Catholic – United Yam

Cuba, land of faith: The missionary experience of Father Dailon

unitedyam October 8, 2025

Cuba, land of faith: The missionary experience of Father Dailon – On September 8, 2024, the feast of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, Father Dailon Lisabet began a mission in the Diocese of Holguín, Cuba. Exactly one year later, on September 8, 2025, he concluded that experience in his home parish, once again celebrating the feast of Cuba’s Patroness. “For me, it was a very clear sign that the Blessed Mother accompanied my steps from beginning to end,” he recalls with gratitude. Now back in the United States, Father Dailon serves at Our Lady of the Lakes Parish in Sparta and ministers to the Hispanic community at Our Lady

Cuba, tierra de fe: la experiencia misionera del padre Dailon

unitedyam October 8, 2025

Cuba, tierra de fe: la experiencia misionera del padre Dailon – El 8 de septiembre de 2024, fiesta de la Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre, el padre Dailon Lisabet inició una misión en la Diócesis de Holguín, Cuba. Exactamente un año después, el 8 de septiembre de 2025, concluyó esa experiencia en su parroquia natal, celebrando nuevamente la fiesta de la Patrona de Cuba.“Para mí fue un signo muy claro de que la Virgen acompañó mis pasos de principio a fin”, recuerda con gratitud. Ahora de regreso en Estados Unidos, el padre Dailon sirve en la parroquia Our Lady of the Lake, en Sparta, y acompaña a la comunidad hispana

Brooklyn Diocese consolidates Latin Mass to 2 parishes amid priest shortage

unitedyam October 8, 2025

null / Credit: PIGAMA/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 8, 2025 / 11:00 am (CNA).

Brooklyn Bishop Robert Brennan is moving where the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) will take place in the diocese, and who will say it, as the diocese faces a clergy shortage following several priest deaths.

“Bishop Brennan very much wants to meet the needs of the people and has developed an approach that will be more sustainable,” diocesan spokesman John Quaglione told CNA.

At the end of September, TLM attendees at St. Cecilia Church in Brooklyn were informed the Mass will no longer be offered there after Oct. 12 but will continue to be offered about five miles away at Our Lady Queen of Peace in the Carroll Gardens section of Brooklyn and St. Josaphat’s in the Bayside area of Queens.

Quaglione told CNA that the weekly attendance at the Mass at St. Cecilia’s was averaging between 25 and 35 people and was being served by a rotation of priests that can no longer continue because of the declining numbers of parish priests in the diocese.

In order to address the priest shortage, Brennan is employing a “site model.” The official site in Brooklyn will be Our Lady Queen of Peace, which has celebrated the TLM for more than 25 years, and the official site in Queens will be at St. Josaphat’s, which has also celebrated the TLM for years and which will now be run by the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest.

Priests will still rotate to say the Latin Mass at the Brooklyn site.

Quaglione told CNA that with the recent deaths of several priests in the Brooklyn Diocese, where priests already minister to two or three parishes each and where Masses have had to be cut as a result, “the bishop is taking the initiative here and seeing the writing on the wall. He does want to provide the TLM for the people.”

“By cutting the Mass at the St. Cecilia site, we’re actually bettering our ability to provide the TLM with this model, which addresses staffing concerns and gives the assurance of the continuation of the Mass,” he said.

Average weekly Mass attendance at St. Josaphat’s is around 240 people, and at Our Lady Queen of Peace, it averages about 65 attendees, according to Quaglione.

Neither the revised official Mass schedule nor the exact date of the Christ the King Institute takeover of St. Josaphat’s has been finalized, according to the Brooklyn Diocese.

The Christ the King Institute priests will establish an oratory at St. Josaphat Parish, which other orders in the diocese have already done, according to the press secretary.

According to its website, the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest “celebrates the classical Roman Liturgy, the ‘Latin Mass,’ in its traditional form according to the liturgical books promulgated in 1962 by Pope St. John XXIII.”

“During his pontificate, Pope St. John Paul II exhorted bishops to be generous in allowing its use. It was with his blessing that the Institute began to celebrate the Traditional Mass.”

The institute, based out of Chicago, did not respond to a request for comment.

High Court weighs free speech in Colorado’s law banning counseling on gender identity

unitedyam October 8, 2025

null / Credit: Wolfgang Schaller|Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 8, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).

