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Father Fernando Gonzalez, / Credit: Cameron County Sheriff's DepartmentCNA Staff, Feb 19, 2024 / 14:51 pm (CNA).A priest in the Diocese of Brownsville, Texas, has been arrested after being accused of sexual misconduct with a minor victim. Brownsville Bishop Daniel Flores said in a statement last week that diocesan officials had "received an allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor by Father Fernando Gonzalez."Flores had received the report in early February from the diocesan victim's assistance coordinator. The following day he "removed [Gonzalez] from active ministry" and "prohibited him from exercising any priestly ministry anywhere." "The individual who came forward, who is now an adult, spoke to the Diocesan Victim's Assistance Coordinator and was advised to report the allegation to the police," the bishop said. "The investigation is in the hands of law enforcement and is ongoing. The diocese will fully cooperate with the investigation."Law enforcement reporte...
Credit: Courtney Mares/CNAACI Prensa Staff, Feb 19, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).Goya Producciones has announced that the film "Guadalupe: Mother of Humanity" will premiere on Feb. 22 in the United States (with English subtitles), Mexico, Central America, Puerto Rico, Bolivia, and Chile."Shot on location in Mexico, the United States, Spain, and Germany, the feature film opens with powerful fictionalized recreations of the five apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Guadalupe in 1531, inspired by the original true account of St. Juan Diego," said a press release sent to ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner. Spanish filmmaker Pablo Moreno directed the portion of the film that includes powerful testimonies and features actress Karyme Lozano as presenter, Angelica Chong as the Virgin of Guadalupe, and Mario Alberto Hernandez as Juan Diego. Pepe Alonso, popular EWTN host, does the narration.The film debuts in Colombia, Peru, and Uruguay on Feb. 29, in Spain on March 1, and in Br...
Symbols of several of the world's leading religions. / Credit: ShutterstockACI Prensa Staff, Feb 19, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).Father Eduardo Hayen Cuarón, director of the weekly newspaper Presencia of the Diocese of Ciudad Juárez in Mexico, recently responded to the question of whether all religions are equal, good, and true.Responding on X Feb. 4, the priest addressed the following question: "I am an open-minded person and I believe that all religions are equal; they are all like rivers that one way or another flow into the sea. As long as religions lead man to do good, any religion is good and true, right?"Hayen responded that "it is good to have an open mind to try to perceive all that is good in religions. Without a doubt, Muslims are very observant in prayer and fasting; Buddhists also mortify the body, and Jehovah's Witnesses are tenacious in promoting their magazine by knocking on doors.""But judging a religion by some good elements it may have is not a valid criterion...
Pope Francis addresses pilgrims in St. Peter's Square during his Sunday Angelus on Feb. 18, 2024. / Credit: Vatican MediaVatican City, Feb 18, 2024 / 10:30 am (CNA).On the first Sunday of Lent, Pope Francis focused his Angelus address on the temptation of Jesus in the desert to highlight that it is an invitation for us to enter the proverbial desert to come "in contact with the truth."Observing that during the 40 days in the desert Christ was in the company of both "wild beasts and angels," the pope reflected that when we enter this symbolic "inner wildness," we too "encounter wild beasts and angels."These wild beats assume a deeply symbolic meaning in our "spiritual life," and so "we can think of them as the disordered passions that divide our heart, trying to take possession of it. They entice us, they seem seductive, but if we are not careful, we risk being torn apart by them," the pope said to the nearly 15,000 faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square on Sunday.Expanding upo...
Incoming students at Wyoming Catholic College in Lander, Wyoming, are required to take a three-week wilderness trek that challenges them both body and soul. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Aeja DeKuiperCheyenne, Wyo., Feb 18, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).A small Catholic college in Lander, Wyoming, has launched a new program that challenges seminarians with wilderness experiences to strengthen their faith, vocations, and pastoral skills as eventual priests.Wyoming Catholic College (WCC), known for its rigorous academics and COR Expeditions, offers backcountry treks to high school students, families, and undergraduates as well as specific seminaries such Holy Trinity in Irving, Texas, and the New York-based Franciscan Friars of the Renewal. But its new St. Jogues Seminarian Project is open to individual seminarians ages 18+ from dioceses throughout the country. Applications are now being accepted for the 10-week summerlong program, which includes multi-day backcountry hikes in the Roc...
