October 31, 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 - At the Vatican, Pope Francis will mark the first days of November, a holy and significant season, with prayer and two liturgies. On the solemnity of All Saints on November 1, Pope Francis will give a short address and lead the Angelus, a traditional Marian prayer, from a window overlooking Saint Peter’s Square at noon Rome time. Since All Saints’ Day falls on a Wednesday this year, Francis will not hold his usual weekly general audience. For All Souls’ Day on November 2, he will continue his recent custom of holding a Mass at a cemetery to pray for the dead. The following morning, on November 3, Pope Francis will preside over a Mass in Saint Peter’s Basilica for the repose of the soul of Pope Benedict XVI and the bishops and cardinals who have died in the previous year. It is the pope’s practice to offer this Mass sometime during the first week of November. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255871/here-is-what-pope-francis-is-doing-for-the-week-of-all-saints-and-all-souls-days An assault at a San Francisco Catholic church on Sunday led to a police pursuit that reportedly included the possible use of a pipe bomb. It happened at Saints Peter and Paul Church, run by the Salesians of Don Bosco of the Western United States. Archdiocesan spokesman Peter Marlow told CNA on Monday that the incident began after an individual received Communion but did not consume the host, and then punched a person who tried to stop him and fled. It is unclear what happened to the Host. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255869/assault-at-san-francisco-catholic-church-leads-to-police-pursuit-reported-pipe-bomb For the first time since the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7, the Catholic Church of the Holy Land gathered around its patriarch on the feast day of Our Lady, Queen of Palestine and the Holy Land and reconsecrated the local Church and the entire land to her. On Sunday, October 29, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, presided over a Mass at the shrine dedicated to the Blessed Mother in Deir Rafat in the presence of a few hundred faithful. The feast in honor of Our Lady, Queen of Palestine and patroness of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, was first celebrated on August 15, 1928. Since 1971, following the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council, the feast was moved to October 25, and since then, it has been celebrated on the last Sunday of the month. At the end of the Mass, the Act of Consecration of the Holy Land to the Immaculate Heart of Mary was read. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255863/latin-patriarch-of-jerusalem-reconsecrates-holy-land-to-our-lady-queen-of-palestine Today, the Church celebrates Saint Alonso Rodriguez, a man whose humble occupation gave the world only glimpses of his extraordinary holiness. During his lifetime, Jesuit Brother Alonso Rodriguez never became a priest, published a book, or advanced professionally. But writings discovered after his death revealed a true mystic, who attended to a rich spiritual life while he worked as a doorkeeper and porter. Alonso carried bags and ran errands for 46 years. He was declared a saint in 1887. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-alonso-rodriguez-640