The U.S. Supreme Court during oral arguments on Oct. 7 scrutinized Colorado’s law banning counseling on gender identity with some justices voicing concern about possible viewpoint discrimination and free speech restrictions embedded in the statute.

Colorado Solicitor General Shannon Stevenson defended the law, which prohibits licensed psychologists and therapists from engaging in any efforts that it considers “conversion therapy” when treating minors. It does not apply to parents, members of the clergy, or others.

Nearly half of U.S. states have a similar ban. The Supreme Court ruling on this matter could set nationwide precedent on the legality of such laws.

The Colorado law defines “conversion therapy” as treatments designed to change a person’s “sexual orientation or gender identity,” including changes to “behaviors or gender expressions or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attraction or feelings toward individuals of the same sex” even if the minor and his or her family has requested that care.

Under the law, permitted therapy includes “acceptance, support, and understanding” of a minor’s self-asserted transgender identity or same-sex attraction.

The law is being challenged by Kaley Chiles, a Christian counselor who provides faith-based counseling to clients with gender dysphoria and same-sex attraction.

Free speech and viewpoint discrimination

Stevenson argued that Colorado’s law is not a speech restriction but instead a regulation on a specific type of “treatment,” saying that regulations cannot cease to apply “just because they are using words.”

“That treatment does not work and carries great risk of harm,” Stevenson said, referring to the practices the state considers to be “conversion therapy.”

She argued that health care has been “heavily regulated since the beginning of our country” and compared “conversion therapy” to doctors providing improper advice on how to treat a condition. She claimed this therapy falsely asserts “you can change this innate thing about yourself.”

“The client and the patient [are] expecting accurate information,” Stevenson said.

Justice Samuel Alito told Stevenson the law sounds like “blatant viewpoint discrimination,” noting that a minor can receive talk therapy welcoming homosexual inclinations but cannot access therapy to reduce those urges. He said it is a restriction “based on the viewpoint expressed.”

Alito said the state’s position is “a minor should not be able to obtain talk therapy to overcome same-sex attraction [even] if that’s what he wants.”

Stevenson argued Colorado is not engaged in viewpoint discrimination and said: “Counseling is an evidence-based practice.” She said it would be wrong to suggest lawmakers “reach[ed] this conclusion based on anything other than protection of minors.”

“There is no other motive going on to suppress viewpoint or expression,” Stevenson said.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett and Justice Neil Gorsuch asked questions about how to handle issues where medical disagreement exists.

Gorsuch noted, for example, that homosexuality was historically viewed as a mental disorder and asked Stevenson whether it would have been legal for states to ban therapy that affirmed a person’s homosexuality at that time. Stevenson argued that at that time, it would have been legal.

Banning ‘voluntary conversations’

Alliance Defending Freedom Chief Counsel Jim Campbell argued on behalf of Chiles and her counseling services, telling the justices his client offers “voluntary speech between a licensed professional and a minor,” and the law bans “voluntary conversations.”

Campbell noted that if one of her minor clients says, “I would like help realigning my identity with my sex,” then the law requires that Chiles “has to deny them.”

“Kids and families that want this kind of help … are being left without any kind of support,” he added, warning that Chiles, her clients, and potential clients are suffering irreparable harm if access to this treatment continues to be denied.

Campbell argued that “many people have experienced life-changing benefits from this kind of counseling,” many of whom are seeking to “align their life with their religion” and improve their “relationship with God.”

Justice Sonia Sotomayor contested whether the issue was about free speech, noting Colorado pointed to studies that such therapy efforts “harm the child … emotionally and physically.”

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson similarly objected to the claim, questioning whether a counselor acting in her professional capacity “is really expressing … a message for a First Amendment purposes.” She said treatment is different than writing an article about conversion therapy or giving a speech about it.

Campbell disagreed, arguing: “This involves a conversation,” and “a one-on-one conversation is a form of speech.” He said Chiles is “discussing concepts of identity and behaviors and attraction” and simply helping her clients “achieve their goals.”

unitedyam October 7, 2025

A reading from the Book of Jonah
4:1-11

Jonah was greatly displeased
and became angry that God did not carry out the evil
he threatened against Nineveh.
He prayed, "I beseech you, LORD,
is not this what I said while I was still in my own country?
This is why I fled at first to Tarshish.
I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God,
slow to anger, rich in clemency, loath to punish.
And now, LORD, please take my life from me;
for it is better for me to die than to live."
But the LORD asked, "Have you reason to be angry?"

