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Catholic News Agency

ACI Prensa's latest initiative is the Catholic News Agency (CNA), aimed at serving the English-speaking Catholic audience. ACI Prensa (www.aciprensa.com) is currently the largest provider of Catholic news in Spanish and Portuguese.

Canadian politician introduces bill to stop MAID expansion for mental illness
Wed, 02 Jul 2025 06:00:00 -0400

Vancouver, Canada, Jul 2, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Canadian member of Parliament (MP) from Cloverdale-Langley City in British Columbia, Tamara Jansen, has introduced a private member’s bill to stop the expansion of medical assistance in dying (MAID) for mental illness alone.

Jansen’s Bill C-218 would amend the criminal code to prevent mental disorders from being considered a “grievous and irremediable medical condition” for the purposes of MAID.

The bill was read a first time in the House of Commons on June 20 and is scheduled for second reading at the next sitting of the House.

Speaking in the House, Jansen said: “Imagine your son or daughter battling depression for some time, after losing a job or maybe a broken relationship. Imagine they feel the loss so deep that they’re convinced the world would be better off without them.”

Starting March 27, 2027, such Canadians “could walk into a doctor’s office and ask them to end their life,” she said.

“That’s not a future scenario, that’s the law right now waiting to take effect.”

The Justin Trudeau government delayed expansion until 2024 and again until March 17, 2027, over concerns from medical and legal experts.

“Clinical experts have warned that there’s no evidence-based way to determine if someone with a mental illness would get better, and most do,” Jansen said. “But still the government is moving forward.”

Jansen said the proposed law sends a message to “struggling Canadians, trauma survivors, those battling depression, schizophrenia, PTSD” that “death is a solution we’re now willing to offer” in response to suffering.

“That’s not health care. That’s not compassion. It’s abandonment.”

She told MPs: “Mental illness is treatable. Recovery is possible, but only if we show up and help.”

Jansen’s bill is similar to 2023 legislation that was narrowly defeated in Parliament but delayed implementation of the federal law.

Conservative MP Ed Fast of Abbotsford, British Columbia, introduced Bill C-314, which would have stopped the expansion of Canada’s euthanasia regime. It was defeated at second reading on Oct. 18, 2023, by a 167-150 vote.

Fast gathered cross-party support for his legislation, with all 24 New Democratic Party (NDP) members voting in favor of his bill and eight members of the Liberal Party breaking ranks from their colleagues. The Bloc Québécois held the balance of power on the vote, as each of its members voted against the Abbotsford, British Columbia, representative’s endeavor.

During the oral question period preceding the vote, Fast condemned reports “of Canadians crying out for help and being offered assisted suicide instead.”

He attacked “the sorry state of our mental health system,” saying: “Millions of Canadians oppose the government’s fascination with assisted death.”

A Christian political advocacy group praised Jansen’s bill and called on MPs to support it regardless of party.

“Canada can never be ready to offer MAID for mental illness,” said Daniel Zekveld, a policy analyst with the Association for Reformed Political Action Canada. “Doing so would undermine suicide prevention efforts and mental health care. Canada cannot promote suicide prevention while at the same time offering suicide assistance as a solution for mental illness.”

Zekveld said: “Since Parliament’s last delay of the mental illness expansion, we’ve seen more stories of people who are suffering and unable to access necessary supports and care being offered MAID.”

Offering euthanasia to people for mental illness implies “there is no hope of recovery and normalizes suicide as a solution for suffering,” Zekveld said. “But psychiatrists tell us they cannot reliably diagnose mental illness as irremediable. Canadians with mental illness need hope and support, not euthanasia or assisted suicide.”

Alex Schadenberg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition said if Bill C-218 is to pass, politicians need to hear from Canadians. He is asking people to send their mental health stories and share what would have happened had MAID been available at the time. Stories can be sent to info@epcc.ca.

This story was first published by The B. C. Catholic and is reprinted here with permission.

Priest in ‘critical condition’ after being shot in Mexico
Tue, 01 Jul 2025 17:19:00 -0400

Puebla, Mexico, Jul 1, 2025 / 17:19 pm (CNA).

The Diocese of Tabasco in Mexico reported June 30 that one of its priests was wounded by gunfire while on his way to visit a sick parishioner. The attack was apparently a case of mistaken identity.

The bishop of the diocese, Gerardo de Jesús Rojas López, shared a statement explaining that at approximately 5:45 a.m. local time, Father Héctor Alejandro Pérez, a parish priest at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Villahermosa, the capital of Tabasco state, was shot.

The assailant apparently mistook the priest “for someone else. Father Héctor was leaving the rectory to visit a sick person at home,” Rojas stated.

Following the attack, the priest underwent surgery. According to the bishop, Pérez is reported to be in critical condition, “with a guarded prognosis due to blood loss and the complexity of his internal injuries.”

Rojas also made an urgent appeal to the community to donate blood for the priest, who is being treated at the Dr. Gustavo A. Rovirosa Pérez Regional Highly Specialized Hospital in Villahermosa.

The bishop also expressed the Catholic Church in Tabasco’s “total repudiation” of “this barbaric act” and asked God to “move the hearts of the unjust aggressors to conversion and repentance, and that all the faithful and people of goodwill unite in the search for peace for our beloved Tabasco.”

The state governor, Javier May Rodríguez, in a press conference deplored what happened to the priest and expressed his solidarity with the Catholic Church, assuring them that “we are already at work; the attack will not go unpunished, and we will find those responsible.”

The Mexican Bishops’ Conference condemned the attack in a message posted on X, expressing its solidarity “in the face of the cowardly armed attack perpetrated against Father Héctor Pérez.”

The country’s bishops offered their prayers “to the Lord of Life for Father Héctor’s speedy recovery, entrusting him to the protection of the Virgin Mary.” They also pledged their support to the Diocese of Tabasco and the parish community of St. Francis of Assisi as well as his family and friends.

“May Christ, prince of peace, inspire and sustain our efforts to build a society where justice, reconciliation, and respect for life prevail,” the bishops stated.

Mexico has repeatedly been considered one of the most dangerous countries for priestly ministry and for preaching the faith. According to the Catholic Multimedia Center, an organization that records attacks against the Catholic Church in the country, 80 priests, religious, and laypeople have been murdered since 1990.

During the last six years alone, between 2018 and 2024, 10 priests and one seminarian were murdered. Additionally, according to a study by the center, during the same period six bishops and seven priests were victims of varying degrees of violence — including being stopped at a checkpoint, robbed, or shot by organized crime.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Ukrainian Greek Catholic church invites pilgrims to visit Cross of Gratitude
Tue, 01 Jul 2025 16:17:00 -0400

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 1, 2025 / 16:17 pm (CNA).

A 20-foot, 800-pound cross that has traveled to almost 50 European capitals, known as the “Cross of Gratitude,” has recently been welcomed by a Ukrainian Greek Catholic church in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, the first parish of the Greek Catholic rite in America.

“It is a great honor and a blessing for the Parish of St. Michael the Archangel to host the Cross of Gratitude, a sacred symbol of Christ’s boundless love and sacrifice,” St. Michael’s parish priest Father Bohdan Vasyliv told CNA.

“We warmly invite all to visit, pray, and reflect before this holy cross, giving thanks for the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ and uniting in wholehearted devotion.”

Two decades ago the Cross of Gratitude was built for an evangelization mission to unite “the nations of the world.” The goal is for the cross to visit every capital city of the world by 2033 in preparation of the 2,000th anniversary of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

The pilgrimage of the cross “began with a powerful call to action, inspired by the words heard by Vitaliy Sobolivskyy on the day of the resurrection of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in 2003,” Vasyliv said.

Sobolivskyy, a Ukrainian architect who designed the cross, reported he was called by the words: “Take my cross and carry it to all the capitals of the world as a sign of gratitude to Almighty God for our salvation, which we receive from Jesus Christ.”

The 20-foot cross has already journeyed to 46 European capitals. The pilgrimage schedule plans for visits to North and South America, Asia, Africa, Indonesia, and Australia before it completes in 2033.

The Cross of Gratitude has been celebrated at each place of rest during holy Mass, Eucharistic adoration, prayer vigils, the Way of the Cross, and Eucharistic processions. The cross visited the U.S. Capitol in 2021 when it was displayed at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in downtown Washington, D.C.

“This sacred journey seeks to remind everyone that Jesus Christ offers the gift of eternal life,” Vasyliv said.

Pope John Paul II blessed the Cross of Gratitude in 2004 along with the initiators of the mission in Vatican City. The cross, sometimes also referred to as the Cross of Thanksgiving, was then blessed by Pope Benedict XVI during his pilgrimage in Krakow, Poland. In 2016, Pope Francis blessed the cross and those carrying out the evangelization campaign.

Since 2003, the cross has visited Catholic, Orthodox, and Lutheran churches, and has even been present at Buddhist gatherings.

The Cross of Gratitude is currently on display at St. Michael’s and will remain there through July 20. St. Michael’s will hold Akathist, a Greek Orthodox hymn and prayer service, on Mondays at 4 p.m. for those who wish to see the cross and reflect and pray while it is present. Divine Liturgies will also be celebrated on Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout the month.

Bishops invite Pope Leo to visit Peru: ‘His presence will renew the hope of our people’
Tue, 01 Jul 2025 15:47:00 -0400

ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 1, 2025 / 15:47 pm (CNA).

The Peruvian bishops have officially invited Pope Leo XIV to visit Peru, assuring him that “his presence will renew the hope of our people.”

According to a statement from the Peruvian Bishops’ Conference (CEP, by its Spanish acronym), a delegation of bishops, including the conference president, Bishop Carlos García Camader of Lurín, met with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on June 30.

During the audience, “the bishops extended an official invitation to him to make a pastoral visit to Peru,” the CEP stated.

Leo XIV, born in Chicago as Robert Francis Prevost in 1955, lived in Peru for nearly 20 years, serving at different times in various capacities from parochial vicar of Chulucanas in the Piura region to bishop of Chiclayo. He became a Peruvian citizen in 2015.

Greeting the crowd in St. Peter’s Square after he was elected on May 8, Pope Leo XIV addressed a few words to his beloved Diocese of Chiclayo, “where a faithful people accompanied their bishop, shared their faith, and gave so, so much, to continue being the faithful Church of Jesus Christ.”

His missionary work in Peru was featured in the documentary recently released by the Vatican titled “León de Perú.”

According to the CEP, García Camader delivered a letter to the pope on June 30, expressing “on behalf of all the bishops and the Peruvian people, our profound affection for and closeness to the Holy Father” while thanking him for holding a special place in his heart for Peru.

The Peruvian delegation consisted of Bishop Luis Alberto Barrera, Bishop Antonio Santarsiero, Cardinal Pedro Barreto, Archbishop Alfredo Vizcarra, Bishop Pedro Bustamante, Bishop Marco Cortez, Bishop César Huerta, Bishop Ricardo García, Bishop Lizardo Estrada, Bishop Raúl Chau, Bishop Juan Asqui, and Father Guillermo Inca.

In an excerpt from the letter, the president of the CEP assured Leo XIV that “your presence will renew the hope of our people, strengthen the faith of our communities, and be a beautiful sign of communion with the universal Church.”

This story was first publishedby ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Leo XIV reminds women religious that ‘being rooted in Christ’ makes unimaginable possible
Tue, 01 Jul 2025 15:17:00 -0400

ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 1, 2025 / 15:17 pm (CNA).

During an audience on Monday of religious sisters belonging to several orders, Pope Leo XIV told the group that rootedness in Christ allows them to “do things they perhaps never thought they could achieve.”

The Sisters of the Order of St. Basil the Great, the Daughters of Divine Charity, the Augustinian Sisters of the Shelter, and the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Hearts came to the Vatican on June 30 for their general chapters and the Jubilee of Hope.

After praising the diversity of charisms and recalling the “great historical witnesses to the spiritual life” that inspired their foundation — such as St. Augustine, St. Basil, and St. Francis — the pontiff thanked the religious sisters for their service, especially to the weakest members of society.

He also emphasized that “the challenges of the past and the vitality of your present make clear that fidelity to the ancient wisdom of the Gospel is the best way forward for those who, led by the Holy Spirit, undertake new paths of self-giving, dedicated to loving God and neighbor and listening attentively to the signs of the times.”

The pope then recalled the words of St. Augustine: “God is your everything. If you are hungry, God is your bread; if you are thirsty, God is your water; if you are in darkness, God is your light that never fades; if you are naked, God is your everlasting garment.”

He then addressed the following questions to the religious: “To what extent are these words true for me? How much does the Lord satisfy my thirst for life, love, or light?”

For the Holy Father, this “rootedness in Christ” is what has led those who have gone before us “to do things they perhaps never thought they could achieve. This rootedness enabled them to sow seeds of goodness that, enduring throughout the centuries and across continents, have now reached practically the entire world, as your presence here demonstrates.”

The pontiff recalled the words of St. Paul to the Christians of Ephesus, praying that “Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph 3:17-19).

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Cardinal Ambongo: Opposition to same-sex blessings not an ‘African exception’
Tue, 01 Jul 2025 14:47:00 -0400

Vatican City, Jul 1, 2025 / 14:47 pm (CNA).

The leader of Africa’s Catholic bishops pushed back Tuesday on the narrative that it was only Africans who objected to a 2023 Vatican declaration permitting blessings for same-sex couples.

“The position taken by Africa [on the declaration] was also the position of so many bishops here in Europe. It’s not just an African exception,” Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, OFM Cap, told EWTN News on July 1.

The 65-year-old cardinal added that homosexuality is fundamentally a “doctrinal, theological problem,” and Church moral teaching on the subject has not changed.

Ambongo is archbishop of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo and heads the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM).

After the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) published Fiducia Supplicans on Dec. 18, 2023, Ambongo flew to Rome, where he met with Pope Francis to convey the dismayed reactions of the bishops in Africa to the declaration, which permitted nonliturgical blessings of same-sex couples.

According to Ambongo, he worked with the head of the DDF, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, and with Pope Francis to produce a statement that the permission for same-sex blessings did not apply in Africa. The Jan. 11, 2024, statement from SECAM quoted the Bible’s prohibitions of homosexual acts and called same-sex unions “intrinsically corrupt.”

On Jan. 4, 2024, the DDF had issued a statement acknowledging that pastoral contexts in different countries could require a slower reception of the declaration.

Later in January 2024, Pope Francis defended the declaration and called the Church in Africa “a separate case.” In an interview with Italian newspaper La Stampa, Francis said: “For [Africans], homosexuality is something ‘ugly’ from a cultural point of view; they do not tolerate it.”

Ambongo, who spoke to EWTN News after a Vatican press conference to present a document on climate justice and ecological conversion, said that Africa “experienced [Fiducia Supplicans] as something that was being imposed from outside on a people that has other priorities.”

“The pastoral priority for us is not a problem of gay people, it’s not a problem of homosexuality. For us, the pastoral priority is life: How to live, how to survive,” he added. Themes such as homosexuality “are for you here in Europe, not for us in Africa.”

The cardinal, who was a member of Pope Francis’ advisory Council of Cardinals — sometimes referred to as the “C9” because for most of its history it consisted of nine cardinals — said he does not know if Pope Leo XIV will form a similar group to advise the pope.

Ambongo said during pre-conclave meetings, cardinals expressed a desire for the pope to value the input of the entire College of Cardinals, possibly even holding annual meetings. “But this small group that could also help the pope, that depends on him,” he said.

Senate budget bill passes with provision to defund Planned Parenthood
Tue, 01 Jul 2025 14:17:00 -0400

CNA Staff, Jul 1, 2025 / 14:17 pm (CNA).

Senate Republicans on Tuesday passed President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” budget measure, including a provision to defund Planned Parenthood for a year, which pro-life advocates are lauding as a “major step” toward permanently defunding the abortion giant.

The bill was originally set to defund Planned Parenthood for a 10-year period. Last week, Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough disqualified more than a dozen provisions in the bill, including the portion defunding abortion providers, forcing Republicans to rework the language of the bill.

The Senate on Tuesday passed the reworked bill after a tiebreaking vote cast by Vice President JD Vance. Three Republican lawmakers — Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, and Rand Paul of Kentucky — opposed the bill on various grounds.

The reconciliation bill, which includes several spending cuts and tax breaks, still needs to go back to the House for a final round of voting.

The Hyde Amendment prohibits direct federal funding for abortions, though advocates have argued that the federal government has long subsidized abortion by proxy by providing hundreds of millions of dollars in annual funding for Planned Parenthood. The funding is nominally for non-abortion services.

While the defunding period is only a 10th of what pro-life lawmakers initially planned, it would still be significant progress, pro-life advocates argued on Tuesday.

Kristan Hawkins, the president of Students for Life, called the bill a “small but important victory,” noting that it “cuts an estimated $500 million from Planned Parenthood and abortion vendors,” though she acknowledged it was “for one year only.”

“This proves what we’ve said all along: Congress can cut Planned Parenthood’s funding — and they just did,” Hawkins said in a Tuesday statement on X. “The moral obligation is clear: If we can do it for one year, we must do it for good.”

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser called the passage “a crucial victory in the fight against abortion, America’s leading cause of death, and an industry that endangers women and girls.”

“The greatest pro-life victory since Dobbs is within reach!” she added.

Live Action President Lila Rose on Tuesday called the measure “a start but not enough.”

“The House should restore the 10-year defund they already passed,” she said.

Pope Leo XIV appoints new archbishop to lead Archdiocese of Mobile, Alabama
Tue, 01 Jul 2025 13:47:00 -0400

Vatican City, Jul 1, 2025 / 13:47 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV has appointed Bishop Mark Rivituso, auxiliary of St. Louis, as metropolitan archbishop of Mobile, Alabama.

Rivituso succeeds Archbishop Thomas Rodi, who led the Archdiocese of Mobile beginning in 2008. Rodi submitted his resignation letter to Pope Francis in March 2024 after turning 75.

The archbishop-elect on July 1 said he is grateful to Pope Leo for his appointment and feels blessed to follow Rodi as a “good shepherd” for the archdiocese.

“I rely upon the good shepherd, Jesus, to help me to truly be the bishop all of you need me to be,” Rivituso said at a Tuesday press conference. “I will labor with the shepherding love of Jesus for all of you because I want to love you as Christ loves.”

“I have a big smile on my face because every time I have an opportunity to truly serve others, that’s truly a blessing,” he added.

Rivituso celebrated Mass on July 1 at the Cathedral-Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Mobile in thanksgiving for his appointment.

The archbishop-elect received his episcopal consecration and was made an auxiliary for the Archdiocese of St. Louis and titular of Turuzi in 2017.

Ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of St. Louis in 1988 after completing his seminary training at Cardinal Glennon College and Kenrick Seminary, Rivituso served in several parishes across the city.

He was parish vicar of St. Ambrose in St. Louis from 1988 to 1990, of Immaculate Conception in Dardenne Prairie from 1990 to 1993, and of St. Jerome in Bissell Hills from 1996 to 2004. Between 2008 and 2013, he was parish priest of Curé of Ars in Shrewsbury.

Across the St. Louis Archdiocese, Rivituso served as a teacher at St. Dominic High School in O’Fallon from 1988 to 1993, an administrator of St. Margaret of Scotland from 1993 to 1994, a member of the metropolitan tribunal from 1993 to 1994 and 1996 to 2004, the judicial vicar of the court of second instance from 2005 to 2011, and the vicar general of the court from 2011 to 2018.

Confraternity of Catholic Clergy defends inviolable seal of confession
Tue, 01 Jul 2025 13:17:00 -0400

CNA Staff, Jul 1, 2025 / 13:17 pm (CNA).

The Confraternity of Catholic Clergy, representing over 500 Roman Catholic priests and deacons from the U.S., Australia, and the United Kingdom, has issued a statement defending the inviolability of the seal of confession.

The statement was released on June 27, the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The declaration comes in response to civil laws, the most recent one in Washington state, that seek to compel priests to disclose information regarding child abuse learned during the sacrament of reconciliation or face penalties.

According to Washington’s new law, noncompliance could result in up to 364 days in jail and a $5,000 fine.

The confraternity’s statement emphasized that the Catholic Church teaches the seal of confession is inviolable with “absolutely no exceptions.” Expounded in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (No. 1467) and the Code of Canon Law (Nos. 983, 1388), this teaching binds priests to maintain absolute confidentiality regarding both the content of confessions and the identity of penitents. Violation of confidentiality incurs automatic excommunication, reversible only by the pope.

The confraternity argued that laws like Washington state’s infringe on religious liberty while failing to advance justice, citing the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, the U.K.’s Human Rights Act of 1998, and Australia’s constitution.

In the statement, the group highlighted the Church’s commitment to child protection through criminal investigation and adjudication, which “can be lawfully and morally done without violating religious liberty.”

Notably, the statement’s authors also pointed out the absurdity of demanding that priests identify anonymous penitents. It also emphasized the injustice of laws like Washington state’s, which exempts other professionals, such as doctors and therapists, from the mandatory disclosure requirement.

After the passage of Washington’s Senate Bill 5375, signed into law by Gov. Bob Ferguson on May 3 and effective July 27, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) responded swiftly.

Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, sent a letter to Ferguson, a Catholic, just days after Ferguson signed the bill, announcing an investigation into the law and describing it as a “legislative attack on the Catholic Church and its sacrament of confession, a religious practice ordained by the Catholic Church dating back to the Church’s origins.”

The DOJ then filed a lawsuit against Washington on June 23, asserting that the law violates the First Amendment’s protection of the free exercise of religion. “The seal of confidentiality is ... the lifeblood of confession,” the DOJ stated in its brief. “Without it, the free exercise of the Catholic religion ... cannot take place.”

