Saint Joseph Catholic Church

Commenting on the European Commission’s rejection of a FAFCE grant request, Vincenzo Bassi said that “when you propose the family as an irreplaceable subject to the European institutions, they do everything to exclude you.”

“They let us know that FAFCE’s approach is contrary to the principles of equality of the European Union,” he continued. “Now, our approach is nothing more than to indicate to European society the family as an example of a solution not only for social but also economic problems. So according to them, the family experience is contrary to the principles of equality because it does not respect gender equality.”

What the EU cannot tolerate, Bassi said, is that “we do not renounce the complementarity between man and woman, the maternal and paternal roles, and we consider the family as a socioeconomic unit in which the necessary collaboration between man and woman is crucial.”

“My heart is filled with sorrow for the ritual murders that are staining our beloved country with blood,” Bishop Jean Vincent Ondo Éyéne of Oyem said on the recent National Day for Combating All Forms of Violence and Attacks on Life. “I think of those who have been taken from life, whose bodies have been desecrated, and whose innocence has been broken.”

The central African nation of 2.5 million (map) is 84% Christian (52% Catholic) and 11% Muslim, with 3% adhering to ethnic religions.

“The ironclad manipulation of the process is an insult to the dignity of the bishops, and the continual reference to the Holy Spirit is ridiculous and almost blasphemous,” Cardinal Zen said in reference to the 2021-24 synod on synodality.

Cardinal Zen added, “They expect surprises from the Holy Spirit. What surprises? That he should repudiate what he inspired in the Church’s two-thousand-year tradition?”

With the prelate’s permission, the College of Cardinals Report published the full text of Cardinal Zen’s remarks at the consistory. Cardinal Zen strongly criticized “Bergoglian synodality,” a reference to Pope Francis.

“Thai bulldozers are razing the homes of Cambodian civilians for miles, and barbed wire and shipping containers block access to the villages,” said Bishop Olivier Schmitthaeusler, MEMP. “Temples, sacred places par excellence for the veneration of the gods and the memory of humanity, have been reduced to dust. And the world is silent.”

“Despite a ceasefire, hundreds of thousands of civilians and children remain in squalid camps,” he continued. “Today, Cambodia also wants its voice heard, demanding justice and reparation on the world stage, where the power of force seems to have become the new rule.”

Writing in Ireland’s leading newspaper, McAleese charged that infant baptism violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989).

Barbón said that he shared with the Pope his “concern about the drift toward tension, conflicts, and wars that are ravaging the world, and also to speak to him about Asturias, its history, culture, and natural heritage. Also about its people, whom I represent with enormous pride.”

“It has been an emotional visit, and with the respectful reserve that I must maintain, I assure you that I left it with an immense feeling of peace,” he added.

“I was honoured to have a private audience with His Holiness Pope Leo XIV,” Boland said in a brief social media post. “It was a privilege to hear first hand the insights which underpin the Holy Father’s moral leadership. I am also deeply grateful for the opportunity to convey to his Holiness my EESC priorities.”

Pope Leo XIV has named Archbishop Felice Accrocca of Benevento, Italy, as the new bishop of the Diocese of Assisi-Nocera Umbra-Gualdo Tadino.

In the most prominent front-page article in its January 10 edition, L’Osservatore Romano highlighted the plight of Catholics in Yemen (map) amid the nation’s civil war.