Starting Seven: June 18, 2025
Welcome to Starting Seven, The Pillar’s daily newsletter.
I’m Luke Coppen and I seek to guide you each weekday morning to the most interesting Catholic news and comment.
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😇 Today’s saint: St. Elisabeth von Schönau (Roman Martyrology).
📜 Today’s readings: Wednesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time 2 Cor 9:6-11 ▪ Ps 112:1bc-2, 3-4, 9 ▪ Mt 6:1-6, 16-18.
🗞 Starting seven
1: Pope Leo XIV urged Catholics to “pray for all those who feel paralyzed,” as he reflected on Jesus’ healing of the paralytic at Bethesda at this morning’s general audience (full text, photos, full video, short videos 1 & 2, Wikipedia, catholicnewsagency.com, cruxnow.com).
2: Pope Leo also said “the Church is brokenhearted at the cry of pain rising from places devastated by war, especially Ukraine, Iran, Israel, and Gaza” (Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Austria’s bishops, ncregister.com, osvnews.com, Wikipedia, Marco Baratto, Eugenio Capozzi, Nico Spuntoni).
3: The bishops of England and Wales said they were “deeply alarmed” June 17, after the U.K. parliament voted in favor of an amendment effectively decriminalizing abortion (full text, catholicnewsagency.com, thetablet.co.uk, righttolife.org.uk, Wikipedia).
4: Orthodox Christian organizations have joined Catholic bishops in suing Washington state over a new law requiring clergy to violate the Seal of Confession if they suspect the abuse of minors (background, Wikipedia 1 & 2).
5: Hyacinth Alia, a Catholic priest who serves as governor of Nigeria’s Benue State, discouraged civilians from arming themselves June 17, after a spate of massacres by suspected herders (video interview, background, Wikipedia 1 & 2, fides.org/it, nigeriacatholicnetwork.com).
6: Matthias Altmann, Fr. M. Titus Mohan, Veronica Roberts Ogle, and Marc Ramirez consider Pope Leo XIV and his challenges.
7: And Chainarong Monthienvichienchai explains why the work of Catholic writer Narongrit Yongjindarat is touching hearts across Thailand (facebook.com).
🇻🇦 Today’s Bollettino
Bishop Mario Fiandri, S.D.B., 77, apostolic vicar of El Petén, Guatemala.
Participants in an event promoted by the Cardinal Domenico Bartolucci Foundation (afternoon audience).
Resignations and appointments:
🇦🇺 Resignation accepted of 76-year-old Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane, Australia. He is succeeded by Bishop Shane Mackinlay of Sandhurst, 60 (brisbanecatholic.org.au, mediablog.catholic.org.au, sandhurst.catholic.org.au).
🇮🇹 Resignation accepted of 74-year-old Archbishop Michele Seccia of Lecce, Italy. He is succeeded by coadjutor Archbishop Angelo Raffaele Panzetta, 58 (chiesacattolica.it).
🇮🇹 Rome auxiliary Bishop Benoni Ambăruş, 50, is named Archbishop of Matera-Irsina and Bishop of Tricarico, Italy, uniting the two sees in persona episcopi (chiesacattolica.it, silerenonpossum.com 1 & 2).
🇸🇮 Fr. Janez Kozinc, of the clergy of Celje, is named Bishop of Murska Sobota, Slovenia (katoliska-cerkev.si).
🇧🇷 São Salvador da Bahia auxiliary Bishop Dorival Souza Barreto Júnior, 61, is named Bishop of Januária, Brazil (cnbb.org.br).
🇳🇿🇫🇯🇵🇼🇫🇲🇻🇺🇨🇰🇰🇮🇲🇭🇼🇸🇳🇷 Archbishop Gábor Pintér, apostolic nuncio in New Zealand, Fiji, Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, Vanuatu, the Cook Islands, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Samoa, and Nauru, is also named apostolic delegate to the Pacific Ocean.
General audience (Italian full text).
+ The Vatican appealed to Catholics worldwide to support Pope Leo XIV through online donations to the annual Peter’s Pence collection (video).
+ The Libreria Editrice Vaticana and HarperCollins Italia have republished Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 encyclical Rerum novarum (book details).
+ The Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano published a front-page Gospel commentary by U.S. novelist Jonathan Safran Foer in its June 17 edition.
