Catholic News

• Pope's hospital stay lengthened [updated Fri. AM] (CWN)
  Update, Friday morning: In a brief February 21 statement, the Vatican press office said: “The night went well, this morning Pope Francis got up and had breakfast.”
• British court backs Vatican in 'trial of the century' lawsuit (AP)
  A British court has found in favor of the Vatican in a lawsuit brought by Raffaelle Mincione, a financier who was convicted of financial misconduct in the Vatican “trial of the century” who his role in a London real-estate deal. Mincione had asked the court for a finding that he acted in good faith in representing the Vatican Secretariat of State in that transaction. But in a ruling issued February 21, the court found that Mincione had “made no effort to protect [the Secretariat of State] from fraudulent bad actors,” and “did not meet the standards of communication... that could be qualified as conduct in good faith.” Mincione claimed that ruling as a victory because the court did not find that he had violated the law in his dealings with the Vatican. But Vatican prosecutor Alessandro Diddi countered that the court’s decision “underscores the correctness of the conclusions reached by the Vatican tribunal.”
• In setback for USCCB, judge declines to reinstate refugee resettlement program funding (The Hill)
  Responding to the US bishops’ lawsuit against the Trump administration over refugee resettlement funding, a federal judge has declined to issue a temporary restraining order that would have immediately restored the funding. Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, described his ruling as “very tentative” and scheduled a hearing for February 28. The Hill reported that the bishops’ conference maintains that “the State Department owes the USCCB $13 million in outstanding payments, and since its funding was frozen, more than $11 million has been accrued due to the conference’s ‘moral obligation’ to continue providing support” to refugees.
• Ukrainian Catholic leader: Russian ideology, not NATO expansion, led to war (Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church)
  Speaking at the Catholic University of America, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church said that centuries-old Russian imperialism, rather than NATO’s expansion eastward, influenced Russia to invade Ukraine. Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk said that “if someone believes that NATO expansion is the cause of the war, they are blindly following Russian narratives and propaganda. NATO did not exist in the 17th or 18th centuries, nor were security concerns an issue for the Soviet Union during the Holodomor,” the man-made famine in Ukraine under Stalin.
• IVF destroys human life, USCCB committee chairmen warn following Trump executive order (USCCB)
  Reacting to President Donald Trump’s executive order promising support for IVF, the chairmen of the US bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities and Committee for Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth warned that IVF destroys human life. “As pastors, we see the suffering of so many couples experiencing infertility and know their deep desire to have children is both good and admirable; yet the Administration’s push for IVF, which ends countless human lives and treats persons like property, cannot be the answer,” said Bishop Danield Thomas and Bishop Robert Barron. “The IVF industry treats human beings like products and freezes or kills millions of children who are not selected for transfer to a womb or do not survive,” they continued, as they called for support for alternative “restorative reproductive medicine that can help ethically treat often-overlooked root causes of infertility. However, we will strongly oppose any policy that expands destruction of human life, or forces others to subsidize the cost.”
• Jerusalem's Christian leaders back Armenian Patriarchate as Israel threatens to confiscate property (Fides)
  The Patriarchs and heads of the Christian churches of Jerusalem issued a statement of support for the Armenian Patriarchate after Israeli officials threatened to confiscate and auction church properties to pay tax debts. The Christian leaders described the Israeli actions as “legally dubious and morally unacceptable.” “It is inconceivable that Christian institutions, whose mission for centuries has been to safeguard faith, serve communities, and preserve the sacred heritage of the Holy Land, should now face the threat of property seizure under Israeli administrative measures that disregard due process,” they added.
• Bishop, staff robbed by soldiers in Democratic Republic of Congo (Fides)
  Bishop Sebastien-Joseph Muyengo Mulombe of Uvira and several members of his staff were robbed at gunpoint by soldiers of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on February 20, the diocese reports. Three uniformed soldiers took money, cell phones, and other goods from the bishop and his aides, then locked them in their offices. They were released when several nuns, unaware of the crime, came to the diocesan offices and found them. The robbery took place in the Kivu province, where DRC troops are battling against M23 rebels. Local sources have reported frequent complaints of looting by undisciplined troops.
• Vatican cardinal visits Lebanon to convey Pope's closeness (Vatican News)
  Cardinal Michael Czerny, SJ, the prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, is visiting Lebanon to convey the Pope’s closeness to the economically beleaguered nation. “Fraternity is the key to every problem,” the cardinal told students. “If we are brothers and sisters, we will be good leaders.” He also advised them to “pray as if everything depended on God; work as if everything depended on us.”
• Father Spadaro: Pope's health situation is 'delicate' but not cause for alarm (CNA)
  Father Antonio Spadaro, SJ, undersecretary of the Dicastery for Culture and Education and friend of Pope Francis, said in an interview that the Pope’s “situation is delicate, but I [haven’t] seen any cause for alarm.” “Francis is a man of great intelligence, and he knows that he must take the necessary time to recover,” Father Spadaro said. “He has been visibly affected in recent days. The important thing is that he now takes the necessary time in a protected environment.”
