An Arlington, Texas, police car. / Credit: WFFA News 8 Dallas/Screen shot

Washington D.C., Jun 8, 2023 / 16:32 pm (CNA).

Charges and countercharges of illegal activity have further escalated a bitter public dispute between the Diocese of Fort Worth and a monastery of Carmelite nuns in Arlington, Texas.

In the latest salvo in what has become a protracted legal and public relations battle was launched by the diocese on Wednesday when it released a pair of photographs that purportedly show cannabis and marijuana products inside the Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity.

Diocesan spokesman Pat Svacina said in Wednesday’s release that the diocese “is in communication” with the Arlington Police Department regarding “serious concerns it has regarding the use of marijuana and edibles at the monastery.” 

The monastery’s attorney, Matthew Bobo, denied the allegations related to drug use, calling them “absolutely ridiculous” and “without merit.”

The dispute between the monastery and the diocese began in April when Olson launched a canonical investigation into an alleged sexual affair between the monastery’s prioress, Reverend Mother Teresa Gerlach, and an unnamed priest from outside the diocese. 

The diocese called the alleged misconduct “grave” but has not publicized the exact nature of the affair. On June 1 the bishop issued a decree dismissing Gerlach from religious life.

Following the diocese’s investigation, the monastery filed a civil lawsuit on May 3 seeking $1 million in damages. The nuns further challenged Olson’s authority to conduct the investigation, arguing they were subject only to the Vatican. 

The monastery is alleging that Olson and diocesan officials abused their power and engaged in criminal behavior during their investigation. 

Monastery says police are investigating diocese

Hours before the diocese released the photos to the press, the monastery’s attorney announced that the Arlington Police Department and the Tarrant County Sheriff's Office have launched a criminal investigation of the actions taken against the Carmelite Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity by the diocese and Fort Worth Bishop Michael Olson.

The Tarrant County Sheriff's Office told CNA Friday, however, that they are not involved in any investigation of the diocese's actions.

"The Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office is in no way involved in this investigation and that is an inaccurate statement. The Arlington Police Department is the lead investigating agency," said Robbie Hoy, press officer for the Tarrant County Sheriff's Office.

Svacina, in his press statement, denied that anyone with the diocese engaged in criminal activity during their investigation of the monastery, calling the accusation an “attempt to embarrass Bishop Olson and undermine his authority.”

According to Svacina, Bobo’s press release announcing the police investigation is “yet another transparent attempt to spread baseless and outrageous accusations regarding Bishop Olson’s legitimate investigation.” 

Meanwhile, Bobo said the criminal investigation of Olson “continues unabated.” 

Tim Ciesco, a spokesman for the Arlington Police Department, confirmed with CNA that the department has launched an investigation of Olson at the monastery’s behest. 

In response to allegations raised in a letter received on May 31, the Arlington Police “launched an investigation to determine whether any criminal offenses have occurred, which is standard anytime a criminal complaint is made,” Ciesco said. 

Ciesco added that “detectives are in the early stages of the investigation.”

Diocese releases photos to the press 

Svacina said the images purporting to show drug use in the monastery, which he said were obtained by the diocese “within the last few weeks,” were taken by “a confidential informant within the monastery.”

The metadata for an image labeled “Monasery Photo 1” indicates that it was taken at 12:59 p.m. on Feb. 17 by an iPhone 12 Pro Max. Metadate from the second photo indicates the image was created on June 8.

“The photograph speaks for itself and raises serious questions that the bishop is tirelessly working to address with law enforcement and in private in accordance with canonical norms and within his authority as bishop of the Diocese of Fort Worth and as Pontifical Commissary,” Svacina said.

Svacina added that the bishop is in contact with the Arlington police about the monastery regarding “other issues that the diocese will address at another time and in a proper forum.” Bobo called the images “a juvenile, low-level public relations stunt by the diocese to attempt to misdirect the attention from the real issues that Bishop Olson faces with the ongoing criminal investigation.” 

He called them “anonymously-sourced photos that could have easily been staged and doctored by anyone, and from anywhere.” 

