All posts tagged: Cardinal

Israel apologizes after barring cardinal from Holy Sepulchre on Palm Sunday

Israel apologizes after barring cardinal from Holy Sepulchre on Palm Sunday

Published by Sam Flores

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Following outcry from political and religious leaders for barring Catholic leaders in the Holy Land from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Palm Sunday (March 29), Israeli authorities apologized and gave them permission to worship at the church, one of Christianity’s holiest sites. “In agreement with the Israel Police, access for representatives of the churches has been secured in order to conduct the liturgies and ceremonies and to preserve the ancient Easter traditions at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher,” read a Monday (March 30) joint statement by the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the Custodian of the Holy Land, who heads a body of Franciscan priests and brothers who tend to the region’s holy sites. The statement emphasized that “especially in times of hardship and conflict, such as those presently endured, safeguarding freedom of worship remains a fundamental and shared duty,” adding that all religions be allowed to practice and worship. The leaders also called for an end to the “tragic war.” The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal …

Israeli police block Catholic cardinal from Holy Sepulchre on Palm Sunday | Religion News

Israeli police block Catholic cardinal from Holy Sepulchre on Palm Sunday | Religion News

Published by Sam Flores

Israeli police have prevented Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to mark Palm Sunday Mass. The Catholic Church said on Sunday that Pizzaballa and Francesco lelpo, the official Guardian of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, were both prevented from entering the church. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list “As a result, and for the first time in centuries, the Heads of the Church were prevented from celebrating the Palm Sunday Mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre,” the statement said. “This incident is a grave precedent and disregards the sensibilities of billions of people around the world, who, during this week, look to Jerusalem,” it added. Israeli police said all holy sites in Jerusalem were closed due to safety concerns amid the United States and Israel’s war on Iran. During the Muslim month of Ramadan, which also coincided with the war, Al-Aqsa Mosque was also closed to worshippers. Issa Kassissieh, a Palestinian Christian who is popular for being the Santa Claus …

Cardinal Robert McElroy explained why the Iran war is immoral

Cardinal Robert McElroy explained why the Iran war is immoral

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — As Americans hotly debate the Iran war, many examine the political and economic consequences, while others consider the war from an ethical and moral perspective. For pacifists, the answer is simple: The war is wrong because all wars are wrong. For political realists, the answer is also simple: Might makes right. If you have the power, you can do whatever you want. But there is also a long tradition of Christian theologians examining individual wars to determine if they are just or not, from St. Augustine to Thomas Aquinas to modern leaders. The result is the just war theory, used to justify or condemn individual wars. No one has used this theory to examine the Iran war better than Cardinal Robert McElroy, the archbishop of Washington who has doctorates in both political science from Stanford University and in moral theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University. At Stanford, his dissertation was titled “Morality and American Foreign Policy: The Role of Moral Norms in International Affairs.” In an interview with his diocesan newspaper, the Catholic …

Vatican appeals court declares mistrial in the ‘trial of the century’ against a cardinal

Vatican appeals court declares mistrial in the ‘trial of the century’ against a cardinal

Published by Sam Flores

ROME (AP) — The Vatican appeals tribunal declared a mistrial Tuesday in the Holy See’s big “trial of the century,” a stunning blow to both Pope Francis’ legacy and Vatican prosecutors who had put a cardinal and several other people on trial over alleged financial crimes. In a 16-page ruling, the appeals court ruled that Francis and Vatican prosecutors both made procedural errors that nullified the original indictment against Cardinal Angelo Becciu and the others and required a new trial. The court set a June 22 as the date for the new trial to begin. Defense lawyers said such a ruling was enormously significant if not historic, since it amounted to a Vatican court declaring that an act of the pope had no effect. The ruling was a win for the defense and a huge setback to Vatican prosecutors, who have been scrambling to salvage their case. The prosecution and 2023 convictions against Becciu and others had been held up by the Vatican and late pope as evidence of his willingness to crack down on financial misconduct in …

Cardinal Sako, head of Chaldean Church in Iraq, retires as war engulfs the region

Cardinal Sako, head of Chaldean Church in Iraq, retires as war engulfs the region

Published by Sam Flores

ROME (AP) — The patriarch of one of the most important Christian churches in the Middle East retired on Tuesday, setting the stage for new leadership as war engulfs the region. Iraqi Cardinal Louis Sako of the Chaldean Catholic Church said he had asked to retire to pursue “prayer, writing, and simple service,” and that Pope Leo XIV granted his request on the day he had proposed. Sako, 76, who had occasionally clashed with Iraq’s political leaders, said in a statement that he freely offered his resignation and was leaving “of my own will.” The Chaldean Catholic Church is one of the nearly two dozen Eastern Rite churches that are in full communion with Rome. It is one of the four that claim links to the ancient Church of the East, located in Mesopotamia, and is today prevalent in Iraq, Iran and Lebanon, as well as in the diaspora. Sako led the ancient church through the traumatic years of the rise of the Islamic State group in Iraq that devastated the Christian community. His retirement …

