August 11, 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 - A Catholic university in the state of Washington recently announced its full divestment from holdings in fossil fuel concerns, a decision one of the school’s leaders says came about as part of a “moral imperative to action” stemming from Catholic teachings. Seattle University, a Jesuit-run school near the city’s downtown, said last month that it had fully “scrubbed its endowment portfolio of fossil fuel investments,” with the school touting itself as “the first university in Washington state and the first Jesuit Catholic university in the country” to do so. The school’s board of trustees in 2018 “became the first Jesuit university in the country to pledge 100% withdrawal from publicly traded fossil fuel investments,” with the school claiming the divestment measure was part of a broader effort at “building a sustainable community that supports human and ecological health, social justice, and economic well-being.” https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255062/catholic-university-divests-from-fossil-fuels-after-a-six-year-process The Archdiocese of Philadelphia agreed to a $3.5 million settlement with a man who accused a now-deceased priest of raping him about 17 years ago and alleged that the archdiocese failed to take action when previously informed of separately alleged abuse. The lawsuit alleged that Monsignor John Close, who was ordained in 1969, sexually assaulted a 14-year-old boy in 2006 when he took classes at Saint Katherine of Siena Parish in Wayne, which is within the archdiocese. The lawyers claimed that Close sexually abused the teenager after hearing his confession and warned him not to report the abuse. Although the man, who is now 30 years old, first opened up about the alleged abuse in 2018, his lawyers argued that the archdiocese failed to take proper action in response to previous