Christ the Redeemer. Photo: ACN Catholic charity announces €5M donation to help Lebanon and Syria’s Christians
l The Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need has announced that it is donating €5 million to help Christian communities in Lebanon and Syria.
The funds will help establish a project to support young newlywed couples in Syria, who are starting families after 10 years of war in the Middle Eastern country.
Regina Lynch, a project manager for the charity, stated that there were many young people who weren’t getting married because “they can’t afford to set up home together”.
Other projects in Syria funded by the relief package include a meal program for the elderly, fuel for central heating in a students’ residence, medical supplies, and academic scholarships.
Church in Italy holds day of prayer for abuse victims
The Church in Italy held its first national day of prayer for victims and survivors of sexual abuse last week.
Archbishop Lorenzo Ghizzoni of Ravenna-Cervia, president of the Italian bishops’ commission for the protection of minors, said that the day was an invitation “to prayer, to support the paths of human and spiritual recovery of victims and survivors, by whomever they have been injured, so severely, inside or outside the Church, for families and communities affected by grief for their loved ones”.
The initiative is in response to Pope Francis’ 2016 invitation to bishops around the world to establish a day on which to pray for those subjected to sexual abuse.
Order of Malta’s 79th Grand Master to be buried in Maltese cathedral’s crypt
Fra’ Matthew Festing, the 79th Grand Master of the Order of Malta, will be buried in the crypt of a cathedral in Malta’s capital city following his funeral on December 3.
The order announced on November 17 that the funeral will be held at 2pm local time at St John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta.
Cardinal Silvano Maria Tomasi, Pope Francis’ special delegate to the Order of Malta, will celebrate the Requiem Mass and Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta will concelebrate.
Mr Festing, who died in Malta on November 12 at the age of 71, will be buried in the cathedral’s Grand Masters’ Crypt, which was reopened to the public in January 2020 after restoration work. Additionally, Mr Festing will be the order’s 12th Grand Master to be buried in the crypt and the first for hundreds of years.
Vatican archbishop: Traditional Latin Mass ‘experiment’ not successful in reconciling SSPX
The Vatican’s liturgy chief, Archbishop Arthur Roche, said that Pope Francis issued Traditionis custodes as the effort to reconcile the Society of St Pius X (SSPX) and feels that it “has not entirely been successful” and it is necessary to “go back” to what Vatican II required of the Church.
Speaking during an interview in Switzerland, Archbishop Arthur Roche said that “the normal form of the celebration of the Roman Rite is found in those documents that have been published since the Second Vatican Council.
“It’s clear that Traditionis custodes is saying: OK, this experiment has not entirely been successful. And so, let us go back to what the [Second Vatican] Council required of the Church”, the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments said.