Allegations of abuse of power

Gerlach, 43, has been a nun at Holy Trinity Monastery for 25 years and is currently suffering from serious medical issues that have confined her to a wheelchair, according to her attorney.

The monastery’s civil lawsuit against the diocese accuses the bishop of forcing Gerlach to turn over her computer, iPad, and cell phone, as well as the monastery’s private correspondence, documents, medical records, and donor lists.   

On May 31 the Vatican’s Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life appointed Olson the “pontifical commissary,” making him the pope’s representative in the matter. The following day Olson issued a decree dismissing Gerlach from religious life. 

Bobo, the monastery’s attorney, told CNA that Gerlach plans to appeal the bishop’s decision to dismiss her.

Court documents obtained by CNA show that the monastery is accusing Olson and the diocese of theft, defamation, and “abusing their power, inflicting moral violence and psychological distress” on the nuns.

The civil hearing is set for June 23. 

Though the diocese says that Gerlach admitted to the misconduct and concluded that she is guilty, Bobo said the prioress was under the influence of pain medication related to a surgery when she is alleged to have admitted to the affair and “has not admitted to any grave misconduct.”

Father Leandro NaunHung. / Credit: Youth Praise Sta Clara de Asis/Facebook

ACI Prensa Staff, Jun 8, 2023 / 16:00 pm (CNA).

On June 6, three young men armed with machetes entered the home of the parents of Father Leandro NaunHung in Santiago de Cuba, injuring both elderly adults with machetes.

NaunHung posted on June 7 an update on Facebook on his parents’ health, stating that his mother “only received minor blows” according to a medical examination.

The priest said his father had to undergo emergency surgery at the Saturnino Lora Provincial Hospital after being hit on the head with a machete, which fractured his skull. 

“The blow to the head doesn’t seem to have seriously harmed him, but subsequent developments are under observation,” he reported.

“Thanks to all my friends and people of goodwill who through social media, like the Good Samaritan, have accompanied, prayed, encouraged, and given strength through hundreds of messages full of love and faith,” the priest added.

In a statement to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, NaunHung indicated that the attack against his parents took place at midnight on June 6 at their home located in the Santa Bárbara neighborhood.

According to the priest, that night his mother got up to get a drink of water and found herself in the kitchen in front of three masked youths eating food from the refrigerator. The assailants beat her after a failed attempt to wound her with a machete.

Hearing her cries for help, the woman’s husband immediately went to the kitchen, but the criminals rushed at him and struck him in the head with a machete. After the attack, the perpetrators fled.

Reflecting on the causes of the crime, NaunHun said that the “crisis and hardships that the people are experiencing” in Cuba is what “brings out all the worst in unscrupulous individuals.”

“While many are concerned with helping each other more, the shortages diminish the humanity in the weakest elements of society,” the priest told ACI Prensa June 7.

The archbishop of Santiago de Cuba, Dionisio García, referred to the incident in a June 6 statement.

The prelate encouraged the faithful to pray to God to stop the “escalation of violence” in the country and so that the people living in the cities and homes on the island might have a “decent and safe life.”

“Let us pray that God may give strength to this family and heal the wounded. May the Virgin of Charity cover them with her mantle, heal the injured and comfort them with her motherly love,” he added.

According to the opposition newspaper El Diario de Cuba, the island is currently experiencing an “excessive increase in assaults, robberies, thefts, and murders that Cubans expose through social media.”

The newspaper also criticized that “the official press and the authorities are silent about the problem and only report a small fraction” of the incidents.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

A photograph shows an outside view of the Gemelli hospital in Rome on June 8, 2023, where Pope Francis has been hospitalized following an operation for an abdominal hernia on June 7. / Credit: Photo by ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 8, 2023 / 14:50 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis spent the day after undergoing abdominal surgery resting, Vatican Press Office spokesman Matteo Bruni shared in a statement Thursday at 7:15 p.m. Rome time.

According to Bruni, medical staff caring for the pope shared that he is showing stable respiratory and blood flow parameters and his “postoperative course is regular.” He ate and drank nothing except water.

The pontiff was able to receive the Eucharist in the afternoon, marking the solemnity of Corpus Christi, Bruni said.