Washington’s Catholic bishops, including Seattle Archbishop Paul Etienne and Spokane Bishop Thomas Daly, filed a federal lawsuit on May 29 challenging the law on First Amendment and equal protection grounds.

The lawsuit highlighted the Church’s robust child protection policies, which the bishops said exceeds state requirements. “The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle and the dioceses of Yakima and Spokane have each adopted and implemented ... policies that go further in the protection of children than the current requirements of Washington law,” the lawsuit stated.

Daly vowed to the Catholic faithful that clergy would face imprisonment rather than break the seal of confession. “I want to assure you that your shepherds, bishops, and priests are committed to keeping the seal of confession — even to the point of going to jail,” he said. Etienne echoed this, referencing Acts 5:29: “We must obey God rather than men.”

Orthodox churches have joined the legal battle, filing their own lawsuit on June 16, asserting that their priests, like Catholic clergy, have a “strict religious duty” to maintain the confidentiality of the confessional, with violations constituting a “canonical crime and a grave sin.”

The Confraternity of Catholic Clergy was founded in 1975 to foster ongoing formation for clergy per Vatican II’s directives.

Over 1,000 celebrate 70 years of Marian devotion, Polish heritage at Pennsylvania shrine
Tue, 01 Jul 2025 12:07:00 -0400

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 1, 2025 / 12:07 pm (CNA).

More than 1,000 Catholics with Polish roots gathered for a celebratory jubilee Mass and jubilee concert to honor the 70th anniversary of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in the southeastern Pennsylvania borough of Doylestown on Sunday, June 29.

The Marian shrine, located about 25 miles north of Philadelphia, was established in 1955 by a Polish priest from the Order of St. Paul the First Hermit. It was created to honor the Black Madonna — a centuries-old icon of the Blessed Mother that sits in the southern Polish city of Czestochowa and holds a strong devotion from the country’s faithful.

Pauline Fathers from the order continue to operate the shrine.

“The seeds of the shrine were sowed 70 years ago by a Pauline priest who came carrying the image of Our Lady of Czestochowa with the dream of establishing a shrine,” Archbishop Nelson Pérez of Philadelphia, the main celebrant of the Mass, said in his homily.

“And that community came here carrying Our Lady and sowed those seeds,” he said. “... And so here we are, fast-forward 70 years later, and from that little humble barn chapel … came all of this.”

In 1955, Father Michael Zembrzuski brought a copy of the icon that had been blessed by St. John XXIII to the United States in hopes of creating a chapel, according to the shrine’s website.

The icon was displayed in a small wooden barn chapel at first, but the Pauline Fathers soon built a much larger complex to support the high number of Polish-American pilgrims visiting the site.

Now the Black Madonna icon, which shows the Blessed Virgin holding the infant Christ with two scars down her right cheek, sits above the altar of the Church. The scars on the original icon in Poland are believed to have been caused by an attack from the Hussites.

During his homily, Pérez spoke about the famous wounds on the icon, noting that “they tried to fix it, you know, in the original image and they could not.”

“They represent the wounds that the Church has received over time, sometimes from the outside; sometimes inflicted upon itself,” he added. “Wounds that leave a mark, and those marks could not be taken away from the image — the face of Our Lady.”

Pérez said the scars are also “an incredible sign of compassion and understanding with you and with me because we too bear wounds.”

“They might not be as visible as those wounds,” he said. “They might be the wounds of our heart and actually you and I know right now in this moment what they are and how powerful at times they can exert energy upon us. The Blessed Mother here stands before us saying: ‘I got them too.’ … And those wounds become part of our own story of salvation.”

A homily in Polish was delivered by Father Arnold Chrapkowski, the superior general of the Pauline order.

A large portion of pilgrims who attended the 70th anniversary celebration were immigrants from Poland and many others were descendents of Polish immigrants.

One pilgrim named Adam, who was raised in Poland and visited the original icon in his home country “many times,” told CNA that it’s important to him to be within driving distance to a shrine honoring Our Lady of Czestochowa.

Adam, who now lives in New York City, said the icon serves as a reminder to “look for support from God and from Our Lady.”

Another pilgrim named Gerome, who grew up in Hamtramck, Michigan (a predominantly Polish city near Detroit), told CNA that copies of the Black Madonna icon were prominently displayed at many of the neighborhood churches.

Gerome, who now lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, said he often visits the shrine, especially during Christmas, to hear the “kolęda,” which are Polish Christmas carols. He said he has also visited the original shrine in Poland, which he described as “beautiful” and an important devotion for Polish Catholics.

“People would walk from Warsaw to Our Lady of Czestochowa [for pilgrimages],” he said.

Bishop Krzysztof Józef Nykiel, the regent of the Apostolic Penitentiary of the Apostolic See, also attended the anniversary to concelebrate and read a letter from Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

In the letter, Parolin conveyed a message from Pope Leo XIV bestowing his apostolic blessing on participants in the celebration and thanked the Pauline Fathers for their mission in the United States.

“He sends prayerful best wishes to all participating in the Mass commemorating this occasion,” the letter read.

The 70th anniversary Mass was bilingual, in both English and Polish, to accommodate those who primarily speak Polish and the English-speaking pilgrims. During the concert and the Mass, the choir played several Polish Catholic hymns.

One hymn, “Czarna Madonna,” which honors the Blessed Mother and the icon, was sung at the end of Mass. Much of the congregation joined with the choir in singing the Polish-language hymn as Perez and the nine other concelebrating bishops turned to the icon before the closing procession.

“In her arms, you will find peace and shelter from evil,” the song proclaims, according to an English translation. “For she has a tender heart for all her children. And she will take care of you, when you give your heart to her.”

Advocates sue Colorado over suicide law they say discriminates against disabled
Tue, 01 Jul 2025 11:36:00 -0400

CNA Staff, Jul 1, 2025 / 11:36 am (CNA).

A coalition of advocacy groups is suing the state of Colorado over its assisted suicide law, claiming the statute is unconstitutional for allegedly discriminating against those who suffer from disabilities.

Filed June 30 in U.S. district court by several organizations including Not Dead Yet and the Institute for Patients’ Rights, the lawsuit describes Colorado’s assisted suicide regime as “a deadly and discriminatory system that steers people with life-threatening disabilities away from necessary lifesaving and preserving mental health care.”

In the lawsuit — spearheaded by the umbrella group End Assisted Suicide — the plaintiffs argue that the law “does not require any evaluation, screening, or treatment by a mental health professional for serious mental illness, depression, or treatable suicidality before the lethal prescription is written.”

The state legalized assisted suicide in 2016, one of several states that year to do so. The measure permits doctors to prescribe lethal doses of drugs to terminally ill patients who wish to kill themselves.

In 2024 the state expanded the law to allow a larger number of medical officials to prescribe those drugs.

Prescribers are not required to possess expertise about the patient’s specific illness and are not required to be trained in recognizing mental health symptoms associated with the illness, the lawsuit argues.

Providers are similarly not required to help patients access alternative treatments such as palliative care and mental health treatment, according to the suit.

Colorado has created “a two-tiered medical system in which people who are suicidal receive radically different treatment responses by their providers and protections from the state” depending on a medical provider’s opinion, the lawsuit alleges, arguing that the state law violates both federal disability laws and “constitutional guarantees of due process and equal protection.”

The suit asks the court to block the law under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act, as well as the Affordable Care Act and the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The Colorado law has received pushback from Catholic advocates. The state Catholic conference last year opposed the expansion of the suicide law, calling the overall statute itself “unjust,” stipulating that it “targets the most vulnerable in our society” and corrupts the practice of medicine.

Elsewhere, Church leadership has similarly condemned euthanasia and assisted suicide. Pope Francis in 2022 said dying people need palliative care rather than suicide; the next year he condemned euthanasia as “playing with life” and “bad compassion.”

Prior to his election as pontiff, meanwhile, Pope Leo XIV spoke out against assisted suicide, warning in 2016 that the practice “threatens the most vulnerable in society.”

Eleven other states and the District of Columbia allow assisted suicide. Most recently the New York State Legislature in June passed a law legalizing it there, though Gov. Kathy Hochul had not yet signed it as of July 1.

EWTN News outlets win dozens of awards for Catholic journalistic excellence
Tue, 01 Jul 2025 10:35:00 -0400

Phoenix, Ariz., Jul 1, 2025 / 10:35 am (CNA).

EWTN News properties received 27 awards at the recent 2025 Catholic Media Association (CMA) awards in Phoenix for journalistic excellence across Catholic News Agency, the National Catholic Register, and ChurchPop.

For the second year in a row, EWTN Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board Michael Warsaw led the way, winning in the “Best Regular Column — General Commentary” category for his regular column “A Note From the Publisher.” A CMA judge hailed Warsaw’s columns for their “exceptional, frank, and forthright candor.”

Meanwhile, the Register won coveted top honors as best Catholic newspaper of the year. “There’s something for every reader in this fine publication,” one CMA judge said of the paper, which has received this honor multiple times in recent years.

For its incisive coverage of in vitro fertilization, CNA also took first place in the category of “Best Analysis/Background/Round-Up News Writing — National Newspaper or Wire Service.” A CMA judge commented that the articles on the topic by reporters Tyler Arnold and Peter Pinedo gave “a detailed explanation of the science behind in vitro fertilization and how it can be viewed through a Catholic lens.”

CNA’s editor-in-chief, Ken Oliver-Méndez, also took first place in the category “Best News Writing One Shot — National Event” for his coverage of the 2024 Republican National Convention titled “Spiritual tone at RNC heightened in wake of Trump assassination attempt.” A CMA judge heaped praise on this “standout” piece for its “good insights and smart writing.”

Judges also recognized the agency’s top-notch global coverage, with CNA’s Marinella Bandini receiving first place for what one judge described as a “gripping, firsthand account” of a Catholic woman who survived the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in the category “Best News Writing One Shot — International Event.”

The Register also took first place in the “Best Coverage — Disaster or Crisis” category for articles on the Middle East by Solène Tadié, Alberto Fernández, and Michele Chabin.

The Register also led in the category of “Best Coverage — Religious Liberty Issues” with its articles by Alberto Fernández, Andrea Picciotti-Bayer, and Jonathan Liedl on “Religious Liberty in the Crosshairs.” The coverage, one CMA judge said, provided “diverse perspectives and present differences evenhandedly.”

CNA also won top honors for “Best Use of Video on Social Media — Ongoing Series — Radio, Television Stations, and Film Companies” for Francesca Pollio Fenton’s coverage of the new season of “The Chosen.” Pollio Fenton’s reporting of the press junket was described as “highly engaging.”

In the “Best Feature Writing — National Newspaper or Wire Service” category, the Register won first place for Matthew McDonald’s article “Surrounded by Halloween Witchery, Catholics in Salem Wage a Battle for Souls,” which a judge said was “grounded in history and well-known cultural themes.”

In addition, CNA, the Register, and sister EWTN News outlet ChurchPop amassed runner-up awards in 18 additional categories for coverage of ecumenical and interfaith issues and religious freedom as well as other events and topics ranging from 2024 papal travel to the National Eucharistic Revival to the issue of smartphones in the confessional.

Celebrating the bevy of awards, EWTN News President and COO Montse Alvarado commented that “it’s humbling for all of the EWTN News team to be recognized among our peers, who understand what it takes to deliver news faithful to our shared mission and unmatched in quality, journalism that informs rather than inflames.”

Likewise, Register Editor-in-Chief Shannon Mullen emphasized that “it means a great deal to us to be recognized by our peers in the Catholic media.”

“These honors are a testament to the hard work our journalists do every day to deliver the excellent journalism that our Church deserves and our readers have come to expect from the Register,” Mullen added.

In a similar vein, CNA editor-in-chief Oliver-Méndez called the awards a “testament to both the quality and value of the agency’s coverage of important events and issues of interest to Catholics in the United States and around the world.”

“Receiving such recognition serves to stimulate our entire team as we strive to achieve excellence across the entire scope of our news coverage,” he concluded.

After 20 years of gay marriage in Spain, ‘not impossible’ to rescind the law, expert says
Tue, 01 Jul 2025 09:00:00 -0400

Madrid, Spain, Jul 1, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

Analyzing the consequences of the law that equated same-sex unions with marriage in Spain 20 years ago, Carmen Sánchez Maíllo, academic secretary of the CEU (Center of University Studies, by its Spanish acronym) Institute of Family Studies, considers the statute to be difficult to overturn but “not impossible.”

On July 1, 2005, Spain’s lower house passed the law that then-President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero announced a year earlier that his government would introduce. Article 44 of the Civil Code was reworded as follows: “Marriage shall have the same requirements and effects when both parties are of the same or different sexes.”

Spain thus became the third country in the world, after the Netherlands and Belgium, to equate marriage with same-sex unions, which also allowed same-sex couples to apply to adopt children in the latter two.

A few days before the final vote, a huge demonstration took place in Madrid featuring the theme “The Family Does matter, for a Father and a Mother.” Numerous civic groups participated in the event, which had the explicit support of the country’s Catholic Church.

As many as 20 Spanish bishops could be seen marching in the streets of Spain’s capital city, including the then-president of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Antonio María Rouco Varela.

On Sept. 30, 2005, the People’s Party (PP) filed an appeal with the Constitutional Court arguing that the law “denaturalizes the institution of marriage” and violates numerous constitutional articles. The court never ruled on the appeal until seven years later, in 2012, when it rejected it.

Despite its initial opposition, the PP has now wholeheartedly supported the so-called LGBTI pride celebrations for years, as evidenced on its social media.

In the six months remaining in 2005 after the law came into effect, 1,269 same-sex unions were entered into, mostly between men, a trend that continued until 2018, when those between women became more numerous.

In comparison with all marriages, same-sex unions have gone from representing 1% of the total population to 4% in two decades.

Speaking with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, Sánchez said that “turning these issues around is difficult [but] not impossible” and that achieving it requires “great determination” on the part of a parliamentary majority.

As precedents in the field of family law, she cited the cases of Slovenia and Hungary, by referendum and legislation respectively, and with regard to the right to life, the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade that returned the issue to state legislatures.

‘Gender ideology has swept through Spanish legislation’

As Sánchez sees it, the law equating marriage with same-sex unions “affects the very concept of marriage, its purposes, and its social function in such a way that it is denaturalized,” but that is not its only effect.

With such unions, “a breach was opened on many issues, a spearhead through which an ideology enters in and fully affects politics and legislation,” she added.

“Gender ideology has swept through Spanish legislation,” Sánchez noted, with important “social, cultural, and demographic implications.”

Focusing exclusively on the law equating same-sex unions with marriage, Sánchez emphasized the special impact on minors: “In this type of union, one of the two role models, paternal or maternal, is absent,” which is detrimental to minors “who need both figures” in their lives.

In the case of boys, the paternal figure offers “a model of virility, of masculinity, which today are politically incorrect words,” as are “chivalry” or “nobility,” she pointed out.

In the case of girls, the father figure “is extremely important for their self-esteem, identity, and security. They will compare any relationship they have with their father figure.”

For her part, the mother figure “provides that tenderness, that affection, and is also necessary for sons and daughters.”

For Sánchez, this type of law also carries the danger that “children can be exploited in ideological debates,” which goes against the best interests of the child.

In this regard, she pointed out that what is “healthiest and most balanced” is to have both parents, male and female, and that “the best interest of the child is a marriage” with both role models.

On the other hand, the natural infertility of same-sex relations has other effects. In the case of two men, these types of laws become “a lever” to resort to surrogacy, which “commodifies the female body” and which, Sánchez noted, “has been prohibited in Spain since 2006.”

In the case of lesbian couples, naturally infertile sexual activity leads some to resort to assisted reproduction techniques. In the researcher’s opinion, beyond how these procedures affect the dignity of human life, “this is a huge problem, because these are children born without a known, identified father figure.”

The importance of nurturing marriage

Faced with this situation, Sánchez proposed highlighting the witness of “strong, stable, united marriages,” including large families, that offer “an image that society needs,” of families living life with joy.

Furthermore, she said she believes it is necessary to “speak well of the fact that a strong, united marriage is possible” and for families to help each other, because “a marriage always needs support,” whether from other spouses, experts, or counselors.

“There is a desire inscribed in the human heart to love and be loved, and it must be nurtured at all stages of life,” explained Sanchez, who went on to emphasize that marriage is “a very well-designed” institution. It is God’s plan for the person. It is a natural vocation.”

“We are called to this communion of persons, to a very deep union between husband and wife, for the family, and children need their parents to love each other and they need those two role models who form the way they see the world,” she explained.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Mexican bishop: Despite danger, it’s worth the risk to become a priest
Tue, 01 Jul 2025 08:00:00 -0400

Vatican City, Jul 1, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Hilario González García, the bishop of Saltillo, Mexico, since 2021, recently made the pilgrimage to Rome for the Jubilee of Seminarians, Bishops, and Priests held June 23–27. The prelate shared the highlights of his visit to the Eternal CIty and in particular the reasons why, despite the risks, it’s worthwhile to be a priest in his country.

During the last 30 years, at least 80 priests have been murdered in Mexico, making the nation one of the most dangerous in the world for exercising priestly ministry. Speaking with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, González responded with hope to this painful reality.

‘We must not be afraid to give our lives for Christ’

“Mexico is the country where good priests are happy giving their lives for Christ and for his Church,” González said.

He also emphasized that the priestly vocation, even in difficult contexts, allows a priest to offer the best of himself: “This is much more valuable than any human, economic, or sociopolitical project, because it opens horizons of fulfillment and overcomes the selfish and arrogant tendency that the world proposes today.”

In this context, he encouraged those who feel called to the priesthood to respond with generosity: “I invite those who feel called to be honest and transparent in their aspirations, and, trusting in the grace and mercy of the Lord, to take the first step of their vocational journey by saying ‘yes’ to the invitation of Jesus.”

“You shouldn’t be afraid of giving your life for Christ nor be afraid of offering it in priestly service,” he emphasized.

Meetings with Pope Leo XIV

The prelate recounted to ACI Prensa the details of his “edifying” experience in Rome, which served to “strengthen and encourage the spiritual bond” as well as an opportunity to give thanks for the “gift of life, of the priestly vocation, and of the episcopal ministry.”

Coinciding with his 60th birthday, the 30th anniversary of his priestly ordination, and the 10th anniversary of his episcopal ministry, the Mexican bishop traveled “as a pilgrim” to the Eternal City.

Throughout the week, González was able to hear Pope Leo XIV on four occasions. The first was during the meeting with the seminarians, which reminded him of his service as a formator and the “great responsibility involved in accompanying candidates in their initial formation process.”

He also participated in the audience with the bishops. He was particularly moved by the Holy Father’s address, which included “the invitation to be men of theological life” and to “remain firm in the faith, convinced of God’s help so as not to lose hope and thus encourage others in times of trial,” González told ACI Prensa.

Regarding the International Vocational Meeting, he emphasized the importance of the pope’s call “to be more purposeful, with the witness of a life happily given over” to the Lord. Regarding the Mass that Leo XIV celebrated on the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on June 27, during which he ordained 32 priests, the bishop of Saltillo emphasized Pope Leo’s invitation to “fulfill the promises we made on the day of our ordination.”

Commenting on Pope Leo’s words on celibacy, which during his address to the bishops the pontiff said is more than living a celibate life, González emphasized that it is not merely “a discipline or rule” or “a superhuman effort” but rather “a supernatural gift to pray for, accept, and cultivate, and a response that frees us to serve with the joy that springs from a heart that knows it is deeply loved.”

“For me, this means that I have to ‘put more effort’ into my consecration to the Lord, be more humble and transparent in my interpersonal relationships, and continue to bind myself with ever greater dedication and joy to the heart of Jesus,” he added.

Combatting abuse in the Church

During the meeting with the bishops, Pope Leo XIV also encouraged them to be “firm and decisive” in addressing abuse. The Mexican prelate stated that the bishops in his country are faithfully carrying out these instructions “to protect minors and to prevent such behavior from occurring.”

Each diocese in Mexico, according to the bishop of Saltillo, provides “human and institutional resources to ensure safe environments in our communities.”

He also highlighted the importance of the proper formation of seminarians and priests as well as those in consecrated life and communities, “to respond honestly and seek to purify attitudes that go against the righteous living of Christian life in all areas.”

Challenges facing the Church

The bishop noted that, in the Diocese of Saltillo, they are “trying to respond to the challenge of selfish individualism” that prevents people’s hearts “from loving and serving generously, which withers interpersonal relationships, thus weakening the fabric of community and society.”

He also emphasized that they are “in tune with the synodal experience” and are working to “recover the identity and joy of the filial experience with God.”

“We see the social consequences of individualism in the disintegration of people (through abandonment, vices, addictions, loss of personal and family life), in violence and cruelty in interpersonal relationships, and in indifference and selfishness in helping those in need. We try to take up these challenges with simplicity of heart and with God’s grace to help build his kingdom in our society,” he said.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Judge rejects motion to dismiss lawsuit blocking Catholic trade school from setting up shop
Tue, 01 Jul 2025 07:00:00 -0400

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 1, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

A lawsuit that seeks to block West Virginia from offering a Catholic trade college a $5 million grant will move forward after a judge rejected the college’s motion for a dismissal last week.

The lawsuit, filed by the West Virginia American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of the American Humanist Association (AHA), is asking a Kanawha County Circuit Court judge to block the grant awarded to St. Joseph the Worker College.

