Saint Joseph Catholic Church

A convert to Catholicism, Ann Widdecombe, 78, was a Member of Parliament (1987-2010) and a Member of the European Parliament (2019-20). She was also Minister of State for Employment (1993-95) and Minister of State for Prisons (1995-97) under Prime Minister John Major.

Bishop Nicholas Hudson of Plymouth told BBC that Widdecombe “was a woman of faith and a great public servant.”

“Our prayers, the prayers of all the community, across Plymouth Diocese, in Devon, Cornwall, Dorset, are very much with her and with her family and friends,” he said.

“The cathedral suffered extensive damage, and several churches will have to be demolished because of the effects of the earthquakes,” Vatican News reported. Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish remains structurally sound despite damage to the altar and the fall of statues from their niches.

“Never stop praying for Venezuela,” said Father Antonio Rella, the parish priest. “Not everyone can help materially, but a daily prayer for us is worth so much, because it reaches the throne of God, where it bears fruit.”

“On the eve of the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Volyn Massacre, we convey words of sympathy and grief to the families who lost their loved ones as a result of Ukrainian military actions,” the bishops said. “We join you in your pain and express our deep regret for the bloody events that took place at that time.”

The bishops also said that “both Ukrainian crimes against Poles and Polish crimes against Ukrainians should be condemned,” and called on Polish and Ukrainian officials to “assist in finding all the graves, in identifying the victims and in their dignified burial.”

“It is up to Polish and Ukrainian historians to reliably explain the circumstances of those tragic events and to determine the actual number of victims on both sides,” the prelates added.

“We serve our own people well, close to home,” Archbishop Gudziak said. “But Christ’s call is, ‘Go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.’ Maybe we haven’t fully heard that yet. This is a great challenge: understanding Christianity as more than a cultural identity.”

The prelate also described the “shortage of candidates for the episcopacy” as “one of the major problems facing the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church globally.”

“In 1900 there were two bishops; today there are 56,” he said. “The overall number of faithful is roughly comparable. If it was three million then, today it is four and a half million.”

In the most prominent article in its July 10 edition, the Vatican newspaper asserted that the Panama Canal has become a new symbol of the world’s climate crisis.