WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Even as the United States still finds itself grappling with the coronavirus pandemic, outrage, grief and anger over the latest killing of an unarmed black man outweighed caution as hundreds of thousands turned out nationwide to protest and many of the country's Catholic bishops joined the calls for justice.
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BRAINTREE -- As parishes reopen their churches for public Masses, plans are also underway for the start of the archdiocesan Year of the Eucharist, which is set to begin on June 14, the feast of Corpus Christi.
Read moreBRAINTREE -- Four Catholic schools in the archdiocese have each announced that they will not reopen for the 2020-2021 school year, citing financial difficulties, worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic. The four schools are St. Louis School in Lowell, St. Rose of Lima School in Chelsea, St. Jerome School in Weymouth, and St. Francis of Assisi School in Braintree.
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WEYMOUTH -- Sacred Heart School in Weymouth Landing and St. Francis Xavier School in South Weymouth have announced a new partnership between their schools. Pre-Kindergarten through grade four will be housed at Sacred Heart School, while grades five through eight will be at St. Francis Xavier School.
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BRAINTREE -- The archdiocesan officials in evangelization and discipleship held a webinar on June 1, entitled "More Than 'Welcome Back' -- Moving Forward in Mission," on the topic of how parish leaders can engage and serve parishioners as churches resume public Masses and ministries.
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[This is the first in a series of articles profiling each of the five men in the Archdiocese of Boston's ordination class of 2020. Their ordination Mass is currently scheduled to be celebrated by Cardinal Seán P. O'Malley Aug. 1 at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross.]
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This past Sunday, a number of our parishes in the archdiocese opened again for the first time since March. Some of the most successful were places where the Masses were celebrated outdoors, such as at Our Lady Comforter of the Afflicted in Waltham, St. Patrick's in Lawrence, and Immaculate Conception in Marlborough.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- It's called "taking a knee," and many professional athletes around the country have made the gesture publicly to protest police brutality. Lately, even police officers showing solidarity have kneeled around the country before those protesting the May 25 killing of George Floyd, who died after being filmed pinned to the ground with a knee to his neck, constrained by a police officer in Minneapolis.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Vatican officials expressed their support for a new video-on-demand service aimed at adding religious programming and content to the already jam-packed field of video-streaming services.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Continuing a phased reopening, the Vatican's free pediatric and maternal health clinic began welcoming patients again June 3 and, as an expression of gratitude, the Vatican announced all medical personnel would enjoy free admittance to the Vatican Museums and to the papal summer villa at Castel Gandolfo.
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MUDGEE, Australia (CNS) -- Hong Kong, citing concerns over COVID-19, has not granted permission for the annual public commemoration of the Tiananmen Square massacre, but a Catholic official said people will still be marking the date.
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CHARLESTON, S.C. (CNS) -- The four Daughters of St. Paul who live and work on Charleston's King Street closed up their books and media store like normal May 30. They had spent a long day serving customers and watching marchers who moved down King Street to a city landmark called the Battery, taking part in protests against the recent death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis policeman.
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AMMAN, Jordan (CNS) -- Christians and Muslims hope a project to reconstruct Mosul's iconic places of worship, badly damaged by Islamic State militants during their 2014-2017 occupation of the city, will also help to rebuild trust between Iraq's fractured religious communities.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- In the story of the patriarch Abraham -- honored by Jews, Christians and Muslims -- faith becomes a direct relationship with God that is marked by constant prayer, which sometimes takes the form of "debating" with God, Pope Francis said.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Observing with great concern the social unrest unfolding in the United States, Pope Francis said no one can claim to defend the sanctity of every human life while turning a blind eye to racism and exclusion.
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MANCHESTER, England (CNS) -- Politicians in Northern Ireland rejected an "extreme" new abortion law imposed on the province from Parliament in London. Members of Northern Ireland's Legislative Assembly voted 46-40 to oppose a legal framework announced March 25 to permit abortion on demand in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, abortions up to 24 weeks for undefined mental or physical health reasons, and abortion up to birth if the fetus is considered to be disabled.
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From Zimbabwe, where churches are closed and data costs make attending Mass online prohibitively expensive for most Catholics, to Australia, where churchgoers successfully petitioned authorities to allow places of worship the same number of people as bars, churches are reopening cautiously amid widespread controversy.
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MANCHESTER, England (CNS) -- An English bishop urged the U.K. government to take action against violations of democratic freedoms in Hong Kong. Bishop Declan Lang of Clifton said China was violating the terms of the Sino-British Joint Declaration by imposing anti-democratic national security legislation on the autonomous Chinese territory.
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MOBILE, Ala. (CNS) -- What's the key to becoming parents of two priests? "All we did was to get out of the way of the Holy Spirit," Dr. Deneen Plessala smiled and said. Drs. Kirby and Deneen Plessala had two reasons to celebrate May 30. Two of their sons, Father Peyton and Father Connor Plessala, were among three men ordained as priests for the Archdiocese of Mobile at the Cathedral-Basilica of the Immaculate Conception.
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LIMA, Peru (CNS) -- Diego Ramirez, a single father in a rural village in southern Guatemala, worked in a restaurant and kept a chicken farm, selling the birds in a market to support his three daughters.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Even as the United States still finds itself grappling with the coronavirus pandemic, outrage, grief and anger over the latest killing of an unarmed black man outweighed caution as hundreds of thousands turned out nationwide to protest and many of the country's Catholic bishops joined the calls for justice.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Father Michael McGivney, the founder of the Knights of Columbus, may be an ideal prospective saint for the current age, said Carl A. Anderson, supreme knight of the international fraternal order.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The U.S. Catholic bishops said May 29 they "are broken-hearted, sickened and outraged to watch another video of an African American man being killed before our very eyes." "What's more astounding is that this is happening within mere weeks of several other such occurrences. This is the latest wake-up call that needs to be answered by each of us in a spirit of determined conversion," they said in a statement about the May 25 death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis "was senseless and brutal, a sin that cries out to heaven for justice," and protests taking place nationwide "reflect the justified frustration and anger" of millions of Americans who today suffer because of racism, said the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A divided Supreme Court May 29 chose not to intervene in an emergency appeal by a church in Southern California to lift COVID-19 restrictions that limit congregation sizes. The justices responded just before midnight with a 5-4 vote in the case filed May 26 by South Bay United Pentecostal Church in Chula Vista, California, near San Diego. The church had argued that California Gov. Gavin Newsom's reopening orders violated the Constitution because they placed fewer restrictions on some secular businesses than they did on houses of worship.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- To prevent fraud and corruption, uphold Catholic principles and save money, Pope Francis has issued a new set of laws covering contracts for the purchase of goods, property and services for both the Roman Curia and Vatican City State offices.
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (CNS) -- Windows of the Cathedral of the Assumption and its offices facing South Fifth Street in downtown Louisville were covered with plywood as a precaution May 30 after a second day of peaceful protests turned to violence and vandalism overnight.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Just as the apostles were united once they received the Holy Spirit, the church is united by that same spirit and not by keeping company just with those who agree on a certain interpretation of Christian teaching, Pope Francis said on Pentecost.
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Below is a May 30 statement from Cardinal Seán P. O'Malley on the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, who was pinned down by a police officer kneeling on his neck before later dying in hospital May 25.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- With a religious sister who survived COVID-19 and a woman who lost her mother to the coronavirus, Pope Francis led the recitation of rosary and asked Mary to intercede to save the world from the pandemic.
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