St. Andrew Catholic Church

The Ascension of Jesus Christ. Giotto di Bondone, 1305. / Credit: Public domain

National Catholic Register, May 9, 2024 / 04:00 am (CNA).

Christ’s ascension is meant to help us to grow to full stature in Christ as we respond to his confidence in making us his missionaries, together with the Holy Spirit, to renew the face of the earth.

The celebration of the solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord is an annual opportunity for us not only to focus on heaven, where the Lord Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us (Jn 14:1-6) and on the joy that “eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor the human heart conceived,” which “God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor 2:9; Is 64:4), but also on the implications Jesus’ return to the Father means for each of his followers. 

Jesus could have stayed on earth until the end of time as the Good Shepherd, crisscrossing the globe after every lost sheep, saving them one by one. As he ascended, however, he placed his own mission in our hands, commanding us to “go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature” (Mk 16:15). 

He took the training wheels off our discipleship and removed any excuses we might have to pass the buck of sharing and spreading the faith. “You will be my witnesses,” he told us, “in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). 

His confidence and trust in us, despite all our weaknesses, is astonishing. He wanted to incorporate us into — actually entrust to us — his mission of the redemption of the world. 

But he didn’t leave us orphans (cf. Jn 14:18). 

St. Luke gives us a beautiful image and detail, that Jesus “led them out as far as Bethany, raised his hands, and blessed them. As he was blessing them, he parted from them and was taken up to heaven” (Lk 24:50-51).

Jesus departed in the very act of blessing us. Pope Benedict in his trilogy “Jesus of Nazareth” commented on how the risen Jesus in heaven is perpetually blessing us. 

“Jesus departs in the act of blessing,” he states. “He goes while blessing, and he remains in that gesture of blessing. His hands remain, stretched out over this world … [which] expresses Jesus’ continuing relationship to his disciples, to the world. … That is why the disciples could return home from Bethany rejoicing. In faith we know that Jesus holds his hands stretched out in blessing over us. That is the lasting motive of Christian joy.” 

Jesus is continuously blessing us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens (cf. Eph 1:3). He’s seeking to transform us into his incarnate benediction of the world. 

The great manifestation of that blessing is the descent of the Holy Spirit, for whose renewed coming we pray in the annual decenarium from the 40th to 50th days of Easter. St. Luke recalls Jesus’ words: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8). That’s the power, the blessing, that came down upon the Church on Pentecost.  

During the Last Supper, Jesus said something startling: “I tell you the truth: It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you” (Jn 16:7). He was describing the incredible gift of the Holy Spirit’s presence as a blessing even greater than his own. That’s what the Church, huddling around the Blessed Virgin Mary, incessantly begs for after the Ascension.

The Holy Spirit helps us to fulfill, and not shirk, the awe-inspiring responsibility Christ has given us. This is the duty to give witness that Christ is alive, that he is the Way, the Truth, the Resurrection, and the Life, that he came to give us life to the full, so that his joy may be in us and our joy may be complete; he came to give and leave us the peace of his kingdom in a war-torn world; he came to help us and others to change our lives, to believe wholeheartedly in the Good News, and to follow him, so that where he is we also may be and so that we might recognize that God the Father loves us just as much as he loves Jesus (cf. Jn 14:6; 11:25; 10:10; 15:11; 14:27; Mk 1:15; Jn 16:27; 15:9). 

That’s a message and a mission that many no longer easily receive. 

Whether they think erroneously that science has disproven faith, or the problem of evil has refuted the possibility of a good God, or the clergy sex-abuse scandals have invalidated the Church’s witness, or the frigidity with which so many secularized Christians live their faith has revealed its incapacity to inspire, or a score of other possible reasons people cite to deaden the appeal of Christian faith and life, it’s clear that proclaiming the Gospel effectively to every creature is challenging work — but so was trying to convince down-to-earth first-century pagans and Jews that a crucified carpenter had not only risen from the dead but was the Savior of the world. The same blessing of the Holy Spirit that made their joint witness fruitful desires to give tandem testimony with us. 

One of the most effective ways to do so is through charity. 

