St. Daniel Church

The bishops of the Chaldean Catholic Church have stated that they will not recognize “the union of two people of the same sex.”

At a meeting of the Chaldean Synod, the bishops said that marriage can only be a union between a man and a woman to form a family. The Synod also called for steps to prevent children from sexual abuse.

The Archdiocese of Cebu is organizing a prayer rally on July 27 to support marriage and spur opposition to a bid to legalize divorce in the Philippines.

Archbishop Jose Palma said that event is “a thanksgiving to the Lord for the gift of family, the gift of the sacrament, and the gift of the many who have become witnesses to the marriage that has contributed to the welfare of many families.”

The Russian Orthodox Patriarchate of Moscow has announced that Metropolitan Hilarion has been suspended “temporarily” from his post as head of the Budapest diocese, during an investigation of his leadership.

Although the announcement did not specify the reason for the investigation, a recent story in Novaya Gazeta Europe had disclosed that Metropolitan Hilarion has been charged with sexual harassment by a subdeacon who lived with him. Hilarion has denied the charge, and claimed that he is being blackmailed.

Metropolitan Hilarion is one of the most prominent prelates in the Russian Orthodox Church, having served as the head of the patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations—in effect, the “foreign minister” of the Russian Orthodox Church. He was dismissed from that role in 2022 amid suggestions that he was not sufficiently supportive of Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine. Ironically the newspaper that aired the complaint against him, Novaya Gazeta Europe, has also been accused of sympathy for Ukraine, and is classified by the Russian government as an “undesirable organization.”

The Latin-rite Patriarchate of Jerusalem has announced the successful delivery of relief supplies to the single Catholic parish in Gaza.

About 40 tons of food were delivered on July 23, supplied through the Knights of Malta, the patriarchate reported. Packages of non-perishable food items, which should be sufficient to feed a family of five for a month, are now being distributed among the many families in need.

With the US fertility rate at an all-time low, a new Pew Research study finds that nearly half of adult Americans do not expect to have children—in most cases because they don’t want children.

In the Pew survey, 47% of the respondents aged 18-49 said that they did not anticipate having children. Among them, 57% said they did not want children. Among respondents over the age of 50, 31% of those who did not have children said the main reason was that they did not want children.

Those who did not want children explained that they thought a childless life would make it simpler to acquire the possessions they wanted, enjoy free time and outside interests, and be successful in their careers. These responses were more common among respondents with college degrees and/or postgraduate education.

Among the older (50+) adults who did not have children, two-thirds said that having children was not important in having a fulfilling life.

A backlog in the handling of visa requests is complicating the shortage of priests in many American dioceses.

Bishop Edward Rice of Springfield-Cape Giradeau explained: “Ninety percent of our dioceses in the United States are dealing with this because we have priests from either Africa, India, or South America.”

Bishop Johan Bonny of Antwerp has announced that he is stepping away from his post as head of the Church’s response to the sex-abuse scandal.

“The policy, the media, the negotiations... It’s a very big task and I have to combine that with caring for a large diocese like that of Antwerp,” Bishop Bonny explained. He said that the combined responsibilities were taking a toll on his health.

Bishop Bonny had recently asked the Vatican to appoint an auxiliary to help with his work in the Antwerp diocese; his request was turned down.

The bishop’s resignation, and the sex-abuse crisis that precipitated it, are likely to stir discussion when Pope Francis visits Belgium in late September.

Archeologists in Rome have identified the walls of an ancient papal palace.

Excavations at the piazza of the basilica of St. John Lateran, undertaken in preparations of the Jubilee Year 2025, unearthed the outer walls of the palace where popes lived from the 4th until the 14th centuries. After the years of the Avignon papacy (1309-1376) the popes moved to the Vatican.

Archbishop Marek Jedraszewski of Krakow, who reached his 75th birthday this week, has disclosed that Pope Francis “has accepted my resignation, while asking me to continue holding the office of diocesan bishop until he appoints my successor.”

The announcement is unusual, since the Pope frequently delays acceptance of the resignations that bishops are required to submit upon reaching 75. But the situation in Krakow is also unusual. The Vatican has recently overturned two decisions by Archbishop Jedraszewski: one removing a popular pastor for “numerous irregularities” in management, and another appointing a caretaker for the property of Wawel Cathedral, after rejecting the institution’s financial reports.

A spokesman for the Krakow archdiocese said that the Vatican had “suspended” the archbishop’s directives in the two cases, suggesting that Vatican officials hoped to resolve controversies within the archdiocese amicably.

A group of Discalced Carmelite nuns is leaving a historic convent in Cordoba, having failed to attract enough vocations to remain viable.

The prioress of a the San José monastery, founded in 1612, announced “with great pain and sadness” that the nuns would be joining another Carmelite community in the Salamanca diocese.

The Cordoba Carmelites had enjoyed the support of Pope Francis, who was friendly with their former prioress, Mother Adriana of Jesus Crucified. Her death in 2023 left the monastery with only four members: below the minimum required for a religious community. But the convent remained open, granted a special dispensation from that requirement with the Pope’s support. The departure of another member left only three nuns in the monastery, leading to the decision to vacate.