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Pope Leo XIV has appointed Father Nick Argel Vaquilar as the new bishop of Urdaneta in the Philippines on the very day of Vaquilarʼs 56th birthday and two days before the anniversary of his priestly ordination.

“I know that I am not capable of this big responsibility,” Vaquilar said. "But being chosen for this big responsibility, I am hoping for all the help from God, for I know he will guide me as a pastor,” the bishop-designate said after David William Antonio, archbishop of Nueva Segovia — the jurisdiction in which Vaquilar had served until now — announced his appointment.

“Your presence is a blessing, and we look forward to journeying together in faith, hope, and service. Thank you for saying ‘yes’ to this new ministry. The local Church of Urdaneta is blessed to have you as our new shepherd,” the Diocese of Urdaneta posted on Facebook.

Vaquilar succeeds Bishop Jacinto A. José, who led the diocese for over 20 years and whose resignation the pope accepted after the prelate reached the age of 75, the retirement age for bishops in the Catholic Church.

Who is the new bishop of Urdaneta?

Born on May 3, 1970, in the town of Cabugao in Ilocos Sur province, Vaquilar studied philosophy at the San Pablo University Seminary in Baguio and theology at the Immaculate Conception School of Theology in Vigan. He earned a licentiate in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and a doctorate in biblical theology from the Loyola School of Theology in Quezon City.

He was ordained a priest on May 5, 1997, for the Archdiocese of Nueva Segovia.

He has held the following positions, among others: parochial vicar of the Metropolitan Cathedral of St. Paul in Vigan (1997–2000, 2004); professor and resident formator at the Immaculate Conception School of Theology in Vigan (2000–2001, 2005–2009); and rector of the Immaculate Conception School of Theology in Vigan (2009–2011, and subsequently, since 2015).

He has also served as parish priest at St. Nicholas of Tolentine in Sinait (2013–2014) and as director of the Archdiocesan Biblical Apostolate since 2018.

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.

Every Sunday, the police arrive to photograph him. He must report to authorities every time he leaves his parish and about every liturgical service in which he participates. If he speaks of any social issue during a homily, he risks one of two things: imprisonment or exile.

Speaking anonymously to ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, a priest in active service in Nicaragua revealed the exact mechanisms by which the dictatorship of President Daniel Ortega and his wife and vice president, Rosario Murillo, control, surveil, and silence the Catholic Church in the country.

The Nicaraguan dictatorship intensified its persecution of the Church in 2018 after bishops and priests offered to mediate between the regime and civil society in the wake of popular protests. Documented attacks against Catholics in the country now total over 1,030, and 149 priests have been expelled or exiled.

The priest said the population “has grown accustomed to the situation and no longer says anything. I sense a calm atmosphere, yet the restrictions, which are always present, persist, because there is no freedom.”

Every Sunday, 'the police arrive to take my photograph’

Speaking about how the police monitor priests and bishops, the priest recounted: “Whenever there are liturgical services, we have to report what they are and where they are being held; we have to report when we leave our parish boundaries, and we have to state how long we intend to remain at any location outside of it.”

“And the police arrive to take my photograph, always, every Sunday. It’s a way of verifying that we are where we said we would be. Police superiors require their officers to provide evidence of the visits they conduct, and thatʼs how they maintain control,” he added.

“If you fail to give notice,” the priest continued, “sometimes nothing happens; but other times when they realize that youʼre outside the parish and didn’t give prior notice, they make a call. There have been times when it simply slipped my mind to let them know.”

Regarding the bishops, he said he believes that “yes, they are monitored, they are kept under surveillance. And the police are constantly asking about this or that meeting: where it’s going to take place and whether the bishop will be there.” It also appears the police do in fact “have some person along with his vehicle assigned to” follow the bishops.

Political or social issues avoided in homilies

The priest explained that no priest can speak about social or political topics; otherwise, he risks being considered an opponent to the regime and it could cost him one of two things: “imprisonment or exile.”

“If we speak about a social problem or something currently taking place, they may view us as opponents, as if we were delivering a speech inciting rebellion. And so, they keep watch. They listen whether in person or via broadcasts, and they record us and file reports,” he said.

Any criticism of the dictatorship, he added, “they interpret as political discourse or an act of insurrection. And so that can have consequences.”

The priest recounted that whenever he learns of a fellow priest being imprisoned, there is “total silence. You can’t visit them; you can’t speak with them.”

Pressure on the bishops

ACI Prensa asked the priest why the bishops of Nicaragua do not typically speak about the situation in the country or criticize the dictatorship.

“First, perhaps, out of fear of being expelled. I believe thatʼs the primary factor. And there is the fear of leaving a large population of believers [without a bishop] as happened in Matagalpa, Estelí, or Jinotega” where the bishops are in exile, the priest noted.

The four dioceses currently without a bishop present in the country are Jinotega, whose bishop, Carlos Herrera, serves as president of the bishops' conference; Siuna, Matagalpa, and Estelí. The latter two are headed by Bishop Rolando Álvarez, who was exiled to Rome in January 2024.

The priest noted that “in the dioceses where the bishops are absent, there are no priestly ordinations, primarily because the bishops are not there.”

“They [the police] are specifically keeping those dioceses under surveillance,” he added, explaining that a bishop from another diocese is also not permitted to ordain priests who fall outside his own jurisdiction.

In a diocese where the bishop is still present, he continued, “ordinations do take place, but they are conducted with great prudence and caution; they are not given much publicity or promoted in the media, so as to avoid any difficulties.”

The priest noted that there has been a decline in the number of priests due to expulsions, and that the most affected diocese is Matagalpa, with nearly half of its clergy now outside the country — a reprisal against Álvarez, who “in his homilies never sugarcoated” the situation in Nicaragua.

Processions banned in Nicaragua

The priest said that while most processions are banned, “there are some, traditionally massive in scale, that have been permitted,” such as those for St. Jerome or the Virgin of Mercy; “but more for their cultural and tourism value and not because it might be an opening toward the faith which they [the police] have otherwise closed.”

The priest recalled when he requested permission from the police to hold a procession and an officer told him that they could imprison him if he proceeded with it.

How does the Church get by day to day?

In 2023, the dictatorship banned the inflow of foreign funds to the Catholic Church after accusing it of “money laundering,” an accusation deemed “ridiculous” at the time by Félix Maradiaga, president of the Freedom for Nicaragua Foundation, while simultaneously freezing the bank accounts of the country’s parishes and dioceses in an attempt to further curtail their activities.

“There are no [parish] vehicles, and it’s impossible to purchase them using the offertory funds because the people are poor. So I have to go around asking people to give me a ride,” he recounted.

Among the many institutions whose legal status was revoked by the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship — meaning they cease to function and their assets are transferred to the regime — is Caritas Nicaragua, the charitable arm of the Catholic Church, which was dissolved by the dictatorship in March 2023.

“We no longer have access to Caritas or foreign aid, because all of that has been banned. Consequently, here, assistance is provided by the population itself amid their poverty,” the priest emphasized.

Without the assistance of Caritas, “it’s the community itself that takes it upon itself to help us. We rely on divine providence, and thatʼs how we carry on.”

“If we survive, it’s because of the help of the people themselves. The people pay for the electricity and the water. These costs are not paid with the collection or offerings. The same goes for food; the people pitch in to help me. Without that, it would not be sustainable,” he explained.

“We collaborate with the people; we help, we deliver food, provisions to certain people. I haven’t had any issues with the police in that regard, but I do it publicly; I don’t do it in secret,” he explained.

According to an April World Bank report, 2.8 million people in Nicaragua live in poverty.

Are there vocations in Nicaragua?

The Nicaraguan priest highlighted that, despite everything, there still are vocations. “It’s true that there was a decline in vocations after 2018. There was significant attrition and a decrease in numbers, and many young people left the country; however, vocations are currently on the rise.”

The year 2018 marked a turning point in the persecution against the Church. Protests against the dictatorship prompted the regime to intensify its multifaceted attacks against Catholics. Nicaraguan lawyer and activist Martha Patricia Molina, author of the report ”Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church,” provides a detailed account of these attacks.

“Today, vocations are once again beginning to resurge in the seminaries. Before last year there were few, but today the number of seminarians has already risen,” the priest added.

Despite the tribulations, the Church in Nicaragua ‘walks with hope’

The priest said “a characteristic of Nicaraguans is their love for the pope, because he [represents human] dignity and the Church, it’s something that characterizes the Nicaraguan Catholic.”

Bolstered by the pope’s encouragement expressed to the exiled Nicaraguan bishops in August 2025 and despite all the difficulties facing Nicaragua, the priest said there are reasons for hope, such as those newly baptized at Easter.

“I believe that the Church in Nicaragua is a suffering Church; yet, above all that suffering, we press onward. We are spurred on and find hope in the knowledge of what Easter has given us: the resurrection of Christ, that Christ is alive, that Christ is with us, and that he walks in our midst,” he said.

“Even amid these tribulations,” he affirmed, “the Church in Nicaragua moves forward with confidence; it moves forward with hope. We’re not sorrowful; we are joyful. We simply hope to receive the solidarity and attention of the world, and that, one day, we may be able to live out our faith in complete freedom.”

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.

Bishop Kevin Doran of the Diocese of Achonry in Ireland delivered a homily at the Newman University Church in Dublin on the occasion of the May 4 March for Life in Dublin organized by the Pro Life Campaign.

In his homily, Doran addressed the relationship between science, faith, and human dignity, centering his message on the truth regarding the human embryo and the child in the mother’s womb.

He reminded the congregation that there is no conflict between the truth of science and the truth of faith, and clarified that the starting point of faith “is the revealed word of God, which, for us Christians, comes to its completeness in the person and teaching of Jesus.”

Along these lines, he emphasized that scientific advancements have made it possible to confirm that the genetic identity of a new individual “is already established once fertilization has occurred,” noting that “what happens after that is an amazing process of growth and development.”

Based on this, the theologian and bioethicist further stated that anyone who denies the essential continuity between the embryo and the baby born nine months later “is flying in the face of truth.”

Referencing Greek philosophers such as Aristotle, Socrates, and Plato, he noted that “in every living thing there must be a first principle of life which explained and governed all its action.”

“Human action,” he continued, “includes complex reasoning and the formation of concepts, which are beyond the limits of the material world.”

This, according to Doran, led many of these thinkers to conclude “that the first principle of life in human beings must be a spiritual soul.”

The bishop pointed out that “once there is a living body, even one as small as an embryo, there must be a soul which explains and directs all its growth and development and its action throughout the cycle of life.”

He also emphasized that “everything in the universe is not only created by God but finds its purpose and meaning in an order established by God,” underscoring that “there is an intelligent plan, and we mess with nature at our peril.”

Abortion not only kills babies but also wounds women

In light of these considerations, the bishop noted that abortion “not only kills babies, it also wounds women in the depth of their being” and does “untold moral and spiritual damage to all who promote it or who participate in it, precisely because it flies in the face of truth.”

In connection with the introduction of a new bill to expand the availability of abortion in the country, he questioned the reasons why some legislators seem determined “to ignore the truth or to deny it entirely.”

In this regard, he appealed to the responsibility of Catholics to know the Gospel of Life “in all its dimensions, and to confidently bear witness to it, both in our private lives and in the public space.”

“We need to find new ways of offering life-affirming support to women who are in crisis during pregnancy or after the birth of a child,” he emphasized.

Doran recalled the invitation of Pope Leo XIV: “The Church is called to reach all peoples, not by imposing itself but by bearing witness to the truth in charity.”

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.

As he departs from Castel Gandolfo, Pope Leo XIV reaffirms that the Church has consistently spoken out against nuclear weapons, adding that anyone who wishes to criticize him should do so based on truth.

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CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy — Pope Leo XIV said violence must always be a last resort and rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s claim that he supports Iran having a nuclear weapon.

The American president has repeatedly said he doesn’t want a pope who thinks Iran should have a nuclear weapon, even though the pope has never endorsed that view and has consistently spoken against nuclear arms.

Pope Leo XIV said May 5: “I have already spoken from the very first moment of being elected, and now we are close to the anniversary. I said, ‘Peace be with you,’ and the Church’s mission is to preach the Gospel, to preach peace. If someone wants to criticize me for proclaiming the Gospel, let them do so truthfully.”

“The Church has spoken for years against all nuclear weapons, so there is no doubt there. And so I simply hope to be listened to for the value of God’s words,” Leo said to the press outside the papal villa of Castel Gandolfo before returning to Rome after a daylong stay there, two days before a scheduled meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Trump said May 4 on the "The Hugh Hewitt Show": “The pope would rather talk about the fact that it’s OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon. I don’t think that’s very good. I think he’s endangering a lot of Catholics and a lot of people, but I guess if it’s up to the pope, he thinks it’s just fine for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”

“I donʼt want a pope who thinks itʼs OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on April 12.

Leo has never said that Iran should have nuclear weapons, and he has spoken specifically against nuclear weapons:

• “May the nuclear threat never again dictate the future of humanity," he said in a March 5 video message.
• In June 2025, he called for a world free from nuclear threat in appealing for peace between Iran and Israel.

Pope Leo answered an EWTN reporter’s question about whether his statement that “God does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war” applies to all who take up arms, even in self-defense, or only to unjust aggressors.

Self-defense has always been allowed by the Church, Pope Leo XIV said.

“To talk about just war today, itʼs a very complex problem. You have to analyze it on many levels, but ever since the entrance into the nuclear age, the whole concept of war has to be reevaluated with terms today,” Leo said.

“I always believe that itʼs much better to enter into dialogue than to look for arms and to support the arms industry, which gains billions and billions of dollars each year, instead of sitting down at the table solving our problems and using money to solve humanitarian issues, hunger in the world, et cetera,” he said.

For a war to be justified, according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, it must be waged to fight against a grave evil, the damage caused by waging the war cannot be graver than the evil it is meant to eliminate, there must be a serious prospect of success, and all alternatives to war must have already been tried. The decision to go to war must be made by a lawful authority responsible for the common good. All criteria must be met to qualify as a just war.

Meeting with Rubio

The pope’s meeting with Rubio this week follows a period of tension between the Holy See and the Trump administration. In April, Trump attacked the pontiff on social media, calling him “weak on crime and terrible for foreign policy” in response to the pontiffʼs appeals for peace amid the U.S.-Israel war on Iran. The pope told reporters he “perhaps” may comment on the meeting with Rubio afterward.

Brian Burch, U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, was asked May 5 about the state of the U.S.-Vatican relationship.

“I donʼt accept the idea that somehow thereʼs some deep rift,” Burch said. “I think nations have disagreements and I think one of the ways that you work through those is, as the Holy See says, is through fraternity and authentic dialogue. I think the secretary is coming here in that spirit, to have a frank conversation about U.S. policy, to engage in dialogue, to better understand each other and to work through — if there are differences — certainly to talk through that.”

The meeting will focus on “Middle East policy and our efforts there to bring about a more peaceful world,” Burch said, areas of “deep cooperation, shared interests, and in many ways, I think, shared goals.”

Burch said Rubioʼs visit “speaks to our deep desire to engage in exactly what the Holy See has called for: fraternity and authentic dialogue.”

The Church’s stance toward war is that it must be avoided. The Church has long held concerns about war to be a moral subject, with St. Augustine writing extensively about it in the early fifth century and popes and theologians both commenting on just war doctrine generally and speaking out about specific wars for centuries.

Popes seldom issue blanket rulings but Pope Benedict XV made clear World War I lacked moral legitimacy given its scale, civilian toll, and lack of proportionate ends. Pope John Paul II warned the Gulf War did not meet just war criteria. And the Vatican formally stated in 2003 that the invasion of Iraq failed just‑war standards.

In his Easter Sunday urbi et orbi message, Leo asked people of goodwill to search always for peace and not violence. He again asked people April 7 “to reject war, especially a war which many people have said is an unjust war, which is continuing to escalate and is not resolving anything,” the pope said. “We have a worldwide economic crisis, energy crisis, situation in the Middle East of great instability, which is only provoking more hatred throughout the world.”

Pope Leo XIV in his Easter homily called for peace throughout the world, urging Christians to carry the hope of the Resurrection into a world wounded by war, violence, and injustice.

Javier Romero and Brian Schumacher contributed to this story.

Hezbollah supporters have reportedly used AI-generated manipulated images to target Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rai, the Maronite patriarch of Antioch and All the East.

The patriarch described the digital attack on him as “a war of words, not freedom of opinion, but a worrying decline in the standards of language and values, and a violation of human dignity that no one has the right to infringe upon, regardless of its source or form.”

The digital attack involved the circulation of altered images portraying the patriarch in mocking and degrading ways.

Jowelle M. Howayeck, a Lebanese civic activist and 2022 parliamentary candidate, argued that the campaign is neither spontaneous nor ambiguous in its intent. “It is both intimidation and sectarian provocation, and it is deliberate,” she said.

For Howayeck, the timing is not accidental. She links the campaign to a broader political context in which Hezbollah is “losing political ground,” prompting what she describes as a predictable shift in strategy: “Divert attention from the core issue and construct a new confrontation that can be framed as a symbolic victory.”

In her view, “this is not political engagement. It is crisis management through fear, distraction, and division.”

The campaign, she added, also reflects a deepening rupture between Hezbollah and the Christian community.

Digital confrontations of this kind are not new in Lebanon’s political landscape, but they carry particular risks in a country built on a fragile and strained social contract.

The patriarch himself has been targeted before "because the patriarch represents a form of authority that cannot be coerced or absorbed: moral legitimacy anchored in national identity," Howayeck said. "Whenever his positions align with state sovereignty, they expose a structural contradiction within the opposing project.”

