Prince of Peace Parish

The Vatican Permanent Observer to the United Nations calls for more inclusive social development efforts that focus on the dignity of individuals, the eradication of poverty, and the strengthening of families, grounded in the principles of solidarity and subsidiarity.

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CNA Staff, Oct 5, 2024 / 04:00 am (CNA).

On Oct. 5 Catholics around the world celebrate the feast of St. Faustina Kowalska, the polish nun who received the image of divine mercy during revelations from Jesus.

St. Faustina was born Helena Kowalska on Aug. 25, 1905, to a poor but devout Polish family. At the age of 20, with very little education and having been rejected from several other convents because of her poverty and lack of education, Helen entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy. There, she took the name Faustina.

Jesus appeared to St. Faustina 14 times, and with each vision and conversation she had with him, she recorded it in her diary, called “Divine Mercy in My Soul.” In her diary, she wrote about the words she received from Jesus and his message of divine mercy for the world, her own suffering, and her spiritual life.

Here are 10 quotes about suffering and humility from St. Faustina’s diary:

1. “Suffering is a great grace; through suffering the soul becomes like the Savior; in suffering love becomes crystallized; the greater the suffering, the purer the love.”

2. “Jesus loves hidden souls. A hidden flower is the most fragrant. I must strive to make the interior of my soul a resting place for the heart of Jesus.”

3. “Some day, we will know the value of suffering, but then we will no longer be able to suffer.”

4. “In difficult moments, I will fix my gaze upon the silent heart of Jesus, stretched upon the cross, and from the exploding flames of his merciful heart will flow down upon me power and strength to keep fighting.”

5. “The Holy Spirit does not speak to a soul that is distracted and garrulous. He speaks by his quiet inspirations to a soul that is recollected, to a soul that knows how to keep silence.”

6. “A humble soul does not trust itself but places all its confidence in God. God defends the humble soul and lets himself into its secrets, and the soul abides in unsurpassable happiness which no one can comprehend.”

7. “Have great confidence; God is always our Father, even when he sends us trials.”

8. “He who knows how to forgive prepares for himself many graces from God. As often as I look upon the cross, so often will I forgive with all my heart.”  

9. “Suffering is the greatest treasure on earth; it purifies the soul. In suffering, we learn who our true friend is.”

10. “God, who is light itself, lives in a pure and humble heart, and all sufferings and adversities serve but to reveal the soul’s holiness.”

Pope Francis sends his condolences and prayers to the families of victims of a bus crash near Bangkok Thailand.

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Pope Francis encourages an association of family businesses to let their faith guide them in all they do, to remember 'the Church is God's family,' and to live their service with a 'universal heart.'

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As the Church marks the Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Jenny Kraska offers her thoughts on the day’s liturgical readings under the theme: “Communion with God".

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Puebla, Mexico, Oct 4, 2024 / 18:45 pm (CNA).

Six migrants traveling through southern Mexico in a pickup truck lost their lives and 10 more have been wounded after being fired upon by Mexican soldiers.

According to information shared by Mexico’s National Defense Secretariat (Sedena, by its Spanish acronym), the incident occurred Oct. 1 on a stretch of the Villa Comaltitlán-Huixtla highway in the Mexican state of Chiapas, which borders Guatemala.

Military personnel said they “heard explosions,” which led them to start firing to stop the vehicles. The army claims the vehicles — one of which they managed to stop — were transporting migrants of various nationalities, including Egyptians, Cubans, and Pakistanis. Four people lost their lives at the scene and two more died after being hospitalized.

Sedena reported that the two soldiers who started shooting “were relieved of their duties” while the corresponding investigations are carried out.

Catholic Church criticizes ‘disproportionate use of force’

Bishop José Guadalupe Torres Campos, head of the migrant ministry of the country’s Catholic bishops, denounced the “disproportionate use of lethal force by agents of the state” that led to the tragedy.

Torres, who is the bishop of Ciudad Juárez, a diocese located on the northern border between Mexico and the United States, also stated that this tragedy is a direct consequence of the constant “presence of armed forces on the southern border of the country.” The prelate called on the authorities to carry out a “serious, impartial, and effective investigation.”

The bishop added that the presence of the armed forces in the border region should be scaled back and that they should be reserved instead for “exceptional situations.”

