Delaware Governor Vetoes Bill to Legalize Assisted Suicide WILMINGTON, Delaware (OSV News) – Delaware Governor John Carney vetoed House Bill 140 on Friday, September 20, turning back legislative efforts to make legal physician-assisted suicide in the state. “And although I understand not everyone shares my views, I am fundamentally and morally opposed to state law enabling someone, even under tragic and painful circumstances, to take their own life,” Carney, a Democrat, said in a statement. In a June political maneuver that enabled supporters to rescind the Senate vote from the previous week that defeated the assisted suicide bill, the measure passed in a new vote with 11 Democrats voting in favor of it in the 21-member state Senate. It then went to Carney’s desk. The Diocese of Wilmington was among numerous organizations that opposed the bill. “I want to express my sincere appreciation to Governor Carney for vetoing HB140 that would legalize physician-assisted suicide in Delaware,” Bishop William E. Koenig of Wilmington said. “I also want to thank the thousands of Catholics and others of good will who helped with their prayers and efforts to protect the elderly, ill, and disabled of our community.” Pope Encourages Efforts to Find Common Date for Easter VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Easter belongs to Christ, not to people deciding where it falls on a calendar, Pope Francis said. “Easter does not take place by our own initiative or by one calendar or another. Easter occurred because God ‘so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life,’” the pope said. “Let us not close ourselves within our own ideas, plans, calendars, or ‘our’ Easter. Easter belongs to Christ!” he said during an audience at the Vatican on Thursday, September 19. The pope was speaking to a delegation of members of the “Pasqua Together 2025” initiative. The ecumenical initiative, founded in 2022, calls on Orthodox and mainline Christian churches to celebrate Easter on a common date. The year 2025 will mark both the Holy Year for the Catholic Church and celebrations of the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, which gave birth to the Nicene Creed, affirmed the full divinity of Christ, and set a formula for determining the date of Easter – that is, the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. Mexican Priest Considered Protector of the Unborn Beatified MEXICO CITY (OSV News) – Father Moisés Lira Serafin has been beatified in a ceremony at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in his native Mexico, where he is beloved as a protector of life from conception and is credited with the miracle of saving an unborn child’s life. Pope Francis welcomed the news during his Angelus audience on Sunday, September 15, telling the faithful the priest, who founded the Congregation of the Missionaries of Charity of Mary Immaculate, spent his life “helping people to advance in faith and in love of the Lord. … May his apostolic zeal encourage priests to give themselves unreservedly, for the spiritual good of the holy People of God.” At his beatification Mass on Saturday, September 14, Father Lira was remembered as a joyful and joking person, even amid personal and physical pain, known for his humility and service to others. His beatification followed the pope’s recognition of a miracle attributed to him involving a woman’s unborn daughter being diagnosed with fetal hydrops – an accumulation of fluid that is usually fatal – in the fifth month of pregnancy. She told the Archdiocese of Mexico City’s newspaper that her doctor recommended terminating the pregnancy to avoid the baby suffering. She learned of Father Lira and prayed for him to intercede for nine days, returning to the doctor during the sixth month of pregnancy. She was told her baby was in good health. Her daughter was born healthy on September 6, 2004. Harris to Skip Al Smith Dinner NEW YORK (OSV News) – Vice President Kamala Harris will not attend the Al Smith charity dinner on Thursday, October 17, a New York Catholic Charities fundraiser that has become a staple for presidential nominees in election years. CNN reported Harris’ decision on Saturday, September 21. Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, reportedly plans to spend the time campaigning. Harris and Republican nominee former President Donald Trump were expected to share a multi-tiered dais with Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, the event’s host, and other Church, political, business, and social luminaries at the 79th Dinner of the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation. The event will draw 1,500 guests to the grand ballroom of the New York Hilton Midtown. At $5,000 a plate, the soiree is expected to raise millions of dollars for charitable organizations associated with the Archdiocese of New York. Trump has not confirmed his attendance. The annual dinner is named for four-time New York Governor Al Smith, who was the first Catholic presidential nominee for a major party when chosen to run on the Democratic ticket in 1928. Pope Francis: Prevent Use of AI to Influence Public Opinion, Voting VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The risk of artificial intelligence being manipulated to influence public opinion and to interfere with elections must be acknowledged and prevented, Pope Francis said. While the development of AI “can prove beneficial to humanity, the impact of forms of artificial intelligence on individual peoples and the international community calls for greater attention and study,” the pope wrote. The pope’s text was given on Monday, September 23, to members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and guests invited to the academy’s plenary assembly at the Vatican. Members of the academy were meeting to discuss how science could contribute to sustainable development and to discuss the “opportunities, challenges, and risks of innovations,” particularly artificial intelligence. In his written remarks, the pope mentioned the importance of “the challenges posed by the progress made in artificial intelligence.” “Such development can prove beneficial to humanity,” he wrote. “Yet, as we realize, it can also have serious negative implications for the general population, especially children and more vulnerable adults,” the pope wrote. “Furthermore, the risks of manipulative applications of artificial intelligence for shaping public opinion, influencing consumer choices, and interfering with electoral processes need to be acknowledged and prevented.” Diocese of Buffalo Plans to Cut Its 160 Parishes in Half by June of 2025 BUFFALO, New York (OSV News) – The Diocese of Buffalo plans to reduce the total number of its 160 parishes by 51 percent following a September 10 announcement of final decisions on closures and mergers. Father Bryan Zielenieski, the diocese’s vicar for renewal and development, said in a news conference that 118 churches would remain open in the western New York diocese. He said 79 of those would be parishes and 39 would be secondary worship sites (or churches whose functions are restricted). Of the 52 counterproposals submitted, the diocese said 26 changes were accepted. Dates for the closures and mergers are to be determined in meetings throughout the next nine months. The process is expected to be concluded by Pentecost in June of 2025. Buffalo Bishop Michael W. Fisher said the diocese, like others nationwide and around the world, has had to deal with “the same very harsh realities” of lower church attendance, a decrease in priestly vocations, secularization, and “the horrendous toll” of the clergy sexual abuse scandal. The diocese is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and Church officials have said the way out of this status is not only to divest of some Church properties, but also to focus on evangelization and faith formation to ignite interest, especially in fallen-away Catholics, in coming back to the Church. Thousands join a procession during the closing of the International Eucharistic Congress in Quito, Ecuador, Sept. 14, 2024. (OSV News photo/Karen Toro, Reuters) The post News Briefs: September 29, 2024 appeared first on Today's Catholic.