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MIAMI — “We ask the U.S. government to reconsider the cancellation of an $11 million federal contract with Catholic Charities, given the immediate and long-term impact on services for unaccompanied minors and the broader humanitarian mission of the archdiocese,” said Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami at a press conference on April 15.

For decades, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami has partnered with the federal government to serve vulnerable children and families. The sudden termination of this contract ends a more than 65-year relationship that began with Operation Pedro Pan, which resettled approximately 14,000 Cuban children who were fleeing the Castro regime in the United States.

Wenski called for a review of the decision to cut funding for the Unaccompanied Minors Program of Catholic Charities.

“It is baffling that the U.S. government would shut down a program that would be hard-pressed to replicate at the level of competence and excellence that Catholic Charities has achieved, if and when future waves of unaccompanied minors reach our shores,” he said.

The U.S. government oversees the care of unaccompanied minors and partners with organizations such as Catholic Charities to provide services.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has long funded Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami through the Unaccompanied Minors Program since 1960 to provide shelter and services to thousands of unaccompanied minors.

Federal spending data shows that Catholic Charities received $11 million from HHS in fiscal year 2025, but the award ended March 31. The abrupt end will force the organization to shut down services within three months.

The decision comes as President Donald Trump has publicly criticized Pope Leo XIV. However, Wenski said the funding decision is unrelated to those tensions.

The Msgr. Bryan O. Walsh Children’s Village, formerly known as Boys Town —established during the Pedro Pan exodus in the early 1960s — can house up to 81 children today.

“Our track record in serving this vulnerable population is unmatched. Yet Catholic Charities’ services for unaccompanied minors have been stripped of funding and will be forced to shut down within three months,” Wenski said.

Reps. María Elvira Salazar and Carlos Giménez of Florida, both Republicans, also issued a letter to ORR urging the agency to reconsider.

“South Florida has always been the front line of humanitarian migration in our hemisphere,” the April 3 letter stated. They also warned of potential future migration from Cuba and Haiti.

“Catholic Charities provides what cannot be quickly replaced: trained staff, proven infrastructure, and decades of expertise,” they wrote. “Losing this capacity now will make future response efforts more costly, slower, and less effective.”

For those who lived it, today’s crisis is personal

Javier Llorens, first vice president of the Pedro Pan board of directors, arrived in the United States in 1962 as part of Operation Pedro Pan, years before his parents could join him. He spent five years in shelters run by the Catholic Welfare Bureau, the predecessor of Catholic Charities.

“It wasn’t just shelter — it was care, education, and formation,” said Llorens, now a dentist. “That model showed how to care for refugee children the right way.”

With federal funding now cut for programs serving unaccompanied minors, Llorens warned today’s children risk losing that support.

“I understand budgets can be evaluated,” he said. “But what matters is the care of the children. Without it, they are left without assistance and without support to integrate into this country.”

Graciela Anrrich, director of the Pedro Pan board of directors, shared a similar experience. She arrived in the United States from Cuba in 1961 with her sister and spent months in the program before reuniting with her parents.

“The care we received was extraordinary,” said Anrrich, now a professor at St. John Vianney College Seminary in Miami. “We were placed with a wonderful foster family and supported during a very difficult time.”

Both say the program changed their lives — and fear others may now miss that opportunity.

“We have to call the attention of the government,” Llorens said. “They are making a mistake. We only want to help the children.”

Contract funded care for unaccompanied migrant children

Recently, the Msgr. Bryan O. Walsh Children’s Village shelter was housing five children.

Four minors were transferred to a new center, and the last one is expected to reunite with his or her family. After that, the facility will no longer house children.

Peter Routsis-Arroyo, executive director of Catholic Charities, said similar programs across the country are also being affected.

“Programs that received funding starting April 1 will continue. We are currently seeking a 90-day no-cost extension, not yet officially approved, to provide proper notice to staff, severance pay, and the transfer of cases dating back to the 1960s. We may request an additional extension if needed,” he said.

Routsis-Arroyo said the organization received no warning.

“We were negotiating a new budget right up to the time of the cancellation letter. We were even approved for staff hiring the week before notification arrived,” he said.

He added that the Administration for Children and Families’ Office of Refugee Resettlement informed them by email March 24 that their application was not selected for funding.

“It appears we scored very well but were not awarded bonus points,” he said.

Catholic Charities has no alternative funding to continue the program.

“Children are referred to us by ORR. Without a contract, ORR will not send children to us,” Routsis-Arroyo said.

The Unaccompanied Minors Program has operated continuously since 1960, making it the longest-running facility of its kind in the country. Contracts are currently awarded every three years.

Routsis-Arroyo said no other agency has provided this level of care for more than 65 years, beginning with Operation Pedro Pan. The Msgr. Bryan O. Walsh Children’s Village was specifically designed, in collaboration with ORR, to provide optimal care for unaccompanied minors.

“If funding is not restored, we will have to transition to other residential programs. Once we do, ORR will lose our capacity to serve this population,” he said.

The current federal process does not allow for an appeal, leaving reconsideration or legal action as the only options.

This story was first published by the Florida Catholic and is reprinted here with permission.

Pope Leo XIV makes a private visit to St. Paul Catholic Hospital in Douala, visiting and praying with patients, families, and hospital staff.

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SYDNEY — An Australian diocese north of Sydney is building the countryʼs first purpose-built Catholic cathedral in more than 100 years, appointing an award-winning architect to design a sprawling precinct that will house everything from the bishopʼs seat to a parish hall and disability services.

The Diocese of Broken Bay announced April 14 that it has appointed London-based Níall McLaughlin Architects to design the new cathedral and surrounding campus at Waitara, on Sydneyʼs upper north shore. The diocese describes the project as the first Roman Catholic cathedral in Australia in more than a century to be master-planned from inception as a complete, integrated complex.

The announcement was the final major project decision taken under Archbishop Anthony Randazzo before his expected relocation to Rome.

Pope Leo XIV named Randazzo, 59, prefect of the Vaticanʼs Dicastery for Legislative Texts on March 25, the feast of the Annunciation, also granting him the personal title of archbishop. He continues to serve as apostolic administrator of Broken Bay until the move.

“While my responsibilities have expanded to serve the universal Church in Rome, my commitment to this vision is unwavering,” Randazzo said in a statement issued through the diocese. “The appointment of Níall McLaughlin Architects signals we are moving ahead with confidence to create a community legacy for generations to come.”

The 7.7-hectare Cathedral Precinct Project will succeed the dioceseʼs current cathedral, Our Lady of the Rosary, which was designated as the bishopʼs seat in February 2008 after succeeding the smaller Corpus Christi Church at St. Ives.

The new precinct will rise on the same Yardley Avenue site and integrate the existing St. Leoʼs Catholic College campus, a pastoral center, parish hall, a new home for the diocesan charity CatholicCare, residences for the bishop and clergy, and diocesan offices.

Erected as a diocese in April 1986 by Pope John Paul II, Broken Bay this year marks its 40th anniversary and serves around 250,000 Catholics across 26 parishes spanning Sydneyʼs North Shore, the Northern Beaches, and the upper Central Coast — a territory of 2,763 square kilometers (1,067 square miles).

A ‘virtuous circle’ of faith and education

In its own communications, the diocese has framed the project around what it calls a “virtuous circle” of Catholic life — the integration of liturgy, formation, and education on a single site, from baptism through secondary schooling.

The architectural concept draws on the natural setting of the Hawkesbury River, which unites the dioceseʼs parishes, and on the local sandstone bluffs of the surrounding bushland.

Renderings released by the practice show twin slender sandstone-clad spires rising above a public forecourt, with a timber-framed entrance portal centered on a cross. Inside, an exposed lattice of cross-braced timber members vaults the length of the nave, with raw sandstone walls and geometric stained glass.

The diocese said the design draws explicitly on the spirit of Laudato Si', the 2015 encyclical of Pope Francis on care for creation, prioritizing sustainable timber and stone and preserving the existing Blue Gum High Forest on the site as a public amenity.

A practice known for sacred architecture

Níall McLaughlin Architects, established in 1990, was selected following an invited international design process. Its founder, the Irish-born and London-based Níall McLaughlin, received the Royal Institute of British Architects' Royal Gold Medal in January — one of the disciplineʼs highest international honors, awarded annually in recognition of a lifetime contribution to architecture.

The practice has built several sacred and contemplative spaces, including the Bishop Edward King Chapel for Ripon College in Oxford, a 2013 Stirling Prize finalist; the New Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge; and the Auckland Castle Faith Museum in northern England.

In February the firm was announced as winner of the international competition to design the Museum of Jesus' Baptism at Bethany Beyond the Jordan, the UNESCO World Heritage site on the east bank of the River Jordan traditionally identified as the place of Christʼs baptism. That museum is targeted to open in 2030 to mark the bimillennial of the baptism of Jesus.

McLaughlin spoke about the Broken Bay project on April 14 at the Rothwell Public Lecture series at the University of Sydney. “We are delighted to work on this significant project to help create an enduring spiritual, civic, and cultural precinct that places the faithful at its center,” he said.

The Australian firm Hayball has been appointed as executive architect on the project. Funding will be drawn from a combination of institutional capital and a dedicated philanthropic appeal, and the diocese said design work will now move into approval pathways that will determine the construction timeline.

DOUALA, Cameroon — Physical food is not enough; the soul needs the nourishment of the Eucharist, which sustains us in times of fear and suffering, Pope Leo XIV said at a Mass in Douala, Cameroon, on Friday.

Celebrating Mass for more than 120,000 people outside Japoma Stadium, in Cameroon’s economic capital, the pope said in his homily that Jesus’ miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes is a sign he came to serve with love, not domination.

The miracle “shows us not only how God provides humanity with the bread of life but how we can share this sustenance with all men and women who, like ourselves, hunger for peace, freedom, and justice,” Leo said.

“Each act of solidarity and forgiveness, every good effort, becomes a morsel of bread for humanity in need of care,” the pope added.

“Yet this alone is not enough: The food that sustains the body must be accompanied, with equal charity, by nourishment for the soul — a nourishment that sustains our conscience and steadies us in dark hours of fear and amid the shadows of suffering. This food is Christ himself, who always gives his Church abundant sustenance and strengthens us on our journey by giving us his Eucharistic body," he said.

Leo celebrated Mass in French in Douala on his third day in Cameroon. On April 18, he will celebrate Mass in the country’s capital, Yaoundé, before departing for the third country of his apostolic journey in Africa — Angola.

In his homily, delivered mostly in French, the pope reflected on the miracle of the loaves and fishes, comparing the crowd in the Gospel to those present at the Mass.

“The Gospel we have heard (John 6:1-15) is the word of salvation for all humanity. This good news is proclaimed today throughout the world; for the Church in Cameroon, it resounds as a providential proclamation of God’s love and of our communion,” he said.

Describing the scene in the Gospel, Pope Leo focused on the crowd and the lack of food: “Jesus asks us today, just as he asked his disciples then: How will you solve this problem? Look at all these hungry people, weighed down by fatigue. What will you do?”

The pope stressed that this question concerns everyone: “It is posed to the fathers and mothers who care for their families. It is directed to the shepherds of the Church, who watch over the Lord’s flock, and also to those who bear social and political responsibility for the people and seek their well-being. Christ asks this question to the powerful and the weak, to the rich and the poor, to the young and the elderly, because we all hunger in the same way.”

“Our necessity reminds us that we are creatures,” he continued. “We need to eat in order to live. We are not God: but where is God in the face of people’s hunger?”

Turning to Christ’s response, Leo underlined the meaning of thanksgiving and sharing: “While awaiting our answers, Jesus gives his own: ‘Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted.’ A serious problem was solved by blessing the little food that was present and sharing it with all who were hungry.”

He said the miracle is that “there is bread for everyone if it is given to everyone. There is bread for everyone if it is taken, not with a hand that snatches away, but with a hand that gives.”

Pointing to the Mass being celebrated, the pope highlighted its transforming power as “a source of renewed faith, because Jesus becomes present among us. The sacrament [of the Eucharist] does not merely revive a distant memory; it brings about a ‘companionship’ that transforms us because it sanctifies us.”

“This very altar, around which we gather for the Eucharist, becomes a proclamation of hope amid the trials of history and the injustices we see around us. It is a sign of God’s love; in Christ, the Father invites us to share what we have, so that it may be multiplied in ecclesial fellowship,” Leo said.

Switching to English, Pope Leo addressed young people, asking them to “be the first faces and hands that bring the bread of life to your neighbors, providing them with the food of wisdom and deliverance from all that does not nourish them, but rather obscures good desires and robs them of their dignity.”

Acknowledging the realities of poverty, he issued a warning against violence and corruption, urging them to “not give in to distrust and discouragement” and to “reject every form of abuse or violence, which deceives by promising easy gains but hardens the heart and makes it insensitive.”

“Do not forget that your people are even richer than this land, for your treasure lies in your values: faith, family, hospitality, and work,” he said.

This story was first published by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Carmelite sisters in Los Angeles are asking the Catholic faithful for prayers — and donations if they are able — after a fire destroyed one of their retreat houses April 11.

“[The] No. 1 [way to help] is just to pray with us, to be attentive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit right now, especially in this time of rebuilding, that we move according to what the Lord wants,” Sister Meredith Boquiren, OCD, directress of the Sacred Heart Retreat House in Alhambra, California, told anchor Veronica Dudo in an April 16 interview on “EWTN News Nightly.”

Early Saturday afternoon during a four-day Healing the Whole Person retreat, a fire broke out on the second floor of one of the two retreat houses on the campus, which is operated by the Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles.

No one was injured in the fire, but the damaged building is inoperable and will need to be rebuilt.

Three fire departments responded to the scene and prevented the fire from spreading further throughout the campus, which includes the motherhouse, where all the sisters begin formation. The sisters have operated the campus for 85 years.

The exact cause of the fire has not yet been determined, and the sisters believe the source may have been electrical.

Boquiren said in the interview that the fire alarm went off shortly after the conclusion of the final retreat Mass, which the sisters hosted during the latter half of the Easter Octave, just ahead of Divine Mercy Sunday.

“Weʼve had some false alarms before, so I just went and ran to the place that the source indicated,” Boquiren said. “So I ran up the second floor of the building and saw a bunch of billowing black smoke and realized it was real. And then I ran outside to see, and at that moment the window had burst open with flames.”

She said it was “a strange experience because we had just finished some powerful testimonies” and within the next 10 minutes, “I experienced a sense of weight and darkness at the same time.”

“It was just quite strange to … experience the paschal joy and resurrection of our Lord through the suffering, right? The actual healing journey that we were experiencing on retreat,” she said. “So it was, it was quite a strange contradiction of emotions.”

Boquiren said “the damage was pretty expensive,” noting it is “a two-building, two-floor building with 25 rooms.”

“The water, smoke, and fire damage is pretty extensive,” she said. “The firemen had to make holes through the building on the top, and so itʼs basically unusable and irreparable at this time.”

In addition to asking for prayers, Boquiren said: “If you are willing and able to provide a gift, we would greatly appreciate that.”

Sister Mary Scholastica, OCD, director of advancement for the Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles, told EWTN News “it is too early for estimated cost of damages” but “an entire building will need to be rebuilt and construction in Southern California is costly.”

She said the retreat house serves more than 13,000 people annually.

Although one building is unusable, Boquiren noted in her “EWTN News Nightly” interview that retreats are still happening, but “it’s just with less capacity.”

“Blessed be God, they are [still happening], because we still have two of the buildings that we use in operation,” she said.

The Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops has issued a wide-ranging message, urging national renewal grounded in respect for human life, ethical leadership, and social justice.

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Pope Leo XIV celebrates Mass in Douala on his third day in Cameroon, and urges young people to reject every form of abuse or violence and to always show hospitality and care for one another.

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Bishop Peter Dai Bui believes priests are not just “workers in the vineyard” but “sons and brothers who need to be accompanied,” and this conviction has led to a new role in the Diocese of Phoenix that will help ensure all priests are supported spiritually, physically, and emotionally.