On behalf of the bishops of Mexico, Torres expressed his solidarity with the victims and their families, and offered prayers “for the migrants who died in this Mexican Army operation, and for the prompt recovery of the wounded.”

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

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 4, 2024 / 18:15 pm (CNA).

On Wednesday, Oct. 2, the Holy Father had the opportunity to view the historic relic of St. Peter’s chair in the Ottoboni sacristy of St. Peter’s Basilica after celebrating Mass in St. Peter’s Square ahead of the second session of the Synod on Synodality. The photo of him sitting before the chair went viral.

Francis is the first pope since 1974 to have viewed the relic believed to have belonged to St. Peter the Apostle. 

Ordinarily, the historic wooden chair is encased inside the large chair monument crafted by the 17th-century sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini, which is installed directly above the altar in the apse of the Vatican basilica. 

However, the Fabric of Saint Peter, a Vatican institution entrusted with the restoration and maintenance of the basilica, recently removed the chair from the monument amid restoration work on Bernini’s Baldacchino, the canopy that hangs over the Altar of the Cathedra, according to Vatican News. 

What’s the story behind the ‘chair relic?’

Ancient tradition maintains that St. Peter himself sat on the chair during sermons to the early Christians in Rome.

However, according to Papal Artifacts, archeologists determined that only the acacia wood skeleton of the chair in its current form dates back to this time period. The rest of the chair is composed of oak, bound to the original skeleton by strips of iron, and is believed to be a reconstruction made during the Byzantine period. The ivory plaques featured in the bottom portion of the throne are also attributed to this time. They depict sketches of Hercules and various constellations.

Pope Alexander VII commissioned Bernini to construct the monument where the chair is ordinarily encased during his pontificate in the 17th century. Bernini completed the monument between 1647 and 1653, but it was not installed above the altar in St. Peter’s Basilica until 1666.

The bronze-gilded throne is set against a backdrop of golden clouds, directly above the main altar — which is composed of black and white marble from Aquitaine and red jasper from Sicily.

Above the chair, there is a pair of angels holding the tiara and keys symbolizing papal authority, while four large statues of St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, St. Athanasius, and St. John Chrysostom surround the monument. On the chair itself, there are three gold bas-reliefs representing the Gospel episodes of the consignment of the keys (Matthew 16:19), “feed my sheep” (John 21:17), and the washing of the feet (John 13:1-17).

What does the Chair of St. Peter symbolize?

Every year on Feb. 22, the Church celebrates the feast of the Chair of St. Peter, which is also a symbolic title for the papacy itself. 

In 2006, during a speech delivered during his general audience on the feast of the Chair of St. Peter, Pope Benedict XVI described the spiritual significance of this symbol as “a privileged sign of the love of God, the eternal Good Shepherd, who wanted to gather his whole Church and lead her on the path of salvation.” 

The Holy Father’s veneration of the chair — a symbol of the Church’s unity under the instruction of Christ — takes place amid the commencement of the second session of the Synod on Synodality.

CNA Staff, Oct 4, 2024 / 17:55 pm (CNA).

Crowds of people gathered in downtown Columbus, Ohio, today for the Ohio March for Life, the first such gathering to be held in the state since Ohio voters approved a sweeping constitutional amendment to expand abortion. 

Photos and videos posted on social media show marchers holding handmade signs on the theme “With Every Woman, for Every Child,” which mirrors the theme for the annual national March for Life that took place in January in Washington, D.C. The organizers of the national march — which bills itself as the world’s largest annual human rights demonstration — have also been focusing on developing state-level pro-life marches in recent years. 

Speakers at this year’s Ohio march included Bishop Robert Pipta of the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Parma and Aaron Baer, president of the Center for Christian Virtue. 

Kevin Jorrey, director of the Diocese of Toledo’s Office for Life and Justice, told local news outlet The Blade that local communities, including churches, must be there for the most vulnerable, including young mothers.

“No matter what happens legislatively, politically, we’re out here to stand up and stand for life,” he told The Blade. “We get to be the voice for the voiceless, no matter what the political landscape is.”

Attendance figures for this year’s march have not yet been released; at last year’s march in Columbus, 5,000 people were expected. 

The new constitutional amendment in Ohio, passed late last year, added a new section to the Ohio Bill of Rights in the state constitution that guarantees that “every individual has a right to make and carry out one’s own reproductive decision,” including, but not limited to “abortion.” Although the amendment’s language allows the state to impose some restrictions “after fetal viability,” the amendment does not establish a clear cutoff for when viability occurs.

