Angelus News | September 6, 2024 | Vol. 9 No. 18

WORLD
A bell’s new home — Gold medalist Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic rings the Olympic bell last
month in Paris. Church officials announced after the games that the bell will be placed inside the newly restored
Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and ring during every Mass once the cathedral officially reopens in December. |
OSV NEWS/ALEKSANDRA SZMIGIEL, REUTERS
■ Scientists confirm
Shroud of Turin is
2,000 years old
A new study has determined that the
Shroud of Turin dates to the time of
Jesus Christ, refuting skeptics who
claim it was a medieval forgery.
Scientists at Italy’s Institute of
Crystallography used a method called
wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS)
on eight strands of the linen cloth,
which tradition holds was the burial
cloth of Christ and bears his image.
Not only did the analysis determine
the 2,000-year age of the same, but
the data closely matched another
linen sample from Israel in the 1st
century A.D.
The Shroud contains an imprinted
image of a man with marks that
correspond to the crucifixion wounds
described in the Gospels. It was
first displayed in 1350 and has been
housed at the cathedral in Turin,
Italy, since 1578.
■ Vatican office’s new book on
end-of-life issues causes stir
A Vatican office appeared to depart from previous
positions on providing food and hydration
for patients in a vegetative state.
The Pontifical Academy for Life’s “Small
Lexicon on End of Life,” published last month,
reaffirms prohibitions on euthanasia and assisted
suicide, but stated doctors are “required to
respect the will of the patient who refuses [nutrition]
with a conscious and informed decision,
even expressed in advance in anticipation of the
possible loss of the ability to express oneself and
choose.”
Past Vatican statements have affirmed the
moral obligation to provide food and water to
patients in a vegetative state, even if there’s moral
certainty that the patient will never recover.
Father Patrick Pullicino, who was a hospital
doctor before becoming a priest in the U.K.,
told The Catholic Herald that while “we know
it is never moral to stop fluids or nutrition …
hospitals have become experts at delaying fluids
and nutrition particularly in the elderly.
“But why do you want to start a dialogue on
something that is intrinsically evil unless you
want to bring it in?” he said.
■ Nicaragua: 25 Catholic groups
shuttered in new crackdown
Nicaragua’s government has revoked the legal status of more than 25
Catholic organizations, including religious orders such as the Franciscans
and Carmelites.
The organizations were a portion of 1,500 nongovernmental religious
and civic organizations shuttered on Aug. 19 by the country’s Interior
Ministry, which claims the organizations failed to report finances properly
“for periods of between one and 35 years,” leading to the revoked
status and state seizure of assets.
Two days prior, the government exiled two priests — Fathers Leonel
Balmaceda and Denis Martínez — bringing the total number of Catholic
religious exiled from the country since 2018 to 245.
Father Leonel Balmaceda (left) and Father Denis Martínez. | CONFIDENCIAL DIGITAL
4 • ANGELUS • September 6, 2024