Bishop Donald Hying joins Dr. Grazie Christie discussing his new book, Love Never Fails. The Bishop of Madison also shares his thoughts on Eucharistic coherence. With violence against Christians on the rise in Nigeria and China, Father Benedict Kiely sounds the alarm on the recent uptick in violence and what, we as Catholics, can do to help. Marking Trinity Sunday, Father Roger Landry also offers an inspiring homily. Catch the show every Saturday at 7am ET/5pm ET on EWTN radio!
 
https://thecatholicassociation.org/podcast/ep-110-bishop-hying-talks-love-never-fails-father-ben-kiely-pray-for-christians-in-nigeria/
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1. The First U.S. Cathedral Turns 200, Baltimore’s Bishop John Carroll was the father of America’s Catholic Church., By George Weigel, The Wall Street Journal, May 28, 2021, Pg. A13, Opinion
 
Baltimore’s Bishop John Carroll had a decision to make. It was 1805, and the diocese then encompassed the entire U.S. Years before, Pope Pius VI had urged Carroll to build a cathedral church. But what kind of building would it be? And what would it say about American Catholics? His choice would set American Catholicism’s tone for years to come.
 
Carroll spent decades at the nexus of Catholic and U.S. history. He was the new republic’s first Catholic bishop, appointed in 1789, and a second cousin of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the sole Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence. The cathedral would have to be deeply Catholic and unmistakably American.
 
…
 
Two hundred years later, this extraordinary building is more than a masterpiece of Federal-style architecture. It is the center of an innovative urban mission in one of America’s most troubled cities, and it is an unparalleled historical site: the place where more U.S. Catholic history was made than at any other.
 
…
 
Under the leadership of Archbishop William Lori and a dynamic young rector, Father James Boric, the most historic Catholic site in America has become a vibrant parish for a largely young congregation—and a center of evangelization and outreach to Baltimore’s extensive homeless population. A new lay community, “Source of All Hope,” is now housed on the Basilica property. Formed by daily Mass and Eucharistic adoration, young urban missionaries, men and women, work daily on the streets of Baltimore to ease the isolation of the homeless, befriend them and encourage them to reconnect to their families, social services and the life of the church.
 
John Carroll, one imagines, would have approved.
 
Mr. Weigel is a distinguished senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
 
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-first-u-s-cathedral-turns-200-11622153282
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2. Christian baker still hounded by lawsuits, threats years later, By Mark A. Kellner, The Washington Times, May 28, 2021, Pg. A6
 
Mr. Phillips, 65, owns the Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, immediately west of Denver.
 
Ever since a 20-second conversation with a same-sex couple who asked him to create a wedding cake, he‘s been in and out of civil rights hearings and lawsuits over challenges to what he says are confections his Christian beliefs won’t let him create.
 
…
 
Mr. Phillips has documented his struggles in “The Cost of My Faith,” a memoir released this week by Regnery Publishing. Yet because he remains involved in litigation and other challenges, the debut author has an attorney at the ready.
 
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/may/27/jack-phillips-a-christian-baker-hounded-by-lawsuit/
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3. NY bill would give sexual abuse survivors new chance to sue, By Marina Villeneuve, Associated Press, May 28, 2021
 
People sexually abused as adults would have a chance to sue the perpetrators even if the usual deadline to bring a lawsuit had expired under a bill gaining momentum in New York’s legislature.
 
The bill, called the Adult Survivors Act, would give abuse survivors a one-year window in which to bring lawsuits that would otherwise be barred by the state’s statute of limitations.
 
A similar window created in 2019 for victims of childhood sexual abuse led to an avalanche of lawsuits over decades-old allegations of abuse against priests, teachers, Boy Scout leaders and others.
 
https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-usa/2021/05/ny-bill-would-give-sexual-abuse-survivors-new-chance-to-sue/
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4. Pope sends envoys to German diocese in church abuse crisis, By Geir Moulson, Associated Press, May 28, 2021, 7:44 AM
 
Pope Francis is sending envoys to the German archdiocese of Cologne to investigate possible mistakes by senior church officials in handling past sexual abuse cases and the “complex pastoral situation” in the deeply divided church there.
 