In southern Lebanon, the village of Yaroun has drawn widespread attention after images and video circulated showing the demolition, allegedly by Israeli forces, of a monastery and Catholic school belonging to the Salvatorian Sisters.

Yarounʼs mayor, Adib Ajaka, rejected claims by the Israeli army that it did not know the buildings were religious places, and the Council of Melkite Greek Catholic Bishops in Lebanon urged the Lebanese government and the United Nations “to protect the property of civilians and religious institutions, citing in particular the village of Yaroun,” according to the Associated Press.

Speaking to ACI MENA, the Arabic-language sister service of EWTN News, Ajaka clarified that some media outlets have been recirculating images of a destroyed church as if they were from the latest incident, but the church itself had already been targeted multiple times since 2024. He stressed that the most recent incident concerns the demolition of the monastery and the school.

Responding to the Israeli army’s claim that “there were no indications that it was a religious building,” Ajaqa rejected the statement as unconvincing, noting that the site was clearly identifiable, bearing a cross and a statue of the Virgin Mary.

He also pointed out that the church had been targeted previously and that footage from 2024 showed the deliberate destruction of a statue of St. George.

Ajaka said images published by Israel showing the diocese and a nearby clinic were used to suggest that the monastery had not been destroyed, but in reality they referred to a separate building housing a clinic run by the Order of Malta. He suggested that the presence of the organization’s flag may have contributed to it being spared so far.

According to Ajaka, the bulldozing operations took place after the ceasefire came into effect. At first, residents did not grasp the scale of what was happening, as they remained in contact with nearby towns such as Rmeish and Ain Ebel, where no strikes or shelling had been reported from Yaroun. This created the impression that the village had not been directly targeted. It later became clear, however, that what had taken place was not bombardment but the widespread bulldozing of homes.

Yaroun is home to about 60 Melkite Catholic families — all of whom fled at the outbreak of the war in 2024. Seventeen families returned during the initial ceasefire period, but many others were unable to do so due to the destruction of their homes. Today, residents remain unable to return, scattered between rented accommodations, monasteries, and relatives’ homes, while some have relocated to nearby Christian villages in the south.

Ajaka noted that assistance to residents has so far been limited, emphasizing that the most urgent need is direct financial support to help cover rent. At the same time, he expressed gratitude for the support provided by the Vatican and for the continued efforts of the apostolic nuncio through regular visits and follow-up on the situation of displaced families.

He also recalled that during the pope’s visit to Lebanon in December 2025, a historic stone from the village church dating back to 1872, engraved with an image of St. George, was presented to him in the hope of drawing attention to Yaroun and its people.

Today, the fate of this stone remains unknown, as the church has been destroyed and residents are unable to return to see what remains. Ajaka stressed that the destroyed homes of the Catholic families there are over a century old and are purely civilian properties.

Church vandalism across Lebanon

The alleged demolitions in Yaroun come amid recent and varied incidents of church vandalism in Lebanon, with multiple places of worship targeted and their contents deliberately damaged.

Among them, the Church of Mar Shalita in Qobeiyat was stormed and vandalized. And in Ajaltoun, the Church of Our Lady was targeted, with intruders stealing items, destroying furniture, and leaving bullets scattered on the floor.

Taken together, these incidents reflect a broader climate in which Lebanese Christians increasingly feel under pressure, facing different forms of intimidation and attack from multiple actors.

This story was first published by ACI MENA, the Arabic-language sister service of EWTN News, and has been adapted by EWTN News English.

A conference entitled “Eugenio Pacelli – Pius XII Between the City of God and the City of Man” took place in Rome this week under the presidency of Cardinal Dominique Mamberti. Participants included high-level academics and historians, and Andrea Tornielli, Editorial Director of Vatican News. We bring you a synthesis of his presentation.

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Can a religious congregation survive after its founder turns out to have been a sexual abuser and a liar who lived a double life for years? The Legionaries of Christ have spent 20 years answering that question with actions.

They were pioneers in publishing the cases of their abusive priests — an unprecedented step in consecrated life — and in submitting 80 years of a dark history to public scrutiny. Today, they are an ecclesial reference point for transparency. Now, Father Carlos Gutiérrez López, 51, the new general director elected in February, speaks with ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, about the road that still lies ahead.

It is a path of expiation that began in 2006 but reached a turning point in 2019 with the publication of the “1941–2019 Report,” the first of its kind to include all cases from the congregation’s founding to the present day and throughout the world. Since then, it has been updated each year through the “Truth, Justice, and Healing” reports.

“Since we began facing this reality, although it was very painful, it also opened our eyes: There was a lot of work to do,” Gutiérrez López said. “In recent years we have been working hard to meet standards, following the documents issued by the Church, collaborating with canonical and civil authorities. We have been putting a certain order in place so we can attend to and respond to the needs of victims and provide comprehensive care in different areas.”

His priestly vocation, marked by the wound left by Maciel

His own vocational story was marked by the scandal that shook the congregation because of its founder, Mexican priest Marcial Maciel, who was responsible for extremely serious sexual abuse. Gutiérrez López was ordained a priest in 2009, just as the magnitude of Maciel’s crimes was coming to light: Maciel had sexually abused dozens of minors over several decades and had lived, as the Vatican confirmed in 2010, “a life devoid of scruples and genuine religious sentiment.”

“It was definitely something very strong, something that left all of us very perplexed, frightened, and also disillusioned,” he said in an interview with ACI Prensa. “And that meant for me a very deep process of reflection in which I had to ask why I was giving my life to God and also the question: Why remain here?”

Maciel died in 2008 without acknowledging his crimes or asking for forgiveness, even though a Vatican investigative commission had already revealed his criminal activity beyond any doubt.

After the scandal, Gutiérrez López explained, the figure of the founder ceased to be a reference point: “Definitely, the founder is no longer a spiritual reference point, a moral reference point for us. And for me, that reference point, I saw, had always been Our Lord Jesus Christ, whom we seek to imitate and with whom we also seek to have that personal relationship.”

Benedict XVI saw the light that was in them

Despite all the evil committed by the founder, Benedict XVI never failed to recognize in the Legionaries of Christ “a healthy community” made up of “young people who want to serve the faith with enthusiasm,” as the pontiff himself emphasized in the book-length interview with Peter Seewald “Light of the World.”

From the beginning, the Vatican established that the congregation’s review should be built around three fundamental axes: the redefinition of its charism or spirituality; the review of the exercise of authority — whose abusive control of consciences allowed Maciel to live a double life for years — and the guarantee of adequate formation for seminarians and priests. In addition, to complete the long process of purification, a constant dialogue was opened with victims inside and outside the Legion.

“The Church accompanied us throughout a whole process of renewal. We reviewed constitutions, we reviewed many of the norms we had been living in the congregation, the style of apostolate we carried out — in short, it was an entire review that lasted many years,” Gutiérrez López said.

For many Legionary seminarians and priests, the support of the Church was decisive; like a “mother,” the Church “showed the way,” he emphasized.

“Seeing how the Legion was responding, I said: Well, I also want to help the Church with my priesthood to move this congregation forward, because the congregation can also contribute and give much to the Church in evangelization. In the end, we are here to serve God Our Lord, in the Church, and in this call that he made to me. As I have gone step by step, I have felt very happy, and that has also been my experience,” he said.

First meeting with Pope Leo XIV

During the audience the Legionaries had with Pope Leo XIV in February, the pontiff returned to several key points of the deep renewal they have carried out in fidelity to the Church. For example, he emphasized to them that authority in the Church must be lived as fraternal and spiritual service, not as a form of domination.

For the Mexican priest, this is a demanding but profoundly evangelical ideal.

“Yes, I really liked that part of the audience,” Gutiérrez López said.

He especially highlighted the moment when the pope invited the Legionaries to approach people “with a respectful and compassionate gaze,” aware that every encounter means entering “a sacred space.”

Drawing on his own experience as a superior and as territorial director in northern Mexico and Colombia, Gutiérrez López said he has always been clear that authority is above all a service: “For my brothers, I am offering them a service. … What they share with me is something sacred, and I have to respect that sacredness,” he said.

Gutiérrez López is not naive. He knows well that many people may wonder how it is possible to separate the deplorable actions of the founder, who was responsible for so many crimes, from the charism that the Legionaries of Christ embody today.

“It is a valid question,” he said.

In this regard, he noted that it was the Church herself that “from the beginning,” when she asked the Legionaries to “review our constitutions,” placed the fundamental question before them: “What is your charism? What is the charism and the contribution that the Legion makes?”

“The charism, I believe, is something we have been discovering, and it is nothing other than forming apostles to transmit the love of Christ, to form apostles and also send them to evangelize the world and help the Church in this evangelization,” he said.

According to the congregation’s statistics, updated as of Dec. 31, 2025, the Legionaries of Christ have 1,327 members worldwide, including 52 religious with perpetual vows and 151 with temporary vows.

Despite the wounds of the past, they continue to attract vocations: Currently, 250 minor seminarians are being formed in vocational centers, reflecting the continued weight of initial formation within the congregation.

The Legionaries of Christ belong to Regnum Christi, which also includes the Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi, with 479 consecrated women in 53 communities around the world; the Lay Consecrated Men of Regnum Christi, with 47 lay consecrated men in eight communities; and lay members: 21,712 lay young people and adults older than 16 and 14,353 lay members younger than 16.

In Regnum Christi’s educational work — 139 schools and 14 universities — 153,219 students are being educated.

The new general director explained that one of the keys to eradicating abuse from within the congregation has been swiftly applying standards for the protection of minors and vulnerable adults in the 23 countries where it is present.

“In recent years we have been very strict in applying these standards and in perfecting them so they can be lived well. In each of the countries where we are working, we have sought to have the necessary teams that can respond, made up of professionals. These are things that we priests cannot do alone. We need specialists — psychologists, lawyers, and so on — to help us truly be very serious in complying with these standards,” he said.

An engineer-priest with broad international experience

Affable and approachable, Gutiérrez López is used to moving in international settings. He studied philosophy and theology at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum as well as industrial and systems engineering at the Monterrey Institute of Technology. He also holds a master’s degree in psychology from Divine Mercy University in the United States.

He has carried out his ministry in Chile, Italy, Colombia, Venezuela, and Mexico.

“It has been a great richness to have that experience, to be in contact with different cultures, to know the needs of each country, to learn to listen, to adapt to what a society and a culture are like, to understand them in order to offer and bring them the message that leads to the Church, which is knowing Christ and living one’s faith,” he said.

“I believe that has also been personally enriching, now that my Legionary brothers have elected me to this role, so that I can respond and accompany the different territories,” he added.

Until his election as general director, he served as territorial director of northern Mexico, a region deeply wounded by violence, poverty, organized crime, and migration flows toward the United States. The Legionaries also try to be a balm for migrants — many of them deportees — amid their suffering.

“The whole situation of migrants and organized crime truly causes suffering for many families affected by this reality. What we seek, above all, is to form young people and families, to instill values in them, precisely so they can begin to change their social environment,” he said.

In this context, he explained that alongside the private schools the congregation operates in cities in northern Mexico, there are also the Mano Amiga schools, intended for families with limited resources and supported through subsidies and scholarships.

The goal is to offer these children an education that will allow them to enter a profession and pursue university studies — “a way to change the destiny of their lives, open horizons for them, and, above all, form them in values so they can transform their environment.”

With his election at the most recent general chapter, the Legionaries of Christ have entrusted Gutiérrez López with the task of continuing the congregation’s process of renewal and strengthening its evangelizing service, with special attention to the existential peripheries.

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.

At least five people were killed and 37 others injured in renewed Russian strikes on Ukraine, officials said, as tensions escalated further with what Moscow authorities described as a Ukrainian drone attack on a residential building in the Russian capital.

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The U.S. military says it is escorting stranded cargo ships through the Strait of Hormuz under President Donald Trump’s new initiative, “Project Freedom,” as the ceasefire between the US and Iran remains fragile.

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LAHORE, Pakistan — Catholic groups have joined victims of one of Pakistanʼs deadliest church attacks in voicing concern over delayed compensation, even as authorities begin disbursing aid more than 12 years later in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The reactions followed a May 2 ceremony by the provincial Department of Endowments, Hajj, Religious and Minority Affairs, which distributed checks to 37 victims from minority communities affected by terrorism in the province bordering Afghanistan.

The beneficiaries included 11 widows, 24 orphaned children, and two persons with disabilities, who received payments ranging from 1 million to 2 million rupees ($3,588 to $7,175).

Some recipients were linked to All Saints Church, where at least 96 people were killed and more than 150 injured in twin suicide bombings on Sept. 22, 2013.

Among them was Zubair Zafar, who lost his father in the attack claimed by a faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.

Now working as an office assistant at the civil secretariat, Zafar said he plans to use the 2 million rupees to support his siblings' education and arrange his younger sisterʼs marriage.

“I wanted to join the military, but I could not leave my family as the eldest of five children,” he said. “I started working after my grade 12 exams to support my mother, who works as a kitchen in-charge at an orphanage run by the Peshawar Diocese of the Church of Pakistan.”

He said government officials, in their speeches, promised laptops, scholarships, and profit-sharing from minority funds for widows and orphans. “Given the pace, we have little hope,” he added.

Delayed disbursements

While provincial governments in Sindh and Punjab provided compensation ranging from 200,000 to 500,000 rupees to victims soon after the attack, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government delayed disbursements despite court interventions and repeated appeals.

Frustration deepened after the Provincial Disaster Management Authority and the Auqaf Department converted an earlier 200 million rupee compensation package earmarked for Christian victims into a broader endowment fund for minorities, a move families say diluted targeted relief.

On April 1, Chief Minister Sohail Afridi approved increasing the fundʼs allocation from 200 million to 400 million rupees and directed authorities to expedite payments.

But survivors say the process remains opaque and slow.

Khuram Yaqoob Sahotra, who lost his right eye in the blast, returned from the distribution ceremony disheartened.

“I was told the compensation would be given before July 1. I expected the checks the same day. Now we are told to wait again for approval,” he said.

The 40-year-old father of three, a former school clerk who lost his job during the COVID-19 pandemic, still carries ball bearings lodged in his spine.

“Doctors have advised me against lifting heavy objects. I cannot sit or stand for long periods,” he said, adding that his extended family now supports him.

He continues to undergo treatment for complications related to his artificial eye. “Initially, support came from across the country, but it later dried up. Now there is no clear plan. There is no transparency,” he said.

Habib Khan, additional secretary of the Auqaf Department in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said at least 100 more minority victims would receive compensation this month.

“The data is being verified. Those with incomplete documents are being contacted. No one will be left out,” he said, declining to comment on the prolonged delay.

‘A mockery of justice’

Rights advocates say the payments come too late for many families.

The Cecil and Iris Chaudhry Foundation, a Catholic charity that provided vocational training to 80 orphaned girls and widowed mothers after the attack, said many victims died over the years due to inadequate medical care and financial hardship.

“More than a decade has passed, during which many injured victims lost their lives and families lost their sole breadwinners,” said Michelle Chaudhry, president of the foundation. “Disbursing funds in installments now amounts to a mockery of justice.”

She urged the government to release full compensation in a single payment “with dignity and respect.”

All Saints Church

Built in 1883 inside Peshawarʼs Kohati Gate, All Saints Church is widely regarded as Pakistanʼs only church designed in a mosque-inspired architectural style, with domes, minaret-like towers, and Persian and Pashto biblical inscriptions. The Christian community rebuilt it at a cost of 4 million rupees ($14,349) without government support.

Peshawar remains on the front line of militancy in Pakistan.

In 2022, Church of Pakistan lay pastor William Siraj, 70, was shot dead and another pastor injured after Sunday prayers at Shaheedan (Martyrs)-e-All Saints Church in Peshawar.

In 2016, security forces foiled a suicide attack on a Christian neighborhood in the cityʼs Warsak area after four suicide bombers attempted to enter the colony.

STOCKHOLM — The Justice and Peace Commission of the Catholic Diocese of Stockholm has published a document urging Catholics and “all people of goodwill” to engage actively in Swedenʼs general elections on Sept. 13 in what observers describe as a notable intervention in a largely secular Nordic political climate.

The text presents political participation as a legitimate expression of Christian responsibility while encouraging the faithful to be informed, take part in public life, and vote in line with the principles of Catholic social teaching.

Distinguishing between moral absolutes and matters of prudence

The documentʼs approach rests on a crucial distinction between two categories of values. On matters of “practical wisdom,” including policy issues such as the economy, climate, crime, and migration, the document acknowledges legitimate disagreement among believers. Democracy, it explains, functions as “not a community of opinion but a system for the peaceful resolution of conflicts of values.” On these contested issues, Catholics are encouraged to apply principles such as solidarity, subsidiarity, and the common good while ultimately retaining freedom of judgment.

However, the document takes a different stance on what it identifies as nonnegotiable moral issues. It asserts that “every human beingʼs right to life from conception to natural death” constitutes a foundational “absolute value,” describing abortion and euthanasia as “serious violations of human dignity.”

The timing of this moral clarity is significant. In Sweden, several political parties have proposed a constitutional amendment to guarantee access to abortion. Because constitutional changes in Sweden require approval by two successive parliaments with a general election in between, the proposalʼs future depends on whether the next Riksdag maintains support. If adopted, the amendment could take effect on Jan. 1, 2027. Simultaneously, the government is modernizing the nationʼs abortion framework by updating its language, adding advances in abortion procedures, and expanding access to at-home chemical abortion.

While acknowledging that abortion enjoys broad political support across parties, the document frames euthanasia as a still contested issue, positioning it as part of a wider cultural struggle against what Church teaching describes as a “culture of death.”