The College of St. Joseph the Worker, based in Steubenville, Ohio, teaches trades related to construction — carpentry, HVAC, electrical, and plumbing — combined with a bachelor’s degree in Catholic studies. The school intends to use the grant money to create a nonprofit construction company in West Virginia and expand its job training and education programs into the state.

The West Virginia ACLU contends in its lawsuit that taxpayer money should not be spent to support a grant to a religiously affiliated college. The lawsuit was filed against the West Virginia Water Development Authority (WVDA), which is the government body that approved the grant for economic development purposes. The college is not a defendant in the lawsuit.

“Our case challenging a $5 million grant in water development funds to a ‘radically Catholic’ school in Ohio can move forward,” the West Virginia ACLU announced in a statement posted on Bluesky.

“Thousands in West Virginia lack clean water,” the statement read. “Forcing them to fund this school’s religious mission with money meant for infrastructure is wholly inappropriate.”

Both the nonprofit construction company and the additional training programs the college wants to establish would be located in Weirton, West Virginia, once a booming steel town. The city sits in the northern tip of the state and borders Ohio, where the college is primarily based.

The proposed construction company would employ students and focus on revitalization projects for sites of historical or cultural significance that for-profit companies would likely pass on.

As part of the grant funding agreement, St. Joseph the Worker would recruit students from West Virginia and develop partnerships with West Virginia-based tradesmen and contractors to help place students in jobs located in the state after graduation.

A spokesperson for St. Joseph the Worker did not respond to a request for comment.

In January, when the ACLU first filed its lawsuit, a spokesperson for the WVDA told CNA it “will not comment to the media” about the lawsuit but that all comments “will be made in public court filings.”

Jonathan Roumie meets the pope: ‘There was just a kindness on his face’
Tue, 01 Jul 2025 06:00:00 -0400

CNA Staff, Jul 1, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

When Jonathan Roumie, the actor who plays Jesus in “The Chosen,” heard the news of the election of an American-born pope, he said he wept “because I just never thought I would ever live to see the day.”

Two months later, on June 25, Roumie had the opportunity to meet the new Holy Father during a papal general audience while the actor was in Italy filming the crucifixion scenes for Season 6 of the popular show.

Roumie sat down with EWTN News correspondent Colm Flynn for an interview just hours after meeting Pope Leo XIV to talk about playing Jesus in “The Chosen” as well as what is was like to meet the pope for the first time.

“It was fantastic,” Roumie told Flynn. “He was so kind and so gracious and generous with his time.”

Despite the meeting being a bit of a “blur,” Roumie recalled telling the Holy Father that he was “humbled to be there and it was great to meet him.”

Pope Leo told Roumie that while one of his brothers is a fan of the show, he himself hasn’t seen it yet, to which Roumie replied: “Well, we brought some DVDs to help remedy that.”

Roumie met the late Pope Francis on two separate occasions during his pontificate. In each of those meetings, Roumie had prepared a message in Spanish to share with the pope but in this meeting, he was able to communicate in his own language.

“When you know you can communicate with somebody in your own language, it makes all the difference,” he said, adding: “For instance, I mentioned — because Pope Leo is from Chicago — I said, you know it’s nice being able to throw out references like ‘Da Bulls’ and ‘Da Bears’ and him understand what I’m referencing.”

“There was just a kindness on his face and just a charity about him that just moved me,” Roumie said.

Speaking about his time filming the Crucifixion scenes in the historic town of Matera in northern Italy, Roumie said: “I’ve never done anything harder than that.”

He added: “The impact that it’s going to have on people — it’s going to be so huge and so life-changing for so many people … I think it’s just going to propagate the name of Jesus at a breakneck speed.”

Despite the many “beautiful moments,” Roumie also said he believes it will be “extremely hard for people” to watch.

“By that point we will have had five and a half seasons of knowing Jesus as our friend, as a miracle worker, as an intimate companion, a colleague, and a teacher, and a rabbi, and having spent 45 hours of story with him healthy and OK and then to see that rapidly decline in a singular season — it’s just going to be devastating.”

Surrendering to Christ amid a career of instability

Roumie also shared with Flynn his story of surrender to Christ amid a career of instability.

The actor first began his career in New York, where he did voice-over work and commercials. He then moved to Los Angeles, where he had a plethora of jobs while trying to make into the entertainment industry, including driving ride share, food delivery, catering, and painting houses, just to be able to pay the bills. At one point, he found himself with only $20 and didn’t know where his next paycheck would be coming from. It was at this low point that he fully submitted his life and career over to God.

“Once I committed my career to him and in doing so the entirety of my life, that’s when my life changed,” he shared.

Three months later, he received the call from Dallas Jenkins, creator and director of “The Chosen,” asking him if he’d like to take part in a crowdfunded series about the life of Jesus and his disciples.

After filming the first four episodes of Season 1, the actor recalled feeling like they were creating something that was “uniquely special” but had no idea just how much success it was going to have.

Now having portrayed Jesus for more than five years, Roumie said he feels there is “always this striving to be more like him in order to be able to play him and being falteringly human — that can feel impossible at times, but I know that I’m here doing this for a reason and I’m just going to continue to give him everything that I have.”

“I’m going to do the best I can and make sure I’m exercising the sacraments and going to confession and receiving the Eucharist,” he added.

The impact of being seen as Jesus

During the interview with Flynn, Roumie also discussed the challenge of having people view him as Jesus.

“So many people say to me, ‘You’re exactly what I would have pictured if I met Jesus,’” he said, “and so they impose or project that relationship that they have or those ideas or those expectations on a subconscious level, or maybe an even semiconscious level, onto me to an extent.”

When fans of the show start to call Roumie “Jesus,” he explained that he makes sure to say his own name to them “to remind them that there is a line of demarcation.”

He said these experiences also make him much more aware of “an implied level of accountability.”

“If I’m being held to the standards of Jesus, or being seen as somebody that is at least trying to live out those standards in their life, well, that’s great because it’s just better for me spiritually to be living in that manner,” he said.

However, it does make him think how fans might react to roles he takes beyond “The Chosen.” He did point out, however, that he wouldn’t do anything “that goes against my beliefs or anything like that or a character that just doesn’t sit right with me or that I don’t discern with the Lord before I commit to a project.”

Speaking to what has made him the most proud of being a part of “The Chosen,” the actor highlighted the “impact of the show and the reality of what it’s doing for people — the reality of how God is using it to encounter people.”

U.S. adults hold ‘nuanced’ opinions on religion in public schools, new polling shows
Mon, 30 Jun 2025 16:18:00 -0400

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 30, 2025 / 16:18 pm (CNA).

New polling from the Associated Press (AP) NORC Center for Public Affairs Research has found that U.S. adults hold “nuanced views about the role of religion in public schools.”

While the majority of adults, about 58%, say they support religious chaplains providing services in public schools, only 40% say they believe teachers should be allowed to lead a class in prayer, according to data from the survey conducted June 5–9.

The survey contained polling of 1,158 U.S. adults in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

“More people oppose than support policies that would allow religious schools to become tax-funded public charter schools, but there is about equal support and opposition for a policy that would allow school vouchers to be used at private or religious schools,” the survey found.

Results for the AP-NORC polling come after Pew Research Center found that 52% of U.S. adults support allowing Chrisian prayer in public schools as debates about the issue continue across the country.

Though the majority supports designated religious chaplains serving in public schools, 55% of U.S. adults in the AP survey said they did not believe teachers should be allowed to lead a public school class in prayer.

Sixty percent said public schools should not be allowed to hold mandatory private prayer and religious reading.

The survey found that regardless of partisan alignment, “attitudes about the role of religion in school are often shared across religious groups, especially white evangelical Christians and non-white Protestants.”

“White evangelical Christians, non-white Protestants, and Catholics are all more likely than those who are not affiliated with a religion to approve of religious chaplains providing support services, teachers leading prayer in class, and mandatory periods for private prayer and religious reading at public schools,” the report stated, noting that mainline Protestants responded similarly to those without religious affiliation about prayer periods and religious chaplains in public schools.

Overall, the survey said that “roughly a quarter to a third of the public lack firm opinions” about additional issues regarding religion and public education, including taxpayer-funded vouchers and vaccines.

While polling was less conclusive on these matters because nearly one-third of polled Americans had no opinion, of those who expressed opinions, more respondents said they oppose religious exemptions for childhood vaccines required for public schools. More respondents also said they oppose allowing religious schools to become taxpayer-funded charter schools.

“People are roughly split on their support or opposition to tax-funded vouchers that help parents pay for tuition for their children to attend private or religious schools instead of public schools,” the report said, noting that Catholics are among the religious groups that were more likely to support taxpayer-funded vouchers, religious exemptions, and religious charter schools.

20 bishops join interfaith letter against ICE funding boost in ‘Big Beautiful Bill’
Mon, 30 Jun 2025 15:47:00 -0400

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 30, 2025 / 15:47 pm (CNA).

A coalition of 20 American Catholic bishops and religious leaders from other faiths has signed on to a letter urging lawmakers to vote against a proposed budget bill because of provisions to increase funding for immigration enforcement.

“From our various faith perspectives, the moral test of a nation is how it treats those most in need of support,” the letter read. “In our view, this legislation will harm the poor and vulnerable in our nation, to the detriment of the common good.”

The letter’s signatories included Cardinal Robert McElroy of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., and Cardinal Joseph Tobin of the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey. Phoenix Bishop John Dolan, Seattle Archbishop Paul Etienne, St. Louis Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski, and Sacramento, California, Bishop Jaime Soto were also among those who signed.

In addition to the bishops, other signatories to the letter included the leadership team of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas. Some Lutheran, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Muslim, and Jewish faith leaders also signed the letter.

“Our faith organizations have long favored the creation of legal avenues for migration and a legalization program for immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for years and contributed their hard work to our economy,” the letter stated. “We believe the adoption of these policies, instead of the implementation of a mass deportation campaign, would not only benefit immigrant workers and their families but be in the best interest of our nation.”

The budget reconciliation bill, called the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” includes a funding hike for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection. The proposal includes money earmarked for deportations, hiring more ICE and border patrol agents, the construction of a border wall, and various other immigration enforcement measures.

An earlier version of the bill would have penalized states for offering Medicaid benefits to immigrants who are in the country illegally, but this was removed from the current Senate version under consideration. Other proposed Medicaid changes, including work requirements for able-bodied recipients, remain in the proposal.

“We believe that the changes made by the U.S. Senate to the legislation are insufficient and do not significantly mitigate its adverse effects,” the letter read.

The letter criticized funding for “a mass deportation campaign,” which they said “will separate U.S. families, harm U.S.-citizen and immigrant children, and sow chaos in local communities.” It warned of “immigration raids across the nation,” which authors said would harm “hardworking immigrant families essential to our economy.”

According to the letter, the funding boost could also harm faith communities. The authors noted that the government “has removed places of worship from its sensitive locations list, allowing ICE agents to enter them for enforcement purposes.”

“We have already witnessed a reduction in attendance at many of our religious services in our denominations, as the threat of enforcement has deterred many families from practicing their faith,” the letter attested.

Additionally, the letter expressed concerns about the proposed border wall between the United States and Mexico, which the authors wrote “will drive migrants into the most remote regions of the border and lead to an increase in migrant deaths. It also would hurt the local environment along the border and force desperate asylum-seekers seeking safety to increasingly rely on human smugglers.”

The authors of the letter also criticized proposed reforms to Medicaid and food assistance programs, saying they would harm “low-income citizens and legal residents, including asylum-seekers and refugees, driving them deeper into poverty.”

Andrew Arthur, a former immigration judge and current fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), criticized the interfaith letter in an interview with CNA. He said the letter supports “amnesty” for immigrants who are in the country illegally.

CIS labels itself as a “low-immigration, pro-immigrant” think tank. The group is aligned with many of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.

“They don’t want any immigration enforcement because they want to legalize the status of everyone in the country illegally,” Arthur, who is Catholic, told CNA.

Arthur also balked at the suggestion of immigration raids at places of worship, saying: “They never actually reference any real enforcement actions taking place in any Catholic churches.” He said it’s possible that a dangerous criminal could be targeted for enforcement at a church but that “it’s not like they’re going to sweep through Sunday Mass looking for people.”

On the subject of the border wall, Arthur said a barrier would “deter people from coming into the United States illegally.” He noted the high rates of migrants who already hire smugglers, saying they “put their lives and safety in the hands of criminals” and that a border wall makes it “less likely that people are going to come” illegally with this method or any other method.

Chad Pecknold, a professor of theology at The Catholic University of America, expressed dissatisfaction with the letter as well, noting that it does not mention the teaching in the catechism that a country has a right to regulate its borders.

“Broad, religiously ecumenical statements which oppose the policies of a democratically elected government are curious things,” Pecknold said. “The authors are clearly aligned with one political party and not another. They make spurious claims about how the bill will separate families, and they seem to disregard entirely that nations have a right [to] defend their borders and a duty to uphold their laws.”

Churches in Syria resume liturgies amid heightened security and unease
Mon, 30 Jun 2025 14:56:00 -0400

ACI MENA, Jun 30, 2025 / 14:56 pm (CNA).

A week after the deadly attack on Mar Elias Church in Damascus, Syria, the churches there have not shut their doors. Divine Liturgies were celebrated on Sunday, June 30 — albeit with significantly lower attendance due to a prevailing atmosphere of fear and anxiety.

Father Antonios Raafat Abu Al-Nasr, parish priest of Our Lady of Damascus for the Melkite Greek Catholics, told ACI MENA, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner, that there was a “very shy turnout” at his church.

“It was expected, and the Church understands this, given that people are concerned for their safety,” he said.

Al-Nasr confirmed that the Ministry of Interior has deployed security personnel to guard the church since the day of the attack — and that these officers remain stationed there for now. He also praised the efforts of the “Faz‘a Youth” — local Christian volunteers who are actively safeguarding their churches — calling them “devoted and vigilant.”

“They are always present with us, not just during the liturgies but also throughout other events,” he said, adding: “All churches in Damascus have taken precautions, especially at their entrances.”

In spite of the tragedy and ongoing anxiety, Al-Nasr had a hopeful message: “The Church lifts her prayers to God, asking him to grant his children steadfastness and deep roots in faith. In the end, only truth will prevail.”

Uneven attendance across Syria

While church attendance in Damascus saw a decline, other Syrian provinces witnessed larger congregations, with no significant drop compared with pre-attack levels.

In Aleppo, there was a notable security presence in front of churches before Sunday Divine Liturgies. On the street of St. Thérèse Church for Melkite Greek Catholics in the New Syriac district, over 30 security personnel were reportedly stationed to secure the area.

Despite this, many Christians remain in a state of shock. Some have chosen to stay home and pray privately, while others continue to insist on attending Divine Liturgy at church.

Fear driving migration

In a separate interview with Vatican News, the apostolic vicar of Aleppo and head of the Latin Church in Syria, Bishop Hanna Jallouf, described the day of the bombing as catastrophic, reigniting fear in people’s hearts.

Reflecting on its impact, he noted a sharp rise in the number of Christians now considering emigration.

“Before the attack, around 50% of Christians were thinking of leaving Syria,” he said. “Today, that number has jumped to 90%. Syria cannot be rebuilt by only one color or one side. It’s a major challenge for the Church to try to restore balance and hope.”

This story was first published by ACI MENA, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner, and has been translated for and adapted by CNA.

Pope Leo XIV seeks to reestablish ‘full visible communion’ with Eastern Orthodox
Mon, 30 Jun 2025 14:12:00 -0400

ACI Prensa Staff, Jun 30, 2025 / 14:12 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV received members of a delegation from the Eastern Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate in a June 28 audience held at the Apostolic Palace of the Vatican in the context of the June 29 celebration of the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul.

The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople is the seat of the Eastern Orthodox Church of Constantinople based in Istanbul, Turkey. The Ecumenical Patriarchate is considered “primus inter pares” (“first among equals”) among the patriarchs of the other churches of the Eastern Orthodox communion.

The delegation was headed by Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon, president of the Synodal Commission of the Ecumenical Patriarchate for Relations with the Catholic Church, accompanied by the Most Reverend Fathers Aetios and Ieronymos.

Bartholomew has been the current archbishop of Constantinople and ecumenical patriarch since Nov. 2, 1991. Traditionally, a delegation from the Ecumenical Patriarchate visits the Vatican on the occasion of the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul.

Similarly, a Vatican delegation usually visits Istanbul, the capital of present-day Turkey, every Nov. 30 on the occasion of the celebration of the feast day of St. Andrew, the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s patron saint.

Goal of full visible communion between the two Churches

The Catholic Encyclopedia explains that in 1054, “the most deplorable quarrel,” known as the Eastern Schism, occurred, separating the vast majority of Eastern Christians from communion with the Catholic Church, thus giving rise to the Orthodox Church.

Leo XIV stated that his intention is to “persevere in the effort to reestablish full visible communion between our Churches,” a goal that, he said, can only be achieved “with God’s help, through a continued commitment to respectful listening and fraternal dialogue.”

“For this reason, I am open to any suggestions that you may offer in this regard, always in consultation with my brother bishops of the Catholic Church who, each in his own way, share with me the responsibility for the complete and visible unity of the Church,” the Holy Father said during the June 28 audience.

He also recalled that “after centuries of disagreements and misunderstanding,” authentic dialogue between the two Churches was only possible thanks to “the courageous and farsighted steps taken by Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras.”

“Their venerable successors to the sees of Rome and Constantinople have pursued with conviction the same path of reconciliation, thus further strengthening our close relations,” the pope added.

Leo XIV highlighted the “witness of sincere closeness” that Patriarch Bartholomew has always expressed to the Catholic Church, demonstrated especially by participating in the funeral of Pope Francis and later in the inaugural Mass of the new bishop of Rome.

The Holy Father said the traditional exchange of delegations “is a sign of the profound communion already existing between us, and a reflection of the fraternal bond that united the Apostles Peter and Andrew.”

Leo XIV expressed his profound gratitude for their presence in Rome “on this solemn occasion.” He asked them to convey his cordial greetings to Patriarch Bartholomew and the members of the Holy Synod, along with his gratitude for having sent the delegation again this year.

“May Sts. Peter and Paul, St. Andrew and the holy Mother of God, who live eternally in the perfect communion of the saints, accompany and sustain us in our efforts in the service of the Gospel. Thank you!” Pope Leo said.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Pope Leo XIV denounces use of hunger as ‘weapon of war’ in message to UN conference
Mon, 30 Jun 2025 12:24:00 -0400

Vatican City, Jun 30, 2025 / 12:24 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV deplored the use of hunger as a “weapon of war” in his message to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which is currently holding its 44th conference session in Rome from June 28 to July 4.

The Holy Father said the U.N. is far from reaching its 2030 goal of “zero hunger” in spite of “significant steps” taken by the intergovernmental organization to ensure food security, particularly for the world’s poor.

“We are currently witnessing with despair the iniquitous use of hunger as a weapon of war,” Leo said in his message to FAO. “Starving people to death is a very cheap way of waging war.”

The pope criticized the actions of armed civilians who “greedily hoard” food, burn land, steal livestock, and block humanitarian aid to those suffering and in need.

“Farmers are unable to sell their produce in environments threatened by violence, and inflation soars,” he said. “This leads to huge numbers of people succumbing to the scourge of starvation and perishing.”

“While civilians languish in misery, political leaders grow fat on the profits of the conflict,” he remarked.

Highlighting the complex relationship between war, poverty, and hunger, the pope said the Holy See supports all initiatives aimed at bringing international leaders together to collaborate for “the common good of the family of nations.”

“Without peace and stability, it will not be possible to guarantee resilient agricultural and food systems, nor to ensure a healthy, accessible, and sustainable food supply for all,” he added.

Continuing his calls for peace in war-torn areas since his May election as the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, Leo extended his call to the leadership and staff of FAO to become peacemakers in times of “huge polarization in international relations.”

“To ensure peace and development, understood as the improvement of the living conditions of populations suffering from hunger, war, and poverty, concrete actions are needed, rooted in serious and far-sighted approaches,” he continued.

“I pray to almighty God that your work may bear fruit and be of benefit to the underprivileged and to humanity as a whole,” he said at the conclusion of his message.

In an Angelus address, Pope Leo highlighted the plight of rural Christian communities in Nigeria enduring violence and hunger.

Approximately 200 displaced people were massacred at a Catholic mission there in June.

Bishop Mark Nzukwein of the Diocese of Wukari, Nigeria, said more than 300,000 people are currently displaced in the northern part of the country, many of whom have lost their farms and livelihoods because of the violent attacks.

“I’ve never had problems with food ever until recently,” Nzukwein told CNA in a June 27 interview.

“[Men] will invade farms and kill … and make the place insecure,” he said. “This is the source of the food insecurity we’re experiencing in Nigeria.”

Croatian bishops lead historic Sacred Heart consecration, marking 125th anniversary
Mon, 30 Jun 2025 10:46:00 -0400

CNA Newsroom, Jun 30, 2025 / 10:46 am (CNA).

Croatian bishops led their nation in a solemn consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus on Friday, marking the 125th anniversary of an extraordinary 1900 ceremony that saw 160,000 young Croatians make a similar sacred pledge.

The consecration began June 27 at 7 p.m. local time across churches and chapels throughout Croatia, initiated by church bells ringing for five minutes before solemn Eucharistic celebrations commenced.

Following the Prayer after Communion, clergy proclaimed the formal Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

In Zagreb, the faithful gathered at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus while EWTN affiliate Laudato TV broadcast live from the Church of Our Miraculous Lady of Sinj in the small town of Sinj.