Cardinal Dolan says Vance apologized for claiming bishops were pro-immigrant for the money

Cardinal Dolan says Vance apologized for claiming bishops were pro-immigrant for the money

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — Vice President JD Vance apologized to Cardinal Timothy Dolan for his accusations that Catholic bishops expressed concerns about immigration issues because they were motivated by money, the cardinal said in an interview on EWTN, a large Catholic television network, released Thursday (Feb. 19). “He and I had a little tête-à-tête, you probably know, when he suggested that bishops in the United States were pro-immigrant because we were making money, which I said was not only untrue, it was scurrilous. And he apologized. All right? He says that was out of line, and that’s not true,” Dolan, who retired as archbishop of New York in December, told Mark Irons in an interview on “EWTN News In Depth” that touched on many political topics. Vance, a Catholic, made the comments about the bishops’ “bottom line” in his first television interview after becoming vice president when he was asked by CBS’ Margaret Brennan about bishops’ concerns over an executive order lifting restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids on schools and houses of worship, signed by …

Cardinal Tobin leads Ash Wednesday Masses inside New Jersey ICE facility

Cardinal Tobin leads Ash Wednesday Masses inside New Jersey ICE facility

Published by Sam Flores

NEWARK, N.J. (RNS) — Cardinal Joseph Tobin, the archbishop of Newark, New Jersey, entered the Delaney Hall Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility Wednesday morning (Feb. 18) to celebrate an Ash Wednesday Mass for detainees. Newark Auxiliary Bishops Pedro Bismarck Chau, Manuel Cruz and Gregory Studerus, who is retired, are also expected to celebrate Ash Wednesday Masses at Delaney Hall later Wednesday. Tobin, who will celebrate Ash Wednesday Mass again later at St. Patrick’s, Newark’s historic “old cathedral,” said starting the day with detainees was his priority. “It’s important for the church to be part of this place, of the respect for the dignity of those women and men,” he said as he exited the facility escorted in the Newark sheriff’s blacked-out GMC. The cardinal celebrated two Masses with the women detained inside and said that despite their detention, they showed strength. “It was sad and yet there was a serenity among them, because they’re women of great courage,” he said. Providing spiritual support in this moment is important, said the cardinal, adding that faith …

Cardinal Cupich says feds stopped priests, demanded citizenship proof

Cardinal Cupich says feds stopped priests, demanded citizenship proof

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — Cardinal Blase Cupich, head of the Archdiocese of Chicago, has twice told interviewers in recent weeks that priests in the archdiocese have been stopped by federal agents and asked to prove their immigration status — demands he said were “because of their color.” Cupich made the allegation in a Jan. 17 interview with WTTW, a Chicago PBS affiliate, and in an interview published Friday (Feb. 6) in the U.S. edition of El País, a Spanish newspaper. “I’ve had some priests who are of a different color being targeted and arrested — stopped — because of their color and asking them to prove that they’re citizens. That’s not America,” Cupich told the PBS affiliate. “We should not have to live in a country where people have to carry around their documents all the time.” In the El País interview, Cupich said: “It brings terror into a city where not just immigrants, but the population, feel as though they’re being terrorized by the ways that these roundups are going.” He continued, “This is really unheard …

Cardinal Dolan, interfaith coalition press Trump to add religion forum to 2026 G20

Cardinal Dolan, interfaith coalition press Trump to add religion forum to 2026 G20

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — A group of faith leaders, including several prominent conservatives, is pushing the Trump administration to formally include a religion engagement group within the Group of 20 summit, to be hosted at Trump’s golf club in the Miami area next December. In November, over 80 leaders, led by New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan; Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center; former Vatican ambassador Mary Ann Glendon; and First Liberty Institute President Kelly Shackelford, sent President Donald Trump a letter urging him to build on his legacy as “a stalwart defender of peace and international religious freedom” and direct his administration “to officially recognize the Religion 20 Summit (R20) as part of America’s presidency of the G20 in 2026.” The G20 intergovernmental forum was formed in 1999 to address global economic issues, comprising 21 member with large economies, including the U.S., European Union, China and Russia. Its presidency rotates each year. The first time a religion forum, known as the R20, was incorporated into the formal program of the G20 was in …