The Vatican’s end-of-day statement also said that “among the many messages of closeness” the pope received, “he was struck by the affection of the family of little Miguel Angel,” whom Francis baptized during his visit to the pediatric oncology ward while staying at Gemelli Hospital in March.

The family sent Francis a poster thanking him for blessing Miguel Angel and wishing him a speedy recovery.

“We just want to thank you for blessing our brother and wish from the bottom of our hearts that you get better,” the poster said in Spanish. “We would love to meet you in person and spend an afternoon together and so you could get to know our family better, your family because now you are part of our lives.”

The message concluded by saying: “We love you a lot” and “Get well soon.”

The pope was so moved he wanted to thank Miguel Angel’s mother “personally with a short phone call,” Bruni said.

Francis underwent a three-hour surgery for an incisional hernia on June 7. A team of surgeons operated on a hernia in the pope’s abdominal wall at the site of a previous surgical incision.

Dr. Sergio Alfieri, the director of the hospital’s abdominal surgery department, said at a press conference immediately following the surgery that Francis had been experiencing pain for several months due to the hernia and decided on June 6 to undergo the surgery to correct it.

The 86-year-old pope has been hospitalized three times in the past two years.

He was hospitalized for four days in March for a lung infection and has also dealt this year with a recurrence of diverticulitis, a painful inflammation of bulges in the large intestine following his operation in July 2021.

Bruni told journalists earlier on June 8 that the pope’s routine follow-up examinations were good and that he would continue to rest in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital.

Pope Francis is expected to remain in Gemelli Hospital for several days. The Vatican has canceled all of the pope’s scheduled audiences through June 18.

Pro-life protesters outsider the Belfast High Court as Northern Ireland abortion laws were being challenged in Belfast, U.K., Oct. 3, 2019. / meandering images/Shutterstock

Washington D.C., Jun 8, 2023 / 14:30 pm (CNA).

A Catholic bishop in Northern Ireland condemned new regulations in the country that will require schools to discuss abortion access in the classroom.

Bishop Donal McKeown of the Diocese of Derry, which covers parts of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, told CNA, “I am hugely concerned at this illiberal attack on the right of Catholic schools to offer their own ethos and worldview as they try to help children prepare for mature relationships in a fragmenting world.”

In an interview with BBC Radio McKeown said that promoting abortion in schools amounts to the government’s endorsement of a particular ideology that many might find objectionable. 

“I don’t think you need to impose a duty on schools, that come from a range of different backgrounds, an obligation to provide information as if abortion and that whole area is somehow or other a value-free thing,” McKeown said during the interview.

“This is a new ideology that says: ‘This is the right way to do it, that we must worship on the altar of human rights and everything else must be sacrificed in the service of that.’”

The new regulations were handed down by Northern Ireland Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris. They require that information about abortion access and the legal right to abortion in the country be part of the “relationship and sexuality education” curriculum in post-primary education, which deals with children aged 11 and older.

In a statement, Heaton-Harris said the new regulations mirror the approach taken in England “about the prevention of early pregnancy and access to abortion.” 

The regulations require that post-primary schools “make age-appropriate, comprehensive and scientifically accurate education on sexual and reproductive health and rights, a compulsory component of curriculum for adolescents, covering prevention of early pregnancy and access to abortion in Northern Ireland, and monitor its implementation.”

McKeown said the new rules “impose a particular worldview on the education of children in Northern Ireland” and could cause schools to be penalized if they refuse to adhere to the new abortion education requirements. 

“I am really concerned this seems to be a decision by the secretary of state that will impose a particular way of approaching the issue on all schools,” McKeown said.

Bishop McKeown told CNA that he is primarily concerned with three things.

First, he said Heaton-Harris imposed the rules on all Northern Irish schools “without any consultation with stakeholders and educationalists” despite “45% of children attend[ing] Catholic schools, which remain very popular because of their academic standards and strong community ethos.”

