July 24, 2024 // National

News Briefs: July 28, 2024

OSV NEWS

President Joe Biden Ends 2024 Reelection Bid

WASHINGTON D.C. (OSV News) – On Sunday, July 21, President Joe Biden announced that he has pulled out of the 2024 presidential election, ending several weeks of speculation about his political future and viability in the November election. Talk of his political future picked up steam after his performance at a June 27 debate raised concerns about his physical and mental stamina heading into the general election campaign. In a letter posted on X, formerly Twitter, Biden said: “It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your president. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term.” In a subsequent social media post, Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to be the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee in November.

Pope to Travel to Luxembourg, Belgium in September

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis’ visit to Luxembourg and Belgium from September 26-29 will come just 13 days after wrapping up the longest trip of his pontificate. After visiting Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, and Singapore from September 3-13, Vatican officials announced that the pope will travel to the tiny European nation of Luxembourg on Thursday, September 26, and neighboring Belgium from September 26-29, traveling to Brussels, Leuven, and Louvain-la-Neuve. The main focus of the trip to Belgium is to mark the founding of the oldest Catholic university in the world, the Catholic University of Leuven, which celebrates its 600th anniversary during the 2024-25 academic year.

Trump Accepts GOP Nomination, Addresses Assassination Attempt

MILWAUKEE (OSV News) – Former President Donald Trump delivered a speech on Thursday, July 18, to accept the Republican nomination for president, pledging to reduce inflation and reinstate and increase his hardline immigration policies if he wins another term in the White House. Trump’s acceptance speech was his first public speech since the shooting at his July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, which is currently under investigation by law enforcement officials as an attempted assassination. “The assassin’s bullet came within a quarter of an inch of taking my life,” Trump said, adding it was “painful” to recall. On his general election pitch, Trump praised the platform recently adopted by the party that he oversaw. That document removed a longstanding call for federal abortion restrictions after 20 weeks, added a call for mass deportations, access “to birth control and IVF (fertility treatments),” and cut references to guns and the Second Amendment. Days earlier, Trump named Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, a Catholic, as his running mate on the Republican ticket in November. Vance, author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2022 after a contentious primary election in the Buckeye State, in which he got Trump’s endorsement.

Pope Calls for a Global Cease-Fire During Olympics

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – With world peace under serious threat, Pope Francis called on all nations to observe the Olympic truce and cease all conflicts for the traditional period before, during, and after the Olympic Games in Paris. “As is the custom of this ancient tradition, may the Olympic Games be an occasion to call for a cease-fire in wars, demonstrating a sincere desire for peace,” he said after praying the Angelus with visitors gathered in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday, July 21. “I hope that this event may be a beacon of the inclusive world we want to build and that athletes, with their sporting testimony, may be messengers of peace and authentic models for young people,” he said. The pope’s appeal came after he sent a written message to Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Paris. May God help “enlighten the consciences of those in power to the grave responsibilities incumbent upon them, may he grant peacemakers success in their endeavors,” the pope said in the letter that the Vatican published on Friday, July 19, seven days before the opening of the Summer Games and the customary beginning of the observance of the Olympic truce. The Olympic Games began on Friday, July 26, and run until Sunday, August 11, followed by the Paralympic Games, which will be held from Wednesday, August 28, to Sunday, September 8.

Vatican Offers Indulgence for World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Any Catholic who participates in the celebration of the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly, celebrated on Sunday, July 28, can receive a plenary indulgence, Vatican officials announced. “Grandparents, the elderly, and all the faithful who, motivated by a true spirit of penance and charity,” attend Mass or other prayer services as part of the day’s celebration can receive the indulgence, which “may also be applied as a suffrage to the souls in purgatory,” said the officials of the Apostolic Penitentiary, the Vatican court charged with granting indulgences. The Vatican said the indulgence also can apply to those who “devote adequate time to actually or virtually visiting their elderly brothers and sisters in need or in difficulty,” such as those who are sick, lonely or disabled. To receive a plenary indulgence, which is a remission of the temporal punishment due for one’s sins, a person must show detachment from sin, go to confession, receive the Eucharist, and pray for the intentions of the pope.

Vatican Officials OK Devotion to ‘Our Lady of the Rock’

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Applying its new norms intended to quicken rulings on alleged supernatural phenomena, officials with the Vatican’s doctrinal office have permitted devotion associated with alleged Marian apparitions in southern Italy. Officials with the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a “nihil obstat” decree to the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rock in Calabria, Italy, effectively ruling that devotion at the shrine may continue but not validating the supernatural status of the apparitions associated with it. The devotion traces back to 1968 when a man claimed to have seen Mary repeatedly appear to him out of a light that emanated from a large rock. A chapel was built on the site of the alleged apparitions, which was later expanded into a larger shrine. In a letter issuing the ruling and released by the dicastery on Tuesday, July 16, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández wrote that the pilgrims who travel to the shrine “are a powerful sign of faith” in “the secularized world in which we live, in which many people let their existence pass without any link to the transcendent.”

Pope Francis watches children of Vatican employees release biodegradable balloons during a summer camp event at the Vatican July 18, 2024. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)