“I believe that a priest who is known, accompanied, and cared for brings that fullness to everything he does: to the altar, to the confessional, to the bedside of the dying,” Bui, auxiliary bishop for the Diocese of Phoenix, told EWTN News.

Father Greg Schlarb, who is currently a pastor at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Scottsdale, Arizona, will pioneer the role of vicar for priestly life and ministry for the diocese, working with Bui, the vicar for clergy, to care for priests in the diocese.

While Bui’s role is practical — handling priestly assignments and personnel management — Schlarb will take a “more proactive and personal approach,” according to the diocese.

“I want to be a sounding board, a listening ear, and a compassionate brother who is there to support and assist them,” Schlarb told EWTN News.

No priest has to walk alone

“Priestly formation does not end at ordination,” Bui said. “It is a lifelong journey, and every priest needs someone walking alongside him in that journey. Father Schlarbʼs role exists to make sure no priest in the Diocese of Phoenix has to walk it alone."

“When our priests are well — humanly, spiritually, pastorally — their people feel it,” Bui continued.

The new role is one of several mental health efforts established by Bishop John Dolan of Phoenix. Dolan, who has lost four family members to suicide, is known for his mental health advocacy.

“Bishop Dolan has always understood that the health of the diocese depends on the health of its priests, and as that conviction deepened, it became clear that priestly life and ministry deserved its own dedicated focus, that is, as a distinct and primary pastoral priority,” Bui said.

“How do we make sure our priests have what they need, that they are healthy: spiritually, physically, mentally; that they constantly are formed and transformed in their relationship with Christ?” Dolan asked in his monthly podcast, "Tilma," which highlighted the new role.

“Youʼre not just ordained a priest, but youʼre ordained a priest in the presbyterate — that means there’s a community of priests of which you belong,” Dolan said.

The Diocese of Phoenix spans 44,000 square miles and is the fastest-growing diocese in the U.S. It is home to more than 2 million Catholics and 94 parishes.

“It’s my hope that all of our priests, no matter how far away they are from the Phoenix metropolitan area, will feel supported, heard, and loved,” Schlarb said.

“Just as the parishioners they serve understand that the presence of a priest shepherding in the farthest parts of our diocese demonstrates the care, concern, and love of our bishop, so these heroic priests who serve in these remote parishes will also experience that same care, concern, and love through the presence and support I am able to offer them,” Schlarb said.

A pastor’s heart

“Priests can often face challenges when their life is ‘out of balance,’” Schlarb said. “Sometimes there are personnel issues that cause great concern, or ‘actively disengaged’ parishioners are placing stumbling blocks for our pastors, or there’s little to no opportunity to create community in these remote areas.”

But Bui said he believes Schlarb has “exactly the right gifts to this work.”

“He has a pastorʼs heart, a brother priestʼs credibility, and a genuine love for his fellow priests,” he said.

Even though he does not start in the role until July 1, Schlarb said priests have already begun to reach out.

“There have been priests reaching out for guidance with pastoral challenges, new assignment excitement, and concerns and guidance on applying for sabbaticals or ongoing formation opportunities,” Schlarb said.

“I am grateful to God for this assignment that Bishop John Dolan has entrusted to me and with the guidance of the word or God and the Holy Spirit, I hope to serve our priests to the best of my ability,” he said.

In relation to technocracy and digitalization, students are experiencing increasing mental health issues and isolation. By combining psychological listening and her religious experience, Sr. Kakali, a sister of the Society of the Helpers of the Holy Souls in Purgatory, accompanies young people in their journeys of healing.

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Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami decries that services provided by the Catholic Church for unaccompanied minors will be forced to shut down after the US government strips its funding.

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Reading 1 Acts 5:34-42

Responsorial Psalm Psalm 27:1, 4, 13-14

Alleluia Matthew 4:4b

Gospel John 6:1-15

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Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition, Copyright © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; Psalm refrain © 1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Our Editorial Director recalls the teachings of the Popes on nuclear weapons since the atomic bombings of Japan in August 1945.

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In the Old Testament we read about the Assyrians. Who were they? Were they from Syria? And were they somehow related to the Babylonians? 

The Assyrians were one of the great civilisations of the ancient Near East. They flourished for over a millennium and played an important role in the history of the Jewish people.  

In the Old Testament, they are often portrayed as a powerful and fearsome empire raised up by God to judge and punish nations, especially the northern kingdom of Israel. To understand these biblical references, it is important to know the Assyrians’ historical, political, and cultural background. 

Assyria arose in northern Mesopotamia, roughly corresponding to modern northern Iraq and parts of Syria and Turkey. Its heartland lay along the upper Tigris River, centred on the city of Aššur, from which both the people and their principal god took their name. Another major Assyrian city was Nineveh. 

Assyrian religion was polytheistic, centred on the god Aššur, along with deities such as Ishtar, Shamash, and Adad. Religion and kingship were inseparable, and the conquest of other peoples was seen as a sacred duty commissioned by the gods. Assyrian culture was highly sophisticated. They produced monumental art, detailed reliefs, legal texts, scientific writings, and one of the ancient world’s greatest libraries, in Nineveh. Their scribes preserved myths such as the Epic of Gilgamesh. 

At the same time, Assyria was famous for its extreme violence. Royal inscriptions openly boasted of mass executions, impalements, flayings, and the destruction of cities. These were not exaggerations but deliberate psychological warfare intended to intimidate rival states into submission. 

By the early second millennium BC, Assyria had become an important trading power, with commercial colonies in Anatolia in modern Turkey, particularly at Kanesh. They traded in such goods as tin, textiles, and silver. 

Assyria’s real prominence came much later, during what historians call the Neo-Assyrian Period, around 900–612 BC. This was the era in which Assyria became the first real superpower of the ancient world, dominating the Near East from Egypt in the west to Persia in the east.  

Assyria’s power was built on a professional army, advanced siege techniques, iron weapons, and a well-organised system of provincial administration. 

The Assyrians appear frequently in the historical and prophetic books of the Old Testament, especially in connection with Israel and Judah in the eighth and seventh centuries BC.  

The most significant event was the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel, Samaria, in 722-721 BC. Under Shalmaneser V and Sargon II, the Assyrians captured Samaria and deported large numbers of Israelites to other parts of their empire (cf. 2 Kings 17). This policy of mass deportation was designed to prevent rebellion by breaking up conquered populations. 

In biblical theology, this event is portrayed as divine judgment for Israel’s idolatry and unfaithfulness to the covenant. Assyria also threatened the southern kingdom of Judah at that time.  

The most well-known episode is Sennacherib’s invasion in 701 BC, when Assyrian forces captured many Judean cities and besieged Jerusalem (cf. 2 Kings 18–19; Is 36–37). But Jerusalem was miraculously spared, an event that deeply shaped Judah’s understanding of God’s protection. 

The prophets frequently mentioned Assyria. For example, Isaiah called Assyria “the rod of my anger” (Is 10:5), an instrument God used to judge his people.  

The whole prophecy of Nahum predicted and described the destruction of Nineveh. And the book of Jonah described how Jonah travelled to Nineveh to call its inhabitants to repentance, an unusual portrayal of God’s concern even for Israel’s enemies. Despite its power, Assyria collapsed rapidly. 

Internal strife, overexpansion, and increasingly powerful enemies weakened the empire. Then, in 612 BC, a coalition of Babylonians and Medes destroyed Nineveh. By 609 BC, Assyria had ceased to exist as an independent political power. 

The post Q&A with Fr Flader: Who were the Assyrians? appeared first on The Catholic Weekly.

The Trump administration has canceled an $11 million contract with Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami for sheltering unaccompanied migrant children, leaving just three months to place an unspecified number of children.

The federal Office of Refugee Resettlement advised the agency of the funding termination “at the end of March,” said Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami in an email to OSV News.

The move comes amid the Trump administration’s ongoing crackdown on immigration, which saw the abrupt end in 2025 of a decades-long partnership with the US Conference of Catholic Bishops for refugee resettlement.

Archbishop Wenski said the children “that were in our custody have been transferred” by the ORR “to other facilities,” noting the archdiocesan Catholic Charities agency “had the capacity to care for up to 81 children.”

He noted that some of the children could be at risk of deportation, if their parents are found to be “outside of the country and wish to be reunited with the children.”

“Some children are very traumatised as you can imagine,” Archbishop Wenski told OSV News. “A child without parents on his or her own cannot cross the territory of Mexico, for example, without incurring some trauma, including in some instances rape.”

According to a 15 April article by the Miami Herald, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement had contracted with Catholic Charities for several years to shelter migrant children entering the country without parents or supervising adults.

The agency provided what the newspaper called “the equivalent of a federally funded foster care system” parallel to that operated by state agencies.

Archbishop Wenski of Miami had declined direct comment to the newspaper for its article, but his office instead provided a statement the archbishop had written for the Miami Herald’s editorial board.

In that statement, the archbishop said, “The US government has abruptly decided to end more than 60 years of relationship with Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Miami.”

He added that “the Archdiocese of Miami’s services for unaccompanied minors have been recognised for their excellence and have served as a model for other agencies throughout the country.”

“Our track record in serving this vulnerable population is unmatched,” said Archbishop Wenski in his statement. “Yet, the Archdiocese of Miami’s Catholic Charities’ services for unaccompanied minors has been stripped of funding and will be forced to shut down within three months.”

Emily G. Hilliard, press secretary for HHS, told the Miami Herald that “ORR is closing and consolidating unused facilities as the Trump Administration continues efforts to stop illegal entry and the smuggling and trafficking of unaccompanied alien children.”

HHS also told the outlet that the population of unaccompanied children cared for by Catholic Charities was “significantly lower” under the Trump administration – 1,900 as compared to a peak of 22,000 under President Joe Biden.

Archbishop Wenski said in his statement to the Miami Herald that although the number of unaccompanied minors had declined and that “some programs may be scaled back” or closed outright, “it is baffling that the US government would shut down a program that it would be hard-pressed to replicate at the level of competence” shown by Catholic Charities.

He pointed to the program’s ability to provide a range of resources, including supportive services, “given the trauma that many of these children have endured before arriving in the US”

The archbishop also noted the historic partnership between Catholic Charities and the federal government, particularly in regard to Operation Pedro Pan, which in the early 1960s saw 110 Catholic Charities agencies throughout the nation shelter thousands of children from Cuba, in collaboration with the US State Department.

Between 1960 and 1964, some 7,000 of the 14,000 Cuban children who entered the US were temporarily housed by Catholic Charities under the “Cuban Children’s Program.”

“The positive impact of this cooperation between the federal government and Catholic Charities can be readily seen in the lives of former Pedro Pan children who, through this intervention, grew up to be successful members of our communities,” Wenski wrote.

He noted that among the alumni of the program are professionals, clergy and political leaders – including former US Republican Sen. Melquiades (Mel) Martinez.

Asked by OSV News if he believed the ORR contract cancellation had resulted from the Trump administration’s recent clashes with the nation’s Catholic bishops over several issues – especially immigration and the US-Israel war on Iran – Archbishop Wenski said, “Correlation does not mean causation.”

“However,” he added, “during the end of the Biden administration, some politicians on the right make calumnious allegations that ‘Catholic Charities’ was working with the cartels in bringing children into the US.

“The truth is that border patrol or ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) when apprehending an unaccompanied minor is required to turn them over to HHS’s ORR, who is to seek the ‘best interest of the child’ in placing him/her,” said Archbishop Wenski. “Our contracts are with ORR – an agency of the federal government and no one else.”

The post Trump administration ends contract with Miami Catholic Charities to shelter unaccompanied minors appeared first on The Catholic Weekly.

The police chief of a southwest suburb of Chicago, where one of Pope Leo XIV’s brothers lives, confirmed to OSV News that his department is conducting “an ongoing and active investigation” of an unsubstantiated bomb threat at John Prevost’s house.

New Lenox Police Chief Micah Nuesse said in an email to OSV News that, as of mid-afternoon 16 April, “the NLPD will conduct extra patrols and there will be an increased police presence in the area.”

Nuesse sent a media statement that said officers responded to a call in the early evening 15 April about a bomb threat in Prevost’s neighborhood.

“A thorough search of the residence and surrounding property was conducted,” the department said in the statement. “After careful examination, investigators determined that the threat was unsubstantiated and that no explosive devices or hazardous materials were present.”

“There were no injuries reported, and residents were allowed to safely return to their homes shortly after the scene was cleared,” it added.

An Augustinian priest and friend of Prevost told OSV News his friend “is fine” following the incident.

Pope Leo is from Chicago’s south suburbs and is a member of the Order of St Augustine, which has a Midwest province based in Chicago. Then-Cardinal Robert F. Prevost last visited New Lenox in August 2024, when he was a Rome-based prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops.

The pope has made strong calls for peace in the face of the US and Israel’s conflict with Iran, and he led a prayer vigil for peace 11 April. During his travels in Africa, he has reiterated the message of peace, particularly at an 16 April meeting for peace in Bamenda, Cameroon – a region marred by years of separatist violence.

“Too many people are suffering in the world today. Too many innocent people are being killed. And I think someone has to stand up and say there’s a better way,” he said 13 April aboard the papal plane to Algeria, the first stop in his four-country papal trip in Africa.

The post Investigation ‘ongoing’ in false bomb threat at home of Pope Leo’s brother appeared first on The Catholic Weekly.

President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House 16 April that he does not see a meeting with Pope Leo XIV as “necessary” after the president lashed out at the pontiff on social media and in verbal remarks over the pontiff’s opposition to the Iran war over the course of several days starting 12 April.

In response to a question about why he is “fighting” with the pope, Trump disputed that characterisation, arguing, “I have a right to disagree with the pope.”

“The pope made a statement. He says ‘Iran can have a nuclear weapon,’ I say ‘Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,'” Trump said, speaking over a reporter pointing out Pope Leo, the first US-born pope, has not made any such statement in public remarks.

The pontiff has consistently called for the rejection of nuclear weapons, and there is no evidence he supports Iran having such weapons.

Pope Leo has been a staunch critic of warfare generally, including the combat operations initiated by the US and Israel in a surprise attack against Iran on 28 February. He also condemned Trump’s threat to wipe out Iran’s “whole civilization” as “truly unacceptable.”

Trump repeatedly claimed that Iran has killed “42,000 people over the last few months.”

However, Human Rights Activists in Iran, a US-based nonprofit non-governmental organization, reported in late January that 42,324 protesters had been arrested. It confirmed 6,221 people have been killed and is investigating another 17,000 potential deaths.

The massacres of civilian protestors took place in January as Trump encouraged them to take over government institutions and promised them, “Help is on the way.” But the combat operation came several weeks into the Iranian government’s crackdown on the protestors after it had mostly suppressed them.

In defense of their combat operations, the Trump administration has argued the Iranian regime presented grave nuclear threats.

“Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said, arguing that prospect would be dangerous for every country “including Italy, where he’s stationed.”

Asked about a statement defending the Church’s teaching about just war theory issued by Auxiliary Bishop James Massa of Brooklyn, New York, chair of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine, Trump replied, “I’m all about the Gospel, but I also know that you cannot let a certain country, which is a very mean-spirited country, have a nuclear weapon.”

“If they did, they would use it, and I think they used it quickly, and they would kill many millions of people,” Trump said.

In June 2025, citing Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the Trump administration carried out strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. The White House said at the time that the strikes “obliterated” those sites and “suggestions otherwise are fake news.” But shortly before the 2026 operations, White House officials claimed Iran was close to having enough material to build a nuclear weapon. However, US intelligence assessments said that while Iran has a stockpile of enriched uranium, they were several key steps away from developing such a weapon.

Asked if he would meet with Pope Leo, Trump replied, “I don’t think it’s necessary.”

Pope Leo told journalists aboard the papal plane to Algiers, Algeria, on 13 April, that he is not a politician, but he will “continue to speak out loudly against war, looking to promote peace, promoting dialogue and multilateral relationships among the States to look for just solutions to problems.”

“I have no fear neither of the Trump administration nor speaking out loudly of the message of the Gospel,” he said, “which is what I believe I am here to do, what the Church is here to do.”

