September 13, 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 - During his September 13 general audience, Pope Francis presented the life of Blessed José Gregorio Hernández Cisneros as an example of the Gospel in action and service to the greater good. The general audience was the latest installment of the pope’s ongoing series on apostolic zeal, which is an opportunity for the faithful to “meet passionate witnesses to the proclamation of the Gospel,” individuals who embodied “the will and also the inner passion to carry the Gospel forward,” according to the pope. Wednesday’s catechism focused on the Venezuelan Hernández, the “people’s doctor,” and was the 20th installment in the series, which opened January 11 with the life of the Apostle Matthew. Hernández was the first Venezuelan layperson to be beatified. Pope Francis also took a moment to speak about the importance Hernández’s mother played in passing down the faith. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255353/pope-francis-highlights-life-of-service-of-venezuelan-blessed-at-general-audience A federal appeals court panel has unanimously ruled in favor of a Catholic group that said a local government in Michigan violated federal religious freedom law when it blocked the use of the group’s 40-acre property for a Stations of the Cross trail. In 2020 the organization received a 40-acre wooded parcel in Genoa Township in southeast Michigan as a gift from the Diocese of Lansing. CHI planned to create a prayer trail with Stations of the Cross, a Catholic devotion that meditates on the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, as well as an altar and mural placed in an outdoor grotto formed by the property’s trees. Genoa Township said the prayer path project was the equivalent of a church building and required a special use permit. CHI plans to continue its ongoing lawsuit against Genoa Township over plans to build a small