St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. / Richard Trois via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0).Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 17, 2024 / 13:56 pm (CNA).The pastor of St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City says the church has offered a Mass of Reparation after a controversial irreverent funeral service was held there this week for a well-known transgender advocate. The Manhattan cathedral hosted the Feb. 15 funeral service for Cecilia Gentili, an activist who helped to decriminalize sex work in New York, lobbied for "gender identity" to be added as a protected class to the state's human rights laws, and was a major fundraiser for transgender causes. Gentili was a man who identified as a woman. Throughout the liturgy, the presider, Father Edward Dougherty, referred to Gentili with feminine pronouns and described the trans-identifying man as "our sister." Additionally, during the prayers of the faithful, the reader prayed for so-called gender-affirming health care, while attendees fre...
St. Mary of the Assumption Cathedral in Chilpancingo, Mexico. / Credit: Mfrand/Wikimedia CommonsACI Prensa Staff, Feb 17, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).Four bishops from the Mexican state of Guerrero recently met with members of organized crime in an effort to seek peace in a region shaken by violent clashes and death.During a Feb. 14 press conference, Bishop José de Jesús González of the Diocese of Chilpancingo-Chilapa said that the prelates of the area "began to seek dialogue with the [crime] bosses that could bring us peace." However, he lamented that his goal "was not achieved."Accompanying González at the meeting were the archbishop of Acapulco, Leopoldo González; the bishop of Tlapa, Dagoberto Sosa; and the bishop of Ciudad Altamirano, Joel Ocampo.?The four bishops' ecclesiastical province in southwestern Mexico has a population of approximately 4.8 million.The main obstacle to these negotiations, according to González, is that criminals "covet territories." The prelate pointed o...
Sister Cecilia María of the Holy Face. / Credit: Dicastery for the Causes of Saints/General Curia of the Discalced CarmelitesACI Prensa Staff, Feb 17, 2024 / 09:00 am (CNA).The archbishop of Santa Fe de la Vera Cruz in Argentina, Sergio Fenoy, signed the edict that begins the process prior to the opening of the cause of canonization of Sister Cecilia María of the Holy Face, a Carmelite nun from the province of Neuquén who died from cancer in 2016 at the age of 43.Dated Feb. 14, the edict bears the signature of the archbishop of Santa Fe because the nun lived in the Carmelite monastery located in the archdiocese from 1997 to 2016, the year of her death.Her testimony of "love and trust in Jesus Christ, even in the midst of the hardest trials, has awakened in many hearts the desire for a greater commitment to Christian life," the edict states.Thus "having grown, over the years, her reputation for holiness and for signs," the beginning of the preliminary process to open her cause f...
Pope Francis at the Synod on Synodality's closing Mass in St. Peter's Basilica on Oct. 29, 2023. / Daniel Ibanez/CNARome Newsroom, Feb 17, 2024 / 10:01 am (CNA).The Vatican announced Saturday that Pope Francis has launched synodal study groups to analyze key issues ahead of October's Synod on Synodality assembly.Pope Francis has issued a chirograph asking the Dicasteries of the Roman Curia to collaborate with the General Secretariat of the Synod to establish the study groups for "in-depth analysis" of some of the themes that emerged in the first Synod on Synodality assembly.The pope did not specify in the chirograph published on Feb. 17 how many groups will be formed, what topics will be studied, or who will participate in the study groups.The synthesis report published at the end of the first synod assembly lists 75 different "matters for consideration," including women's access to diaconal ministry, priestly celibacy, and "Eucharistic hospitality" for interfaith couples. ...
Luke and Sarah Hellwig in the new series "The Catholic Parent" on FORMED. / Credit: The Augustine InstituteCNA Staff, Feb 17, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).Have you ever been the parent constantly running your child out of Mass for bathroom breaks or because of crying fits? Or have you spent a lot of time sitting in the pew giving your child anything you can find to keep him or her entertained and quiet during Mass? If you're a Catholic parent, the answer to these questions is probably a resounding "yes."To encourage and empower parents on their journey to pass the faith down to the next generation, the Augustine Institute and Catholic Sprouts have come together to create a six-episode series highlighting Catholic parents as the primary educators of the faith for their children. It's called "The Catholic Parent," and it is now available to view on FORMED.Nancy Bandzuch is a Catholic mother of six and founder of Catholic Sprouts, an organization that provides educational and catechetica...