The post Trump says he has ‘right to disagree’ with Pope Leo, meeting him not ‘necessary’ appeared first on The Catholic Weekly.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is increasing its pressure campaign on underground Catholics, according to a report from Human Rights Watch.

“A decade into Xi Jinping’s Sinicization campaign and nearly eight years since the 2018 Holy See-China agreement, Catholics in China face escalating repression that violates their religious freedoms,” Yalkun Uluyol, a China researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in an April 15 report. “Pope Leo XIV should urgently review the agreement and press Beijing to end the persecution and intimidation of underground churches, clergy, and worshippers.”

Human Rights Watch said it conducted interviews with “nine people outside the country who had firsthand knowledge of Catholicism in China” for its report, who said the 2018 Vatican-China agreement has “provided an overarching structure for the authorities to pressure underground Catholics.”

Witnesses in the report said Catholics in China felt the agreement left them with “no other choice but to join the official church” and that those who have remained in the underground Church “felt betrayed by the Vatican.”

Human Rights Watch also highlighted the Chinese government’s persecution of Catholic bishops and clergy, citing instances of detention and forced disappearance as well as China’s move to ban Catholic priests from teaching or evangelizing online.

“Catholic clergy released from detention continue to face harassment,” the report said. “One person said in January that a priest he knew was barred from having bank accounts, SIM cards, and a passport, and thus has ‘no means of survival and can barely make ends meet for even a day or two.'”

“The Vatican’s agreement and policy regarding the Catholic Church in China in recent years has been disastrous,” Nina Shea, Hudson Institute senior fellow,  told EWTN News. “Faithful Catholic bishops are subjected by the government to being disappeared, detained indefinitely without due process, sidelined but ‘recognized’ or being actively threatened with detention if they resist swearing fealty to only the Chinese Communist Party and not Rome.”

Shea, who also serves as director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, urged Pope Leo XIV to lead a global prayer vigil for Chinese bishops who have been forcibly disappeared or detained.

“Pope Benedict XVI designated May 24 as the World Day of Prayer for the Church in China but it’s been virtually forgotten in the last few years and never robustly embraced by the Vatican, which probably sees it as implicit criticism of the CCP, something it is loath to do,” she said.

Not long ago, I wrote about the loyalty of the Wests Tigers fan base – how they continued to show up, week after week, despite poor results, constant changes, and headlines that rarely seemed positive. It was a reminder that faithfulness doesn’t disappear when things get hard. If anything, it’s revealed there.

But six rounds into this season, there’s another question worth asking.

What about the team themselves?

Here they are, sitting second on the ladder, level on points with the Penrith Panthers – the benchmark of the competition in recent years. And they’ve done it not in a season of calm and clarity, but in the middle of what still feels, at times, like uncertainty.

While the headlines around the board have quietened, the effects of that instability don’t just disappear overnight. There’s still a sense that things are settling – rather than settled.

So how have they managed to get here?

Because if we’re honest, most of us tend to wait for things to settle before we expect growth. We tell ourselves that once life is a bit less chaotic – once work slows down, once relationships are smoother, once everything feels more “in order” – then we’ll start to improve, to focus, to grow.

But the Tigers are challenging that idea in real time.

They haven’t waited for perfect conditions. They’ve grown in the middle of imperfect ones.

And that’s where the deeper lesson lies.

In the spiritual life, we can fall into the trap of thinking that holiness requires ideal circumstances. That we need clarity, structure, and stability before we can really commit.

But more often than not, that moment never fully arrives. Life remains busy. People remain imperfect. Situations remain, at times, messy.

Yet grace doesn’t wait.

God doesn’t hold off working in our lives until everything around us is neatly in place. In fact, He often does His best work right in the middle of the chaos – not by instantly removing it, but by bringing something good out of it.

That’s what stands out about this Tigers side.

They haven’t denied the noise around them. They haven’t pretended everything is perfect. But they also haven’t used it as an excuse. In fact, they haven’t even been focused on it.

And there’s a lesson in that alone. In his letter to the Colossians, Saint Paul urges us to “set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”

That doesn’t mean ignoring reality – but it does mean refusing to be consumed by what’s temporary. It means keeping our focus on something greater, even when everything around us feels unsettled.

It would have been easy for the Tigers to do the opposite – to point to instability, to distractions, to everything happening off the field, and allow that to justify inconsistency on it. Instead, they’ve chosen something else. They’ve chosen to focus, to commit, and to grow anyway.

And that choice matters.

Because growth – whether in sport or in faith – isn’t something that just happens to us when conditions are right. It’s something we participate in, often in spite of those conditions.

The Tigers’ start to the season is a reminder that we don’t need to wait for everything in our lives to be resolved before becoming who we’re called to be. We don’t need perfect structures, perfect environments, or perfect people.

We simply need to respond.

Sometimes, that response happens not when everything finally makes sense – but right in the middle of when it doesn’t.

The post The Tigers didn’t wait – why should we? appeared first on The Catholic Weekly.

To Venezuelans gripped by anxiety and fear after years of political violence, economic collapse, famine, and family separation, the newly-appointed bishop of Caracas said the hardships they have endured for too long can be faced with the certainty that the Lord has triumphed over sin and death.

José Dionisio Gómez, who was recently appointed by Pope Leo XIV as auxiliary bishop of Caracas, reminded the Venezuelan people that Christʼs resurrection is “a source of solace and strength.”

“In Venezuela, we have the hope of rising again at every moment in the face of every suffering and obstacle that confronts us,” Gómez said in an interview with ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News.

“To rise with Christ is to strive to be better people and better witnesses to his resurrection,” Gómez said. “Throughout history, it has been demonstrated that human beings possess the capacity through the grace of God and with the solidarity of their brothers and sisters to overcome situations of suffering caused by wars, pandemics, holocausts, abuses of power, and harassment.”

The capture of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife by the United States military in the early hours of Jan. 3 ushered in “a new political era," presenting a scenario that was previously unimaginable.

The prelate cited the episcopate’s latest pastoral exhortation, published in mid-February, in which the bishops stated that “Jesus Christ consoles us and encourages us to move forward with hope.”

Gómez noted that Venezuelans are not alone amid their daily lives: “We are all aware of [the need to] and are eager to move our country forward, a country we love so much.”

On March 18, Gómez and José Manuel León were named the two new auxiliary bishops-elect of Caracas. They join Auxiliary Bishop Carlos Márquez in assisting Archbishop Raúl Biord in the governance of the Church in the Venezuelan capital.

Venezuelans ‘bear signs of Christ’s passion’

Reflecting on Venezuelaʼs political situation, Gómez, who also serves as rector of St. Rose of Lima archdiocesan seminary in Caracas, said that, regrettably, “all Venezuelans bear signs of Christ’s passion, whether through imprisonment, exile, or migration under duress; through acute poverty as wages aren’t enough to have a decent life; or because we witness others suffering even more and we are powerless to help them.”

“Indeed, Jesus came to have compassion on us. That is why he drew near to and remained alongside the abandoned and suffering members of society, inviting them to bear that suffering with love and patience,” he noted.

Gómez also referred to Pope Leo’s Lenten message, which echoed the words God addressed to Moses: “I have seen the oppression of my people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their cries of pain” (Ex 3:7).

Law on amnesty and national reconciliation

In mid-February, the National Assembly, which is controlled by the ruling socialist party, approved the Law on Amnesty and National Reconciliation, which led to the release of hundreds of political prisoners.

However, various independent organizations have said the new law has not benefited all detainees and have charged that its application serves the interests of the regime. According to the Foro Penal, 485 people remain unjustly detained in Venezuela.

“There is not the slightest doubt that we all wish to live in justice and truth. The amnesty law is also the law of God’s mercy, who desires that all men be saved. For this reason, he offers his forgiveness to all,” Gómez explained.

“A wounded country and a wounded human being are healed through forgiveness and reconciliation by setting aside interests of any kind and always seeking paths toward the common good and brotherhood, where we are all one despite our differing ways of thinking, accepting one another. Therefore, it is important to set aside what divides us and embrace what unites us,” he said.

‘Let us make our lives a journey of peace and reconciliation’

Gómez noted that “the new era” for Venezuela coincides with the Franciscan Jubilee Year, which serves as “a good opportunity to embark on a path of education for peace, one that entails nonviolence and reconciliation.”

“It’s not about forgetting but rather about remembering, repairing the damage, and building bonds of fraternity. A society achieves reconciliation and rebuilds itself not with heroes but with free, responsible people capable of living together with dignity and building a future worthy of hope,” the auxiliary bishop-elect emphasized.

Finally, he prayed that Catholics might make their “great contribution” to Venezuela, following the example of St. José Gregorio Hernández, who offered his life for the end of World War I.

“Let us make our lives a journey of peace and reconciliation so that all Venezuelans may return to the source of our essence: a people of solidarity — friendly, humorous, and joyful — with a simple faith and fervent religious expressions, and ready to help anyone in need,” he urged.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Young men in the United States surpass young women in regard to the importance of religion in their lives.

Findings from 2024-2025 Gallup data revealed that 42% of young men ages 18 to 29 said religion is “very important” to them, up 14 percentage points since 2022-2023. This jump pushes them above the 29% of young women who reported the same.

Gallupʼs data comes from 4,015 interviews with U.S. adults, including 295 men under 30 and 145 women under 30. The survey had a margin of error of between plus or minus 7 and 10 percentage points. It also used information from separate reports of 26,601 U.S. adults, including 1,905 men under 30 and 832 women under 30, and a report of 27,616 U.S. adults, including 1,839 men 18 to 29 and 796 women 18 to 29. The margin of error was between plus or minus 3 and 4 percentage points.

Gallup found that young women are significantly the least likely age group of women to report religion is “very important” to them, compared with 47% of women ages 30 to 49, 53% of women ages 50-64, and 64% of women 65 or older.

While young women’s stance on religion has held steady at about 30% since 2020-2021, young menʼs has been less stable. In 2020-2021, 34% of young men said religion was “very important” in their lives; this declined to 28% in 2022-2023 and has increased again.

Further findings from Gallup’s religious data also found that from 2000-2001 through 2024-2025, young men have returned to the high point of how many find religion important.

The percentage of young men who reported monthly or more frequent attendance at religious services has risen. In 2022-2023, 33% of young men reported attending, compared with 40% in 2024-2025.

According to Gallup’s monthly measurement of religious attendance in 2026 so far, 40% of young men continue to attend religious services weekly or monthly, consistent with 2025.

Young women’s attendance has also increased since 2022-2023, rising three points to 39% in 2024-2025. However, this rate remains below the levels recorded in the early 2000s, when the group was at 54%.

Impact of political party and religious affiliation

The research looked at how political affiliation affects how often young men and women attend religious services.

Republican women and men are far more likely to attend religious services than Democratic women and men, with 58% of Republican women and 52% of  men attending at least monthly, compared with 31% of Democratic women and 26% of men.

The report noted that the partisan shifts affect the trends among young men and women differently, because of differences in party identification between them.

In 2024-2025, 48% of young men identified as or leaned Republican, compared with 41% who identified as or leaned Democratic. Among young women, 27% identified as or leaned Republican, compared with 60% who identified as or leaned Democratic.

The report also examined trends in how many young adults practice specific religions. The data found that as young men have become more religious since 2022-2023, more identify with a specific religion, but they still remain the least likely male age group to do so.

In 2024-2025, 63% of young men reported identifying with a specific religion including Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, or another religion. This was nearly the same as the 61% who reported the same in 2022-2023. However, it is the highest number reported by young men since 2012-2013, when the group was at 67%.

Your Eminence: 

In an article recently published by a major German Catholic website, you suggested that the question of whether the Catholic Church can ordain women has not been definitively settled: “I cannot imagine how a church can continue to exist in the long run if half of God’s people suffer because they have no access to ordained ministry.”

Putting aside for a moment the questions of what, and how, suffering is caused by the church’s ancient practice of calling only men to Holy Orders, your formulation raises questions about the past, present, and future.

Are you, for example, suggesting that there has been something essentially wrong with the Catholic understanding of Holy Orders for two millennia? 

How would such a notion square with the Lord’s promise to preserve his Church in truth through the continual outpouring of the Holy Spirit (John 15:16, 16:13)? 

The question of who can be admitted to Holy Orders has never been understood as a secondary matter of ecclesiastical discipline; it has been understood to engage the very nature of the ordained ministry, which is a constitutive part of the structure of the church – and the church is Christ’s creation, not our own. Has the church misunderstood Christ for two thousand years? Or did Christ get it wrong in structuring the Church and its ordained ministry as they have been structured for two millennia?

As to your inability to imagine a future for the church in which women are not called to Holy Orders, doesn’t that suggest a rather clericalist understanding of the Kingdom-life we are living now (Mark 1:15)? 

If the Kingdom broke into history during the Lord’s time among us, and if that inbreaking and its promise of eternal life is the reality in which we live now (however often we forget it), how can “half of God’s people” be cut off from the fullness of life in the Spirit? And what does your fear for the future say about your understanding of the inbreaking of the Kingdom in the past? 

Was Our Lady cut off from living the fullness of the Kingdom-life proclaimed by her son because he did not call her to Holy Orders? Were Catherine of Siena, Teresa of Avila, and Edith Stein, all patron saints of Europe? Was your mother? Was mine?

Then there is the present. 

The Catholic Church takes divine revelation seriously, which means that God’s creation of human beings as men and women – equally human, distinctively human, and complementarily human – was not simply a matter of the Creator working through the mechanisms of evolutionary biology. Genesis 1:27 – “Male and female he created them” – is not mere description; it is revelatory of deep truths built into the human condition. 

That is why the Catholic Church does not and cannot accept the late-modern and post-modern conceit of a unisex humanity in which maleness and femaleness are reduced to differentiated plumbing.

In the fifth chapter of the Letter to the Ephesians, St Paul describes the Lord’s relationship to his Church as spousal: the Lord loves the church as a husband loves his wife. The ordained priest, as the Catholic Church understands him, embodies that spousal relationship of Christ to the church. 

Priests are not just members of a clerical caste licensed to conduct certain ecclesiastical functions. Rather, the ordained priest is an icon of Christ the High Priest, the spouse of the church.

Unisex cultures find that idea hard to grasp. So do cultures that imagine that two men or two women can “marry” each other. 

But the church is not obliged to surrender to the confusions of any culture. And it certainly cannot sacrifice to those confusions its conviction that God disclosed important truths about our humanity when the Holy Spirit inspired the author of Genesis 1:27 to write what he did, and when that same Spirit inspired St Paul to write Ephesians 5.

St Paul also described this spousal relationship of Christ to the church, which is crucial to the Catholic Church’s understanding of who may be called to Holy Orders, as a “great mystery” – meaning a deep truth of faith that can only be grasped in love, however carefully we try to understand it intellectually.

Permit the suggestion, Your Eminence, that the church’s pastors should avoid causing further confusion (and, indeed, whatever suffering is caused by those confusions) by helping God’s people embrace the mysteries of faith in love, rather than by suggesting that what has been settled by divine revelation and the authoritative teaching of the Church (in the 1994 apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis) is not, in fact, settled. 

Yours in the fellowship of Easter faith – GW

The post An open letter to Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich SJ appeared first on The Catholic Weekly.

U.S. President Donald Trump on April 16 downplayed his recent public criticism of Pope Leo XIV, stating that he has “nothing against the pope” while continuing to falsely suggest that Leo wants Iran to develop nuclear weapons.

While speaking to the press on April 16, Trump was asked why he was “fighting with the pope.” Trump responded that he himself “[has] to do whatʼs right.”

“Itʼs very simple, I have nothing against the pope,” Trump said. “... Iʼm not fighting with him. The pope made a statement, he says Iran can have a nuclear weapon. I say Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.”

The president had slammed Leo as “weak on crime” and “weak on nuclear weapons” in an April 12 social media post while suggesting that the pope “thinks itʼs OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”

Leo has several times in recent weeks called for peace while criticizing the ongoing U.S.-led war against Iran, but it is unclear why Trump has repeatedly claimed that Leo has advocated for nuclear weapons in Iran.