A careful balance between conviction and pluralism

Despite these firm moral positions, the document concludes with a call for restraint and pluralism among believers. It cautions against equating any particular political stance with Catholicism itself, noting that “two equally good Catholics, who have allowed their practical wisdom to be guided equally by faith, may and can therefore arrive at entirely different party-political conclusions in all fields of practical wisdom.” This nuanced approach reflects an attempt to guide conscience without dictating votes.

EWTN News spoke to Father Thomas Idergard, SJ, chairman of the commission. He framed the document as a response to a recurring pastoral need rather than a political intervention. “With elections approaching, the faithful request some guidance on how to apply faith in their choices as voters,” he explained. Beyond pastoral concern, he noted a broader social rationale: Christians must be equipped with the “necessary tools to participate in public life,” doing so in a way that employs “secular language and secular arguments for universality” while remaining transparent about faith as a “driving force.”

Idergard said the documentʼs framework for discernment operates in two stages. “The first step considers the effect my vote will have on legislation in matters regarding absolute values,” particularly those concerning life and death, “where faith binds the conscience.” The second step, he added, “considers all issues for practical wisdom where faith informs,” while allowing room for personal and secular judgment.

Within this framework, Idergard identified euthanasia as the primary pro-life issue where voters may have tangible impact in the next parliamentary term, noting that “there are different positions among the political parties” across the spectrum that could influence legislation. Regarding abortion, by contrast, “all are on the same line,” he observed, a reality that highlights the documentʼs significance in a political landscape where the issue has achieved unusual consensus.

Idergard said the document does not signal a new direction for the Catholic Church in Sweden but rather reflects an ongoing commitment. “The Catholic Church in Sweden has always been visibly active on pro-life issues,” he noted, citing initiatives such as the annual “Respect for Life Sunday.”

A bold voice in secular Sweden

Benedicta Lindberg, secretary-general of Respekt, the pro-life organization of the Catholic Diocese of Stockholm, described her reaction to the document as reflecting “a significant and, in the Swedish context, a rather bold step.” She pointed to the countryʼs political and cultural landscape, where abortion is widely regarded as a settled matter beyond political contestation.

Lindberg noted that Swedish Cardinal Anders Arborelius had observed in 2024 that no parliamentary parties currently seek to challenge what is commonly referred to as a “right” to abortion in any substantial way. This consensus, she suggested, has contributed to hesitation among Swedish Catholics to engage visibly in party politics.

“Issuing such a document in an election year is meaningful because it makes a distinctly Catholic voice more visible in public debate,” Lindberg said. She added that the guidance “could help encourage a more visible pro-life presence, although probably not a mass political movement in the short term.”

The documentʼs release arrives as Swedish society confronts fundamental questions about the scope of abortion access and the legal status of euthanasia. By grounding its argument in Catholic social teaching while respecting democratic pluralism, the Diocese of Stockholm has attempted to offer guidance that is both morally clear and pastorally sensitive, a balance that may prove instructive for Catholic communities navigating secular political contexts elsewhere in Europe and beyond.

On the sidelines of the celebrations for the 70th anniversary of Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza in San Giovanni Rotondo, the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, answers journalists’ questions about today’s statements by U.S. President Trump regarding Pope Leo XIV, stating, “The Pope has already responded, and it was a very Christian response; he is doing what his role requires.”

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The Saint James Vicariate for Hebrew-speaking Catholics in Israel is marking the 70th anniversary of its founding.

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Delivering the keynote address at 'The AI and the Future of Work' high-level event in Rome, Sister Raffaella Petrini, President of the Governorate of Vatican City State, insists that "the future of work does not lie in machines, but the moral decisions of humanity," and suggests that while we are not to fear artificial intelligence, we must not simply accept it.

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The Archbishop of Pompeii looks ahead to Pope Leo XIV’s visit to the Marian city on the first anniversary of his pontificate, the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii venerated in the Shrine.

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Kian Tajbakhsh, a geopolitical expert and former political prisoner in Iran, shared his testimony regarding what life is like in Iran as well as his hopes for the future of the country, where he says “religious freedom does not exist.”

Iran is a country with a population of over 90 million inhabitants, where only “between 10% and 15% support the current regime or government” amid the current war, the specialist stated in an interview with “EWTN Noticias,” the Spanish-language broadcast edition of EWTN News.

“Perhaps half of them are true believers — religious fanatics or even extremists — while the other half are people who depend on the regime for their livelihoods, their children’s schools, hospitals, pensions, etc.; they depend on the government and the regime,” he observed.

In his view, another 30% “are politically neutral,” and their “primary interest is the safety of their children and families.” The remaining 50% or 60%, he estimated, “oppose the regime and would like to live under a free, liberal, secular, and Westernized government.”

Life for each of these groups is different, the expert explained.

“In the current war, those who support the regime are in the streets; they support the war, they support the fight against the United States, the continuation of nuclear programs, etc.,” while opponents of the government “mostly fear speaking out because in doing so they are brutally repressed and even killed by the regime,” much like the thousands of people who died in the January demonstrations.

Prisons in Iran

The Iranian political scientist said the country’s prisons fall “somewhere in between” those in Europe and those in some parts of Asia where everything “is very dangerous, there are no medical facilities, and there is no access to the rule of law.”

“The problem in Iran is that there are no civil rights; there’s no access to lawyers. I lived in a cell barely 6 feet across, perhaps 2 meters by 3 meters [about 6 inches by 10 inches] for over a year in solitary confinement,” he recounted.

Tajbakhsh pointed out that if one is in prison for “peaceful political activism” as happened to him, what happens is that “you don’t have access to a lawyer until very, very late in the process. They interrogate you for many, many hours for many months.” Consequently, “the biggest problem is that in Iran there is no fair judicial system for political prisoners.”

Hope for Iran

The expert commented that since 1979, “the majority of the Iranian people have attempted to reform the government by transforming it into a freer, more liberal, and democratic government that respects all religious values, religious freedom, as well as political and social freedom.”

“While it is deeply tragic that war and conflict are part of this process, I fear that it is the government of Iran that is waging a war not only against Americans and Israelis, but also against the majority of its own people, who long to live in a freer society,” he said.

“Islam,” he concluded, “is imposed as the state religion, and so my hope for the future of Iran is political, social, and religious freedom.”

Edy Rodríguez Morel de la Prada contributed to this story.

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 recent screening of the film “Teilhard: Visionary Scientist” at the Vatican’s Filmoteca, then at the Jesuit Curia and Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University, drew much applause and appreciation. The American filmmakers, Frank and Mary Frost, spoke to Vatican News about the film.

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The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) stated its unwavering support for legislation that advances “our nation’s commitment to eradicating the sin of human trafficking."

In an April letter to the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, Archbishop Shelton Fabre of Louisville, Kentucky, and Bishop Brendan Cahill of Victoria, Texas, expressed their support for the legislation (S. 2241 / H.R. 4307) on behalf of the USCCB’s Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development and Committee on Migration.

The bill, which the House passed in March, would require the Department of Labor to train its employees to detect human trafficking, identify suspected victims, and refer potential cases to the Department of Justice or other appropriate authorities.

“The Catholic Church is a steadfast voice against human trafficking and other forms of exploitation, as well as a longtime provider of services and pastoral care to victims of these crimes,” the bishops wrote.

Under the bill sponsored by Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Michigan, the Labor secretary would tailor training for the departmentʼs Wage and Hour Division by taking into account the needs of those operating in states where oppressive child labor has recently surged. Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, who is Catholic, introduced the Senate version of the measure with one cosponsor, Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Michigan. No committee action is scheduled.

“We urge the committee to report the bill favorably to the full Senate and for the chamber to join with the House in passing this measure to bolster the U.S. Department of Labor’s important role in combatting human trafficking,” the bishops said.

“We appreciate the bill’s specific mention of the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division, which plays such an instrumental role in detection and thwarting labor exploitation by unscrupulous employers, especially for children,” the bishops said.

As Congress has begun the appropriations process for fiscal 2027 and funding for the Department of Labor, “we renew our previous calls for the long underfunded agency to receive increased support to address its pervasive staffing and resource shortages, particularly given its role in thwarting child labor exploitation, as S. 2241 acknowledges,” they wrote.

Further support

The bishops also recently voiced support for H.R. 1144, a bill introduced by Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, that would reauthorize a 2000 anti-trafficking bill.

“This is another important, bipartisan anti-trafficking measure that warrants immediate action as a further step to counter the scourge of human trafficking in our country and beyond,” the bishops wrote in a March letter to U.S. representatives.

The bill would update elements of the federal framework to prevent international trafficking, and establish and reauthorize anti-trafficking programs across the State Department, Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Among other actions, the bill would authorize HHS to carry out a program to help victims of trafficking integrate or reintegrate into society. It also would require the Department of Stateʼs Trafficking in Persons Report to include information about trafficking for the purposes of organ removal.

“I … want to recognize and thank the amazing, heroic, and extraordinarily compassionate survivor-leaders who helped write this bill,” Smith said at a press conference on April 23. “Their courage, strength, tenacity, wisdom, and, above all, their love for the vulnerable not only inspires but helped us get it right.”

“This legislation is of, by, and for them — to help heal, restore, and empower,” said Smith, who is Catholic.

Reauthorizing the bill “is essential to sustaining a comprehensive, prevention-focused response to human trafficking,” Katie Boller Gosewisch, executive director of the Alliance to End Human Trafficking, an anti-trafficking organization founded and supported by U.S. Catholic sisters, told EWTN News.

“The bill strengthens the systems that protect those most at risk while ensuring survivors have access to the services and support needed for long-term stability and healing. The Alliance to End Human Trafficking urges Congress to act without delay to move this legislation forward in both the House and Senate and ensure its swift passage.”

The General Secretariat of the Synod publishes the first part of the Final Report of Study Group No.7, regarding criteria for selecting candidates for the episcopate, and the Report of Study Group No. 9, on theological criteria and synodal methodologies for discerning doctrinal, pastoral, and ethical questions.

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While visiting some new friends, they brought me to an old chapel in the woods (seen above.) On their altar was a Roman Missal published around 1900.  As I was thumbing through it, I was amazed at numerous feasts that are now suppressed.  I snapped several pictures of these optional feasts. In writing the below [...]

On the night of Saturday 16 May, thousands of Sydney’s faithful will take to the streets around St Mary’s Cathedral, rosaries in hand and candles burning, in one of the most moving expressions of Catholic faith in the city’s year. 

The Feast of Our Lady of Fatima Procession, organised by the Archdiocese of Sydney in partnership with the Somascan Communities of Moorebank and Holsworthy, draws people from every parish, school, and walk of life into a single, luminous act of public witness. 

The evening begins with Vigil Mass at 6pm, followed by the candlelight procession around the cathedral forecourt at 7pm. 

More than a century ago, Our Lady appeared to three shepherd children in Fátima, Portugal, with an urgent plea: “Pray the rosary every day in honour of Our Lady of the Rosary, in order to obtain peace for the world.” 

That message echoes as powerfully today as it did in 1917 and every May, Sydney’s Catholics answer it together. 

Last year’s procession, which drew an estimated 3,000 people, became the subject of quiet wonder among those who attended. 

Rain had fallen throughout the day, persistent and heavy. Yet as the faithful moved outside to begin the procession around the cathedral, the rain paused. 

The Catholic Weekly‘s Christina Guzman was among those who took note. “We did the rosary prayer while it was raining outside, and then when it came time to process, the rain stopped. Thank you, God,” she said. 

Altar server Albert Saju, offered a simpler explanation: “Every year it’s predicted to rain and Our Lady just holds it back for maybe an hour.” 

Prior to World Youth Day 2023, the Our Lady of Fatima Procession began in Sydney to help our youth prepare for their pilgrimage to Fatima and to foster expressions of popular piety throughout the archdiocese.  

As Sydney prepares to host the International Eucharistic Congress in 2028, Eucharist28, Bishop Richard Umbers sees each public act of faith this year as a step in that direction. 

“This candlelit procession will reawaken faith and tell Sydney about the meaning of our lives, of truth, and of a love that is united,” Bishop Umbers said. “It is the Eucharist that binds us together. It is Jesus who has forgiven our sins. He is our hope. In Mary’s company we follow her son.” 

Join us for the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima Procession on Saturday 16 May after the 6pm Vigil Mass at St Mary’s Cathedral. As we process by candlelight we will make public witness.

The post Thousands to fill Sydney streets in candlelight procession for Our Lady of Fatima appeared first on The Catholic Weekly.

At a Mass celebrating those in religious life, Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP said that when Catholics think of ‘shepherds’ they usually think of bishops and priests. 

Yet there is a broader shepherding in which all the faithful share, he said, particularly the religious sisters, brothers, and priests who have built much of Australia’s religious and social infrastructure. 

“Many of us were blessed to have known and been influenced by them,” he said. 

Following the annual Mass for Consecrated Life at St Mary’s Cathedral on 26 April, The Catholic Weekly spoke to four religious sisters and brothers celebrating jubilee years: Sr Cecilia Joseph Dulik OP, Sr Josapha Lergessner SSPS, Sr Anna Pham thi Ngat FMA, and Fr William Goldman CSsR. Between them, they have 185 years of service to the church. 

Sr Cecilia Joseph, who is celebrating her 25th year with the Dominican Sisters, entered the community in 1999 in Nashville, Tennessee, after completing two years of university, and later moved to Australia. In Australia for about half of her religious life, she is the principal of St Peter Chanel Primary School in Regents Park. 

Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Sr Cecilia Joseph said she was in Year Three when she first felt God was calling her, a feeling which persisted throughout high school. 

“No matter how much I wanted the call to be something different, no matter how much I, maybe, tried to run away from it, in little ways the call kept increasing,” she said.  

“I knew I had to explore what that call might mean and the implications of it, and it became really clear that, in visiting particularly our community, that this was the place where I could be the happiest version of myself and the holiest version of myself.” 

Sr Lergessner, who is celebrating her platinum jubilee at the age of 94, hails from Brisbane and decided to join the Sisters of the Holy Spirit to help the poor and sick.  

She learned how to cook, clean, and garden, and was eventually sent to India, where she would later learn to drive, how to speak and write in Hindi, and critical skills such as teaching and midwifery.  

Indore in Central India, she took care of orphans, those with leprosy, and other people on the edge of society, forming life-long bonds with the people in her care, especially the orphans, who she considered her children. 

Coming back to Australia in 1999, Sr Lergessner continued her volunteering, learning massage to better tend to women in Silverwater Prison, befriending detainees in Villawood Detention Centre. 

“I believe in what I call ‘missionary moments.’ To me, I feel I can be on mission any minute,” she said. “Even talking to you right now can be my mission.” 

Fr Goldman, who is celebrating his 40th year of profession with the Redemptorists, grew up on a farm in Uralla, and said he first considered religious life in high school but it wasn’t until years later he decided it was for him, spurred on by his parish priest. 

“I always remember the confirmation of it for me, it’s different for everybody, it was a Holy Thursday Mass in our parish and something happened and I thought ‘right, I’ve got to give this a go,’” he said.  

The majority of his work has revolved around parish missions and making the Word as accessible as possible by holding Masses as specific times and having home visits, but as time has passed this has had to change. 

“The ‘preach week’ in the parish had two Masses in the morning for early people, after school, for school, one for mums and children, and then the preach mission at night,” he said.  

“Now in our secular world and our economy, both parents are working so going and knocking on the door, there’s no one home … and for preach week people can’t come every night for five nights.” 

Fr Goldman’s ministry, which has taken him all around Australia, includes ministry in professional standards and pastoral care, including with Rachel’s Vineyard, a post-abortion ministry. 

He said a key part of becoming a member of religious life is spiritual formation and having a thorough understanding of yourself and your talents, but acknowledges it may be a difficult decision. 

“If you’re listening to that desire, then you follow it. I suppose the first thing is thinking, ‘Who are the people that attract me to this life?’” he said.  

Sr Pham hails from Vietnam, has been a Salesian sister for 50 years, and joined the convent in 1966 at the age of 13 to get an education, becoming just one of three in her graduating class to continue on to join religious life. 

She still keeps in touch with them today, while her missionary work has taken her all over Oceania, including Hong Kong, the Philippines, Samoa, and Australia. 

Sr Pham said she was “very grateful” to God for making her vocation clear to her when she was young,  

“He continued to journey with me and protect me. That’s my motto for my 50 years as a religious sister is ‘Do not fear me for I’m always with you’, Isaiah 14:10,” she said.  

“That really strengthened me and gave me the courage in supply of all the challenges that I met.” 

Sr Cecilia Joseph said if someone is considering religious life but are unsure if it is the right fit, to not be afraid because the “adventure is worth it.”  

“You might not know for certain but there can be signs along the way that God is calling you to this way of life,” she said.  

The post ‘The adventure is worth it’: Four Sydney religious on their lives of service appeared first on The Catholic Weekly.

Little Bean Coffee, the first pro-life coffee brand in Australia, has continued to find success six months after launch, expanding blends and products to continue to spread a message of human dignity. 

Since introducing their first blend Imago Dei (in the image of God), co-founders Anthony and Hannah Farrugia have introduced a medium-strength roast entitled Veritas (Truth) and a decaf option called Sabbath.  

According to Anthony, the three blends are intertwined in identity and consumption, allowing those who prefer decaffeinated or lighter options for their coffee to also engage in their mission to support the pro-life movement in Australia.  

“All three blends work really well together as coffees in general, but they come together to tell one story,” he said.  

“Imago Dei being our first blend, it’s the strong roast, and it’s the blend which really shares our core belief, which is every human is built in the image of God.  