This week, Starting Seven is free for all Pillar readers courtesy of the Diocese of Gallup. Please support the V8s for Vocations Raffle to help educate seminarians for the poorest diocese in the U.S. — $25 a ticket for a chance to win the finest in American automotive engineering!
🏛️ Pillar catch-up
🔍 Stories to watch
🇺🇸 Bishop David Bonnar of Youngstown, Ohio, announced in a pastoral letter that every church in the diocese will “celebrate an enthronement of the Sacred Heart of Jesus” Sept. 28 (full text, catholic-hierarchy.org, Wikipedia).
🇪🇬 St. Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai is reportedly preparing to appeal a ruling by Egypt’s highest court on the ownership of the ancient monastery’s land, ahead of a July 28 deadline (euractiv.com, newlinesmag.com, orthodoxtimes.com, background, Wikipedia).
🇳🇬 Islamic organizations in Nigeria’s Edo State have protested against Governor Monday Okpebholo’s June 16 decision to return to the Catholic Church eight schools seized by the government in the 1970s (guardian.ng, punchng.com, Wikipedia 1 & 2).
🇵🇸 Latin Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa visited Catholics in Bethlehem June 17 (biography, Wikipedia).
🇩🇪 At least 120 people were allegedly abused in the German Diocese of Fulda between 1945 and 2024, according to an independent commission study published June 17 (German report, full text, FAQs, press conference, bishop’s statement Wikipedia).
🇦🇹 The Austrian Church’s Independent Victim Protection Commission has processed cases involving 3,640 abuse survivors since it was founded in 2010, awarding a total of 37.7 million euros (around $43.4 million) to victims (German press release, statement, opfer-schutz.at, English background).
🇻🇪 Josué Benjamín Figueroa, a 16-year-old Venezuelan sculptor, has created the world’s largest statue of Bl. José Gregorio Hernández (1864-1919), who will be canonized Oct. 19 (Wikipedia).
🗓 Today’s anniversaries
St. Calogeros the Anchorite died in 561; Pope Nicholas V issued the bull Dum Diversas in 1452; Bl. Osanna of Mantua died in 1505; St. Gregorio Barbarigo died in 1697.
📅 Coming soon
June 19 The Footsteps of Mother Seton pilgrimage begins at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption in Baltimore, Maryland.
June 20 The Jubilee of Governments begins; Inauguration of the Shrine of Mary, Mother of the Persecuted, at Our Mother of Perpetual Help Cathedral in Astana, Kazakhstan.
June 21 55th anniversary of St. Óscar Romero’s episcopal ordination; Baltimore’s Archbishop William Lori ordains five men to the priesthood at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, at 10 a.m. local time; Cardinal Robert McElroy ordains five new priests — Deacon Marco Cerritelli, Deacon Gerard Gayou, Deacon Louis McHale, Deacon Daniel Morrison, and Deacon Chukwuma Odigwe — for the Archdiocese of Washington at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, at 10 a.m. (adw.org).
June 22 Corpus Christi; Pope Leo XIV presides at Mass in the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran at 5 p.m. local time and takes part in a Eucharistic procession to the Basilica of St. Mary Major; Cardinal Mykola Bychok, C.Ss.R., takes possession of his Rome titular church Santa Sofia a Via Boccea, at 5 p.m. local time; Bishop Peter Brignall of Wrexham, Wales, leads a national pilgrimage of thanksgiving at the Shrine of St. Winefride, Holywell; Annual Walk with Christ, organized by Australia’s Sydney archdiocese.
June 23 The Jubilee of Seminarians begins.
June 24 Third anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson decision.
June 25 The Jubilee of Bishops; Start of the Jubilee of Priests; Actor Jonathan Roumie, who plays Jesus in “The Chosen,” due to meet with Leo XIV at the Wednesday general audience.
June 27 The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus; Pope Leo celebrates Mass in St. Peter’s Square, at 9 a.m. Rome time; Concluding celebrations of the 350th anniversary of the apparitions of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, at the Sanctuary of Paray-le-Monial, France.
