Pope to celebrate private Mass for All Souls (CNS) Due to restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19, Pope Francis will celebrate the feast of All Souls with a “strictly private” Mass at a Vatican cemetery. Unlike past years when the pope would mark the feast with an outdoor Mass at a cemetery in Rome, the Nov. 2 Mass will take place “without the participation of the faithful” at the Vatican’s Teutonic Cemetery, the Vatican said in a statement released Oct. 28…
Pope Francis supports Polish Catholics battle against abortion (CNA) Pope Francis told Polish Catholics Wednesday that he asks St. John Paul II’s intercession for respect for life, amid protests in Poland over a law prohibiting abortion. “Through the intercession of Mary Most Holy and the holy Polish pontiff, I ask God to inspire in the hearts of all respect for the life of our brothers, especially of the most fragile and defenseless, and to give strength to those who welcome it and take it care, even when it requires heroic love,” Pope Francis said Oct. 28 in his message to Polish pilgrims…
Catholic, Jewish leaders mark 55th anniversary of ‘Nostra Aetate’ (Crux) The formal structures that sponsor Catholic-Jewish dialogue are important, but their decades of success have relied on strong personal friendships and mutual respect, both of which must continue to spread among all Catholics and Jews, officials involved in the dialogue said. “The progress in Catholic-Jewish relations has been elevated by the depth of relationships between Catholic and Jewish leaders” and “mirrored” by members of their communities, said Rabbi Noam E. Marans, chair of the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations…
How the early Catholic Church Christianized Halloween (History.com) Halloween may be a secular affair today, dominated by candy, costumes and trick-or-treating, but the holiday is rooted in an annual Celtic pagan festival called Samhain (pronounced “SAH- wane”) that was then appropriated by the early Catholic Church some 1,200 years ago…