The measure was approved by voters in Ohio by a margin of about 13 points on Nov. 7, 2023. 

The Ohio Catholic Conference, which represents the state’s bishops, had strongly opposed the amendment. The “no” campaign also received financial backing from both the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal organization, and the Catholic Diocese of Columbus, Ohio.

Ohio has been a battleground state for abortion for the past several years. Notably, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine in 2019 signed a “heartbeat” abortion law that was later blocked in court. The state also briefly had a six-week abortion ban on the books after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which was blocked by a federal judge in October 2022. 

Abortions ticked up in Ohio in 2023 compared with 2022, according to a new report from the Ohio Health Department. According to the report, the total number of abortions in Ohio in 2023 was 22,000, an increase from the 2022 number but relatively on par with abortion numbers in the state over the last 10 years. The majority — 63% — of those abortions were performed on women who were fewer than nine weeks pregnant.

Vatican City, Oct 4, 2024 / 17:35 pm (CNA).

Closing the first week of meetings, Synod on Synodality participants from different continents put a spotlight on the plight of the world’s poor and vulnerable at a press briefing held in the Vatican on the Oct. 4 feast day of St. Francis of Assisi. 

Bishop Anthony Randazzo of Broken Bay, Australia, told journalists on Friday that people often forgotten by the wider Church are the poor and vulnerable, including those who are economically disadvantaged, migrants, displaced communities, and women who are excluded or “pushed to the margins into places of poverty and violence.”

In Oceania, Randazzo said several communities living in Pacific Ocean countries that are rich in natural resources are some of “the most vulnerable on the planet” because of exploitation by wealthy companies and nations.

He stated that churches and communities in wealthier countries overly concerned with “niche Church issues” can feel very comfortable and forget vulnerable or oppressed people fighting for survival in other parts of the world.

“Others cannot live, or exist simply, because of people of might and power and authority and wealth decide that those niche issues are the most important ones,” Randazzo said during the Friday press briefing. “Please do not forget the most vulnerable.”

“Women, who in many parts of the Church and in the world are treated as second-class citizens and are totally ignored. This is scandalous!” he added.

According to the 2024 World Migration Report, several Sub-Saharan migrants who moved to North Africa to flee poverty or hunger due to severe droughts are often exposed to violence, abuse, or exploitation after leaving their homelands.

During the press conference, Cardinal Archbishop Cristóbal López Romero of Rabat, Morocco, stated that though his diocese of 25,000 faithful is comparatively small, they are from different countries. He said an increasing number of Sub-Saharan migrants who belong to Rabat’s diocesan communities participated in regional synodal gatherings since 2021.

“We are a Church for the kingdom of God. It was something. It was really a way of putting synodality into practice in a simple but effective way. I think this should be repeated in some way in all dioceses, by organizing things depending on the local situation and the possibility of getting together,” López Romero told journalists.

Sister Xiskya Paguaga from Nicaragua, a journalist and communications expert who works in the area of “digital evangelization,” highlighted that many of the world’s poor and vulnerable can also be found in virtual spaces.

In line with the theme “Mission in the Digital Environment” of the Instrumentum Laboris, Paguaga noted that the Church should also place special attention on vulnerable people who seek consolation and support through online communities and social media platforms.

“We must reach out to these people. People wounded through their journey in life and who express themselves through digital tools,” Paguaga told journalists. “That is where we should focus our discernment.”

The Synod on Synodality will start its second week of discussions on Monday, Oct. 7, the day Pope Francis has called for a day of prayer and fasting for peace in the world to mark the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel as violence continues to escalate throughout the region.

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 4, 2024 / 17:15 pm (CNA).

Former first lady Melania Trump has stirred criticism from the pro-life movement after sharing her pro-abortion views in her upcoming memoir and in a video message on X.

In her self-titled memoir “Melania,” set to be released Oct. 8, one month before Election Day, the former first lady writes about her life, her family, her time in the White House, and briefly about her support for legal abortion. Some excerpts from the book were published by The Guardian on Wednesday evening.

“It is imperative to guarantee that women have autonomy in deciding their preference of having children, based on their own convictions, free from any intervention or pressure from the government,” Melania Trump, the second Catholic first lady in American history, wrote in the autobiographical book.

