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
-
The U.S. bishops are seeking to deepen “awareness” of the Eucharist with their new teaching document, the president of the U.S. bishops’ conference said on Monday. At their annual spring meeting last week, the U.S. bishops voted decisively to begin drafting a teaching document on the Eucharist. Such a document, while addressed to all Catholics, was needed to clarify the problems of Catholic public officials advocating policies contrary to Church teaching on grave moral issues.
Pope Francis has appointed 12 new members of the Vatican’s highest court, including Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark. The Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura is one of three courts within the Holy See, and functions as a sort of Supreme Court, hearing appeals coming from the two other tribunals. The court’s new members were appointed for a term of five years.
There is no retirement from spreading the faith. Rather, the prayers of the elderly are needed by the Church and the world. Those were the words of Pope Francis in his message ahead of the first World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly. The pope said elderly have a vocation to preserve their roots, to pass on the faith to the young and to care for the little ones. The World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly takes place annually on the fourth Sunday of July.
Today is the feast of Saint Thomas More. The lawyer, author and statesman was martyred for opposing King Henry VIII's plan to subordinate the Church to the English monarchy. Before the executioner, More said, “I die the king's good servant, but God's first.” St. Thomas More was beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1886 and canonized in 1935 by Pope Piux XI. The Academy Award-winning film “A Man For All Seasons” portrayed the events that led to his martyrdom.