Angelus News | September 22, 2023, Vol. 8, Issue No. 19

WORLD
Prayers sparked by a politician — Bishops and priests prepare to celebrate a Mass Sept. 5 in the “villa 21-24”
neighborhood in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to rebuff attacks on Pope Francis by presidential candidate Javier
Milei, of La Libertad Avanza coalition. The “anarcho-capitalist” Milei was the surprise winner in Argentina’s
Aug. 13 primaries and has publicly insulted Francis several times. He is considered a contender in next month’s
general elections. | OSV NEWS/AGUSTIN MARCARIAN, REUTERS
■ Mexico moves closer to legal abortion nationwide
Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled a state-level abortion ban unconstitutional, moving
the country closer to full decriminalization of the procedure.
The court’s First Chamber ruled unanimously against the state of Aguascalientes’
ban on abortions, saying that “the legal system that penalizes abortion in the
Federal Criminal Code is unconstitutional, since it violates the human rights of
women and persons with the capacity to gestate.”
Despite the Aug. 30 ruling, the court does not itself have the power to directly
change the penal code. Mexico’s Federal Congress will have to pass changes to
the penal code in order to decriminalize abortion in the country. But this ruling,
as well as one in 2021 that decriminalized abortions in the state of Coahuila, are
expected to set a legal precedent for challenges to abortion bans in other parts of
the country.
■ Vatican to limit media access at synod
The upcoming Synod of Bishops, held in Rome Oct. 4-29, will
be the first to include women and laymen. But reporters will be
mostly kept out.
During a Sept. 4 flight to Rome from Mongolia, Pope Francis
told journalists that the upcoming synod, focused on creating a
more “synodal church,” will not be livestreamed or allow reporters
access to the proceedings in order to “safeguard the synodal
climate.”
“This isn’t a television program where you talk about everything,”
Pope Francis said. “No, it is a religious moment, a religious exchange.”
Days later, however, Vatican communications chief Paolo Ruffini
clarified that some portions of the synod, including the opening
Mass and first general session, will be livestreamed and open to
accredited reporters.
■ Documents: Orders
sheltered more than 3,000
Jews from Nazis in Rome
Researchers in Rome presented
rediscovered documents outlining the
role Catholic religious congregations
had in sheltering Jewish people from
Nazi persecutions.
Some of the information presented at
a workshop at Rome’s Museum of the
Shoah on Sept. 7 had been previously
published in 1961. Newly uncovered
in the archive of the Pontifical
Biblical Institute however, was a list
of more than 4,300 Jews who received
shelter, compiled by Italian Jesuit
Father Gozzolino Birolo in 1944 and
1945.
One-hundred women’s and 55 men’s
religious congregations participated
in the sheltering during the Nazi
occupation of Rome Sept. 10, 1943
through June 4, 1944. There were
3,600 individuals named, including
3,200 Jewish Romans. Their names
will not be released to the public out
of respect for privacy.
“This documentation thus significantly
increases the information on
the history of the rescue of Jews in the
context of the Catholic institutions
of Rome,” said a joint press release
from the Pontifical Biblical Institute,
the Jewish Community of Rome, and
Yad Vashem International Institute for
Holocaust Research.
Pope Francis answers questions from journalists aboard his flight back to
Rome from Mongolia Sept. 4. | CNS/LOLA GOMEZ
NATION
Buoys along the Rio Grande River near Eagle Pass, Texas, in July. | OSV NEWS/ADREES
LATIF, REUTERS
■ Judge orders Texas to remove
Rio Grande River buoy blockade
The state of Texas was ordered to remove its series of
controversial buoys from the Rio Grande River by a federal
judge Sept. 7.
The buoys were part of a Texas border program championed
by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott to deter migrant
border crossings. The approximately 1,000-foot line of
buoys were deployed near Eagle Pass, Texas, without authorization
from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which
has jurisdiction of the country’s navigable waterways.
Catholic leaders have condemned parts of the border
deterrence program, including the use of buoys and razor
wire.
“There are other more human ways to engage with people,”
wrote San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller
in an Aug. 31 post on X (formerly Twitter). “Lord have mercy
on the hundreds injured and move the hearts of those
who make these cruel decisions to change their ways.”
■ Super Bowl champion wants to
repurpose empty churches
Super Bowl champion Harrison Butker is challenging
parishes to rethink how to use their property.
In partnership with the University of Notre Dame’s
Church Properties Initiative, the Kansas City Chiefs kicker
announced a $10,000 award for innovative use of Church
property amid U.S. demographic changes.
“When discussing Church real estate, we are talking about
more than just physical buildings,” Butker said in a news release.
“We are talking about our patrimony, and it is essential
that we work together to ensure that the work of generations
of Catholics before us was not done in vain.”
A panel of experts will choose the award winner based on
applications that are “distinctively Catholic” and provide an
innovative and scalable plan to best use Church property.
The award comes as several dioceses face parish consolidations
and church closures due to decreased Mass attendance,
shrinking Catholic communities, and a shortage of priests.
■ HHS mandate could challenge
Catholic emergency shelters
The U.S. bishops are warning that a Biden administration
rule change could hamper efforts by Catholic aid agencies
to help the poor.
A proposed rule change from the Department of Health
and Human Services would bolster anti-discrimination
rules for grant recipients by “clarifying and reaffirming the
prohibition on discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation
and gender identity in certain statutes.”
According to a Sept. 5 statement from the U.S. Conference
of Catholic Bishops’ legal office, “any charity that has
separate men’s and women’s bathrooms or changing areas
could be required to allow men to use the women’s facility
and vice versa” as a result of the change. Many Catholic
charities that run emergency shelters, the conference
pointed out, are divided into single-sex environments.
“We urge HHS to reconsider the NPRM’s reinterpretation
of those sex discrimination provisions … and to implement
a religious exemption that properly respects religious charities’
statutory and constitutional rights,” the letter read.
Praying for the harvest — Father Mike Perucho, vocations director for the
Archdiocese of Los Angeles, sings during Mass at the National Conference of
Diocesan Vocation Directors’ 60th annual convention at Immaculate Conception
Seminary in Huntington, New York, Aug. 29. Some 250 participants from the
U.S., Canada, Mexico, Germany, Italy, and Australia attended the Aug. 28-Sept. 1
gathering. To his right is LA’s Associate Vocations Director Father Peter Saucedo.
| OSV NEWS/GREGORY A. SHEMITZ
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