French pediatrician and geneticist Jérôme Lejeune, renown for discovering the extra chromosome that causes Down syndrome, was a devout Catholic. As a Catholic, Lejeune thought his historic discovery would lead to a more compassionate approach to children with the syndrome. Instead—to his horror—Lejeune’s famous discovery became a tool used to diagnose Down Syndrome babies in…
CNA, Catholic Business Journal—As Allied forces bombed the Nazi-occupied Italian city of Bologna in the fall of 1943, a 28-year-old Italian priest was seen digging through the rubble with a pickaxe desperately trying to rescue civilian survivors. “I remember Fr. Giovanni with the pickaxe in his hand working so hard as if he were digging…
On Sept. 19, the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of St. Januarius, bishop, martyr, and patron saint of Naples, Italy. Traditionally, on this day and on two other occasions a year, his blood, which is kept in a glass ampoule in the shape of a rounded cruet, liquifies. According to documentation cited by the Italian…
CNA—The blood of St. Januarius, patron of the Italian city of Naples, liquefied on Sunday. The miraculous event took place in the city’s Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary during morning Mass on Sept. 19, 2021, the saint’s feast day. Before the Mass, Naples Archbishop Domenico Battaglia went to the Royal Chapel of the Treasure…
Crisis—“If there were only three like you in France, I would not be able to set foot there,” said Satan to a future saint serving as a parish priest. St. John Vianney (1786-1859), also known as the Curé of Ars, is the patron saint of parish priests, and his deep sanctity sheds light on what…
CNA—Few young Catholic Blessed are more popular in the United States than Pier Giorgio Frassati. Numerous ministries, schools, youth camps and awards bear the name of the handsome and wealthy Italian Catholic activist who was equally known for his social justice concerns, his amiable character, his boisterous laughter and his accomplishments as an avid mountaineer.…
The only challenge in reading a compelling new biography of Fr. Aloysius Schwartz, a Washington, D.C. native—entitled Priest and Beggar: The Heroic Life of Venerable Fr. Aloysius Schwartz— is that it seems to transcend reality at times and bring the reader into the realm of mythical superheroes. However, in reading we learn that Aloysius was…
Between 1769 – 1823, the Franciscan friars built a total of 21 missions stretching for 700 miles between San Diego and Sonoma, Calif., most of them thanks to the extraordinary charity and leadership of Saint Junipero Serra. Father Junipero Serra brought Christ to the Indians of California and also protection. He did not want the…
July 1, 2021 (originally posted Oct 13, 2015)—Well, as my T-shirt proclaims, “Pope Francis in America…. I WAS THERE.” I was specifically there for the canonization of Fr. Serra, an old family friend so to speak. Serra and I go way back–I knew him even before he was venerable. One of the happy sources of this connection was…
CNA—Catholics may know St. Anthony of Padua as a Franciscan friar, a Doctor of the Church, and the patron saint of lost items – but only one person has ever seen St. Anthony in an approved apparition. In 1664, Szymon the weaver – hailing from the little Polish village Radecznica – encountered St. Anthony in…
CNA—An Italian nun who was stabbed to death by three teenage girls was beatified on Sunday, after Pope Francis declared her a martyr, killed “in hatred of the faith.” Sr. Maria Laura Mainetti was beatified on June 6, the anniversary of her murder, in Chiavenna, the northern Italian town where she was killed in the…
WSJ—The San Gabriel, Calif., Fire Department and Archdiocese of Los Angeles recently confirmed what many had long suspected: The fire that almost destroyed Mission San Gabriel Arcángel last year was arson. John David Corey Jr., 57, was charged with the crime last week and faces up to 14 years in prison if convicted. Founded in…
CNA—On the 29th anniversary of the first Eucharistic miracle that took place in the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires’ Santa María parish, the community received a first class relic of Blessed Carlo Acutis. Three Eucharistic miracles have taken place in this parish, in May 1992, July 1994, and August 1996. The history and investigation of these…
CNA—Pope Francis declared a blind 14th-century Italian lay Dominican a saint Saturday using a process known as “equipollent” canonization. The Holy See press office said April 24 that the pope had authorized the extension of the liturgical cult of Blessed Margaret of Castello to the universal Church during a Saturday morning meeting with Cardinal Marcello…
CNA—Pope Francis declared a blind 14th-century Italian lay Dominican a saint Saturday using a process known as “equipollent” canonization. The Holy See press office said April 24 that the pope had authorized the extension of the liturgical cult of Blessed Margaret of Castello to the universal Church during a Saturday morning meeting with Cardinal Marcello…
CNA—Early on March 24, 1944, a Nazi patrol surrounded the home of Józef and Wiktoria Ulma on the outskirts of the village of Markowa in southeast Poland. They discovered eight Jewish people who had found refuge with the couple and executed them. The Nazi police then killed the pregnant Wiktoria, who was 32 years old,…
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! It’s a special day for us here in the Archdiocese of New York because Saint Patrick is the patron saint of our archdiocese. He’s also the patron saint of Ireland and Nigeria. What a tribute to the fact that he was an evangelist who brought the…
CNA—Pope Francis’ prayer intention for the month of March is for a renewed experience of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. In his video for the prayer intention, created by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, the pope asked for prayers that the Sacrament of Reconciliation would be experienced “with renewed depth, to taste the forgiveness and infinite…
If you start on Monday, February 15, you’ll be able to end a 33-day Consecration to Saint Joseph on the great saint’s Feast Day of March 19. We at Catholic Business Journal say: What do we have to lose except a greater appreciation for, and ability and grace to imitate, Saint Joseph, who is the…
CNA—More than 50 years after the death of Padre Pio, one of the last journalists to interview the saint has reflected on the saint’s hope and suffering. Renzo Allegri, the author of the biography “Man of Hope,” visited the Italian saint a year before he died in 1968. He said Pio’s suffering was difficult to…
