Good evening!
As we near the end of National Vocation Awareness Week, we share some of the stories about men and women who answered the call to a religious vocation, including a story about religious discussing how synodality shapes their common life. Let’s continue to pray for sisters, brothers and priests and all who are discerning their vocation.
This week, we also reported on the Ohio ballot measure loss; a piece on health care labor disputes; the winner of the 2023 Cardinal Bernardin New Leadership Award; how Caritas is working to help Acapulco after Hurricane Otis left so many in need; how the Catholic Community is responding to Israeli/Palestinian hatred on campus; Christians of Jordan are canceling Christmas celebrations in solidarity with Gaza; an invitation to pray for veterans; and a report on the largest survey of U.S. Catholic priests in 50 years.
This week we also shared columns on addressing anxiety, the “deadly diversion” of antisemitism, migration, and whether some Synod for Synodality fallout might have the effect of further clericalizing the laity. We’ve also had media reviews, including “Journey to Bethlehem,” the new Nativity musical from the producer of “Glee.” You can find some of the stories we worked on below and even more by following us on Facebook, X (aka Twitter) and Instagram.
Next week, we will have an OSV News team covering the U.S. bishops’ fall plenary meeting in Baltimore. Make sure to keep an eye out for our coverage!
Have a great weekend.
Maria-Pia Negro Chin
Spanish Editor
Court grants Sisters of Life protection from state’s investigation into pregnancy resource centers
The Sisters of Life, the community of women religious founded in New York City to protect human life and serve pregnant women in need, have prevailed in their lawsuit against an attempt to seek the internal records of their pregnancy resource centers.
Priests who minister to poor, other Argentines urge pope to visit his homeland
Familia Grande Hogar de Cristo, a ministry for supporting addiction recovery founded by the curas villeros and supported by the then-Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires — who washed the feet of the ministry’s participants — has launched a campaign to urge the pope to visit Argentina, saying it would promote unity at a time of deep divisions.
‘Differences are beautiful,’ Cardinal François Bustillo of Corsica says
When Cardinal François-Xavier Bustillo walked across St. Peter’s Square on Sept. 30, happy Corsicans cheered the tallest and probably most smiling cardinal on the day of the latest Vatican consistory. In an interview with OSV News, the cardinal said that we are in “‘hope and love deficit’ inside the church at the moment,” and we have to work now “to write luminous pages, after these dark pages,” in the church’s history.
Mass marks centennial of founding of first seminary in U.S. for Black seminarians
The first four African Americans to be ordained Catholic priests at St. Augustine Seminary in Mississippi in 1934 “stood tall in the midst of segregated times,” said retired Bishop J. Terry Steib of Memphis, Tennessee. “They were the men who stood tall, who served the Lord in some trying times. These are men who are role models for us.”
Knights of Columbus ‘Coats for Kids’ program gifts their one millionth coat
The Knights of Columbus have celebrated the 1 millionth coat given away through their Coats for Kids program, thanks to a wide network of volunteers who are helping meet the winter needs of children in many different communities.
GOP presidential candidates debate abortion among other issues
In a debate hosted by NBC News, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, addressed issues including the Israel-Hamas war, aid to Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion, migration, the opioid crisis and the results of the Ohio abortion referendum.
Italy’s prime minister takes case of baby on life support to highest levels of diplomacy
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has urgently written to Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice Alex Chalk of the United Kingdom, calling for the two countries to officially collaborate on facilitating 8-month-old Indi Gregory’s transfer to Rome under the Hague Convention. Indi suffers from a rare metabolic disorder known as mitochondrial disease, and her family was fighting for her not to be removed from life support by court order, as was the case of several other children in the past, including Alfie Evans and Charlie Gard.
Cameroon bishop condemns ‘heinous’ killing of dozens in Egbekaw village
The bishop of Mamfe in Cameroon’s volatile Southwest region has strongly condemned the Nov. 6 “massacre” in Egbekaw village in his diocese that left at least 20 people dead and several others injured.
Christmas celebrations canceled in Jordan in solidarity with Gaza
Churches in Jordan are canceling Christmas celebrations in solidarity with Gaza as violence in the Palestinian enclave mounts. The leaders of Jordan’s Council of Churches announced Nov. 5 the cancellation of all festivities and events to express deepening concern over the escalating humanitarian crisis engulfing Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
‘God dwells here’: Experts cite three keys to keep churches holy during secular use
Amid a culture that has a “reduced understanding” of sacred spaces and a recent controversy about the use of a Brooklyn church in a viral music video, Father Gerald Dennis Gill, director of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s Office for Divine Worship, stressed the need to recall that “when we’re talking about a cathedral, a church, a chapel or an oratory, everything about the room has been set aside for the worship of almighty God.
Diocesan phase of Florida Martyrs’ cause closes; priest to take documents to Rome
A Mass recently marked the affirming, signing and sealing of documentation on the Martyrs of La Florida Mission – Antonio Inija and 57 companions – to be delivered to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints in Rome for consideration of canonization.
Matthew Perry’s surprising prayer reminds us to pray, even for the famous
“God, please help me,” Matthew Perry whispered. “Show me that you are here. God, please help me.” In his memoir, the late actor described an encounter where he unmistakably knew God’s presence. He had been struggling with addiction.