The pope has spoken out explicitly against the expansion of global nuclear armaments in the recent past.

‘I want him to preach the Gospel’

Asked at the April 16 press gaggle about the popeʼs obligation to preach the Gospel, the president responded: “I want him to preach the Gospel.”

“Iʼm all about the Gospel,” Trump told reporters. “But I also know that you cannot let [Iran] have a nuclear weapon. If they did, they would use it, and I think theyʼd use it quickly, and they would kill many millions of people.”

“As president of the United States of America, I canʼt allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon,” he said. “And hereʼs the story: They wonʼt have [it]. Theyʼve already agreed not to have [it]. Thatʼs good news. And I think the pope will be very happy.”

Asked by a reporter if he would meet with the pope “to even out your differences,” Trump said: “I donʼt think thatʼs necessary.”

During a press conference at the White House on Monday, Trump claimed that Iranian officials had contacted him seeking a peace deal. “Theyʼd like to make a deal very badly,” the president said.

Earlier peace talks in Islamabad, led by Vice President JD Vance, collapsed last weekend after Iran refused to meet U.S. demands to end its nuclear program.

Trumpʼs support among Catholics dipped notably after the launch of the Iran war, with bipartisan polling finding that 48% of Catholic voters approve of the job Trump is doing as president and 52% disapprove. The president won 55% of the Catholic vote in the 2024 election.

The poll found that most Catholics disapprove of Trump’s actions in Iran and the use of military force against the country but still favor some American influence in the region.

Upon returning to Yaoundé, Pope Leo XIV meets with several representatives of Cameroon’s Islamic communities, encouraging people of all faiths to work toward peace based on mutual respect.

Read all

 

The Archdiocese of Sydney has held two formation nights ahead of the Sydney Synod, which will take place from 30 April to 3 May. 

Synod working party members Bishop Daniel Meagher, Sr Anastasia Reeves OP, and Sydney Centre for Evangelisation director Daniel Ang addressed the gatherings at St Mary’s Cathedral College Hall, outlining the aims of the upcoming synod. 

The sessions focused on what a synod is, ecclesial spirituality and discernment, and the specific goals of the Sydney Synod. Open only to synod members, the formation nights sought to answer key questions about the process. 

Quoting the final document of the Synod on Synodality (2021–2024), Bishop Meagher outlined the core vision of the gathering as the “walking together of Christians with Christ towards God’s kingdom oriented towards mission.” 

He said the Sydney Synod will explore three “longings”: more prayerful liturgies, more Christ-centred parishes and communities, and a stronger focus on mission. 

The archbishop has selected 18 proposals – six under each longing – for discussion. Bishop Meagher noted that implementing them would take time. 

“Our Synod is just a part of a process that will go on for 30 or 40 years,” he said. 

Sr Reeves emphasised that every member had a meaningful role in the synod. 

“We’re not ticking boxes and just making sure we have enough people to make it look like we’re interested in what you think,” she said. 

“You are here because we want your gifts, your wisdom, your experience – even if you are younger – to be part of this Synod.” 

She said discernment would be central, with members asked to choose between several strong proposals for the archdiocese’s future. 

Sr Reeves said authentic discernment requires openness to the Holy Spirit in seeking what best serves the common good of the church. 

Ang outlined the synod process, which will span three days and include two full days of discussion and collaboration. 

He said the 18 proposals would translate the three longings into practical priorities, including stronger formation for parish educators and improved training and structure for music at Mass. 

“It’s really about trying to hear all the voices and to continue to foster the second spring of faith that we’re seeing in many parts of the West,” he said. 

At the first formation night, Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP asked how success would be measured. Bishop Meagher responded that the fruits of the synod may not be immediately visible, but would be seen if parishes and communities begin to live out the three longings. 

The post Formation nights prepare members for Sydney Synod appeared first on The Catholic Weekly.

On the fourth day of his Apostolic Journey across Africa, Pope Leo visits Cameroon’s conflict-ridden North-west, and stresses that the time for change is “today and not tomorrow, now and not in the future”.

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Pope Leo XIV spent his first full day in Cameroon on April 16 meeting with local Catholics and other officials, hosting a meeting for peace and saying Mass in the central African country.

The Holy Father will ultimately spend several days in Cameroon before heading on to Angola and then Equatorial Guinea during his first apostolic journey to Africa. The trip is scheduled to last through April 23.

Here is a look at the popeʼs activities in Cameroon:

For the fourth consecutive year, the Holy See will have its own pavilion at the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia in Italy.

The Dicastery for Culture and Education announced the participation of several influential figures in contemporary art and culture — including American singer Patti Smith and Mexican architect Tatiana Bilbao — in the Holy See Pavilion at the 61st International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, which will be held May 9 through Nov. 22.

This edition of the Italian cultural event, titled “In Minor Keys,” is a sensory and meditative experience that seeks to reconnect participants with the emotional and affective roles of art in society.

In a press release, the Dicastery for Culture and Education announced the 24 artists who will form part of the Holy See’s selection this year, reflecting the eventʼs concept for 2026, which invites visitors to slow down the pace of life and open up spaces for reflection and silence.

This edition is marked by the unexpected death in May 2025 in Basel, Switzerland, of its curator, Koyo Kouoh, a Cameroonian-Swiss artist globally recognized as one of the most powerful voices in the promotion of contemporary African art.

Patti Smith is popularly known as the “Godmother of Punk.” Her 1975 debut album “Horses” marked a turning point in New York punk by fusing rock and poetry.

The prestigious Mexican architect Tatiana Bilbao, internationally renowned for her humanist and social approach to architecture, will also participate in the project. She designed the pavilion for the 2025 Venice Biennale, a project titled “Opera Aperta” (“Open Work”), which received a special mention from the jury.

Inspired by a medieval saint

Inspired by the life and spiritual legacy of St. Hildegard of Bingen, the Holy See’s pavilion as explained by the Vatican is conceived as a space for contemplation and deep listening.

Titled “L’orecchio è l’occhio dell’anima” (“The Ear Is the Eye of the Soul”), the pavilion will be hosted across two historic venues in the city: Cannaregio and Castello.

It has been curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Ben Vickers in collaboration with the Soundwalk Collective and draws upon the life and spiritual legacy of St. Hildegard, a 12th-century Benedictine nun, mystic, composer, and thinker who was proclaimed a saint and doctor of the Church in 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI.

The works commissioned from the participating artists are conceived as a “sonic prayer”: an art form that unites music, spoken word, film, and silence, and invites the visitor to an experience of contemplative listening.

As explained by the Vatican, the proposal reflects a curatorial vision that conceives of sound as a path to inner knowledge and spiritual experience, reviving a central insight of the thought of Hildegard of Bingen.

The project is curated by Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

The brother of Pope Leo XIV was reportedly the victim of a hoax bomb threat in a suburb outside of Chicago, according to police and media reports.

The New Lenox, Illinois, Police Department said in a Facebook post on April 15 that it had responded to a “reported bomb threat at a private residence” in the Chicago suburb about 40 miles outside of the city center.

The statement did not identify the home as belonging to Leoʼs brother John Prevost, but local media reports said the target of the threat was Prevostʼs home. Public records indicate that Prevost lives on the street to which police responded.

Police evacuated nearby homes during their investigation and called in explosive-detection K9 units. “After careful examination, investigators determined that the threat was unsubstantiated and that no explosive devices or hazardous materials were present,” New Lenox police said.

The police noted that no injuries were reported but that the false bomb threat was “a serious offense and may result in criminal charges.”

New Lenox Police Chief Micah Nuesse told EWTN News via email on April 16 that the matter was an “active and ongoing investigation” and that the police department had “no new updates to share” about the crime or any suspects.

The hoax threat came just several days after President Donald Trump praised Pope Leo XIVʼs other brother, Louis, in a rambling Truth Social post in which he derided Pope Leo XIV as “weak on crime” and “terrible for foreign policy” after Leo repeatedly criticized the ongoing U.S.-led war in Iran.

“I like [Leoʼs] brother Louis much better than I like him, because Louis is all MAGA. He gets it, and Leo doesn’t!” Trump said. Louis Prevost currently lives in Florida.

On April 11 at a Vatican peace vigil, the pope criticized the “madness of war” and urged world leaders: “Stop! Itʼs time for peace!” On March 29, meanwhile, he said that God “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war.”

In Trumpʼs Truth Social post, he suggested that Leo — the first American-born pontiff — was only elected to the papacy as part of a diplomatic strategy to “deal with” Trump himself, due to Leoʼs U.S. background.

“If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican,” Trump claimed in the post.

Responding to a question about Trumpʼs post on April 13, Leo told media that “people who read it will be able to draw their own conclusions.”

"I am not a politician, and I have no intention of entering into a debate with him,” the pope said, adding that he had "no fear neither of the Trump administration nor of speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel."

BAMENDA, Cameroon — Despite bad weather, at least 20,000 people gathered on the runways of Bamenda International Airport on Wednesday to take part in the Mass celebrated by Pope Leo XIV, concluding the second day of the pontiff’s visit to Cameroon.

In his homily, Pope Leo praised the faith of the local Church, saying: “The festive celebrations that accompany your liturgies and the joy that flows from the prayers you raise are signs of your trusting surrender to God, of your unshakeable hope and of your clinging, with all your strength, to the love of the Father who draws near and looks with compassion upon the sufferings of his children.”

Quoting Psalm 34, the pope reminded the crowd that “the Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”

He then turned to the wounds afflicting the country and the region.

“Brothers and sisters, there are many situations in life that break our hearts and plunge us into sorrow,” Leo said. “Our hope for a future of peace and reconciliation, in which the dignity of every person is respected and their fundamental rights guaranteed, is continually disappointed by the many problems afflicting this beautiful land.”

The pope pointed to “the numerous forms of poverty,” including an ongoing food crisis, as well as “moral, social, and political corruption, seen above all in the management of wealth, which hinders the development of institutions and infrastructure.”

He also cited “the serious problems affecting the education and health care systems, as well as large-scale migration to foreign countries, particularly of young people.”

“Added to these internal problems, which are often fueled by hatred and violence, is the damage caused from outside, by those who, in the name of profit, continue to lay their hands on the African continent to exploit and plunder it,” he said.

Even so, Leo insisted that the present moment is one for action, not despair.

“Yet this is the moment to change, to transform the story of this country,” he said. “The time has come, today and not tomorrow, now and not in the future, to restore the mosaic of unity by bringing together the diversity and riches of the country and the continent. In this way, it will be possible to create a society in which peace and reconciliation reign.”

The pope warned that when difficult situations persist for a long time, people can fall into resignation and helplessness. But, he said, “the word of the Lord opens up new possibilities and brings about transformation and healing.”

“It is capable of stirring our hearts, of challenging the normal course of events to which we so easily risk becoming accustomed, and of making us active agents of change,” he said. “Let us remember this: God is newness, God creates new things, God makes us courageous people who, by confronting evil, build up the good.”

Reflecting on the Acts of the Apostles, Leo said the apostles’ courage became “a voice of conscience, a prophecy, a denunciation of evil,” calling that witness “the first step towards changing things.”

“In fact, obeying God is not an act of submission that oppresses us or nullifies our freedom; on the contrary, obedience to God sets us free, because it means entrusting our lives to him and allowing his word to inspire our way of thinking and acting,” he said.

Those “who obey God rather than human beings and earthly ways of thinking,” he continued, “rediscover their inner freedom, succeed in discovering the value of goodness, and do not resign themselves to evil. They find anew their way in life and become builders of peace and fraternity.”

The pope also cautioned Catholics to remain vigilant in their faith.

“We must, however, always keep the apostle Peter’s exhortation in our hearts and bring it to mind: Obey God, not human beings. To obey him, because he alone is God,” Leo said.

“This calls us to foster inculturation of the Gospel. It also calls us to be vigilant, even regarding our own religious practices, so as not to fall into the trap of mixing the Catholic faith with other beliefs and traditions of an esoteric or Gnostic nature, which in reality often serve political and economic ends.”

“Only God sets us free; only his word opens paths to freedom; only his Spirit makes us new people capable of changing this country,” he said.

At the end of the Mass, Archbishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya of Bamenda thanked the pope for visiting the region “during this time of insecurity, uncertainty, and discouragement,” saying his presence had brought “spiritual uplift, moral encouragement, psychological boost, and physical consolation.”

The archbishop said the people of Bamenda were confident that “the peace you have come to pray for shall return once again” to the ecclesiastical province and pledged, on behalf of the bishops of the region, filial loyalty to the pope.

This story was first published by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Celebrating Mass in Cameroon’s western city of Bamenda, Pope Leo XIV decries the numerous forms of poverty and injustice that afflict the region, and urges Cameroonians to entrust themselves to God and his Word in their struggle to create a future of peace and reconciliation.

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Pope Leo XIV sends a message to a meeting of the Italian Bishops' Conference on safeguarding minors, and pledges the Church's commitment to better protect minors and vulnerable adults.

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BAMENDA, Cameroon — From Bamendaʼs Catholic cathedral on Thursday, Pope Leo XIV urged both Christians and Muslims to heal wounds of conflict in Cameroon.

When Leo arrived at the Cathedral of St. Joseph, on the fourth day of his trip in Africa, he first visited the Blessed Sacrament Chapel for a moment of prayer together with Archbishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya of Bamenda.

During the interreligious peace gathering, Nkea said the popeʼs presence was consoling for the people. The meeting included testimonies from local people, including Catholics, Protestants, and Muslims.

"Holy Father, help us to have peace,” Imam Mohammad Abubakar of the Central Mosque of Buea said after speaking about violent episodes that have taken place in recent years.

“It is a joy for me to be with you in this region that has suffered so greatly. As your testimonies have just demonstrated, the lived experience of suffering by your community has only made stronger your conviction that God has never abandoned us! In God, in his peace, we can always begin anew!" the pope said.

“May we all continue on the path of goodness which leads to peace,” he continued. “I am grateful for your words of welcome, because it is true: I am here to proclaim peace. Yet I find it is you who are proclaiming peace to me, and to the entire world.”

Leo praised the witness of local Muslims and Christians in working for peace and said he wishes “this would happen in so many other places of the world.”

“Jesus told us: Blessed are the peacemakers! But woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic, or political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth,” Leo said.

The Holy Father also expressed his gratitude to all the laypeople and religious women who care for those traumatized by violence — a work that is dangerous and unseen.

“The masters of war pretend not to know that it takes only a moment to destroy, yet a lifetime is often not enough to rebuild,” he said. “We must make a decisive change of course — a true conversion — that will lead us in the opposite direction, onto a sustainable path rich in human fraternity.”

“Peace is not something we must invent: It is something we must embrace by accepting our neighbor as our brother and as our sister. We do not choose our brothers and sisters: We simply must accept one another!” he urged.

The pope said: “Let us walk together, in love, searching always for peace.”

Outside of the cathedral at the end of the meeting, Pope Leo, accompanied by representatives of the Bamenda community, released seven doves as a sign of peace.

“My dear brothers and sisters, today the Lord has chosen all of us to be workers who bring peace to this land! Let us all say a prayer to the Lord, that peace will truly reign among us, that as we release these white doves — a symbol of peace — that God’s peace will be upon all of us, upon this land, and keep us all united in his peace. Praise the Lord!” he said.

This story was first published by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Speaking at a meeting dedicated to peace in Bamenda, Cameroon, Pope Leo XIV warns against the "masters of war" who pretend not to acknowledge that "it only takes a moment to destroy, yet often a lifetime is not enough to rebuild" and who spend billions on weapons but dedicate nothing to helping people heal.

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A series of celebrations marking the centenary of the birth of Pope Benedict XVI will take place across four continents beginning on April 16, 2027.

An international committee for the centenary celebrations established by the Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation is coordinating the initiatives, the foundation announced.

“The centenary of Ratzingerʼs birth is an opportunity to fully present his thought and his approach to reality as significant contributions to the current ecclesial and cultural debate,” said Father Roberto Regoli, president of the foundation and of the centenary committee.