The decision to renew this historic devotion was made by the Croatian Bishops’ Conference at their 69th Plenary Assembly in November 2024, coinciding with the Jubilee Year 2025 proclaimed by Pope Francis.

“We, Croatian believers, trusting in your goodness, come to you to open for us once again your Most Sacred Heart,” the consecration prayer begins, addressing Christ as “Wisdom, Love, and the Word of the Father.”

The Sacred Heart consecration was followed Saturday, June 28, by Croatia’s first-ever solemn consecration of youth to the Immaculate Heart of Mary at the Church of Croatian Martyrs in Udbina.

Archbishop Giorgio Lingua, apostolic nuncio to Croatia, presided over the 3 p.m. ceremony, which was broadcast live by Laudato TV. The initiative was launched by priests of the Marian Priestly Movement in Croatia.

The comprehensive prayer consecrated Croatian families, clergy, religious communities, parishes, married couples, children and young people, the sick and elderly, and workers across various fields to the Sacred Heart.

Ksenjia Abramovic contributed to this report.

Vatican exhibits Raphael’s legacy with the reopening of the Hall of Constantine
Mon, 30 Jun 2025 07:00:00 -0400

Vatican City, Jun 30, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

After a decade of painstaking restoration, the imposing Hall of Constantine in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace, which houses Raphael’s masterpiece depicting Constantine’s victory over Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge, has been returned to its original splendor.

This space, the largest of the well-known Raphael Rooms, was partially closed to the public in 2015 due to delicate conservation work that ultimately culminated in a result described as “exemplary” by Vatican Museums.

“In a way, we have rewritten the history of art,” explained Barbara Jatta, director of the Vatican Museums, during a June 26 presentation to the press held at the Vatican Museums. She was joined by Fabrizio Biferali, supervisor of the art department for the 15th and 16th centuries; Fabio Piacentini and Francesca Persegati from the Painting and Wooden Materials Restoration Laboratory; and Fabio Morresi, head of the Scientific Research Office, who emphasized the scientific, technical, and symbolic value of a project that has brought to light revolutionary discoveries about the techniques and methods of the Renaissance master.

The restoration, which began in March 2015 and was completed in December 2024, has not only restored the brilliance of the frescoes that Pope Leo X commissioned Raphael Sanzio (1483–1520) to paint but also revealed important technical and artistic innovations concerning one of the great workshops of the Renaissance.

The process, carried out in eight phases, began with the wall of “The Vision of the Cross” and concluded with the vault decorated by Tommaso Laureti. The planning of the scaffolding followed the same sequence as the original execution of the paintings, allowing for a diachronic interpretation of the evolution of the complex.

Raphael and oil painting: A revolutionary discovery

One of the project’s greatest revelations has been the confirmation that two female figures — Comitas and Iustitia — were executed directly by Raphael in oil, an extremely unusual technique for murals at the time. “We knew from sources that Raphael did experiments, but we didn’t know which ones,” Jatta explained.

Thanks to scientific analyses such as infrared refractography at 1,900 nanometers, false-color ultraviolet light, and chemical studies of the paint layer, a special preparation of rosin, a natural resin heated and applied to the wall, was identified. This technique would have allowed Raphael to make retouchings and achieve a visual unity not possible with traditional fresco.

“This was his last major decorative undertaking and represents a true technical revolution,” said Piacentini, who was responsible for the restoration project from the outset. The presence of nails in the wall indicates that Raphael intended to paint the entire room in oils, a project interrupted by his untimely death in 1520 when he was only 37 years old.

The work was continued by his disciples Giulio Romano and Giovanni Francesco Penni, who painted the remaining fresco scenes. “It was a work of years, comparable to that of a team from the Renaissance: Restorers, chemists, engineers, and heritage experts worked as if in a true workshop,” emphasized Jatta, who also praised Persegati’s coordination in the Vatican’s oldest laboratory.

A 16th-century pictorial palimpsest

The Hall of Constantine, designed for official receptions and named after the emperor who granted freedom of worship and thus brought Christianity out from the underground with the Edict of Milan (A.D. 313), constitutes a kind of artistic palimpsest (an ancient tablet on which writing could be erased and rewritten). It was decorated over more than 60 years under five pontificates — from Leo X to Sixtus V — with work done by different artists and workshops, making it an exceptional synthesis of 16th-century Roman painting.

Its walls depict four key episodes: “The Vision of the Cross,” “The Battle of the Milvian Bridge,” “The Baptism of Constantine,” and “The Donation of Rome.” All of them symbolize the transition from pagan Rome to Christian Rome and constitute, according to Jatta, “the most politically and programmatically important room in the complex.”

A vault that deceives the eye

Another highlight of the project is the restoration of the vault painted with an allegorical scene of the triumph of Christianity over paganism by Tommaso Laureti during the pontificate of Sixtus V. Among the discoveries is the visual illusion of a carpet in the center of the vault, simulating a sumptuous fabric painted directly onto the ceiling’s surface.

Replacing the old wooden ceiling, Laureti created an impressive marvel of illusionistic perspective with plays of light and shadow that can now be admired in all its beauty after having been cleaned.

An exemplary restoration, a model for the future

The project was made possible thanks to the patronage of the New York chapter of the Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums and the Carlson Foundation, along with the institutional support of the presidency of the Governorate of Vatican City State and its general secretariat.

The work was fully documented through laser scans and 3D models, becoming an international reference for the restoration of large mural decorations. Furthermore, a detailed study of the plaster layers made it possible to reconstruct the exact chronology of the steps in making the frescoes.

Morresi of the Vatican Museums’ Scientific Research Office summed up the spirit of the project with words that evoke both science and poetry: “The most exciting thing is how artists of the past managed to transform matter and chemistry into something so marvelous.”

The reopening of the Hall of Constantine not only restores a key space in the Vatican museum but also returns to humanity a Renaissance masterpiece, a testament to Raphael’s genius.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Catholic ministry helps adult children of divorce find healing and love
Mon, 30 Jun 2025 06:00:00 -0400

Miami, Fla., Jun 30, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Kendra Beigel was 14 years old when her family life took a turn for the worse. In her small-town Minnesota home, she was used to her parents arguing, but her family situation further disintegrated when her mother intervened in her father’s alcohol issues and her parents went to court.

“It was like the whole town decided to take a side and get involved in our family business,” recalled Beigel, who was raised Catholic. “I had to grow up quickly… Each stage of the initial separation and how it comes out of the blue, then the divorce and everything that it brings, and then the subsequent annulment; each brought its own hurts and difficulties and it never was easier.”

Now an adult, Beigel remembers thinking back then, “How can you just be a kid anymore?” Navigating child custody routines, “you [the child] have to be the one to pack the suitcase and to move and uproot your life.”

“I threw myself into academics and extracurriculars,” she said. “No one on the outside could tell how much I was hurting because I was excelling externally… You start to really put a lot of blame and guilt on yourself when you have no one to talk to, no one thinks to bring it up with you, and you’re really just trying to run away.”

When ingrained fears caused her to struggle with family dynamics, friendships, and dating in college, Beigel knew the past had left its mark. In October 2022, she joined a Life-Giving Wounds retreat for adult children of divorce (ACODs) near her home in Denver.

Celebrating its five-year milestone in 2025, Life-Giving Wounds — back then just a two-year-old apostolate — was already making a big impact.

The beginnings

The ministry was created in 2020 by Daniel and Bethany Meola, a married couple with a special heart for adult children of divorce. Beginning with online retreats during the COVID-19 pandemic, Life-Giving Wounds now hosts events both online and in-person, with a presence in almost 40 dioceses throughout the United States in addition to the Archdiocese of Toronto, Canada.

Himself an ACOD, Daniel Meola explained: “The more I dug into it in college and post-college, I realized there are lot of ministries for divorcees but not as much for adult children of divorce.”

Since a high school retreat had turned his life around after his parents’ divorce, he recognized that “there needs to be an intentional ministry and community for others like me. Jesus’ heart desires this.”

In addition to retreats, Life-Giving Wounds offers a blog with topics ranging from “Book and Media Reviews” to “Relationship Advice”; a book published in 2023; and even a summer 2025 Online Reading Group and support group using Victor Hugo’s “Les Misérables” as a springboard.

The retreat helped Beigel break through the bubble she had found herself in after her parents’ divorce.

“Going in, you’re just thinking, none of my friends have gone through divorce. This is something that feels like such an isolating cross,” she said. “But as soon as I walked in, I saw everyone at my parish who I had no idea was in ‘the secret club that no one wants to be a part of,’ as they joked.”

The retreat was transformative. “I really appreciated that they had a whole retreat manual to follow,” she noted. “It really invited you to take a leap of faith and invite the Divine Physician into these ugly areas of your heart.”

Unbeknownst to her, a young man who had participated in a Maryland retreat earlier that year in August 2022 was Beigel’s future husband, Joe Beigel. The fact that they were both Life-Giving Wounds alumni would bring them together. Joe said the friend who introduced them “got my attention” by commenting that Kendra had attended Life-Giving Wounds and had been featured on the podcast “Restored.”

Chuckling, Kendra recounted Joe’s approach: “[He said,] ‘You can go ahead and delete that Catholic Match profile — you won’t need it now that you met me!’ And it worked!”

Joe and Kendra Beigel were married on Jan. 18, 2025.

To other ACODs, Joe’s message is: “You’re not doomed to repeat your parents’ mistakes and to not get married or to settle for less in a marriage, because God wants so much more for you.”

Kendra agreed. “The thing that shifted with marriage, it’s not that you are done working on the wounds from your parents’ divorce, you just have someone you are working on it with, because that’s what marriage is. You’re working together first and foremost, helping each other along.”

Craig Soto II and Sidney Soto, another Life-Giving Wounds alumni couple from Kansas, are preparing to welcome a baby into the world. Craig Soto said of Life-Giving Wounds’ anniversary: “Truly, what five years means to me is hope.”

“When we did the full-body scan to make sure the baby was healthy, I remember the sonogram technician said everything was normal,” Soto said. The simple phrase hit him hard.

“That’s a beautiful gift for me, for somebody who’s lived a very abnormal life. I got so used to it that ‘the normal’ actually became confusing and strange to me,” said Soto, a retreat leader. “To hear that our child is ‘normal’... To me, a normal life is all I’ve ever really wanted. That’s why I say that there’s hope, because I have hope for a normal life.”

Those called to the vocation of marriage aren’t the only ones who have benefited from Life-Giving Wounds. In fact, retreat alumnus Father Ryan Martiré of the Diocese of Bismarck, North Dakota, helped bring Life-Giving Wounds to seminarians.

Martiré participated in one of the first online retreats as a seminarian, later joining an in-person retreat while studying at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in St. Louis.

The seminary’s rector “saw a tremendous need in the seminary and asked if I would introduce this ministry to more people in the seminary,” said Martiré, who was ordained on June 11, 2024. “Not only healing for themselves, but to be fathers who can provide this healing for others.”

Kenrick-Glennon Seminary held its first retreat in spring 2022 and has the honor of being Life-Giving Wounds’ first seminary chapter.

“The wound of divorce can be very attached to a father wound,” Martiré explained. “When a seminarian receives healing there, it can have a serious spiritual impact, that he receives confidence to be a father.”

“One of the things that struck me when I was studying wounds of divorce is that so many children with parents who have divorced did not experience a word of accompaniment from their pastor or priest: ‘I’m so sorry that happened,’” he added. “A child who’s starting to self-protect and live hyper-independently because of their parents’ divorce needs a spiritual father or a spiritual mother to comfort them and to acknowledge that they’re hurting in their perfectionism, or in whatever way they’re coping.”

Brady Hershberger, a young adult Life-Giving Wounds alumnus from Ohio, said: “I think Life-Giving Wounds is making the ACOD population feel seen, and like we don’t have to keep sweeping this wound under the rug as if it weren’t seriously a wound… It gives me a sense of hope that people like me will be seen and loved and heard.”

Indeed, Martiré said he believes Life-Giving Wounds has a special connection to the 2025 Jubilee, with its theme of hope.

“What struck me my first time at the retreat was seeing really stable, healed, holy people giving the presentations. People who are coming from a dark path with very divided families, and you see that they’re not living defined by their wounds,” he said. “That’s very hopeful that, as Christians, we don’t need to live in the past. We can become transformed by Christ if we let him into our suffering, our dark and imprisoned places.”

Life-Giving Wounds co-founder Bethany Meola said she is excited for what’s to come. The ministry has projects focused on engaged and married couples in the works, and they also look to increase outreach to college students, Hispanic ministry, seminaries and religious, and more.

“This anniversary is an opportunity to look back and see where God has taken us so far,” she said. “Obviously we have objective numbers to see how the ministry has grown from local to all around the country, from just a few retreats to more and more every year, which has been so beautiful. But more than the numbers, we’re reflecting on the people we’ve been privileged to encounter — more and more people all the time whom Life-Giving Wounds can hopefully lend some support to.”

British politician criticizes priest for refusing Communion over assisted dying vote
Sun, 29 Jun 2025 19:05:00 -0400

CNA Newsroom, Jun 29, 2025 / 19:05 pm (CNA).

A British politician has publicly criticized his parish priest for refusing to give him holy Communion after he voted in favor of the United Kingdom’s assisted dying bill.

Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament Chris Coghlan took to social media on Sunday and reportedly complained to Bishop Richard Moth of Arundel and Brighton, describing his treatment as “outrageous.”

Father Ian Vane, parish priest at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Dorking, Surrey, had warned Coghlan before the June 20 vote that supporting the controversial bill would constitute “obstinately persevering” in sin. He then reportedly named Coghlan, who represents Dorking and Horley in Surrey, from the pulpit two days later.

Coghlan described the priest’s actions as “completely inappropriate” and claimed it “undermines the legitimacy of religious institutions.”

The politician posted on social media that the incident raised “grave public interest” about pressure that religious members of Parliament (MPs) faced during the vote, calling it “utterly disrespectful to my family, my constituents including the congregation, and the democratic process.”

The MP’s public criticism sparked significant backlash on social media platforms, with many defending Vane and criticizing Coghlan’s comportment.

Several commentators reminded the politician of the Vatican’s doctrinal note about participation in public life, “that a well-formed Christian conscience does not permit one to vote for a political program or an individual law which contradicts the fundamental contents of faith and morals.”

“Those who are directly involved in lawmaking bodies have a grave and clear obligation to oppose any law that attacks human life. For them, as for every Catholic, it is impossible to promote such laws or to vote for them,” the Doctrinal note on Some Questions Regarding the Participation of Catholics in Political Life states.

The Diocese of Arundel and Brighton also reportedly reminded the media of the Church’s position while acknowledging the complexity of the vote.

“The Catholic Church believes in the sanctity of life and the dignity of every person,” the diocese stated, adding that Moth spoke to Coghlan “earlier this week and has offered to meet him in person to discuss the issues and concerns raised.”

Church leaders warn of grave consequences

The controversy comes as Catholic bishops and others have repeatedly raised serious concerns about the U.K.’s assisted dying legislation.

Archbishop John Sherrington of Liverpool, the lead bishop for life issues for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, said he was “shocked and disappointed” by the bill’s passage.

“Allowing the medical profession to help patients end their lives will change the culture of health care and cause legitimate fears amongst those with disabilities or who are especially vulnerable in other ways,” Sherrington stated.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, archbishop of Westminster, and Sherrington had previously warned that Catholic hospices and care homes may have no choice but to shut down if the bill becomes law, since they “may be required to cooperate with assisted suicide.”

To become law, the bill still needs to pass in the second chamber of Parliament, the unelected House of Lords. The Lords can amend legislation, but because the bill has the support of the Commons, it is likely to pass.

PHOTOS: Rome celebrates its patron saints with a burst of colorful flowers  
Sun, 29 Jun 2025 12:50:00 -0400

Vatican City, Jun 29, 2025 / 12:50 pm (CNA).

The Via della Conciliazione, the grand avenue leading to St. Peter’s Square, was transformed on Sunday, June 29, into a vibrant tapestry of color laid over the asphalt, with dozens of floral artworks created by master artisans and volunteers from across Italy.

These floral works, rich in religious symbolism, decorated the spiritual heart of Rome as part of a new edition of the Infiorata Storica (Historic Flower Festival).

This year’s 12th edition centered on the theme of the Jubilee of Hope, expressed through floral arrangements, each covering more than 500 square feet. The artworks were made using dried flower petals, wood shavings, colored sand, salt, sugar, and natural pigments.

Beginning on Saturday evening, June 28, teams of floral artists and volunteers worked overnight in an intense effort that concluded at 9 a.m. Sunday — just in time for thousands of pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul to admire the floral carpets in their full splendor.

A rich tradition reborn

This creative and spiritual gathering aims not only to beautify the city but also to preserve a deeply rooted tradition dating back to 1625, when Benedetto Drei, head of the papal florist’s office, first decorated the entrance to St. Peter’s Basilica with flowers.

Though the custom faded in the 17th century, it was revived in 2013. Today, the Infiorata has become an iconic event that combines art, faith, and culture.

Within the context of the liturgical celebrations led by Pope Leo XIV, the floral exhibition offered a symbolic path of prayer and hope, linking Rome with believers from around the world.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner, and has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Pope Leo XIV warns new archbishops against pastoral plans that repeat without renewing
Sun, 29 Jun 2025 10:15:00 -0400

Vatican City, Jun 29, 2025 / 10:15 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV warned new archbishops on Sunday against following “the same old pastoral plans without experiencing interior renewal and a willingness to respond to new challenges.”

Speaking on the June 29 solemnity of Peter and Paul — saints recognized by the Catholic Church as pillars of the faith and venerated as patrons of the city of Rome — the pope also called for maintaining ecclesial unity while respecting diversity.

“Our patron saints followed different paths, had different ideas, and at times argued with one another with evangelical frankness. Yet this did not prevent them from ... a living communion in the Spirit, a fruitful harmony in diversity,” the pope said.

During Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica, where he bestowed the pallium on 54 new metropolitan archbishops, including eight from the U.S., Leo urged them to “find new paths and new approaches to preaching the Gospel” rooted in the “problems and difficulties” arising from their communities of faith.

“The two apostles... inspire us by the example of their openness to change, to new events, encounters, and concrete situations in the life of their communities, and by their readiness to consider new approaches to evangelization in response to the problems and difficulties raised by our brothers and sisters in the faith.”

After the homily, deacons descended to the tomb of the Apostle Peter, located beneath the Altar of the Chair, to retrieve the palliums the pope had blessed.

Avoiding routine and ritualism

In his homily, the pope praised the example of Sts. Peter and Paul, highlighting their “ecclesial communion and the vitality of faith.” He stressed the importance of learning to live communion as “unity within diversity — so that the various gifts, united in the one confession of faith, may advance the preaching of the Gospel.”

For Pope Leo, the path of ecclesial communion “is awakened by the inspiration of the Spirit, unites differences, and builds bridges of unity thanks to the rich variety of charisms, gifts, and ministries.”

The pope called for fostering “fraternity” and urged his listeners to “make an effort, then, to turn our differences into a workshop of unity and communion, of fraternity and reconciliation, so that everyone in the Church, each with his or her personal history, may learn to walk side by side.”

“The whole Church needs fraternity, which must be present in all of our relationships, whether between laypeople and priests, priests and bishops, bishops and the pope. Fraternity is also needed in pastoral care, ecumenical dialogue, and the friendly relations that the Church desires to maintain with the world,” the pope said.

He also invited reflection on whether the journey of our faith “retains its energy and vitality, and whether the flame of our relationship with the Lord still burns bright.”

“If we want to keep our identity as Christians from being reduced to a relic of the past, as Pope Francis often reminded us, it is important to move beyond a tired and stagnant faith. We need to ask ourselves: Who is Jesus Christ for us today? What place does he occupy in our lives and in the life of the Church?”

New paths and practices for the Gospel

Leo thus encouraged a process of discernment that arises from these questions, allowing faith and the Church “to be constantly renewed and to find new paths and new approaches to preaching the Gospel.”

“This, together with communion, must be our greatest desire.”

At the end of the celebration, the pontiff descended the stairs to the tomb of the Apostle Peter and prayed for a few moments before it, accompanied by Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon, head of the delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

The solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul is especially important for ecumenism because the two saints are honored by all apostolic traditions, and the Ecumenical Patriarchate has sent a delegation to Rome for the feast annually since the 1960s.

During the celebration, Pope Leo XIV revived the ancient tradition of personally imposing the pallium on new metropolitan archbishops.

This symbolic rite had been modified by Pope Francis in 2015, when he decided to present the pallium — a white wool band resembling a stole with six black silk crosses — to archbishops at the Vatican, while leaving it to the nuncio in each archbishop’s country to impose the pallium in a local ceremony.

At the time, Pope Francis explained that this change was meant to give greater prominence to local churches, to make the ceremony more pastoral and participatory, and to strengthen the bond between archbishops and their people, without weakening communion with Rome.

Pope Leo XIV says the unity of the Church ‘is nourished by forgiveness and mutual trust’
Sun, 29 Jun 2025 09:40:00 -0400

Vatican City, Jun 29, 2025 / 09:40 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday said unity in the Catholic Church “is nourished by forgiveness and mutual trust” after bestowing the pallium on 54 new metropolitan archbishops on the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, patrons of the city of Rome.

“If Jesus trusts us, then we too can trust one another, in his name,” the pontiff said, extending his call to unity to all Christian denominations.

Speaking before he led those gathered in St. Peter’s Square in praying the Angelus on June 29, the pope also recalled the witness of the apostles who were martyred.

