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At least 11 people, most of them Catholics, were killed January 19 when alleged Fulani herdsmen attacked a village near a refugee camp in Nigeria’s Makurdi Diocese, a diocesan official has reported. In an interview with ACI Africa, CNA’s sister news partner, Father Moses Aondover Iorapuu, the diocese’s vicar general, recounted the “horrifying” persecution that Catholics were subjected to during the attack. “The images of the attack are horrifying, and I keep saying that not even ISIS is capable of such brutality,” he said. “After killing, these guys decapitated some and took the parts away as proof to whoever is the sponsor.” Aondover said the attacks took place Thursday about 9 p.m. in a village near Makurdi, the Benue State capital, where there is a displaced persons camp. Nigeria has been experiencing insecurity since 2009 when Boko Haram’s insurgency began with the aim of turning the country into an Islamic state.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253420/priest-describes-horrifying-new-attack-on-catholics-in-nigeria-that-leaves-at-least-11-dead
As tens of thousands of pro-life activists marched to the Supreme Court on Friday for the annual March for Life, President Joe Biden issued a pro-abortion proclamation to commemorate the anniversary of the now-obsolete Roe v Wade decision. The president officially recognized January 22 as the 50th anniversary of Roe v Wade, saying the Supreme Court “got Roe right 50 years ago.” The decision, which was handed down on January 22, 1973, proclaimed abortion to be a constitutional right and barred states from enforcing most abortion restrictions. On June 24, the US Supreme Court fully reversed that decision and ruled that the constitution does not protect a right to have an abortion, returning the issue of abortion to the states to regulate as they see fit. Although Biden is the nation’s second Catholic president, his pro-abortion position is directly at odds with Church teaching.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253421/biden-commemorates-abortion-as-pro-lifers-march-in-washington
Pope Francis formally conferred the ministries of lector and catechist upon four men and six women from the Philippines, Mexico, Congo, Italy, and the UK on Sunday at a Mass in Saint Peter’s Basilica. The ministries themselves have also been shaped by Pope Francis in recent years. The pope changed Church law in January 2021 so that women could be formally instituted to the lay ministries of lector and acolyte. Pope Francis established the ministry of catechist as an instituted, vocational service within the Catholic Church in May 2021. The ministry is for laypeople who have a particular call to serve the Catholic Church as a teacher of the faith. The ministry lasts for the entirety of life, regardless of whether the person is actively carrying out that activity during every part of his or her life.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253425/pope-francis-confers-lay-ministries-upon-ten-people-in-st-peter-s-basilica
Today, the Church celebrates Saint Ildephonsus, a seventh-century Archbishop of Toledo, who had a great devotion to the Virgin Mary. According to one account the Blessed Virgin appeared to him in person and presented him with a priestly vestment, to reward him for his zeal in honoring her.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-ildephonsus-125
The Church also honors Saint Marianne Cope, a German born ninteenth century sister who served as a teacher and principal in several schools in New York state and established two of the first hospitals in the central New York area: Saint Elizabeth Hospital in Utica and Saint Joseph’s Hospital in Syracuse.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-marianne-cope-727