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Westminster archbishop congratulates new Prime Minster Andy Burnham (CBCEW)

Archbishop Richard Moth, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, extended congratulations to the United Kingdom’s new prime minister, Andy Burnham.

“We are living in challenging times,” said Archbishop Moth. “As Christians we have a duty to be bridgebuilders and peacemakers. Where there are tensions, hostility and injustice, we are called to respond with real concern and respect for the dignity of the person, for the needs of families, the marginalized, and the vulnerable.”

“I look forward to working with the new Prime Minister to build on our long record of constructive partnership with the UK Government, and to further our shared endeavor to serve the common good,” the prelate added.

Burnham, a Catholic born in 1970, attended Catholic primary and secondary schools. In 2015, Burnham called upon the Church to support same-sex marriage and described Pope Francis as “the right man to seize this moment” and “bring the Church into the 21st century.”

Vatican newspaper laments death of 33 stranded Sudanese refugees (L'Osservatore Romano (Italian))

In a prominent front-page article in its July 20 edition, the Vatican newspaper lamented the death of 33 Sudanese refugees in the desert.

As the refugees fled their nation’s civil war, their bus broke down in a remote desert area, and they died of thirst.

“The deaths of the 33 passengers in the desert represent more than just a humanitarian tragedy,” Francesco Citterich wrote in his L’Osservatore Romano article. “A bus stranded in the middle of nowhere, unnoticed for weeks, has become the symbol of a crisis that continues to unfold day after day, far from the international spotlight, while defenseless civilians continue to pay the ultimate price.”

Reject constitutional convention proposal, Michigan Catholic Conference urges (Detroit Catholic)

The Michigan Catholic Conference, which represents the state’s bishops, called on voters to reject a ballot proposal that would convene a state constitutional convention.

“With the nationalization of state-based politics becoming more the norm than the exception, a constitutional convention would likely open Michigan’s governing document to extraordinary out-of-state influence and engagement,” said Paul Long, the conference’s president.

With the unanimous approval of the state’s bishops and other conference board members, the conference joined the Protect MI Constitution coalition, whose varied members include the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan and Citizens for Traditional Values.

Archbishop Gallagher meets with Ukraine's President Zelensky, who hopes for papal visit (President of Ukraine)

Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations, met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on July 20, a day after Russian missiles and drones struck the Kyiv neighborhood where the prelate was spending the night.

President Zelensky thanked the Vatican for its support for the Ukrainian people and “expressed his special gratitude to the Vatican for its assistance in returning Ukrainian children abducted by Russia,” according to a statement from the president’s office. Archbishop Gallagher, in turn, “reaffirmed the Vatican’s support for Ukraine’s path toward membership in the European Union” and thanked the president for allowing Catholics to use a church that had been confiscated by the Soviet Union.

President Zelensky added that a papal visit to Ukraine “could be a truly historic moment—above all, a moment of support.”

As his visit to Ukraine drew to a close, Archbishop Gallagher also met with acting Foreign Minister Andrij Sybiha and visited the Maidan Museum.

Premonstratensian Rite Mass celebrated in ruins of English abbey (Catholic Herald)

A Norbertine priest celebrated a traditional Premonstratensian Rite Mass at the ruins of Bayham Old Abbey on July 11.

“Celebrating the Holy Mass in the ruined sanctuary of Bayham was a reminder that out of the ruins of past tribulations, God continues to raise up new growth in the Church for His glory and for our salvation,” said Father Stephen Morrison, O.Praem.

It was only the second Mass celebrated at the abbey since its suppression in the sixteenth century.

Pontiff to present alma mater's 1st Pope Leo XIV Sustainability Medal (Villanova University)

Villanova University announced the establishment of the Pope Leo XIV Sustainability Medal, which will honor individuals “whose leadership has advanced sustainability, ecological responsibility, and integral human development.”

Pope Leo, a Villanova alumnus, will present the first medal during a conference in Castel Gandolfo in October.

Bishop Barres, religious sisters sue New York over assisted suicide mandates (EWTN News)

Bishop John Barres of Rockville Centre, New York, and four women’s religious institutes filed suit against the State of New York’s Medical Aid in Dying Act.

“Beginning August 5, medical providers caring for terminally ill New Yorkers will have to proactively inform and counsel their patients about their ‘option’ to kill themselves,” the plaintiffs argued in their lawsuit. “This ‘Suicide Counseling Mandate’ is far broader than anything required by states like California, Oregon, and Washington.”

The plaintiffs stated that the new law also created a Suicide Qualification Mandate, Suicide Drug Prescription and Ingestion Mandate, Suicide Referral Mandate, False Death Certificate Mandate, and Unfaithful Employee Retention Mandate.

“We will never submit to New York’s culture of death,” Bishop Barres said in a statement. “Assisted suicide is a grave moral failure that puts the elderly, the disabled, and those suffering from mental and emotional illness at risk of abuse and manipulation. Christ the Divine Physician calls us to accompany the sick and dying with compassion, not abandon them to death. The court should protect that millennia-old mission.”

The Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, Missionary Sisters of St. Benedict, and Little Sisters of the Poor joined in the lawsuit, as did the Catholic Health System of Long Island.

'Man and Nature: Fragile Balances' on display in Pontifical Gardens (Vatican News)

A photography exhibition, “Man and Nature: Fragile Balances” (image), is on display at Borgo Laudato Si’ in the Pontifical Gardens at Castel Gandolfo.

The exhibition features the prizewinning photographs of the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation Environmental Photography Award.

Australia's Bishop Saunders on trial for 26 counts of abuse (CWN)

A retired Australian bishop is on trial for 26 counts of sexual abuse allegedly committed against three young males between 2008 and 2017.

Dalit man given burial in Catholic cemetery after civil authorities intervene (News Today (Chennai))

A Dalit man was buried in a Catholic cemetery in a village in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu (map) after civil authorities intervened.

News Today, a newspaper based in Chennai, reported that the cemetery “had long been treated as an exclusive preserve by members of a dominant caste, with no Dalit Christian previously allowed burial there. Despite the cemetery being designated for all Catholics, the Church hierarchy had failed to enforce equal access, prompting Dalit residents to seek legal intervention.”