“Veritas represents us building on top of that foundation by expanding upon the truth of our beliefs, before Sabbath then brings in a rhythm and a rest while also representing our trust in God’s design, both for us and for everyone who tries our coffee.” 

Little Bean hasn’t just been a successful business venture.  

“It has also raised more than $1600 for pregnancy support centres across Australia as part of the Farrugias’ mission to ensure mothers across the country are supported in choosing life.  

For Hannah, it’s a figure which is both “incredibly humbling” and “highly important” in substantiating and expanding the pro-life movement in Australia. 

“It really does feel like a shared effort, because it’s not just us as a business, it’s a whole community of Australians that are actively choosing to put their money behind something they believe in,” she said.  

“Every bag sold is someone saying, ‘Hey, I want to support women and families facing these unexpected pregnancies,’ and it’s not like we put that desire in people’s hearts.  

“We really believe that this is God’s work and people are responding to it by buying a bag of coffee.”  

Coffee lovers, have no fear: more ideas are percolating at Little Bean.  

“We do plan to officially launch the coffee pods for some of our current blends later this year, and we’re definitely open to new blends and developing them around our values and mission,” Anthony said.  

“Our biggest focus at the moment is getting Little Bean into more churches and more organisations in Australia.” 

For more information about Little Bean, click here.  

The post Spilling the Beans: Pro‑Life Coffee venture thriving appeared first on The Catholic Weekly.

The post Pope Leo XIV meets with Catholic Charities USA leadership, urges mission of compassion appeared first on The Catholic Weekly.

A Marian sanctuary in Gietrzwald – often called the “Polish Lourdes” – could soon draw global attention, as Pope Leo XIV has been invited to visit the site where the Virgin Mary reportedly appeared about 160 times.

As the church enters May, the Marian month, preparations are underway for the 150th anniversary of the 1877 apparitions. Polish bishops and President Karol Nawrocki have extended the papal invitation, raising hopes of a major pilgrimage moment.

The apparitions, experienced by two young girls, are among the most intense in church history – and Poland’s only Vatican-recognised Marian apparition site. Unlike Lourdes or Fatima, they included extended conversations with Mary.

“That’s a unique aspect,” filmmaker Jan Sobierajski said. The message from Mary centred on prayer and conversion: “Pray the rosary every day,” Sister Anna Wojciechowska said, adding Mary’s assurance: “Do not be afraid, for I will always be with you.”

The story of Gietrzwald is inseparable from the two young visionaries at its centre: Barbara Samulowska and Justyna Szafrynska. Both were children – Samulowska was just 12 years old – when they reported seeing the Virgin Mary.

In March, the church recognised the heroic virtues of Sister Barbara, granting her the title venerable and advancing her sainthood cause.

The post ‘Polish Lourdes,’ where Mary appeared to 2 girls 160 times, could soon draw global attention appeared first on The Catholic Weekly.

After 2 May news reports that Israeli bulldozers demolished Holy Savior Christian school in the village of Yaroun, in southern Lebanon, the Israeli Defense Forces said that while some damage was caused, they denied “demolishing” the site with bulldozers.

L’Osservatore Romano, the iconic newspaper of the Holy See, and the NNA Lebanese agency both reported the destruction of the school in the Bent Jbail district.

While OSV News has been unable to independently verify the scale, the damage to Christian property comes amid mounting attacks on Christians in the Holy Land, whether in Lebanon, Jerusalem or the West Bank.

L’Osservatore Romano said the Lebanese school also housed the homes of the nuns who “cared for the spiritual and cultural growth of hundreds of students,” noting that the village of Yaroun had been “uninhabited and in ruins for some time, ever since Israel partially razed it to the ground in the previous 2024 war against the Shiite Islamist armed group Hezbollah.”

The residents of the village, L’Osservatore said, had already been forced to abandon their homes and lands.

Father Ibrahim Faltas, vicar of the Custody of the Holy Land, wrote in Vatican News that the Christian school damaged in the Lebanese village “was the only remaining building, along with the nuns’ convent, that had not yet been bombed, and mechanical means have obliterated a spiritual and educational point of reference for hundreds of children and young people.”

“In whose name and for what motivation can sacred places be destroyed and outraged, human beings offended and humiliated, religious signs and symbols trampled upon?” he asked.

“What danger can a place of worship, a school, or a convent pose?” he continued. “Is this violence born of ideology, preconceptions, or blind racism? What sparks such hatred toward fellow human beings with different faith and life histories?”

The Israeli foreign ministry said in a 2 May X post that “claims that a monastery in Yaroun in South Lebanon was ‘demolished’ are false. The site is intact and safe.”

Israel claimed “Hezbollah has repeatedly used civilian homes and churches for its terror activities” and that in recent weeks, “it also fired toward Israel from the vicinity of the monastery compound in Yaroun. IDF operations in the area targeted Hezbollah infrastructure while taking measures to ensure the monastery and other religious sites remained unharmed.”

The Holy See newspaper said however that Israeli operations follow a similar script in different villages in southern Lebanon.

“Villagers are ordered to evacuate, and then they bomb. Only then do the bulldozers go into action, leveling every house, every object. All historical memory is erased. Only a ghostly, anonymous landscape remains, devoid of a past,” the newspaper said, adding that 50 villages affected are included in the so-called yellow line, or Israeli buffer zone, in Lebanon.

“Those fortunate enough to live in one of the villages miraculously left standing say that every day they can hear the incessant work of bulldozers in the distance,” L’Osservatore Romano reported.

“Here, thank God, many structures are still standing, but we are completely surrounded, besieged. We can’t get out,” one witness, who declined to be named and who lives in one of Christian villages in southern Lebanon, told L’Osservatore. “What we’re starting to run out of is milk for the children and medicine,” the person said.

“Such violent acts are not responses to the behaviour of those who profess the Christian faith, because the Christians of the Holy Land do not react to provocation; they are welcoming, open to forgiveness, and loving toward their neighbours,” Father Faltas said in his Vatican News editorial. “They are proud to belong to Christ and to be born in the Land that has witnessed his earthly works and heard his voice reveal the Father’s love and the power of the Holy Spirit.”

The news about damaging the Christian school came amid violent news both from Jerusalem and the West Bank.

In Jerusalem, a Catholic religious sister was brutally attacked 28 April by a religious Jewish man wearing ritual tassels. A video of the attack released by the IDF showed the nun was knocked to the ground, hitting her head against the stone, and while the attacker initially walked away – he returned to kick her as she lay on the ground. The suspect was arrested.

“In Jerusalem, increasingly intolerable situations of violence, insults, and outrage against sacred places, religious figures, and Christians are occurring,” Father Faltas wrote in his Vatican News editorial.

“The physical attack suffered by a French nun walking along the road leading to the Cenacle was particularly brutal,” he said. “The images document a repeated and increasingly violent assault on a defenseless woman. The attacker was alone on that occasion, whereas often groups of people insult, harass, and commit contempt against religious figures, believers, and Christian places.”

Father Faltas listed words, gestures and graffiti in Jerusalem “that reflect a hatred charged with ferocity and arrogance: these attacks are always unjustifiable, but they are particularly unacceptable when they occur in the Holy City of the three monotheistic religions.”

He said while Jerusalem is divided and contested by believers “who pray differently and dress differently,” the diversity “does not justify the tension that continues to make life unbearable for each and every one of us who meet in the streets and narrow alleys of the Old City,” the vicar of the custody lamented.

“Peaceful coexistence is possible if we respect our own lives and those of others. Peace is possible if we are able to better understand the lives of others, if we create and establish relationships between lives that touch but do not know each other,” Father Faltas said.

In the West Bank, settler attacks are increasingly violent, which caused the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem to repeatedly denounce “attacks against local residents and Patriarchate lands in several locations”– with patriarchate representatives meeting representatives of the Military Authorities and Civil Administration in late April “to discuss the serious effects of the recent settler encroachments on lands owned by the Latin Patriarchate in the Tayasir area of Tubas Governorate.”

“The Endowment Department of the Latin Patriarchate confirms that protecting Church endowment properties is a red line. It will continue to take all legal and administrative steps needed to protect their sanctity, preserve their Church identity, defend their lawful rights, and continue supporting the local people,” the 23 April statement of the Latin Patriarchate said.

Father Faltas said that “the first Christian communities suffered persecution, the first martyrs bore witness to Christ by offering their lives” and while “times are different” – the sense of “living through difficult and complex times is strong.”

“From the cross, the indelible sign of Our Lord’s passion and death, the hope of life through resurrection blossomed. The sign of the cross, the spontaneous and trusting gesture of those who trust in God’s mercy, is our strength,” he concluded.

The post Christian sites under attack in Holy Land as violence and displacement intensify appeared first on The Catholic Weekly.

More than 300 faith leaders from at least 17 faith traditions, including Catholics, sent a letter to members of the Ohio General Assembly urging lawmakers to bring an end to the death penalty in their state.

“As people of faith, we are committed to policies rooted in justice and grounded in the promise of redemption,” the May 4 letter said.

“While we come from varied backgrounds and political stances, we stand together against state-sanctioned murder,” it said. “Instead, we are motivated by the restorative power of empathy and investments in transformation.”

The letter, led by the single-issue organization Ohioans to Stop Executions (OTSE), comes as Ohioans await a statement on the death penalty by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine. Last month, the governor said he would issue a statement in the week after the primary election, which is May 5.

DeWine, a Catholic, has delayed several executions as Ohio has had difficulty in obtaining the drugs needed to administer lethal injection.

In the letter, the faith leaders state that “now is the time for Ohio to rid itself of its outdated and immoral death penalty.”

“As people who are motivated by faith and sparked by profound love for the common good, we are calling on you to endorse the bipartisan, multi-faith effort to abolish the death penalty in Ohio,” they said.

The faith leaders affirmed they “hold deep care and respect for victims and co-victims of crime, and we most certainly are not opposed to accountability for rightfully convicted persons,” however: “We believe that the death penalty serves no moral purpose.”

“Instead, it is a hollow instrument of death that offers no redemption, no closure, and no transformation for anyone involved,” the letter said. “The death penalty monopolizes human and financial resources that would be better spent if applied to the co-victims whose glaring list of needs often goes unmet.“

The signatories included parish priests, Protestant pastors, and Catholic religious sisters. It also includes non-Christians, such as rabbis, Muslims, Zoroastrian, and unitarian universalists.

Marsha Forson, associate director of Social Concerns at the Catholic Conference of Ohio, spoke during a news conference to announce the letter, noting the continued celebration of the Easter season.

“What does this mystery grant us but the hope of life — life eternal,” she said. “Hope that one day all things will be placed in proper order by justice and peaceful reign and every tear will be wiped from our eyes.”

Forson said “each person’s fundamental identity and value is renewed not in the good or evil [that the person] has done but in the invaluable self-sacrificing love of one.” She said “there is no longer any value that can be placed on a human life other than the inestimable price of Christ’s sacrifice.”

The bishops did not sign onto the OTSE letter but instead sent their own separate letter in late March, which also urged Ohio lawmakers to abolish the death penalty.

Brian Hickey, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Ohio, said in a statement to EWTN News that lawmakers have “the unique opportunity” with House Bill 72, under consideration in a House committee.

That bill, he explained, would “end state-sanctioned death in Ohio by abolishing the death penalty while also ensuring state funds will not pay for abortion or assisted suicide.”

“We are actively meeting with Ohio legislators and urging them to stand against the culture of death and defend the sanctity of life in all stages and circumstances, as Pope Leo XIV continues to urge Catholics and all people of goodwill to do,” he said.

On April 24, Leo provided a message to activists at DePaul University celebrating the 15th anniversary of the abolition of the death penalty in Illinois, in which the Holy Father offered his “support to those who advocate for the abolition of the death penalty in the United States of America and around the world.”

“I pray that your efforts will lead to a greater acknowledgement of the dignity of every person and will inspire others to work for the same just cause,” Leo said.

The Vatican released a letter May 4 but dated November 2024 in which the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) categorically rejected a proposal from the German episcopate to introduce ritualized blessings for couples in same-sex unions and irregular situations, warning that such blessings could be interpreted as the legitimization of unions incompatible with Church doctrine.

The letter is signed by the prefect of the dicastery, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, and addressed to Stephan Ackermann, bishop of Trier, and through him to the entire German episcopate.

In the letter, dated Nov. 18, 2024, Rome issued a categorical rejection of a text proposing the implementation of blessings with a prescribed ritual form.

The DDF in the letter responds to a “vademecum” (an authoritative handbook or reference guide) drafted by the German episcopate in October 2024 as a guide for priests. Written in German and Italian, it was intended to serve as a practical aid for “Blessings for Couples Who Love Each Other” and was presented as an application of the declaration Fiducia Supplicans to the “pastoral reality” in Germany.

The background: Fiducia Supplicans

In 2023, the DDF published the document Fiducia Supplicans, which opened the possibility of blessing couples “in irregular situations” or of the same sex, without equating them to marriage. The text specified that such blessings could not be performed with a precise ritual nor with signs characteristic of a wedding.

The Church in Africa subsequently expressed its unanimous rejection of the document and requested clarifications from Pope Francis. Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, said the document did not apply to the Eastern Catholic Churches.

In the November 2024 letter, which it has published on its website, the DDF recalled that Fiducia Supplicans clearly establishes that the “Church does not have the power to confer its liturgical blessing when this, in any way, might offer a form of moral legitimation to a union that purports to be a marriage or to an extramarital sexual practice,” nor to those who claim “the legitimation of their own status.”

In light of this, Fernández’s letter notes that the German “vademecum” “speaks of a union and of an ‘official regulation’ on the part of pastors of couples who love one another outside of marriage” and even of an “acclamation,” a “gesture normally prescribed in the marriage rite.” In this regard, the Vatican states that such an act legitimizes “the status of such couples, in a manner contrary to what was affirmed by Fiducia Supplicans.”

Why the Vatican is publishing it now

The November 2024 letter began circulating widely on the internet this week, causing confusion as it was presented as if it were a recent pronouncement.

“The Holy Father stated on the return flight from Africa that the Holy See had already sent a response regarding this matter to the German bishops, and many were asking where that response was or what it said. For that reason, we decided to make it public,” Fernández explained in a statement to ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News.

The Holy See ‘does not agree’

During his return flight to Rome following an 11-day tour of Africa, Pope Leo XIV stated to journalists on April 23 that the Holy See “does not agree with the formal blessing of homosexual couples.”

The pontiff was responding to a question from a journalist regarding a directive issued by German Cardinal Reinhard Marx, archbishop of Munich and Freising, who had urged priests and pastoral workers to offer blessings in a uniform manner to same-sex couples or to divorced and remarried individuals within his archdiocese.

Before responding directly, Leo XIV emphasized that “the unity or division of the Church should not revolve around sexual matters” and lamented the tendency to reduce Christian morality solely to that area. “In reality, I believe there are much greater and more important issues, such as justice, the equality, freedom of men and women, freedom of religion, that would all take priority before that particular issue,” he stated.

Nevertheless, the pope noted that “the Holy See has already addressed the German bishops and has made it clear that it does not agree with the formal blessing of same-sex couples.”

“When a priest gives the blessing at the end of Mass, or when the pope gives a blessing at the end of a great celebration, like the one we had today, there are blessings for all people,” he noted, recalling the famous expression of his predecessor, Francis: “Tutti, tutti, tutti” ("everyone, everyone, everyone”).

Going beyond this, Leo XIV warned, “can cause more disunity than unity.” “Everyone is invited to follow Jesus, and everyone is invited to seek conversion in their own lives,” he explained.

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.

While Christians represent barely 2% of the total population of the Holy Land, Benedictine Abbot Nikodemus Schnabel said he is hopeful that the situation can be reversed despite the downward trend, which is worsening over time.

The abbot said the Christian faithful in the region, particularly in the heart of Jerusalem, have been severely affected by war, economic crisis, and all manner of hardships.

“If you think this is an Eldorado [utopia] of Christianity, the reality is different,” he said. “All Christians together are less than 2%. For us, dreaming of reaching 5% or 6% would already be a lot,” Schnabel noted in an interview with the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).

“If you think of the most secularized regions in Europe like the Czech Republic or the former East Germany, even there Christians are many times more numerous than here,” he remarked.

“My fear is that the Holy Land could become a kind of ‘Christian Disneyland,’” he warned. “The holy places will remain, with monks and priests. But there may be no Christian families, no young Christians, no ordinary Christian life,” Schnabel warned.

In 1948, the year the state of Israel was created, Christians constituted 20% of the local population of the Holy Land.

The reality of the Latin Church

The abbot addressed the reality of the Latin-rite Church, which is composed of Arabic-speaking Palestinian Catholics, Hebrew-speaking Catholics, and migrants and asylum-seekers.

The first group includes those Catholics “who live in Israel with citizenship” as well as those without political rights in addition to Christians in the West Bank and the small community of believers in Gaza. This group of Catholics lives under oppression, subjected to the violence of war and the Hamas regime, a situation that Schnabel characterizes as a “double occupation.”

The second group is “a small but growing community, composed of mixed (for example Catholic-Orthodox or Catholic-Jewish) families and integrated into Israeli society.” This reality — being both Israeli and Catholic — is “a new phenomenon,” the monk noted.

Schnabel explained that the migrant group is the largest, comprising “more than 100,000 Catholics” hailing from countries in Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Americas. “They are, in many ways, the most vulnerable,” he noted, due to the precarious working conditions to which they are subjected. “They often have the feeling that it doesn’t matter whether they are there or not."

