Bishop Brennan of Columbus named new bishop of Brooklyn (Diocese of Brooklyn) The Holy Father, Pope Francis, has named the Most Reverend Robert J. Brennan as the eighth Bishop of the Diocese of Brooklyn. The appointment was announced this morning by Archbishop Christophe Pierre, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States. The Most Reverend Nicholas DiMarzio, Bishop of Brooklyn, who turned 75 years of age on June 16, 2019, had submitted his resignation on that date as required by Canon Law. His resignation was accepted today by Pope Francis…

Peru’s “Lord of Miracles” procession cancelled again (AP) Peru’s most popular Roman Catholic procession, the Lord of Miracles, has been canceled for the second straight year because of the coronavirus pandemic, the archbishopric of Lima announced Tuesday. The procession venerates a 17th century rendering of Jesus Christ and in the past has attracted more than 100,000 people. It culminates when a giant replica is carried to Las Nazarenas monastery in downtown Lima where the original Lord of Miracles mural is…

Report: Biden to meet with Pope Francis next month (CNA) Pope Francis is expected to receive Joe Biden on Oct. 29, in the U.S. president’s first official visit to the Vatican since his inauguration, according to sources at the Apostolic Palace. The sources told CNA on Sept. 25 that their information came directly from the Prefecture for the Pontifical Household. Though encounters with heads of state are diplomatic occasions, the Prefecture is responsible for the organization and protocol around the meetings…

Heroic Catholic priest beatified (CNA) As Allied forces bombed the Nazi-occupied Italian city of Bologna in the fall of 1943, a 28-year-old Italian priest was seen digging through the rubble with a pickaxe desperately trying to rescue civilian survivors. “I remember Fr. Giovanni with the pickaxe in his hand working so hard as if he were digging his mother out of that rubble,” Fr. Angelo Serra, a fellow parish priest, recalled after an air raid…

Cardinal Gregory “saddened” by divisions in Church (NCR) After taking possession of his titular church in Rome — a longstanding tradition meant to symbolize the unity of the pope with his cardinals around the world — Cardinal Wilton Gregory of Washington said he is “saddened” by the tensions in the U.S. church and sees it part of his job to bolster Pope Francis’ ministry.  “Francis has provided extraordinarily generous, kind and sensitive leadership to the church throughout the world,” Gregory told NCR. “And I hope in whatever way I can to assist him in that, to support him in that, and to be available to whatever he might ask me to do, and buttressing and supporting his papal ministry…”

Papal academy gives “Guardian of Life” award to death row chaplain (CNS) Death row inmates in Florida’s prisons refer to their 6-foot-by-9-foot cell as their “house,” with some having lived in their “house” for 40 years — longer than one Catholic lay chaplain said he has lived in his family home in Tallahassee. So when Dale Recinella, the lay minister, goes from cell to cell to offer pastoral care, religious education and spiritual accompaniment, “we go house to house, cell to cell, and that’s where we meet them.” These are men and women who cannot come out, “they can’t even come to the chapel,” so the church must go to them. With just a few more months until his 70th birthday, Recinella was at the Vatican to be honored by the Pontifical Academy for Life and receive its first ever Guardian of Life Award during a special evening event Sept. 28…