Back in 1985, the future Pope Benedict XVI gave a radio address in which he focused on the “delightfully naïve pictures” of the Ascension in which the disciples are looking upward as Jesus is passing through the clouds and all we see are Jesus’ feet, the same feet the women wanted to grasp onto after the Resurrection. Cardinal Ratzinger commented that we need to recognize his feet and reverence them in disguise in the feet around us as we follow Christ’s example of washing the feet of others just as he cleansed the apostles’ feet in the Upper Room. 

“The true ascent of mankind,” he stated, “takes place precisely when a man learns to turn in humility to another person, bowing deeply at his feet in the position of one who would wash the feet of the other. It is only in the humility that knows how to bow down that can raise a person up.” 

In order to ascend, we need first to descend humbly in acts of corporal and spiritual works of mercy, including passing on the faith to those who don’t know it or who reject what they mistakenly believe it to be. 

Christ’s ascension is meant to lead us on an exodus not merely in the future, but here and now: an exodus from the self toward God and others, a journey from fear to trust, a passover from the flat earth of a world without God to the multidimensional reality of Christ’s kingdom. 

Christ’s ascension is meant to lift up our hearts as it helps us to drop to our knees. It is meant to help us to grow to full stature in Christ as we respond to his confidence in making us his missionaries, together with the Holy Spirit, to renew the face of the earth. It is meant to fill us, even now, with lasting joy.

This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and has been adapted by CNA.

Bishop Anthony Pascal Rebello of the Catholic Diocese of Francistown in Botswana. / Credit: SACBC

ACI Africa, May 8, 2024 / 18:28 pm (CNA).

Bishop Anthony Pascal Rebello of the Diocese of Francistown in Botswana has died after he “collapsed during Mass” on Saturday, May 4, the diocese has confirmed. 

The Kenyan-born member of Society of the Divine Word of Indian origin turned 74 on March 18.

A statement published by Batswana Catholics said Rebello died later at the hospital. “We are all shocked and we await to hear further arrangements from the [Society of the Divine Word] and the vicar general of the diocese,” the statement said.

Rebello was appointed local ordinary of the Francistown Diocese in July 2021. He was ordained a priest of the Society of the Divine Word in May 1977.

Rebello was among the three pioneer Society of the Divine Word members in Kenya in 1984; they opened their first mission in Kayole in Kenya’s Archdiocese of Nairobi and later the Galba Tulla mission in the country’s Diocese of Meru.

An alumnus of the Rome-based Pontifical Gregorian University, Rebello previously served as the provincial superior of the Society of the Divine Word in Kenya and parish vicar in Angola.

Prior to his appointment as bishop, he served as the parish priest of Holy Cross Mogoditshane Parish of the Diocese of Gaborone in Botswana. 

In a May 4 statement, members of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) shared their “heartfelt condolences.”

“The news of the unexpected passing away of bishop Anthony Rebello reached us. We are shocked and sad about this news,” said SACBC president Bishop Sithembele Sipuka. “On behalf of the SACBC, I extend heartfelt condolences to the Diocese of Francistown, the Society of Divine Word, and his biological family.” 

“May all be consoled by the fact that Bishop Rebello was a humble man of strong and exemplary faith who we believe is now in the company of his risen Lord. May you all be consoled and may Bishop Rebello rest in peace,” Sipuka said.

In April 2022, Rebello was “badly injured” following an attack by robbers. He reportedly recovered from the attack after days in the hospital.

In Botswana, Rebello was known for his ministry to migrants and refugees.

In an interview with ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, Rebello spoke about the refugees his episcopal see was hosting, who he said were natives of “Burundi, Angola, Zimbabwe, and Uganda.”

“This diocese is a welcoming diocese; the sisters and the priests are welcoming, and they have been visiting the detention center and the refugee center,” he said. “I personally have visited both the centers and they are in my heart.”

In the interview, Rebello highlighted the kind of apostolate at the detention and refugee centers, including undocumented people on the move detained at Dukwi Refugee Camp. 

“The Church is doing a lot of work in assisting the migrants and refugees,” he said. “We see to their spiritual, emotional, and physical needs. We are also working toward offering spiritual help.”

Rebello lamented that the human rights of migrants and refugees in the Southern African nation were “being violated, because all children have the right to go to school.”

