Archive

Vatican City, Mar 4, 2020 / 12:45 pm (CNA).- Rome’s pontifical universities will temporarily shut down tomorrow, after Italy’s death toll from Covid-19 surpassed 100 people March 4. Italian officials announced March 4 that all schools and universities in the country will be closed March 5-15 because of the country’s coronavirus outbreak. Pontifical universities in… Read More »

Portland, Maine, Mar 4, 2020 / 12:00 pm (CNA).- Maine voters Tuesday upheld a ban on exemptions to the requirement that students in Maine schools be vaccinated. Voters in the state rejected an effort to overturn a state law that will go into effect next September. The law eliminates parents’ ability to opt-out of the… Read More »

Mainz, Germany, Mar 4, 2020 / 11:30 am (CNA).- The secretary of the German bishops’ conference has been reelected to his position, despite announcing last week that he was not a candidate to remain in the role. Jesuit Father Hans Langendörfer was returned in office by the German bishops on Tuesday, during their spring assembly,… Read More »

Charleston, W.Va., Mar 4, 2020 / 08:30 am (CNA).- West Virginia became the latest state to pass legislation which requires that babies born alive after an attempted abortion be given medical care.  The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act was signed into law by Gov. Jim Justice (R) on Monday, March 2. The law will go… Read More »

Nashville, Tenn., Mar 3, 2020 / 11:00 am (CNA).- An historic Catholic church in the Nashville neighborhood of Germantown was among several buildings seriously damaged by a tornado Tuesday night. The tornado’s main path struck about 100 yards away from the Church of the Assumption in the Diocese of Nashville. The storm destroyed the parish’s… Read More »

Mainz, Germany, Mar 3, 2020 / 10:30 am (CNA).- The German bishops’ conference has elected Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg as its new chairman. Bätzing replaces the outgoing chairman, Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Münich and Freising, and will lead the conference for a six year term. The election of Bishop Bätzing was confirmed Tuesday, following… Read More »

Vatican City, Mar 3, 2020 / 09:57 am (CNA).- Pope Francis is calling on Catholics to participate in “Laudato si’ Week” in May to encourage care for our common home. “I renew my urgent call to respond to the ecological crisis. The cry of the earth and the cry of the poor cannot wait anywhere,”… Read More »

Vatican City, Mar 3, 2020 / 08:00 am (CNA).- Another Catholic priest in Nigeria has been kidnapped by gunmen, according to local media reports. Fr. David Echioda of Nigeria’s Otukpo diocese was kidnapped after Sunday Mass in Benue State, the Nigerian Tribune reported March 3. The priest, who works at the minor seminary in Ochobo,… Read More »

Vatican City, Mar 3, 2020 / 07:24 am (CNA).- Pope Francis Tuesday appointed Spanish-born Idente Missionary Fr. Luis Miguel Romero to be an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York. The bishop-elect is a priest of the Institute Id of Christ the Redeemer religious congregation and has had pastoral and academic assignments… Read More »

Hong Kong, China, Mar 2, 2020 / 11:54 am (CNA).- Cardinal Zen on Sunday responded to the claim of the Dean of the College of Cardinals that Benedict XVI had approved a draft agreement with the Chinese government on bishop nominations. Zen invited the dean to produce archival evidence which he claimed to have seen.… Read More »