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Browsing News Entries

Browsing News Entries

Ukrainian bishops in Poland express 'deep regret' for World War II massacres (Greek Catholic Church of Poland (Polish))

The bishops of the three Ukrainian Greek Catholic eparchies in Poland lamented the massacre of some 100,000 Poles by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army between 1943 and 1945. The massacre has helped lead to recent tensions in Polish-Ukrainian relations.

“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.

Archbishop Gudziak warns of lack of priestly missionary spirit, shortage of bishop candidates (Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia)

Speaking at a worldwide meeting of the bishops of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Archbishop Borys Gudziak of Philadelphia warned of a “lack of missionary spirit among priests.”

“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.”

Let us work to overcome injustices, Pope says at lunch with poor people (CWN)

Some 200 poor people from the Diocese of Rome traveled to Castel Gandolfo today for lunch with Pope Leo XIV at Borgo Laudato Si.

Vatican newspaper claims Panama Canal is symbol of world's climate crisis (CWN)

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.

Jul. 11 Memorial of St. Benedict, Abbot, Memorial

Today is the Memorial of St. Benedict (480-547), who was born at Nursia in Umbria in about 480 and was sent to Rome to be educated, but soon left the world to live a solitary life at Subiaco. After living in a cave in the mountains for two years as a hermit, he had acquired such a reputation that disciples came in numbers to join him and important Roman families entrusted him with the education of their children. He organized a form of monastic life in twelve small monasteries. Under his guidance, as abbot, the monks vowed to seek God and devoted themselves to work and prayer. A few years later St. Benedict left the district of Subiaco to found the great abbey of Monte Cassino on the heights of Campania. There he wrote his Rule in which are wonderfully combined the Roman genius and the monastic wisdom of the Christian East. St. Benedict died in 547. St. Benedict's feast bBefore the reform of the General Roman Calendar in 1969 was celebrated on March 21.

Notre Dame Awards Religious Liberty Prize to Becket Fund for Supreme Court Wins

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German 'Church tax miracle' continues with revenues up, membership down (Pillar)

Despite the loss of 307,117 Catholics in 2025, German dioceses received additional revenue from the Kirchensteuer (Church tax). Revenue rose from 6.628 billion euros ($7.58 billion) in 2024 to 6.751 billion euros ($7.72 billion) in 2025.

“In Germany, religious communities that are corporations under public law have a right to levy taxes on their members,” The Pillar explained. “Every person in Germany who is officially registered as a member of the Catholic Church is required to pay church tax equivalent to 8-9% of their income tax liability, depending on the region in which they live.”

Cardinal McElroy: Exorcist role should be 'private' after priest's removal tied to UFO controversy (CNS)

Weeks after he removed Msgr. Stephen Rossetti as an archdiocesan exorcist, Cardinal Robert McElroy of Washington, D.C., said in an interview that the dismissal ultimately “wasn’t touching on the question of UFOs” and that “my major objection is that I think the traditional role of an exorcist is a very private one. It’s a sacred one.”

At the time of Msgr. Rossetti’s removal, Cardinal McElroy said that “statements made by Monsignor Rossetti linking UFOs to demonic presence and the Center’s recent use of social media gravely undermine the Church’s very precise teaching on the devil, demons and exorcism.”

US bishops, Catholic organizations weigh in on Farm Bill (USCCB)

Echoing a February letter to leaders of the House Agricultural Committee, the chairmen of two committees of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops warned that the Senate’s current Farm Bill proposal “falls short of the Farm Bill’s historic bipartisanship.”

Archbishop Shelton Fabre, chairman of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, and Bishop A. Elias Zaidan, chairman of the Committee on International Justice and Peace, weighed in on various aspects of the bill in a July 9 letter to the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture.

The head of Catholic Relief Services, Catholic Charities USA, Catholic Rural Life, and the National Council of the United States Society of St. Vincent de Paul joined the two prelates in signing the letter.