“Today is the great feast of the Church of Rome, born from the witness of the Apostles Peter and Paul and made fruitful by their blood and that of many other martyrs,” he said, emphasizing that even today, “throughout the world there are Christians whom the Gospel makes generous and bold, even at the cost of their lives.”

In an ecumenical appeal, the pope emphasized that this shared sacrifice creates a “profound and invisible unity among Christian churches,” which he called, echoing Pope Francis, an “ecumenism of blood.”

Present during the Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Sunday morning was Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon, heading the delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate sent to Rome by Bartholomew I for the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul — a celebration rich with ecumenical significance.

In his remarks prior to the Marian prayer, the pope reaffirmed: “My episcopal service is a service to unity, and the Church of Rome is committed, by the blood of Sts. Peter and Paul, to serving communion among all Churches.”

Quoting the Gospel, the pope reminded that “the stone from which Peter also receives his name is Christ. A stone rejected by men that God has made the cornerstone.” The basilicas of Sts. Peter and Paul, he pointed out, are located “outside the walls,” signifying that “what seems to us great and glorious was once rejected and cast out for being in conflict with worldly thinking.”

Leo invited all to walk “the path of the Beatitudes,” where poverty of spirit, meekness, mercy, and the thirst for justice often meet with “opposition and even persecution.” Yet, he affirmed, “the glory of God shines in his friends and along the way he shapes them, from conversion to conversion.”

At the tombs of the apostles, “a millennial destination for pilgrimage,” the pope encouraged everyone to discover that “we too can live from conversion to conversion.” The New Testament, he recalled, does not hide the apostles’ faults and sins, “because their greatness was shaped by forgiveness.” Jesus, he said, “never calls only once. That’s why we can always have hope, as the jubilee also reminds us.”

After the Angelus, Pope Leo XIV expressed his closeness with Barthélémy Boganda high school in Bangui, Central African Republic, “in mourning after the tragic accident that caused many deaths and injuries among students.” Twenty-nine students died and more than 250 were injured in a stampede on Wednesday prompted by an accidental electrical explosion.

The pope also expressed “a heartfelt thought for the parish priests and all the priests working in Roman parishes, with gratitude and encouragement for their service.”

Leo recalled that the day’s feast marks the annual Peter’s Pence Collection, “a sign of communion with the pope and of participation in his apostolic ministry,” and thanked “those who, through their contributions, support my first steps as the successor of Peter.”

Catholic speaker Kim Zember in new EWTN podcast highlights LGBT conversion stories
Sun, 29 Jun 2025 07:00:00 -0400

CNA Staff, Jun 29, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

During her senior year of high school, Catholic speaker and author Kim Zember realized she had a sexual attraction to women. She went on to live a hidden life for years — dating men publicly but dating women secretly. Eventually, she ended up solely in relationships with women.

A decade later she found herself increasingly unhappy and one day she threw up her hands and asked God to enter her life. Now, 11 years after experiencing transformation, she’s sharing her conversations with other people who have dealt with sexual identity and gender confusion in a new podcast on EWTN called “Here I AM Stories.”

“In the tenderness of God, I just felt like he said, ‘I want you to share other people’s stories. You’re not the only one,’” Zember told CNA.

According to EWTN, the podcast “highlights raw voices, radical lives, and real stories of those who left LGBT identities for a greater eternal purpose.” It airs weekly on Mondays during the month of June and then beginning in July, two episodes will be aired every month.

“These are people who have been walking it out,” Zember said. “This is not stories of perfection.”

Four episodes of the podcast have already been released. One particularly powerful episode was a conversation with Jessica Rose, who identified as a male for seven years, battled depression, and attempted suicide until she gave her life to Christ.

Another episode features the story of Angel Colon, who survived the 2016 Pulse Nightclub shooting where 49 lives were lost. Despite being shot multiple times, he survived and credits the miracle to God, changing his way of life.

Zember’s own story follows a similar pattern as the guests she speaks with in her podcast. She grew up in what she says was a “normal” Catholic household with two older brothers and parents who were high school sweethearts. She received all her sacraments but admitted that she grew up without having a relationship with Jesus.

She shared that she saw God like a “cop that kind of just kept tally of all the things I was doing, good or bad, and was kind of calculating everything. So that was kind of challenging because I heard all the time like, ‘God loves you,’ ‘God’s for you,’ but I didn’t experience that.”

Despite having a decent childhood, Zember said she did not have a “good, tender father” and did not trust men. As a senior in high school, she longed for a relationship and acted upon her attraction to women.

“My senior year in high school I was like, ‘You know what? I don’t feel safe with men, but I feel safe with women and I’m attracted and I don’t know what that means, but I’m going to take a step,’” she recalled. “And [in] my senior year in high school I acted on these desires towards women with one of my best friends and that changed everything for me.”

From there she began dating women in private. Believing that what she was doing was wrong, she sought a Catholic counselor at age 18 and was affirmed in her homosexual identity. From there, she came out publicly and no longer hid the fact that she was dating women. It wasn’t until Oct. 17, 2014 — after a decade of living a gay lifestyle — that she “cried out to the Lord and said, ‘I can’t do this.’”

She recalled telling God: “‘I’ve heard about you my whole life. I’ve read about you my whole life but I need to experience you now. And so I need you to show up.’ And it might sound horrible but I was like, ‘I need you to show up and I need you to show up now because if you don’t show up and show me that you’re good, I will go to someone or something else, like I have my entire life. So, I’m giving you your one shot, God.’”

“And I’m telling you, he showed up. He showed up that evening in a way that I will never forget,” Zember shared. “Oct. 17 feels sometimes like my birthday — though I was born on Dec. 22 — that encounter I had with God marked me in a way … that I’ve never been the same.”

In that moment Zember said she experienced the “tangible love of God” and “he has been faithful every day since then.”

“Also in revealing his character and nature, he has shown me that he’s the one my heart has been searching for. He has shown me that he is the one, that God himself, that made man in Jesus Christ, that he is the love of my life that I’ve desired.”

Zember now lives in freedom from her struggle with same-sex attraction and helps others who face similar battles to find their true identity in Christ.

When asked what the Church can do to better minister to those struggling with gender and sexual identity issues, she said: “I think as a Church, we need to recognize again our own unworthiness; no matter what Jesus has already saved us from, we still need him.”

“If we’d recognize our own brokenness and our own need for Jesus, I think we’d be able to receive other people in their need for him, too. We’d stop trying to fix people, and we’d actually try to walk with one another,” she added. “We’d try to walk with one another in our brokenness to Christ, the only one who can heal, deliver, make whole, and set free.”

As for her hopes for the new podcast, she said she hopes it would show people “that we have a good Father” and “that people would give Jesus a try — a real one.”

“My hope is that people will say, ‘Wait a minute, if Jesus was that good in their life, maybe he wants to be that good in mine too’ — in whatever it is. It doesn’t have to be homosexuality or identity confusion. It could be you holding on too tightly to something. It could be you needing a career and if you don’t get it, you don’t know who you are. It’s all the longings of our heart to be seen, known, loved, chosen, and desired, and how we try to go to the things of this world to fill those when it’s actually the very one who created us that wants to fill those.”

The cave in Subiaco where the Rule of St. Benedict was born
Sun, 29 Jun 2025 06:00:00 -0400

Paris, France, Jun 29, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Nestled among the majestic cliffs of the Simbruini mountains in Subiaco, a town about an hour from Rome in the heart of the Aniene River valley, stands the Monastery of St. Benedict, also known as the “Sacro Speco” (“Sacred Cave”). It is from this place that the famous rule of religious life was born and would spread through the centuries, still followed by thousands of monks and nuns around the world today.

In the sixth century, the young Benedict of Nursia withdrew into solitude, fleeing a corrupt and noisy world in search of an inner state that would bring him closer to God through reflection and the listening of silence. Among the rocks and trees, he found a cave — the “speco” — which sheltered him in hermitage for about three years. Thanks to the charity of a local monk and nearby shepherds, to whom he offered knowledge in exchange for food, he survived hunger and hardship.

From that cave began a spiritual journey of prayer and asceticism that led St. Benedict to formulate the rule that countless religious follow today. He devoted great attention to contemplation and prayer, considering silence an essential condition for receiving the word of God and the inspiration for a life of prayer, work, and brotherhood — according to the motto “Ora et Labora” (“Pray and Work”).

The cave later became a pilgrimage site and source of spiritual inspiration. Over the centuries, a magnificent monastic complex was built around the Sacred Cave, nestled in greenery like a jewel, welcoming faithful and visitors from all over the world. The monastery was constructed on multiple levels and adapted to the shape of the mountain.

Wrapped in the rocks of the mountain

One unique feature of the place is that in any room, at least one wall is bare rock. During construction, the connection with the mountain was always preserved. Even above the main altar of the upper church, the rock juts out and looms overhead, enveloping the worship space like a vast cloak.

To link the various parts — upper and lower churches, chapels, and the cave itself — an intricate network of staircases was built, making the pilgrim’s path even more fascinating. On the walls of the many chapels and corridors are frescoes painted in various artistic styles from different centuries.

The holy image of St. Francis of Assisi

One of the most important frescoes, found in the Chapel of St. Gregory, is the image of St. Francis of Assisi — considered the oldest portrait of the saint. It was painted by an anonymous friar, likely living in the same convent as Francis between 1220 and 1224. This date suggests that the face depicted in the fresco is one of the most faithful representations of the saint’s actual appearance — almost like a “photograph” of the time.

The absence of the stigmata (which appeared in 1224) and the halo further support the belief that this fresco is an extraordinary testimony to the real face of Francis while he was still alive.

The frescoes that adorn the chapels and corridors were painted in different eras by various artists and mostly depict the life of St. Benedict, especially in the lower church. There, in a style with Roman and Byzantine traits from the 13th century, scenes include “The Miracle of the Poisoned Bread,” with a crow carrying away the poisoned bread meant for Benedict by enemies; “The Miracle of the Goth,” where Benedict blesses a broken jar that miraculously reforms; and “Young Benedict in Subiaco,” illustrating his hermitic life in the cave.

Other frescoes in the lower church narrate Benedict’s arrival in Subiaco and his hermit life, showing his struggles against temptation and the strength with which he persevered; the first disciples and birth of the communities, the beginning of his mission; and his first miracles, bearing witness to the divine power manifesting through Benedict’s actions.

To this day, Benedictine monks still live in the monastery, faithfully upholding the rule.

Thousands rally across the U.S. urging Congress to defund Planned Parenthood
Sat, 28 Jun 2025 14:00:00 -0400

CNA Staff, Jun 28, 2025 / 14:00 pm (CNA).

Thousands of pro-life advocates rallied at hundreds of locations across the United States on Saturday while taking part in a “single, coordinated day of demonstration” urging Congress to defund the abortion giant Planned Parenthood.

The pro-life group Live Action spearheaded the nationwide “Defund Day” event. Group founder Lila Rose told CNA it was the “largest grassroots effort” yet to call for stripping federal funds from Planned Parenthood, which received approximately $800 million in taxpayer dollars during its most recent fiscal year.

“We’re spearheading an effort with over 200 peaceful rallies across the country in all 48 states where there are Planned Parenthoods,” she said. “This is a national call to defund the biggest abortion chain.”

Citing Planned Parenthood’s hundreds of thousands of abortions per year, as well as other extreme services such as providing cross-sex hormones to minors, Rose said: “Congress has an opportunity to defund. They need to seize it.”

Photos and videos flooded social media on Saturday showing demonstrations taking place around the country, including in states such as California, Texas, Kentucky, and Georgia, with protesters displaying signs and banners calling for Planned Parenthood to be blocked from federal funds.

Rose told CNA that pro-life advocates are “closer than ever” to defunding the abortion chain.

“We have the opportunity with the [Republican] majority in the House and the Senate, and with an administration that has indicated it would defund,” she said.

Rose said there are still “significant challenges” to the defunding goal, including the possibility of a filibuster in the Senate blocking any bill to that effect, though she noted that the budget reconciliation process could be used to bypass that obstacle.

If defunding is ultimately accomplished, Rose said, “we need to ensure that it sticks,” not just for one budget year but permanently.

Looking forward, she said, “we have to abolish abortion.”

“Defunding will weaken abortion, but the main goal is the complete legal protection for the preborn.”

“We’re building a groundswell [to abolish abortion],” she added. “It’s going to take time to develop the political infrastructure. But I believe we’ll do it within a decade.”

Benedict XVI, Francis, and Leo XIV recommend this book, which warns of a world without God
Sat, 28 Jun 2025 09:00:00 -0400

ACI Prensa Staff, Jun 28, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

The last three popes — Benedict XVI, Francis, and Leo XIV — have on more than one occasion recommended reading “Lord of the World,” the dystopian science fiction novel written by Robert Hugh Benson in 1907.

This apocalyptic novel depicts the consequences of a society that turned its back on God and presents a social critique of the customs of the West, which has succumbed to capitalism and socialism.

Benson, an Anglican cleric who eventually converted to Catholicism and was ordained a priest in 1904, proposes a reality in which “the forces of secularist materialism, relativism, and state control triumph everywhere.”

This work, praised by the last three popes, also describes the arrival of the Antichrist as a charismatic personality but who also promotes ideals destructive to society.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI, cited this work during a lecture he gave at the Catholic University of Milan in February 1992, stating that the work “gives much food for thought.”

It was also one of Pope Francis’ favorite books. During his meeting with the academic and cultural world as part of his apostolic journey to Budapest, Hungary, in April 2023, Francis explained that this work “shows that mechanical complexity is not synonymous with true greatness and that in the most ostentatious exteriority is hidden the most subtle insidiousness.”

For the Argentine pope, the book was “in a certain sense prophetic.” Although it was written more than a century ago, “it describes a future dominated by technology and in which everything, in the name of progress, is standardized; everywhere a new ‘humanism’ is preached that suppresses differences, nullifying the life of peoples and abolishing religions,” he said.

Specifically, he emphasized that in the society described in the book, all differences are eradicated, as opposing ideologies merge in a homogenization resulting in “ideological colonization — as humanity, in a world run by machines, is gradually diminished and life in society becomes sad and rarefied.”

Francis noted that in the novel, “everyone seems listless and passive, it seems obvious that the sick should be gotten rid of and euthanasia practiced, as well as national languages ​​and cultures be abolished in order to achieve a universal peace.”

This idea of ​​peace, however, “is transformed into an oppression based on the imposition of consensus, to the point of making one of the protagonists state that the world seems at the mercy of a perverse vitality, which corrupts and confuses everything,” Francis said in his address in the Hungarian capital.

Also, while criticizing ideological colonization, Pope Francis during a press conference he gave to the media on his flight back to the Vatican after his Apostolic Journey to Manila, Philippines, in 2015 recommended reading the book.

Cardinal Robert Prevost, before being elected Pope Leo XIV, also recommended the book in an interview given to the Augustinians from Rome. “It speaks about what could happen in the world if we lose faith,” Prevost explained.

He emphasized that Benson’s work contains passages that give a lot of food for thought “in terms of the world we are living in,” presenting challenges about the importance of “continuing to live with faith but also to continue to live with a deep appreciation of who we are as human beings, brothers and sisters, but understanding the relationship of ourselves with God and the love of God in our lives.”

Furthermore, the cardinal, who became Leo XIV on May 8, noted that his two predecessors had also cited this book on more than one occasion.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

How the Loretto Community became a vibrant Catholic youth movement in Europe
Sat, 28 Jun 2025 08:00:00 -0400

CNA Newsroom, Jun 28, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

What began as a modest prayer meeting in a Vienna student apartment in 1987 has grown into one of Europe’s largest Catholic youth movements. The Loretto Community — named after the Marian shrine of Loreto — now draws over 12,000 participants to its annual Pentecost Festival, held simultaneously at 28 locations across four countries.

The Loretto Community traces its roots to the mid-1980s, when Georg Mayr-Melnhof, a businessman and permanent deacon from Salzburg, Austria, first visited Medjugorje, the Bosnian town known for its reported Marian apparitions.

Inspired by these spiritual experiences, Mayr-Melnhof began organizing pilgrimages for young people.

After one such pilgrimage during Easter 1987, two young Viennese approached him: “Georg, after these strong experiences here in Medjugorje, let’s start something at home.” They felt called by the Virgin Mary’s message to “found prayer circles.” That October, the first Loretto prayer group met in a Vienna apartment — just three people, a rosary, and a simple meal.

Charismatic foundations and mission

The Loretto Community identifies with the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, emphasizing a personal relationship with Jesus and openness to the Holy Spirit’s gifts.

Its spirituality is described as Marian, charismatic, and Eucharistic, reflecting devotion to Mary, a focus on spiritual gifts, and the centrality of the Mass. The community’s vision is “to see a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit and a new fire in the Catholic Church,” and its mission is to create welcoming spaces where people can encounter God and deepen their faith through prayer and worship.

From its Austrian beginnings, Loretto has expanded across Europe, with over 700 members in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and the U.K. The community operates “HOME Mission Bases” in Salzburg and Vienna in Austria; in Passau, Germany; and in London — centers for prayer, formation, hospitality, and mission work. Loretto UK was founded in London in 2019 and registered as a charity the following year.

Launched in 2000 as a local youth festival at Salzburg Cathedral, the Pentecost Festival has become the movement’s flagship event. By 2018, it was attracting 10,000 young people from 28 countries with a social media reach of over 1 million. In 2022, Loretto shifted from a single large gathering to simultaneous events at multiple locations, aiming to create “Pentecostal beacons throughout the German-speaking area and beyond.”

The 2025 festival drew over 12,000 participants from Austria, Germany, Switzerland, and beyond, as CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner, reported.

Festival activities blend traditional Catholic elements with contemporary expressions of faith: praise music, worship services, prayer moments, and opportunities for confession and spiritual growth. A signature feature is the “Evening of Mercy,” described as a time “full of God’s gentle presence” focused on confession and healing.

Loretto enjoys strong support from the Catholic hierarchy. At the 2025 Pentecost Festival, several Austrian bishops participated, including Archbishop Franz Lackner of Salzburg, who celebrated Mass and currently serves as the president of the Austrian bishops’ conference. Other bishops in attendance included Auxiliary Bishop Johannes Freitag of Graz; Bishop Hermann Glettler of Innsbruck; Bishop Alois Schwarz of Lower Austria; and “Youth Bishop” Stephan Turnovszky of Vienna. Glettler has described the festival as an “explosion of joy” and a place where “one breathes future.”

International expansion: The Loretto Project in England

Loretto UK marks a significant step in the movement’s international growth. The community’s London base offers worship services, prayer houses, discipleship programs, and hospitality events. In 2023 alone, Loretto UK organized over 165 hours of continuous prayer in its chapel.

Originally developed in Germany and Austria, the “Follow Me” program is a key export model for Loretto’s expansion. Targeted at young Catholics aged 16–30, it combines teaching, sacraments, prayer, small-group meetings, and practical applications over eight weekends in 12-16 months. All lectures are reviewed by a theological commission, underscoring the program’s orthodox Catholic orientation.

Catholic trainer merges faith and fitness in theology of the body-inspired program
Sat, 28 Jun 2025 07:00:00 -0400

CNA Staff, Jun 28, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

In 2019, Chase Crouse was working two jobs — in ministry at the Archdiocese of New York and as a personal trainer. He quickly realized that while he loved working with people at the gym, he hated not being able to talk about Jesus with them. So he decided to combine both of his passions and create a Catholic fitness and personal training apostolate called Hypuro Fit.

Hypuro Fit’s programing is rooted in St. John Paul II’s theology of the body, encouraging its members to trade the mentality of needing to achieve the perfect “beach body” for the goal of living as a gift for others through self-discipline, self-mastery, and honoring the bodies God gave them.

After Crouse, a graduate of John Paul the Great Catholic University in San Diego who holds a master’s degree in biblical theology, began working with people as a trainer, he began to notice that anytime he asked people why they wanted to work out, their answers would always be along the lines of wanting to look a certain way and have others find them attractive. Crouse began to reflect on this and turned to John Paul II’s theology of the body.

“I read it with this question in mind and sure enough, really early on, he talks about this law of gift, from Gaudium et Spes, that man finds himself through a gift of himself, but what he adds in audience 15, which is kind of my lightbulb moment, is this idea that self-donation is impossible without self-mastery,” he explained.

In addition to being the founder of Hypuro Fit, Crouse is one of 10 coaches who work with individuals who join their programs.

The fitness apostolate offers two different options for users: one-on-one training or following a workout program through the app.

One-on-one training is done remotely through the use of Zoom and phone calls and allows the individual to work with a coach to build a custom workout plan, nutrition goals, and helps provide accountability.

The app is filled with a variety of different programs that include a library of workouts for people in every walk of life and with differing time constraints. The programs in the app also include educational content, technique tutorials, recipes, and articles for spiritual formation.

Hypuro Fit also has specialty programs such as “Breaking the Chains” for those experiencing an addiction to lust as well as a postpartum program for moms.

“What we like to say with both approaches [we offer] is that we’re authentically Catholic but we’re technically excellent, meaning that we are going to base all of our exercise routines, our nutrition protocols, based on the latest science and studies we have at our disposal,” Crouse explained. “But at the same time, we’re also authentically Catholic, meaning that for our one-on-one clients, we’re going to pray with them and for them. But then even for our subscribers in our app, we’re bringing them back to our why, which is this idea of self-mastery for self-gift.”

Crouse said the majority of the apostolate’s clients are between the ages of 30 and 60, so “they’re people in their vocation and they’re really busy.”