Jonah then left the city for a place to the east of it,
where he built himself a hut and waited under it in the shade,
to see what would happen to the city.
And when the LORD God provided a gourd plant
that grew up over Jonah’s head,
giving shade that relieved him of any discomfort,
Jonah was very happy over the plant.
But the next morning at dawn
God sent a worm that attacked the plant,
so that it withered.
And when the sun arose, God sent a burning east wind;
and the sun beat upon Jonah’s head till he became faint.
Then Jonah asked for death, saying,
"I would be better off dead than alive."

But God said to Jonah,
"Have you reason to be angry over the plant?"
"I have reason to be angry," Jonah answered, "angry enough to die."
Then the LORD said,
"You are concerned over the plant which cost you no labor
and which you did not raise;
it came up in one night and in one night it perished.
And should I not be concerned over Nineveh, the great city,
in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons
who cannot distinguish their right hand from their left,
not to mention the many cattle?"

From the Gospel according to Luke
11:1-4

Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished,
one of his disciples said to him,
"Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples."
He said to them, "When you pray, say:

Father, hallowed be your name,
your Kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread
and forgive us our sins
for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us,
and do not subject us to the final test."

This (…) Gospel presents Jesus to us absorbed in prayer, a little apart from his disciples. When he had finished, one of them said to him: "Lord, teach us to pray" (Lk 11: 1). Jesus had no objection, he did not speak of strange or esoteric formulas but very simply said: "When you pray, say: "Father’ ", and he taught the Our Father (cf. Lk 11: 2-4), taking it from his own prayer in which he himself spoke to God, his Father. St Luke passes the Our Father on to us in a shorter form than that found in the Gospel according to St Matthew, which has entered into common usage. We have before us the first words of Sacred Scripture that we learn in childhood. They are impressed in our memory, mould our life and accompany us to our last breath. They reveal that "we are not ready-made children of God from the start, but that we are meant to become so increasingly by growing more and more deeply in communion with Jesus. Our sonship turns out to be identical with following Christ". This prayer also accepts and expresses human material and spiritual needs: "Give us each day our daily bread; and forgive us our sins" (Lk 11: 3-4). It is precisely because of the needs and difficulties of every day that Jesus exhorts us forcefully: "I tell you, ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened" (Lk 11: 9-10). It is not so much asking in order to satisfy our own desires as, rather, to keep a lively friendship with God who, the Gospel continues, "will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" (Lk 11: 13). (…) Every time we say the Our Father our voices mingle with the voice of the Church, for those who pray are never alone. (Pope Benedict XVI, Angelus, Castel Gandolfo, 25 July 2010)

Mother Cabrini Institute aims to change ‘mental pattern’ of associating immigrants with crime

unitedyam October 7, 2025

null / Credit: Amy Lutz/Shutterstock

Vatican City, Oct 7, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

A new institute at Pope Leo XIV’s undergraduate alma mater wants to change the “mental pattern” that associates immigrants with crime.

In the 19th century, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini embraced the travails of millions of recently arrived Italian immigrants to the United States. Inspired by this legacy of the first American saint, Villanova University — the flagship institution of the Order of St. Augustine — has just launched the Mother Cabrini Institute on Immigration.

It was from this institution of higher learning in Philadelphia that Robert Francis Prevost — now Pope Leo XIV — earned his bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1977.

The initiative is based on the Augustinian values of “veritas, unitas, and caritas” (truth, unity, and charity) and seeks to bring together the academic community and other external stakeholders to promote concrete actions to address the contemporary challenges of migration.

“Currently, there is a mentality that associates immigrants with crime, drug trafficking, or human trafficking. However, immigrants are the ones who care for our children and our elders; we open the doors of our homes to them so they can clean our homes. We invite them into the most intimate parts of our lives, yet the media generates contrary images that make it difficult to recognize their humanity,” explained Professor Michele Pistone, director of the center, which was inaugurated at the Vatican on Sept. 30.

Mother Cabrini Institute on Immigration Director Michele Pristone is shown here accompanied by Father Joseph Lawrence Farrell, OSA, prior general of the Augustinians. Credit: Photo courtesy of Mother Cabrini Institute on Immigration

The institute seeks to reverse negative perceptions through an interdisciplinary approach based on four pillars: teaching, research, advocacy, and service.

“We want to transform hearts and minds, work with all Villanova colleges, and connect with centers, alumni, and community partners to create systemic change,” the professor said.