Secondly, he said “this is an ideological imposition in schools which are trying to support the development of children’s maturity, very often in situations where they experience domestic instability, pornography and huge social media pressures.” And thirdly, he said the inclusion of this instruction “is based on the dogmatic secular belief that abortion and contraception are purely ‘health-related’ without any moral context.”

The Department of Education must issue guidance by Jan. 1, 2024, on the content and the delivery of the new regulations, and every Board of Governors and principal of a grant-aided school must adhere to the guidance. It also requires the Department of Education to provide a report on the implementation by Sept. 1, 2026, regarding its implementation.

Heaton-Harris noted in his statement that parents will still have the right to opt their children out of these classes, which he said follows the approach of England and Scotland. 

“I recognize the sensitivity of this topic and that some parents may wish to teach their child about sex education themselves, or make alternative arrangements for sex education to be provided in line with their religious or other beliefs,” his statement read. “In recognition of this, the regulations also place a duty on the Department of Education to introduce a mechanism to ensure that a pupil may be withdrawn from education on sexual and reproductive health and rights, or elements of that education, at the request of a parent.”

Heaton-Harris also said that instruction about abortion should be provided to children “in a factual way that does not advocate, or oppose, a particular view on the moral and ethical considerations of abortion or contraception.”

Northern Ireland expanded access to abortion in 2019. Abortion is legal up to 12 weeks’ gestation without the need to provide a reason. It is legal up to 24 weeks of pregnancy with some conditions but allows women to cite a potential risk to their mental health as a justification in those later stages of pregnancy.

Parental and religious freedom rights advocates, including a group of Muslim parents, on June 6, 2023, protest a Maryland school system policy that removes parents’ authority to opt their children out of homosexual and transgender coursework. / Credit: The Religious Freedom Institute

Washington D.C., Jun 8, 2023 / 09:30 am (CNA).

A group of Muslim parents joined parental and religious freedom rights advocates Tuesday to protest a Maryland school system’s new policy that removes the parents’ authority to opt their children out of coursework that promotes homosexuality and transgenderism.

The June 6 protest at the Montgomery County public school district’s headquarters was led by a group called Family Rights for Religious Freedom. About 50 parents and activists carried signs that read “family rights” and “restore the opt-out” while chanting slogans such as “protect our children” and “religious freedom now.”

Maryland law requires that school districts allow parents to opt out of coursework that deals with “family life and human sexuality.” However, the school district decided in March that it does not consider reading materials that discuss subjects related to homosexuality, transgenderism, and other aspects of gender ideology to be a part of “family life and human sexuality instruction.” 

For this reason, beginning on May 1, the school district no longer notifies parents of such material in the coursework and will not allow them to opt out.

“We don’t want to be put aside as basically irrelevant,” Wael Elkoshairi, who leads Family Rights for Religious Freedom, told CNA.

The school district has approved several books that discuss subjects related to homosexuality and transgenderism for students as young as 3 or 4 years old. This includes a book called “Pride Puppy!”, which seeks to teach children the alphabet through a story about a homosexual pride parade and introduces them to words like “drag queen,” “leather,” and “zipper.” It also introduces them to Marsha B. Johnson, who was a drag queen, a gay rights activist, and, temporarily, a prostitute. 

Elkoshairi told CNA that he had opted his daughter out of this type of coursework in the past, but the current policy will no longer allow him to do that. His daughter is in second grade.

“We were always afforded the right to opt out,” Elkoshairi said.

Elkoshairi emphasized that the rally was not anti-LGBT and that they did not protest the school district for introducing these books. He said their only request is to “allow us to opt out because the state of Maryland has that provision in it.”

“We’re not anti-LGBT, but we are pro-family rights [and] we are pro-religious freedom,” Elkoshairi added.

Family Rights for Religious Freedom began primarily with Muslim parents, but Elkoshairi said a lot of Christian groups have reached out to them and they are growing their coalition membership.

Lindsey Smith, a member of Moms for Liberty Montgomery County, which also took part in the event, told CNA that her organization teamed up with other parents “to rally with parents who are standing up for parental and religious rights to opt out of sexual orientation curriculum being used in English literature classes and social studies in pre-K and up.”

