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A group of Catholic bishops will visit San Quentin Prison’s death row inmates on Tuesday as inmates await transfer to other facilities in light of California’s moratorium on executions. In 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom imposed a moratorium on executions and ordered the closure of the execution chamber at San Quentin Prison, the Marin County facility near San Francisco that dates back to the 19th century. The state of California aims to move 671 death row inmates, 21 of whom are women, to high-security units at other prisons. After Newsom announced the death penalty moratorium, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco issued a statement on behalf of the California Catholic Conference encouraging the governor to “use well the time of the moratorium to promote civil dialogue on alternatives to the death penalty, including giving more needed attention and care to the victims of violence and their families.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253806/california-bishops-to-visit-death-row-inmates-at-san-quentin
Father Jacques Mourad, a Syrian Catholic monk who was kidnapped in Syria by Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists in 2015 and managed to escape after five months in captivity, was consecrated as the new archbishop of Homs, Syria. At the March 3 Mass for the episcopal consecration, Bishop Flavien Rami Al-Kabalan, procurator of the Syrian Patriarchate of Antioch to the Holy See, noted that the new archbishop “has placed his life in the hands of the Lord.” Al-Kabalan stressed that God chose the new archbishop “to be the spiritual father who sanctifies souls with the sacraments of salvation and guides everyone in prayer and fasting, the patient and loving brother, the wise and understanding teacher.” In May 2015, masked Islamic State militants broke into the Mar Elian Monastery in Syria and kidnapped Mourad. On several occasions during his captivity, a masked man threatened him with a knife to his throat. During the more than five months that he was held captive, Mourad could have easily been set free; all he had to do was renounce Christianity. However, in each and every one of the days of captivity, he chose to remain steadfastly faithful to Christ.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253803/syrian-catholic-monk-once-kidnapped-by-isis-consecrated-archbishop
Vandals smashed the windows of a pro-life pregnancy center in Minneapolis and spray-painted it with graffiti in the middle of the night March 3, in the latest incident in a wave of attacks against crisis pregnancy centers. Video surveillance shows two masked individuals at about 1 am tagging the clinic with graffiti and breaking the windows with a hammer. A group called Jane’s Revenge has claimed responsibility for similar attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers in a wave of attacks since Roe v. Wade was overturned. A group called Jane’s Revenge has claimed responsibility for similar attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers in a wave of attacks since Roe v Wade was overturned.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253802/abortion-activists-smash-windows-at-minnesota-pregnancy-clinic-that-provides-free-diapers
Today, the Church celebrates Saints Perpetua and Felicity, young martyrs who died for the faith around the year 203.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/sts-perpetua-and-felicity-and-their-companions-169