“His legacy concerns the interpretation of the Second Vatican Council, the personal experience of Christ, which becomes the key to all branches of theology, and reasonableness as the criterion underlying human reflection on reality,” the priest noted.

Events marking 100 years since the beloved German pontiffʼs birth on April 16, 1927, will take place in several countries in Europe as well as in the U.S., India, Colombia, and Kenya.

Events across the globe

On the first day of the centenary celebrations next April, the fourth volume of selected texts by Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI titled “The Faith of the Future: The Future of the Church” will be presented in Rome at Italy’s embassy to the Holy See.

Two events will take place in the U.S. next year. On Nov. 3, at Saint Mary’s University in Minneapolis, the presentation of Volume 6 of the “Collected Works” of Joseph Ratzinger will take place; and on Nov. 4–6, in the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, a conference will be held on the theme “Joseph Ratzinger and His Sources.”

On July 10–11 in Bangalore, the bishops of India will hold a colloquium on the theme “A Rereading of the Theological Journey of Joseph Ratzinger.”

On Sept. 10, Péter Pázmány Catholic University in Budapest, Hungary, will host a study day to mark the presentation of Volume 3 of Joseph Ratzinger’s complete works in Hungarian: “The God of Faith and the God of Philosophers: Philosophical Reason, Culture, Europe, Society.”

On Sept. 24–26, the international conference “For the Centenary of Joseph Ratzinger: Paths of Faith, Hope, and Charity” will take place at the University of La Sabana in Bogotá, Colombia.

On Oct. 14 in Paris, the Collège des Bernardins, the Académie Catholique de France, the Institut de France, the journal “Communio,” and the television channel KTO will host an international symposium provisionally titled “The Major Lectures of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI in France.”

The international congress “The Beauty of the Liturgy” will be held in Almería, Spain, on Oct. 28–30, and a statue dedicated to Benedict XVI will be unveiled.

In Nairobi, Kenya, a symposium titled “Constellations of Hope: Africa and the Renewal of the Church in the Vision of Benedict XVI” will be held at Tangaza University on Nov. 18–21.

A schedule with more events will be announced at a later date.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

DOUALA, Cameroon — Pope Leo XIV launched a passionate appeal to authorities in Cameroon to invest in the education and training of young people for lasting peace in the central African nation, where he embarked on a three-day apostolic visit Wednesday.

In his April 15 meeting with civic authorities and the diplomatic corps at the presidential palace on the first day of his visit, Pope Leo described young people as Cameroon’s greatest asset and a key to its future, noting that their frustrations mount when they feel that they are not gainfully employed.

“As I have often mentioned, young people represent the hope of the country and of the Church. Their energy and creativity are priceless treasures,” the Holy Father said, adding: “Of course, when unemployment and social exclusion persist, frustration can lead to violence.”

“Investing in the education, training, and entrepreneurship of young people is, therefore, a strategic choice for peace,” he said.

According to the Holy Father, investing in young people is one of the best ways to curb the outflow of talent to other parts of the world.

It is also a good way to combat “the scourges of drugs, prostitution, and apathy, which are devastating too many young lives in an increasingly dramatic way,” he said.

“Thankfully, young people in Cameroon possess a deep spirituality that still resists the homogenizing influence of the market,” he said. “It is a source of energy that gives value to their dreams, which are rooted in the prophecies that nourish their prayers and their hearts.”

The Holy Father said that when the young people are not twisted by what he described as “the poison of fundamentalism and religious traditions” they become prophets of peace, justice, forgiveness, and solidarity.

The pope also highlighted the spiritual strength of Cameroon’s youth, noting that despite challenges, many remain deeply rooted in faith.

He expressed particular concern for young people, urging that they be empowered to play an active role in shaping society. “It is my great desire to reach the hearts of all, especially young people, who are called to help shape a world that is more just, including in the political sphere,” he said.

In his address, Pope Leo also lauded the richness of the country’s land, cultures, languages, and traditions, noting that such resources should not be perceived as weakness but as a treasure to be cherished.

“It is with deep joy that I find myself in Cameroon, often described as ‘Africa in miniature’ because of the richness of its lands, cultures, languages, and traditions. This variety is not a weakness but a treasure,” he said.

The pontiff added that the countryʼs richness as compared to its treasure “constitutes a promise of fraternity and a solid foundation for building lasting peace.”

The Holy Father also said that Cameroon possesses the human, cultural, and spiritual resources needed to overcome its trials and conflicts and move toward a future of stability and shared prosperity.

“The common effort in favor of dialogue, justice, and integral development must transform the wounds of the past into sources of renewal,” he said.

The pope also called for stronger interreligious cooperation, emphasizing its importance in promoting peace.

“By fostering interreligious dialogue and involving religious leaders in mediation and reconciliation, politics and diplomacy can draw upon moral forces capable of easing tensions, preventing extremism, and promoting a culture of mutual esteem and respect,” he said.

He also affirmed the Catholic Church’s commitment to serving all people in Cameroon without distinction.

“Through her efforts in education, health care, and charity, the Church in Cameroon desires to continue serving all citizens,” he said, adding that it also seeks collaboration with civil authorities and other partners in promoting human dignity and reconciliation.

Addressing the broader mission of his visit, the pope said he came “as a shepherd and as a servant of dialogue, fraternity, and peace,” emphasizing that his presence was a sign of the pope’s affection for all Cameroonians and a call to persevere in building the common good.

“We are living in a time when hopelessness is rampant and a sense of powerlessness tends to paralyze renewal,” he said, adding: “There is such a hunger and thirst for justice, for involvement, for vision, for courageous choices, and for peace.”

The Holy Father expressed hope for stronger relations between the Holy See and Cameroon, grounded in shared values. He prayed that God would bless the nation, guide its leaders, strengthen civil society, enlighten the diplomatic corps, and grant all citizens the grace to build a future of justice and peace together.

This story was first published by ACI Africa, the sister service of EWTN News in Africa, and has been adapted by EWTN News.

In my last article Debating Protestants, I discussed how and why I used to debate Protestants on a nearly-daily basis with open-Bible verse-wars when I was in my early 20s.  After learning that these verse-wars rarely make converts, I learned the best way to disprove Protestantism is by simply overturning their completely non-Biblical notion of Sola [...]

Reading 1 Acts 5:27-33

Responsorial Psalm Psalm 34:2 and 9, 17-18, 19-20

Alleluia John 20:29

Gospel John 3:31-36

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Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition, Copyright © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; Psalm refrain © 1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

April 16 would have marked Pope Benedict XVI’s 99th birthday. Looking ahead to what would have been the late Pope’s 100th birthday next year, the Joseph Ratzinger–Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation announces a year of initiatives to commemorate him.

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The challenge set by the Editor of The Catholic Weekly was to investigate whether prayer can be combined with doomscrolling. A tough ask.   

A sympathetic reader: But when the going gets tough, the tough get going, right? Scroll on, MacDuff!  

Well, as Sydney’s Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP has reminded us, 2026 is supposed to be a year of prayer before Eucharist28. And since most of us spend an indecent amount of time doomscrolling, can we do both at the same time?  

Possibly. 

Forgive me if I resort to a hoary old story. 

I say “forgive me” because my hoary old stories are not always good stories. For instance, I love atrociously bad puns and when I offered to repeat my favourite to half a dozen friends the other day, I was taken aback by the terror on their faces. Nothing daunted, I told it for the benefit of the one who hadn’t heard it. He advised me not to tell it again. 

This is supposed to be about doomscrolling, remember?  

Well, I’ve gone off piste and not for the first time, but the hoary old story about prayer goes as follows. I hope it won’t terrify you.  

A pious old nun wants to explain to her primary class “the necessity for them to pray always”, as Jesus explains in Luke 18. Or as St Paul tells the Thessalonians, “Pray without ceasing”. Impossible, right? No time, right?  

Wrong, she says.  

And she whips out a large glass jar. “This is the 24 hours of your day,” she says. “Let’s fill it with prayer.” And she takes a big rock and puts it in the jar. “That’s the Mass,” she says, “our greatest prayer. Is the day full of prayer?”  

No, she says, and tips handfuls of gravel into the jar. “That’s the Rosary, and the Angelus, and your morning and night prayers,” she explains. “Is your day full of prayer yet?” 

No, she says, and she takes a bag of beach sand and carefully fills the jar to the brim. “Now it’s full of prayer.”  

“Those, class, are aspirations,” she explains triumphantly, “tiny short prayers that you can tell God and his Blessed Mother any time of the day and night, whether you’re happy or sad, and all day long.”  

Excuse me, what about the doomscrolling bit?  

Be patient, we’re almost there.  

Aspirations are a very ancient practice in the Church. “The brethren in Egypt are reported to have very frequent prayers, but these very brief … lest the wakeful and aroused attention which is indispensable in prayer should by protracted exercises vanish or lose its keenness.” So wrote St Augustine to the widow Proba about 412AD. This letter is St Augustine’s main treatise on prayer, so no doubt we’ll be hearing about aspirations from Pope Leo XIV one of these days.  

If we love God, we don’t have to always resort to formal, timetabled, structured prayers. Those are the gravel in the jar.  

If you hit your thumb with a hammer, what do you say? Well, yes, I say that, too, and more than once, but you can follow up with an aspiration, “Jesus, I offer this to you” or whatever a few times. Those are the grains of sand.  

What if your NRL team unexpectedly beats last year’s premiers by a huge margin, say 32 to 16, don’t you think God isn’t rejoicing, too? You can say, Alleluia, Alleluia! What if you’re walking to work on a crisp autumn day, with the sun glittering on the gum leaves, the magpies carolling in the branches, the morning air intoxicating – can’t you say, “Thank you, God, thank you”? 

Scripture can be mined for aspirations. The liturgy of Holy Week and Easter is a treasure chest. The “Jesus, remember me…” of the Good Thief. The “Lord, you know all things, you know that I love you” of the repentant Peter. The “My Lord and my God” of Doubting Thomas.  

But aspirations don’t have to be scriptural. In Shakespeare’s love tragedy, Romeo says “Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs”. Lovers of God make up their own sighs. And like lovers they say the same dumb things over and over without getting tired. 

Doomscrolling, dammit, doomscrolling!!!! 

Ah, yes, I’m off piste again. Apologies.   

About doomscrolling: it’s a very bad habit which I condemn unreservedly and without qualification.  

I do it a lot, actually.   

If you do, too, make the most of it. Pour the sand of aspirations over the images as you scroll through your feed. Doomscrolling at its worst is mindless and unreflective. Make it intentional by praying. 

When you see children crying in Ukraine, say to yourself, “Queen of Peace, pray for them.” When you see schoolgirls bombed in Iran, pray to their guardian angels to lead them to Heaven. When you see world leaders throwing infantile tantrums, say “Come, Holy Spirit, and knock some sense into those numbskulls.” When you see Pope Leo getting hammered over the war in Iran by President Trump, say “Peter and Paul, pray for him.”  

When you see skeletal figures in Sudan holding up their bowls for food, say, “O dear Christ, help the poor bastards.” Keep saying it.  

Aspirations don’t have to be as sugary as a Krispy Kreme doughnut. They spring from the heart. God doesn’t mind profanity. He minds indifference.  

If you pray aspirations while doomscrolling, you’ll pray more, which will open up unsuspected horizons for your spiritual life, and you’ll doomscroll less. Which is probably not a bad thing.  

What I want to know is, can you pray aspirations while watching cat videos? 

Sorry, above my pay grade. I can’t help you with that.  

The post Pope versus President – Doomscrolling and prayer appeared first on The Catholic Weekly.

Shortly after Vice President JD Vance appeared to warn Pope Leo XIV to “be careful” when speaking about theology and taking issue with his description of the US conflict in Iran as unjust, the US bishops’ point-man on doctrine issued a forceful statement on the church’s teaching about just war theory.

Vance’s comments at a Turning Point USA event at the University of Georgia 14 April come amid fallout after President Donald Trump lashed out at Pope Leo XIV on social media and in verbal remarks the previous day, calling him “weak on crime” and “terrible for foreign policy,” as tensions escalate over the Iran war.

In a statement that did not name Vance, but was issued the day after his comments, Auxiliary Bishop James Massa of Brooklyn, New York, chairman of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine, said, “For over a thousand years, the Catholic Church has taught just war theory and it is that long tradition the Holy Father carefully references in his comments on war.”

Vance invoked the church’s just war tradition at the TPUSA event, where he took issue with Pope Leo’s post on X in which the pontiff said God “is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.”

Pointing to the Catechism of the Catholic Church and other church documents, Vincent J. Miller, the Gudorf Chair in Catholic Theology and Culture at the University of Dayton, told OSV News, “The vice president’s answer shows he has much to learn about what the church actually teaches about peace and war.”

The post US bishops’ doctrine chair defends church’s just war tradition after Vance comments appeared first on The Catholic Weekly.

The record number of adult and teenage baptisms during the Easter Vigil on 4 April drew global attention. French secular media outlets reported on the event in every region, describing it as an “astonishing phenomenon.”

Over 13,200 adults and over 8,100 adolescents were baptized during the 4 April Easter Vigil, according to an annual survey published by the French bishops’ conference March 25.

“It has completely changed my life,” Anne-Cécile Perrier, baptized in St Louis Cathedral in Versailles on 4 April, told OSV News.

Sharing her personal journey toward baptism, she said: “There are always difficult moments. But since I let Jesus and the Holy Spirit into my heart, I know I am not alone. God is with me every moment, and he loves me just as I am. It is extraordinary to be loved and accompanied in this way.”

Perrier is part of a broader French phenomenon of over 21,000 people baptised on Easter.

“It is spectacular,” Le Dauphiné libéré said, describing baptisms by full immersion in the Chambéry Cathedral, near the Alps. In Lyon, the oldest diocese in France, 460 baptisms were reported, compared to 390 in 2025. Normandy alone recorded 555 baptisms.

La République du Centre described the “very sharp rise in baptisms” in Orléans, the city liberated by St Joan of Arc during the Hundred Years’ War. The Populaire du Centre spoke of numbers “skyrocketing” in Limoges, famous for its porcelain.

In Paris itself, 786 adults were baptised, compared to 671 in 2025, which was already a record. Four of them were baptised by the archbishop of Paris in Notre Dame Cathedral.

Le Parisien reported that 48 young adults and teenagers were baptized by immersion in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, west of Paris, during an outdoor Mass, as the parish church was too small to accommodate the 850 people surrounding them.

Some commentators pointed out that this increase in numbers does not offset the sharp decline in the number of infant baptisms recorded in France over the past 25 years. There were approximately 380,000 babies baptised in 2000, accounting for nearly half the number of births that year. By 2025, that number had dropped to 150,000, less than a quarter of the babies born that year.

Nevertheless, the number of Easter baptisms has more than tripled over the past decade.

“The Church in France feels more than a breeze in its sails,” wrote historian Christophe Dickès, a specialist in contemporary Catholicism, in Le Figaro, referring to a “renewal of faith.” Le Monde described “a transformation of Catholicism in France.” “This apparent vitality reflects the evolution of a once-dominant religion toward a ‘minority’ and ‘trendy’ faith,” it reported.

According to the French bishops’ conference, newly baptised individuals come from a wide variety of social backgrounds, and each has a “unique” story. Many of them shared that an illness, a bereavement or a “decisive encounter” triggered in them a “search for meaning.”

For Perrier, baptised in the Versailles Cathedral, this decisive encounter with a practicing Catholic and further social media Catholic content led to rediscovery of the faith of her ancestors.

“I grew up in a family that was absolutely not religious,” the 26-year-old said. “My parents had been baptised, but they had drifted far away from religion. My grandmothers were believers, but the subject of religion was almost a taboo. It was better to avoid talking about it.”

“As I grew up, I realised that life could be complicated, even very difficult,” Perrier said. “At that time, I met a practicing Catholic, and while talking with him, I explicitly told myself: ‘I have always been told that God does not exist. But maybe he actually does?’ I wanted to learn more about the Christian faith. I found a lot of interesting explanations on social media, thanks to the testimonies from the priests who are active there.”