“So far the BOE has stated multiple times that they are standing firm in their decision to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion and not honor their own religious policy giving the rights to the parent to opt out of any sexual orientation teaching,” Smith added. “We will continue to empower parents and stand beside like-minded organizations making known that we do not co-parent with the government but that we are the parents and advocates for our children, not any educational governmental agency.”

Montgomery County is located within the greater Washington, D.C., metropolitan area and is home to the largest public school district in the state of Maryland, with more than 160,000 students enrolled.

Some of the protesters testified about the policy at the school board meeting held at the site.

“Freedom of religion is a fundamental human right that protects the conscience of all people,” a former MCPS student who did not provide her full name testified to the board.

“Religion is not just private worship,” she continued. “It involves public expression on social and moral issues. … The issue of gender and sexuality are influenced by our faith and we should not be caricatured as intolerant and our faith to be subversive because it doesn’t align with your beliefs. Intolerance of the faith community threatens to erode support for religious freedom, therefore eroding the benefits it provides for everyone: religious and nonreligious.”

Becket Law, a legal nonprofit that defends religious liberty, filed a federal lawsuit on May 24 to demand the state Board of Education and the county Board of Education respect the parents’ right to opt out from this coursework, which they argue is required by state law and the First Amendment of the Constitution. 

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Muslim, Catholic, and Orthodox Christian parents. 

“The law already provides the right of parents to opt out,” Eric Baxter, senior counsel for Becket Law, told CNA. 

Baxter said the state law “applies generally to all instruction on family life and human sexuality” and is not limited to only health classes discussing sexual education. 

“All we’re asking is to restore the opt-outs,” he said.

“This is an issue that crosses political lines [and] it crosses religious lines,” Baxter said. 

null / Shutterstock.

Denver, Colo., Jun 8, 2023 / 08:50 am (CNA).

Congress must act to help prevent the exposure of children to online pornography and to combat online exploitation and abuse of children and other vulnerable people, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) said Wednesday.

“Online child exploitation threatens the safety and well-being of our young people and destroys families and communities,” four leading bishops of the USCCB said in a June 7 letter to members of Congress. “The ability of a child to grow into adulthood in peace and security is both a human right and a demand of the common good: The dignity of the human person requires protections for our young people so that they may flourish as they mature.”

Signers of the letter were Bishop James V. Johnston Jr. of Kansas City-St. Joseph, who chairs the USCCB’s Committee on Protection of Children and Young People; Archbishop Borys Gudziak of the Ukrainian Archeparchy of Philadelphia, who chairs the bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development; Auxiliary Bishop Robert P. Reed of Boston, who chairs the Committee on Communications; and Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, chair of the bishops’ Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth.

The bishops’ letter alluded to Catholic failures to protect children from sexual abuse by clergy in the U.S., failures that have only been brought to light in the last two decades.

“As pastors, we have seen the destructive effects of the reprehensible offenses of child exploitation firsthand,” they said. “And as leaders of an institution that, for many years, failed to meet its responsibility to protect all children, we know all too well the consequences of a culture that fails to give adequate attention to the problem of child sexual exploitation.”

The bishops voiced concern that research indicates social media use can negatively affect young people’s mental health. They stressed the need for young people to have the opportunity to “mature to adulthood in safety and security” and to avoid pornography.

“Being exposed to pornography can be traumatic for children and youth,” the bishops said. “Seeing it steals their innocence and gives them a distorted image of sexuality, relationships, and men and women, which may then affect their behavior, including addiction to pornography. Because children lack mature understanding of appropriate behavior, pornography makes them more susceptible to victimization by sexual abuse and maltreatment.”

A majority of young people have viewed pornography, accidentally or intentionally, by the age of 13.

The bishops did not comment on any particular legislation. However, the REPORT Act passed the Senate Judicial Committee on June 1. The legislation would require websites and social media platforms to report crimes that violate federal trafficking and enticement of children laws. It would increase fines for companies that knowingly and wilfully fail to report child sexual abuse material (CSAM), according to a June 1 statement from the office of U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Georgia.