• Ecumenical Patriarch sends message of support to ailing Pope (Orthodox Times)
  Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, who holds a primacy of honor among the Orthodox churches, has sent a message of sympathy and support to Pope Francis. The Ecumenical Patriarch gave the message to Cardinal George Koovakad, who was visiting the Ecumenical Patriarchate to help plan the Pope’s visit to Turkey for the 1700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea.
• Vatican releases official medal for Jubilee year (L'Osservatore Romano (Italian))
  The Vatican has released the official medal of the 2025 Jubilee year. On one side, according to the Vatican newspaper, is “the figure of Christ Pantocrator with his right hand raised in blessing while the left hand holds a book.” On the other side, one sees the figure of “Hope in the act of praying with the cruciform anchor, next to a group of pilgrims ... At the top, the dove of Peace [is] holding an olive branch.”
• Trump executive order promises support for IVF (White House)
  Fulfilling a campaign promise to support in vitro fertilization (IVF), President Trump on February 18 issued an executive order saying “it is the policy of my administration to ensure reliable access to IVF treatment.” In his statement the President portrayed IVF as a pro-family option, saying that “our public policy must make it easer for loving and longing mothers and fathers to have children.” That statement will be sharply contested by critics of IVF. The Catholic Church condemns the procedure, because it separates procreation from the marital embrace and because it entails the creation of dozens of human embryos who will be frozen or discarded. Trump, however, said that childless couples “need reliable access to IVF and more affordable treatment options,” noting that the costs of IVF treatment can reach $20,000. He promised that within 90 days his domestic-policy office would release a set of recommendations to lower that cost.
• Catholic Charities agencies across country cut funding, lay off staff amid funding freeze (CNA)
  Amid a 90-day federal funding freeze, diocesan Catholic Charities offices are laying off staff. The article focuses on cuts in Santa Rosa, California; Syracuse, New York; and Dallas, Texas.
• HHS pronounces: sex cannot be changed (AP)
  The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued official guidance that sex is determined biologically and cannot be changed. The HHS policy stance directly contrasts with the stand taken by the Biden administration, which had promoted the notion that an individual might choose to adopt a different “gender identity.”
• Vance offers profession of faith at DC conference (CPAC)
  Vice President J.D. Vance made an unusually clear profession of faith during a February 20 appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington. Christianity, Vance said, is “not just a set of good moral principles.” Rather it is the belief that “the Son of God became man, he died, and then he raised himself from the dead. That is the fundamental tenet of the Christian faith.” “I think one lesson that flows from that is that we shouldn’t fear death,” Vance went on to say. “There are much more terrible things than just losing one’s life... you could lose one’s soul.”
• New jihadist attacks in Burkina Faso (Aid to the Church in Need)
  Father Jean-Pierre Keita, a priest whose parish includes 37 villages in Burkina Faso, said that 200 terrorists recently attacked three of the villages, killing at least 26. A subsequent attack left several dead. One-third of the villages’ inhabitants are Christians. Among the victims was the priest’s father. Burkina Faso, a West African nation of 23.0 million (map), is 56% Muslim, 26% Christian (16% Catholic), and 17% ethnic religionist. A jihadist insurgency began there in 2015.
• Bishop Burbidge decries Trump support for IVF (Arlington Diocese)
  Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia has issued a statement opposing President Trump’s commitment to expand access to IVF, calling it a “disappointing and unnecessary action.” Stressing that IVF “involves serious moral injustices,” Bishop Burbidge—who just weeks ago released a pastoral letter on the subject—writes: “Expanding access” to IVF as described in this executive order is likely to unjustly promote IVF in a way that will result in the abandonment or death of millions of embryonic human persons, involve all taxpayers with a serious moral injustice, provide federal subsidies for already lucrative IVF businesses, and ignore the risks to parents and children of America’s broadly unregulated IVF industry.
• RFK Jr. promises study of abortion-pill safety (CNA)
  Robert F. Kennedy, the Secretary for Health and Human Services (HHS), has promised that his department will investigate safety concerns about the over-the-counter abortion pill. Kennedy said that the Trump administration has pledged to study the side effects of the mifepristone pill on women. He said that the National Institutes of Health had previously discouraged doctors from reporting adverse reactions, adding that approach was “inexcusable.”
• Governments should promote and foster family life, Vatican diplomat says at UN (Holy See Mission)
  Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, apostolic nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, said at a recent UN meeting that “the Holy See urges States to promote and respect family life and to foster better conditions for family formation.” “The Holy See remains firmly committed to strengthening solidarity, social inclusion and social cohesion in the service of the common good and the integral human development of every human person,” he continued. Reflecting on inclusion, he said that “those who are in vulnerable situations, such as the elderly, the unborn and persons with disabilities, are sometimes deliberately excluded in a ‘throwaway culture’ that sees some people as disposable.”
• Police thwart attacks on Kinshasa churches by political activists (Fides)
  Police in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, thwarted plans by activists associated with the nation’s ruling party to disrupt worship at Catholic and Protestant churches. The attacks were planned in response to meetings that Catholic and Protestant leaders held with a leader of the M23 movement, which has gained control of territory in the eastern part of the nation, and with Rwanda’s president, who has supported the movement.
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