Man charged in arson attack on Florida Catholic church (AP) A man accused of setting a Florida church on fire was being held without bail Sunday on charges that include attempted second-degree murder and arson. The Marion County Sheriff’s Office charged Steven Shields, 23, on Saturday, hours after detectives say he plowed a minivan through the front door of Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Ocala, doused the foyer with gasoline and set it on fire, causing extensive damage…

Statues of Mary vandalized (CNA) Boston police are investigating an arson attack on a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary Saturday night, the second attack in the U.S. on a statue of the Virgin Mary in two days, and during the same weekend in which two Catholic church fires are being investigated for arson…

Pope Francis expresses sadness after Hagia Sofia declared a mosque (CNA) Pope Francis expressed his sadness Sunday after Turkey’s decision to convert the former Byzantine cathedral of Hagia Sophia back into a mosque. In improvised remarks after reciting the Angelus, the pope recalled that July 12 is Sea Sunday, when the worldwide Church prays for seafarers.  “And the sea carries me a little farther away in my thoughts: to Istanbul. I think of Hagia Sophia, and I am very saddened,” he said, according to an unofficial translation provided by the Holy See Press Office…

Former Nashville Bishop Kmiec dies (Nashville Tennessean) The Most Rev. Edward U. Kmiec, a former bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nashville, has died. He was 84.  Kmiec, whose health had been declining for the past several months, died Saturday night following a brief illness, the Diocese of Buffalo confirmed in a Sunday news release…

Archbishop: Wearing a mask displays true love of neighbor (The Clarion Herald) There are far too many unknowns about the virus itself, but this much we do know: Wearing a mask in public and keeping a safe distance from those outside of our immediate household are true “acts of charity” toward our neighbor. Wearing a mask in public – and certainly at Sunday Mass – is a small act of charity and may well save lives. This is a question much more about care than about fear. There is virtually no scientific disagreement that wearing a mask reduces the possibility of dispersing into the air particles that may contain the virus and also reduces the possibility of inhaling any particles from another person…