Feast date: Jun 08

St. Medard was born around 456 in Salency, France. His father Nectard was a noble Frenchman, and his mother, Protogia, descended from a Roman family that settled in Gaul.

He was ordained at the age of 33, and did not wish to be made a bishop, but reluctantly became the Bishop of Vermand in 530. Medardus was one of the most honoured bishops of his time, his memory has always been venerated in northern France, and he soon became the hero of numerous legends.

Each year on his memorial the Rosiere is awarded to the young girl who has been judged the most virtuous and exemplary in the region of Salency, France; she is escorted by 12 boys and 12 girls to the church, where she is crowned with roses and given a gift of money. This is a continuation of a yearly stipend or “scholarship” he apparently instituted when bishop. His younger sister was the first to be crowned the Rosiere.

Legend says that when he was a child, Medard was once sheltered from the rain by a hovering eagle. This is his most common depiction in art, and it led to his patronage of good weather, against bad weather, for people who work the fields, etc. Legend has it that if it rains on his feast day, the next 40 days will be wet; if the weather is good, the next 40 will be fine as well. He was also often depicted as laughing aloud with his mouth wide open; this led to his patronage against toothache.

“10% to 15% of the [Planned Parenthood national staff’s] 725 to 750 employees — possibly around 100 — face layoffs,” the Associated Press reported.

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Ukraine is in violation of the European Convention of Human Rights, a human rights treaty drafted in 1950, because Ukraine does not offer legal recognition of homosexual unions.

The judges cited an anti-discrimination provision of the convention.

The Ukrainian constitution defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is a proponent of legislation that would legalize same-sex civil unions.

Following 60 hearings over a two-year period, the trial will resume in July, when the prosecution will present its case. Defense attorneys are scheduled to present their case in October.

The Philippine bishops’ Episcopal Commission for Indigenous Populations has issued a statement in support of the land rights of the Ati people, who live on Boracay and other islands.

“Land disputes have emerged in recent years over the property titles assigned by the government to the Ati of Boracay in 2018: this ownership is disputed by public and private actors who would like to take away the land where they reside,” the Fides news agency reported.

“We have much to celebrate,” Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington (VA), the US bishops’ pro-life chairman, said in a message for the upcoming anniversary of the Dobbs v. Jackson decision. “By the grace of God, the nearly fifty-year reign of national abortion on demand has been put to an end. Roe v. Wade—a seemingly insurmountable blight on our nation—is no more!”

“Over the past year, while some states have acted to protect preborn children, others have tragically moved to enshrine abortion in law—enacting extreme abortion policies that leave children vulnerable to abortion, even until the moment of birth,” he continued. “The work that lies ahead continues to be not just changing laws but also helping to change hearts, with steadfast faith in the power of God to do so.”

“As Pope Francis recovers from surgery, he is strengthened by faith in the healing power of our merciful God,” said Archbishop Timothy Broglio, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. “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.”

Salesian missionaries who run a parish and two vocational schools in Sudan have decided to remain close to the people to whom they minister despite the violent conflict that began there in April.

The apostolic nuncio has bemoaned “horror scences” in the conflict, and Pope Francis has urged the warring sides to lay down arms.

On June 2, the Society of Jesus opened the Teilhard de Chardin Center in a Parisian suburb dubbed the “French Silicon Valley.”

The center, which includes a chapel, is intended to be a place of dialogue between reason and faith, the Vatican newspaper reported.

The center is named after the French philosopher and paleontologist Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ (1881-1955). In 1962, during the pontificate of Pope St. John XXIII, the Holy Office issued a monitum (warning) with regard to his works. In 2017, the Pontifical Council for Culture, then led by Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, asked Pope Francis to rescind the monitum.

In 2018, Dr. John Slattery, now Director of the Grefenstette Center for Ethics in Science, Technology, and Law at Duquesne University, wrote that Teilhard’s “legacy of eugenics and racism can’t be ignored.” Professor John Haught of Georgetown University responded with an article, “Trashing Teilhard”—to which Dr. Slattery responded with “Teilhard and Eugenics.”

During his June 7 general audience, Pope Francis placed a white rose near the relics of St. Thérèse of Lisieux and announced that he would write an apostolic letter this year for the 150th anniversary of the birth of the saint, popularly known as the Little Flower.

The saint’s reliquary has traveled to more than 80 countries since 1997. The Vatican newspaper reported that the presence of reliquary at the Vatican was the saint’s first “visit” there since 1887, when she asked Pope Leo XIII to allow her to enter the Carmelite order at the age of 15.

Relics of the saint’s parents, Saints Louis and Zélie Martin, were also present at the audience.