He went on to caution against “discrimination and xenophobic sentiments toward migrants and refugees,” saying: “We should pay attention to our language; we should not call others with bad names that can exclude them.”

This story was first published by ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, and has been adapted by CNA.

Servant of God Nino Baglieri. / Credit: ANS/Salesians

ACI Prensa Staff, May 8, 2024 / 17:53 pm (CNA).

The diocesan phase of the cause of beatification of the Servant of God Nino Baglieri has been closed in Modica, a town in southern Sicily. Overcoming his bitterness due to his quadriplegic condition, Baglieri gave himself to the mission of evangelizing through the means available to him. 

The closing of the diocesan phase, according to the Salesian News Agency, took place on Sunday, May 5, in Mother of St. Peter church, where a solemn Eucharist was celebrated by Salvatore Rumeo, the bishop of Noto. In his homily, the prelate related that on May 5, 1951, Baglieri received baptism, “becoming a Christian.”

Regarding the servant of God, he emphasized that “prayer for Nino was everything: Despite his suffering, like a light that shines and burns, he managed to infect others with the meaning of true prayer.”

Addressing the servant of God in prayer, Rumeo said: “We are grateful to you for your evangelical teaching, because in your life we see the movement of God’s grace that continues to speak to us about holiness.”

The diocesan phase concluded with the sealing of eight packets containing all the information and testimonies compiled about the life and work of Baglieri. Also present were the ninth successor of Don Bosco, Father Pascual Chávez, and the Salesian postulator, Father Pierluigi Cameroni.

All documentation now goes to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints in the Vatican for analysis.

Who was Nino Baglieri?

According to the Salesians, Baglieri was born in Modica in 1951. In his youth he worked as a bricklayer until on May 6, 1968, the feast of St. Dominic Savio, at the age of 17, he fell from a scaffold and became completely paralyzed. He then spent many dark years full of bitterness, only able to move his head.

The Salesian Bulletin Don Bosco in Central America indicates that it was suggested to his mother that she have her son euthanized with “a simple injection” to end his suffering, but she responded: “As long as I live I will take care of him.”

On Good Friday 1978, some members of a group called Renewal in the Spirit came to his house to pray for him. As he felt a warmth flooding his body, ”a new force entered me and something old came out. I accepted my cross and said yes to the Lord,” he said, knowing that there would be no physical healing but rather a spiritual one. Baglieri then began a process of conversion, accepting his cross and reading the Bible.

He learned to write using his mouth and began to write his memoirs as well as letters that he sent to people in various parts of the world.

“Thanks to a stick, he dials telephone numbers and comes into direct contact with many sick people, and his calm and convincing words console them,” the Salesians related.

Nino joined the Salesian Cooperators but then decided to be part of the Volunteers with Don Bosco, consecrated laymen who profess vows of obedience, poverty, and chastity, living their Salesian mission in their homes, work, and the everyday things of this world.

Baglieri was characterized by proclaiming with his life testimony joy and hope in the Lord. After suffering for a long time, which he bore with a smile, he died on March 2, 2007.

According to his wish, he was buried wearing sneakers because, as he said: “On my last journey to God I will be able to run to him.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

null / Credit: Shutterstock

CNA Staff, May 8, 2024 / 17:23 pm (CNA).

A trio of Catholic radio networks has filed a petition against the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over new requirements that will soon mandate that all U.S. radio and television stations publish information about the race and gender of their employees.

In a 3-2 ruling in February, the commissioners of the FCC reinstated a requirement that radio stations must annually file a document, known as Form 395-B, that lists the race and gender of their employees.

The FCC governs radio stations transmitting on AM or FM frequencies, satellite radio and TV stations, cable networks, and broadcast TV stations. These entities are required to maintain a summary of publicly accessible information known as a public file, with varying requirements among the types of stations regarding what must be contained in the file.

The FCC had not required Form 395-B since 2004, following a 2001 ruling by the ​​U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

In an April 29 complaint filed with the FCC and shared with CNA, three Catholic broadcasters — Ave Maria Radio, Armor of God Catholic Radio, and La Promesa Foundation — argued that the new regulations would “adversely affect them as well as all religious broadcasters generally.” 

La Promesa Foundation operates Guadalupe Radio Network, a major EWTN affiliate, as are Ave Maria Radio and Armor of God Catholic Radio. (EWTN also owns Catholic News Agency.)

