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Vatican authorizes opening of cause for canonization for 13-year-old Filipina girl

The Vatican on March 16, 2024, determined that nothing prevents the opening of the cause for canonization of Niña Ruiz-Abad, a 13-year-old girl who died in 1993 in the Philippines and whose grave has become a place of pilgrimage. / Credit: Diocese of Laoag/Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

ACI Prensa Staff, Mar 18, 2024 / 16:05 pm (CNA).

The Vatican has determined that nothing prevents the opening of the cause for canonization of Niña Ruiz-Abad, a 13-year-old girl who died in 1993 in the Philippines and whose grave has become a place of pilgrimage.

On March 16, the Vatican news agency Fides reported that the Vatican has granted the “nihil obstat” (“nothing stands in the way”) for the cause of canonization to begin for Ruiz-Abad, who is now considered a “Servant of God,” the first step toward sainthood. If the Filipina girl is declared a saint, she will be one of the youngest in history.

The news was announced with a circular from the bishop of Laoag, Renato Mayugba, that was read in all the churches of the Ilocos Norte region, where Ruiz-Abad is originally from.

In July 2023, the bishops of the Philippines had already expressed their support for the opening of the cause, which will be formally opened on April 7, Divine Mercy Sunday, at St. William Cathedral in Laoag City, with the first session of the diocesan tribunal.

Who was Niña Ruiz-Abad?

Niña Ruiz-Abad was born Oct. 31, 1979, in Quezon City. Her parents were lawyers and her father died when she was only 3 years old.

Ruiz-Abad grew up in Quezon City on Luzon island along with her sister, Mary Anne. She attended school at the Child Study Center of the University of the Philippines and later at the Holy Angels Montessori School, both in Quezon City. 

Her mother, a devotee of divine mercy, moved with her daughters to Sarrat, 300 miles to the north of Quezon City, in April 1988 to work at the Department of Justice.

Ruiz-Abad started high school at Mariano Marcos State University High School in nearby Laoag CIty. She had a strong devotion to the Eucharist and from a very young age, she distributed rosaries, Bibles, prayer books, and holy cards in her neighborhood and at school.

When Father Danny Pajarillaga met Ruiz-Abad in 1993, he immediately noticed her great love for the Eucharist and that she prayed a lot. 

“She was a walking testimony of piety and religion. She was always dressed in white and with a rosary around her neck,” those who knew her recalled.

Ruiz-Abad was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy at the age of 10 and lived with the disease for three years with great faith and joy. 

“Niña’s life was one of prayer, adoration, and an intimate relationship with God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the Blessed Virgin Mary,” Mayugba said.

On Aug. 16, 1993, she suffered cardiac arrest while she was at school and was immediately taken to the hospital, where she died. She was buried in a public cemetery in Sarrat and her grave is now a pilgrimage site.

“Today, children and young people are inspired by the life of Niña Ruiz-Abad to live a life rooted in prayer. Her story continues to reach the hearts of many people because it is an example of how with God obstacles can be overcome,” the Philippine Bishops’ Conference stated.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

U.S. bishops call for ‘focused effort of prayer’ ahead of Supreme Court abortion pill hearings

Katie Mahoney, Rev. Pat Mahoney, Peggy Nienaber of Faith and Liberty, and Mark Lee Dickson of Right to Life East Texas pray in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on April 21, 2023, in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

CNA Newsroom, Mar 18, 2024 / 12:55 pm (CNA).

The U.S. bishops are calling for a nationwide prayer campaign ahead of the U.S. Supreme Court’s hearing next week that could affect the availability of the abortion pill mifepristone.

The court last year said it would review a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling decided in August 2023 that imposed restrictions on the abortion pill based on safety concerns. The Supreme Court’s ultimate decision could curtail the shipping of the drug through the mail. 

The hearing is scheduled for March 26. In a letter this month, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) president Archbishop Timothy Broglio and USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities chairman Bishop Michael Burbidge said they were “inviting Catholics to join a focused effort of prayer” for “the end of abortion and the protection of women and preborn children” starting on March 25. 

The bishops said that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), through its allowance of mailed abortion pills, “has enabled a nationwide mail-order abortion industry and turned neighborhood pharmacies into chemical abortion providers.” 

Those pills “are now the most common form of abortion in the United States,” the bishops pointed out. 

The Supreme Court’s ultimate decision on the matter, the bishops noted, “has the potential to make a major impact in the widespread accessibility of chemical abortion.”

