British Bishops Decry End-of-Life Vote LONDON (OSV News) – Catholic bishops in England have decried a vote for assisted suicide, with one saying it represented a “dark day” in the history of the country. Members of Parliament voted 330 to 275 for the “Terminally Ill (End of Life) Bill,” which will permit doctor-assisted deaths for adult patients deemed to have less than six months to live. Although the bill must pass through several stages in both Houses of Parliament in London, the November 29 vote in the House of Commons means that it is extremely likely that the bill will pass into law. Afterward, Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth told OSV News that he expected the outcome. “It leaves me sad, as it will put an intolerable pressure on the elderly and the terminally ill and undermine the trust normally placed in doctors and carers,” he said. “I fear too the ever-growing expansion of eligibility to other categories of people. Britain has now crossed a line: things will not be the same again. May God help us,” Bishop Egan lamented. Church Needs Media Evangelizers, Pope Tells U.S.-Based TV Network VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The mission of sharing the Gospel, entrusted to humanity by Jesus, must spread also through modern media channels, Pope Francis said. “Today we have a great need for disciples who continue the mission entrusted by the Lord, by Jesus Christ, who evangelize through communications media,” he told members of the El Sembrador Nueva Evangelización (ESNE), a U.S.-based Spanish-language TV network. Headquartered in Los Angeles, ESNE also operates a radio station and broadcasts across the southwestern United States, Mexico, and Spain. It often transmits Masses, prayers, and devotional content. The network previously interviewed Pope Francis in 2017. The pope thanked the group for “bringing the voice and the message of the pope to so many people in the United States and in other Spanish-speaking countries,” and he praised their work in broadcasting the Mass, formational materials, and news about the Church to those who are unable to leave their homes. “I thank you also, and above all, because with your work you are close to so many immigrants from various countries in Latin America, who need points of reference, messages of consolation in their mother tongue,” he said. “Do not stop doing this.” Iowa Pastor Found Dead in Apparent Suicide CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (OSV News) – A diocesan priest in Cedar Rapids was found dead on Tuesday, November 26, having apparently taken his own life. Archbishop Thomas R. Zinkula of Dubuque, Iowa, released a message on Wednesday, November 27, stating “with a heavy heart” that Father Dennis Conway, pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish in Cedar Rapids, had died in the rectory “by way of suicide.” “Based on correspondence near the time of his death, Father Dennis clearly was suffering from an acute mental health crisis,” Archbishop Zinkula said. He urged those experiencing a mental health crisis to seek assistance through resources such as the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, and Catholic Charities. “Please reach out for help when you are struggling with a heavy burden,” said the archbishop. “In the Sacred Scripture we hear over and over again, ‘Do not be afraid.’ And at the end of the Gospel of St. Matthew, after commissioning the disciples to go and make disciples of all nations, Jesus tells them, ‘I am with you always, until the end of the age.’” Pope Discusses Nicaea, Synodality with Patriarch, Theologians VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Focusing again on the fundamental Christian beliefs outlined by the Council of Nicaea almost 1,700 years ago can help Christians today put Christ back at the center of their lives, Pope Francis said. Meeting on Thursday, November 28, with members of the International Theological Commission, the pope praised their decision to draw up a document “intended to shed light on the timeliness of the faith professed at Nicaea,” which is summarized and recited today as the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed. “A document of this sort could prove invaluable in the course of the Jubilee Year to nourish and deepen the faith of believers and, based on the figure of Jesus, to offer insights and reflections useful for a new cultural and social paradigm inspired by the humanity of Christ,” the pope told the theologians. At the meeting and in a message on Saturday, November 30, to Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, Pope Francis repeated his hope to travel to Iznik, Turkey, the site of the ancient city of Nicaea, to celebrate the 1,700th anniversary of the council with the patriarch. Cross at 1979 Papal Mass in Philadelphia Has New Home MALVERN, Pennsylvania (OSV News) – More than a million people descended upon Logan Circle on a beautiful autumn day in Center City Philadelphia on October 3, 1979, for a Mass celebrated by Pope St. John Paul II, who had been elected pope less than a year earlier. At the center of it all, the pope celebrated Mass on an expansive altar in the shadow of an enormous 34-foot-tall white cross. In the days following the papal visit, the cross, a symbol of one of the greatest Catholic gatherings in North America at that time, was taken to the outskirts of the city and erected on the grounds of St. Charles Borromeo Seminary. It has been on display at the busy intersection of Lancaster and City avenues for the past 45 years. Earlier this year, St. Charles Seminary moved to another part of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, and the seminary grounds were sold. On Monday, November 11, the refurbished cross was unveiled at its new place of honor at Malvern Retreat House, where Father Douglas McKay, the rector, offered prayers for a gathering of about 100 people. The priest was a seminarian in 1979 and was a cross bearer at the Mass with the pontiff. Founded more than 100 years ago, Malvern Retreat House is billed as the oldest and largest Catholic retreat community in the nation. Court to Hear Arguments on Gender Transition Ban for Minors WASHINGTON, D.C. (OSV News) – The Supreme Court was scheduled on Wednesday, December 4, to hear a challenge to a Tennessee state law banning certain types of medical or surgical gender reassignment procedures for minors who identify as transgender, the high court’s first major step toward weighing in on the controversial issue. The court agreed earlier this year to hear United States v. Skrmetti, the Biden administration’s challenge to a law in Tennessee restricting gender transition treatments including puberty blockers for minors. At least 25 Republican-led states have adopted laws restricting or banning gender reassignment surgery or hormonal treatments for minors, although not all those bans are currently in effect amid legal challenges, according to data from the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ+ policy group. A ruling in United States v. Skrmetti could potentially have a significant impact on whether those laws are enforced or prohibited. In guidance on health care policy and practices released in March of 2023, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine outlined the Church’s opposition to interventions that “involve the use of surgical or chemical techniques that aim to exchange the sex characteristics of a patient’s body for those of the opposite sex or for simulations thereof.” French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech in the nave of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris Nov. 29, 2024, during a visit as restoration work in the cathedral continued before its reopening in early December. The cathedral was ravaged by a fire in 2019. (OSV News photo/Sarah Meyssonnier, pool via Reuters) The post News Briefs: December 8, 2024 appeared first on Today's Catholic.