravitas VenturesBoston, Mass., Jun 1, 2023 / 16:10 pm (CNA).The weight of playing St. Pio of Pietrelcina, more popularly known as Padre Pio, one of the most popular saints of the 20th century, was "enormous," Shia LaBeouf told CNA in late May. The new film "Padre Pio," starring "Transformers" and "Fury" star LaBeouf, airs in theaters June 2 and portrays the Italian friar in his early 20s immersed in the suffering of the residents of San Giovanni Rotondo, in eastern Italy, where his monastery is located.The film, rated R for some explicit violence and language, portrays powerful scenes of Padre Pio ministering to the townspeople and enduring his own spiritual battles with the devil amid the chaos of a violent political clash between the mainly impoverished socialists and the wealthy ruling class, ultimately resulting in a brutal massacre."Padre Pio,"