Saint Joseph Catholic Church

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Pope Leo XIV received President Halla Tómasdóttir of Iceland on May 4.

Following the audience, President Tómasdóttir met with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of His Holiness, and Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations. The parties discussed the “positive contribution of the local Church to the promotion of the common good of society and particularly of young people,” according to a Vatican press release, as well as regional and international issues.

The nation of 367,000 is 87% Christian; Lutheranism is the state religion.

Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant leaders in the United Arab Emirates gathered at a Catholic church in Dubai to pray for peace, over two months after the beginning of the Iran war.

We thank our civil authorities who have protected us during these months; we continue to pray for them,” said Bishop Paolo Martinelli, vicar apostolic of Southern Arabia. “May the Lord hear our common prayer; may he grant us peace and reconciliation, harmony and prosperity.”

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has released a 2024 letter stating that “Blessings for couples who love one another,” a document then under consideration by the German bishops, violates Fiducia Supplicans, the dicastery’s declaration on the pastoral meaning of blessings.

The release of the 2024 letter (translation), written by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández to a German bishop, follows a defense of the German blessing guidelines by Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg, the former chairman of the German bishops’ conference, as well as Cardinal Reinhard Marx’s instruction to priests to facilitate blessings of same-sex couples.

Fiducia Supplicans states:

Within the horizon outlined here appears the possibility of blessings for couples in irregular situations and for couples of the same sex, the form of which should not be fixed ritually by ecclesial authorities to avoid producing confusion with the blessing proper to the Sacrament of Marriage ...

One should neither provide for nor promote a ritual for the blessings of couples in an irregular situation. At the same time, one should not prevent or prohibit the Church’s closeness to people in every situation in which they might seek God’s help through a simple blessing.