BIDEN TO RECEIVE CARDINAL ZUPPI AT WHITE HOUSE TODAY
President Biden will welcome Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi, Archbishop of Bologna and President of the Italian Episcopal Conference, to the White House on July 18. Cardinal Zuppi is travelling to Washington at the request of Pope Francis. President Biden and Cardinal Zuppi will discuss the widespread suffering caused by Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine. They will also discuss efforts by the United States and Holy See to provide humanitarian aid to those affected, and the Papal See’s focus on repatriating Ukrainian children forcibly deported by Russian officials. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/07/17/statement-from-white-house-press-secretary-karine-jean-pierre-on-the-visit-of-cardinal-zuppi/
The Vatican published this yesterday: https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2023-07/pope-francis-sends-cardinal-zuppi-usa-peace-mission-ukraine.html
POPE FRANCIS TO WELCOME NEW PERSONAL SECRETARY
This morning, Msgr. Jorge García Cuerva, the new Archbishop of Buenos Aires, announced that Fr. Daniel Pellizon, a priest of the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, has been summoned by Pope Francis to be his personal secretary.
“I share with joy that Father Daniel Pellizon, priest of this Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, has been summoned by Pope Francis to be his personal secretary, replacing Father Gonzalo Aemilius. At the beginning of August he will travel to Rome to begin the task entrusted to him. We pray for him in this new mission entrusted to the service of the Church.
Father Daniel Pellizon was born in this City of Buenos Aires on January 24, 1983. In 2011 and 2012 he collaborated with the then archbishop in the organization of his personal archive. He was ordained a priest on November 3, 2018. He developed his ministerial life first as a deacon and then as parochial vicar for five years accompanying pilgrims at the San Cayetano de Liniers Shrine. Last March he was assigned as vicar to the Parish of Our Lady of Mercy to date.
Pbro. Daniel Pellizon nuevo secretario personal del Papa Francisco
POPE FRANCIS CONFIRMS EPISCOPAL NOMINATION MADE BY CHINESE AUTHORITIES
The weekend here was a scorcher in several ways, one being the extremely high temperatures in Italy, triple-digit, historically high temps in some areas that are supposed to remain throughout the week.
The other was the hot-off-the-press Vatican announcement that Pope Francis, once again, made a stunning appointment on what should have been a quiet July weekend of his staycation at the Vatican. In fact, he approved the appointment of Bishop Joseph Shen Bin of Shanghai who, 3 months ago, was installed by Chinese communist authorities without the Vatican’s approval.
Many saw this as the Holy Father giving in to Chinese authorities.
What’s at stake here is the Provisional Agreement signed in September 2018 by the Holy See and China – ratified in 2020 and 2022 – that regulates appointments and transfers of bishops in country.
That Agreement has never been made public. In fact, it has been routinely criticized over the years for, among other things, its lopsided character that so far has seemed to favor the Chinese.
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, in a highly unusual explanatory note in Vatican media Saturday, said Pope Francis wanted to “remedy the canonical irregularity created in Shanghai, in view of the greater good of the diocese and the fruitful exercise of the bishop’s pastoral ministry….(His) “intention is fundamentally pastoral” and will allow the bishop to “work with greater serenity to promote evangelization and foster ecclesial communion.”
Bishop Shen’s installation in April by the CCP was in direct violation of the Holy See’s provisional agreement with Beijing on the appointment of bishops and the second such unauthorized appointment in the past year.
However, Cardinal Parolin did chide China when he said, it is “indispensable,” then, “that all episcopal appointments in China, including transfers, be made by consensus, as agreed, and to keep alive the spirit of dialogue between the Parties. Together we must prevent disharmonious situations that create disagreements and misunderstandings.”
The Catholic Herald had a headline that very neatly expresses the misgivings over the Holy See-China Provisional Agreement: “Just how much faith should Rome place in a deal which China routinely flouts?”
Joan's Rome 