February 2, 2024

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 Panamanian Episcopal Conference (CEP) announced that Cardinal José Luis Lacunza was found safe and sound today after being missing since January 30. The Archdiocese of Panama had called for prayers and expressed its concern over Lacunza’s disappearance. The cardinal is a prominent figure in the Catholic Church in Panama. Ordained a priest in 1969 in Pamplona, Spain, for the Order of the Augustinian Recollects, he was named auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Panama in 1985, and Saint John Paul II subsequently appointed him bishop of Chitré on October 29, 1994. On August 28, 1999, he was appointed bishop of the Diocese of David, where he currently serves. In 2015, Pope Francis made him the first cardinal of the Catholic Church in Panama and of the Order of the Augustinian Recollects. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/256714/cardinal-lacunza-found-alive-in-panama https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/256712/panama-cardinal-jose-luis-lacunza-missing-since-tuesday Several of France’s Catholic leaders have expressed solidarity with the country’s agricultural workers amid historic protests that have seen farmers block major roadways near Paris with their tractors to protest environmental regulations, taxes, and competition from cheap imports. Bishop Jean-Marc Micas of the Diocese of Tarbes-et-Lourdes, which is a largely rural diocese that includes the world-famous Marian shrine of Lourdes, said he wants to “express all my support to the farmers of the diocese.” He encouraged all the diocese’s parishes and religious communities to pray for those involved in the protest. Falling food prices, high taxes, increased foreign competition, demographic factors, environmental regulations, and unforeseen circumstances such as recent adverse weather conditions have tightened pressures on the country’s shrinking agricultural workforce. catholicnewsagency.com/news/256711/french-bishops-express-solidarity-with-striking-farmers Today, the Church celebrates the Presentation of the Lord. This feast commemorates Jesus’ first appearance in the Temple more than Mary’s purification. The observance spread throughout the Western Church in the fifth and sixth centuries. Because the Church in the West celebrated Jesus’ birth on December 25, the Presentation was moved to February 2, 40 days after Christmas. At the beginning of the eighth century, Pope Sergius inaugurated a candlelight procession; at the end of the same century the blessing and distribution of candles which continues to this day became part of the celebration, giving the feast its popular name: Candlemass. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/presentation-of-the-lord-427