The economic survival of Christians

He noted that improving housing and employment opportunities would be an important step toward helping these Christian families remain in the region.

“Around 60% of Arabic-speaking Christians depend on tourism. And the last good year was 2019. This is the biggest challenge,“ he explained. ”People leave because they don’t see a future.”

"Pray that there is a future for Christians here,” he urged.

The abbot emphasized that the Church is “neither pro-Israel nor pro-Palestine, but pro-human.” The Church is present “on all sides,” 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.

The alleged abduction and murder of Kumanjayi Little Baby, a five-year-old girl living in a camp on the outskirts of the Northern Territory town of Alice Springs, is every parent’s worst nightmare.  

The poignant farewell letter from her mother and brother after her body was found – though full of prayerfulness and hope – is hard to read: “Me and Ramsiah miss and love you. I know you are in heaven with the rest of the family with Jesus and the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Me and your brother will meet you one day. We are giving our lives to Jesus. 

“It is going to be so hard to live the rest of our lives without you. Ramsiah wants to tell you that when he sees you in heaven, he is going to give you the biggest hug ever.” 

It was just as hard to see images of the house from which Kumanjayi Little Baby, as the family has requested she be called in their sorry business, was abducted. The Australian’s reporter was given a tour of the dilapidated building by the little girl’s grandfather. 

No Australian child should live in such squalor – everyone agrees on that. But what lessons did the pundits draw from this tragedy?  

Some, like Catherine Liddle, CEO of SNAICC, National Voice for Our Children, said that services are inadequate: “When the time comes, we need to examine failures in social and housing policies.” 

Some, like Senator Jacinta Nampijimpa Price, who was the auntie of Kumanjayi Little Baby, argued that she was a victim of dysfunctional bureaucracy. “Billions of dollars continue to flow through Indigenous organisations, land councils and local governance structures, yet the conditions on the ground tell a different story,” she wrote in The Australian.  

Some, like Sue-Anne Hunter, the national commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People,  contend that the problem is substandard, overcrowded, unsafe housing. “Any government serious about protecting our kids must put a roof over their heads first,” she wrote.  

Australia needs to identify the right approach to solving the shame of Aboriginal disadvantage. This is a time of deep grief in the Alice Springs community, so it’s important to discuss the murder of a beloved little girl with tact and profound respect.  

But that can’t be an excuse for letting this teachable moment slip by. Even Hunter said that “sorry business does not silence the questions this loss demands we ask. It sharpens them.” And the right approach has to begin with examining the state of the Aboriginal family.  

If there is one statistic on which the debate over Kumanjayi Little Baby should centre, it is this: Aboriginal children are 9.6 times more likely to be in out-of-home care than the national average. 

In other words, 29 years after the landmark Bringing Them Home report about the stolen generation, an incredible number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kids are still being removed from their families.  

What’s more, the proportion is increasing, according to the Family Matters 2025 report from SNAICC-National Voice for Our Children, a policy group whose focus is eliminating the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous children in out-of-home care by 2040.  

In 2020, Indigenous kids compared to non-Indigenous kids were over-represented 8.8 times; in 2021, 9.0 times; in 2022, 9.2 times; in 2023, 9.4 times; and in 2024, 9.6 times.  

What can we do?  

Try this one weird trick – support the building of strong Indigenous families.  

Children are being removed because they live in dysfunctional families. It’s not more bureaucracy that they need; it’s more loving married parents in stable homes. Kumanjayi Little Baby didn’t have them. In none of the reports about her disappearance and murder is her father mentioned.  

The problem is that policy wonks don’t believe in marriage or the ideal of a family. The Family Matters 2025 report is 142 pages long. The words married, marriage, husband, or wife do not appear once in the entire document. 

In 2024, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 86 percent of Indigenous children were born out of wedlock – “ex-nuptial births”, in the parlance of the ABS. For 35 percent of these children, the father was not acknowledged. (The corresponding figures for all Australians were about 40 percent and 10 percent.) 

That is for Australia as a whole. When you zoom in on the Northern Territory, whose population is about 31 per cent Indigenous, the picture is dire. In the NT, 97 per cent of Indigenous children were born out of wedlock. For 39 percent of NT Indigenous children, the father is not acknowledged.  

This is not just sad. Or regrettable. Or suboptimal. Or problematic, or some other AI-generated cliché in the speeches of fly-in, fly-out politicians. It is Apocalyptic. Alice Springs is ground zero in a nuclear blast over the mum-dad-and-kids family.   

The fact is that a formal marriage between a man and a woman is the best place to raise a child. This is the social “technology” which has given non-Indigenous Australians a society with stability and coherence and which gives a younger generation the virtues to succeed personally, professionally, and romantically.  

We have shared all of our other technologies – the internet, the banking system, electricity, plumbing, antibiotics, GPS – but not marriage. We keep that for ourselves. 

Bureaucrats in a Canberra Olympus, steeped in cultural relativism, want to make the Promethean energy of marriage and family as a secret whitefella business. Instead, they rain down billions of dollars, creating a 21st cargo cult which will never support Aboriginal children and young adults in taking responsibility for their own lives.  

We should be deeply sceptical about placing our hope in government programs. Sexual abuse, domestic violence, drunkenness, unemployment, and rampaging teenagers will not disappear when Canberra hurls its lightning bolts at these dysfunctional communities. 

Ultimately, all children have the best opportunity to thrive if they are raised in loving, stable mum-and-dad families. Tragically, Kumanjayi Little Baby missed out.  

Indigenous welfare is a complex problem. But sometimes the solution to complex problems begins with a simple answer. If we are going to play a name, blame, and shame game, point the finger at the bloated bureaucracy which ignores the power of family to heal social dysfunction.  

The post Support families in Alice Springs, and everywhere appeared first on The Catholic Weekly.

The Supreme Court on Monday temporarily paused a lower court order requiring in-person dispensation of the chemical abortion drug mifepristone.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in New Orleans, ruled on Friday that the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) current policy undermined Louisiana state law. The court reinstated in-person dispensation for abortion pills, a restoration of FDA requirements revoked during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Two mifepristone manufacturers, Danco Laboratories and GenBioPro, asked the Supreme Court to pause the lower court ruling, calling it “unprecedented” in their emergency request over the weekend.

In response, Justice Samuel Alito issued an administrative stay, putting the lower court order on hold, and temporarily restoring mail-order abortion drugs while the justices consider the companies’ request. The temporary stay will expire May 11 at 5 p.m. ET.

Alito instructed the FDA and Louisiana to respond by 5 p.m. ET on Thursday, May 7.

Chemical abortions, which rely on mifepristone and misoprostol, accounted for 63% of U.S. abortions in 2023, according to the Guttmacher Institute. The number of actual abortions might be higher due to underreporting, according to the organization, which was affiliated with Planned Parenthood until 2007.

In 2024, the Supreme Court rejected a challenge to mifepristone’s availability, declining to rule on the legality of relaxed regulations under the Obama and Biden administrations.

Activists, lawmakers, and state attorneys general have been calling on the FDA to do a safety review of the drug, citing severe risks to women’s health.

A recent study by the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) found that the removal of in-person visit requirements led to an increase in adverse effects for women having chemical abortions. This study is one among several pointing to a higher rate of serious problems.

Multiple other studies have shown high rates of hospitalizations for women taking the abortion pill. Chemical abortion has a complication rate four times that of surgical abortion, according to one study. Another report found that abortion pill complications are often underreported or misclassified.

SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser, who celebrated the initial ruling pausing abortion drug shipments, called the current situation a “five-alarm crisis for the pro-life movement and for the GOP.”

“The ‘states-only’ strategy, promoted out of fear after Dobbs, is an abject failure in the face of blue states brazenly violating state sovereignty and nullifying hard-won pro-life gains,” Dannenfelser said in a statement shared with EWTN News.

“The GOP cannot win without its base and simply will not get the enthusiasm that drives turnout without leadership from the top,” Dannenfelser said. “With one-third of the most engaged primary voters sidelined and unheard, the Trump administration’s inaction puts lives and voter morale at risk every day it goes on.”

Dannenfelser also called for FDA Commissioner Marty Makary to be “fired immediately,” citing recent comments he made about mifepristone.

“Abortions are up, not down after Dobbs, with at least 1.1 million deaths a year,” Dannenfelser said. “More than 90,000 abortions occur each year just in states that protect babies in the law throughout all nine months of pregnancy — a direct result of Biden’s COVID-era mail-order abortion drug rule, which the Trump administration inexplicably allows to continue.”

“Without basic in-person medical supervision, male buyers have a frighteningly easy tool to abuse women, like abortion drug coercion survivor Rosalie Markezich, and their children,” Dannenfelser continued. “The Supreme Court will now decide whether this injustice ends here or whether it raises its ugly head over and over again.”

Students for Life Action President Kristan Hawkins called the situation “moral insanity.”

“The tragedy of chemical abortion pill distribution is that preborn babies die while we argue about how the abortion lobby and Big Pharma might be hurt,” she said in a statement shared with EWTN News.

“Enforcement of the Comstock Act is Step 1 for Trump administration’s Department of Justice, but we certainly hope they will fight more fiercely as Trump’s Food and Drug Administration has slow-walked a real review of deadly chemical abortion pills,” Hawkins said.

The American Association of Pro Life OB-GYNs (AAPLOG) expressed concerns for the safety of women and unborn children.

“Just when women and preborn children were about to receive bare minimum safety regulations, abortion manufacturers jumped in to save their bottom line,” the organization said in a statement shared with EWTN News.

“Women deserve real medicine, not a mail-order workaround that benefits only the abortion industry,” AAPLOG continued. “‘Telehealth distribution’ of mifepristone would actually provide medical oversight — instead there is none. No exam, no ultrasound, no screening for coercion and no doctor accountable when patients are harmed."

“This is a transaction, it’s not a medical interaction. Women and their preborn children deserve better,” AAPLOG stated. “The Supreme Court must allow the 5th Circuitʼs ruling to stand."

Catholic scholars discussed Pope Leoʼs first year of papacy, including his dedication to addressing artificial intelligence (AI), at a DePaul University conference in Chicago.

The conference held April 30 and May 1 was titled “Pope Leo XIV: From the Americas, For the World." It was the 17th annual World Catholicism Week conference organized by DePaul Universityʼs Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology in the popeʼs hometown.

Jesuit Father Philip Larrey, an associate professor of theology at Boston College and past dean of the philosophy department at the Vatican’s Pontifical Lateran University, said Pope Leo has a “fresh” and “humane” take on AI.

“Pope Leo XIV took his name because of Pope Leo XIII, who in the 19th century did for the Church in the industrial revolution what Pope Leo XIV wants to do for the Church and the world ... in what he calls the digital revolution,” Larrey said in his talk, “Pope Leo and the Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence.”

Larrey, author of "Artificial Humanity: An Essay on the Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence,” has collaborated with industry leaders, Vatican scholars, and the United Nations about the intersection of ethics and digital advancements.

The pope has a unique perspective as he is “very American, but heʼs also very Latin American,” Larrey said. “Heʼs very Peruvian. He loved his time as a missionary there.“

“Remember, Pope Leo is very, very savvy. He was the head of bishop[s] under Pope Francis, and so he knows a lot about politics within the Church,“ Larrey said. ”He knows a lot about … where the Church needs to go.”

“Heʼs a very complex person,” Larry said. In “his first message ... the day after he was elected pope, he says, ‘I want to help the world in this transition of artificial intelligence.’”

Then during the summer he wrote a series of messages, "when he referred to AI as ‘soulless machine,'" Larrey said. "It really conveys a profound message: ‘These machines do not have soul.’”

The matter of the soul

Larrey discussed the “urgent concerns” of AI replacing human interactions. As a professor on a college campus, he said “a lot of students have difficulties forming relationships.” They turn to AI rather than human connection.

“With an AI, itʼs artificial, itʼs not real,” Larrey said. Ultimately, it “does not have a soul.”

The Catholic Church “uses Aristotleʼs vision of the creation of a soul,” Larrey said. "Now I have to specify ... Aristotle, of course, was brought into the Catholic Church by Thomas Aquinas.”

“Now, Aristotle also believed that the man and the woman were not sufficient to cause a human being. You needed another principle, and that principle was the sun,” he said. “In ancient Greece, the sun was a divine entity. Look at how cool that translates into the Catholic theology, where you have the mother and the father, and then God.”

“Only God can be responsible for the creation of the soul,” Larrey said.

God “infuses the soul” in a new being, “and that is what distinguishes human beings from all other beings,” he said. “Aristotle said that all living beings have souls, but only the human being has an immortal soul.”

“Pope Leo has said machines can never have a soul,” Larrey said. At the World Day of Communications Pope Leo said: “If we fail in this task of preservation … digital technology threatens to alter radically some of the fundamental pillars of human civilization that at times are taken for granted.”

“By simulating human voices and faces … wisdom and knowledge, consciousness and responsibility, empathy and friendship — the systems known as artificial intelligence not only interfere with information ecosystems but also encroach upon the deepest level of communication, that of human relation.”

Consciousness and immortality

Larry detailed two matters Pope Leo has talked about “that are philosophical, but have profound ramifications in the area of AI” — consciousness and immortality.

With consciousness, “human beings are self-aware, which means that we know that we know,“ Larrey said. ”Other living animals are conscious, but theyʼre not self-conscious, which means they donʼt know that they know.”

“Now, some in … the tech industry are talking about consciousness with these machines. They are getting very good at simulating what we understand as conscious behavior,” he said.

“When a machine exhibits behavior we associate with consciousness, we will attribute consciousness to the machine,” he said. “That doesnʼt mean the machine is conscious. It just means that we will probably attribute consciousness to that machine.”

“The more sophisticated and the more complex these machines get, the more likely that is to happen,” he said.

Another issue is that there are many people who “are spending a lot of money for the search for immortality.”

Death “is part of life,” Larrey said. “Death is a meaningful part of it. And if you take that away… I think weʼre gonna lose a lot of meaning and purpose.”

Other panels at the DePaul conference discussed Pope Leoʼs connections across the globe, the future of the Church under his leadership, his recent papal trip to Africa, and his missionary work in Peru. Numerous speakers spoke about his perspective as the first American pope and a member of the Augustinian order.

Catholic mental health professionals have welcomed the federal governmentʼs move toward potential approval of psychedelic drugs for clinical treatments, describing it as a hopeful response to the nation’s growing mental health crisis while urging caution.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order in April directing federal agencies to accelerate research, regulatory review, and limited patient access to psychedelic drugs as potential treatments for serious mental illnesses, including depression, PTSD, and other treatment-resistant conditions.

Titled “Accelerating Medical Treatments for Serious Mental Illness,” the executive order defines serious mental illness as “having a diagnosable mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder that substantially interferes with a person’s life and ability to function.”

“Despite massive federal investment into researching potential advancements in mental health care and treatment, our medical research system has yet to produce approved therapies that promote enduring improvements in the mental health condition” of the most complex patients, the order says.

“Innovative methods are needed to find long-term solutions for these Americans beyond existing prescription medications.”

The order promotes research into psychedelics such as ibogaine, a naturally occurring psychoactive alkaloid derived primarily from the root bark of an African shrub. It has shown promise in treating opioid addiction (by reducing withdrawal and cravings), as well as PTSD, depression, and traumatic brain injury in treatment-resistant cases.

In addition to ibogaine, most classic psychedelics — including psilocybin (magic mushrooms), LSD, DMT, and mescaline — remain illegal at the federal level. They are classified as Schedule I substances, meaning they have a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use according to the Controlled Substances Act.

However, psychedelics are not known to produce the physical dependence, compulsive drug-seeking behavior or withdrawal syndromes seen with drugs like opioids, alcohol, stimulants, or nicotine. The potential for abuse comes from the recreational use of the drugs for their psychoactive effects.

Psychedelics like LSD and psilocybin work mainly by activating certain serotonin receptors in the brain’s cortex, which can create chaotic, highly connected brain activity — producing vivid altered states, emotional breakthroughs, and ego dissolution. The experience is followed by days of heightened neuroplasticity that can rewire thinking patterns.

Ibogaine works through multiple brain systems at once. It affects glutamate, opioid, serotonin, and dopamine pathways while promoting brain repair in reward centers. This produces long dreamlike visions and a profound neurological “reset” that can dramatically reduce addiction cravings and withdrawal symptoms.

The Catholic response

Greg Bottaro, a psychologist and founder of the CatholicPsych Institute and creator of the CatholicPsych Model of Applied Personalism, told EWTN News he is “glad” the Trump administration is “bringing the conversation to the table.”

Bottaro has researched psychedelic drugs for a decade, has four years of professional training with psychedelics, and has a natural medicine license in Colorado, which along with Oregon is one of two states where some of the drugs are legal. He said he believes the therapeutic use of the drugs could make “real healing possible for people with deep suffering.”

Bottaro said he has seen “things are getting worse in many ways for some mental illnesses.”

The executive order notes that more than 14 million American adults now suffer from serious mental illness, a large rise from a decade ago, and suicide rates have rebounded after declining during Trump’s first term. Veterans are disproportionately affected, with a suicide rate more than double that of non-veteran adults.

Bottaro acknowledged, however, that new interventions such as psychedelics can be “dangerous if mishandled.”

“The world of the subconscious and interior life and psyche is uncharted territory,” he said. “Psychedelic drugs can activate neural pathways that give unqualified ‘certainty’ about a spiritual insight that isn’t measured against a person’s actual worldview.”

“You don’t want someone being treated to realize ‘love is all that matters’ and then leave his wife,” Bottaro said.

“A lot of protective factors need to be in place” to ensure “a Catholic anthropology” guides those treating patients.