Additionally, about one-third of clients are priests and religious, who receive access to the programming for free. Due to this, Hypuro Fit is aiming to show them that you don’t have to work out like you did in high school, you don’t even have to work out every day, you just need to show up and do something that is reasonable for your lifestyle.

“Ultimately we’re doing this to better give of ourselves and find that why and put everything in light of Christ and his resurrection,” he said.

Crouse added that the main goal of the ministry’s work is to help individuals “be more present and to live out their vocation to the best of their ability.”

“If we can help priests to be better priests, have more energy, give better, religious to be better brothers and sisters, husbands and wives to conquer themselves in order to give themselves to be more present — that’s the goal, that’s the dream.”

‘The Chosen’ actor on Season 6: ‘I’ve never seen the cast so focused’
Sat, 28 Jun 2025 06:00:00 -0400

CNA Staff, Jun 28, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

The cast of the hit series “The Chosen” was recently in Matera, Italy, filming the crucifixion of Jesus, which will be featured in Season 6. Abe Bueno-Jallad, the actor who portrays Big James, or James the Great, shared that he has “never seen the cast so focused.”

Unable to talk much about the upcoming season, he told CNA in an interview that the actors are “all there for each other right now. Everybody is carrying such a heavy burden this season as an actor.”

“There’s just been incredible stuff happening on set. I’ve come back to set on days that I don’t work just to watch and I’ve seen stuff that gives me goosebumps,” he added.

5&2 Studios, the production company behind “The Chosen,” and Amazon MGM Studios recently made several announcements regarding future seasons of the show.

First, the episodes of Season 6 leading up to the finale will be released exclusively on Prime Video in 2026. An official date was not given. Additionally, in a first-of-its-kind arrangement between the two production companies, the two will work together to release the Season 6 finale of the hit series as a feature film portraying the crucifixion of Jesus in theaters on May 12, 2027.

Lastly, the premiere of Season 7 will also be made into a feature film depicting Jesus’ resurrection and will be in theaters on March 31, 2028.

Currently, viewers of the show can watch Season 5 exclusively on Prime Video before it is released for free on The Chosen app. Episodes 1 and 2 of Season 5 were released on the streaming platform on June 15; episodes 3, 4, and 5 were released on June 22; and episodes 6, 7, and 8 will be released on June 29.

Bueno-Jallad joined the show in Season 2 after a casting change at the end of Season 1. Despite not being on the show in Season 1, he had several callbacks and kept tabs on how the production of the show was doing.

He recalled in an interview with CNA that the cast and crew were not even sure if they would be able to get through the filming and production of Season 1, so “to know that we’re on Amazon now — that’s crazy. Amazon is so big!”

When speaking to the feature films that are going to be made, Bueno-Jallad said: “I love being a part of a company and a project that’s not afraid to kind of shake it up, stir up the water, do things differently — ‘get used to different’ has kind of always been our motto.”

For those who were unable to watch Season 5 in the theaters and are watching it for the first time as it releases on Prime Video, Bueno-Jallad shared that “everybody is kind of at this really big boiling point.”

He added: “Jesus is trying to convey to us, specifically to a few characters, that this is it — this is going to be the last time.”

The actor shared that the last five years of being on the show has “undoubtedly changed” him.

“The research of the character and having to research the perspective, understanding that there was no New Testament at the time so, what’s my only biblical reference at that point? Going deep into this … reading as much as I can. Getting completely submerged with the idea of who were these people,” he said.

He has also come to learn several things from his character while portraying him.

“It’s this idea of knowing when to listen without sacrificing the biggest and strongest parts of your personality, knowing how to be… I think as men, particularly… knowing how to be vulnerable without feeling like you’re less of a protector,” he shared.

“I really tried to put that into practice in Season 5. I wanted to show the most open, grounded, vulnerable Big James who was still none the less strong and powerful,” Bueno-Jallad explained.

“I think for men we kind of need that message these days — how to not lose ourselves or think that emotions are weakness. You’re still a protector no matter what.”

More than 50% of U.S. adults support allowing Christian prayer in public schools
Fri, 27 Jun 2025 15:52:00 -0400

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 27, 2025 / 15:52 pm (CNA).

A new survey has found the majority of adults in the U.S. support allowing Christian prayer in public schools, shedding light on how Americans approach the ongoing debate surrounding religious expression in educational settings.

According to Pew Research Center, 52% of adults support allowing public school teachers to lead their classes in prayers that refer to Jesus, with 27% saying they strongly support it and 26% saying they favor it.

“Renewed debates are happening across the United States about the place of religion — especially Christianity — in public schools,” the report stated, citing the recent Supreme Court even-split ruling regarding Oklahoma Catholic charter schools, among other legal debates across the country.

The June 23 report also comes just two days after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law requiring public schools there to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom at the start of the 2025-2026 school year.

The legislation requires that a “durable poster or framed copy of the Ten Commandments” be hung in each Texas public elementary or secondary school classroom.

Pew’s report is based on data from its 2023-2024 Religious Landscape Study, which surveyed 36,908 U.S. adults from July 17, 2023, to March 4, 2024.

Overall, 46% of American adults oppose Christian prayer in public schools, with 22% strongly opposing. While Pew’s report indicates the majority of adults support Christian prayer in public schools, it notes that support varies widely from state to state.

The majority of adults in 22 states across the southern and Midwestern parts of the country including Mississippi, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Kentucky, South and North Dakota, Nebraska, Ohio, and Michigan said they supported the practice.

The majority of adults in 12 states — California, Oregon, Washington, Vermont, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Minnesota, Colorado, and Illinois — and the District of Columbia said they opposed Christian prayer in public schools.

Data in the remaining 16 states is divided, with roughly half of adults in states including Delaware, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Idaho, Arizona, and Maryland saying they favor allowing Christian prayer.

“Once the survey’s margins of error are accounted for, support for teacher-led Christian prayer in these states is not significantly different from opposition,” the report states.

The report also found that “a slightly larger share of Americans say they favor allowing teacher-led prayers referencing God (57%) than favor allowing teacher-led prayers specifically referencing Jesus (52%).”

Supreme Court upholds Texas law mandating age verification for porn sites
Fri, 27 Jun 2025 15:22:00 -0400

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 27, 2025 / 15:22 pm (CNA).

A Texas law that requires porn sites to verify that its users are at least 18 years old can remain in effect after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Friday, June 27, that the law does not violate the Constitution.

In a 6-3 decision written by Justice Clarence Thomas, the court’s majority found that Texas is within its authority “to shield children from sexually explicit content” and that this authority “necessarily includes the power to require proof of age” to access pornographic material.

“Unlike a store clerk, a website operator cannot look at its visitors and estimate their ages,” the opinion continued. “Without a requirement to submit proof of age, even clearly underage minors would be able to access sexual content undetected.”

Texas is one of 24 states that has enacted age verification laws to access pornography on the internet in recent years. The ruling sets nationwide precedent for lower courts reviewing legal challenges to laws in other states.

According to Texas law, a website must verify the ages of all users if “more than one-third of [the website’s content] is sexual material harmful to minors.” The law allows parents to sue websites if their child accesses pornographic material when the website was not complying with the age verification law. The law does not permit pornographers to retain personal information after the verification is complete.

The law also imposes fines of up to $10,000 per day on websites in violation of the law and an additional $250,000 fine if a child is exposed to pornographic content because the website was not verifying the ages of its users.

“This is a major victory for children, parents, and the ability of states to protect minors from the damaging effects of online pornography,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement.

“Companies have no right to expose children to pornography and must institute reasonable age verification measures,” he added. “I will continue to enforce the law against any organization that refuses to take the necessary steps to protect minors from explicit materials.”

Pornographers sued Texas in 2023 shortly after the state enacted the law, asserting that the age verification rule places a burden on adults who are trying to access pornographic material and violates their First Amendment right to access speech. The pornographers, through their trade association called the Free Speech Coalition, have been engaged in lawsuits against other states that require age verification.

In a statement on X after the ruling, Free Speech Coalition Executive Director Alison Boden called the Supreme Court’s ruling “the canary in the coal mine of free expression.” She called the decision “disastrous for Texans and for anyone who cares about freedom of speech and privacy online.”

The court was not convinced by that argument.

In the opinion, Thomas wrote that the law “is simply to prevent minors” from accessing content — not adults. The ruling acknowledges that the law creates a burden on adults but calls the burden “incidental” and found that “adults have no First Amendment right to avoid age verification.”

“An age-verification requirement is an ordinary and appropriate means of enforcing an age limit, as is evident both from all other contexts where the law draws lines based on age and from the long, widespread, and unchallenged practice of requiring age verification for in-person sales of material that is obscene to minors,” the opinion read.

Dani Pinter, who serves as senior legal counsel for the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), told CNA that the free speech argument “defied common sense,” noting that identity and age verification are regular parts of most people’s lives.

Prior to states passing age verification laws, Pinter said very few pornographic websites had any type of age verification. She said “many don’t do anything at all” and some simply ask a user to “click a box that says you’re 18 or older.”

“Virtually no pornography website restricts minors,” she said.

Even in states that have adopted age verification laws, Pinter warned most websites “have not been compliant” but that some websites have “just withdrawn from the states” altogether. She said she hopes the Supreme Court’s confirmation of the constitutionality of the law will bolster compliance and lead to more states — or even the federal government — passing similar laws to protect children online.

The ruling, Pinter said, is “very historic” and “spells a new era where there is now a path forward to protect kids online.”

U.S. bishops urge Senate to act with ‘courage and creativity’ to protect the poor
Fri, 27 Jun 2025 13:31:00 -0400

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 27, 2025 / 13:31 pm (CNA).

As the Senate considers provisions for the “One Big Beautiful Bill” budget reconciliation, U.S bishops are asking lawmakers to protect vulnerable groups.

“The bishops are grateful that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act includes provisions that promote the dignity of human life and support parental choice in education,” Archbishop Timothy Broglio, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), said in a statement.

“These are commendable provisions that are important priorities for the bishops.”

“Still, Congress must be consistent in protecting human life and dignity and make drastic changes to the bill to protect those most in need,” Broglio said.

“As Pope Leo XIV recently stated, it is the responsibility of politicians to promote and protect the common good, including by working to overcome great wealth inequality,” he continued. “This bill does not answer this call. It takes from the poor to give to the wealthy.”

In a letter sent to senators signed by Archbishop Borys Gudziak and Bishops Robert Barron, Kevin Rhoades, Mark Seitz, David O’Connell, and Daniel Thomas, the bishops detailed their stance on certain bill provisions.

Broglio said: “I underscore what my brother bishops said in their recent letter to find a better way forward and urge senators to think and act with courage and creativity to protect human dignity for all, to uphold the common good, and to change provisions that undermine these fundamental values.”

In the letter, the bishops said they “strongly support” the bill’s plan to end “taxpayer subsidization of major abortion and ‘gender transition’ providers such as Planned Parenthood” and the bill’s support for “parental choice in education.”

The bishops also stated their agreement with “the inclusion of a $1,000 ‘above-the-line’ charitable deduction in the Senate bill” and said it is “a very positive step in the right direction.”

However, the bishops are not in support of cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). They urged senators to protect these programs, adding that “the changes to SNAP will cause millions of people to go hungry.”

The bishops also disagree with “the unprecedented increase in funding for immigration enforcement and detention,” which they said “would disproportionately impact immigrant and mixed-status families with strong ties to American communities.”

They added that cuts “to clean energy incentives and the repeal of environmental programs and energy efficient loans … will lead to increased pollution that harms children and the unborn, stifles economic opportunity, and decreases resilience against extreme weather.”

In agreement with the letter, Broglio said the bill “provides tax breaks for some while undermining the social safety net for others through major cuts to nutrition assistance and Medicaid.”

“It fails to protect families and children by promoting an enforcement-only approach to immigration and eroding access to legal protections,” he said. “It harms God’s creation and future generations through cuts to clean energy incentives and environmental programs.”

UPDATE: Supreme Court rules in favor of parents in LGBT curriculum dispute
Fri, 27 Jun 2025 12:26:00 -0400

CNA Staff, Jun 27, 2025 / 12:26 pm (CNA).

The Supreme Court on Friday ruled in favor of a group of Maryland parents who had sued a school district over its refusal to allow families to opt their children out of LGBT-focused lessons.

In a 6-3 decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor, the court ruled on June 27 that the parents — who included Catholics, Orthodox, and Muslims — were “entitled to a preliminary injunction” against the Montgomery County Board of Education, one that will allow them to excuse their children from the controversial lessons while the case is remanded to lower courts for further proceedings.

The parents “are likely to succeed on their claim that the board’s policies unconstitutionally burden their religious exercise,” the court said.

The reading materials, the Supreme Court said — which include promotions of same-sex “marriages” — are “designed to present certain values and beliefs as things to be celebrated, and certain contrary values and beliefs as things to be rejected.”

The materials go beyond mere “exposure,” the justices said, and “burdens the parents’ right to the free exercise of religion.”

Under the district’s policy, the school board only permitted opt-outs in narrow circumstances, mostly related to sexual education in health class. It did not permit opt-outs for coursework that endorsed the views that there are more than two “genders,” that a boy can become a girl, or that homosexual marriages are moral.

Some of the coursework initially introduced in the curriculum was designed to promote these concepts to children as young as 3 years old in preschool.

One book involved in the dispute, called “Pride Puppy,” taught preschool children the alphabet with a story about a homosexual pride parade, which introduced children to words like “drag queen,” “leather,” and “zipper.”

It also introduced young children to Marsha B. Johnson, a drag queen, gay rights activist, and prostitute.

Lawyers with the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty represented the parents in their lawsuit. On Friday, Eric Baxter, vice president and senior counsel at Becket, called the ruling “a historic victory for parental rights in Maryland and across America.”

“Kids shouldn’t be forced into conversations about drag queens, pride parades, or gender transitions without their parents’ permission,” he said. “Today, the court restored common sense and made clear that parents — not government — have the final say in how their children are raised.”

In a Friday statement, meanwhile, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops hailed the Supreme Court for upholding parental rights to directing their children's educations.

"Public schools in our diverse country include families from many communities with a variety of deep-seated convictions about faith and morals," Bishop Kevin Rhoades, the chairman of the bishops' religious liberty committee, said in the statement.

"When these schools address issues that touch on these matters, they ought to respect all families," Rhoades said. "Parents do not forfeit their rights as primary educators of their children when they send their kids to public schools."

Stressing that children "should not be learning that their personal identity as male or female can be separated from their bodies," the bishop said in cases where a school teaches this ideology, "it ought to respect those who choose not to participate."

The lawsuit against the school district, located just north of Washington, D.C., was filed in May 2023.

The Supreme Court took up the controversial case in January of this year after two lower courts ruled against a group of parents who sued the Montgomery County board over the school district’s having provided LGBT-themed lessons and reading materials to their children.

Both the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland and the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled against the parents, claiming they had no right to be notified or opt their kids out of the sexuality-themed literature.

The school district initially allowed the parents to opt out but changed its policy less than a year later. It removed the LGBT puppy book and another book from the program curriculum last year, though the books were still available at school libraries.

During oral arguments in April, most of the justices on the high court appeared sympathetic toward the parents in their lawsuit.

In a dissent to the Friday ruling, Justice Sonia Sotomayor claimed the decision could usher in “chaos” for public schools around the country.

Sotomayor suggested that the LGBT materials in the dispute represented merely “a range of concepts and views” and “new ideas.”

“Requiring schools to provide advance notice and the chance to opt out of every lesson plan or story time that might implicate a parent’s religious beliefs will impose impossible administrative burdens on schools,” she alleged.

This story was updated on Friday, June 27, 2025 at 4:00 p.m. with a statement from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Celebrate Life Weekend kicks off in Washington, DC
Fri, 27 Jun 2025 11:41:00 -0400

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 27, 2025 / 11:41 am (CNA).

This weekend six pro-life organizations will host a three-day-long event in Washington, D.C., to celebrate the third anniversary of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision in which the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

After a successful 2024 event, the Celebrate Life Weekend returns June 27–29 for three days of events that mark the anniversary of the June 24, 2022, decision and encourage “the pro-life generation to fight for equal rights for all — born and preborn — through the 14th Amendment,” according to the Students for Life of America (SFLA) website.

“Last year, we mobilized the youth vote to celebrate Life after Roe v. Wade’s demise,” said Kristan Hawkins, president of SFLA, in a press release. “Now, we’re building on our momentum to create even more pro-life victories — calling on Congress to defund Planned Parenthood while also fighting for equal protections for preborn lives.”

The weekend will be hosted by SFLA, Students for Life Action, Vitae Foundation, Sidewalk Advocates for Life, And Then There Were None, and Pro Love Ministries.

The celebration kicks off Friday evening with a gala in downtown Washington, D.C. Athlete and advocate Riley Gaines will be the keynote speaker alongside other pro-life leaders who organizers say will “highlight the help available for mothers and their children, born and preborn.”

Other confirmed speakers at the gala include Hawkins; Dr. Abby Johnson, president of And Then There Were None and ProLove Ministries; Lauren Muzyka, president and CEO of Sidewalk Advocates for Life; and Brandy Meeks, president and CEO of Vitae Foundation.

On Saturday a diaper drive and rally will be held on Capitol Hill. The event will feature the confirmed speakers from the gala as well as additional guests who will speak about the pro-life movement and the push “to defund Planned Parenthood.”

According to Johnson in a Facebook media post, the event will be the “nation’s largest diaper drive.”

An expected 392,715 diapers will be donated to pregnancy care centers and families in the local community. Each diaper represents “a preborn life ended by Planned Parenthood last year.”

In addition to the two events, the National Celebrate Life Conference will hold other gatherings for registered attendees on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to “offer training and strategy to rally and educate the pro-life generation, as well as key legislators.”

The conference’s mission is to “unite pro-life women and men to celebrate, collaborate, and strategize for the protection of preborn children and to make abortion unthinkable in our culture.”

Iraqi bishop says imposing Iran regime change ‘can only worsen the situation’
Fri, 27 Jun 2025 11:06:00 -0400

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 27, 2025 / 11:06 am (CNA).

Here’s a roundup of Catholic world news from the past week that you might have missed:

Iraqi bishop says imposing Iran regime change ‘can only worsen the situation’

Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, patriarch of the Chaldean Church, issued a stark criticism of calls for regime change in Iran following the U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

“Imposing another regime would only worsen the situation. Change must come from within, if the citizens deem it necessary,” Sako told Agenzia Fides. “Twenty-two years after the fall of the regime in Iraq, there is still no true citizenship, no law, no security, and no stability. Corruption and sectarianism persist.”

Damascus church bombing exposes deepening distrust and rising extremism

Following the deadly bombing at Mar Elias Orthodox Church in Damascus, tensions have grown not just over the attack itself but over who is responsible.

Greek Orthodox Patriarch John X Yazigi condemned the Syrian government in a powerful funeral homily, according to ACI MENA, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner, for failing to protect its citizens, signaling an unusually bold rebuke.

Although Syrian authorities claimed ISIS was behind the attack and arrested several suspects, many locals remain skeptical, especially since the group has not publicly claimed responsibility. Amid these conflicting narratives, a lesser-known extremist group, “Saraya Ansar al-Sunna,” claimed the attack on Telegram, citing sectarian motivations. Observers suspect ties between the attackers and radical factions once part of larger militant coalitions.

Pakistani Christian convicted of blasphemy 23 years ago is freed

Pakistan’s Supreme Court has freed Anwar Kenneth, a Pakistani Christian man who was arrested in 2001 for writing letters that had allegedly “blasphemous” content about Muhammad and the Quran according to the Islamic country’s stringent laws.

Despite Kenneth being diagnosed with a mental illness, a lower court sentenced him to death in 2002 and later upheld the sentence in 2014, according to a report from UCA News. His lawyer, Rana Abdul Hameed, said he will be released next week. “Although doctors had declared him insane at the time of the alleged offense, he kept confessing and pleading to be hanged, which complicated the trial,” she said.

Indian police charge 9 Catholic priests with ‘unlawful assembly’

Police in India have charged nine Catholic priests for causing public disturbance through “unlawful assembly” for joining a protest in the coastal town of Chellanam in the communist-ruled Kerala state, according to UCA News.

More than 150 priests and 5,000 mostly lay Catholics joined the protest against the government for “[failing] to protect around 500 homes from possible submergence in the Arabian Sea due to coastal erosion.”

Vice President of the Kerala Region Latin Catholic Council Joseph Jude was also charged. “This is totally a false case and we cannot be silenced with it,” he said, highlighting that the government’s failure to rebuild will impact “several thousand” mostly Catholic fishermen in the area, leaving them homeless.

Catholic bishops urge Kenyan government not to ignore police brutality

Catholic bishops in Kenya have cautioned the government against denying police brutality and silent killings of innocent Kenyans, including peaceful protesters, ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, reported.

In a statement the bishops read out in turns at a June 24 press conference on the state of the nation, they declared that “the government must acknowledge the fact that there have been mysterious deaths under their watch and at least try to get to the perpetrators.” The bishops’ statement comes nationwide after the murder of Albert Ojwang, a teacher and blogger who was arrested and killed in police custody.

Caritas in Papua New Guinea works to end witchcraft accusations, violence

Caritas Papua New Guinea is working to end the widespread problem of violence provoked by false accusations of witchcraft in the province of Simbu, “one of the most affected provinces,” where hundreds of cases are recorded each year, according to an Agenzia Fides report.