“These posts on social media are invaluable for those of us who know absolutely nothing” about the Catholic faith, Perrier emphasised. “It also gives you the courage to knock on a church door, which is not easy. I first got involved with the catechumenate to satisfy my curiosity. My journey had already begun, and I had already read the Gospels. But I wanted to go deeper. At a certain point, you can no longer move forward alone.”

When she was welcomed into the parish of the Versailles Cathedral, Perrier felt “incredibly well received.”

“I am amazed at how I was supported,” she said. “Then, little by little, things became clear, and that journey led me to baptism.”

Perrier’s family was there when she was baptized. “My parents agreed to my baptism when they saw how happy I was,” she said. “They even enjoyed the three-hour Easter Vigil. I think they experienced it through my joy.”

Perrier said she will continue to pray once a month with her group of catechumens. “I feel very close to them,” she told OSV News. “Prayer is now part of my life. What I really love is that there are a thousand and one ways to pray. You can pray anywhere, alone or with others, in church or on the subway. Every prayer brings something different.”

In the testimonials shared by the media, the dynamic energy that the newly baptised bring to the dioceses has been frequently mentioned.

“In a few years, when I have deepened my faith even further, I will be happy if I, too, can in turn accompany people who want to learn more,” Perrier concluded.

The post From searching to belonging: Record Easter baptisms in France reflect personal journeys of faith appeared first on The Catholic Weekly.

The Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation announced a series of initiatives across several continents that will take place throughout 2026 to mark the centenary of Pope Benedict XVI’s birth.

In a statement announcing the yearlong events 14 April, the foundation said events are set to take place in Europe (Austria, France, Italy, Spain, Hungary), Asia (India), South America (Colombia), North America (United States) and Africa (Kenya) before the centenary of the late pope’s birthday on 16 April, 2027.

The events, it said, which include various lecture series and symposiums, aim to commemorate and explore “the figure and thought of Joseph Ratzinger.”

To prepare for the upcoming centenary, the foundation established a committee, composed of scholars from around the world, to promote research, publications and cultural initiatives inspired by Benedict’s work. It also aims to involve younger generations in exploring the late pontiff’s legacy.

Speaking by phone with OSV News 14 April, Father Roberto Regoli, president of the Ratzinger Foundation and the Centenary Committee, said the initiatives are not only meant to “reintroduce” the late pontiff’s thoughts about the Catholic Church and society, but to also show that his teachings “can contribute to today’s culture: to ecclesial and cultural debates and to society today.”

“All the initiatives look to the past, to Ratzinger’s thought, but they want to take it up again not in a merely preservative way, but in dialogue with today’s problems and debates because, ultimately, Ratzinger’s thought is still relevant,” Father Regoli said.

Founded in 2010, the Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation was established to promote theological study and support scholarly work related to Pope Benedict’s writings, including through conferences and the annual Ratzinger Prize, which recognises contributions to theology.

Father Regoli told OSV News that in presenting Christianity, Pope Benedict had a “Christological approach that runs through all theological questions.”

Placing “everything in the light of the encounter with Christ,” particularly one’s personal experience, he explained, makes his writings and teachings “easily understandable for younger generations.”

Another element that made the late pope an “interlocutor for many nonbelievers” was the emphasis he placed “on the reasonableness of human nature,” Father Regoli said.

“He shows the reasonableness of faith and how faith can help reason itself to become more fully rational, without falling into totalitarianism or arbitrariness,” the foundation president told OSV News.

Father Regoli said the foundation is looking toward a two-pronged approach in making Pope Benedict more accessible to younger generations. The conferences and symposiums taking place throughout the year, he said, are aimed at involving the next generation of scholars, which includes researchers, doctoral and post-doctoral students.

“An intergenerational alliance is needed,” the priest said. “This is an idea that runs through all the major conferences.”

The second approach, he continued, was a more pastoral and outreach-oriented aspect that would present the late pope’s teaching on social media to make his thoughts and contributions known.

“Young people now often gain their initial knowledge through videos, and only afterward do they move to texts,” Father Regoli explained. “So we must also adapt to these new and widespread ways of learning.”

Father Regoli told OSV News that while there are “strictly academic” events that cater to a “more specialised audience,” they also can “influence educational processes at the university and school levels – thus impacting the formation of new university students and future teachers.”

However, events such as exhibitions and concerts are of equal importance because they reach “a much broader audience and engage not only in thinking, but also perception, feeling and the senses.”

“Exhibitions and concerts are experiences,” Father Regoli said. “So the aim is to communicate not only at a conceptual level but also at the level of lived experience.”

According to the foundation, the centenary initiatives will continue through 2026, culminating in 2027, the anniversary year, when further commemorations are expected.

“The dates for the 2027 events will be announced later,” the foundation said.

The post Vatican foundation announces global events to honour Benedict XVI ahead of 2027 centenary appeared first on The Catholic Weekly.

More of the nation’s Catholic bishops have weighed in after President Donald Trump began denouncing Pope Leo XIV at length on social media, and then posted a now-deleted image of himself as Jesus.

The bishops’ statements have emerged as Trump doubled down on his diatribes – and as Vice President JD Vance delivered a new rebuke 14 April to Pope Leo, whom he said he respects, claiming the pope should “be careful when he talks about matters of theology” in criticizing the US-Israel war in Iran.

In an 13 April statement, Bishop Michael M. Pham of San Diego noted that “throughout history, the papacy has served as a vital voice for peace, justice, and the care of the most vulnerable,” adding that Pope Leo is exercising his ministry at a time when “our world is under tremendous turmoil by leaders who execute decisions disregarding the moral implications that lead to greater division, hatred, and death.”

Archbishop James R. Golka of Denver affirmed in an 13 April statement that “Pope Leo’s role is pastoral, not political,” and said Trump’s language “fails to reflect the respect owed to the Successor of Peter and does not serve the common good.”

In a 13 April statement, the Tennessee Catholic Conference and the state’s bishops said that “it is entirely appropriate that Pope Leo comment from the truth of Jesus’ teaching in the Gospels on life and death matters that affect souls.”

The post More US bishops raise their voices against Trump’s attacks on Pope Leo appeared first on The Catholic Weekly.

Zeal after the Flood

Today is the tenth anniversary of the earthquake that ended the mortal life of the Servant of God Sister Clare Crockett. We wrote last Saturday to mark the tenth anniversary of the flood in Playa Prieta that God providentially made use of to prepare the way for the Servant of God’s entrance into heaven that we are now commemorating.

The five days between the flood and the earthquake were a time of intense zeal. According to Alone with Christ Alone:

The entire community took part in the cleaning operation with supernatural joy and generosity. From the moment the Virgin Mary had triumphed in their hearts, no task was too difficult for them; no challenge could overcome them. Sr. Clare joyfully lifted their hearts to God in song as they worked. She made everyone laugh with her jokes and comments and reminded them to offer their fatigue for the salvation of souls. And she was not the only one. Each generously gave her “yes” to the Lord during these days. Not a complaint was to be heard. If there was a difficulty or if they were at the end of a long morning of work, someone would exclaim, “Let’s offer this up for the souls in purgatory!” or “Let’s offer this up for so-and-so.” The rest would respond, “Yes! Let’s go for it!” and continue working even harder than before.

Clare Crockett and Encountering Zeal

What words would we most associate with Sister Claire? For most of those who have encountered her, it is probably joy. But another possible word is zeal. Consider how the joy and generosity with which Sister Clare and the others responded to an objectively devastating flood was directed towards supernatural goods, and especially towards the salvation of souls. 2 Corinthians 9:7 says that “God loveth a cheerful giver,” and Sister Clare’s joy and generosity were part of her gift, a gift that was for the salvation of souls and the pleasure of her Divine Lover, Jesus Christ.

This impression of Sister Clare’s zeal can be very strong. One of the monks states that when he read the life of the Sister Clare Crockett back in 2021, he experienced a significant — he says “life-changing” — encounter with the attractiveness of zeal. Seeing her life, he discovered how deeply she burned with a love for souls and their salvation, and, he says, comparing himself with her, he discovered that he was tepid within himself. But far from being discouraged, he was attracted.

If the story of her life brought him back in memory to his own life, not without regret, it very quickly changed from looking back to looking forward. He writes:

I experienced a conversion of sorts when I was 13. It was at the beginning of the second year of my Junior Cycle. I became inflamed with a desire to save souls. By the end of sixth year, when I was 18, this zeal was waning because I felt burnt out and had had a number of difficult experiences. In college, the way I had formerly expressed zeal began to seem both excessive and foolish. My faith didn’t lessen, but I was no longer primarily motivated by the salvation of souls. Reading Clare Crockett’s life showed me an example of true zeal for the salvation of souls that helped me recover the good sense of zeal while seeking to purify it. I reviewed my years of secondary school and college.

Things started to seem different because, while it’s true that I had a fervour for the salvation of souls and for the worship of Jesus immediately after my experience of conversion in secondary school, and while it’s true that I experienced a sort of cooling-off after graduation, especially in my fervour for the salvation of souls, I realised in reading about Sister Clare that it was more complicated than I had thought. I saw that my zeal in secondary school was good (even if there were some excesses) but immature, and that I had needed maturation and purification from the selfishness and coldness in me. The years that followed were a sort of “cooling off” from this zeal, though they still had fervour in them. I was now in a position to experience a restored and purified zeal.

When I read how intense Sister Clare’s desire to love and to put Jesus’ pleasure before all things was, and how this desire brought forth works of zeal for the salvation of souls in deep self-forgetfulness, and how this zeal manifested itself in humble and patient service — bearing the burdens of those around her, overcoming her natural repugnances — I experienced something like an awakening of that teenage zeal, with a new desire for it to be increased, purified, and emptied of self.

About Zeal

In chapter 72 of the Holy Rule, our holy Father, Benedict, tells us about two types of zeal.

The first type of zeal is an evil zeal of bitterness, bitter like the bitter waters of Mara in Exodus 15 or the bitter sea of Ezekiel 47. In Exodus 15, Moses threw a tree into the bitter waters and they became sweet; in Ezekiel 47, a double stream poured forth from the right side of the Temple into the bitter sea making the water sweet. Both of these are images of the passion of Jesus, which we have just celebrated. Moses can be seen as a type of Jesus, healing the bitterness within through His Holy Cross; the Temple can be seen as a type of His Sacred Body, for out of the right side of It a double-stream of Blood and water poured to heal the bitter waters of our souls until the sweet springs of the Living Waters of the Holy Spirit spring up unto everlasting life.

Saint Benedict knows that there are “bitter waters” within. He knows that there is an evil zeal of bitterness. He also knows that Christ can heal it. This is why He writes this chapter. He does not want us to be discouraged by the bitterness within, but He wants us to strive towards the other type of zeal, the sweet zeal of love, that can only come through the Cross.

Saint Benedict writes:

As there is an evil zeal of bitterness that separateth from God and leadeth to hell, so there is a good zeal that separateth from vices and leadeth to God and to life eternal. Thus the monks should exercise this zeal with most fervent love, that is, that they outdo each other in showing each other honour; bear most patiently with their infirmities (whether of body or of behaviour); compete with each other in obedience; no one pursue what he judgeth profitable for himself but rather what is for another, devote themselves chastely to the charity of the brethren, fear God with love, love their Abbot with sincere and humble charity, prefer nothing at all to Christ. May He lead us all alike to life everlasting.
-The Holy Rule, Chapter 72

The Good Zeal and Bitter Zeal

Saint Benedict speaks of two sorts of zeal, a good zeal and a bitter zeal. Both seem to be something more than ordinary Christian living. They both add to it a special fervor, a fervor that spurs to deed. Yet one he calls good, and the other evil! Saint Benedict distinguishes between the two through bitterness. One can say that bitterness is the fruit and the distinguishing character of the evil zeal. Its root is pride; the good zeal’s root is humility.

Bitterness shows that it is not the Good Spirit that is at work in the soul. The Greek word zēlos, like the Latin fervor, first of all means heat. Zeal implies a hot, fervent love that spurs to deed. Zeal has as its fountain and spring the very love that it manifests by its deeds. The spirit that inspired this love becomes manifest in the fruits of the zeal. Zeal can be likened to a channel of water (or a wind tunnel). Experience seems to show that something — some “water,” or some “wind” (or spirit) — flows through us. There is some source of it that we know not, but love blows where it will, almost as if something were blowing — or flowing — through us.

The Complicated Relationship to Zeal

Because zeal can easily become a bitter and hurtful expression of pride, we can have a complicated relationship to zeal. Moreover, zeal, because it moves to acts, can do a lot of harm if it is bitter. The zeal itself can be evil (or the acts can be foolish), and the result can be that one hurts himself or others, sometimes very gravely.

Yet, despite all its complications, true zeal is one of those truly essential things for a Christian life.

Zeal in Its Essence, Works, Effect, and Manifestations

Perhaps all of us — and not just the monk quoted above — need to grow in true and joyous zeal. Perhaps Sister Clare’s example can lead us to embrace a more fervent and holy zeal. In the next few weeks, Vultus Christi hopes to examine zeal from five angles.

The five are:

1. Zeal’s Essence (and primary motivation): Jesus, love of Him and the delight in working for His good pleasure.
2. A Work of Zeal: Salvation of Souls (also a secondary motivation).
3. An Effect of Zeal: Self-forgetfulness.
4. Two Manifestations of Zeal: In:
   1. Service with humble affection and patience,
   2. Bearing one another’s burdens.
5. The Power of Zeal: Zeal overcomes self and one’s own natural repugnances or loves,

The Complimentary Examples of the Saints

Sister Clare’s example is the primary inspiration for this examination of zeal, so of course her example will come up again and again, but we will not limit ourselves to only looking at her life. We will especially look at Chapter 72 of the Holy Rule of Saint Benedict that we quoted above. And we will also look at other holy examples, and especially the example of Saint Thérèse.

Saint Thérèse is truly kindred and complimentary to Sister Clare. Saint Thérèse had a boldness in love, and she admired boldness in love. She said she wanted to love Jesus like He’d never been loved before. Then she did. But it’s remarkable how she did so. It was by responding to graces that most of us simply let slip by. One can sense sympathy in all of this between the “greatest Saint of modern times” (according to Saint Pius X’s apt phrase) and the relatively hidden and unknown Sister who had once wanted to be a “famous actress” and then a “famous nun”.

For both of them, their moment of total transformation began with a grace associated with a moment similar to those most of us simply let slip by unnoticed…again and again. For Saint Thérèse it was the “Christmas Miracle” of 1886, a grace so modest in its appearance that its significance can be easily missed at first glance. For Sister Clare, it was just kissing the Cross. As Sister Clare herself said:

When it was my turn, I got on my knees and kissed Jesus’ feet. That simple gesture lasted no more than ten seconds. Kissing the Cross, something that apparently seemed so trivial, had a very strong impact on me. Tertullian wrote [in his pre-Montanist period] that ‘there is absolutely nothing which makes men’s minds more perplexed about the divine works than the disproportion between the simplicity of the means employed and the grandeur of the effect obtained.’ I’m not sure how to explain exactly what happened. I didn’t see a choir of angels or a white dove flying down toward me, but I experienced the certainty that the Lord was on the Cross for me, and along with that certainty, I felt a burning pain, similar to what I had experienced when I was little during the Way of the Cross. Going back to the pew, I had a deep impression in me that I hadn’t felt before. I had to do something for Him who had given His life for me.

Rep. Greg Steube, R-Florida, is urging the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to add crucifixes to its list of acceptable symbols for veteran headstones at national cemeteries.

“In the pursuit of religious freedom, as guaranteed by the First Amendment to our Constitution, we urge the Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Cemetery Administration to offer the crucifix as an eligible emblem of belief for inscription on headstones at national cemeteries,” Steube said in an April 10 letter addressed to Secretary Douglas Collins of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Undersecretary for Memorial Affairs Samuel Brown.

“Veterans and their next of kin may select from nearly 100 different emblems representing several different belief systems,” he said, noting sanctioned emblems include symbols for several Christian denominations as well as Jewish, Muslim, and Hindu symbols.

