The head of the Russian Orthodox Church argued in a new book that the Russian people have a “great responsibility not to shirk their historical duty to be victors.”

Lamenting “banal preaching, completely irrelevant, which does not meet the deep desires of man,” Cardinal Robert Sarah said in a wide-ranging interview that “man, even contemporary man, absolutely needs God, to hear about the Gospel, about eternal life, about spirituality.”

“It is never licit to reduce the Gospel to social and horizontal themes, however relevant, because it is a failure in the very will of Christ, who sent us to preach eternal salvation, and not social redemption,” Cardinal Sarah said. He added:

• “I think there can be a reciprocity between Africa and Europe: Africa with its contribution of young, fresh, enthusiastic faith, wide open to martyrdom, and Europe with its two-thousand-year-old strength of holiness and doctrine.”
• “I think that Europe is terribly afraid to recognize that anti-Christian persecution is taking place, and often, more generally, anti-religious persecution. But persecution is crueler in Europe. Faith is marginalized, moral and Christian values are fought. The West has killed God, or rather, despised him, or rather fought him openly.”
• “Pope Leo, in this first year of pontificate, has shown great balance, a great ability to listen, a concrete desire to mend those tensions that had been created.”
• “It is a tragedy, indeed a real shame, that on an essential issue like the liturgy there is a kind of war ... Rituals cannot be arbitrarily abolished, and no one can say that a rite no longer exists, from one day to the next. I think that the theme must be taken into serious consideration, recovering the balanced, pastoral, and theologically founded position of Benedict XVI, who allowed both forms of the Latin rite to live, to influence each other, to be known by the holy people of God who, over the decades, will be able to choose which form corresponds most to their need for faith, silence, spirituality.”
• “The faithful have the sacrosanct right to participate in Holy Masses celebrated as the Church wants, and not according to the arbitrariness or whim of the individual priest.”

“Because during the month of August the parish has no activity, the parish priest had withdrawn all the consecrated hosts prior to the attack,” the Spanish Catholic newspaper El Debate reported in its article on the desecration of the Church of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. The assailants “stole all the money, tools, and paint that were kept inside the church.”

The church suffered several recent acts of vandalism, including “stones thrown at the architecture, continuous kicks at the entrances and even strong insults” that interrupted Masses. At the beginning of the year, excrement was smeared on bathroom walls and ceilings.

“Biopolitics is key in the current world power structure,” Archbishop Luis Argüello of Valladolid said in a social media post. “Life is played with, and people—their dreams, hunger, sexuality, and data—are used in favor of profit and power.

“Migrations are part of this strategy,” he added. “The Ceuta invasion is a test. Demography is a weapon.”

Referring to the regulations (the interim final rule with comment, or IFC), general counsel William Quinn and the other signatories wrote:

We are troubled by the extent to which certain portions of the IFC are contrary to the statute, and by the significantly increased administrative burden the IFC will impose on providers. But most of all, we are profoundly concerned that requirements of the IFC will result in coverage loss for eligible individuals who rely on Medicaid to address their health care needs and to achieve their highest possible degree of self-sufficiency.

The signatories discussed their concerns in a 13-page letter to Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The letter, dated July 31, was posted on the USCCB website this week.

The Vatican newspaper reported:

Gregory insists that the greatest achievement is not measured in bricks, concrete, or impressive statistics; as he states, “buildings are merely the visible result,” whereas the true mission “is to build up people, bring hope, strengthen faith, and remind those on the margins that they are not forgotten.”

Andrea Monda, editor-in-chief of L’Osservatore Romano, wrote that the film director “has taken on an immense challenge and has succeeded in handling Homer’s masterpiece, even while reshaping it.”

“Fatalism and freedom, superstition and reason, conscience, psychology, power and diplomacy—all these themes are woven into Nolan’s three-hour film, which takes on Homer’s monumental epic with confidence, fully aware that a story like this will always remain compelling and deeply moving,” added Monda, who taught at a classical high school before becoming the newspaper’s editor-in-chief.

The series, whose theme is “Exercises in Empathy,” is scheduled to begin on August 27 at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The triennial will conclude in February 2028.

“The concept of empathy offers the First Contemporary Art Triennial of Catholic Universities a fruitful opportunity to bring aesthetics and ethics into dialogue while also inviting every field of knowledge into interdisciplinary conversation,” said Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, the dicastery’s prefect. “It draws us closer to one another through the demanding, patient, yet deeply rewarding practice of mutual recognition.”

The chief curator of the series is Nuno Crespo, dean of the School of the Arts at the Catholic University of Portugal.

“We discussed topics such as Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, in which he asserts that the development of artificial intelligence must be guided by ethical criteria, human dignity, justice, and shared responsibility, with the aim that its benefits contribute to the well-being of peoples,” President Sheinbaum said following her meeting with Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

“The Pope’s calls for peace, fraternity, and closeness to the most vulnerable represent a humanitarian vision, indispensable at a time when the world needs to strengthen dialogue, solidarity, and cooperation among nations,” President Sheinbaum added.

On higher denominations, the Pope’s portrait appears for the first time since 2014. On lower denominations, the papal coat of arms appears, as was customary under Pope Francis.

In this Year of Saint Francis, the €5 bimetallic coin also portrays the saint’s spoliation.