January 17, 2024

Catholic News

A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts. www.catholicnewsagency.com - In a continuation of his catechetical series on vice and virtue, Pope Francis on Wednesday dedicated his general audience to highlighting the difference between love and lust, arguing that “in Christianity, there is no condemnation of the sexual instinct.” https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/256552/pope-francis-in-christianity-there-is-no-condemnation-of-the-sexual-instinct More than 2.7 million people gathered in the city of Barquisimeto in Lara state, Venezuela, on Sunday, January 14, to accompany the image of the Divine Shepherdess Virgin in a procession, reported state governor Adolfo Pereira. Pereira commented that there was a very positive atmosphere at the gathering, “where peace, calm, and the religiosity of the people reigned.” The devotion traces back to 1703 in Seville, Spain, when a Capuchin friar saw the Virgin Mary dressed as a shepherdess holding a shepherd’s crook. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/256549/divine-shepherdess-procession-in-venezuela-draws-27-million Finnish prosecutors are asking the country’s Supreme Court to hear a “hate speech” case against a member of Parliament and Lutheran bishop for comments made about Christian teachings related to marriage and homosexuality. The charges brought against member of Finnish Parliament Päivi Räsänen and Bishop Juhana Pohjola for their speech were already dismissed twice — once by a lower district court and again by an appellate court. Yet prosecutors are advancing their case to Finland’s highest court in an effort to fine both Christians hundreds of thousands of euros and censor their speech. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/256548/exonerated-finnish-politician-and-bishop-to-return-to-court-over-biblical-hate-speech US prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Payton Gendron, the then-18-year-old man who in 2022 killed nearly a dozen Black shoppers at a Tops Friendly Market grocery store in Buffalo, New York. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/256544/biden-administration-seeks-the-death-penalty-for-buffalo-supermarket-shooter Today, the Church celebrates Saint Anthony of Egypt, the founder of Christian monasticism whose radical approach to discipleship permanently impacted the Church. In the course of his remarkable and extraordinarily long life, Anthony would live to see the Emperor Constantine's establishment of Christianity as the official religion of the Roman empire. Anthony himself, however, would establish something more lasting – by becoming the spiritual father of the monastic communities that have existed throughout the subsequent history of the Church. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-anthony-of-egypt-119