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Nation and world briefs

U.S.

Three-day festival honors Mary with special prayers, processions, Masses and the Rosary

HOUSTON — The alluring scent of roses, orchids and other fresh cut flowers seemed to be just as noticeable as the flourishing bouquets of greenery and petals that towered over hundreds of Vietnamese Catholics at Our Lady of Lavang Church in northwest Houston. Gathered for a massive, three-day Marian festival that featured special prayers, youth events and speakers in early May, hundreds attended outdoor Masses and prayed the Rosary while joining a long Marian procession to honor Mary, Queen of Peace. A May 6 Mass concelebrated by visiting Bishop Joseph Ðang Ðuc Ngân of Da Nang, Vietnam, drew hundreds. Another Mass, a bilingual liturgy, was celebrated May 7 by Auxiliary Bishop Italo Dell’Oro of Galveston-Houston, a member of the U.S. bishops’ Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Island Affairs. In his homily, he encouraged the congregation to “bridge all the gaps” so that “no widows, no orphans and no strangers” are left unattended or not cared for in the Galveston-Houston Archdiocese. (OSV News)

Rector: Arson at Illinois shrine leaves community ‘deeply wounded’

DES PLAINES, Illinois — An arson attack at a beloved outdoor Marian shrine in Illinois has left a community “deeply wounded,” the shrine’s rector told OSV News. A May 23 blaze destroyed the Chapel of the Resurrected Christ at the outdoor Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Des Plaines, Illinois. The 60-plus acre shrine, which is closely connected to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, was formally established in 2013 by Chicago Cardinal E. Francis George. According to its website, the shrine is the world’s second most visited site honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe, drawing thousands year-round. Video surveillance showed a female — later identified by law enforcement as 41-year-old Virginia Roque-Fermin of Arlington Heights, Illinois — setting the fire just after 2:30 a.m. Roque-Fermin was arrested as she attempted to walk away from the scene and has been charged with one felony count of arson, according to a May 24 statement from the Des Plaines Police Department, which did not release any information about a possible motive. (OSV News)

Pope creates ecclesiastical province of Las Vegas, names Bishop Thomas metropolitan archbishop

WASHINGTON — Pope Francis has created the ecclesiastical province of Las Vegas, comprised of the Archdiocese of Las Vegas and the suffragan dioceses of Reno, Nevada, and Salt Lake City. He also named Las Vegas Bishop George Leo Thomas the first metropolitan archbishop of Las Vegas. Archbishop Thomas, who turned 73 on May 19, was appointed the third bishop of Las Vegas Feb. 28, 2018. The establishment of the new province and the appointment of the metropolitan archbishop was publicized in Washington May 30 by Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States. (OSV News)

WORLD

After visit to Ukraine, Swedish cardinal says he hopes for ‘just peace’

ROME — A recent video that has gained traction on social media purportedly shows a McDonald’s in Kyiv bustling with people, prompting some to argue that perhaps the conflict is not as grim as the media and the country’s government has reported. Even Swedish Cardinal Anders Arborelius of Stockholm, who visited Ukraine in early May with Bishop Erik Varden of Trondheim, Norway, said he was taken aback by the signs of normalcy in a war that has already lasted more than 450 days. “We were only in Kyiv for two days. At first, I was so surprised that life seemed so normal in Kyiv; the traffic, restaurants full of people, children playing,” Cardinal Arborelius said May 24. However, Cardinal Arborelius said that speaking with people there made him realize “the enormous suffering” Ukrainians have endured. “When we saw the destruction of the former occupied outskirts of Kyiv and heard how terribly bad people were treated, we were shocked,” he said. (OSV News)

Promote Christian values, not divisions, on social media, Vatican says

VATICAN CITY — Catholics should make an “examination of conscience” about how they use social media, how they allow it to influence them and about the opportunities it provides them to share the Gospel, build community and care for others, said the Vatican Dicastery for Communication. “Unfortunately, the tendency to get carried away in heated and sometimes disrespectful discussions is common with online exchanges,” said “Towards Full Presence: A Pastoral Reflection on Engagement with Social Media,” the dicastery’s document. “The problem of polemical and superficial, and thus divisive, communication is particularly worrying when it comes from Church leadership: bishops, pastors and prominent lay leaders,” the document said. Signed by Paolo Ruffini, prefect of the dicastery, and Msgr. Lucio A. Ruiz, secretary of the office, the document was released at a news conference May 29. When faced with erroneous or divisive content on social media, the document said, “often the best course of action is not to react, or to react with silence so as not to dignify this false dynamic.” (CNS)

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