‘Terrified’ Catholic school teachers in Chicago call for online teaching (Chicago Sun-Times) A group representing hundreds of teachers and parents with the Archdiocese of Chicago Catholic Schools Thursday called for all fall classes at the parochial school system to be held online. “Now is the wrong time to gather hundreds of human beings into enclosed spaces,” James Cahill, a history and religion teacher at Wilmette’s St. Francis Xavier School, said at a news conference outside the archdiocese’s downtown offices, at 835 N. Rush St. “The decision to do so boggles the mind, defies science and potentially endangers the lives of students, teachers, staff, and all of our families and communities…”
Read: prayers by Sister Simone Campbell and Father James Martin at convention (America) On the last evening of the Democratic National Convention, two Catholic leaders delivered prayers to open and close the proceedings: Sister Simone Campbell, the executive director of NETWORK, and James Martin, S.J., editor at large at America Media. Here are the texts of their prayers…
U.S. bishops praise Trump pro-life policies (CNA) The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops praised the Trump administration’s efforts to tie U.S. aid to pro-life policy on Thursday, following the release of a report indicating widespread compliance with the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance policy. “The Trump Administration deserves our praise for ensuring that U.S. global health assistance funding actually promotes health and human rights, and doesn’t undermine them by promoting abortion,” said Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City in Kansas, the chairman of the USCCB’s pro-life committee…
Signs of hope at Beirut parish after explosion (CNS) Sunlight streamed through the damaged rotunda roof of Mar Mikhael Maronite Catholic Church, damaged when a massive explosion in the port ripped through the city. Baby Simon’s parents readied him for his baptism on the feast of the Assumption, Aug. 15. “Life must continue,” Maria Nader, Simon’s mother, told Catholic News Service as she held her 2-month-old son. “We already had the baptism scheduled. We didn’t want to cancel it” after the Aug. 4 blast…
Italy’s guesthouses begin to reopen (CNS) The COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a powerful blow to the tourism industry, including the religious guesthouses in Italy that specialize in welcoming pilgrims. Fabio Rocchi, president of the Italian association of religious guesthouses, said Aug. 19 that of the 1,700 guesthouses he regularly interacts with only “140 have closed their doors to hospitality definitively. The properties will be put to other uses…”
German archbishop calls for open debate about women priests (America) The archbishop of Hamburg, Stefan Hesse, has called for an open debate on the ordination of women in the Catholic Church. “One has to be permitted to think about and discuss the issues,” the German archbishop said on Aug. 19. He argued that “Ordinatio sacerdotalis,” St. John Paul II’s 1994 letter that stated the church cannot ordain women as priests, was positioned as a response to those who considered women’s ordination “open to debate” and affirmed the male-only priesthood “in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance…”
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