Two Roman Catholic churches on First Nations reserves in British Columbia have burned to the ground in overnight fires, Canada’s national police force said Monday.
Pope Francis told the group, “It is important to seek out what is positive at a time when life is not at its most beautiful. Seek the positive in order to keep going forward.”
The statement was announced minutes after clerics voted to draft a document on Communion following debate that discussed whether or not to deny the Eucharist to Catholic politicians who back abortion rights.
The U.S. bishops approved by a wide margin a plan to draft a document to examine the "meaning of the Eucharist in the life of the church" following a lengthy debate.
The Supreme Court ruled that the city of Philadelphia violated the Constitution by limiting its relationship with a Catholic foster care agency over the group's refusal to certify same-sex couples as foster parents.
Creating national norms was never the intent behind a proposal to write a new statement on the Eucharist, said Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Doctrine.