Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and an organization of Vatican-accredited journalists have spoken out in support of a free press after the recent attacks on two journalists in Italy. In a statement released Tuesday, the International Association of Journalists Accredited to the Vatican (AIGAV) condemned last week’s assault on Venezuelan Vatican journalist Edgar Beltrán by businessman Ricardo Cisneros...

Jesus draws a blunt picture in today’s Gospel. The Pharisee’s prayer is almost a parody of the thanksgiving psalms. Instead of praising God for His mighty works, the Pharisee congratulates himself for his own deeds, which he presents to God in some detail. The tax collector stands at a distance, too ashamed even to raise his eyes to God. He prays with a humble and contrite heart. He knows that before God no one is righteous, no one has cause to boast...

In recent decades, canonizations have often been scheduled for October, and so frequently fall on World Mission Sunday, the second-to-last Sunday in October. It was established in 1926 by Pope Pius XI, who had the previous year established the solemnity of Christ the King, then fixed for the last Sunday in October. The mission of the Church is to proclaim that the kingdom of God is at hand.

The moonlight towers of Austin, Texas, are the last urban municipal lighting towers in the world: because before every street was wired to the grid, how else would you light up a city?

One of the most common objections Protestants raise against the Catholic doctrine of purgatory is that it seems to contradict what Jesus taught about the immediacy of heaven after death. In fact, well-known Protestant writers Norman Geisler and Ralph MacKenzie make this exact case in their book. Their argument is simple: Jesus teaches that people either go straight to heaven or straight to hell after death, leaving no room for an in-between purification like purgatory...

I while back, I helped a friend move into his new home. He is a Catholic priest and got assigned as Pastor to a new parish. This parish has multiple locations, a school, a big staff, and dozens of large buildings. When he realized just how many things he is responsible for, it was a bit disorienting. It was also clear that he is stepping into a situation where some of these responsibilities are possible distractions to that which is much more important...

Feast date: Nov 07

St. Engelbert, was born in Berg around the year 1185 to Engelbert, Count of Berg and Margaret, daughter of the Count of Gelderland. He studied at the cathedral school of Cologne and, while still a boy, was made provost of the churches of St. George and St. Severin at Cologne and of St. Mary's at Aachen, as it was a common abuse in the Church at the time to appoint the children of nobles to such positions.

In 1199 he was elected provost of the cathedral at Cologne. He led a worldly life, and in the conflict between  two Archbishops, Adolf and Bruno, he sided with his cousin Adolf, and waged war for him. Consequently, he was excommunicated by the pope along with his cousin. After his submission he was reinstated in 1208 and, to atone for his sin, joined the crusade against the Albigenses in 1212. On Feb. 29, 1216, the chapter of the cathedral elected him archbishop by a unanimous vote.

The mendicant orders of the Franciscans and the Dominicans settled in his realm while he was Archbishop. He was well disposed towards the monasteries and insisted on strict religious observance in them. Ecclesiastical affairs were regulated in provincial synods. He was considered a friend of the clergy and a helper of the poor.

Engelbert exerted a strong influence in the affairs of the empire. Emperor Frederick II, who had taken up his residence permanently in Sicily, gave Germany to his son, Henry VII, then still a minor, and in 1221 appointed Engelbert guardian of the king and administrator of the empire. When the young king reached the age of twelve he was crowned at Aachen by Engelbert, who loved him as his own son and honoured him as his sovereign. Engelbert watched over the young king's education and governed the empire in his name, careful to secure peace both within and without of the realm.

Engelbert's devotion to duty, and his obedience to the pope and to the emperor, were eventually the cause of his ruin. Many of the nobility feared rather than loved him, and he was obliged to surround himself with bodyguards. The greatest danger came from his relatives.

His cousin, count Frederick of Isenberg, the secular administrator for the nuns of Essen, had grievously oppressed that abbey. Honorius III and the emperor urged Engelbert to protect the nuns and their rights. Frederick wished to forestall the archbishop, and his wife incited him to murder. On November 7, 1225, as he was journeying from Soest to Schwelm to consecrate a church, Engelbert was attacked on a dark evening by Frederick and his associates, was wounded in the thigh, torn from his horse and killed. His body was covered with forty-seven wounds. It was placed on a dung-cart and brought to Cologne four days later. King Henry wept bitterly over the remains, put Frederick under the ban of the empire, and saw him broken on the wheel a year later at Cologne. Frederick died contrite, having acknowledged and confessed his guilt.

Engelbert's body was placed in the old cathedral of Cologne on February 24, 1226, by Cardinal Conrad von Urach. The latter also declared him a martyr, though a formal canonization did not take place. In the martyrology, Engelbert is commemorated on November 7 as a martyr. A convent for nuns was erected at the place of his death.

In a 13-page letter to the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), four attorneys for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops urged the EPA to reconsider its proposed deregulation of greenhouse gas emission reporting requirements.

The current regulations “can serve to protect our ‘common home’ for current and future generations and allow the EPA to carry forth its mission to ensure Americans (especially the most vulnerable) have clean air, land, and water, and to protect human health and the environment,” the attorneys stated. “Our concerns with [the proposal] are founded on the Catholic Church’s commitment to care for creation and the ‘least of these’ among us, as these tenets are integral components of Catholic faith.”

Pope Leo XIV paid tribute to Blessed Rosario Livatino (1952-1990), an Italian magistrate slain by the Mafia, and praised the organizers of a new prize for justice that bears his name.

The pontifical message, dated October 25, was the subject of a November 6 Vatican newspaper article. The message was signed by Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, the Substitute for General Affairs of the Secretariat of State.

Addressing a conference on agronomy and forestry, a Vatican diplomat lamented food waste as he called for sustainable agriculture to “feed the planet without waste, shifting from the logic of abundance to the logic of sufficiency.”

Msgr. Fernando Chica Arellano, the Vatican’s representative to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, called for “producing more, but with less water, fewer chemicals, less environmental impact, and greater attention to quality and sustainability.” At the same time, he called for technological innovation “that is profoundly transforming the way fields are cultivated,” as well as “an instrument of social justice if it is put at the service of the most vulnerable populations.”

In its report, Vatican News, the news agency of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication, inaccurately described the Vatican diplomat as an archbishop.