More new bishops than priests to be ordained in Ireland (The Independent) More new bishops will be ordained in Ireland this year than new priests, amid a crisis in vocations, a well-known parish priest has warned. Next Sunday, Archbishop Michael Neary will ordain Rev Shane Costello to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Tuam at Knock Basilica, Co Mayo. It is understood that this will be the only ordination this year for the country’s 26 dioceses…
Notre Dame shuts down public classes for two weeks (South Bend Tribune) The University of Notre Dame on Tuesday amped up its effort to slow a rash of COVID-19 case with a series of new measures, including online classes and the closure of public spaces, for at least two weeks. The university’s president, The Rev. John Jenkins, announced the moves in a live-streamed address late Tuesday afternoon…
Ohio priest charged with sex trafficking (The Toledo Blade) The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday arrested the pastor of St. Michael the Archangel Parish, alleging that he groomed and sexually assaulted minors for years, beginning in Toledo. Special Agent in Charge Eric Smith said the Rev. Michael Zacharias, 53, is believed to have groomed and sexually assaulted minors since the late 1990s. The Northwest Ohio Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force took the priest into custody after he presided at a 7 a.m. Mass at St. Michael the Archangel Parish. Father Zacharias faces charges of coercion and enticement, sex trafficking of a minor, and sex trafficking of an adult by force, fraud, or coercion, according to court documents…
Nick Sandmann, Abby Johnson to speak at GOP convention (USA TODAY) Speakers at the Republican National Convention next week include a St. Louis couple who brandished guns as protesters of police brutality marched through their gated community; a high school student maligned for his interaction with a Native American man; the father of a student killed in the Parkland, Florida, shooting of 2018; and at least one prominent anti-abortion activist…
Pope tells nun helping transgender women, ‘God will repay you’ (Crux) In the latest sign of papal outreach to the transgender community, Pope Francis has written to an old friend in Argentina to say that he is praying for her and the women who will move into a new condo complex she built to help transgender women living in poverty…
Church social worker volunteer shot dead in Philippines (CNS) A human rights activist and church social worker was shot dead in the Philippines Aug. 17 in what colleagues say was most probably an extrajudicial killing carried out by state agents. Ucanews.com reported that Zara Alvarez, a volunteer for the Church-Workers Solidarity group in San Carlos Diocese, was gunned down in Bacolod City. She had been receiving death threats for more than a year…
Former Catholic school may become luxury apartments (NJ.com) Bayonne’s latest luxury building up for approval won’t look like the rest. A project moving forward this week plans to convert a brick 1921 Catholic school building into residences without abandoning the nearly 100-year-old façade.Our Lady of Mount Carmel School’s current look will be “maintained to the greatest extent possible,” according to the redevelopment plan up for a City Council vote Wednesday night. The school built in the Roman revival style “is part of the vanishing architectural history of Bayonne,” the plan states…
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