Stories for week of May 17, 2020

Ordered from most to least recent.

Released Friday, May. 22

 Chinese legislation would curb Hong Kong’s autonomy
 Young Belgian Catholics challenge ban on church services
 Australian bishops weigh major reforms in governance
 Kenyan bishops back petition campaign against sex education plan
 British Catholic think-tank questions new organ-donor law
 Churches are ‘essential,’ Trump declares
 Russian Orthodox Patriarch suspends 2 bishops
 Pakistan: government announces reopening of Punjab churches
 Federal court upholds Maryland governor’s stay-at-home order
 ‘Ecological conversion has to take place now, before it is too late,’ Caritas leader warns
 Rift between White House and CDC delays guidance for reopening houses of worship
 Minnesota bishops to resume public Masses in defiance of governor’s order
 Hungary outlaws changing birth sex on documents
 Background: World Communications Day 2020
 British bishop: CO19 brings questions of racial inequality to the fore
 For first time in months, Pope receives small group in audience
 Pope Francis outlines vision for Pontifical Mission Societies
 Chaldean Patriarch laments plight of Iraq’s Christians, calls for national unity against CO19
 World Health Assembly includes reproductive health in CO19 resolution, US objects

Released Wednesday, May. 20

 Vatican data-processing functions moved to Secretariat for Economy
 Vatican cautions against Israeli annexation of Palestinian land
 Norma McCorvey repudiated pro-life conversion before death
 US Labor department moves to protect religious freedom
 Father Adolfo Nicolas, former Jesuit superior general, dead at 84
 Russian Orthodox monasteries hard hit by pandemic
 Oregon Supreme Court blocks judge’s ruling overturning stay-at-home orders
 On Lesvos, Orthodox church vandalized, used as toilet
 More than 600 Nigerian Christians killed in 2020, new report finds
 New book: John Paul II’s mother chose life after her doctor advised an abortion
 Pope reflects on prayer and the mystery of creation
 France’s top court orders government to reopen places of worship
 More dioceses, religious orders divest from fossil fuels
 Changes in Church governance on agenda at Australian bishops’ plenary council
 Do not abandon the most vulnerable during pandemic, Vatican diplomat says at WHO meeting
 Pope merges 2 Alaskan dioceses
 ‘I was acting on the best information I had’: Texas bishop reflects on suspension of public Masses
 At New York hospital, a friar watches over those dying

Released Tuesday, May. 19

 Filipino bishop rips blanket restriction on church gatherings
 French Council of State rules against ban on religious gatherings
 Judge sides with archdiocese in dispute with Small Business Administration
 With economy in crisis, Maronite Patriarch offers land to citizens, blasts Lebanese judiciary
 US bishops’ committee, Catholic Charities denounce usury, deceptive lending practices
 Missionary sister laments continued violent superstition in Papua New Guinea
 Malawi’s religious leaders deplore political massacre
 Report: Anti-Semitic incidents in US hit record high in 2019
 Vatican calls attention to growing food crisis
 Stop peddling abortion as CO19 relief, US official tells UN leader
 EU court rules against Hungary’s detention of asylum seekers, including Christians
 Amazon bishops call for urgent global action to avert humanitarian, environmental tragedy
 Pontifical academy offers ‘contributions from the Catholic Church to ethical reflections in the digital era’
 We have a Father, we are not orphans, Pope preaches at Mass
 Pope speaks of postponed First Communions, seeks John Paul’s intercession for peace
 Learn from John Paul and ‘enter Christ with your whole life,’ Pope Francis tells Kraków’s young people
 John Paul II was a man of prayer, closeness, justice, Pope Francis preaches on saint’s centenary

Released Monday, May. 18

 Ecuador: pro-lifers protest UN epidemic-aid package that promotes abortion
 Indian bishop seeks approval to live as hermit
 Montenegro: Serbian clerics released after being jailed for prayer service
 Stalin, Putin removed from mosaics of new Russian Orthodox church
 Federal judge upholds Louisiana limits on church services; pastor released from house arrest
 Federal judge blocks North Carolina governor’s restrictions on religious services
 UK emphasizes: No house of worship may reopen without government permission
 With dozens of babies stranded in Ukraine, bishops call for an end to surrogacy
 ‘The only medicine against worldliness is Christ’: papal homily
 Pope renews warning against rigidity
 Poland’s bishops issue letter for 100th anniversary of St. John Paul II’s birth
 Cardinal Turkson outlines work of Vatican’s CO19 commission
 Pope Francis: As churches reopen, heed civil authorities’ health directives
 Laudato Sì Week: papal encouragement for care of creation
 At Regina Caeli address, Pope reflects on observance of the commandments, promise of the Holy Spirit
 Angelicum launches St. John Paul II Institute of Culture; papal letter
 St. Faustina’s feast day inscribed in General Roman Calendar

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Gospel Excerpt, Luke 18:1-8: Jesus told his disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary. He said, "There was a judge in a certain town who neither feared God nor respected any human being. And a widow in that town used to come to him and say, ‘Render a just…

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