The FCC in its February ruling introduced a mandate that stations must make the 395-B forms public, because “doing so will ensure maximum accuracy of the submitted data, is consistent with Congress’ goal to maximize the utility of the data an agency collects for the benefit of the public, allows us to produce the most useful reports possible for the benefit of Congress and the public, and allows for third-party testing of the accuracy of our data analyses.”

“Collection, analysis, and availability of this information will support greater understanding of this important industry,” the FCC ruling says. 

In their joint complaint, the radio stations argue that the new rule “would advance the interests of the LGBTQ lobby and would chill the religious freedoms … enshrined in the First Amendment of the federal Constitution.”

Mike Jones, vice president and general manager at Ave Maria Radio, called the FCC’s action “pernicious” and said that their attorney offered to file a complaint with the FCC on their behalf and on behalf of the other stations. 

Jones told CNA that he foresees activists opposed to the stations’ Catholic mission weaponizing the public gender and race data, and also reiterated that the radio stations believe the FCC’s actions to be unconstitutional.

“I don’t think [the FCC] is going to win,” he added. 

The radio stations’ complaint also argues that the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to soon rule on two cases that could limit the FCC’s ability to make decisions, giving that power instead to Congress. 

“The United States Supreme Court will soon release opinions in the cases of Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo (No. 22-451) and Relentless, Inc. v. Department of Commerce (No. 22-1219), which were argued on Jan. 17, 2024,” the complaint says. 

“If the court sides with the appellants, there is a substantial likelihood that the opinions will limit the ability of the FCC to legislate and will recognize the primacy of Congress in this area pursuant to Article I, Section 1.”

Brendan Carr, the senior Republican among the five FCC commissioners, said in a statement dissenting from the ruling that he would not have opposed a new 395-B requirement if the filings remained confidential. The fact that such filings will be made public, he said, means that the FCC will soon “post a race and gender scorecard for each and every TV and radio broadcast station in the country.”

“This is no benign disclosure regime. The record makes clear that the FCC is choosing to publish these scorecards for one and only one reason: to ensure that individual businesses are targeted and pressured into making decisions based on race and gender,” Carr asserted.

Two other major Christian broadcasting groups, the National Religious Broadcasters Association and the American Family Association, have also announced lawsuits challenging the ruling.

The first 395-B filings will be due Sept. 30, the FCC says.

St. Stanislaus of Szczepanów is depicted as the patron saint of Poland in a miniature painted by Stanisław Samostrzelnik of Mogiła. / Credit: Polona Digital Library|Wikimedia|PD-Art

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 8, 2024 / 16:53 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis during his Wednesday general audience invoked the intercession of St. Stanislaus, patron saint of Poland, for peace in Ukraine and Israel.

Addressing Polish pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, the pope said: “Today you celebrate the solemnity of St. Stanislaus, bishop and martyr, patron of your homeland.”

“St. John Paul II wrote of him,” Francis went on, “that from high in heaven, he shared in the sufferings and hopes of your nation, sustaining its survival, especially during the Second World War.”

Francis prayed that the intercession of St. Stanislaus “obtain, even today, the gift of peace in Europe and throughout the world, especially in Ukraine and the Middle East.”

What does Poland have to do with these wars? 

This comes as the wars in Ukraine and Israel continue to drag on, currently with no end in sight. With both wars raging in highly populated areas, civilians, including children, have had to suffer the effects of bombings, drone strikes, and starvation. 

The Polish people, meanwhile, have been instrumental in bringing humanitarian aid to the people of Ukraine as well as in helping to feed, clothe, and shelter the nearly 20 million Ukrainian refugees who have crossed the Polish border since the start of the war. 

Francis has previously praised Poland as an example of charity in response to tragedies for their efforts to help the Ukrainian people.

“You were the first to support Ukraine, opening your borders, your hearts, and the doors of your homes to Ukrainians fleeing the war,” the pope told Polish pilgrims in a 2022 audience. “You are generously offering them everything they need to live in dignity, despite the current tragic situation. I am deeply grateful to you, and I bless you!”

Why St. Stanislaus? 

