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 visited the Basilica of Saint Mary Major on Monday to entrust his upcoming trip to Africa to the Blessed Virgin Mary. And before departing on his flight to Africa on Tuesday morning, the pope met with a group of refugees and migrants from the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan at the Vatican. Pope Francis landed Tuesday morning in the capital city of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country home to more than 52 million Catholics. It will be the first papal trip to Congo in 37 years, since John Paul II visited Kinshasa in 1985 when it was the capital of Zaire. Pope Francis will visit Kinshasa Jan 31-February 3 before traveling to Juba, the capital of South Sudan, February 3-5. Francis has called his visit to South Sudan “an ecumenical pilgrimage of peace.” The pope will travel together with the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the moderator of the Church of Scotland, Iain Greenshields.Pope Francis will be the first pope to visit South Sudan, the world’s newest country, which declared independence from the Republic of the Sudan in 2011.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253503/pope-francis-meets-with-refugees-from-congo-and-south-sudan-before-flight-to-africa
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253498/pope-francis-entrusts-trip-to-congo-and-south-sudan-to-blessed-virgin-mary
Pro-life activist Mark Houck was found not guilty Monday on federal assault charges stemming from a shoving incident outside a Philadelphia abortion clinic. Supporters of the Catholic father of seven children cried and hugged one another after the verdict was read in US District Court in Philadelphia. The fourty-eight year old Houck acknowledged that he twice pushed a volunteer escort outside a Planned Parenthood facility on October 13, 2021, though Houck maintained he did so because the clinic volunteer was verbally harassing Houck’s 12-year-old son. After local authorities declined to press charges, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) stepped in, dispatching a team of FBI agents to arrest Houck at gunpoint in front of his terrified wife and children. The morning raid on September 23, 2022, at the family’s home sparked outrage within pro-life circles and swift condemnation from many federal lawmakers, who blasted the FBI’s heavy-handed tactics and the Justice Department’s use of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. Though the 1993 federal law, known as the FACE Act, was written to also prosecute crimes at pro-life pregnancy facilities and places of worship, it has been used almost exclusively against pro-life activists. Houck was charged with two counts of violating the act and faced 11 years in federal prison if convicted. The verdict is a victory for pro-life advocates who rallied to Houck’s defense and a rebuke to the Biden administration’s Justice Department, which has pledged to aggressively enforce the FACE Act in the wake of last year’s US Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v Wade.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/252380/fbi-raids-home-of-pro-life-leader-on-questionable-charges
Today, the Church celebrates Saint John Bosco, a 19th century Italian priest who reached out to young people to remedy their lack of education, opportunities, and faith.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-john-bosco-133