November 16, 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 US bishops voted Tuesday to advance the cause of beatification and canonization of Servant of God Isaac Thomas Hecker, a 19th-century American priest who founded the Missionary Society of Saint Paul the Apostle, today known as the Paulist Fathers. Hecker’s cause for canonization was formally opened in 2008, at which time he received the title “Servant of God.” The next step in the process is to publicize the cause for canonization in the Archdiocese of New York, where the Paulists are headquartered. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/256020/us-bishops-vote-to-advance-the-cause-of-canonization-for-american-priest-isaac-hecker The Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith released a document on Wednesday reaffirming that Catholics are forbidden from becoming Freemasons. The new document signed by Pope Francis and DDF Prefect Cardinal Victor Fernández was written in response to a bishop from the Philippines who had expressed concern at the growing number of Catholics in his diocese who are taking part in Freemasonry and asked for suggestions for how to respond pastorally. The Freemasons are the largest worldwide oath-bound secret society. Freemasonry promotes ideas and rituals incompatible with the Catholic faith, including indifferentism, or the position that a person can be equally pleasing to God while remaining in any religion, and a deistic concept of a “Great Architect of the Universe.” The Catholic Church’s prohibition on Freemasonry dates back to Pope Clement XII, who formally condemned it in a papal bull in 1738. Catholics who enroll in Masonic associations “are in a state of grave sin and may not receive holy Communion.” https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/256014/vatican-doctrine-office-reaffirms-that-catholics-cannot-be-freemasons US bishops are hoping for further guid