“While the Supreme Court case is not about ending chemical abortion, it can restore limitations that the FDA has overridden,” they wrote. 

The prayer campaign — which will begin on the anniversary of St. John Paul II’s pro-life encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life) — will invoke the intercession of St. Joseph under his title “Defender of Life.”

“We ask Catholics to offer this prayer daily, from March 25 through June, when a decision is expected,” the bishops wrote. 

The FDA’s regulation of abortion pills was subject to a whipsaw series of court decisions last year. In 2022, several pro-life groups and individuals, represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), sued the FDA arguing that the administration failed to use the proper channels and hurriedly approved the drug in 2000 without weighing its severe risks to women.

Texas judge Matthew Kacsmaryk issued a controversial ruling on April 7, 2023, that suspended the FDA’s approval of mifepristone on the grounds that the agency had “acquiesced on its legitimate safety concerns” and approved the drug “based on plainly unsound reasoning and studies that did not support its conclusions.”

The Biden administration immediately issued an emergency appeal to block the ruling, first to a three-judge panel in the 5th Circuit and then to the Supreme Court. 

In a 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court temporarily blocked Kacsmaryk’s ruling and returned the case to the 5th Circuit for full review, leading to the ruling in August, which will be the subject of the Supreme Court’s March hearing. 

Norwegian bishop celebrates Nordic country’s first Catholic Bible

Bishop Erik Varden, OCSO, a Trappist monk and spiritual writer, has served as bishop of Trondheim in Norway since 2020. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

CNA Newsroom, Mar 18, 2024 / 11:30 am (CNA).

A Norwegian bishop and monk has hailed the publication of Norway’s first official Bible for Catholics as a breakthrough.

“The publication of a Bible presented and packaged as ‘The Catholic Canon’ by the Norwegian Bible Society is a major ecumenical event,” Bishop Erik Varden of Trondheim told CNA in an email.

“It invites us afresh to engage with the entirety of Scripture, to read each book as part of a whole, attentive to the symphony of voices that join in proclaiming a single, undying and saving Word. It is my hope that many Catholics will discover the immense fascination of the scriptural text, learning to love and revere it, letting their lives be renewed by it.”

Varden, 49, is a Trappist monk and spiritual writer. He was consecrated bishop of Trondheim, in central Norway, in 2020

Published March 15, this Norwegian edition is notable not only for its inclusivity toward the Scandinavian nation’s Catholic minority, Catholic editor Heidi Haugros Øyma told CNA. The project saw linguists and Scripture experts collaborating with poets and other literary authors, including Nobel laureate Jon Fosse.

The Bible is now available in both official written languages of the country, Bokmål and Nynorsk. 

Pål Johannes Nes, co-founder of EWTN Norway, told CNA: “This is also a very important element in the re-evangelization of Norway toward 2030 through Mission 2030, which EWTN Norway together with the Diocese of Trondheim are working on.”

“It is also a great joy for me to be able to read the Bible to my children in Norwegian,” he added.

What makes this Norwegian Bible Catholic?

The distinction between Catholic and Protestant versions of the Bible in Norway hinges on the inclusion of several additional texts in the Catholic Old Testament. Specifically, the Catholic canon incorporates seven extra books: Tobit, Judith, the First and Second Books of Maccabees, the Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach (also referred to as Ecclesiasticus), and Baruch. 

Furthermore, it contains extended passages in the books of Esther and Daniel. These additional books and passages, known collectively as the Deuterocanonical books, are recognized and revered within the Catholic tradition but are not included in the Protestant version of the Old Testament.

Øyma, who was deeply involved in the project, told CNA: “The inclusion of the Deuterocanonical books represents a move toward a more inclusive, ecumenical approach to Scripture in Norway.” 

“It is a way of saying that we belong here, we are a part of the cultural and Christian landscape.”

Do you know how to make ‘St. Joseph’s bread’? Here’s the recipe

St. Joseph’s altar at St. Mary’s Assumption Church in the Lower Garden District of New Orleans. / Credit: William A. Morgan/Shutterstock

ACI Prensa Staff, Mar 18, 2024 / 11:00 am (CNA).

In the book “Dining with the Saints” there is a special recipe for making delicious “St. Joseph’s Bread.” Below you can find the ingredients and how to make it, perhaps as a special treat for the saint’s feast day, March 19.

According to the National Catholic Register, the book “Dining with the Saints” features a variety of foods and drinks in honor of famous and not-so-known saints. In addition, there’s a wide variety of dishes according to the liturgical season.