The bishops’ letter called for safeguards to ensure that pornography “causes minimum harm.” Such safeguards include prosecution of those who coerce others to produce pornographic materials and giving victims the power to remove unlawfully created pornography from internet platforms.

The bishops lamented that children and young people are coerced into the production of pornography, which is “illegal, abusive, and a form of human trafficking because of a child’s inability to consent.”

Despite parents’ efforts, the bishops said, the internet can be a dangerous place for children. 

There is an “immediate need for effective safeguards” to prevent children from accessing inappropriate content. Legislation should help parents protect their children online and ensure they have “the tools necessary to monitor their children’s online activity.”

The bishops’ letter noted the dangers of abuse, extortion, and blackmail online. This includes the coercion of sexual favors or money accompanied by threats to release sexual images or money.

“Legislation should ensure that social media platforms do not permit abuse by predators or undermine the rights of parents to protect their children from harm,” they said.

Researchers have sought to determine whether and to what extent popular social media sites help spread illegal pornography and CSAM.

Instagram, owned by Facebook’s parent company Meta, has many user accounts that seek to purchase sexual content depicting underage persons. Investigators and researchers with the Wall Street Journal, Stanford University, and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst analyzed these accounts and how Instagram treats them.

They found sexually explicit hashtags and pornographic accounts purporting to be run by children or minors themselves. Some Instagram accounts appear to allow other users to commission custom works of illegal pornography or to meet children in person. The social media platform algorithm appears to promote the accounts through recommendation systems that identify shared interests among users, researchers and investigators found.

“Child exploitation is a horrific crime,” the company said, according to the Wall Street Journal. “We’re continuously investigating ways to actively defend against this behavior.”

Promoting underage sexual content violates both Meta policy and federal law. Meta said it has an internal task force dedicated to policing this content. In the past two years, it said, it has removed 27 networks for distributors of pedophilic material and has blocked thousands of hashtags that sexualize children. The company is also seeking to prevent algorithms and recommendation systems from helping to connect adults with possible interests in CSAM.

Alex Stamos, who was chief security officer at Meta through 2018 and is now head of the Stanford Internet Observatory, told the Wall Street Journal that a sustained effort is needed to combat the material.

“That a team of three academics with limited access could find such a huge network should set off alarms at Meta,” he said, voicing hope that the company reinvests in human investigators.

Other researchers at the Stanford Internet Observatory, based on their analysis of 100,000 Twitter posts from March to May, have reported that the social media platform appears to have failed to block dozens of known images of child pornography, despite the availability of screening software, databases, and other best practices to combat CSAM.

A large statue of St. John Paul II at the entrance of Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, where Pope Francis is recovering from surgery he underwent on June 7, 2023. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA

Rome Newsroom, Jun 8, 2023 / 08:20 am (CNA).

Pope Francis is recovering from abdominal surgery this week in the same hospital room where St. John Paul II was treated throughout his pontificate.

The Vatican said on June 8 that Francis is “in good general condition, alert and breathing naturally” one day after his three-hour surgery to treat an incisional hernia.

Pope Francis is expected to remain for several days in Gemelli University Hospital, located atop Monte Mario, the highest hill in Rome. The Vatican has canceled all of the pope’s scheduled audiences through June 18.

The pope’s hospital room is situated on the 10th floor of the sprawling polyclinic in a wing reserved for papal medical emergencies.

It is the same room where John Paul II stayed during many of his hospital treatments, including for a colon surgery in 1992 and his hospitalization after being shot in an assassination attempt in 1981.

St. John Paul II was admitted to the hospital so many times during his more than 25-year pontificate that he once referred to Gemelli as the “third Vatican” after Vatican City and Castel Gandolfo, the popes’ summer residence.

Family members and patients who come to the hospital’s chapel in search of consolation can now pray before a relic of St. John Paul II, located on the chapel’s right wall.

Pope Francis has been treated at the Gemelli Hospital three times in the past two years. The 86-year-old pope was hospitalized for four days in March for a lung infection and has also dealt this year with a recurrence of diverticulitis, a painful inflammation of bulges in the large intestine following his colon surgery in July 2021.

