April 19, 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 - The criminal complaint filed in Wisconsin this week against former cardinal Theodore McCarrick was revealed to have come from James Grein, who has previously accused the laicized clergyman of serially abusing him over many years in several US states. Grein filed the only previous criminal complaint against McCarrick, now facing adjudication in Massachusetts court. McCarrick, 92, was laicized by Pope Francis in 2019 after a Vatican investigation found him guilty of sexually abusing minors and adults. The complaint, filed in Wisconsin in Walworth County Court, says McCarrick abused an unnamed victim with an unnamed accomplice at Geneva Lake in April 1977, according to the Washington Post. McCarrick faces a criminal charge of fourth-degree sexual assault for the alleged incident. Grein is now in his 60s. McCarrick has denied previous allegations from Grein. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254127/alleged-victim-theodore-mccarrick-cardinal-abused-him-years The Catholic bishops of Tennessee joined more than 130 religious leaders in the state Tuesday in calling on Republican Governor Bill Lee and the Legislature to enact tighter gun restrictions including “extreme risk” or “red flag” laws. The letter comes less than a month after a mass shooting at a private Christian school in Nashville in which a former student shot and killed three current students and three staff members. First, the religious leaders called for the implementation of “extreme risk laws,” sometimes referred to as “red flag laws.” The religious leaders also called on the lawmakers and governor to require background checks on all gun purchases and to close the “background check loophole.” https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254123/tennessee-bishops-call-for-new-gun-laws-after-nashville-school-shooting Last week, Libya’s Int