Trump’s executive order instructs the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to issue priority funding to psychedelic drugs that have received Breakthrough Therapy designation, speeding up reviews that could otherwise take months. The order says the FDA and the Drug Enforcement Administration must create a pathway for eligible patients to access investigational psychedelics under the Right to Try Act once basic safety requirements are met.

If any psychedelic drug completes Phase 3 trials and wins FDA approval, the attorney general must promptly review it for possible rescheduling under the Controlled Substances Act.

Justin Hendricks, a Catholic psychiatrist, told EWTN News that while he thinks Catholics can use drugs to treat serious mental illness, more research and time is needed regarding psychedelics. “Haste is not the best idea,” he said regarding pushing through FDA approvals. He said rushing to treat patients without more and thorough testing would be like “playing with fire.”

These drugs can “rewire” neural pathways affected by trauma, he said. “How do you standardize that? It’s tricky. We have to be careful. What are we ‘rewiring’ the brain to do?”

Terry Braciszewski, the president-elect of the Catholic Psychotherapy Association, agreed, telling EWTN News he supports the careful use of psychedelics but cautions against speeding up reviews or clinical trials.

“If a neurochemical substance can help a person, I’m all for it,” he said. “But slowing things down so we can establish appropriate safety measures and controls is important.”

Ibogaine can cause serious side effects, including cardiac arrhythmias (heart rhythm problems), which have led to fatalities in unsupervised settings.

Still, he sees potential in the use of psychedelics such as ibogaine, citing a 2024 Stanford study showing a reduction in symptoms from traumatic brain injuries in veterans, which he called “very promising.”

“When we think of being created in the image and likeness of God, it is remarkable that everything is produced by neurochemistry,” he said.

“We know from Catholic theology, whatever we can do to maintain the temple of our body is an act of stewardship over our life, our health, involvement with loved ones, and our contribution to the greater body of the Church," he said.

Auxiliary Bishop Keith Chylinski of Philadelphia called for the rejection of stigma around mental health, emphasizing that God “wants us to be healthy mind, body, and soul.”

“Sometimes when we think about mental health, and there could be a stigma, there could be fear, there could be shame in addressing wounds that we have, illnesses that we have,” Chylinski said in an April 30 video message on behalf of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to mark Mental Health Awareness Month, observed in May.

“But itʼs so important that God loves the whole person,” Chylinski said. “He loves us body and soul. And so, itʼs so important for us as members of the Church to reach out to those who are suffering, who are struggling, and to know that there is a great hope in the Lord.”

Know that no matter what you’re going through, no matter what you’re suffering, that in Christ there is always hope. You are never alone.”

Auxiliary Bishop Keith Chylinski

Archdiocese of Philadelphia

Chylinski, who studied clinical psychology as a priest, praised advances in medical science and psychotherapy over the past 50 years. He also encouraged those struggling with mental health challenges to seek resources offered by the Church.

“There is no shame in asking for help,” he said. “Because the Lord wants us to be healthy, mind, body, and soul, and the way that we live our spiritual lives affects us physically and vice versa, the way that we take care of our bodies, of our minds, affects us spiritually.”

“Know that no matter what youʼre going through, no matter what youʼre suffering, that in Christ there is always hope,” he concluded. “You are never alone.”

The faithful curious about who Pope Leo XIV was before his election to the papacy now have a new window into the Augustinian spirituality that shaped him.

The Order of St. Augustine and the Vatican Publishing House have published a book by Pope Leo XIV titled “Free Under Grace: Writings and Meditations 2001–2013,” a collection of texts written during his years as prior general of the Augustinian order.

The volume includes for the first time speeches, homilies, letters, messages, and meditations written during the more than 10 years in which Robert Francis Prevost led the Order of St. Augustine. According to a statement, the book offers readers a “closer look at his spirituality,” deeply marked by the Augustinian tradition.

The first copy of the Italian edition, which arrived in bookstores Monday — four days before the first anniversary of Leo XIV’s pontificate — was presented to Pope Leo XIV by Father Joseph Lawrence Farrell, OSA, the current prior general of the Order of St. Augustine and promoter of the publication.

Also taking part in the presentation were Father Rocco Ronzani, OSA, prefect of the Vatican Apostolic Archive and one of the book’s editors, and Lorenzo Fazzini, editorial director of the Vatican Publishing House.

In addition to Ronzani, the book was edited by Augustinian Fathers Miguel Ángel Martín Juárez and Michael Di Gregorio. The official presentation of the volume took place last October during the Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany, though its commercial distribution in Italy began Monday.

The Vatican Publishing House confirmed to ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, that the text will be published in the coming months in several languages, including Spanish and English, and is currently being translated in nearly 30 countries.

“The book, which compiles many of the communications of then-Prior General Robert Francis Prevost, OSA, offers an overview of some of the important themes developed during his years at the head of the Order of St. Augustine,” Farrell said.

The pages include spiritual reflections, meditations, and homilies that anticipate central aspects of the thought and spirituality of the man who is now Pope Leo XIV.

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.

MAPUTO, Mozambique — The bishop of Mozambique’s Catholic Diocese of Pemba has expressed sorrow following a terrorist attack that destroyed the historic St. Louis de Montfort Parish in Cabo Delgado province, saying the local community “remains in shock” after the assault.

In a message sent to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) International, a Catholic charity foundation that supports the suffering Church all over the world, on May 1, Bishop António Juliasse Ferreira Sandramo said the parish in Meza, northern Mozambique, was completely burned down during an attack carried out by insurgents on April 30.

“The terrorists arrived around 4 p.m. and entered the parish of St. Louis of Montfort, a symbol, since 1946, of the Catholic presence in the region,” the bishop said.

He added: “The parish was attacked and completely burned down by the insurgents. The scene was one of terror: Houses and infrastructure destroyed, the historic parish reduced to rubble.”

According to Sandramo, civilians were captured during the attack and forced to listen to hate speeches delivered by the assailants.

The Cameroonian missionaries serving the parish were not present at the time of the attack and are safe.

“The missionaries are safe, but the community remains in shock,” the bishop said.

The Catholic Church leader appealed for international solidarity with the victims of violence in Cabo Delgado, where Islamist insurgency has persisted for nearly nine years.

“We ask for attention and solidarity with the victims of Meza. For almost nine years now, chapels and churches have been burned in the Diocese of Pemba,” the bishop said.

Despite the destruction, he expressed hope and resilience among the Christian faithful.

“But the faith of this people of God will never be burned; it is rebuilt daily!” he emphasized.

According to ACN, the church building, which dates back to colonial times, was vandalized and reduced to ashes. The attack is the latest in a series of assaults attributed to militants linked to the Islamic State in Mozambique.

During a December 2025 visit to Mozambique by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Sandramo shared the extent of the devastation caused by the insurgency in Cabo Delgado.

“More than 300 Catholics were killed, most by decapitation,” the bishop said at the time, referring to catechists, parish animators, and ordinary faithful.

He also reported that since the insurgency began in October 2017, at least 117 churches and chapels had been destroyed in the Pemba Diocese, including 23 in 2025 alone. The destruction of St. Louis de Montfort Parish adds to that toll.

Parolin visited Cabo Delgado during his Dec. 5–10 trip to Mozambique, where he met victims and heard testimonies from communities affected by the violence.

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

A priest from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, recovering from a hip fracture at Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) said he was twice offered assisted death by healthcare staff who knew he was a priest and opposed to euthanasia — a practice critics say is growing as medical professionals are increasingly encouraged to initiate such conversations.

“There are some things you just don’t talk about to some people,” said Father Larry Holland, who has completed studies in healthcare chaplaincy in addition to serving at numerous parishes in the Archdiocese of Vancouver.

He described his reaction when a doctor brought up the option of medical aid in dying (MAID) should his condition deteriorate. “I think I was very shocked,” he said. “It is such a sensitive subject.”

Holland, 79, is currently convalescing at VGH after suffering a hip fracture from a fall in his bathroom on Christmas Day. He spoke to The B.C. Catholic about the offers of MAID from two healthcare professionals, despite their knowing he was a Catholic priest.

Holland said he wasn’t dying then or now and that the doctor’s mention of MAID left him “kind of silent” for a moment. The doctor then raised the subject again, saying it’s “something they have to discuss with someone who’s been given a terminal diagnosis.”

Holland recalled telling the doctor he was morally opposed to euthanasia. The doctor explained that “he just wanted to make sure that, if a [terminal] diagnosis came up or not ... I knew of the different services I had access to.”

Weeks later, a second offer of MAID came from a nurse who the priest said seemed uncomfortable raising the topic and was likely doing so out of compassion because of the pain he was enduring.

“It’s a false compassion, really,” he said.

A spokesman for Vancouver Coastal Health, which operates VGH, told The B.C. Catholic in an email that “staff may consider bringing up MAID based on their clinical judgment, provided they possess the necessary knowledge and skills to do so.”

Staff are also “responsible for answering questions when patients bring up the topic of MAID,” the spokesman said.

The two incidents arise as Canada approaches 100,000 assisted dying deaths.

Father Larry Lynn, the archdiocese’s pro-life chaplain, said he was shocked to hear about Holland’s case.

“This must surely be among the most appalling examples of Canada’s coercive and insensitive euthanasia regime,” Lynn said in an interview.

He said it’s disturbing that a healthcare provider suggests euthanasia with any patient, and particularly when the patient is a consecrated religious known to be morally opposed. “It places the medical practitioner into the role of the devil, tempting a vulnerable person into mortal sin.”

He’s equally troubled that Canadian euthanasia providers aren’t ruling out initiating discussions with Roman Catholics about MAID. In a document titled “Bringing up Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) as a Clinical Care Option,” the Canadian Association of MAID Assessors and Providers recommends against assuming patients oppose MAID because of their faith.

The document says: “Healthcare professionals may draw incorrect assumptions about a person’s views on MAID; e.g., they may assume that a patient objects to MAID because she is a Roman Catholic nun, and yet Roman Catholic nuns and others dedicated to a faith-based way of life have requested MAID.” The booklet does not provide a source for the information.

An updated version published in March removes the Catholic reference but gives the same advice regarding people of a “faith community” and even those of “strong faith.”

Lynn called it “diabolical” to use a nun as an example for overcoming a patient’s moral objections.

The booklet reflects a recent trend of encouraging healthcare personnel to initiate MAID discussions with patients. In November 2025, The B.C. Catholic reported on a little-known 2023 Health Canada document urging health authorities and professional bodies to adopt “practice standards” requiring doctors and nurse practitioners to raise MAID with certain patients.

The MAID assessors and providers document similarly says physicians and nurse practitioners involved in care planning and consent processes “have a professional obligation to initiate a discussion about MAID if a patient might be eligible for MAID.” However, Health Canada does not have the authority to require provinces or health authorities to adopt such guidelines and The B.C. Catholic found no evidence of any public agency or professional body in British Columbia doing so.

Amanda Achtman, creator of the anti-euthanasia project Dying to Meet You and ethics director of Canadian Physicians for Life, said initiating MAID discussions in a medical setting is a form of coercion that attacks patients’ deepest convictions when they’re vulnerable. To “torment” someone who has deeply held beliefs with an offer of MAID is “an attack on their identity,” Achtman said.

Holland admitted he was in so much pain that he could “feel the temptation” to accept MAID. “It’s a human reaction. We always look for the easy way out.”

Conservative member of Parliament Garnett Genuis has introduced Bill C-260, An Act to Prevent Coercion of Persons Not Seeking Medical Assistance in Dying, which would prohibit federal employees from proactively offering or recommending MAID. The bill resulted from incidents of bureaucrats such as veterans counselors trying to steer vulnerable people toward assisted dying.

The Alberta government introduced legislation in March that would restrict regulated health professionals from providing information about MAID to their patients unless the patient brings it up. The Safeguards for Last Resort Termination of Life Act would also restrict the public display of MAID information, such as posters, within healthcare facilities.

The bill is worth supporting, said Achtman, who lives in Calgary. “Simply being offered euthanasia already kills the person, because it defeats and deflates their sense of self-worth and value.”

The unwanted initiation of MAID discussions in Canada made international headlines in March after Achtman shared the story of an 84-year-old woman, Miriam Lancaster, who went to VGH last year for severe back pain. She said the first doctor she spoke with in the emergency room raised MAID before any diagnostic work had been done. Lancaster’s daughter was present and confirmed the incident, adding her mother eventually responded to rehabilitation and rest.

The Catholic chaplain at VGH, Father Ronald Sequeira, said it’s a constant struggle to help suffering patients not lose hope. He said he tries to offer them “some kind of encouragement and comfort,” but many give up.

“The moment you lose hope, the devil comes in, in different personalities, and says, ‘Do you want MAID? I don’t want people to suffer.’”

Patients often don’t realize that suffering is redemptive, he said. “God makes us more pure, more strong, through the suffering when we offer it up,” Sequeira said. “So we give hope — help them not to lose hope.”

Holland said turning down an offer of death opens one to new experiences. Even enduring pain “can encourage growth,” he said. “It can motivate you, it can open up new worlds, new vistas, new opportunities,” including enriched relationships.

He said he is sharing his story in the hope it will help others. “I went through it; you can go through it, too.”

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

On Monday, the Holy See Press Office confirmed that Pope Leo XIV will meet with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on May 7.

The meeting follows a period of tension between the Holy See and U.S. President Donald Trump. In April, Trump publicly attacked the pontiff on social media, calling him “weak on crime and terrible for foreign policy” in response to the pontiffʼs appeals for peace amid the U.S.-Israel war on Iran.

Rubio “will meet with Holy See leadership to discuss the situation in the Middle East and mutual interests in the Western Hemisphere,” State Department spokesman Thomas “Tommy” Pigott said in a May 4 statement. Rubioʼs meetings with Italian counterparts May 6–8 will be focused on security interests and strategic alignment, the statement said.

Leo XIV has called repeatedly for a peaceful resolution to the armed conflict in the Middle East. In April, he described Trumpʼs threats against Iranian civilization as "not acceptable."

Trump criticized Leo, stating that he did not “want a pope who thinks itʼs OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.” Leo responded that he had “no fear of the Trump administration” but a few days later said he had no interest in debating the president.

As originally reported by Vatican News, Rubio will meet the pope at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, May 7. It will be their second meeting, following their previous meeting after the popeʼs Mass of installation on May 18, 2025. U.S. Vice President JD Vance was also in attendance at that meeting.

Also on the morning of May 7, Leo will meet with the prime minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, at 9 a.m.

This story was updated at 2:25 p.m. ET on May 4, 2026, to include a statement from the U.S. State Department.

Pope Leo XIV praised the work of Catholic Charities USA on Monday, encouraging the organization not to be discouraged despite institutional challenges.

In his address to the board of directors during a private audience, the pontiff expressed gratitude for their work with the less fortunate in the United States and noted the current funding difficulties the organization and similar organizations face from the United States government.

“As was the case with the apostles and with the early Church, the proclamation of the Gospel through caring for the poor and for those most in need will always present certain difficulties on both the personal and the institutional levels,” Leo said. “I am fully aware that the Catholic Charities agencies in the United States of America are by no means immune from these challenges that continue to manifest themselves in our own day. Yet it is precisely when we are confronted with such obstacles that we must learn to hear Jesus’ voice saying to us once again, ‘I am with you always!’”

Kerry Robinson, president and CEO of Catholic Charities USA, described the audience with Leo as encouraging for their work in helping disadvantaged people. In a press briefing after the audience, she discussed her organizationʼs recent funding cuts from the U.S. government, citing policy differences on migration and donor skepticism following cases of abuse in the U.S. Catholic Church.

“Agencies that have had decades-long relationships with the USCCB to resettle refugees continue to care for the people in their charge, even in light of across-the-board federal cuts,” Robinson told EWTN News. “Catholic Charities USA at the national level is almost entirely privately funded, so we did not see direct cuts. For 20 years, we have been working to usher in a culture of contemporary best practices, accountability, and financial transparency to restore trust in the Church. Because of the hard work of the last two decades, we do not see that crisis negatively affecting Catholic Charities' fundraising today.”

During the audience, Robinson gave the pope a book detailing the “People of Hope: Faith-Filled Stories of Neighbors Helping Neighbors” initiative in which a museum of hope, outfitted in a car, will embark on a three-year nationwide tour, encouraging visitors to the car museum to look for ways to help the less fortunate.

Robinson described the initiative as not merely making a difference in oneʼs life but as a cause to “actually end generational cycles of violence and poverty.”

Following a meeting with Pope Leo XIV in the Vatican, the President of the Board of Directors of Catholic Charities USA says the Pope’s words strengthen the organisation’s commitment to continue serving vulnerable people across the United States in fidelity to the Gospel.

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Pope Benedict XVI drew more than a million young people to World Youth Day 2011 in Madrid, an event that left its mark on an entire generation. Fifteen years later, Spain is preparing to welcome a new pontiff, Leo XIV, in a profoundly different religious landscape.

Over this period, the faith and religious practice of Spanish society have undergone significant changes. Ahead of the popeʼs upcoming visit in June, two experts reflected on this development and the spiritual reality that Leo XIV will encounter upon his arrival in Spain.

A less religious society

Rafael Ruiz Andrés, a professor who holds a doctorate in sociology from the Complutense University of Madrid, explained to ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, that Benedict XVI arrived in Spain during what he called “the third wave of secularization” since the beginning of the 21st century.

He noted that in today’s society and especially among young people, this secularization has accelerated and intensified: “Undoubtedly, we are in a less religious society,” he stated.

