October 10, 2023

A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts. www.catholicnewsagency.com - The US Catholic bishops are calling for peace in the embattled Holy Land after last week’s surprise incursion by Hamas into Israel resulted in a declaration of war by Israel. Rockford Bishop David Malloy, who chairs the USCCB’s Committee on International Justice and Peace, lamented the “mounting casualties and hostilities unfolding on all sides,” as well as the “increased threats to the status quo of the holy places among Jews, Muslims, and Christians.” The strike by Hamas resulted in hundreds of Israeli deaths, as well as reports of Hamas insurgents roaming through Israeli neighborhoods and allegedly abducting and killing citizens there. Malloy in his statement urged the faithful to “recall especially all the families and individuals” suffering amid the conflict. “We call on the faithful, and all people of goodwill to not grow weary and to continue to pray for peace in the land Our Lord, the Prince of Peace, called home,” he said. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255620/us-bishops-call-for-prayers-for-peace-in-holy-land-amid-escalating-war Pope Francis’ prayer intention for the month of October is for the Synod on Synodality, taking place this month in Rome. The pope said: “Our mission and the voice that draws us to him spring from him. This voice reveals to us that the heart of mission is to reach out to everyone, to seek everyone, to welcome everyone, to involve everyone, without excluding anyone.” He concluded with a prayer: “Let us pray for the Church, that she may adopt listening and dialogue as a style of life at every level, allowing herself to be guided by the Holy Spirit towards the world’s peripheries.” https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255619/this-is-pope-francis-prayer-intention-for-the-month-of-october Today the Church celebrates Saint Francis Borgia, a reformer of the Jesuit order. Francis introduced so many reforms to the society of Jesus that he was considered in some ways to be its second founder. Francis was a man of contemplation and action in the fullest sense, and clearly drew much strength from the silence of his prayer. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-francis-borgia-389