Religious leaders around the world have expressed their well-wishes and prayers for Pope Francis as he recovers in hospital.

Archbishop Timothy Broglio, the president of the U.S. bishops’ conference, asked Catholics to continue to pray for the pope’s healing.

“As Pope Francis recovers from surgery, he is strengthened by faith in the healing power of our merciful God,” he said.

“Please keep Pope Francis and all those in the hospital in your prayers today and every day. Jesus always walks with us and is even closer whenever we need healing and comfort.”

Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Sacramento, California. / Credit: Randy Miramontez/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 8, 2023 / 07:50 am (CNA).

Officials in Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration confirmed Tuesday that they were responsible for sending 16 migrants from the southern border to the Diocese of Sacramento’s Catholic Charities headquarters in California.

The South American migrants were flown to California from the Texas border and dropped off at the Catholic Charities headquarters last Friday, June 2. 

The Florida officials also claimed responsibility for a second plane carrying 20 migrants that arrived in Sacramento a few days later. 

The Florida Division of Emergency Management said in a statement to Fox News that the migrants’ travels to California were “voluntary.”

According to the statement, the migrants were sent to the California Catholic Charities to receive care because it is a federally funded charity in a sanctuary city.

“From left-leaning mayors in El Paso, Texas, and Denver, Colorado, the relocation of those illegally crossing the United States border is not new. But suddenly, when Florida sends illegal aliens to a sanctuary city, it’s false imprisonment and kidnapping,” the spokesperson told Fox. 

The relocation of these migrants to California caused a significant uproar.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced his administration would be opening a kidnapping investigation of those responsible.

In response to the Florida officials’ admission, Newsom told Politico that “all this does is reinforce the cruelty of this act and the manipulative nature of the act and the stunt that this is — the shameful nature of it.” 

“We are very serious about pursuing action if the facts dictate it. And Mr. DeSantis should know that,” Newsom said.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta issued a statement Saturday saying: “While we continue to collect evidence, I want to say this very clearly: State-sanctioned kidnapping is not a public policy choice, it is immoral and disgusting.”

Katie Valenzuela, a Sacramento city councilmember, called the migrants’ relocation a “monstrous act of cruelty.” 

This comes as border states like Texas have faced record surges of illegal migrants under the Biden administration, with more than 2.76 million crossing last year alone.

Border residents have expressed concern and even dismay to CNA that the situation in border communities is becoming untenable.

“It’s going to impact the city greatly, and also those coming over,” one El Paso resident named Rosario Reynolds told CNA in May. “I don’t think the city is prepared to receive them. Yes, there are shelters in place, there are different federal, local, and state help in place, but it’s not enough.”

According to a separate Tuesday statement from DeSantis’ office, Florida officials have made contact with over 5,800 undocumented migrants while assisting Texas officials at the southern border. 

DeSantis is one of several Republican governors who have sent aid in the form of resources and law enforcement officials to the Texas border in response to a May call for assistance from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

In his letter to governors, Abbott said: “The flood of illegal border activity invited by the Biden administration flows directly across the southern border into Texas communities, but this crisis does not stop in our state. Emboldened Mexican drug cartels and other transnational criminal enterprises profit off this chaos, smuggling people and dangerous drugs like fentanyl into communities nationwide.”

Pope Francis at his general audience in St Peter’s Square on May 31, 2023. / Adi Zace/EWTN

Rome Newsroom, Jun 8, 2023 / 05:25 am (CNA).

One day after Pope Francis’ abdominal surgery for an incisional hernia, medical staff report that the pope is “in good general condition, alert and breathing naturally,” according to the Vatican.

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni told journalists on June 8 that the pope’s routine follow-up examinations were good and that he will continue to rest in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital.

“The medical staff following the pontiff’s post-operative course informs us that Pope Francis had a peaceful night, managing to rest extensively,” Bruni said.

“The pope is informed of the messages of closeness and affection that have come in the last few hours and expresses his gratitude while asking for continued prayers,” he added.

In a surgery lasting three hours on June 7, a team of surgeons operated on a hernia in the pope’s abdominal wall at the site of a previous surgical incision.