For Pistone, the university is an ideal setting for this type of work. “What better place to do it than at a university, where we can study it, be active on the ground, learn from the experience, and teach students — the future leaders of our country and businesses — to understand the migrant experience?”

The scholar also participated in the event “Refugees and Migrants in Our Common Home,” which took place in Rome from Oct. 1–3 ahead of the Jubilee of Migrants (Oct. 4–5). The more than 200 participants in the global gathering from over 40 countries were welcomed to the Vatican last week by Pope Leo XIV.

As Pistone explained in conversation with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, the seed of the Mother Cabrini Institute on Immigration was planted in 2022 when Pope Francis called on universities to research and teach more about migrants and refugees.

“I was in the front row and felt like he was speaking directly to me. I felt a personal calling to be part of the solution,” said the law professor at Villanova’s Charles Widger School of Law.

Personal inspiration and lifelong commitment

Pistone’s passion for migration is deeply rooted in her family history. During her studies in Italy, she visited Sicily in search of the origins of her grandparents, who immigrated to the United States at the beginning of the 20th century.

Professor Michele Pistone is director of the Mother Cabrini Institute on Immigration. Credit: Victoria Cardiel/EWTN News

“Seeing my relatives, who didn’t know my father, and seeing how they rejoiced in his accomplishments in New York, changed my life. I began to understand the history of migrants from a lived perspective, and that led me to work with asylum seekers since 1999,” Pistone said.

For Pistone, migration is part of the identity and mission of the United States. “My state, Pennsylvania, was founded as a refuge for those fleeing religious persecution. That’s what asylum is all about: offering refuge to those who cannot live according to their beliefs or express themselves freely,” she explained.

Inspired by the life and work of Mother Cabrini, canonized by Pius XII in 1946, Pistone emphasized the value of the newly inaugurated center as an intellectual and social hub: “Mother Cabrini was a visionary and social entrepreneur. Her charisma guides us today in asking ourselves: What is Mother Cabrini’s work in the contemporary world? We want to carry out that mission through education, research, public advocacy, and service.”

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

7 common myths and facts about the rosary

unitedyam October 7, 2025

A woman prays the rosary at the Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC, on Sept. 28, 2024. / Credit: Jeffrey Bruno

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 7, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

October is designated by the Catholic Church as the Month of the Rosary, and Oct. 7 is the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.

Here are seven common myths and facts about this devotion to Our Lady:

1. Only Catholics can pray the rosary.

False. While rosaries are typically associated with Catholics, non-Catholics can certainly pray the rosary — and in fact, many credit it to their conversion. Even some Protestants recognize the rosary as a valid form of prayer.

2. Praying the rosary is idolatry.

False. Some have objections to the rosary, claiming it idolizes Mary and is overly repetitive.

Just like any practice, the rosary can be abused — just as someone might idolize a particular pastor or priest, a form of worship, or fasting. But the rosary itself is not a form of idolatry.

The rosary is not a prayer to Mary — it is a meditation on the life of Christ revealed in five mysteries “with the purposes of drawing the person praying deeper into reflecting on Christ’s joys, sacrifices, sufferings, and the glorious miracles of his life.”

When we pray the Hail Mary, we are not adoring Mary, we are asking for her intercession — just as we might ask a friend or family member to pray for us.

Second, any prayer can lose its meaning if we do not intentionally meditate on it. Focusing on the mysteries with purpose and intention is key to the rosary’s transforming power. As one author encourages: “The rosary itself stays the same, but we do not.”

3. You can wear a rosary as a necklace.

It depends. It is typically considered disrespectful and irreverent to wear a rosary around one’s neck as jewelry, even though the Church does not have an explicit declaration against doing so.

However, Canon 1171 of the Code of Canon Law says that “sacred objects, set aside for divine worship by dedication or blessing, are to be treated with reverence. They are not to be made over to secular or inappropriate use, even though they may belong to private persons.”

It is important to treat the rosary with respect and intention. If you intend to wear the rosary as a piece of jewelry, this would not be respectful and should be avoided. It goes without saying that wearing the rosary as a mockery or gang symbol would be a sin.

But if it is your intention to use the rosary and be mindful of prayer, then it could be permissible. It is not uncommon in some cultures, like in Honduras and El Salvador, to see the rosary respectfully worn around the neck as a sign of devotion.

