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☆ Vatican Tells Catholics How to Make ‘Faith-Consistent’ Investments
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( Francis X. Rocca | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Pope Francis has made protection of the environment and economic justice signature causes of his pontificate. ROME—The Vatican called on Catholic institutions and believers around the world to avoid investing their money in companies that produce fossil fuels, violent videogames and drugs that induce abortion, among other products. The Vatican’s first-ever guidelines on “faith-consistent investing,” released on Friday, are the highest-level effort so far to direct investments in accordance with Catholic teaching. They call for “proactive positive investing” in industries such as renewable energy and microfinance.

☆ Pope Francis Compares Russia’s War Against Ukraine to Genocide
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Francis X. Rocca | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Pope Francis mentioned Ukraine’s plight in the same breath as its ordeal under Soviet dictator Stalin. ROME—Pope Francis on Wednesday issued his strongest condemnation to date of Russia’s war against Ukraine, linking it to Joseph Stalin ‘s 1930s terror famine, which the pontiff described as genocide. The statement marked a dramatic intensification of the pope’s language on the topic. He has frequently deplored the suffering of ordinary Ukrainians since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February, but he has tended to avoid explicitly blaming Russia or President Vladimir Putin, and has more than once suggested that the aggression was provoked by the West.

☆ Catholic Bishop in Albany, N.Y., Makes Unusual Request to Be Defrocked
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( Francis X. Rocca | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Bishop Howard Hubbard, shown in a 2003 photo, has asked the Vatican for permission to leave the priesthood following accusations of sexual misconduct, which he has denied . The retired Catholic bishop of Albany, N.Y. has taken the extraordinary step of asking Pope Francis to remove him from the priesthood, saying he is unable to minister as a clergyman because of sex-abuse allegations that he denies. Bishop Howard Hubbard , 84, said in a statement on Friday that he had “asked the Vatican for relief from my obligations as a priest and permission to return to the lay state.”

☆ German Catholic Bishops Face Vatican Critics, Refuse to Stop Questioning Church Teachings
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-19 | by ( Francis X. Rocca | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

VATICAN CITY—Germany’s Catholic bishops vowed to continue their national debate about changes to church teachings on controversial topics, including homosexuality and the ordination of women, defying a Vatican call to halt their discussions. The bishops met on Friday with several of the Vatican’s highest officials, who expressed their “worries and reservations” about a process that could throw into question “nonnegotiable” elements of church teaching, according to a joint statement issued by the Vatican and the German Bishops’ Conference,

☆ Italian Catholic Bishops Release First Report on Sex Abuse
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Francis X. Rocca | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

‘No coverup, no resistance from the bishops,’ Cardinal Matteo Zuppi of Bologna has pledged in regard to clerical sex abuse. ROME—Italy’s Catholic bishops released their first national study of sex abuse in the church on Thursday, a limited and belated move in the reckoning over abuse by comparison with church efforts in other countries including the U.S., Germany and France. The Italian report, based on allegations received by church counseling centers and other agencies, cited 89 victims of abuse by 68 church personnel reported in the years 2020 and 2021.

☆ U.S. Catholic Bishops Choose New Leadership at Conference
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Francis X. Rocca | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on Tuesday chose two conservatives to serve as national president and vice president, a move that signals strong support among the nation’s top bishops for a policy platform centered on opposition to abortion. Archbishop Timothy Broglio, a former Vatican diplomat who oversees ministry to Catholics in the U.S. Armed Forces, was elected president with 138 out of 237 votes at the fall meeting of the bishops in Baltimore. He succeeds Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles. Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore was elected vice president by 143 votes out of 239.

☆ Abortion Politics Loom Over U.S. Catholic Bishops’ Vote
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-13 | by ( Francis X. Rocca | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

The internal politics of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops were dominated last year by debate over whether to deny Communion to politicians who backed abortion rights. U.S. Catholic bishops will choose a national president this week in elections that will help shape their public policy agenda and hence their relations with Washington—and the Vatican—over the next three years. The outcome is likely to signal that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which is holding its annual fall assembly Nov. 14-17 in Baltimore, will continue to give priority to opposition to abortion over other issues on which it is active, including poverty and migration, rather than take its cues from Pope Francis . The pope has spoken out strongly against abortion yet given greater emphasis to other issues, including social and economic justice and the environment, and he has taken a more conciliatory approach than the USCCB leadership to President Biden, a practicing Catholic who supports abortion rights.

A French cardinal said on Monday that he had abused a 14-year-old girl in the 1980s, making him the first Catholic churchman of his rank to admit to personally abusing a minor. Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, a former archbishop of Bordeaux and former president of the French Bishops Conference, said in a statement that he had “behaved in a reprehensible manner with a 14-year-old girl” 35 years earlier when he was serving as a priest.

☆ New Mexico House race wrangles oil and gas, climate change
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Andrew Hay | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Polls show issues like climate change and abortion are important but the economy may be the driving factor in a state that is one of the poorest in the country and also a top global oil producer. First-term Republican incumbent Yvette Herrell is known as a defender of the Permian Basin oil and gas sector, a region she represents. RIO GRANDE RUNS DRYSome voters in West Side and South Valley Albuquerque areas believe fossil-fuel-driven climate change is harming their quality of life and the livelihoods of farmers. Vasquez has been hit with attack ads saying his policies will cost the state tens of thousands of oil and gas jobs. Herrell, a target of the League of Conservation Voters and other green groups, said New Mexico's emission controls meant the state's oil and gas industry was far cleaner than foreign competitors and did not contribute to climate change.

The Vatican values its agreement with Beijing partly because it recognizes Pope Francis as head of the Catholic Church in China. The Vatican and Beijing have renewed an agreement on the appointment of bishops that Rome views as a necessary compromise to keep Chinese Catholics united, but that critics view as acquiescence to the Chinese government’s growing control of religion. The Holy See Press Office announced on Saturday that the two parties had extended the agreement, first signed in 2018 and renewed in 2020, for another two years.

☆ In 10 Years, Pope Francis Has Disrupted the Catholic Church
▼ + stars: | 2013-03-13 | by ( Francis X. Rocca | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican earlier this month. ROME— Pope Francis ’ reign promised from its first moments a decade ago to be distinctive. When Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio became the new pope on March 13, 2013, he appeared on a loggia on the front of St. Peter’s Basilica without the red cape that was traditional for the occasion, then broke with custom further by bowing his head to the crowd in the square below, asking them to bless him.

☆ NBC Buys Local Video Maker LX.TV
▼ + stars: | 2008-01-28 | by ( Michael Learmonth | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

NBC's is acquiring LX.TV, a producer of local entertainment programming for TV and the web. NBC U says LX.TV will form the basis of a new unit called NBC Local Media that will produce cultural and lifestyle programming for local TV stations and web sites around the country. LX.TV started out as Code Networks, an indie producer of broadband content for wealthy urbanites. A local real estate show, OpenHouseNYC began airing on New York's WNBC in January 2007. Varet and Hertzan will remain with the company and report to Phyllis Schwartz, EVP, news, promotion and original content for NBC Local Media.

Persons: LX.TV, MTV execs Joseph Varet, Morgan Hertzan, Mo Rocca, Tim, Nina Zagat, OpenHouseNYC, Phyllis Schwartz Organizations: NBC, NBC Local Media, Networks, MTV, Viacom, WNBC, TitanTV Locations: New York, Los Angeles

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