A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
www.catholicnewsagency.com
-
Pope Francis will visit Lebanon in June, according to the president of the Middle Eastern country. President Michel Aoun said he was informed of the visit by the papal nuncio to Lebanon. Pope Francis has expressed his desire to travel to Lebanon on several occasions. In recent years, Lebanon has grappled with an influx of refugees from the war in Syria, a devastating financial crisis, a lack of stable governance, the August 2020 port explosion, and the impact of COVID-19. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is also threatening to trigger a food crisis in Lebanon, which depends on wheat imports from the East European nation.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250890/breaking-pope-francis-to-visit-lebanon-in-june-says-president-aoun
Nine Christian protesters in Egypt remain in detention, months after protests of the government’s apparent refusal to approve the rebuilding of a damaged church. The Coptic Orthodox St. Joseph and Abu Sefein Church was severely damaged by fire in 2016, and although authorities granted the requested permit to demolish the building, they never responded to a request for a permit to rebuild the church, an illegal delay. Dozens of Christian villagers demonstrated against the government in January, and nine were arrested. Christian communities have long faced difficulties under Egyptian law, and most applications to build or repair churches are rejected, especially requests from poor or rural areas or areas where Christians are a small minority.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250896/months-later-nine-egyptian-christians-still-detained-after-protests-to-rebuild-church
An American religious sister was reportedly kidnapped in Burkina Faso the night of April 4. Sister Suellen Tennyson, 83, a member of the Congregation of Marianite Sisters of the Holy Cross, has been serving in the Diocese of Kaya since October 2014. The local bishop said the sister was abducted by armed men, and they do not know where she has been taken. Burkina Faso has seen an increase in Islamist violence in recent years.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250893/american-nun-abducted-in-burkina-faso
Anti-abortion activists said Tuesday that they obtained the bodies of 115 aborted babies from a driver for a medical waste company in late March, with the intention of giving the unborn children a dignified funeral and burial. Five of those babies that appear to be of late-term gestation are now in the possession of Washington, DC Metro Police, which retrieved the remains Friday from an apartment in the city where they were being stored by members of Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, a group that demonstrates against abortion and engages in activism in and around abortion clinics. Along with other pro-life groups, PAAU has called on the DC Medical Examiner to autopsy the babies’ remains to determine their manner of death in order to assess whether they died after being born, in possible violation of federal laws.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250891/pro-life-group-remains-of-115-aborted-babies-from-clinics-waste
Today the Church celebrates Blessed Pierina Morosini, the patron saint of rape victims and a martyr to chastity.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/blessed-pierina-morosini-428