1. It’s Time to Get Back to Mass!, By Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, Catholic New York, April 7, 2021, 4:10 AM
God told us, “Remember to keep holy the Lord’s Day!”
For two millennia, we Catholics have believed that we best keep Holy the Lord’s Day by Sunday Mass!
Yes, for the last year, we have prudently been able to decide that the emergency health crisis can allow us to excuse ourselves from that God-given obligation. Our elderly, or people with compromising conditions that weaken them can still excuse themselves, as has always been the case. But for the majority of us—are we going to restaurants? To the kids’ soccer and little league games? To the store? To the beauty parlor? To gatherings with family and friends?
Well, then, it’s time to get back to Mass.
https://www.cny.org/stories/its-time-to-get-back-to-mass,22189
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2. Hans Küng, influential dissident theologian, dead at 93, By The Pillar, April 6, 2021
Fr. Hans Küng, an influential Swiss Catholic priest and theologian who was forbidden from teaching theology because he dissented from Catholic doctrine, has died. The priest was 93 years old.
The priest was a contemporary of Joseph Ratzinger, later Benedict XVI, with whom he had a relationship of frequent public disagreement, especially as the men embarked on radically divergent theological paths, engaged in pointed theological disputes, and after official condemnation of some of Küng’s theological work.
Küng’s death was announced by the German bishops’ conference on April 6.
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Küng’s rejection of Church doctrine was made explicitly manifest in 1968, when Humanae vitae was promulgated, and the theologian joined those opposing its teaching, which ruled out the licit use of artificial contraception and reiterated the Church’s holistic teaching on human dignity, sexuality, and the link between the unitive and procreative potential of marital love.
https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/hans-kung-influential-dissident-theologian
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3. Pope Francis urges Catholics to pray for people risking lives to fight for fundamental rights, By Catholic News Agency, April 6, 2021, 9:30 AM
Pope Francis is inviting Catholics around the world to pray this month for people risking their lives by standing up for fundamental rights.
The pope made the appeal in his prayer intention for April, released on Tuesday.
“Let us pray for those who risk their lives while fighting for fundamental rights under dictatorships, authoritarian regimes and even in democracies in crisis, that they may see their sacrifice and their work bear abundant fruit,” reads the monthly prayer intention, issued April 6 by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network.
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Speaking in Spanish, the pope said: “Defending fundamental human rights demands courage and determination. I’m referring to actively combatting poverty, inequality, the lack of work, land, and housing, and the denial of social and labor rights.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/247173/pope-francis-urges-catholics-to-pray-for-people-risking-lives-to-fight-for-fundamental-rights
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4. Arkansas legislature overrides veto of gender-transitioning ban, By Catholic News Agency, April 6, 2021, 1:15 PM
The Arkansas state legislature voted on Tuesday to override a veto by Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) of a bill prohibiting gender-transitioning procedures for children.
Last month, the state’s Senate had approved House Bill 1570, the “To Create The Arkansas Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act.” The bill prohibited a “physician or other healthcare professional” from providing “gender transition procedures to any individual under eighteen (18) years of age.”
In addition to banning the procedures for minors, the bill also blocked referrals and public funding for these procedures.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/247177/arkansas-legislature-overrides-veto-of-gender-transitioning-ban
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5. Catholic teaching on Communion applies to politicians who support abortion, too, bishop says, By Catholic News Agency, April 6, 2021, 8:01 PM
Catholic teaching sees the Eucharist as Christ’s transformative sacrifice on the cross and this Holy Communion must only be received worthily. This teaching is not partisan, but it certainly applies to political leaders who back abortion and euthanasia, Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix has said in an apostolic exhortation on the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.
“Holy Communion is reserved for those, who with God’s grace make a sincere effort to live this union with Christ and His Church by adhering to all that the Catholic Church believes and proclaims to be revealed by God,” Bishop Olmsted said, explaining that Church teaching on this has “always been clear and based on Scripture.”
This is why the Church “requires Catholic leaders who have publicly supported gravely immoral laws such as abortion and euthanasia to refrain from receiving Holy Communion until they publicly repent and receive the Sacrament of Penance,” continued his exhortation, Veneremur Cernui.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/247187/catholic-teaching-on-communion-applies-to-politicians-who-support-abortion-too-bishop-says
___________________________________________________________TCA Media Monitoring provides a snapshot from national newspapers and major Catholic press outlets of coverage regarding significant Catholic Church news and current issues with which the Catholic Church is traditionally or prominently engaged. The opinions and views expressed in the articles do not necessarily reflect the views of The Catholic Association. |
