Saint Joseph Catholic Church

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A group of Christians was attacked, and a Christian cemetery was desecrated, in Lahore, Pakistan, on April 18.

“The attack occurred when a young Christian man, Pervez Masih, intervened to defend several young Christian women who were being insulted and harassed by young Muslim men,” Agenzia Fides, the news agency of the Pontifical Mission Societies, reported. “At least nine individuals stormed the cemetery, vandalized graves and crosses, repeatedly stabbed Pervez Masih, and assaulted Christian women, beating and stripping them.”

Islam is the official religion of the South Asian nation of 257 million (map), the fifth most populous in the world. 95% of Pakistan’s people are Muslim, 2% are Christian, and 1% are Hindu.

In an April 23 letter to members of Congress, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and Catholic Relief Services called for $26.9 billion in funding for various international humanitarian assistance programs.

Congress appropriated $26.0 billion for these programs in the current fiscal year: President Donald Trump has proposed $11.9 billion in funding for the upcoming fiscal year.

The joint letter was signed by the chairmen of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Migration and Committee on International Justice and Peace, and by the president and CEO of Catholic Relief Services.

A California jury found the Diocese of Oakland liable for abuse committed by a former priest in the 1970s and awarded $16 million to one of his victims.

The former priest, Stephen Kiesle, was first convicted of abuse in 1978 and laicized in 1987. The diocese declared bankruptcy in 2023.

In a 9-8 decision, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the constitutionality of a Texas law that requires the posting of the Ten Commandments in public school classroooms.

The law “does not tell churches or synagogues or mosques what to believe or how to worship or whom to employ as priests, rabbis, or imams,” Judge Kyle Duncan, appointed to the bench by President Donald Trump, wrote in his majority opinion. “It punishes no one who rejects the Ten Commandments, no matter the reason.”

“To Plaintiffs, merely exposing children to religious language is enough to make the displays engines of coercive indoctrination,” Judge Duncan continued. “We disagree.”

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Addressing an Asia-Pacific regional conference of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a Vatican diplomat said that “a paradigm shift based on the inalienable human dignity conferred by God is essential, so that innovation and progress contribute to ensuring that everyone has sustainable access to food.”

“This entails the introduction of cutting-edge technologies, the adoption of sustainable practices, and the development of strategies that optimize the use of natural resources throughout the entire production chain,” said Msgr. Fernando Chica Arellano. “However, innovation is not limited to the application of new technologies; it also implies a transformation of the way in which we produce, distribute, and consume food.”

Msgr. Chica Arellano, the Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the FAO, also said that “a paradigm shift based on the inalienable human dignity conferred by God is essential, so that innovation and progress contribute to ensuring that everyone—particularly the poor and the most vulnerable, including newborns—has sustainable access to healthy, nutritious, and sufficient food.”

The Pew Research Center published a study analyzing the prevalence of self-described former Catholics in 24 countries.

Former Catholics are rare in Poland: 96% of Poles say they were raised Catholic, 92% say they are still Catholic, and 4% describe themselves as former Catholics. In the United States, on the other hand, there are almost as many self-identified former Catholics as self-identified Catholics: 30% of Americans say they were raised Catholic, 17% say they are still Catholic, and 13% describe themselves as former Catholics.

The Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, announced a series of pilgrimage events leading up to the beatification of Venerable Fulton Sheen (1895-1979).

The events will begin in Peoria, Archbishop Sheen’s home diocese, on September 15. The beatification Mass will take place on St. Louis on September 24. Details are available at celebratesheen.com.

The Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE) praised the efforts of the EU, under the six-month presidency of Cyprus, to “sustain political, humanitarian and economic support to Ukraine and its people.”

“We call on the EU and its Member States to maintain unity and to intensify diplomatic efforts towards a just, comprehensive and lasting peace, grounded in international law,” COMECE added, as it offered 13 policy recommendations, including:

• “embed EU security and defense efforts within a broader strategy that clearly affirms peace as the ultimate objective of European action”
• “develop a coherent EU approach to water resilience, prioritizing access to safe drinking water, sustainability and solidarity”
• “promote inclusive economic policies that combine competitiveness with social cohesion”