According to the latest data released by the Pluralism and Coexistence Foundation in its 2025 Barometer on Religion and Beliefs in Spain, nearly half of all Spaniards (42%) no longer identify with any religion, while the percentage of religious individuals — predominantly Catholic — stands at around 50% to 56%.

Ruiz noted that just a few decades ago, the majority of the Spanish population identified as Catholic, a fact that in his view also underscores “our sense of secularization.” Nevertheless, he emphasized that half the population still represents a significant number of people.

Catholic youth in 2011 and today

Though there are currently fewer young Catholics than in 2011, Ruiz emphasized that among the youth of 2026, there are signs "that Catholicism once again interests and challenges them.”

Reflecting this trend are the findings of the “Young Spaniards 2026” report by the SM Foundation, which reveals an increase in the importance young people attach to religion: 38.4% state that it is “quite or very important” in their lives.

The number of young people who identify as Catholic has also grown notably: In 2020, it stood at 31.6%, and by 2025, it had risen to 45%.

Bishop Emeritus César Augusto Franco Martínez of Segovia was responsible for coordinating Pope Benedict XVI’s World Youth Day as well as writing the lyrics for the hymn “Firmes en la Fe” (“Firm in the Faith”), which was composed for the event.

The prelate noted the similarities between the two generations. “They are young people who wish to live happily, who desire to achieve the goals they may have set for themselves, and who possess faith,” he said in a conversation with ACI Prensa.

Reflecting on young people’s faith, the prelate alluded to World Youth Day (WYD) in Lisbon in 2023: “There, I thought that even though time has passed, it seems that young people have not changed.”

“In Lisbon, too, there were a million and a half young people, and their conduct, their dedication, generosity, and joy was truly spectacular,” he said.

Young people living out their faith without inhibitions

Ruiz said the Catholic youth of 15 years ago were marked by polarization surrounding debates on sexual and reproductive rights, abortion, or same-sex marriage legislation. “One could say that at that time the Church had a more marginalized position with respect to young people.”

“I believe that the young person of 2026 is, generally speaking, less inhibited when discussing their faith and religiosity with their peers. The current generation takes being Catholic more naturally. It has become more normalized and, consequently, is also more visible,” he noted.

He also emphasized that the phenomena of youth apostolates such as Hakuna, Effetá, and their extensive impact on social media “point to that increased visibility in 2026 compared to 2011.”

Ultimately, he stated that although the number of young Catholics in 2026 is lower than in 2011, “a new dialogue is now opening up between the Catholic Church and Spanish youth, one that moves beyond those polarizations and is in fact fostered by the very context of secularity.”

Ruiz emphasized that religion continues to be “a very important issue” in Spain as well as tradition, culture, spirituality, and the search for meaning — elements that have not disappeared despite secularization.

The professor also said that secularization in Spain “is not an inevitable destiny.”

Catholic ‘awakening’ needs maturity and depth

According to the bishop emeritus of Segovia, today’s youth are marked by a “tsunami” culture; that is, “they seek to live somewhat through their senses, through whatever impacts them immediately, enjoying the present day without harboring many expectations for tomorrow, even though the future also worries them.”

“Faith,” he added, “is not a fleeting sentiment that is here today and gone tomorrow; faith is something far more profound; it is entering into a relationship with Christ in a vital, existential way. This requires depth, requires personal engagement, requires prayer, requires living in community, and not letting oneself be carried away solely by trends that may end up being more or less passing.”

He said that many young people express their religious yearnings, even if they do not know how to articulate them or put them into practice. “We also live in a multicultural and multireligious society ... many say they believe in God, yet they also believe in reincarnation and in other trends coming from Asia.”

The prelate emphasized that man “is a religious being by nature, even if he denies it, because imprinted within his very being is a yearning for transcendence that only God could have put there: a yearning for the infinite, for boundless happiness, for beauty, and for truth; and that’s something that young people have.”

He also pointed to the increase in adult baptisms: “It’s a phenomenon that must be examined closely, without allowing oneself to be carried away by facile slogans.”

A message of hope for Spanish youth

Ruiz emphasized that Pope Leo XIV’s visit to Spain could serve as a “compass for Catholicism in Spain.” He highlighted in particular the pope’s trip to the Canary Islands as a gesture of solidarity with the migration situation in the country: “The social dimension is one of the challenges facing certain sectors of the Church,” he noted.

He emphasized that the pope’s dialogue with contemporary society will differ from the one maintained by Benedict XVI. “I believe it will be post-secular in nature, that of a religious leader belonging to a denomination of immense significance in our country, yet one who speaks to a diverse, pluralistic society and who offers a vital message capable of being heard by audiences wider than the Church itself."

He said he hopes his visit will “encourage young people and everyone to follow Christ with fidelity and to love the Church without prejudice, despite the failings that we Christians may have.”

“For me, this is a trip filled with hope, and I am certain that it will encourage us to be better Christians and to live in today’s world as witnesses to the Gospel,” he added.

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.

Pope Leo XIV will meet U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on May 7 at the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace. They had already met a year ago following the Mass marking the official beginning of the Pope’s pontificate.

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Mozambican Archbishop Inácio Saúre condemns the destruction of a Catholic mission in Cabo Delgado, calling for an end to violence and urging peaceful coexistence between religious communities.

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As he meets with members of Catholic Charities, Pope Leo XIV encourages the American Caritas-affiliate never to succumb to discouragement despite challenges, noting that care for the poor is an integral part of authentic Christian life.

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Pope Leo XIV receives in audience in the Vatican the President of the Republic of Iceland who subsequently held talks with members of the Secretariat of State.

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WASHINGTON — As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary, the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) is also celebrating an auspicious anniversary this year: its 50th.

Several hundred supporters of this uniquely ecumenical think tank, which explicitly engages on pressing public policy questions within the context of the country’s historic Judeo-Christian moral framework, celebrated the milestone at an April 30 gala at the cavernous National Building Museum.

The event was headlined by New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, a Catholic, as keynote speaker. In an interview with EWTN News just prior to the event, Douthat credited the EPPC for both its success and resilience in “maintaining a place for a serious religious conservativism in American political discourse.”

Douthat contrasted the influence of EPPC’s scholars and the American experience with that of Western Europe, which he said suffers severely from a “suffocating secular-liberal, social and cultural liberal consensus in which religious arguments don’t find any purchase and in which ethical norms are all basically utilitarian, in which abortion and increasingly euthanasia are sort of taken for granted.”

For his part, EPPC President Ryan Anderson, also a Catholic, told EWTN News the think tank is part of the “secret sauce” of a country whose founders, such as President John Adams, firmly held that “our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

Citing the U.S. Declaration of Independence during his speech to the assembly, Anderson said EPPC stands for “the proposition that all men are created equal, that we’re endowed by our Creator with inalienable rights, and that amongst these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

“Our guiding lights 50 years ago remain the same today: the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, the natural law tradition, Western Civilization in general, and the American constitutional order in particular,” Anderson said.

Anderson pointed out that as the country celebrates its 250th and EPPC its 50th, “EPPC is needed now more than ever, to bear witness to the truth about the human person.”

He said EPPC conducts its work in an “intentionally ecumenical way” as a community of Jewish, Protestant, and Catholic scholars “developing and deploying the Jewish and Christian traditions to contemporary questions of law, culture, and politics.”

As they do in the country at large, Catholic scholars and related initiatives play a major role in the EPPC’s work. The institution runs ongoing programs in fields including bioethics, technology and human flourishing, and Catholic studies, and runs the Catholic Women’s Forum, the Person and Identity Project, and the Life and Family Initiative, among others.

In addition to Anderson, Catholic scholars who continue to occupy leadership roles at the EPPC include two of the institution’s former presidents, George Weigel and Ed Whelan, along with Mary Hasson, Stephen White, O. Carter Snead, Noelle Mering, Aaron Kheriaty, Theresa Farnan, Mary FioRito, Francis Maier, Jennifer Bryson, and Clare Morell, among others.

On the streets of Mexico City, numerous women are trapped in a cycle of prostitution, often marked by violence, poverty, and exclusion. In this situation, the Oblate Sisters of the Most Holy Redeemer go out each day to meet them and offer a presence that restores dignity, transmitting God’s closeness and the concrete witness of his mercy.

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The Catholic parish in the Northern Territory town of Alice Springs has offered prayer and sympathy to the Indigenous community after the murder of five-year-old Kumanjayi Little Baby.  

The parish priest of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart parish, Fr Prakash Menezes SVD, told The Catholic Weekly that 50 to 70 people attended a vigil in the church on the day that her body was discovered so that they could pray and light candles.  

Although the child and her immediate family are not Catholic, there are some Catholic connections in their extended family.  

Darwin Bishop Charles Gauci said that the local community has been filled with “shock, grief, disappointment and confusion”.  

The sisters of the Missionaries of Charity are connecting with and supporting some members of the family, he said.  

Bishop Gauci reflected that the tragic death is part of “the whole challenging situation of ministry, of how we work in solidarity and companionship with our First Nations, our Aboriginal people. It’s a big part of our ministry here in this diocese.” 

Destructive rioting in Alice Springs followed the news of the murder.  

Bishop Gauci commented that “wherever there is grief, there is anger and frustration. But the local elders have been urging people to be proportionate of how they express that, not to go over the top. It’s fantastic that the elders have been doing that.”  

In a Facebook post, the bishop called for calm. “We need to pause so that more harm will not take place. We hold in our hearts the family grieving the loss of a child, and all who are affected. May we choose peace over anger, compassion over division, and stand together as a community seeking healing.”  

Catholic Social Services Australia also extended “deepest condolences” to Kumanjayi Little Baby’s mother, family, and community in a 1 May statement. 

“We also rededicate ourselves as a social service community to walk alongside those who suffer, to advocate for justice, and to foster healing and hope. 

“We know that evil exists in the world. We also know that systemic and entrenched disadvantage continue to devastate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lives – a reality we cannot ignore.”  

The family has not announced a date for the funeral of Kumanjayi Little Baby. The community is currently observing sorry business in accordance with Warlpiri customs. 

The post Catholic community offers support to family of Kumanjayi Little Baby appeared first on The Catholic Weekly.

Over the first four weekends in May, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference’s National Centre for Pastoral Research (NCPR) will be counting the number of people who attend Mass.

The “national count of attendance” is held every five years. This year marks a significant milestone – 25 years of national attendance data, beginning with the first count in 2001.

When the data is analysed, the 2026 results will provide valuable insights into long‑term trends in Catholic practice, particularly in understanding the ongoing effects of COVID‑19, which influenced attendance patterns in 2021.

As in 2021, parishes will be asked to provide estimates of the age and sex of attendees and to report the number of online views for streamed Masses or other assemblies on Sunday.

Church attendance is perhaps the most basic measure of religious practice. Most dioceses conduct counts of attenders, but not every diocese does it with the same frequency, in the same way, or at the same time.

According to the most recent national count, conducted in 2021, about 8.2 per cent of Australia’s Catholic population, or 417,000 people, went to church on a typical weekend. Most attended Mass in a parish, but the figure also included people in non-parish centres, such as migrant centres, hospitals, jails and boarding schools. People who were attending an assembly in the absence of a priest are also counted.

The national count is conducted in the same year as the Australian census (to be held on 11 August) so that the information collected can most effectively be used in association with results from the other project.

Counting over four Sundays ensures that fortnightly and monthly Masses are not overlooked. This is particularly important for many country towns and migrant communities.

The count will be conducted at all Sunday Masses, including Saturday vigil Masses, but not liturgical services such as prayer group liturgies, funerals, weddings or other Saturday Masses.

People often ask whether children are included.

NCPR director Trudi Dantis says: “As this is a visible head count, all children present at the service are included. That includes babes in arms, toddlers, teenagers, adults, celebrants, acolytes, deacons and anyone else present at the service.”

The NCPR adds that the count does not disrupt Mass. It can be done, for example, while the collection is being taken up, or as people are arriving or leaving.

The post National head count at Masses in May appeared first on The Catholic Weekly.

We’ve been reading the first letter of St Peter at Mass in the last few weeks, where he reminds us of one of the hardest parts of the Gospel. That’s suffering injustice and not being permitted to retaliate in the way you’d like to.  

St Peter is the man who cut off someone’s ear in the garden of Gethsemane, swore at people out of fear that he’d be arrested like Jesus, and then later leapt off the boat and hid from the same Jesus. 

Now see this hot-headed and impulsive man grown docile under the influence of the Holy Spirit and a lot of hard experience in the early church.  

This is the part of the Gospel I too find very difficult, because I love to settle people’s hash and always have. I have a sharp tongue and a quick temper. I have also seen corruption, cronyism, misconduct, acts of great cruelty, and miscarriages of justice abound within the Catholic Church in Australia, from parishes right up to the national level. 

And yet what does Jesus teach me about this? “Do as they say, but do not do as they do” (Matt 23:3). The church’s teachings always remain in force, even if the people in charge are as rotten as they come.  

But I’m comforted that the early church didn’t tolerate abusers, perverts, thieves or people who were clearly in it for their own interests. Those people were admonished privately, then publicly, and either repented, or left, or were kicked out. So there’s hope for us yet. 

What does the first pope teach me about injustice? If pagans are giving you a hard time because you’re a Christian, then bear it patiently and pray for them. And don’t let it distract you from your mission, which is to keep your powder dry and always have an answer for the hope that you live each day. 

Oh, this is so hard. And it’s even harder for Catholics who want the pope to be the new sheriff in town and for Ringlight Jesus to give us tough talk on hammering our enemies. 

There are good Catholics in the church today who actively resent the Gospel of patience under persecution, forgiving your enemies, and praying for those who harm you. This is all far too sappy for their liking. How disappointed they must be most Sundays at Mass when Jesus Christ’s words are read aloud to them. 

You, like me, may have met what I call “Catholic Muslims” – Catholics who would prefer a fiercer version of our religion that takes politics deadly seriously. They yearn for a theocratic model of government, imposing true religion by the sword if necessary.  

They tend to be rude to, mistreat, and avoid non-believers, making a million excuses about wanting to avoid the taint of a wicked secular world.  

And both males and females of the species are big on women knowing their place, which is always the bottom of the pecking order. If this is more your cup of tea – and tea it will have to be, because alcohol will be off limits – then perhaps you’re in the wrong religion after all.  

I think most of this is to do with the fact that politics is more exciting for some people than religion.  

When this happens, religion becomes like a pie crust that gets trimmed to fit the pie full of politics. It’s a nice added flavour and texture, but not the main event. But politics is quite a different matter from religion. You can be as cruel as you like and wallop whoever you like. 

And if you can put a religious coating on your disrespect towards others, it’s even more satisfying in a twisty interior hypocritical way. If you look at church history, when church and state go head-to-head then the state usually wins and the church suffers.  

This is always the case in the human heart as well, which is a fallible and frail thing, and easily addicted to drama and explosions. So it’s helpful to step back and regain perspective through the first letter of St Peter.  

This wise old man learned the hard way that you have to just keep putting one step in front of the other if you want to really do the Lord’s work in the world. It might be in small daily ways, but they matter more than the drama and explosions. 

Those steps led him to the cross, like his master. That’s also where they will lead you and me.  

And that’s exactly how it should be. That’s actually what we signed up for.  

The post When politics wins out over religion appeared first on The Catholic Weekly.

It is the antithesis of the Parable of the Good Samaritan. A man lay untended near a busy thoroughfare. A hundred thousand commuters stream past, unseeing. He dies. 

The Guardian recently published the report about Bikram Lama, a young man whose decomposing remains were found beside bushes at an entrance to St James train station in the city.  

The report has shocked the wider community into facing up to the stories of the unseen, invisible incidences of present-day homelessness. 

It has also come at a time when the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart and the Josephite Justice Network are agitating for change through a 150-day advocacy campaign. The ‘A Home for Every Neighbour’ campaign was launched last month on the eve of the Feast of St Joseph.  

Who is my neighbour? 

The Parable of the Good Samaritan was Jesus’ response to the question, “And who is my neighbour?” The Josephites’ 150-day campaign begins with the call to see the neighbour without a home.  

The campaign, which will run until Social Justice Sunday on 30 August, seeks to combine “faith-based action with public advocacy to mobilise communities, influence decision-makers, and secure lasting commitments for housing justice”. It is being rolled out in five month-long stages.  

This month’s theme is understanding the crisis and its solutions. 

“We want participants to truly understand and see that homelessness is not just an individual issue, but a systemic issue that is shaped by poor policies and structures,” said Violet Cabral, Community Engagement Officer with the Josephite Justice Network.  

Some of the key systemic changes needed, she said, include increasing social and affordable housing, reforming tax settings like negative gearing, and investing in early intervention and support services.  

Gathering to address common themes  

In support of this campaign, the Justice and Peace Office of the Archdiocese of Sydney brought together representatives from our parishes that are actively working on housing and homelessness to meet with the Josephite Justice Network. 

Representatives of St Patrick’s, Mortlake, St Columba’s in Leichhardt North, St Vincent’s in Ashfield and St Joan of Arc in Haberfield spoke about their groups’ experiences and encounters with those in housing crisis.  

There is a pressing need to raise awareness, advocate for change and hold political leaders to account, they said. 

A few themes emerged, resonating among all who participated in the meeting: 

• That the housing crisis is a result of policy failure, not personal failure. People are not choosing to be homeless. 

• Falling into homelessness can happen to people who have worked and earned an income all their lives. A person who can’t afford a home is someone like you and me. 

• A return to public housing as spaces of community, where shelter is provided as a basic human right. 

Dr Monica Dutton from Mortlake parish spoke from her extensive involvement with St Vincent de Paul Society and her parish, St Patrick’s in Mortlake. She said people can easily tip into homelessness, through sudden loss of a job, relationship breakdowns, loss of a partner, or escaping domestic violence. 

