April 11, 2022

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 - Thieves tried to desecrate a tabernacle and got away with an estimated $150,000 in technology used to livestream services from Saint Monica Church in Santa Monica, California late last month. Surveillance video showed three people inside the church with flashlights removing the church’s audiovisual equipment at about 9:30 pM on Thursday, March 24. They also removed four candle boxes with donations, and tried unsuccessfully to pry open the church’s tabernacle with consecrated hosts inside. Parish officials believe the burglars may have entered the church in the late afternoon and hid inside while the church was being closed for the night. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250934/livestream-equipment-donations-stolen-from-california-parish The new U.S. ambassador to the Holy See officially began his term on Monday with an audience with Pope Francis. Ambassador Joe Donnelly presented his credentials to the pope at the Vatican’s apostolic palace on April 11. Donnelly, a former senator for Indiana, was nominated for the post by President Joe Biden last fall. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250936/pope-francis-receives-new-us-ambassador-to-the-holy-see-joe-donnelly Government soldiers departed from the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart and its compound in downtown Mandalay, Myanmar, on Saturday after a search for weapons turned up only two ceremonial swords given to Archbishop Marco Tin Win. Several dozen soldiers had entered the cathedral Friday afternoon prior to a Lenten service and for several hours detained parishioners, the archbishop, archdiocesan officials, and a CNA correspondent. A local informant allegedly alerted authorities that Win Tin was hiding and supplying weapons to rebels throughout the country, but no actual weapons were found. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/25