“Why should anyone other than the woman herself have the power to determine what she does with her own body?” Melania Trump added. “A woman’s fundamental right of individual liberty, to her own life, grants her the authority to terminate her pregnancy if she wishes.”

“Restricting a woman’s right to choose whether to terminate an unwanted pregnancy is the same as denying her control over her own body,” she wrote. “I have carried this belief with me throughout my entire adult life.”

On Thursday, Melania Trump doubled down on this position in a video posted on X, which advertised the memoir.

“Without a doubt, there is no room for compromise when it comes to this essential right that all women possess from birth: individual freedom,” she said. “What does ‘my body, my choice’ really mean?”

Former president Donald Trump, who faces Vice President Kamala Harris in his bid for a second nonconsecutive term in the White House, responded to his wife’s comments without endorsing them or disavowing them.

“We spoke about it and I said, ‘You have to write what you believe — I’m not going to tell you what to do,’” Donald Trump told Fox News reporter Bill Melugin.

“I said, ‘You have to stick with your heart,’” Donald Trump added. “I’ve said that to everybody: ‘You have to go with your heart.’ There are some people that are very, very far-right on the issue, meaning without exceptions. And then there are other people that view it a little bit differently than that.”

Pro-life movement responds to Melania Trump

Many leaders in the pro-life movement have expressed frustration over Melania Trump’s abortion comments. Some pro-life advocates are still focused on securing a Donald Trump victory over Harris, while others are expressing dismay over the campaign’s movement away from pro-life values.

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America president Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement provided to CNA that the organization’s top priority “is to defeat Kamala Harris and the Democrats’ push to nationally mandate no-limits abortion on demand funded by every taxpayer.”

However, Dannenfelser still took issue with Melania Trump’s comments, saying: “Women with unplanned pregnancies are crying out for more resources, not more abortions.” 

“We must have compassion for them and for babies in the womb who suffer from brutal abortions,” she added. “Tens of thousands of abortions a year are performed on children after the point when they can feel excruciating pain.”

Kristan Hawkins, the president of Students for Life Action, told CNA that “the bottom line is that it’s not just her body in that moment” when a woman is pregnant, adding: “Two people or maybe more are there.”

“Melania Trump had a chance to inspire in her book but, instead, chose to push broken feminism that puts women at war with their own bodies,” Hawkins continued. “I won’t be buying a copy of the book.”

Some pro-life activists have offered harsher criticism of Donald Trump’s campaign after Melania Trump’s comments. 

Live Action President Lila Rose asserted in a post on X that Melania Trump and Harris have “functionally the same exact position on abortion.” In late August, Rose indicated she might not vote for Donald Trump because his campaign has not been pro-life enough.

Robert P. George, a legal scholar at Princeton University and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said in a Facebook post that he shared with CNA that he believes Melania Trump’s abortion comments were prompted by Donald Trump’s campaign.

“The campaign sent her out to signal to pro-abortion voters that the ‘right to abortion’ would be fully protected in a second Trump administration,” George said. “Her message is that Donald, having thrown pro-life Americans under the bus, will keep us under the bus.”

“Her record has been one of saying little or nothing on political issues,” he continued. “Now, suddenly, she is releasing videos passionately claiming that the protection of abortion, even late-term abortion, must be given the highest priority. Things like that don’t just happen.”

George told CNA that he believes Harris is “even worse on abortion” and “appallingly awful” on the issue.

Where the candidates stand on abortion

Donald Trump appointed three of the six Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, which allowed states to restrict abortion and pass pro-life laws. In his 2024 campaign, the former president has sought to moderate the Republican Party’s approach to abortion and has attempted the difficult task of maintaining support from the pro-life voting bloc without alienating independents and moderates.

Earlier this week, he said in a post on X he would veto any legislation that would prohibit abortion “because it is up to the states to decide, based on the will of their voters.” He asserted that Democrats support the “radical position of late-term abortion … in the seventh, eighth, or ninth month [of pregnancy].”

Harris supports a federal law that would legalize abortion nationwide — at least until the point of viability, which occurs around the 23rd or 24th week of pregnancy. She has not said whether she supports restrictions on late-term abortion.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, signed a bill that further solidifies the state’s abortion laws, which permit abortion throughout the entirety of pregnancy, including in the ninth month, for any reason. He signed another bill that scaled back legal protections in the case of an infant who is born alive after a failed abortion attempt.