Poland, a country that is known for its religious fervor (it is 85% Roman Catholic), has a deep devotion to St. Stanislaus.

St. Stanislaus was born Stanislaus Szczepanowski near Krakow in 1030. After his parents’ deaths, Stanislaus gave away his wealth to the poor and became a priest. 

As a priest and then bishop of Krakow, Stanislaus became known as a vigorous preacher against immorality at all levels of society. He was an early spreader of the faith in Poland, encouraging Polish King Boleslaus to establish more monasteries throughout the country. 

Eventually, he incurred the wrath of Boleslaus for speaking out against his sexual immorality and occasional cruelty toward his people. Enraged, the king is said to have personally killed Stanislaus, striking him down while he was celebrating Mass. Stanislaus was proclaimed a martyr and canonized in 1253, becoming the first native-born Pole to be made a saint. 

Before becoming pope, then-Archbishop Karol Wojtyla filled the “See of Stanislaus” as head of the Archdiocese of Krakow. St. John Paul II often praised Stanislaus and hailed him as a “champion of true freedom” and a saint for “turbulent times.” 

“There is a deep spiritual bond between the figure of this great patron of Poland and the multitude of saints and blesseds who made an immense contribution of goodness and holiness in the history of our homeland,” John Paul II said. 

In a letter to the people of the Archdiocese of Krakow on the 750th anniversary of Stanislaus’ canonization, John Paul II said: “At the dawn of our history God, Father of peoples and nations, showed us through this holy patron that the moral order, respect for the law of God and the just rights of every person, are fundamental conditions for the existence and development of every society.”

Today, Stanislaus continues to be an inspiration of bravery in pursuit of human rights and service to God. His burial site, within the Archcathedral Basilica of Saint Stanislaus and Saint Wenceslaus in Krakow, is a popular pilgrimage site and a symbol of Polish identity.

Classroom in a Catholic school. / Credit: Wuttichai jantarak/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 8, 2024 / 16:08 pm (CNA).

A federal appeals court dismissed a lawsuit from an aggrieved substitute teacher who was not rehired by a Catholic school after it was revealed he had entered into a same-sex union, violating the school’s moral code.

The ruling affirmed that religious schools can hold employees to the moral teachings of the Church.

“Religious groups have the freedom to choose who carries out their religious mission,” Luke Goodrich, a vice president and senior counsel at Becket Law — the group that represented the school in court — said in a post on X. 

“This ruling is a win for people of all faiths who cherish the freedom to pass on their faith to the next generation,” Goodrich added.

Charlotte Catholic High School ended its relationship with teacher Lonnie Billard in 2014 after he posted on Facebook that he was engaged to another man and planned to enter into a civil “marriage” with this man. This violated the Church’s teachings about marriage and sexual morality and put Billard at odds with the school’s code of conduct, which prohibits employees from engaging in conduct contrary to the Catholic faith. 

Billard had previously taught English and drama full time but had become a substitute teacher by 2014. He sued the school in 2017, when the school stopped asking him to work, claiming that the school engaged in sex discrimination.

A federal court ruled in favor of Billard back in 2021, but an appellate court overturned that ruling on Wednesday and found that the school was protected under the First Amendment’s right to religious freedom. 

“Faith infused [the school’s] classes — and not only the expressly religious ones,” the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in its decision. 

“Even as a teacher of English and drama, Billard’s duties included conforming his instruction to Christian thought and providing a classroom environment consistent with Catholicism,” the decision read. “Billard may have been teaching ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ but he was doing so after consultation with religious teachers to ensure that he was teaching through a faith-based lens.”

In addressing discrimination laws, the court found that the school is constitutionally protected under the “ministerial exception” in its hiring and firing decisions for that position because the role requires the person to minister the faith to students. The exception, set by the United States Supreme Court, exempts religious institutions from certain discrimination laws in ministerial roles when such laws would prevent them from adhering to their mission of ministering the faith. 

“The ministerial exception protects religious institutions in their dealings with individuals who perform tasks so central to their religious missions — even if the tasks themselves do not advertise their religious nature,” the court found.

“The ministerial exception remains just that — an exception — and each case must be judged on its own facts to determine whether a ‘particular position’ falls within the exception’s scope,” the court stated. “But when the exception does apply, it unambiguously commands that [the courts] ‘stay out’ [of these decisions].”