Rosary rings or bracelets might be a better option if you want to keep your rosary close at hand as a reminder to pray, as they are kept more out of sight and would not be as easily misconstrued to be a piece of jewelry.

4. The rosary is an extremist symbol.

False. A widely-shared 2022 Atlantic article went viral for accusing the rosary of being an “extremist symbol.”

“Just as the AR-15 rifle has become a sacred object for Christian nationalists in general, the rosary has acquired a militaristic meaning for radical-traditional (or ‘rad trad’) Catholics,” the article read.

The author also cited the Church’s stance on traditional marriage and the sanctity of life as evidence of “extremism” and claimed that Catholics’ tendency to call the rosary a “weapon in the fight against evil” as dangerous.

As CNA reported in 2022, popes have urged Catholics to pray the rosary since 1571 — often referring to the rosary as a prayer “weapon” and most powerful spiritual tool.

5. The rosary is not biblical.

Untrue! Most of its words come directly from Scripture.

First, the Our Father is prayed. The words of the Our Father are those Christ taught his disciples to pray in Matthew 6:9–13.

The Hail Mary also comes straight from the Bible. The first part, “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee,” comes from Luke 1:28, and the second, “Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb,” is found in Luke 1:42.

Finally, each of the decades prayed on the rosary symbolizes an event in the lives of Jesus and Mary. The decades are divided into four sets of mysteries: joyful, luminous, sorrowful, and glorious, the majority of which are found in Scripture.

6. A rosary bead, or pea, can kill you.

Somewhat true. A rosary pea, or abrus seed, is a vine plant native to India and parts of Asia. The seeds of the vine, which are red with black spots, are often used to make beaded jewelry — including rosaries. Rosary pea seeds contain a toxic substance called “abrin,” which is a naturally-occurring poison that can be fatal if ingested. However, it’s unlikely for someone to get abrin poisoning just from holding a rosary made from abrus seeds, as one would have to swallow them.

Today, most rosaries are made from other nontoxic materials, such as olive wood or glass — eliminating this concern.

7. Carrying a rosary can protect you.

True. The rosary has proven to be a miraculous force for protecting those of faith and bestowing upon them extra graces, such as the victory of the Christian forces at the Battle of Lepanto after St. Pius V implored Western Christians to pray the rosary.

Many great saints across history, including Pope John Paul II, Padre Pio, and Lucia of Fátima, have also recognized the rosary as the most powerful weapon in fighting the real spiritual battles we face in the world.

We know that spiritual warfare is a real and present danger: “For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens” (Eph 6:11–12).

“The rosary is a powerful weapon to put the demons to flight and to keep oneself from sin … If you desire peace in your hearts, in your homes, and in your country, assemble each evening to recite the rosary. Let not even one day pass without saying it, no matter how burdened you may be with many cares and labors,” Pope Pius XI said.

This story was first published on Oct. 1, 2022, and has been updated.

40 years of banter: The secret ingredient of the Coffee with Kupke podcast

unitedyam October 6, 2025

40 years of banter: The secret ingredient of the Coffee with Kupke podcast – When it comes to the Coffee with Kupke podcast, Msgr. Raymond Kupke might get all the glory. His name is in the title after all. And he’s the one giving away encyclopedic anecdotes like Halloween candy. But if it weren’t for his co-host and good friend Father Paul Manning, the podcast wouldn’t quite be the same. The magic of their life-long friendship was on full display Wednesday, Sept. 24, during a special live recording of Coffee with Kupke at the St. Paul Inside the Walls evangelization center in Madison. Father Manning and Msgr. Kupke fed off the energy of an

unitedyam October 6, 2025

A reading from the Book of Jonah
3:1-10

The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time:
"Set out for the great city of Nineveh,
and announce to it the message that I will tell you."
So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh,
according to the LORD’s bidding.
Now Nineveh was an enormously large city;
it took three days to go through it.
Jonah began his journey through the city,
and had gone but a single day’s walk announcing,
"Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,"
when the people of Nineveh believed God;
they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small,
put on sackcloth.

When the news reached the king of Nineveh,
he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe,
covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes.
Then he had this proclaimed throughout Nineveh,
by decree of the king and his nobles:
"Neither man nor beast, neither cattle nor sheep,
shall taste anything;
they shall not eat, nor shall they drink water.
Man and beast shall be covered with sackcloth
and call loudly to God;
every man shall turn from his evil way
and from the violence he has in hand.
Who knows, God may relent and forgive,
and withhold his blazing wrath,
so that we shall not perish."
When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way,
he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them;
he did not carry it out.