Bishop Paul Sundu of the Diocese of Kundiawa explained in the report that accusations of witchcraft in the region are a commonplace means “to get rid of enemies, block their success in business, education, or politics.” Witchcraft accusations have also been linked to gender-based violence against women, the report noted.

Judy Gelua, diocesan coordinator of Caritas in the Diocese of Kundiawa, noted Caritas’ successful efforts to promote change by providing “guidance on human rights, peace-building, and the protection of minors, women, and vulnerable people,” resulting in the level of violence “slowly declining.”

Pope Leo XIV ordains 32 priests on Sacred Heart feast
Fri, 27 Jun 2025 09:26:00 -0400

Vatican City, Jun 27, 2025 / 09:26 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV ordained 32 men to the priesthood Friday on the solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, calling on them to draw inspiration from the many examples of priestly holiness in the Catholic Church’s 2,000-year history and to share God’s love with the world.

Thousands of priests filled St. Peter’s Basilica for the June 27 Mass, the high point of this week’s Jubilee of Priests. The diverse group of men ordained hailed from more than 20 countries, including South Korea, Mexico, Nigeria, India, Vietnam, Ukraine, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Romania — most from beyond Western Europe.

“Love God and your brothers and sisters, and give yourselves to them generously,” Pope Leo in his homily told the men about to be ordained, moments before the ordination.

“Be fervent in your celebration of the sacraments, in prayer, especially in adoration before the Eucharist, and in your ministry. Keep close to your flock, give freely of your time and energy to everyone, without reserve and without partiality, as the pierced side of the crucified Jesus and the example of the saints teach us to do.”

In front of the altar built on the tomb of St. Peter, the men being ordained lay prostrate on the marble floor of the basilica as thousands chanted the Litany of the Saints.

St. Peter’s Basilica, the largest church in the world, was almost completely filled with rows and rows of priests in white vestments kneeling. Pope Leo XIV placed his hands on the heads of each of the young men whom he personally ordained to the priesthood.

Pope Leo highlighted the centuries of priestly witnesses in the Church who “have been martyrs, tireless apostles, missionaries, and champions of charity,” urging the new priests to “cherish this treasure: learn their stories, study their lives and work, imitate their virtues, be inspired by their zeal, and invoke their intercession often and insistently.”

The pope also warned against the lure of superficial worldly success. “All too often, today’s world offers models of success and prestige that are dubious and short-lived. Do not let yourselves be taken in by them!” he said. “Look rather to the solid example and apostolic fruitfulness, frequently hidden and unassuming, of those who, with faith and dedication, have spent their lives in service of the Lord and their brothers and sisters.”

The ordinations held special meaning for many of the young men, some of whom were stepping foot in Rome for the first time.

“I received the news with tears in my eyes, but with joy. I would never have expected it. For me it is the proof of how God acts in one’s life. He has a perfect plan. You just have to trust,” said Jiergue Stanley, a 35-year-old from Haiti who traveled to the Eternal City for the first time to be ordained.

Gilbert Tika from Ghana told “EWTN News Nightly” ahead of his ordination: “It’s something wonderful to be ordained by the pope, Pope Leo. I think it’s a special gift that God is giving me and the other brothers that will also be ordained.”

“Being a priest for me means I have to be a sign of hope for the people with whom I live, with whom I will minister,” he added. “Practicing the habit of looking at things with the eyes of Jesus Christ. And helping others to look at the world through the eyes of Christ and let the people feel they are still loved by God.”

Another newly ordained priest from Mexico, 27-year-old Jorge Antonio Escobedo Rosales, said: “I accepted this gift with great joy after 13 years of priestly formation.”

Pope Leo XIV was visibly emotional as he greeted each of the new priests after the ordination rites, embracing each of them under Bernini’s baldacchino.

“Our hope is grounded in the knowledge that the Lord never abandons us: He is always at our side,” the pope said. “At the same time, we are called to cooperate with him, above all by putting the Eucharist at the center of our lives, inasmuch as it is ‘the source and summit of the Christian life.’”

He quoted a line from a homily St. Augustine gave on the anniversary of his episcopal ordination — “For you I am a bishop, with you I am a Christian” — emphasizing the joyful fruit of the communion that unites the faithful, priests, and bishops in the recognition that all are saved by the same mercy of God.

On the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which focuses on Christ’s love poured out for humanity, Pope Leo reaffirmed his commitment to ecclesial unity and peace. “The priestly ministry is one of sanctification and reconciliation for the building up of the body of Christ in unity,” he said.

“In the solemn Mass inaugurating my pontificate [on May 18], I voiced before the people of God my great desire for ‘a united Church, a sign of unity and communion, which becomes a leaven for a reconciled world.’ Today, I share this desire once more with all of you,” he continued.

The solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, celebrated each year on the Friday after Corpus Christi, originated in 17th-century France through the visions of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. It was officially instituted by Pope Pius IX in 1856 and has become an important Catholic solemnity day emphasizing Christ’s love and the call to compassion and reparation.

Pope Francis’ final encyclical, Dilexit Nos, meaning “He Loved Us,” was about devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

“Reconciled with one another, united and transformed by the love that flows abundantly from the heart of Christ, let us walk together humbly and resolutely in his footsteps,” Pope Leo XIV said.

“Let us bring the peace of the risen Lord to our world, with the freedom born of the knowledge that we have  been loved, chosen, and sent by the Father.”

National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception offers tours for deaf and blind visitors
Fri, 27 Jun 2025 07:00:00 -0400

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 27, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., is offering specialized guided tours for deaf and blind visitors, giving immersive and sensory experiences to make the sacred site more accessible.

The Deaf and Blind Tour Initiative, which began holding tours in April, includes American Sign Language (ASL)-interpreted guides for those who are deaf and tactile stations for those who are blind, allowing participants to engage with statues, mosaics, and sacred art through touch and sight.

These tours mark the first of their kind in the U.S., Monsignor Vito Buonanno, the director of pilgrimages for the shrine, told CNA.

The project idea was created by volunteer docent Marilyn Lasecki, ASL interpreter Katy Betker, and with the support of Monsignor Walter Rossi, the rector of the shrine.

Inspired by Vatican accessibility

The root of the idea took shape in 2021 when Lasecki decided to launch the project in honor of her late father, Leonard, who worked with deaf people when he was alive. In her research, she discovered that the Vatican Museums are recognized for their accommodations for deaf and blind visitors. Motivated by that model, the basilica’s staff began planning their own adaptation.

In March, Dee Steel, the director of the basilica’s Office of Visitor Services, traveled to Rome and met with the Vatican’s tour director to study their tactile systems firsthand.

“Both the Deaf and Blind communities are greatly underserved by museums and church communities,” Lasecki told CNA. “The Vatican Museums are at the top of the list for welcoming both the deaf and the blind, with specialized tours.”

For deaf visitors, volunteer docents work alongside Betker to guide groups through the church. To improve accessibility, Betker helped adapt the docents’ scripts to better suit ASL grammar.

“There is not a word-for-word translation. It’s because they are two very different languages,” Betker said. Tour guides “have to not only change [the] word order around [but also] change a lot of the way that they speak and with their script for the tours.”

She also advised docents on subtle adjustments that enhance communication, like waiting for a deaf participant to finish observing a site before continuing with spoken commentary.

Steel recounted one docent’s realization during a tour: “When somebody is signing what you say, you have to make sure the people are looking at the signer.”

During one of the first tours, Father Michael Depcik — a deaf priest and chaplain from the Archdiocese of Baltimore — concelebrated Mass at the basilica. Depcik emphasized that having direct communication in ASL allowed deaf Catholics to fully experience the liturgy.

“Usually, they would go through an interpreter, but it’s not the same,” the priest told CNA. “The Deaf are finally able to connect directly for the full immersion into the experience with these assets.”

He also highlighted the importance of the sensory experience. “The Deaf are very visual,” he said.

When asked about smells like incense, Depcik told CNA: “It’s like music for the eyes — the smells and the art, it’s all a very important part of the experience of the Deaf.”

The basilica also created tactile experiences for blind visitors with the help of Father Mike Joly, a blind priest from St. Joan of Arc Parish in Yorktown, Virginia.

The tour for the blind features 15 hands-on stations, including the Founder’s Chapel, the Our Mother of Africa statue, and the Our Lady of Pompei Chapel.

This tour starts with a scale model of the basilica built from over 10,000 Lego bricks by artist John Davisson. It will be on display on the crypt level to help visitors visualize the structure’s layout and the scale of the building.

Buonanno described Joly’s visit to the Founder’s Chapel. Staff removed ropes so he could explore the marble sarcophagus of Bishop Thomas Shahan by touch.

“[Joly] realized — he was blind at 7 years old, so he had seven years of seeing — but he never knew the feel of a miter, that it’s two sides,” Buonanno said.

In the Our Mother of Africa chapel, there are faces of the four Evangelists that people can touch as well as the statue of the Blessed Mother and the Christ Child.

Joly helped staff reinterpret sacred artwork. “We always thought of Jesus as pointing toward another piece of artwork, but [Joly] felt the finger and said, ‘Jesus is giving a blessing,” Steel recalled.

“[Joly] saw more with his hands than we saw with our eyes,” Steel commented.

The priest “taught us things… that is the beautiful interaction with this,” Buonanno added.

With the tours now underway, the basilica hopes to raise awareness and expand participation.

The facility wants to “expand [the initiative], make it more known,” Buonanno said. “It’s just so that more people can know that it exists.”

Pope Leo XIV to bestow pallium on these 8 U.S. archbishops
Fri, 27 Jun 2025 06:00:00 -0400

Vatican City, Jun 27, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday will bless and bestow the “pallium” — a white woolen vestment symbolizing pastoral authority and unity with the pope — on 48 new metropolitan archbishops, including eight from the United States, in a return to a custom changed by Pope Francis in 2015.

Leo will impose the pallia at a Mass for the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul in St. Peter’s Basilica on June 29.

The U.S. archbishops who will be in Rome to receive the pallium on June 29 are Richard Henning of Boston, Jeffrey Grob of Milwaukee, Joe Steve Vásquez of Galveston-Houston, Edward Weisenburger of Detroit, Robert Casey of Cincinnati, Michael McGovern of Omaha, W. Shawn McKnight of Kansas City in Kansas, and Cardinal Robert McElroy of Washington.

Archbishop Ryan Pagente Jimenez of Agaña, Guam (a U.S. territory), is also expected to be imposed with the pallium.

The pallium is a narrow, circular band of white wool with pendants hanging down the front and the back. It is adorned with six small black crosses and three pins (called spinulae), which resemble both thorns and the nails used to crucify Jesus.

It is bestowed on the Latin-rite patriarch of Jerusalem and metropolitan archbishops — the diocesan archbishop of the primary city of an ecclesiastical province or region — as a symbol of communion, authority, and unity with the pope and his pastoral mission to be a shepherd for the people of God. The pope also wears the pallium over his chasuble when he is celebrating Mass.

Until Pope Francis changed the policy in 2015, it had been the custom for centuries for the pope to impose the pallium on the shoulders of each new metropolitan archbishop created in the past year.

Ten years ago, Pope Francis opted to only bless the pallia and then give them to each of the new archbishops to be vested by the apostolic nuncio in their own archdiocese as a sign of the archbishop’s relationship with the local Church.

According to the master of liturgical ceremonies, Archbishop Diego Ravelli, Pope Leo will be both blessing and personally imposing the pallia on the archbishops.

Before the vestments are bestowed on the metropolitan archbishops, they are placed for a time in a spot near the tomb of St. Peter, under the main altar of St. Peter’s Basilica, to reinforce the bishop’s connection to Peter through apostolic succession.

The tradition of the pope giving a pallium to select bishops began as early as the sixth century, though some historians believe a cloak-like version of pallium existed and was worn by Christians in the first century. By the ninth century, all metropolitan bishops were expected to wear the pallium in their territory.

Another tradition tied to the pallia and believed to date back in various forms to the sixth century is the blessing of the lambs from which the woolen stole, or at least a part of it, is made.

For centuries, every year on Jan. 21, the feast of St. Agnes, two young lambs were brought to the Basilica of St. Agnes to be blessed by the pope. They would then be entrusted to the Benedictine nuns of the Basilica of St. Cecilia to be sheared and their wool woven into the new pallia. While today the pallia are still created from lamb’s wool, the papal blessing of the lambs was discontinued by Pope Francis a few years into his pontificate.

At Pope Benedict XVI’s inaugural Mass on April 24, 2005, he explained the symbolism of the pallium and the lamb’s wool as “meant to represent the lost, the sick, or weak sheep which the shepherd places on his shoulders to carry to the waters of life.”

Wisdom from 20 saints on the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Fri, 27 Jun 2025 04:00:00 -0400

Rome Newsroom, Jun 27, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

Pope Francis’ 2024 encyclical on the Sacred Heart of Jesus is packed with testimonies from the saints of prayer and devotion to the heart of Christ throughout the centuries.

Dilexit Nos, meaning “He Loved Us,” describes how devotion to the heart of Christ “reappears in the spiritual journey of many saints” and how in each one the devotion takes on new hues. The most frequently quoted saints in the encyclical are St. Thérèse of Lisieux, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, St. Francis de Sales, St. Vincent de Paul, and St. John Paul II, but more than two dozen saints are quoted in all.

The encyclical explains how the Church Fathers’ descriptions of the wounded side of Christ as the wellspring of the life of grace later began to be associated with his heart, especially in monastic life.

It adds that “devotion to the heart of Christ slowly passed beyond the walls of the monasteries to enrich the spirituality of saintly teachers, preachers, and founders of religious congregations, who then spread it to the farthest reaches of the earth.”

Here are 20 saints devoted to the Sacred Heart found in Dilexit Nos:

St. Francis de Sales (1567–1622)

St. Francis de Sales was deeply moved by Jesus’ words “Learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart” (Mt 11:29). He writes in the “Introduction to the Devout Life” that the ordinary trials of life — such as “the tiresome peculiarities of a husband or wife” or a headache or toothache — when accepted lovingly, “are most pleasing to God’s goodness.” In his letters, Francis wrote about Christ’s open heart, seeing it as an invitation to dwell within and trust completely in God’s grace, describing it as “a heart on which all our names are written.”

“Surely it is a source of profound consolation to know that we are loved so deeply by Our Lord, who constantly carries us in his heart,” he said in a Lenten homily on Feb. 20, 1622.

St. John Henry Newman (1801–1890)

St. John Henry Newman chose “Cor ad cor loquitur” (“Heart speaks to heart”) as his motto, a phrase drawn from a letter by St. Francis de Sales. He experienced Christ’s Sacred Heart most powerfully in the Eucharist, where he sensed Jesus’ heart “beat[ing] for us still” and prayed: “O make my heart beat with thy heart. Purify it of all that is earthly, all that is proud and sensual, all that is hard and cruel, of all perversity, of all disorder, of all deadness. So fill it with thee, that neither the events of the day nor the circumstances of the time may have power to ruffle it, but that in thy love and thy fear it may have peace.”

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647–1690)

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque is perhaps the saint most associated with the Sacred Heart of Jesus because of a series of apparitions of Christ in Paray-le-Monial, France. In the first message Alacoque received, she described how the Lord “asked for my heart, which I asked him to take, which he did and then placed myself in his own adorable heart, from which he made me see mine like a little atom consumed in the fiery furnace of his own.” In subsequent messages, “he revealed to me the ineffable wonders of his pure love and to what extremes it had led him to love mankind” and how “his pure love, with which he loves men to the utmost” is met with “only ingratitude and indifference.”

Alacoque wrote in one of her letters: “It is necessary that the divine heart of Jesus in some way replace our own; that he alone live and work in us and for us; that his will … work absolutely and without any resistance on our part; and finally that its affections, thoughts, and desires take the place of our own, especially his love, so that he is loved in himself and for our sakes. And so, this lovable heart being our all in all, we can say with St. Paul that we no longer live our own lives, but it is he who lives within us.”

St. Claude de La Colombière (1641–1682)

St. Claude de La Colombière was a French Jesuit priest and confessor of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. He helped develop devotion to the Sacred Heart, combining the experiences of St. Margaret Mary with the contemplative approach of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Claude meditated on the attitude of Christ toward those who sought to arrest and put him to death: “His heart is full of bitter sorrow; every violent passion is unleashed against him and all nature is in turmoil, yet amid all this confusion, all these temptations, his heart remains firmly directed to God.”

St. Gertrude of Helfta (1256–1302)

St. Gertrude of Helfta, a Cistercian mystic, writes of a time in prayer in which she leaned her head on the heart of Christ and heard his heart beating. She reflected that the “sweet sound of those heartbeats has been reserved for modern times, so that hearing them, our aging and lukewarm world may be renewed in the love of God.”

St. Mechtilde of Hackeborn (1241–1298)

St. Mechtilde, another Cistercian mystic, shared St. Gertrude’s intimate devotion to the heart of Jesus. The encyclical lists her as among “a number of holy women, [who] in recounting their experiences of encounter with Christ, have spoken of resting in the heart of the Lord as the source of life and interior peace.”

St. Vincent de Paul (1581–1660)

St. Vincent de Paul emphasized that “God asks primarily for our heart,” teaching that the poor can have more merit by giving with “greater love” than those with wealth who can give more. He urged his confreres to “find in the heart of Our Lord a word of consolation for the poor sick person.” The constitutions of his congregation underline that “by gentleness we inherit the earth. If we act on this, we will win people over so that they will turn to the Lord. That will not happen if we treat people harshly or sharply.” For him, embodying the “heart of the Son of God” meant going everywhere in mission and bringing the warmth of Christ’s love to the suffering and poor.

St. Catherine of Siena (1347–1380)

St. Catherine of Siena wrote that the Lord’s sufferings are impossible for us to comprehend, but the open heart of Christ enables us to have a lively personal encounter with his boundless love. Catherine’s “Dialogue on Divine Providence” records a conversation she had with God in which he said to her: “I wished to reveal to you the secret of my heart, allowing you to see it open, so that you can understand that I have loved you so much more than I could have proved to you by the suffering that I once endured.”

St. John Paul II (1920–2005)

St. John Paul II described Christ’s heart as “the Holy Spirit’s masterpiece” and saw it as foundational for building a “civilization of love.” In a general audience in the first year of his papacy, John Paul II spoke about “the mystery of the heart of Christ” and shared that “it has spoken to me ever since my youth.” Throughout his pontificate, he taught that “the Savior’s heart invites us to return to the Father’s love, which is the source of every authentic love.”

“The men and women of the third millennium need the heart of Christ in order to know God and to know themselves; they need it to build the civilization of love,” John Paul II said in 1994.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153)

St. Bernard preached on the importance of loving Jesus with “the full and deep affection of all your heart.” He described Christ’s pierced side as a revelation of the outpouring of the Lord’s love from his compassionate heart. In the year 1072, he preached: “Those who crucified him pierced his hands and feet … A lance passed through his soul even to the region of his heart. No longer is he unable to take pity on my weakness. The wounds inflicted on his body have disclosed to us the secrets of his heart; they enable us to contemplate the great mystery of his compassion.”

St. Bonaventure (1221–1274)

St. Bonaventure presents the heart of Christ as the source of the sacraments and of grace. In his treatise “Lignum Vitae,” Bonaventure wrote that in the blood and water flowing from the wounded side of Christ, the price of our salvation flows “from the hidden wellspring of his heart, enabling the Church’s sacraments to confer the life of grace and thus to be, for those who live in Christ, like a cup filled from the living fount springing up to life eternal.”

St. John Eudes (1601–1680)

St. John Eudes wrote the propers for the Mass of the Sacred Heart and was an ardent proponent of the devotion. Dilexit Nos describes how St. John Eudes convinced the bishop of the Rennes Diocese in France to approve the celebration of the feast of the “Adorable Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ,” the first time that such a feast was officially authorized in the Church. The following year, five more bishops in France authorized the celebration of the feast in their dioceses.

St. Charles de Foucauld (1858–1916)

St. Charles de Foucauld made it his mission to console the Sacred Heart of Jesus, adopting an image of the cross planted in the heart of Christ as his emblem. He consecrated himself to Christ’s heart, believing that he must “embrace all men and women” like the heart of Jesus. He made a promise in 1906 to “let the heart of Jesus live in me, so that it is no longer I who live, but the heart of Jesus that lives in me, as he lived in Nazareth.”

St. Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274)

St. Thomas Aquinas wrote that the phrase “heart of Christ” can refer to sacred Scripture, “which makes known his heart.” The encyclical quotes St. Thomas Aquinas’ theological exposition of the Gospel of St. John in which he wrote that whenever someone “hastens to share various gifts of grace received from God, living water flows from his heart.”

St. Thérèse of Lisieux (1873–1897)

St. Thérèse of Lisieux felt an intimate bond with Jesus’ heart. At age 15, she could speak of Jesus as the one “whose heart beats in unison with my own.” One of her sisters took as her religious name “Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart,” and the monastery that Thérèse entered was dedicated to the Sacred Heart. She wrote in a letter to a priest: “Ever since I have been given the grace to understand also the love of the heart of Jesus, I admit that it has expelled all fear from my heart. The remembrance of my faults humbles me, draws me never to depend on my strength, which is only weakness, but this remembrance speaks to me of mercy and love even more.”

St. John of the Cross (1542–1591)

St. John of the Cross viewed the image of Christ’s pierced side as an invitation to full union with the Lord. In his poetry, he portrayed Christ as a wounded stag, comforted by the soul that turns to him. John sought to explain that in mystical experience, the infinite love of the risen Christ “condescends” to enable us, through the open heart of Christ, to experience an encounter of truly reciprocal love.