Dr. Sergio Alfieri, the director of the hospital’s abdominal surgery department, said at a press conference immediately following the surgery that the hernia may have come about following past operations Francis underwent in Argentina, including for peritonitis, a redness or swelling of the lining of the abdomen often caused by appendicitis.

He said that Francis had been experiencing pain for several months due to an incisional hernia and decided on June 6 to undergo the surgery to correct it.

The 86-year-old pope has been hospitalized three times in the past two years. He was hospitalized for four days in March for a lung infection and has also dealt this year with a recurrence of diverticulitis, a painful inflammation of bulges in the large intestine following his operation in July 2021.

The surgeon said that Pope Francis, upon waking from the operation, was already cracking jokes and had asked him when the next surgery would be.

Alfieri underlined that the conditions treated by the operation on June 7 and the prior surgery of July 2021 were both benign and have been resolved.

“The pope does not have other illnesses,” he said.

Religious leaders around the world have expressed their well-wishes and prayers for Pope Francis as he recovers in hospital.

Archbishop Timothy Broglio, the president of the U.S. bishops’ conference, asked Catholics to continue to pray for the pope’s healing.

“As Pope Francis recovers from surgery, he is strengthened by faith in the healing power of our merciful God,” he said.

“Please keep Pope Francis and all those in the hospital in your prayers today and every day. Jesus always walks with us and is even closer whenever we need healing and comfort.”

Interior of the Church of Santa Anita in Mexico after the gang confrontation. / Credit: Facebook of Father Enrique Urzúa

ACI Prensa Staff, Jun 7, 2023 / 16:00 pm (CNA).

A priest rescued three abandoned children in a Mexican town following a confrontation between crime gangs that left one dead and a Catholic church riddled with bullets.

The church in the small settlement of Santa Anita (population 84) in the Diocese of Tarahumara in Chihuahua state was the scene of the confrontation between the rival gangs. The settlement is located fewer than 125 miles south of Cerocahui, also in Chihuahua, where almost a year ago two Jesuit priests were murdered inside a Catholic church.

According to the Chihuahua state attorney general’s office, at the scene more than 700 bullet casings, a grenade, 19 cartridges, and a Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck, “completely charred,” were found.

The attorney general’s office also said that “on the outskirts of the community’s church, a lifeless body of an unidentified male, approximately 35 years old, was located.”

The man, who was wearing green military-style clothing, had been decapitated.

Santa Anita is located just nine miles from the city of Guachochi, where the Diocese of Tarahumara is headquartered.

Father Enrique Urzúa, pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe cathedral in Guachochi, arrived in Santa Anita on June 6. In a statement to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, he shared that what he found was “a heartbreaking situation.”

“They completely blasted the [church]” as well as the small room that served to welcome the missionaries who came to evangelize the town.

However, the human drama was even more overwhelming. “I came across three children who are without their parents and who were there, abandoned,” the priest said.

The youngest of the minors he rescued was just 1 year old, while the other two were 9 and 11.

He said he found them without food and took them to the parish “to provide them with food and see what to do” in order to help them.

The Mexican priest said that the criminals “directly blasted the church, because there are too many bullets inside and out” to just be stray shots.

“I don’t think that an armed gang can have something against us, against the Church. I don’t want to think that, but this is the fact,” he said.

After noting that June 21 will mark one year since the murder of the Jesuit priests Javier Campos Morales and Joaquín César Mora Salazar, Urzúa lamented that in the Diocese of Tarahumara in Chihuahua they are “in an area where criminal presence is permanent.”

“It’s sad what we are experiencing, where we are living. It is not something passing, it’s something permanent,” he said.

Mexico is experiencing the most violent period in its modern history, and the homicide figures for the current six-year term of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador have surpassed those of his predecessors, totaling more than 156,136 as of May 31.

López Obrador acknowledged the historic record in his morning press conference on June 1 but attributed it to “a poor security legacy” from previous governments.

Through April in the state of Chihuahua, 567 first-degree murders were recorded.

From Jan. 1 to June 5 of this year, 11,475 homicides have been recorded throughout Mexico.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.