Billard was represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The ACLU issued a statement criticizing the court’s decision. 

“This is a heartbreaking decision for our client who wanted nothing more than the freedom to perform his duties as an educator without hiding who he is or who he loves,” the statement read. “Every worker should be entitled to equal protection under the law, and the Supreme Court held as recently as 2020 that this fundamental freedom extends to LGBTQ workers.”

Goodrich said in a post on X that the court’s decision is in line with long-standing precedent on religious freedom. 

“The court’s ruling is consistent with a long line of Supreme Court precedent upholding the freedom of religious schools to select teachers who uphold their faith,” he said.

Father Ricardo Mata. / Credit: Garland Police Department

CNA Staff, May 8, 2024 / 14:27 pm (CNA).

Police in Texas this week announced the arrest of a priest with the Diocese of Dallas over allegations of inappropriate contact with two minors. 

The Garland Police Department said on its Facebook page that officers had arrested Father Ricardo Mata on Monday “on two counts of indecency with a child, a second-degree felony.”

“The allegations are based on reports of inappropriate contact with two juvenile victims, which occurred during a visit to a residence in Garland,” the police said. Investigators are in contact with the Diocese of Dallas, the police said. 

Mata’s bonds were set at $75,000 and $100,000, the police department said. 

In a Tuesday statement on its website, meanwhile, the Diocese of Dallas said that it had been “recently made aware of an allegation by a juvenile girl of inappropriate touching involving a priest.”

“Upon learning of the allegation last week, diocesan officials immediately filed a report with Child Protective Services and law enforcement,” the diocese said.

Mata “was immediately removed from all public ministry when the Diocese of Dallas learned of the allegation,” the statement continued. 

“We are grateful for law enforcement’s thorough response,” Dallas Bishop Edward Burns said in the statement. 

“Let us come together in prayer, respecting the dignity of all involved, seeking strength and guidance from our faith during this challenging time.”

Until recently Mata had been listed as the vicar at the Dallas-area Cathedral Guadalupe. That listing had been removed from the cathedral’s website as of Wednesday.

The priest was born in Mexico and raised in Dallas; he was ordained in 2022. 

Cincinnati Archbishop Dennis Schnurr. / Credit: Archdiocese of Cincinnati

CNA Staff, May 8, 2024 / 12:55 pm (CNA).

Archbishop of Cincinnati Dennis Schnurr has been diagnosed with cancer, the archdiocese revealed this week, with the prelate set to begin preparing for chemotherapy treatment this week. 

An archdiocesan spokesman told CNA on Wednesday morning that on Friday the archbishop “received a post-operation diagnosis of stage 3 small bowel cancer.” 

“His doctor noted that, generally speaking, the archbishop’s health is excellent, and that is certainly a source of optimism for the success of the treatment,” the archdiocese said.  

“The treatment plan includes a regimen of chemotherapy over the next six months, preparation for which will begin this week,” the statement continued. 

“We ask all Catholics and people of goodwill to please keep Archbishop Schnurr in their prayers,” the archdiocese added. 

Schnurr was installed as the Cincinnati archbishop in 2009; he had served as the coadjutor archbishop there from 2008. Before that, he served as the bishop of the Diocese of Duluth, Minnesota, from 2001. 

Schnurr turned 75 last year, the traditional age at which a bishop submits his resignation to Pope Francis. 

The archdiocese this week indicated that Schnurr’s retirement may not be imminent; the archbishop ​​“plans on continuing to work while receiving treatments,” the Wednesday statement said. 

The French 19th-century three-masted barque Belem is seen from the Palais du Pharo in the southern port city of Marseille on May 8, 2024, before the Olympic Flame arrival ceremony, ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Belem is set to reach Marseille on May 8 and ten thousand torchbearers will then carry the flame across 64 French territories. / Credit: SYLVAIN THOMAS/AFP via Getty Images

Rome Newsroom, May 8, 2024 / 11:52 am (CNA).

As 206 countries prepare to send their top athletes to participate in the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, the Vatican is organizing an event to look at the relationship between the Catholic Church and sports, through both a spiritual and anthropological lens.