The papal nuncio’s office in Berlin said Friday that Francis ordered an “apostolic visitation” and will send Cardinal Anders Arborelius and Johannes van den Hende, the bishops of Stockholm and Rotterdam respectively, to Cologne in the first half of June.
 
It said that the two envoys will work to get a “comprehensive picture of the complex pastoral situation in the archdiocese” and investigate “possible errors” on the part of Cologne’s archbishop, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, two auxiliary bishops and Hamburg Archbishop Stefan Hesse in dealing with cases of sexual abuse by clergy and others.
 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/pope-sends-envoys-to-german-diocese-in-church-abuse-crisis/2021/05/28/12be55fa-bfa5-11eb-922a-c40c9774bc48_story.html
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5. Biden faces mounting pressure on abortion ahead of budget battle, SCOTUS case, By Sam Dorman, Fox News, May 27, 2021
 
President Biden is facing mounting pressure from both sides of the abortion debate as the federal government prepares to make potentially game-changing decisions on the issue.
 
Although then-candidate Biden reversed his decades-old position on the Hyde Amendment, observers noted a relative silence on abortion during the presidential race. That concern reportedly extended into the start of his administration as groups like Planned Parenthood sought more vocal advocacy from him and Vice President Harris.
 
…
 
Some lay groups like CatholicVote have piled onto the criticism.
 
In response to the Times’ report, CatholicVote tweeted: The ‘Shout My Abortion’ movement now runs the Democratic Party, and they’re growing impatient with the word malarkey. They say it’s time for Biden to proudly use the ‘a’ word, ‘without apology.'”
 
A follow up tweet read: “For Catholics, abortion is not a left-right issue. It’s nothing less than the intentional destruction of innocent life.” 
 
…
 
Biden, the perceived moderate among 2020 Democrats, has to balance the demands of his base with both his public image as a Catholic and the popularity of abortion restrictions with the public.
 
“In his budget, Biden is expected to make good on his campaign promise to end long-standing bipartisan policy that protects taxpayers from funding domestic abortions, a position he flip-flopped on during the campaign, reversing his more than three-decade support of Hyde protection,” said Ashley McGuire, senior fellow with The Catholic Association.
 
“This is both unpopular with mainstream America and yet another expression of Biden’s hostility toward Catholics who are committed to protecting innocent human life.”
 
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-abortion-budget-scotus-battles.amp
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6. Pope’s new pick for head of liturgy department: A bet or a hedge?, By
Ed. Condon, The Pillar, May 27, 2021, Opinion
 
The Holy See announced on Thursday the appointment of Archbishop Arthur Roche as the new prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. Roche, the emeritus Bishop of Leeds in England, has served as the secretary of the congregation since 2012.
 
The appointment comes after Pope Francis accepted in February the resignation of Cardinal Robert Sarah as head of the congregation, and ordered subsequently a visitation of the curial department — an unusual event for the Vatican.
 
Roche’s appointment, at the age of 71, will be seen by many as a kind of stop-gap. The archbishop is expected to serve a normal five-year term in the role, after which he will be one year older than the ordinary age of retirement for the head of a Vatican department.
 
At the same time, the pope named Bishop Vittorio Francesco Viola, OFM, as an archbishop and the congregation’s new secretary. Viola is now Bishop of Tortona, Italy. Given Roche’s age, many are already touting the bishop as an eventual successor as prefect.
 
Pope Francis has largely sought to avoid cultural clashes over the liturgy during his time in office, and his decision to promote from within the department may signal a desire to end the controversy caused by the visitation of the department after Sarah’s departure, while also signaling a shift in emphasis at the department towards the ordinary form of the liturgy.
 