“While even atheists, humanists, and Wiccans have an eligible emblem of belief for inscription, Catholic veterans do not currently have the option to select a crucifix, an emblem of belief that most accurately represents the faith of nearly 20% of all veterans,” he said.

A crucifix is a cross that bears the body of Jesus Christ crucified, which is called the “corpus.” It is a spiritual symbol that recalls the passion and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, calling attention to his love, suffering, and redemption of humanity.

Steubeʼs press release quoted Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, saying, “I support the bipartisan effort led by Congressman Greg Steube (R-Florida) to support the free exercise of religion of veterans in having the crucifix included on tombstones.”

The archdiocese did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

The VA has the authority to add emblems administratively, or lawmakers could introduce legislation if the agency does not act.

Steubeʼs letter, signed by 45 members of Congress — including 42 Republicans and three Democrats — requested the Department of Veterans Affairs provide its criteria for evaluating and approving emblems of belief for inscription on headstones at national cemeteries and whether any prior request had been made to include crucifixes on its list.

“VA is looking into the lawmakers’ request and will answer their letter directly,” Quinn Slaven, press secretary for the Department of Veterans Affairs, told EWTN News.

Republican Reps. Riley Moore of West Virginia, Mike Carey of Ohio, and John Rutherford of Florida were among the 20 Catholic members of Congress who signed on to the letter. Steube is Protestant, according to Pew Research Center.

Steube’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Pope Leo XIV finished the first leg of his papal trip to Africa on April 15, wrapping up meetings with Catholics and local religious and civic leaders in Algeria before heading south to Cameroon.

The Holy Father will spend several days in Cameroon before heading on to Angola and Equatorial Guinea during his first apostolic journey to Africa. The trip is scheduled to last through April 23.

Here is a look at the popeʼs activities in both Algeria and Cameroon:

Pope Leo XIV concludes the first leg of his Apostolic Journey, travelling south from Algeria to Cameroon, where he addresses the country’s authorities, members of civil society and the diplomatic corps, and visits an orphanage.

Read all

 

Amid the fierce persecution against the Catholic Church by the regime of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and his wife and vice president, Rosario Murillo, exiled Nicaraguan Bishop Silvio Báez denounced the “false peace” that “dictators seek to impose through fear and weapons.”

In the homily delivered during a Mass he celebrated on Sunday, April 12, at St. Agatha Church in Miami, Baez, who has been living in exile since 2019, warned that the wounds inflicted on the Nicaraguan people will remain but that "they will be scars healed by the love of God — wounds glorious forever, wounds of love destined for eternity. So too will be the wounds and sores of our people. One day, they will just be historical scars reminding us of a painful past of injustice and oppression, so that we may never repeat it,” he underscored.

A message of hope

The Nicaraguan prelate reflected on the Gospel passage in which the risen Jesus shows his wounds so that the apostle Thomas may touch them and believe.

Báez affirmed that “just like the glorious wounds of Jesus, so too one day will be the wounds we endured as we alleviate and heal, with respect and mercy, the wounds of others.”

“And those very wounds — scarred over yet eloquent — will spur us to build the future, acting as artisans of peace, ready to foster processes of healing and reconciliation with ingenuity and boldness,” the prelate continued.

Báez denounces ‘false peace’

The bishop also referred to the vigil for peace led by Pope Leo XIV on April 11 at the Vatican and pointed out that “peace is not merely the absence of war. Political systems that impose themselves upon people through terror, stripping them of their freedom, are enemies of peace.”

“Even if they speak of peace, if they repress, control, imprison, and force people into exile, they are enemies of peace. For peace is not a mere balance of forces, nor is it synonymous with the tranquility of cemeteries. We must not grow accustomed to the false peace and deceptive normality that dictators seek to impose through fear and arms, solely to preserve their privileges,” he continued.

For the fourth consecutive year, the Nicaraguan dictatorship has banned thousands of processions and public events during Lent and Holy Week, permitting only a few on the streets and always under police surveillance.

Currently, 309 religious including bishops, priests, and nuns have been forced to leave the country, while the regime has confiscated at least 39 properties belonging to the Catholic Church and has banned the ordination of priests in several dioceses.

A call to be builders of peace

The prelate emphasized that “we, the disciples of Jesus, having received his peace are called to be builders of true peace: a peace that springs from justice, is lived out in freedom, and bears the fruit of reconciliation.”

The bishop expressed the hope “that the mercy of the Lord, welcomed into our hearts, may make us mature believers, earnest builders of peace in the world, and people capable of bending down with mercy [to heal] the wounds of our brothers and sisters.”

“Our lives may not be easier, but they will be fuller, more vibrant, and more filled with light and love,” he said.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

This is the edited text for the Homily of the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, 25 March 2026 at St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney.

Every now and then, a single sentence captures an historical moment. We think: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” “I have a dream.” “We shall fight on the beaches.” But the sentence or two that truly changed everything – dividing all time into before and after – was not spoken from the moon, a monument, or parliament, but in a small room, in an obscure town, two thousand years ago. “You will conceive the Son of the Most High God” said one; “Fiat: let it be done” said the other (Lk 1:26-38). 

Cur deus homo? Christians of every generation have asked, “Why did God become man?” Great theologians and pastors from the New Testament onwards gave a similar answer, “God became human in order to save us.” He had tried various things: the natural law written on our hearts; the revealed law of Moses; the provocations of the prophets; constant efforts to woo back the Chosen People when they strayed. When all else had failed, God did the unthinkable – He sent His Son. 

In his great work Cur deus homo? (1094–98) St Anselm of Canterbury argued that we owe God a great debt for our existence, our gifts, and our sinful misuse of both. Only a human being could justly pay the debt. But only God would be sufficient payment. So we needed a God-man to atone for us. 

St Thomas, some generations later, agreed. By offering Himself as man, God enabled man to make just satisfaction for our many failures. So God took upon Himself our sins and due punishment. But, Aquinas observes, it didn’t have to be that way. A simple divine thought, or act of will, or spoken word, and our debt would have been wiped clean. 

So we’re back to our question: why the Incarnation? Well, St Thomas thought, it is of the essence of goodness – and wisdom, and justice, and might – to communicate itself, and so the God who is goodness itself fittingly communicates Himself in the most perfect way. If we got a message saying “You’re saved” by SMS, or via some go-between, or even in cosmic skywriting, would we understand it, believe it, take it to heart? The best way to get a message across is directly, person to person. 

What is more, Aquinas said, there’s something ‘fitting’ about God uniting Himself to a human nature in order to renew our human nature. By this clearest revelation of His truth, He engages our trusting faith in His Word. By this greatest demonstration of His promises, He stirs in us a certain hope. By this fullest outpouring of His love, He evokes our love in return. By this most benevolent of acts, He calls us to good deeds. 

Thomas followed Augustine, who followed Athanasius, who followed Ireneus, in saying that “God became man so man might become God.” With a little more precision than his predecessors, he says that by uniting Himself to a human nature, Christ enables us to be united to the divine. By becoming one of us, He dignifies us and deters the Evil One. By so dignifying and protecting us, He helps us not to sin. And by so humbly diminishing Himself, He enables us to demonstrate similar virtue. In these ways Christ prepares us for adoption into His divine family. 

That’s about ten Thomist reasons for the Incarnation for you to think about today – there are plenty more. But I think Thomas’ big reason is especially persuasive: if we were told that the Creator of the universe loves us to bits, if we saw skywriting that said He forgives us no matter what we do if we return to Him, if we got a text message that we could be united to God forever, we wouldn’t believe it. It sounds too good to be true. So God became one of us, that we might see and hear and touch Him as He walked among us, so He might give Himself completely for us on the Cross, the altar, our tongues. What Isaiah foretold was at last fulfilled: the virgin conceived and bore a son, God-with-us (Isa 7:14; 8:10). 

My friends, it really happened this day. The angel Gabriel was sent to tell a young woman “You will conceive the Son of the Most High God” and to receive her consent “Fiat: let it be done”. At that moment the Creator became creature, the divine Word human flesh, and God sung you personally His love song Jesus. 

The post Archbishop Fisher OP homily: Fiat: Let it be done appeared first on The Catholic Weekly.

A historic parish in rural Wisconsin suffered major damages amid severe weather in the region on April 14 after strong storms and possibly a tornado destroyed much of the roof of the church building.

St. Joseph Catholic Church in East Bristol lost roughly half of its roof during the weather incident. Photos showed huge portions of the parish roof peeled off, exposing the churchʼs attic and rafters below.

The region has experienced multiple nights of severe storm outbreaks including severe winds, hail, and isolated tornadoes.

Local news reports said tornadoes had been reported in the East Bristol area just after midnight on April 14. The area was under a tornado warning at the time the parish roof was destroyed, though it wasnʼt clear if a tornado was itself responsible for the destruction.

The parish did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the damage. On the parishʼs Facebook page, meanwhile, a post claimed that a tornado had hit the church. Images showed destruction inside the church including insulation piled up near the altar and a light fixture in a pew.

A listing on the Wisconsin Historical Society website says the parish was completed in 1890 and designed by local Swiss-American architect Henry Messmer.

Built in the early Gothic Revival manner, the building has seen several additions in the roughly 130 years since it was built, including in 1965 and 2024.

The parish is part of the Diocese of Madison. A press release from the diocese  said the diocesan office of buildings, construction, and real estate was responding to the incident, along with the insurer Catholic Mutual Group.

“St. Joseph Church has served generations of Catholics in northeast Dane County, and we are heartbroken by the devastation,” the diocese said. “We ask for your prayers as we assess the damage.”

About 495 faith leaders and advocates are set to gather in Washington, D.C., to read the entire Bible aloud ahead of the nationʼs 250th anniversary.

America Reads the Bible is a national Scripture-reading event and movement led by Christians Engaged, a nonprofit organization committed “to discipling Americans on biblical worldview and their responsibilities as citizens to pray, vote, and engage for the well-being of our nation.”

From April 19–25, a diverse set of speakers including some Catholics will gather at the Museum of the Bible and read the King James Version of the Bible from beginning to end “as a spiritual celebration of our nation’s founding ideals and a call to rediscover the truth that still anchors us today,” event organizers reported.

The event is inspired by the Hebrew book of Ezra, where the public reading of Scripture sparked national repentance and renewal, according to a press release.

The event will kick off with an opening celebration on April 18 as leaders from more than 100 national ministries will begin to gather for the weeklong celebration. The recitation will begin on April 19 at the museum and will continue with speakers reading each day from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. to complete the whole Bible in a week.

Those interested in attending can register to join in person or can watch live online.

Catholic speakers

A wide array of speakers including actors, lawmakers, and advocates will participate in the anniversary celebration.

Event sponsors and organizers will speak over the week including Bunni Pounds, America Reads the Bible organizer and president of Christians Engaged, and Steve Green, chair and co-founder of the Museum of the Bible.

Catholic companies, set to serve as partners with America Reads the Bible, including Catholic Book Publishing, will also send speakers. Catholic author Allan Wright, whose books focus on discipleship, evangelization, and the Catholic faith, will read.

The event is also partnering with CatholicVote and will welcome its president, Kelsey Reinhardt, to read.

Catholic figures from the Trump administration will take the stage including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy. Among others, Christian administration members participating will also include Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins.

A number of lawmakers and government representatives will speak, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who is Catholic. Others lawmakers scheduled to read include U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Rep. Ashley Hinson of Iowa, and Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho.

Pro-life leaders will also read, including Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, and Kristie McCrary, adviser to the president. Pro-life advocate Abby Johnson, CEO and founder of ProLove Ministries and And Then There Were None, will read as well.

Entertainers and actors from various Christian backgrounds will read Scripture including Catholic actress and author Patricia Heaton, and Christian actress Candace Cameron Bure, America Reads the Bible national spokesperson. Other entertainers will include actors Dean Cain and David Hunt.

By Ann Boutros

Living on the other side of the Resurrection, the word “mission” has been used for two millennia to describe the continuation of the work Christ undertook during his earthly pilgrimage.  

What was Christ’s mission? To bring the reign of God to earth, to preach God’s love, and to reconcile us to the Father through his death and resurrection.  

If we proclaim ourselves witnesses to this, then the baton is now passed to us to continue this mission unto our dying breath. In a culture often proclaiming the opposite, the Christian is called to be a missionary of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  

Mission is not just a lofty idea involving sending the most qualified person into the poorest pocket of the world to preach Christ to an unbelieving people. Nor is it simply about converting multitudes. Mission goes deeper. Modern scholarship introduces us to three theologies of mission.

Prophetic dialogue

This is aimed at building relationships and encountering people where they are. It is about stepping into the other’s culture, ethnicity, struggles and brokenness without an agenda to change them. The success of the ‘prophecy’ depends on the value of the dialogue.  

Christians speak the Gospel when they speak words of encouragement, hope and comfort in times of trouble, in ways that are clear, challenging, attractive, intelligent and engaging, using language relevant to those with whom they are in dialogue.

Transforming or missionary discipleship

This recognises the power found on the margins and makes room for them to lead the church’s mission. Discipleship is a call to mission. “The pilgrim church is missionary by her very nature” (Ad Gentes, 2), and therefore all baptised Christians are called to participate in the mission of Christ.  

It challenges believers to be constantly open to the promptings and movings of the Holy Spirit, demanding a life steeped in prayer, contemplation, participation in liturgical life and theological reflection.  

Thirdly, it invites believers to have a firm commitment to transform the world by protecting creation, confronting injustice and standing in solidarity with those on the margins. 

Missiology of attraction

This is making Christ attractive to others. It concerns presenting the Gospel in a way that draws the attention of those who might otherwise view the church with indifference or even animosity. This is seen most eloquently in liturgy and hospitality.

The Eucharistic table becomes a place of welcome that attracts people to Christ. This is seen clearly in the Emmaus story. Christ meets the downcast disciples exactly where they are. He does not come in strength and power ready to convert their hearts. He encounters them on the road, in the midst of their hopelessness.  

He builds relationship and then explains all that is written about him in the Scriptures. This trust is imprinted so deeply on their hearts that they invite him with the words, “Stay with us” (Luke 24:29). The Risen Christ then draws the two disciples to the Eucharistic table. In reverence and awe, they discover the True Presence that was with them all along. 

The two who were leaving Jerusalem, going further and further away, now become missionaries to the apostles. Their openness to the promptings of God has now allowed them to carry this joyful news back to the apostles and beyond. 

The word ‘mission’ comes from the Latin missio, meaning “act of sending, a dispatching.” It is formed from the past verb mittere, which means “to release, let go, send, or throw.”  

As Christ was ‘dispatched’ and ‘sent’ from the Father to encounter our broken humanity, to proclaim and to attract others to him and then create more disciples to continue his saving mission; so too he does the same to us today. 

Mission needs to start with dialogue. It relies deeply on encounter. We must allow Christ to encounter us, to meet us in whatever valley we are in and whatever storm we so happen to be caught up in.  

He becomes attractive to us in the liturgy and at the Eucharistic table. Only then, can we in turn encounter others and make Christ attractive to them, forming new disciples and thus truly fulfilling Christ’s mandate before his glorious Ascension: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation” (Mark 16:15). 

The post Melto D’Moronoyo: What is mission? appeared first on The Catholic Weekly.

YAOUNDE, Cameroon — Pope Leo XIV was welcomed by the happy chatter of children on Wednesday at the Ngul Zamba Orphanage in Yaoundé, Cameroon, where he shared a message of Godʼs presence.

“Dear children, I know that many of you have endured difficult trials. Some of you have known the pain of loss through the death of parents or loved ones. Others have experienced fear, rejection, abandonment, deprivation, and uncertainty. Yet, you are called to a future that is greater than your wounds. You are bearers of a promise," the pope said April 15.

Run for 40 years by the religious congregation the Daughters of Mary, the Ngul Zamba Orphanage — whose name means “Strength of God” — provides food, lodging, and education to poor or abandoned children.

During the visit, the pope listened with delight to the various songs of welcome. He applauded with satisfaction, smiling in return at the many smiles of the children. He was also moved by the recitation of a verse from Psalm 27: “Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even should mothers forget, I will never forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before my eyes.”