St. Ambrose (340–397)

The encyclical repeatedly quotes St. Ambrose, who offered a reflection on Jesus as the source of “living water.” He wrote: “Drink of Christ, for he is the rock that pours forth a flood of water. Drink of Christ, for he is the source of life. Drink of Christ, for he is the river whose streams gladden the city of God. Drink of Christ, for he is our peace. Drink of Christ, for from his side flows living water.”

St. Augustine (354–430)

St. Augustine “opened the way to devotion to the Sacred Heart as the locus of our personal encounter with the Lord,” according to Dilexit Nos. “For Augustine, Christ’s wounded side is not only the source of grace and the sacraments but also the symbol of our intimate union with Christ, the setting of an encounter of love.” In his “Tractates on the Gospel of John,” Augustine reflects on how when John, the beloved disciple, reclined on Jesus’ bosom at the Last Supper, he drew near to the secret place of wisdom.

St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556)

In his “Spiritual Exercises,” St. Ignatius encourages retreatants to contemplate the wounded side of the crucified Lord to enter into the heart of Christ. Ignatius founded the Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuits, which has promoted devotion to Jesus’ divine heart for more than a century. The society was consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1871.

St. Daniel Comboni (1831–1881)

St. Daniel Comboni saw the heart of Jesus as the source of strength for his missionary work in Africa. He founded the Sons of the Sacred Heart Jesus, which today are known as the Comboni Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, as well as the Comboni Missionary Sisters. The saintly missionary once said: “This divine heart, which let itself be pierced by an enemy’s lance in order to pour forth through that sacred wound the sacraments by which the Church was formed, has never ceased to love.”

This article was first published on Nov. 1, 2024, and has been updated.

EWTN announces retirement of president and chief operating officer Doug Keck
Thu, 26 Jun 2025 19:11:00 -0400

CNA Staff, Jun 26, 2025 / 19:11 pm (CNA).

The Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) announced June 26 that after a distinguished 29-year career at the network, Doug Keck will retire from his administrative duties as president and chief operating officer. He also will step down as a member of the EWTN board of governors.

Keck joined EWTN in 1996 following a career in cable television, sports, and media in New York City. His tenure saw the network, founded in 1981 by Mother Angelica, evolve into an award-winning global powerhouse, becoming the largest Catholic media organization in the world.

During Keck’s tenure, EWTN (CNA’s parent company) expanded its reach across television, radio, and digital platforms, producing notable initiatives such as “Life on the Rock,” “EWTN Bookmark,” and “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo,” the pioneering show of the network’s broader news programming.

In 2013, Keck was named president and chief operating officer after serving since 2009 as executive vice president and chief operating officer.

“On behalf of the entire EWTN family around the globe, I want to thank Doug for keeping the mission of EWTN our No. 1 priority over the years and never compromising in sharing the truth of the Gospel for views or clicks,” EWTN Board Chairman and CEO Michael Warsaw said in a statement. “EWTN is better off today for his contributions and for his dedication to our mission.”

Keck, who has also served as president and chief operating officer of EWTN Religious Catalogue and EWTN Publishing, was also a member of the board of governors of the various EWTN entities. Keck will receive the honorary title of president emeritus and will continue to host “EWTN Bookmark” as well as co-host “Father Spitzer’s Universe.”

“This announcement is one of many that will usher in the next generation of talent to EWTN,” Warsaw continued. “While this is a moment of change, I am excited about the future of our global team and how we are building upon the past to carry out our mission for future generations. Doug remains a member of the EWTN family and will continue to mentor the up-and-coming leaders in the Catholic media landscape.”

About EWTN

EWTN, now in its 44th year, is the largest Catholic media organization in the world. Its 11 global TV channels broadcast 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in multiple languages, reaching over 435 million households in more than 160 countries and territories. EWTN platforms also include radio services transmitted through SIRIUS/XM, iHeart Radio, and over 600 domestic and international AM & FM radio affiliates; a worldwide shortwave radio service; one of the most visited Catholic websites in the U.S.; as well as EWTN Publishing, its book publishing division.

Headquartered in Washington, D.C., EWTN News operates multiple global news services, including Catholic News Agency; The National Catholic Register newspaper and digital platform; ACI Prensa in Spanish; ACI Digital in Portuguese; ACI Stampa in Italian; ACI Africa in English, French, and Portuguese; ACI MENA in Arabic; CNA Deutsch in German; and ChurchPop, a digital platform that creates content in several languages. It also produces numerous television news programs including “EWTN News Nightly,” “EWTN Noticias,” “EWTN News In Depth,” “EWTN Pro-Life Weekly,” “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo,” and “Vaticano.”

Obergefell 10 years later: The cultural impact of same-sex marriage and where it stands
Thu, 26 Jun 2025 18:02:00 -0400

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 26, 2025 / 18:02 pm (CNA).

The United States Supreme Court on June 26, 2015, decided that every state is constitutionally required to perform and recognize same-sex civil marriages — a controversial ruling at the time that was followed by major shifts in cultural norms and public opinion.

When the justices handed down the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling in a 5-4 decision, only 16 states had already enacted laws legalizing same-sex civil marriage. The practice, however, had been ongoing in 21 additional states because lower courts had ruled against most state-level bans prior to the Supreme Court ruling.

In the aftermath of the ruling, some Christians have been sued for adhering to biblical teachings on marriage and human sexuality in relation to anti-discrimination laws. Broader movements to normalize both homosexuality and transgenderism have also led to legal battles over parental rights, women’s rights, and religious liberty.

A decade later, public support for same-sex marriage is higher than it was. Yet some polling has shown that the trend might be reversing, potentially due to the subsequent cultural battles that followed.

The United States post-Obergefell

Ever since the ruling, efforts to prevent discrimination have repeatedly been at odds with religious liberty and parental rights.

In Colorado, for example, a baker named Jack Phillips fought and won three multiyear lawsuits filed against him for refusing to bake cakes for same-sex civil weddings and gender transition celebrations. A Christian photographer in New York and a web designer in Colorado, along with others, also fought and won multiyear lawsuits based on their refusals to provide services for same-sex civil weddings.

Many legal battles on similar issues are still ongoing. Foster parents in Vermont and a mother looking to adopt in Oregon are suing their states over policies that require them to embrace gender ideology to participate in foster programs. Parents in California are suing the state over a law that prohibits teachers from informing parents about their children’s “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.”

The Supreme Court is considering a case in which a Maryland school board is refusing to let parents opt children out of course material that promotes homosexuality and transgenderism.

There are numerous political and legal battles nationwide over policies that allow biological males who self-identify as transgender women to access women’s locker rooms and other private spaces and allow them to participate in female sporting events.

“Obergefell gave license to the unraveling of social norms and understanding around sexual morality, family structure, and even personal identity,” Mary Rice Hasson, director of the Person and Identity Project at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, told CNA.

In Hasson’s view, the Supreme Court, equating a same-sex partnership with a marriage, “emboldened activists promoting the transgender agenda, which claims a ‘trans woman’ is just the same as a woman.”

“The same personal autonomy claims that license same-sex sexual relationships are used to license self-defined identity claims,” she said.

When the decision was laid down in 2015, about 60% of the public supported legal recognition of same-sex marriages, according to a Gallup poll at the time. This was a major shift over the previous two decades, as support was only around 37% in 2005 and as low as 27% in 1996.

A May 2025 Gallup poll shows that support increased to about 68% a decade later. Even though that’s an eight-point increase over the decade, the pollsters found that support has gone down for two years straight after hitting a peak of 71% support in 2022 and 2023, with the bulk of the decrease coming from Republican voters and young people.

When commenting on the decline in support over the past two years, Hasson said that “perhaps the excesses of sexual libertinism, championed by the rainbow groups and on display in pride parades, demonstrate that same-sex sexual relationships are not the same as marriage.”

Arthur Schaper, the field director for the pro-family group MassResistance, told CNA he sees “a growing movement against this,” mostly because “people are starting to see the consequences of it.”

“This kind of stuff is happening all over,” he said, referring to the imposition of gender ideology and homosexuality in public life. “This is just egregious.”

“Everything that we warned everybody about — what would happen if you redefined a fundamental institution and corrupted it — it has come to pass,” Schaper added.

Efforts to overturn Obergefell

The Supreme Court has not revisited Obergefell since the initial ruling, and Hasson expressed some pessimism about the current makeup of the court, saying it’s “unlikely to muster a majority to overturn” the decision.

Yet some groups, including MassResistance, have been encouraging state lawmakers to adopt resolutions urging the Supreme Court to reevaluate the ruling. Lawmakers in at least nine states have introduced such resolutions. The Idaho House and the North Dakota House passed their resolutions, but most efforts have failed to gain steam.

“We see this as a first step and we’re doubling down on our efforts,” Schaper said. “And we’re going to continue fighting this.”

Schaper said some of the arguments against the decision focus on 10th Amendment claims that the regulation of marriage is a state issue and not a federal one. He also referenced some of the dissenting opinions from the court that suggested the ruling “alters the relationship of citizen to government” by asserting “the government [rather than God] gives freedom, the government gives dignity.”

He said Obergefell is also “based on this fraud that people are genetically homosexual” and treats sexuality as though it is an immutable characteristic like race. He criticized Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan for not recusing themselves from the case despite officiating same-sex civil weddings and reiterated the point that “redefining marriage has led to an imposition of values.”

Jennifer Morse, the president of the Ruth Institute, told CNA she believes “removing the gender requirement from marriage was bad public policy” and said Obergefell should be overturned.

In Morse’s view, a legal recognition of same-sex marriage “promotes the idea that the sex of the body is not significant, even for the most gendered thing we do, namely bearing and begetting children and assigning legal parental rights.”

“If the sex of the body doesn’t matter for marriage, it doesn’t matter on the sporting field, or in the locker room or in the prisons,” Morse said. “In this way, Obergefell paved the way for the excesses of the [transgender] movement.”

Morse also expressed concerns about the effect on children, saying that same-sex marriage distorts “how we see fertility, parenthood, and children” and “it tacitly assumes that biological connections between parents and children are unimportant and in fact negotiable.”

“Rather than seeing each and every child being a gift from God, children are increasingly seen as a lifestyle option for adults, who can acquire children pretty much however they like,” she added, referencing adoption by same-sex couples.

“Redefining marriage redefines parenthood,” Morse said. “Contracts among groups of adults, rather than an act of love between parents, form the basis of parenthood.”

Schaper argued that in the early 2000s, conservative arguments for traditional marriage were mostly weak and simply focused on “tradition or preference or religion.” In reality, he said the support for same-sex marriage is “putting your selfish desires ahead of the needs of children, of public health, and public order.”

“If people just stand their ground and stand for truth, we can win,” he added.

Catholic Church teaching

In spite of consistent Church teaching, American Catholics support the legalization of same-sex civil marriages at about the same rate as the broader population. According to a 2024 Pew poll, about 70% of self-identified Catholics said they support same-sex marriage, which was slightly higher than the population as a whole.

Julia Dezelski, the associate director of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth, told CNA these trends are a “downstream effect of cultural distortions of love for Catholics and non-Catholics alike.”

“The Church can address this issue by demonstrating that love for people who experience same-sex attraction is precisely what motivates us to oppose same-sex sexual activity,” she said. “The Church teaches the truth and beauty of human sexuality because it is true and beautiful, and therefore good for every man and woman.”

“Man and woman are created for communion,” Dezelski added. “The natural law inscribes this reality and desire in our very flesh. It finds its fulfillment in the one-flesh union of man and woman in marriage. Only two people of the opposite sex can experience this one-flesh union, from which the miracle of life is born.”

Department of Education says California is violating federal law with transgender policies
Thu, 26 Jun 2025 17:32:00 -0400

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 26, 2025 / 17:32 pm (CNA).

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has found the California Department of Education and the state’s Interscholastic Federation to be in violation of Title IX for allowing male athletes who believe themselves to be females to compete in women’s sports.

Title IX, a landmark federal civil rights law adopted in 1972, prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools that receive federal funding. Its purpose is to ensure women and girls have equal access in education. The law makes no mention of “gender identity.”

“The Trump administration will relentlessly enforce Title IX protections for women and girls, and our findings today make clear that California has failed to adhere to its obligations under federal law,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a June 25 press release.

“The state must swiftly come into compliance with Title IX or face the consequences that follow,” McMahon said.

She also slammed California Gov. Gavin Newsom for allowing men to compete in women’s sports.

“Although Gov. Gavin Newsom admitted months ago it was ‘deeply unfair’ to allow men to compete in women’s sports, both the California Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation continued as recently as a few weeks ago to allow men to steal female athletes’ well-deserved accolades and to subject them to the indignity of unfair and unsafe competitions,” McMahon stated.

Kathleen Domingo, the executive director of the California Catholic Conference, told CNA in an interview that the conference supports the U.S. Department of Education’s efforts to keep male athletes out of women’s sports.

“We obviously believe that girls’ sports should be protected,” she said. “We believed in the original intent of Title IX, that it allows women and girls to have a fair chance for competition, and we absolutely support women being able to do that.”

“We’re concerned that California is not following the science and not following the recommendations that so many people are talking about today, just in terms of fairness, as our own governor has said, but also just looking at the science behind what is happening,” Domingo said.

“Obviously males of the similar age will overpower females in many sports competitions, but in some competitions, it can even be dangerous if there’s contact.”

“I think the bishops of California really want to stand … with parents who are saying we need to protect our kids,” she said.

The U.S. Department of Education has issued a resolution to the California education department and the interscholastic federation, which in part requires the government to issue a notice to all federal funding recipients mandating compliance with Title IX by banning males from competing in women’s sports or occupying women’s spaces.

It also requires the adoption of “biology-based definitions of the words ‘male’ and ‘female.’”

Both the state government and the interscholastic federation will also be required to rescind all guidance that permits male athletes in women’s spaces or competitions, “to reflect that Title IX preempts state law when state law conflicts with Title IX.”

In addition, the agreement requires the state government “to restore to female athletes all individual records, titles, and awards misappropriated by male athletes competing in female competitions.”

“To each female athlete to whom an individual recognition is restored, [California Department of Education] will send a personalized letter apologizing on behalf of the state of California for allowing her educational experience to be marred by sex discrimination,” the agreement states.

Lastly, the state government and the interscholastic federation must complete an annual certification of compliance with Title IX and propose a monitoring plan to ensure compliance with the U.S. Department of Education.

The Biden administration in April 2024 issued regulations redefining Title IX to include protection against discrimination based on a person’s “gender identity.”

At the time, the administration said the revisions were meant to “clarify that sex discrimination includes discrimination on the basis of sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity.”

The Biden administration was initially blocked from enforcing its redefined regulations in three separate rulings across the country in July 2024.

The rule was ultimately blocked nationwide by a federal court in Kentucky in January.

Priest warns: Christian town in Holy Land no longer safe amid settler attacks
Thu, 26 Jun 2025 17:02:00 -0400

ACI MENA, Jun 26, 2025 / 17:02 pm (CNA).

In a disturbing and increasingly frequent pattern, the Palestinian town of Taybeh, located east of Ramallah and known as the last remaining town in the West Bank inhabited entirely by Christians, faces ongoing attacks by Israeli settlers targeting residents, their property, and farmlands.

According to ACI MENA, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner, in recent weeks settlers have established a new outpost on the eastern edge of Taybeh atop the ruins of a farmhouse whose owners were displaced roughly a year ago.

The outpost was erected in a vital agricultural zone, spanning around 17,000 dunums (roughly 4,200 acres), which serves as a key economic lifeline for the town. The area hosts thousands of olive trees, poultry and sheep farms, and wide fields used for seasonal crops. It forms the bulk of Taybeh’s total land area of about 24,000 dunums (about 5,900 acres).

Attacks and infringements are not new. In 2019 and 2020, settlers set up similar illegal outposts around the town, often accompanied by arson attacks on crops, theft of equipment, and deliberately releasing cattle into the fields to destroy harvests.

During the latest olive harvest season, for the second year in a row, farmers were barred from accessing their land near the Rimmonim settlement — which was built on confiscated Taybeh land — resulting in either theft or complete spoilage of the olive crop. Approximately 20 families were physically assaulted while trying to reach their land.

Father Bashar Fawadleh, parish priest of the Church of Christ the Redeemer in Taybeh, told ACI MENA: “The town, which the Gospel of John (11:54) refers to as ‘Ephraim’ — the place Jesus withdrew to before his passion — is no longer safe for its people today… We do not live in peace but in daily fear and siege.”

He added: “Since last October, more than 10 families have left Taybeh due to fear from ongoing violence and harassment.”

Fawadleh also described further Israeli-imposed restrictions: “Alongside these attacks, Israeli authorities have installed iron gates at the town’s entrances, severely disrupting residents’ access to work and essential services. These limitations, combined with mounting agricultural restrictions, have worsened unemployment and deepened the economic crisis, leading many to consider emigration.”

He added: “These days, settlers are grazing their cows on a hill planted with olive and barley fields right next to people’s homes. Locals see this as part of a systematic effort to strangle them economically and push them out.”

On Wednesday, settlers attacked and killed three people in Kaffr Malik, another town near Ramallah, in the West Bank.

According to the BBC, Israel has built about 160 settlements since it began to occupy the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Although the Israeli government disagrees, the vast majority of the international community considers the settlements illegal under international law.

This story was first published by ACI MENA, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner, and has been translated for and adapted by CNA.

Pope Leo XIV on vocations crisis: God continues to call and is faithful to his promises
Thu, 26 Jun 2025 16:32:00 -0400

Vatican City, Jun 26, 2025 / 16:32 pm (CNA).

As part of the Jubilee of Seminarians, Bishops, and Priests, Pope Leo XIV met June 26 in the Auditorium Conciliazione in Rome with the “joyful priests” responsible for vocations ministry and seminary formation.

The event was organized by the Vatican Dicastery for the Clergy with the theme taken from St. John’s Gospel: “I have called you friends.” Also present was Cardinal Lazzaro You Heung-sik, prefect of the dicastery, whom the pontiff thanked for his “extensive and beautiful” work, which is often carried out “in silence and discretion.”

At the beginning of his address, the Holy Father encouraged the priests to cultivate “creativity, co-responsibility, and communion in the Church, so that what is sown with dedication and generosity in so many communities may become light and encouragement for all.”

Referring to Jesus’ words “I have called you friends” (Jn 15:15), the pope explained that this is “an authentic key to understanding the priestly ministry.”

“The priest, in fact, is a friend of the Lord, called to live with him a personal and trusting relationship, nourished by the Word, the celebration of the sacraments, and daily prayer.”

What does it mean to be a friend of Christ?

For Pope Leo XIV, this friendship with Christ “is the spiritual foundation of the ordained ministry, the meaning of our celibacy, and the energy of the ecclesial service to which we dedicate our lives.” This friendship, he emphasized, “sustains us in times of trial and allows us to renew each day the ‘yes’ pronounced at the beginning of our vocation.”

The pontiff then clarified that becoming a friend of Christ “means being formed in relationships, not just in abilities.” He therefore emphasized that “priestly formation cannot be reduced to the acquisition of concepts but is a journey of familiarity with the Lord that engages the whole person — heart, intelligence, freedom — and transforms him into the image of the Good Shepherd.”

“Only those who live in friendship with Christ and are imbued with his Spirit can proclaim with authenticity, console with compassion, and guide with wisdom. This requires attentive listening, meditation, and a rich and orderly interior life,” he added.

The pope also emphasized that fraternity is “an essential aspect of priestly life,” since becoming a friend of Christ “involves living as brothers among priests and among bishops, not as competitors or isolated individuals.”

He thus urged forging strong bonds among priests “as an expression of a synodal Church, in which we grow together by sharing the joys and the painful moments of the ministry.”

Forming priests capable of loving, listening, and praying

For Leo XIV, forming priests who are friends of Christ means “forming men capable of loving, listening, praying, and serving as a community.” He thus reiterated that “it is necessary to pay great attention to the preparation of the formators, since the effectiveness of their work depends above all on the example of life and the communion among them.”

“The very existence of seminaries reminds us that the formation of future ordained ministers cannot happen in isolation,” he emphasized.

Referring to vocations, the pontiff noted that, despite the signs of crisis affecting the life and mission of priests, “God continues to call and remains faithful to his promises,” and Leo therefore called for the creation of appropriate conditions “to hear his voice.”

In this regard, he expressed the importance of creating “environments and forms of youth ministry imbued with the Gospel, where vocations to the total gift of self can emerge and mature. Have the courage to offer powerful and liberating proposals!” he exclaimed.

The thirst for the infinite and for salvation in young people

He also pointed to the challenges of our time: “Many seem to have strayed from the faith, yet deep within many people, especially young people, there is a thirst for the infinite and for salvation. Many feel an absence of God, even though every human being is made for him, and the Father’s plan is to make Christ the heart of the world.”

Given this longing, he encouraged priests to rediscover together “the missionary impetus” to be credible witnesses of the vocation they have received. “When one believes, it shows: The happiness of the minister reflects his encounter with Christ, sustaining him in mission and service.”

He also thanked the priests for their daily dedication, especially in formation centers, on the existential peripheries, and in difficult, sometimes dangerous, places.

“Remembering the priests who have given their lives, even shedding their blood, we renew today our readiness to live, without reservations, an apostolate of compassion and joy,” he said.

“Thank you for what you are. Because you remind us all that being a priest is beautiful, and that every call from the Lord is, above all, a call to his joy. We are not perfect, but we are friends of Christ, brothers and sisters among ourselves, and children of his tender mother, Mary, and that is enough for us,” the Holy Father added.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.