…
 
Critics of Roche describe him as someone who can be relied upon to “go with the flow” and fall in line with the predominant school of thought on any particular issue, almost to the point of being a “yes-man”. Others who know and work with Roche stress that his collaborative nature makes him well suited to the often bitterly divisive work of liturgical reform.
 
https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/popes-new-pick-for-head-of-liturgy
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7. Archbishop Cordileone supports Archbishop Aquila’s call for repentance for German synodal path, By Catholic News Agency, May 27, 2021, 8:59 AM
 
The Archbishop of San Francisco has publicly supported Archbishop Aquila’s response to the German bishops’ “synodal path.”
 
In his open letter dated May 13, Archbishop Samuel Aquila of Denver had warned about the fundamental text produced by the first forum of the German Catholic Synodal Path, saying that it advances “untenable” views of the Church.
 
On Wednesday, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco stated his support for Archbishop Aquila’s letter.
 
“We are all in Archbishop Aquila’s debt for such an extraordinary, reasoned, and theologically rich response to the German bishops’ ‘Synodal Path,’ which proposes a radical transformation to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Church he left us,” stated Cordileone on Wednesday.
 
Archbishop Cordileone said Aquila’s letter “reminds me of the forthright way St. Paul spoke to the Corinthians, Galatians, Thessalonians and others.”
 
Aquila, in his May 13 letter, had called on bishops to be the first to “repent and believe” even as they call the world to do the same. While his letter was dated on the feast of the Ascension, he released it on May 26, the feast of St. Philip Neri. It is a 15-page commentary on the German synodal path text.
 
The German bishops’ “Synodal Path” includes bishops and lay people, and addresses four major topics: how power is exercised in the Church; sexual morality; the priesthood; and the role of women.
 
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/247807/archbishop-cordileone-supports-archbishop-aquilas-call-for-repentance-for-german-synodal-path
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8. Californians urged to oppose rollback of assisted suicide safeguards, By Catholic News Agency, May 27, 2021, 11:05 AM
 
The California Catholic Conference is urging the faithful to speak out against a proposed state law that would remove several safeguards on assisted suicide, a practice which has been legal in the state since 2015.
 
“The move follows the usual path of physician-assisted suicide laws in other states and nations – promise protections and limits, then gradually strip those away,” the conference said in a recent statement.
 
The bill, SB 380, would remove the 15-day waiting period for lethal drugs in favor of a waiting period of just 48 hours, without any mandatory mental health assessment.
 
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/247810/californians-urged-to-oppose-rollback-of-assisted-suicide-safeguards
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9. Cardinal Müller calls on Pope Francis to intervene with the Church in Germany, By Catholic News Agency, May 27, 2021, 4:00 PM
 
Gerhard Cardinal Müller on Monday called upon the Holy Father to intervene in the German situation to correct clerics who have attempted to bless same-sex unions, or encouraged such attempts.
 
“For the sake of the truth of the gospel and the unity of the Church, Rome must not watch in silence, hoping that things won’t turn out too badly, or that the Germans can be pacified with tactical finesse and small concessions. We need a clear statement of principle with practical consequences,” Cardinal Müller, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and himself a German, wrote in “Blessing and Blasphemy”, a May 24 essay for First Things.
 
“This is necessary so that after five hundred years of division, the remnant of the Catholic Church in Germany does not disintegrate, with devastating consequences for the universal Church,” he stated.
 
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/247813/cardinal-muller-calls-on-pope-francis-to-intervene-with-the-church-in-germany
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10. More prelates reject delays of US bishops’ discussion of Eucharistic coherence, By Catholic News Agency, May 27, 2021, 4:58 PM
 
More Catholic bishops have spoken out in support of continuing as planned the process to address “Eucharistic coherence,” namely Christian life and worthiness to receive Holy Communion. The bishops have reacted after an American cardinal’s letter asked the bishops’ conference president, Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles, to postpone the discussions.
 
On May 25 Archbishop Alexander Sample of Portland in Oregon voiced his “full support” for Archbishop Gomez and for “the direction he has provided to the body of bishops regarding the question of Eucharistic coherence.”
 
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/247817/more-prelates-reject-delays-of-us-bishops-discussion-of-eucharistic-coherence
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