In today’s weekly round up, we cover the news we missed from the 17th to the 23rd October 2021
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Oct 18, 2021- Pope Francis on Monday named the chair of the US bishops’ evangelization committee as the new bishop of Crookston, Minnesota.
The pope appointed Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens, the 53-year-old auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, to the post that had remained vacant since Bishop Michael Hoeppner resigned on April 13, 2021.
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Oct 18, 2021 – Church leaders across Asia vowed to listen to the faithful as the diocesan phase of the Synod on Synodality started officially on Sunday, Oct. 17.
“Let us create opportunities for listening and dialogue on the local level through this synod,” said Cardinal Jose Advincula, Archbishop of Manila, in his homily during Mass to open the process.
Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Bombay, India urged the people “to walk together in the same path” in the synodal process. “We have to encounter Jesus through prayer and adoration and to hear what the Spirit wants to say to the Church,” he said in his homily.
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Oct 17, 2021- Archbishop Francisco Cerro Chaves of Toledo carried out a penitential act Sunday at the city’s cathedral, after the filming of a music video which includes sensual dance scenes within the church.
The penitential act took place in the Toledo Cathedral at the beginning of the opening of the diocesan phase of the synodal assembly convened by Pope Francis. The archbishop asked for forgiveness for “negligence in the care and respect for the church.”
- Oct 17, 2021- – Suspected arsonists targeted Scotland’s national shrine to Our Lady of Lourdes on Sunday night, in the latest in a series of incidents at Catholic sites. The fire on Oct. 17 caused damage to Carfin Grotto, located about 15 miles outside of Glasgow’s city center, adding to the financial strain on the shrine that welcomed more than 70,000 pilgrims a year before the coronavirus crisis.
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Oct 20, 2021 – Fr. Peter Harman will end his term as rector of the Pontifical North American College, a seminary for U.S. students in Rome, at the end of January 2022.
The NAC announced the completion of Harman’s term in a press release on Oct. 20. He will return to his diocese of Springfield, Illinois.
Fr. Harman was appointed rector of the NAC for a five-year term which started in February 2016. In July 2020, he was asked to stay on as rector for an additional year to maintain consistent leadership through the coronavirus pandemic.
- Oct 19, 2021 – Catholics in Poland commemorated the martyrdom of Blessed Jerzy Popiełuszko, the priest killed for his defiance of the communist authorities.The focal point of the nationwide observance on Oct. 19 was a Mass at St. Stanislaus Kostka Church in the capital, Warsaw, where the blessed’s tomb is located.
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Oct 21, 2021 – Archbishop Samuel Aquila of Denver denounced recent incidents of “anti-Semitic and hateful vandalism” that occurred at two area schools last weekend.
“I condemn the recent incidents of anti-Semitic and hateful vandalism at George Washington High School, and the property destruction at Denver Academy of the Torah,” Aquila said in a statement. “These acts have absolutely no place in our society, and we stand in solidarity with our Jewish brothers and sisters.”
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Oct 22, 2021 – Catholic, Anglican, and Jewish leaders have issued a joint appeal to U.K. lawmakers to reject a bill that would legalize assisted suicide.
In a letter, they expressed “profound disquiet” over the Assisted Dying Bill, which has its second reading in the upper house of the U.K. Parliament on Friday.
“As leaders of faith communities, we wish to express our profound disquiet at the provisions of the ‘Assisted Dying’ Bill currently in the House of Lords,” said the religious leaders in the letter sent to members of the Lords.The text was signed by Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the president of the English and Welsh bishops’ conference, Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Ephraim Mirvis, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth.
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Oct 22, 2021 – The Vatican issued a decree guiding bishops’ conferences on the proper protocol for the translation of liturgical texts from Latin into vernacular languages.
Published on Oct. 22, the feast of St. John Paul II, the decree, called Postquam Summus Pontifex, clarifies changes already made by Pope Francis to the process of translating liturgical texts.
The decree from the Congregation for Divine Worship builds on a motu proprio Pope Francis issued in September 2017 shifting responsibility for the revision of liturgical texts toward bishops’ conferences.
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Oct 23, 2021 – Cardinal Eugene Tisserant was a librarian who knew more than 10 languages, advised multiple popes, and held key Vatican positions. He also deserves credit for helping multiple Jews escape persecution in Europe, Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, said on Thursday. The Jerusalem-based center will remember the cardinal and two of his collaborators as “Righteous Among the Nations” in a ceremony at a later date.