Leo also listened to two testimonies from staff members, one of whom is a former student, who expressed his gratitude for all that the Daughters of Mary of Yaoundé did for him and concluded by reaffirming his commitment to promoting an “education for all,” without exclusion.

Pope Leo then addressed the children and staff: “I am very happy to visit this orphanage, which has become your home. Here, above all, it is our heavenly Father who welcomes you with love as his children. He wants to show you his tenderness and to draw you close to his heart. In his name, I too wish to do the same. Indeed, you form a true family here, with brothers and sisters who all share a similar history marked by suffering. In this family, your eldest brother is Jesus! It is living as brothers and sisters gathered around him that makes you strong, helps you to carry life’s burdens together, and allows you to experience true joy.”

“In a world often marked by indifference and selfishness, this home reminds us that we are the ones who need to look after our brothers and sisters, and that, in God’s great family, no one is ever a stranger or forgotten, no matter how small he or she may be.”

Turning directly to the children, the Holy Father acknowledged the weight of their experiences:

“Dear children, I know that many of you have endured difficult trials. Some of you have known the pain of loss through the death of parents or loved ones. Others have experienced fear, rejection, abandonment, deprivation, and uncertainty. Yet, you are called to a future that is greater than your wounds. You are bearers of a promise. For wherever there is misery, suffering, or injustice, God is present; and he knows each of your faces and is very close to you. The Gospel reminds us that Jesus cares especially for children like you, and he would often place them at the center of a gathering. Know that he looks upon each one of you today with that same affection.”

Finally, the pope addressed all those who care daily for the children of the orphanage:

“I would also like to greet with gratitude all those who take care of these children: the directors, educators, staff, volunteers, and, of course, the sisters. Your faithful dedication is a beautiful testimony of love. By caring for these children, you are getting a foretaste of the joy that the Lord has promised to those who serve the little ones. Your patience reflects the face of divine mercy. Through your patience and dedication, you offer much more than mere material support: You offer these children a presence, a listening ear, a family, and a future. Through you, God’s tenderness is made manifest — a faithful tenderness that does not falter in times of trial and never disappoints. I thank you for all that you do, and I encourage you to persevere courageously in this beautiful work that you have undertaken.”

He concluded by entrusting everyone to Mary’s care: “As I impart my heartfelt blessing, I entrust each of you to the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary, our mother. May she always watch over you, console you in moments of sadness, and help you to grow as true friends of her son, Jesus.”

This story was first published by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

The U.S. bishops’ chair for doctrine issued a clarification on April 15 reaffirming that Catholic just war theory sets strict moral limits on the use of military force, emphasizing that it is not a political endorsement of war but a moral framework.

The statement came as President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, the latter a Catholic, have taken issue with papal remarks claiming that “anyone who is a disciple of Christ” is “never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.”

Speaking at an April 14 event hosted by the conservative group Turning Point USA, Vance publicly criticized Pope Leo on his anti-war remarks, asking: “How can you say God is never on the side of those who wield the sword?”

Brooklyn Auxiliary Bishop James Massaʼs statement on the subject underscored that Christians are obliged to critically evaluate claims made in favor of armed conflict rather than assume moral legitimacy.

“For over a thousand years, the Catholic Church has taught just war theory and it is that long tradition the Holy Father carefully references in his comments on war," Massa said.

"A constant tenet of that thousand-year tradition is a nation can only legitimately take up the sword ‘in self-defense, once all peace efforts have failed’ (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2308)," Massa noted.

Massa continued: "That is, to be a just war it must be a defense against another who actively wages war, which is what the Holy Father actually said: ‘He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war.’

“When Pope Leo XIV speaks as supreme pastor of the universal Church, he is not merely offering opinions on theology, he is preaching the Gospel and exercising his ministry as the vicar of Christ. The consistent teaching of the Church is insistent that all people of goodwill must pray and work toward lasting peace while avoiding the evils and injustices that accompany all wars,” the bishop concluded.

Pope Leo XIV responded to Trump’s public criticism by saying he has “no fear of the Trump administration” and will continue to proclaim the Gospel.

At the Turning Point USA event, Vance — who is publishing a book about his conversion to the Catholic faith — said if Pope Leo was “going to opine on matters of theology,” his comments needed to be “anchored in the truth.”

“In the same way that it’s important for the vice president of the United States to be careful when I talk about matters of public policy, I think it’s very, very important for the pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology,” Vance said.

Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas, who was elected vice president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in November 2025, said in a statement on X on April 15 that “public officials may opine about theology, as is their right.”

But "the successor of Peter teaches. This is his office," Flores said. "If what he teaches doesn’t sound like what we want to hear, we should admit the likelihood that the problem is in what we want to hear and not in what he teaches.”

Vance: ‘Stick to matters of morality’

On Monday, Vance defended Trumpʼs decision to post on social media, and later delete, an AI-generated image that critics said depicted the president as Jesus Christ. Vance described it as a joke that people misunderstood.

“It would be best for the Vatican to stick to matters of morality, to stick to matters of what’s going on in the Catholic Church and let the president of the United States stick to dictating American public policy,” Vance said in an interview on Fox News.

At the Turning Point USA event, Vance said he likes it when the pope comments on public issues — including immigration, abortion, and war and peace — because it “invites a conversation,” even when there is disagreement.

This story was updated at 4:40 p.m. ET on April 15, 2026, with additional comments by Vance at the Turning Point USA event regarding inviting a conversation.

Bishop James Massa issues a statement in response to public comments regarding the Church’s teaching on war and peace

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YAOUNDE, Cameroon — “Peace, in fact, cannot be decreed: It must be embraced and lived," Pope Leo XIV emphasized on Wednesday in a meeting with government authorities, the diplomatic corps, and civil society in Cameroon — the second stop of his journey in Africa.

In a dense address, the pope expressed confidence in Cameroonʼs society, often described as “Africa in miniature” because of the richness of its lands, cultures, languages, and traditions. A country marked by conflict, even recent conflict, but whose civil society, the pope said, is ready to take responsibility for a rebirth, together with its young people.

Leo arrived in Cameroonʼs capital, Yaoundé, for the second leg of his 11-day papal journey to Africa. President Paul Biya, in power for nearly four decades, welcomed the pope. Yet beneath a political system that has endured, conflicts have also taken root. In particular, the so‑called Anglophone crisis remains in the background, a topic the pope will address when he visits Bamenda on Thursday.

The Anglophone crisis erupted in 2016 when Cameroon’s Anglophone minority launched a campaign calling for greater autonomy and was rejected by Biya. From that point onward, the situation deteriorated, resulting in deaths and displacement, culminating in a “declaration of independence” proclaimed in October 2017 in a territory referred to as Ambazonia. At the height of the crisis, mediation by the Holy See was also requested.

The Church remains present in Cameroon and carries out extensive work. Leo XIV recalled that he is the third pope to visit the country, following two visits by St. John Paul II and one by Pope Benedict XVI. In 1995, John Paul II chose Yaoundé, the country’s capital, to promulgate the postsynodal apostolic exhortation Ecclesia in Africa, which emerged from the Synod for Africa.

‘A hunger and thirst for justice’

This was the backdrop of Leoʼs address on April 15, which was not only as a message of peace but also an encouragement to Catholics in Cameroon to continue building the common good.

“I come among you as a shepherd and as a servant of dialogue, fraternity, and peace,” he said. “We are living, in fact, at a time when hopelessness is rampant and a sense of powerlessness tends to paralyze the renewal so deeply desired by peoples. There is such a hunger and thirst for justice! A thirst for getting involved, for a vision, for courageous choices and for peace!”

The pope expressed his desire to reach everyone, especially the young, “who are called to help shape a world that is more just, including in the political sphere.” He recalled the visits of his predecessors and asked where the country stands today, quoting St. Augustine: “Those who rule serve those whom they seem to command; for they rule not from a love of power but from a sense of the duty they owe to others — not because they are proud of authority, but because they love mercy.”

From this perspective, he said, serving one’s country means dedicating oneself, with clarity of mind and upright conscience, to the common good of all people, including both the majority and minorities, and their mutual harmony.

Leo acknowledged that Cameroon is facing complex difficulties. Violence and tensions in the northwest, southwest, and far north regions have caused profound suffering: lives lost, families displaced, children deprived of education. In response, he recalled his appeal to reject violence and war and to embrace peace founded on love and justice: “A peace that is unarmed, that is, not based on fear, threats or weapons, and at the same time disarming, because it is capable of resolving conflicts, opening hearts, and generating trust, empathy, and hope.”

“Peace cannot be reduced to a slogan: It must be embodied in a way of life that renounces all forms of violence, both personally and institutionally,” the pontiff continued. He forcefully reiterated that “the world is thirsting for peace… Enough of war, with all the pain it causes through death, destruction, and exile!”

“Peace, in fact, cannot be decreed: It must be embraced and lived. It is a gift from God, which unfolds through patient and collective effort. It is everyone’s responsibility, beginning with civil authorities,” he said. To govern, the pope added, means to love one’s own country and neighboring countries, applying the commandment “love your neighbor as yourself” even to international relations. Governing also means truly listening to citizens and valuing their ability to help build lasting solutions. In this context, he recalled Pope Francis’ call to move beyond “the idea of social policies being a policy for the poor, but never with the poor and never of the poor, much less part of a project which can bring people back together.”

Civil society, the pope stressed, must be recognized as a vital force for national cohesion. “Cameroon is ready for this transition!” Associations, women’s and youth organizations, trade unions, humanitarian nongovernmental organizations, and traditional and religious leaders, he said, play an irreplaceable role in social peace. They are often the first to intervene during tensions, to assist the displaced, support victims, open spaces for dialogue, and encourage local mediation. Their closeness to communities allows them to identify the root causes of conflict and appropriate solutions.

Leo expressed particular gratitude for women, who are frequently the first victims of prejudice and violence yet remain tireless peacemakers. Their commitment to education, mediation, and rebuilding the social fabric curbs corruption and abuse of power and requires that their voices be fully recognized in decision‑making processes.

Transparency in managing public resources and respect for the rule of law, he said, are essential to restoring trust.

‘Integral human development’

Addressing those in positions of authority, Leo XIV spoke of a twofold witness: collaboration among institutions in service of the people, especially the poor, and integrity of personal conduct. To allow peace and justice to flourish, he said, the chains of corruption must be broken and hearts freed from idolatrous pursuit of profit. True profit lies in integral human development.

Looking ahead, the Holy Father highlighted Cameroon’s human, cultural, and spiritual resources and emphasized that “young people represent the hope of the country and of the Church. Their energy and creativity are priceless treasures.” While unemployment and exclusion can fuel frustration and violence, investing in education, training, and entrepreneurship, he said, is a strategic path to peace and the only way to stem the loss of talent and counter the scourges of drugs, prostitution, and apathy.

Cameroonian youth, he added, possess a “deep spirituality that still resists the homogenizing influence of the market.”

Through its educational, health care, and charitable efforts, the Catholic Church in Cameroon wishes to continue serving all without distinction, collaborating with civil authorities and strengthening ties between Cameroonians worldwide and their communities of origin, the pope concluded.

This story was first published by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Pope Leo XIV visits the Ngul Zamba Orphanage in Yaoundé, and encourages children who have faced hardship to see themselves as part of a loving family, thanking caregivers for their dedicated service.

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Theologian, philosopher, and missionary priest Fr. Nico Syukur Dister, OFM, is remembered for his enduring contribution to theology, philosophy, and religious life in Indonesia.

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During his first official event in Cameroon, Pope Leo XIV calls for peace, justice, and a renewed commitment to the common good, highlighting that peace “must not be reduced to a slogan.”

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The Knights of Columbus issued a statement that affirms the Catholic fraternal organization’s solidarity with Pope Leo XIV as President Donald Trump criticized the Holy Father a second time on Truth Social.

“The Knights of Columbus has always stood in solidarity with the Holy Father, recognizing in him a spiritual father who calls the world not to division but to unity, not to conflict but to peace,” Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly said in the statement.

“In this moment, we reaffirm that commitment with clarity and conviction,” he said.

Trump escalated his criticism of the Holy Father late Tuesday evening in a second post on Truth Social, which criticized the pontiff’s staunch opposition to war.

Whether one agrees or disagrees with Leo’s policy views, Kelly said, “the Holy Father’s prophetic voice deserves to be heard with respect and engaged seriously.”

“Pope Leo XIV has consistently called for peace, dialogue, and restraint in a world marked by war and suffering,” he said. “The Holy Father’s words are not political talking points — they are reflections of the Gospel itself.”

Kelly noted that many Catholics and others “have been deeply disappointed by the disparaging comments directed at Pope Leo XIV” by Trump, and that Leo “is not a politician — he is the vicar of Christ, entrusted with proclaiming the Gospel and shepherding souls.”

In his statement, Kelly acknowledged that faithful Catholics can hold differing views on foreign policy and that Catholics should engage in the public square. He said nations can safeguard security “in accordance with the demands of justice and the pursuit of peace.”

“The Church does not ask Catholics to withdraw from civic life but to engage with and elevate it — bringing to our civic dialogue the light of truth, respect for the dignity of every human person, and a steadfast concern for the common good," he said.

Kelly also encouraged prayers for the pope, the president, and other politicians.

“As Knights, we are called to be men of unity, as followers of Christ and patriotic citizens,” he said. “I encourage all Knights of Columbus to pray for the Holy Father, to pray for civic leaders, and to pray for peace and those working to achieve it.”

“And let us recommit ourselves to charity in our public discourse,” he added. “May we be known not for echoing the divisions of our time, but for healing them. In a moment of tension, the path forward is not louder conflict but deeper fidelity — to truth, to charity, and to the Gospel.”

Trump goes after Leo again

Trumpʼs social media post said: “Will someone please tell Pope Leo that Iran has killed at least 42,000 innocent, completely unarmed, protesters in the last two months, and that for Iran to have a nuclear bomb is absolutely unacceptable."

During the protests, Leo did call for peace, saying in January that “ongoing tensions [in Iran and Syria] continue to claim many lives.”

“I hope and pray that dialogue and peace may be patiently nurtured in pursuit of the common good of the whole of society,” he said at the time.

Leo has also strongly opposed nuclear weapons, saying in June 2025: “The further proliferation of nuclear weapons in the Middle East, as well as this escalation of violence, imperils the fragile stability remaining in the region.”

While Trump cited numbers exceeding 40,000 people, estimates about the number of people killed in anti-regime protests and unrest in Iran varies a lot, ranging from several thousand to more than 30,000. Most protesters were unarmed, but Iran’s government claims some were armed and killed about 500 security personnel. Trump said the United States tried to arm the protesters, but those guns did not get to the right people.

Vance, bishops offer more comments

Catholic bishops and leaders have responded to Trump’s attack on Pope Leo, and elected officials also have made statements.

Archbishop Alexander Sample of Portland, Oregon, said he is deeply concerned and troubled by Trump’s social media rhetoric, especially during Holy Week and Easter, which he says falls short of the moral standard expected of both the presidency and a professed Christian. The archbishop criticized Trump’s attacks on Pope Leo, saying the pope’s calls for peace and dialogue arise from his pastoral mission, not political ideology.

Sample said the Church’s role is to proclaim peace, human dignity, and the Gospel, citing Jesus’ teaching: “Blessed are the peacemakers.”

The Ancient Order of Hibernians condemned attacks and mockery directed at Pope Leo XIV and the papacy, affirming that respect for the Holy Father is essential to Catholic faith.

Vice President JD Vance, a convert to Catholicism, said at a Turning Point USA event that Pope Leo XIV should “be careful when he talks about matters of theology.”

“One of the issues here is that if youʼre going to opine on matters of theology, youʼve got to be careful,” he said. “Youʼve got to make sure itʼs anchored in the truth.”

Republican U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana said: “Any religious leader can say anything they want, but obviously, if you wade into political waters, I think you should expect some political response.”

Pope Leo XIV has responded to Trump’s public criticism by saying he has “no fear of the Trump administration” and will continue to speak out boldly with the message of the Gospel.