“In the current context of wars tearing our world apart, Olympism is first and foremost a message of peace, and the commitment of the universal Church, like that of France, is essential. The role of the Church in promoting Olympism is well known,” said Florence Mangin, the ambassador of France to the Holy See, during a press conference held on Monday at the Vatican. 

The three-day international conference on sport and spirituality, titled “Putting Our Lives on the Line,” is a joint effort between the Vatican’s Dicastery for Culture and Education and the Embassy of France to the Holy See. It will be held May 16-18 at the Institut Français Centre Saint Louis (the French cultural institute of Rome), which sits adjacent to the Piazza Navona.

“At first glance, observing a conference on sport organized by a Dicastery of the Holy See seems a bit eccentric,” said Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, during the press conference. 

“But starting from the words of Pope Francis, when he compares sport to holiness, we realize the many points of connection that exist between sport and spirituality.” 

Mendonça noted that the conference will look at sports today in order to “understand why it is so popular,” as well as to “identify its risks” and “assess its relevance for building a more fraternal, tolerant, and equitable society.” 

The conference will bring together some 200 participants, including representatives from the Vatican, athletes, sports club managers, journalists, academics, pastoral representatives from different European dioceses, and philosophers for a series of roundtable discussions. 

“In essence, there are two fundamental questions that we want to answer with this conference: What does sport have to say to the Church? What does the Church have to say to sport?” Mendonça said. 

The first day, based on the theme “Church and Sport: A Relationship We Need to Deepen,” will include a series of discussions on these fundamental questions, including: “The Church at the Olympic Games,” “Sport in the Parish,” and “Catholic Schools and Sport.” 

“If we look at the history of sport in parallel with the history of the Church, there have been many moments in which sport has been an inspiration and a metaphor for the life of Christians, or Christianity itself has enriched sport with its humanistic vision,” Mendonça said. 

The second day will take a philosophical and anthropological approach, aimed at understanding the connection between mind, body, and sport through a different panel discussions such as “Sport: A Challenge for Humanization,” “Resurrection of the Body through Sport,” and “Disappearance of the Self and the Body.” 

“We will address the implications of a certain technicalization of sports practice, brought forward by the constant search for performance if not for records,” Mangin said.  

“The dazzling progress of Paralympic athletes, increasingly better equipped, provides an exceptional vision of the evolution of the human body, which some already wish to increase,” she said.  

The event will close on Saturday, May 18, with “The Relay Race of Solidarity” held at Rome’s iconic Circus Maximus at 4 p.m.

Pope Benedict XVI on April 21, 2007, in Vigevano, Italy. / Credit: miqu77/Shutterstock

CNA Newsroom, May 8, 2024 / 11:07 am (CNA).

The man arrested for the theft of a pectoral cross bequeathed by the late Pope Benedict XVI to a parish in his native Bavaria is now facing time behind bars.

According to CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner, the Traunstein district court on Monday sentenced a 53-year-old Czech citizen to two years and six months in prison.

The perpetrator, whom authorities described as a serial thief with a history of crimes across several European countries, left traces at the crime scene that led to his identification and arrest.

However, local media reported that the cross is still missing, and the verdict may yet be appealed.

The court heard from the accused’s lawyer that his client had stolen the pectoral cross because he felt it was “worth stealing” and selling on due to its appearance: The cross, measuring approximately 5.9 inches in length, is crafted from gold-plated silver and adorned with a gemstone. 

Despite the judge interrupting the trial twice to give the defendant and his lawyer time to call an associate to whom he allegedly had given the cross “for safekeeping,” all attempts to contact the associate were unsuccessful — leaving the cross’ whereabouts still unknown.

Before the verdict was announced, the defendant personally addressed the court, saying he knew that the list of his previous convictions was so long that he did not appear credible. Nevertheless, he promised that the cross would come back to Traunstein, Bavarian state media reported. 

The value of the cross to the Catholic Church is “not quantifiable,” the police said at the time of the theft. 

Former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was born in the small Bavarian community of Marktl am Inn. When Joseph was 2 years old, his father moved the family to Traunstein, where he studied at the seminary.

The late pontiff celebrated his first Mass as a newly ordained priest at St. Oswald’s in 1951. After the renovation in 2020, the cross was exhibited in the now-broken display case.