The book was written by chef and EWTN host Father Leo Patalinghug and drinks expert Michael Foley. At the end of each recipe you can even find a box titled “Food for Thought” with messages about faith or advice from a saint.

The introduction explains that “Dining with the Saints” offers you the resources you need for a healthy and uplifting family meal, a memorable couples’ night-in, or a fun dinner.

In honor of St. Joseph, a prudent and just man, the book offers the following recipe for a sweet bread for four people:

St. Joseph’s Bread

Serves 4

Cooking time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups lukewarm milk (110 degrees Fahrenheit)

2 packages active dry yeast

6 cups bread flour, divided

1/2 cup sugar

2 teaspoons salt

4 tablespoons melted butter, at room temperature

5 large eggs, divided

1 tablespoon water

1 teaspoon anise seeds

2 tablespoons sesame seeds

Directions:

1. Combine lukewarm milk and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer. Stir together and rest for 10 minutes until yeast blooms.

2. Add melted butter, sugar, and 1 cup of the flour and beat with the regular paddle attachment of the mixer for about 2 minutes.

3. Add 4 of the eggs, the anise seeds, and 1 more cup of flour and beat for 2 more minutes.

4. Switch out the regular paddle attachment on the mixer for the dough hook and add the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough starts to tighten up. (Depending on the size of the eggs, you may not need all the flour.) Continue to knead the dough for about 3-4 minutes.

5. Transfer dough to a greased bowl, cover with a cloth towel, and allow to rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

6. Punch the dough and divide it into 3 equal pieces.

7. Roll each piece of dough into the shape of a thick noodle, about 1/2- to 1-inch thick and 20-22 inches long. Braid the dough together loosely and tuck the ends of the braids under the dough. Place the braided loaf on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

8. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

9. Combine the water and the remaining egg to make an egg wash, and use it to brush the loaf.

10. Generously sprinkle the top of the dough with sesame seeds.

11. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown.

12. Transfer dough to a wire rack and let it rest for 10-15 minutes before cutting and serving.

Enjoy!

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Vatican Observatory publishes new method to better understand the Big Bang theory

null / Credit: Vadim Sadovski/Shutterstock

ACI Prensa Staff, Mar 18, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Two priests and cosmologists from the Vatican Observatory have made further progress in developing a new mathematical method to understand the Big Bang theory, which describes the first moments of the universe.

In a 2022 article published in the prestigious journal Physical Review D, Fathers Gabriele Gionti, SJ, and Matteo Galaverni introduced the new and promising mathematical tool. They have recently published a new article in the European Physical Journal C, a publication that presents novel research results in theoretical physics and experimental physics.

“It really is fascinating to try to understand the physical laws in the early moments of the universe. The search for new physical laws and the effort to fully understand them is a process that fills our minds and hearts with great joy,” the priests said in a Vatican Observatory publication released March 14.

The observatory’s statement points out that Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, which postulates that gravity is the curvature of space-time rather than a force as proposed by Isaac Newton’s theory of gravity, remains the best physical theory “for understanding the large-scale structure of the universe today.” However, there are still unresolved questions about the laws of physics during the first moments of the universe and about how gravity works on extremely small scales, which can be studied using quantum mechanics.

Currently, there are alternative or modified theories of gravity that suggest that gravity might behave differently than general relativity predicts, even with respect to the large-scale structure of the universe.

In their new article, “On the canonical equivalence between the Jordan and Einstein frames,” Gionti and Galaverni demonstrate how they can “map” the solution to a physical problem from an alternative theory of gravity to general relativity through a mathematical trick. This trick consists of analyzing the problem through two different mathematical frames, known as the “Jordan” and “Einstein” frames, which are different approaches to describing the geometry of space-time in general relativity, each with its own advantages and specific applications.

For Gionti and Galaverni, this work is “a way to contribute, together with the entire scientific community, to answering some fundamental questions: “Who are we? Where do we come from? What is our origin?”

“Furthermore, for a person of faith, it is a wonderful possibility to interpret one’s research as a discovery of new traces or signs of God’s beauty and elegance in the creation of the universe, despite our extremely limited knowledge!” the priest-scientists concluded.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

‘Miracles’: Rhode Island Catholic school thrives after last-ditch purchase from diocese

Chesterton students celebrate Mass in the school's new chapel. / Credit: Chesterton Academy of Our Lady of Hope

CNA Staff, Mar 18, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

A newly launched Catholic school in Rhode Island is on a fast track to growth after what its leader described as a series of “miracles” that led to its acquisition of a disused Catholic property. 

