null / Credit: ShutterstockACI Prensa Staff, May 19, 2023 / 17:00 pm (CNA).The archbishop of Portoviejo, Eduardo José Castillo Pino, asked the faithful to pray for the end of violence in Ecuador and expressed his solidarity with the victims and injured left by a shooting that occurred Thursday morning at a funeral home in Manta, a port city on the central coast."Once more, crime and terror again destroy the lives of so many people, and fill us all with fear and insecurity," the prelate said in a May 18 statement to ACI Prensa, CNA s Spanish-language news partner."For the victims and injured in the attack in Manta, and their families, all our closeness and solidarity. A heartfelt prayer for all of them, for their eternal rest and for the peace and strengthening of their families," he continued.Around 10 a.m. local time on May 18 at the Gardens of Eden funeral home, unidentified persons arrived at the wake of Andrés Agustín Moreira and opened fire on those present.
Our Lady of All the Angels church, built by the Society of St. Pius X, in the Archdiocese of Puebla, Mexico. / Credit: David Ramos/ACI PrensaACI Prensa Staff, May 19, 2023 / 15:00 pm (CNA).With the construction of a new church called "Our Lady of All the Angels," the Archdiocese of Puebla in Mexico warned the faithful about the Lefebvrist "schismatic movement" of the Fraternity of St. Pius X, stressing that the sacraments their priests administer "are illicit."In a statement released May 12, the archdiocese stated that the church, located near the San Pedro Cholula district, "has been built on behalf of the so-called Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X (FSSPX), founded by the schismatic bishop Marcel Lefebvre.""Since neither the Fraternity of St. Pius X nor the building erected by them obediently submit to the Holy Father s provisions, much less to the authority of the archbishop, the faithful are asked to go for their spiritual care to thei
The Vatican has withdrawn a commemorative stamp for the 2023 World Youth Day. / Philatelic and Numismatic Office of the Vatican City StateDenver Newsroom, May 19, 2023 / 16:00 pm (CNA).A Vatican-produced postage stamp to commemorate the upcoming World Youth Day 2023 in Portugal has been withdrawn after criticism over its use of a mid-20th-century monument that is controversial in some Portuguese circles.The stamp, created by the Vatican Philatelic Service and issued on May 16, shows Pope Francis leading a group of children up the Monument to Discoveries. The Lisbon monument was built in 1960 for the 500th anniversary of the death of the Portuguese explorer Henry the Navigator.In the stamp s design, Pope Francis takes the place of Henry the Navigator on the prow of the ship. It aimed to present "a ship that guides young people and the Church towards the future."The Governorate of the Vatican City State withdrew it after the design drew negative comments because it "recall
Bishop Michael Olson. / Diocese of Ft. WorthWashington D.C., May 19, 2023 / 15:00 pm (CNA).Nuns from an Arlington, Texas, Carmelite monastery are suing the Diocese of Fort Worth and the bishop for $1 million for alleged violations of privacy and harming the physical and emotional well-being of the sisters. The lawsuit stems from interactions related to a diocesan investigation of the Reverend Mother Superior Teresa Agnes Gerlach. The diocese has said it was investigating "grave misconduct" based on a report that she "committed sins against the Sixth Commandment and violated her vow of chastity with a priest." Although the diocese alleges that Gerlach admitted to violations of the Sixth Commandment, her attorney Matthew Bobo said in a statement provided to CNA that she was "under heavy medication from a procedure" and does not recall what she admitted. "They are making it sound like she had some sexual liaison affair with another priest and that did n
null / KREML, ShutterstockCNA Newsroom, May 19, 2023 / 16:30 pm (CNA).Four Catholic bishops from the U.S. and Japan called for G7 leaders to take action against nuclear weapons amid a "more dangerous" arms race and an escalated threat of nuclear war."We strongly urge world leaders at the G7 Summit to show by example how international leadership is ready, willing, and able to work with nuclear weapons and nonnuclear weapons states to ensure no country or city ever suffers the horrors of nuclear war again," said the four bishops in a May 15 letter to G7 leaders.Signing the letter were Archbishop Paul D. Etienne of Seattle and Archbishop John C. Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico, joined by Archbishop Peter Michiaki Nakamura of Nagasaki and Bishop Alexis Mitsuru Shirahama of Hiroshima.The two U.S. bishops archdioceses have major connections to nuclear weapons. The letter said they are "the spiritual leaders of the diocese with the most spending on nuclear weapon