June 28 Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk celebrates a Hierarchical Divine Liturgy in Rome, at the start of a Jubilee pilgrimage of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church to the tomb of St. Peter; Bishop David Zubik ordains two men to the priesthood for the Diocese of Pittsburgh at St. Paul Cathedral, at 10 a.m. local time; Bishop Edward Lohse ordains two men to the transitional diaconate at Holy Rosary Church in Steubenville, Ohio, at 9 a.m. local time; Archbishop Laurent Ulrich ordains 16 priests at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, France; Cardinal Vincent Nichols ordains two men to the priesthood for the Diocese of Westminster, England.
June 29 Sts. Peter and Paul; Pope Leo presides at Mass with the imposition of the pallium in St. Peter’s Basilica at 9:30 a.m. Rome time; Start of the Church in Benin’s national pilgrimage to the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in Yamoussoukro, Côte d’Ivoire.
June 30 Special parliamentary commission in Luxembourg due to adopt final report on the Caritas Luxembourg embezzlement scandal.
July 1 The Fons et Culmen Sacred Liturgy Summit begins in Menlo Park, California.
July 2 No general audience as Wednesday general audiences are suspended in July.
July 4 80th birthday of Poland’s Cardinal Stanisław Ryłko.
July 5 Episcopal ordination of Fr. Beat Grögli, the new Bishop of St. Gallen, Switzerland.
July 6 Pope Leo XIV begins a period of rest at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo.
July 12 Installation of Bishop Dominique Blanchet as head of the Territorial Prelature of the Mission de France at Pontigny.
July 13 Pope Leo celebrates Mass at Castel Gandolfo’s Church of St. Thomas of Villanova, at 10 a.m. local time, and recites the Angelus in the Piazza della Libertà at noon.
July 14 Bishop Mark Eckman is installed as Bishop of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at St. Paul Cathedral.
July 17 Bishop Michael Pham is installed as the Bishop of San Diego, California.
July 20 Pope Leo celebrates Mass at Albano Cathedral, at 9:30 a.m., and recites the Angelus in Castel Gandolfo’s Piazza della Libertà, at noon, returning to the Vatican in the afternoon.
July 21 80th birthday of Pakistan’s Cardinal Joseph Coutts.
July 25 Cardinal Robert Sarah serves as special envoy at the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the apparitions of St. Anne to Yvon Nicolazic, at the Shrine of Sainte-Anne-d’Auray, France.
July 27 Bishop Robert Barron receives the Josef Pieper Prize in Münster, Germany.
July 28 Jubilee of digital missionaries and Catholic influencers begins; Start of the Jubilee of Youth.
July 29 Episcopal ordination of Fr. Glenn Corsiga, the new Bishop of Ipil, Philippines.
July 30 Pope Leo resumes Wednesday general audiences.
August 4 Mladifest international youth festival begins in Medjugorje.
August 6 The Transfiguration of the Lord.
August 15 The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary; Pope Leo celebrates Mass at Castel Gandolfo’s Church of St. Thomas of Villanova, at 10 a.m., followed by the Angelus in Piazza della Libertà at noon; Opening of the diocesan phase of the cause of Brazil’s Maria Milza dos Santos Fonseca (1923-1993).
August 17 Pope Leo delivers an Angelus address in Castel Gandolfo’s Piazza della Libertà at noon local time, before returning to the Vatican.
August 21 Start of the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales’ Walsingham Walking Pilgrimage 2025.
August 22 80th birthday of Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe, O.P.
Have a happy feast of St. Elisabeth von Schönau.
-- Luke
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This week, Starting Seven is free for all Pillar readers courtesy of the Diocese of Gallup. Please support the V8s for Vocations Raffle to help educate seminarians for the poorest diocese in the U.S. — $25 a ticket for a chance to win the finest in American automotive engineering!
#5: Maybe it's just the American in me but discouraging people from arming themselves for self defense is insane. 200 people were just slaughtered in cold blood and more will certainly be killed in the future, but please leave yourself, your wives, and your children vulnerable. Standing idly by and hoping someone else protects the vulnerable is not a noble or Christian response, it's weakness and cowardice.
I caved and supported V8s for Vocations. It was the bright yellow paint jobs that did it for me. Any other color and I might have just said, "Eh, cool fundraiser!" I sent the link to our director of seminarians and tried to think of a way to modify the idea for our area — perhaps a boat raffle, since we have a lot of lakes, but "Pontoons for Priests" doesn't have the same flair and panache as "V8s for Vocations." 😉