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In the aftermath of the fire that gutted a church in Cameroon, Bishop Aloysius Fondong of the Diocese of Mamfé entered the ruins to retrieve the Blessed Sacrament and found the sacred Hosts and the ciborium containing them to be intact. On the night of September 16, armed men set fire to Saint Mary’s church in the town of Nchang, located in the Diocese of Mamfé, and kidnapped five priests, a nun, and three lay people. The archbishop of Bamenda, Andrew Nkea Fuanya, said that the kidnappers have demanded a ransom. The prelate commented that there are groups that see the Church as an “easy target to make money.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/252363/blessed-sacrament-found-intact-in-tabernacle-of-church-burned-by-armed-men-in-cameroon
President Joe Biden on Thursday appeared to erroneously suggest that the Catholic Church makes exceptions for rape and incest in its condemnation of abortion. Biden made the remarks at a fundraising event for the Democratic National Committee at a private home in New York City’s Central Park South neighborhood while discussing a Republican-backed congressional bill to ban abortions after 15 weeks into pregnancy. The president incorrectly said the bill has no exceptions for rape and incest. A White House spokesperson was not immediately available Thursday night to clarify what Biden meant. But any implication that the Catholic Church makes exceptions where abortion is concerned is incorrect. “Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion,” the Catechism of the Catholic Church states. “This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed as an ends or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/252367/president-biden-catholic-church-abortion-teaching-exceptions
A priest along with the former parish administrator of a Catholic church in Florida funneled nearly $1.5 million in parishioners’ donations into a secret bank account for personal use, Vero Beach police said Tuesday.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/252364/florida-priest-and-parish-administrator-embezzled-1-dollars-5-cents-million-from-parish-police-say
Today, the Church celebrates the Italian Franciscan priest Saint Pio of Petrelcina, better known as “Padre Pio” and known for his suffering, humility and miracles. Born Francesco Forgione, he joined the Franciscans in 1903. He took the new name Pio, a modernized Italian form of “Pius,” in honor of Pope Saint Pius the fifth. He made his solemn vows four years later, and received priestly ordination in the summer of 1910. Shortly after, he first received the Stigmata – Christ’s wounds, present in his own flesh. Against his own wishes, the friar’s reputation for holiness, and attending miracles, began to attract huge crowds. Some Church officials, however, denounced the priest and had him banned from public ministry in 1931. Pope Pius XI ended the ban two years later, and his successor Pius XII encouraged pilgrimages to Padre Pio’s friary. Known for patient suffering, fervent prayer, and compassionate spiritual guidance, Padre Pio also lent his efforts to the establishment of a major hospital, the “Home to Relieve Suffering.” Padre Pio died in 1968, and was declared a saint in 2002.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-pio-of-pietrelcina-603