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Month: August 2020

Primate leads tribute to John Hume (Irish Catholic)

Posted by | Aug 4, 2020 | |

Hume died on August 3 at the age of 83. The Catholic architect of the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts; Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh, the Primate of All Ireland, called him “a paragon of peace…

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A Failure of Reason

Posted by | Aug 4, 2020 | , , , |

Man is a rational animal. The capacity for reason is ingrained in his nature. He cannot be truly himself without living by the light of human reason. Saint Thomas Aquinas understood the social implications of reason and saw it as a means by which all people can communicate with each other on a common basis. […]

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Concerns raised over restrictions’ long-term impact on spiritual health

Posted by | Aug 4, 2020 | , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone thanked priests of the archdiocese in a July 30 letter for their “continued pastoral care” to their people and reminded them to continue their care “always keeping with the local health orders of your county.”

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Murad, Amal Clooney accuse leaders and UN of failing Yazidis

Posted by | Aug 4, 2020 | , , , , , , , |

Six years after Islamic State fighters launched an attack on Iraq’s Yazidi minority, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad and human rights lawyer Amal Clooney accused government leaders and the United Nations on Monday of failing to bring the extremists responsible for the genocide to justice.

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U.S. House appropriations measure blocks conscience protection rule

Posted by | Aug 4, 2020 | , , , , , , , , , |

An omnibus appropriations bill approved by the House July 31 to fund a dozen federal departments and agencies blocks a conscience protection rule for health care providers who do not want to participate in abortion, sterilization or assisted suicide on religious or moral grounds.

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Bishops from Japan, U.S. call Catholics to work for nuclear disarmament

Posted by | Aug 4, 2020 | , , , , , , , , , , |

CLEVELAND — The path to true peace requires the world to abolish nuclear weapons, an American bishop and a Japanese archbishop said as the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombings at the end of World War II approached. Speaking during a 30-minute webinar Aug. 3, Bishop David J. Malloy of

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Washington Archdiocese reviewing county directive delaying school opening

Posted by | Aug 4, 2020 | , , , , , , , , , , , |

The health officer for Montgomery County, Maryland, which is part of the Archdiocese of Washington, issued a directive July 31 that private, parochial and schools affiliated with religious institutions in the county must remain closed to in-person instruction though at least Oct. 1, 2020.

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Ahead of Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing anniversary, USCCB prays for peace

Posted by | Aug 4, 2020 | , |

CNA Staff, Aug 4, 2020 / 12:00 am (CNA).-  

Just days ahead of the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II, the president of the U.S. bishop’s conference mourned the loss of innocent lives in the attacks, lamented the long-term suffering caused by the bombs, and prayed for peace among nations.

“My brother bishops and I mourn with the Japanese people for the innocent lives that were taken and the generations that have continued to suffer the public health and environmental consequences of these tragic attacks,” Archbishop Jose Gomez said in a July 30 statement.

The world’s only wartime uses of nuclear weapons took place in 1945’s Aug. 6 U.S. attack on Hiroshima and Aug. 9 U.S. attack on Nagasaki.

The Hiroshima attack killed around 80,000 people instantly and may have caused about 130,000 deaths, mostly civilians. The attack on Nagasaki instantly killed about 40,000, and destroyed a third of the city.

Pope Francis has spoken out against the use of nuclear weapons multiple times, including during a November 2019 visit to Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

“How can we propose peace if we constantly invoke the threat of nuclear war as a legitimate recourse for the resolution of conflicts?” Pope Francis asked Nov. 24, 2019 in Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park. “May the abyss of pain endured here remind us of boundaries that must never be crossed. A true peace can only be an unarmed peace,” he added.

Since St. John Paul II’s visit to Japan in 1981, the Catholic Church in Japan has annually observed Ten Days of Prayer for Peace beginning Aug. 6.

The U.S. bishops’ conference Committee for International Justice and Peace issued a statement on July 13, encouraging Catholics in the United States to join Japan in prayer by offering intentions of peace at Mass on Sunday, Aug. 9. The committee has also compiled resources for further reflection, study and prayer for the occasion on its website.

In his July 30 statement, Gomez noted that the bishops of the U.S. “join our voice with Pope Francis and call on our national and world leaders to persevere in their efforts to abolish these weapons of mass destruction, which threaten the existence of the human race and our planet.”

“We ask our Blessed Mother Mary, the Queen of Peace, to pray for the human family, and for each one of us. Remembering the violence and injustice of the past, may we commit ourselves to being peacemakers as Jesus Christ calls us to be. Let us always seek the path of peace and seek alternatives to the use of war as a way to settle differences between nations and peoples.”

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