Hi, I'm Maggie Murray of OSV News, and this is your OSV newscast for Thursday, March 26th,
Let's catch you up on the Catholic News of the day.
Pope Leo XIV heads to Monaco this Saturday for a brief but significant visit.
One Vatican officials are already calling a laboratory of peace.
The nine-hour trip will mark the first people visit to the tiny principality in the modern
era, and the symbolism is intentional.
Mateo Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office, noted that Monaco, the world's second
smallest country, reflects a biblical theme, the importance of the small.
Archbishop Dominique Marie David of Monaco was quick to point out the contrast between
the visible wealth of this coastal city-state and what he calls its hidden properties, housing
challenges, loneliness, and a quiet search for meaning beneath the glamour.
The Pope's itinerary includes meetings with Monaco's royal family, clergy, youth, and
the faithful, with a mass at Stod the Weas Second serving as the centerpiece of the visit.
The Archbishop called the visit a great grace, and said Monaco's mission is to be attentive
to those in need and to bear witness to the gospel.
A mission the Pope's presence is expected to amplify far beyond the principality's borders.
With all eyes turning to Monaco this weekend, Americans may find themselves thinking about
another U.S. born Catholic who once called it home.
The actress made princess Grace Kelly.
Grace Kelly married Monaco's sovereign prince right near the third in April 1956, retiring
from Hollywood at the height of her fame to begin a new life as a royal.
She remained in Monaco until her death in 1982.
And throughout those 26 years, her Catholic faith was never far from view.
Her weddings set the tone from the start, a televised, nuptial mass in Monaco's cathedral,
her hands holding a guilt-edged Catholic devotional missile.
At the ceremony, she laid her bridal bouquet at the Sanctivote Chapel, an action of personal
devotion to Monaco's patron saint.
Faith shaped her public witness as well.
She championed motherhood and the family before thousands at the 1976 International Eucharistic
Congress in Philadelphia.
She collaborated with Holy Cross father Patrick Payton's Rosary Ministry in the final years
And she used her platform to advocate for refugees, writing an America magazine that solutions
to humanitarian crises begin in the hearts and minds of each of us.
When she died, St. John Paul II said she carried out her mission as a sovereign and as a
mother with a great spirit of faith.
A group of pro-life U.S. Senators is demanding answers about the abortion drug, Mifiprestone,
and they're directing their questions at both federal regulators and the drugs manufacturers.
On Wednesday, Senators from the Republican majority of the Senate Health, Education,
Labor and Pensions Committee sent investigatory letters to three Mifiprestone manufacturers,
Evita Solutions, Gen Bio Pro, and Dynco Laboratories.
Using detailed information about the drugs manufacturing, sales, and marketing practices.
A parallel letter went to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, urging the agency to
use every tool at its disposal to block what the Senators described as misbranded and
unapproved versions of the drug being sold online in violation of federal law.
They argued the FDA's current approach, posting a warning on its website, simply does not
The letters were signed by Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, along with Senators
Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, Steve Danes of Montana, James Linkford of Oklahoma, and
Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
The action comes amid growing frustration among pro-life groups over the unclear status of
the FDA's ongoing review of Mifiprestone, a drug widely used in first trimester abortions.
Hopefully, the 14th is calling on Francis Bishops to find a path forward on one of the Catholic
Church's most sensitive internal debates, the traditional Latin Mass.
In a letter read at the French Bishops' Spring Assembly this week, Cardinal Pietro
Parolin conveyed the Pope's message directly.
The ongoing dispute over the old form of the Mass is a painful wound in the Church, and
it's time for greater understanding on all sides.
The tension traces back to Pope Francis' 2021 decree, Traditionés Castodés, which
tightened the rules around celebrating the traditional Latin Mass, and required priests
to seek their Bishops' permission to do so.
Supporters of the older liturgy pushed back sharply, while the late Pope maintained the
move was about preserving Church unity.
Pope Leo's letter marks his clearest public appeal yet for reconciliation on the issue.
He asks the French Bishops to find concrete ways to include Catholics devoted to the
older form, while remaining faithful to the liturgical directions set by the Second
Cardinal Jean-Marc Avaline, president of the French Bishops' Conference, told the assembly
that the subject was important enough to carry into discussions at the Vatican's June
The Vatican has published a new document affirming that the Anglican heritage brought into the Catholic
Church through its personal ordinariates is not a temporary accommodation.
It is a permanent and living part of the Church's identity.
Released this morning by the Dicastry for the Doctrine of the Faith, the document describes
the patrimony of the ordinariates, the Catholic diocese established under Pope Benedict
XVI in 2009 for groups of Anglicans entering full communion with Rome, as a distinctive contribution
to the Church's evangelizing mission.
The Vatican said this heritage, shaped over nearly 500 years following the Reformation,
offers what it called a unique reflection of the face of the Church, one that looks
not only to the past but to the future, and to passing the faith on to new generations.
Bishop Stephen Lopes of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, who met with the
Vatican officials earlier this month, told OSV News the document affirms that a distinctive
English way of living, celebrating, and articulating the faith remains valid and, in fact, fruitful
for the evangelizing mission of the Church today.
The document follows a meeting in early March between the bishops of the personal ordinariates
and Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, head of the Dicastry for the Doctrine of the Faith.
And that's your OSV Newscast for today.
I'm Maggie Murray of OSV News.
Check out the show notes for direct links to the stories in this episode.
Make sure to subscribe to this podcast, follow us on social media, and bookmark OSVNews.com.
Thanks so much for listening, and God bless.
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