Dioceses across the U.S. regularly announce the sale of old parish properties that are no longer actively in use. The Diocese of Fall River in Massachusetts, for instance, is moving to sell a disused “seasonal church” in Dennis Port — the Our Lady of the Annunciation Chapel — so that the town can raze it to make way for a public park. 

The Diocese of Springfield, also in Massachusetts, is likewise seeking buyers for several properties in its territory. Several years ago the diocese sold a shuttered Catholic high school that was then converted into apartments.

‘God and Our Lady are at the helm’

In Warwick, Rhode Island, meanwhile, the newly launched Chesterton Academy of Our Lady of Hope recently acquired the property of St. Francis School and Church from the Diocese of Providence in what the school’s head described as several miraculous occurrences that played out in rapid succession.

Michael Casey, the president and executive director of the institution, said the school — part of the Minneapolis-based Chesterton Schools Network — was first launched in early 2022 with the goal of opening for students at the start of the 2023 school year. 

Casey said the school’s leaders chose Warwick for its central location in the state. 

“We first went to the diocese to look for properties we could rent, and every property was either in terrible shape or was not for rent by the local pastor,” Casey said. 

The school’s board of directors discovered the St. Francis property and sought to obtain it, but it was not for sale or lease at the time. The school settled instead on a 3,000-square-foot property, which Casey said was “tight.”

“As we tried to make this rental our temporary home, I felt it was too small and kept waiting for a shot at St. Francis,” Casey said, admitting that “every day, I drove by St. Francis Church and School, waiting for the for-sale sign to go up.”

After writing one last-ditch letter to the diocese, Casey learned that the property had just come up for sale and that closing bids on the parcel were in a matter of days. After a flurry of walkthroughs, consultations with a lawyer and real estate agent, a last-minute benefactor’s letter of collateral, and an extension from the realtor — all while the school community was praying a novena — they delivered the proposal “with two hours to spare.” 

“I aged about 10 years from Tuesday night to the following Monday morning,” Casey admitted. 

The school’s bid was ultimately accepted. 

“There are so many miracles that happened in those three days and over the three months while the decision was made,” Casey said, “but we became owners of three acres with a church that seats 400 people, a school that can accommodate 160 students and a rectory [at which] we are housing our teachers.”

“It has been a crazy ride, but we believe God and Our Lady are at the helm,” Casey said. 

Volunteers help install a sign at Chesterton Academy of Our Lady of Hope. Credit: Chesterton Academy of Our Lady of Hope
Volunteers help install a sign at Chesterton Academy of Our Lady of Hope. Credit: Chesterton Academy of Our Lady of Hope

Following the school’s acquisition of the property, volunteers and engineers both pitched in to help prepare it for opening. Workers “did quite a bit in a short time to get the buildings to code to move in,” Casey said. “We spent about $55,000 to open it and during the first year we needed about $20,000 in repairs that showed up as we started using the property again.”

He admitted that those investments were financially “draining” but that the school is engaging in fundraising as it grows into a four-year institution, after which “the financials look pretty good.” The school currently hosts about 20 students; the St. Francis property can accommodate a total of 160.

Casey said the school is well supported as it launches. Benefactors “are starting to get behind the mission and vision to help the school get to the next level,” he said, while volunteers “have been incredible, sharing their gifts in areas such as painting, construction, and much sweat equity.”

Students in the classroom at Chesterton Academy. Credit: COLE DeSANTIS/Rhode Island Catholic
Students in the classroom at Chesterton Academy. Credit: COLE DeSANTIS/Rhode Island Catholic

Casey said the experience with the school shows that lay Catholics looking to help the Church need to “step up and help instead of hoping someone else does it.”

“Catholic laypeople must become part of the solution for the Church’s future,” he said. “We need to support our diocese and priests.” The diocese, Casey added, has been “so supportive” of the school, with a different priest visiting the school “every day” to celebrate its daily Mass. 

“Priests visit us from all over Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts, and the students have an opportunity to see how each priest has a different journey in faith,” he said. “They sometimes share lunch with the students. Priests or deacons help us every month for our First Friday Holy Hours. Both bishops and a few monsignors have celebrated Mass with us.”

Casey said the school aspires to “bring spiritual life back to the Warwick and greater Rhode Island community and help families committed to raising their children to be the next generation of saints.”

“Many Chesterton schools do not start this way with buying at the start,” he said, “but we believe with Our Lady of Hope guiding us, that we will be able to fill the school and help bring more souls to Christ.”

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