Italian cops bust fake cardinals scam (Crux) A group of con men who dressed up as cardinals to swindle victims out of millions of dollars have been caught by Italian police, in an undercover sting operation conducted by officers who were disguised as priests…
Eight priests died in Jesuit retirement home from COVID (The Los Angeles Times) They devoted their lives to God and helping others. After they grew old, they came to a secluded campus in the hills of the Santa Clara Valley to spend the rest of their days in quiet contemplation. One by one, the retired priests succumbed to COVID-19. In the span of a month, beginning in early December, eight residents of Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in Los Gatos died…
Amid Catholic opposition, states are legalizing composting of human remains (RNS)Washington, Colorado and Oregon are now among the U.S. states that have legalized the process of converting human bodies into soil, a procedure the Catholic Church said fails to show “respect for the body of the deceased.” Meanwhile, California and New York are seeking to be next in line to allow human composting…
Lifting dispensation isn’t enough to get Catholics back to Mass (CNS) Research by the Catholic Leadership Institute, based in Pennsylvania, indicates that 25%-27% of Massgoing Catholics say they go to church “out of habit,” according to institute president Dan Cellucci. Another 4%-6%, he added, call themselves “Catholics in name only.” The research, Cellucci said, is based on 300,000 parishioners who speak one of 14 languages in 43 U.S. dioceses. “If you were looking at that and the (Mass attendance) habit’s been broken for 18 months in some part so the country, I would posit that those people aren’t going to come back if they (parishes) are not careful,” Cellucci said..
From child soldier to Catholic priest (CNA) A Catholic priest is returning to the land where he was once abducted to “give hope to those who have lost hope.” For the past seven years Fr. Charles Mbikoyo has studied philosophy at the Pontifical Urban University in Rome, he told EWTN News In Depth July 9. But his story starts in what is now South Sudan, where he entered seminary at 12 years of age, in 1988…
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