The greatest increase in number she’s seen, through her involvement in her parish and in Vinnies, is among women over the age of 55. 

The reasons for this include the fact that women typically retire with less superannuation than men thanks to the gender disparity in salaries; insufficient savings on retirement due to part-time work and caregiving roles; and the fact that older women find it tougher to secure a job or get a bank loan. 

“The reality of the situation is sometimes hidden,” she said. 

A return to community through public housing 

Public housing came up repeatedly as an answer to the crisis. 

Sr Jan Barnett rsj said that to overcome housing shortage immediately after World War II, Australia built, from virtually nothing, a public housing system that viewed housing as a right rather than as an investment.  

Dr Julie Macken, social justice facilitator with the Sydney Archdiocese’s Justice and Peace Office, recalled growing up “knowing no distinction between people living in public housing and people living in a cottage in Balgowlah”.  

“We talk a lot about how climate change will displace communities,” Dr Macken said, “but we fail to recognise the economic tsunami that has internally displaced people,” which is, housing treated as an investment option rather than as a home.  

Chris Baulman, who is now in his 70s, spent eight years homeless. He is securely in community housing and campaigns for a return of the village and community.   

Baulman wasn’t at the meeting with parishioners, but spoke on a different occasion.  

“The biggest hurdle to going back to public housing is society’s perception of public housing,” he said. “Society thinks it’s degraded and they’re bludgers, people getting something for nothing. It’s dirty. It’s graffiti. It’s crime. It’s drugs.”  

“The pathway back to public housing has to go through changing that perception of it being slums.   

“It has to at least start to describe a situation where public housing could be the community hub for neighborhood development; community gardens where not just the tenants but anyone could come; with arts festivals or libraries for tools, or car share.”  

Bishops urge action  

The Australian Catholic bishops, in their 2025-2026 Social Justice Statement issued a strong call: “The growing crisis of homelessness in Australia demands immediate and sustained action.”  

“The health, educational, and economic consequences of homelessness are profound, and the longer homeless people are left without support, the more difficult it becomes for them to rebuild their lives,” the statement says.  

The bishops recognised the complexity of the crisis and suggested supporting the work of Church and community organisations which advocate for better policies. 

“The impact of homelessness is not just a crisis for the individuals affected – it’s a crisis for society as a whole.” 

The post Understanding and acting on homelessness appeared first on The Catholic Weekly.

The following is the full text of Pope Leo XIV’s Regina Caeli address given 3 May, 2026, the 5th Sunday of Easter.

Dear brothers and sisters, happy Sunday!

During the Easter season, like the early church, we return to the words of Jesus, which reveal their full meaning in the light of his passion, death and resurrection. What once eluded the disciples or caused them distress now comes back to their minds, warms their hearts and fills them with hope.

The Gospel proclaimed this Sunday presents the Master’s dialogue with his disciples during the Last Supper. In particular, we hear a promise that involves us from this moment onwards in the mystery of his Resurrection. Jesus says: “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also” (Jn 14:3). The Apostles thus discover that God has a place for everyone. Two of them had already experienced this during their first encounter with Jesus by the river Jordan. Jesus noticed them following him and invited them that afternoon to visit where he was staying (cf. Jn 1:39). Even now, faced with death, Jesus speaks of a home, but this time a very large one. It is the house of his Father and our Father, where there is room for all. The Son describes himself as the servant who prepares the rooms, so that every brother or sister, upon arriving, may find their own room ready and feel as though they have always been longed for and are at last found.

Dear friends, in the old world in which we are still journeying, what attracts attention are exclusive places, experiences accessible only to a few and the privilege of entering where others cannot. In the new world into which the risen One leads us, however, what is most valuable is within everyone’s reach. Yet this does not make it any less attractive. On the contrary, what is open to all now brings joy. Gratitude takes the place of competition; welcome overcomes exclusion; and abundance no longer entails inequality. Above all, no one is mistaken for someone else, and no one is lost. Death threatens to erase one’s name and memory, but in God everyone is fully themselves. Truly, this is what we spend our whole lives searching for, sometimes willing to do anything just to get a little attention and recognition.

“Have faith,” Jesus tells us. That is the secret! “Have faith in God; have faith also in me” (Jn 14:1). It is precisely this faith that frees our hearts from the anxiety of possessing and acquiring, and from the illusion that we must pursue a position of prestige to have worth. Each person already has infinite worth in the mystery of God, which is the true reality. By loving one another as Jesus has loved us, we impart this awareness to one another. This is the new commandment; in this way, we anticipate heaven on earth and reveal to all that fraternity and peace are our calling. Indeed, through love, amidst a multitude of brothers and sisters, each one discovers that they are uniquely made.

Let us pray, then, to Mary Most Holy, Mother of the Church, that every Christian community may be a home open to all and attentive to each person.

After the Regina Caeli

Dear brothers and sisters,

The month of May has begun: throughout the church, the joy of gathering in the name of Mary, our Mother, is renewed, especially by praying the Rosary together. We relive the experience of those days between Jesus’ Ascension and Pentecost, when the disciples gathered in the upper room to invoke the Holy Spirit. Mary Most Holy remained in their midst, her heart keeping watch over the fire that animated the prayer of all. I entrust my intentions to you, particularly for communion within the church and for peace in the world.

Today marks World Press Freedom Day, promoted by UNESCO. Unfortunately, this right is often violated – sometimes blatantly, sometimes in more subtle ways. Let us remember the many journalists and reporters who have fallen victim to wars and violence.

Special greetings

I warmly greet all of you – the faithful of Rome and the pilgrims who have come from many countries!

I welcome the teachers – religious and lay – from the schools of the Hermanas Franciscanas de los Sagrados Corazones, as well as the faithful from Madrid, Granada, Minneapolis and Malaysia; and the Peruvians who form the Virgen de Chapi de Arequipa Association in Rome.

I greet the Meter Association, which for thirty years has been committed to defending minors from the scourge of abuse, while engaging both ecclesial and civil communities and promoting education aimed at supporting victims and fostering prevention. Thank you for your service!

I am pleased to welcome the faithful from Padua, the Gruppo Giovani Valdaso and the Punto Giovani of the Camillian Community of Piossasco, the Catholic Action of the Vicariate of Noale, the young people from Verolanuova and Cadignano, the youth choir of Coredo-Predaia and the students from the Liceo Fardella – Ximenes of Trapani.

I wish everyone a happy Sunday!

The post Pope Leo XIV’s Regina Caeli address given 3 May, 2026 appeared first on The Catholic Weekly.

Front Royal, a small town of 16,000 known for its strong Catholic community, welcomed King Charles III and Queen Camilla as the British Royals concluded their historic 27-30 April state visit to the US marking the 250th anniversary of American independence.

The 30 April event, dubbed the Front Royal 250th Celebration, saw the town’s population – students, families, and workers – turn out in droves, with thousands lining Main Street for hours to catch a glimpse of the British monarchs.

Union Jacks flew alongside US flags, and children donned costumes reflecting both British and American heritage. The day coincided with a first Communion Mass at St John the Baptist Catholic Church, which is situated on the route taken by the royal motorcade, making it especially memorable for local Catholics who reflected on the significance of receiving both “kings” to their town – Jesus Christ in the Eucharist and the British monarch.

Emily Janaro voiced a sentiment many in the Catholic community shared with OSV News: while they would have preferred a visit from Pope Leo XIV, having the King of Great Britain visit their small town was still pretty amazing.

Tom McFadden, vice president of enrollment and student services at nearby Christendom College and a member of the county school board, said it was truly a monarchical day. McFadden, who got to shake hands with Charles, spent time at the adoration chapel where Jesus Christ – present body, blood, soul and divinity in the Eucharist – was attended by “only a few devoted souls.”

He said, “It’s very cool to be a part of this amazing event – but the real Celebrity is within our reach every day.”

The post Virginia’s ‘Royal’ Catholics welcome King Charles III in celebrating America’s 250th appeared first on The Catholic Weekly.

One of the treasures of our monastery is a Graduale from 1818 containing the chants of the Mass used in the church of Lyons in the early 19th century. This is an example of the ‘neo-Gallican’ liturgical books which were composed in France in the early modern period. While they eventually gave way to the use of the more authentic liturgical books of the Roman Rite–thanks in large part to the determined efforts of Dom Prosper Guéranger, founder of the Abbey of Solesmes–nonetheless there are many fascinating gems of piety and devotion in these books.

One feature of the Graduale of Lyons is its multiplicity of Sequences to be sung before the Gospel on feasts. Sequences abounded in the Middle Ages, but were greatly reduced in the Roman Rite by the reforms after the Council of Trent. The neo-Gallican books, however, maintained the use of many sequences, which can be fruitful for personal devotion.

Today, the traditional feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross, has a Sequence of its own, rich with Scriptural allusions, which is to be sung to the tune of the Sequence for Corpus Christ, Lauda Sion Salvatorem. The opening verses of this Sequence, Crucifixum adoremus, use the same melody as the opening verses of Lauda Sion; since, however, it is not as long as its model, its skips in the last four verses (marked here by an asterisk) to the tune of the last four verses of the Corpus Christi Sequence, Ecce Panis Angelorum. Below is the text of the Sequence with a translation.

Crucifixum adoremus: Christi crucem praedicemus, Salvi per quam vivimus. Portae tremant infernales, Eleventur aeternales: In hoc signo vincimus. Ligno serpens nos peremit, Christus ligno nos redemit: Culpam Adae sustulit. Lege factus maledictus, Agnus Dei benedictus Maledictum abstulit. Lectus Dei morientis Est cathedra nos docentis: Simul mori discite. Ut, pro vobis qui precatur, Vox cruoris audiatur, Ne loquentem spernite. Crucifixus voluntate,  Mox resurget potestate, Suo victor funere. Passus nobis, nobis surget; Amor tantus jam nos urget: Huic fas uni vivere. *O fons omnis Crux virtutis! O aeternae spes salutis! O redemptae servitutis Veteris signaculum! Die tua ne damnemur;  Fac nunc, Christe, judicemur: Bene stulti gloriemur Crucis improperio. Tuae Cruci nos confige; Per hanc mundo nos transfige, Mundum nobis crucifige; Hic nos ure, nos afflige, Ut sis tunc praesidio. Vetus homo perimatur; Mali corpus destruatur, Sanguis tuus ne perdatur; Homo morti ne tradatur Emptus tanto pretio. Amen.

Let us adore the Crucified: Let us preach the Cross of Christ, By which we are saved and live. Let the gates of Hell tremble, Let the eternal gates be raised up: In this sign we conquer. By the wood the serpent slew us, By the wood Christ redeemed us: He lifted Adam’s fault. Made accursed under the Law, The blessed Lamb of God Took away the curse. The bed of God as He dies Is His chair as He teaches us: Learn to die with Him. That the voice of the Blood might be heard, Which makes entreaty for you, Do not spurn Him Who speaks. Crucified by His own will, He will soon rise by His power, Victorious by His own death. Having suffered for us, for us He will rise; Such great love now impels us: It is right to live for Him alone. *O Cross, fount of every virtue! O eternal hope of salvation! O seal of redemption From the ancient servitude! That we may not be condemned on Thy day, Grant, O Christ, that we may be judged now: Let us boast well, as fools, In the Cross’s reproach. Fasten us to Thy Cross; By it, transfix us to the world, Crucify the world to us; Burn us, afflict us here, That Thou mayest be our defense then. Let the old man be slain; Let the body of evil be destroyed, Let Thy Blood not be lost; Let man not be delivered up to death Being bought at such a great price. Amen.

 

On the 50th anniversary of the Friuli earthquake, which killed some 1,000 people and left over 150,000 homeless, Pope Leo prays that "the memory of this tragic event" will inspire a "renewed commitment to the values of fraternity and charity.�

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Pope Leo XIV on Sunday remembered journalists and reporters killed by war and violence, warning that press freedom is often violated around the world.

Speaking after the May 3 Regina Coeli in St. Peter’s Square, the pope noted that the day marked World Press Freedom Day, promoted by UNESCO.

“Unfortunately, this right is often violated — sometimes blatantly, sometimes in more subtle ways,” Pope Leo said. “Let us remember the many journalists and reporters who have fallen victim to wars and violence.”

The pope’s appeal came as press freedom faces growing pressure worldwide. According to the 2026 World Press Freedom Index from Reporters Without Borders, global press freedom has deteriorated to its lowest point in at least 25 years, with more than half of the world’s countries now classified as being in a “difficult” or “very serious” situation for journalism.

The organization has warned that journalists face mounting economic pressure, direct violence, legal threats, and other restrictions that compromise the independence of the media.

The pope also marked the beginning of May, a month traditionally dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, inviting Catholics to pray the rosary.

“The month of May has begun: Throughout the Church, the joy of gathering in the name of Mary, our mother, is renewed, especially by praying the rosary together,” he said.

Leo entrusted his intentions to Mary, “particularly for communion within the Church and for peace in the world.”

Earlier, in his catechesis before the Marian prayer, the pope reflected on Sunday’s Gospel from the Last Supper, in which Jesus tells his disciples: “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.”

Leo said this promise “involves us from this moment onwards in the mystery of his Resurrection” and reveals that “God has a place for everyone.”

“Even now, faced with death, Jesus speaks of a home, but this time a very large one,” he said. “It is the house of his Father and our Father, where there is room for all.”

The pope contrasted the world’s attraction to exclusive places and privileges with the new world opened by the risen Christ.

“In the new world into which the risen One leads us, however, what is most valuable is within everyone’s reach,” he said. “Gratitude takes the place of competition; welcome overcomes exclusion; and abundance no longer entails inequality.”

Leo said faith frees the heart “from the anxiety of possessing and acquiring” and from the illusion that human worth depends on prestige.

“Each person already has infinite worth in the mystery of God, which is the true reality,” he said.

By living Christ’s new commandment of love, the pope said, Christians already “anticipate heaven on earth.”

“By loving one another as Jesus has loved us, we impart this awareness to one another,” he said. “This is the new commandment; in this way, we anticipate heaven on earth and reveal to all that fraternity and peace are our calling.”

The pope concluded by asking Catholics to pray to Mary Most Holy, Mother of the Church, “that every Christian community may be a home open to all and attentive to each person.”

After the Regina Coeli, Leo greeted pilgrims from Rome and many countries, including Spain, the United States, Malaysia, and Peru. He also thanked the Meter Association, which for 30 years has worked to defend minors from abuse, support victims, and promote prevention.

“Thank you for your service!” the pope said.

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

In the Syrian conscience, April is not limited to World Heritage Day celebrated on April 18. Rather, the month unfolds as a full season of cultural rebirth, stretching from the ancient roots of Akitu to the solemnity of Easter and the feast of St. George, as well as the memory of the massacres of 1915 and Syria’s Independence Day.

Within this time crowded with memory, the restoration of Syrian icons emerges as an act of safeguarding identity. It repairs the fractures of time and restores to sacred figures the radiance of a history that runs deep, declaring that protecting this heritage is not a cultural luxury but a struggle for survival carried out quietly by Syrian hands.

In this context, visual artist and restorer Lia Snayej shared with ACI MENA, the Arabic-language sister service of EWTN News, the path that led her into this delicate field. She said that seeing icons burned, damaged by gunfire, or covered with layers of black residue while participating in an exhibition was a shocking experience. That moment pushed her to explore restoration more deeply, before she later specialized in the field academically through a master’s degree in Russia.

Snayej said restoration brings together history, chemistry, and art, adding that protecting an icon is, at its core, protecting history.

Regarding the restoration process, she emphasized that documentation is the most important step and accompanies every stage of the work. Every detail is recorded in a special file that remains with the icon, almost like its “personal identity card.”

She explained that the work begins with studying the history of the piece and its artistic background before preparing a precise restoration plan. Not every icon, she noted, needs restoration; some require only preservation and measures to stop further deterioration. Each icon has its own condition, making restoration similar to medical treatment, with each case requiring a different diagnosis.

Snayej said the main stages of restoration include stabilizing the paint layer using special materials such as “Japanese paper,” followed by cleaning and sterilization. She described this as a very delicate stage, since a mistake could lead to the loss of color. The process then continues with retouching and the addition of a new protective layer.

Assessing the current state of icons, Snayej said the greatest danger is the lack of attention they receive. Many historic icons, she said, are sold outside Syria for very low prices, while original icons are rarely found in homes, where printed reproductions are more common.

She also criticized the neglect of some churches when it comes to restoring their icons. She recalled an incident in Lebanon, where she found two historic icons stored in poor conditions inside a damp warehouse before she took on their restoration.

Snayej also warned against daily practices that damage icons, such as placing candles directly beneath them or cleaning them with materials not intended for that purpose.

Despite the challenges — including the difficulty of obtaining restoration materials and their high cost — Snayej said she remains committed to this path. Her passion, she explained, sometimes leads her to work free of charge in order to preserve a threatened work of art.

Last month, she participated in an exhibition organized by the Greek Orthodox Church in Damascus, where she displayed two historic icons she had restored. One was a Russian icon of St. Nicholas, while the other consisted of four parts depicting the Virgin Mary, with the crucified Jesus at the center.

Snayej said what surprised her most at the event was not the exhibition itself but the level of interest shown by visitors and the number of questions they asked about the history of icons and restoration techniques. For her, this reflected a striking and genuine desire among people to rediscover this heritage.

She concluded by saying that the icon has taught her to respect artistic work and serious research, and that it has transformed her specialization into a personal commitment that goes beyond the limits of a profession.

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

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