An item in this column last Sunday referred to Archbishop of Detroit Allen Vigneron’s statement that Catholic politicians in favour of legalising same-sex marriage should not receive Communion.

Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, a retired auxiliary bishop in Detroit, said those in favour of same-sex marriage should continue receiving Communion.

“Don’t stop going to Communion. You’re okay,” Mgr Gumbleton advised proponents of gay marriage.

He said it is important for the Church to reach out to homosexuals, and consequently “the last thing you want to do is impose a penalty or make them feel like they have to impose a penalty upon themselves”.

Cardinal Bagnasco wants a government

Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco of Genoa, the president of the Italian bishops’ conference, admonished Italy’s political leaders for failing to reach a solution to resolve a stalemate that has blocked the formation of a new government. “Politicians need to put an end to all further delay,” he said, adding that the Italian people “can’t take any more”.

Pope Francis hails the contemporary martyrs

While reflecting on the reading from the Acts of the Apostles describing the martyrdom of St Stephen, Pope Francis said: “the Church has more martyrs now than during the first centuries”, adding that “the age of martyrs is not yet over”.

He also spoke about persecution at his midday audience last Sunday. He called for prayers for the Christians “who suffer persecution, a great many, in many countries”.

At the same time, he reminded the faithful that the original apostles “even saw their persecution as a badge of honour, that made them capable of following in the footsteps of Jesus and to be like him, bearing witness with their lives”.

Syrian Christians can either ‘die or leave’

“(Syria’s Christians) must choose between two bitter chalices: to die or leave,” said Mgr Samir Nassar, the Maronite Catholic Archbishop of Damascus, in a comment to Fides, the Catholic news agency.

Syrians, who “have seen the UN organise the systematic departure of Iraqi refugees to the West,” now note “the world’s indifference and silence in front of their long, sad ordeal… they are abandoned, destined to die without being able to escape.”

Mgr Nassar added: “To advise them to stay could lead to death, like a lamb dumb before the butcher”, while “helping them leave means emptying the biblical land of its last Christians”. He ended by saying “our martyrology simply gets longer”.

Italian priest beatified

During the homily of the beatification Mass of Fr Luca Passi (1789-1866), an Italian priest who founded the Institute of the Sisters of St Dorothy, Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect for the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, described the now Blessed Passi, as “a great witness to God for the young and the poor”.

Pope is very welcome to visit Russia – poll

According to a poll by the Lavada Centre in Moscow, just over 70 per cent of Russians hope that Pope Francis will visit Russia.

Pope John Paul II never visited Russia due to the Russian Orthodox Church’s opposition. Although relations improved during Pope Benedict XVI’s pontificate, the Moscow Patriarchate continued insisting on more progress before they approve a papal visit.

(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)

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