From the Gospel according to Luke
10:38-42

Jesus entered a village
where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him.
She had a sister named Mary
who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak.
Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said,
"Lord, do you not care
that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving?
Tell her to help me."
The Lord said to her in reply,
"Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things.
There is need of only one thing.
Mary has chosen the better part
and it will not be taken from her."

Gabriel was sent by God to Mary of Nazareth to announce to her, and, in her, to all of humanity, the mission of the Word. Behold, God wants to send the eternal Son so that, becoming man, He can grant man divine life, divine sonship, grace, and truth. The mission of the Son begins precisely at that moment in Nazareth, when Mary listens to the words spoken by the mouth of Gabriel. […] The Word, of the same substance as the Father, becomes flesh in the womb of the Virgin. The Virgin herself cannot comprehend how all this is to be accomplished. Therefore, before answering, “Let it be unto me,” she asks, “How can this be? I do not know a man” (Luke 1:34). And she receives the decisive response: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the Child to be born will be holy, and will be called the Son of God… nothing is impossible for God” (Luke 1:35-37). In that moment, Mary understands. And she no longer questions. She simply says: “Let it be unto me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). And the Word became flesh (cf. John 1:14). (St. John Paul II, Homily, Pompei, 21 October 1979)

California law allowing anonymous abortion pill prescriptions endangers women, experts say

unitedyam October 6, 2025

Members of Students for Liberty protest chemical abortions at March for Life, Jan. 24, 2025. / Credit: Tyler Arnold/CNA

CNA Staff, Oct 6, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill last week allowing doctors to anonymously prescribe abortion pills, a move ethicists and medical professionals say will endanger women.

The law, designed to protect abortionists, allows them to prescribe the pill anonymously, protecting them from any professional, legal, or ethical oversight and from lawsuits filed by other states.

California abortionists are already facing lawsuits for prescribing abortion drugs in states where they are illegal. In some cases, women maintain that they were coerced or deceived into taking the drugs by the father of their unborn child.

According to the new law, the doctor remains anonymous — even to the patient being prescribed the pill. His or her identity is only accessible via a subpoena within the state of California.

Even the pharmacists dispensing the abortion drug may do so without including their names, or the names of the patient or prescriber, on the bottle.

Abandoning women

Dolores Meehan, a nurse practitioner and the executive director of Bella Primary Care in San Francisco, said the law is “codifying a type of back-alley abortion.”

“There’s no safety oversight at all from the perspective of the patient,” she told CNA. “It’s such a violation of patients’ rights.”

Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, a senior ethicist at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, called the policy “patient abandonment.”

Health care professionals “have a duty to provide careful medical supervision and oversight to patients who seek to obtain dangerous pharmaceuticals,” he told CNA.

“This oversight calls for significant patient scrutiny, medical testing, interviews, and in-person exams to assure that any prescribed medications will be appropriate for the specific medical situation of the patient,” Pacholczyk continued. “Such attentive oversight gets thrown to the wind when lawmakers and politicians like Gov. Newsom seek to pass unprincipled laws.”

Offering anonymous prescriptions, Pacholczyk said, “is a significant dereliction of duty.”

To do so implies “a willingness to look past important procedural requirements and duties, whether it’s health screening of the woman, obtaining her emergency contact information, or assuring follow-up care and support for her,” he continued.

The policy, Pacholczyk said, “works to corrode the very core of authentic medicine.”

Meehan expressed similar concerns about the anonymity of doctors prescribing abortion pills.

She noted that licenses exist to ensure that “individuals are clear of any malfeasance or any malpractice.”

“You can look up my license, and you can look up everything about me,” she said. “But if you don’t know my license, you don’t know who I am, you can’t.”

She noted that patients are turned into consumers but without any recourse should something go wrong.

“You might as well go on Craigslist,” Meehan said.

Not an informed choice

After he signed the bill, Newsom said that “California stands for a woman’s right to choose.”

But Meehan noted that women don’t always know what they are choosing when they take the abortion pills.

“It’s not about women’s rights, and it’s certainly not about women’s safety, and women’s health, and women’s choice,” Meehan said. “Because choice should always, always, always be accompanied by informed consent.”

“The gross misunderstanding about the abortion pill is that it’s somehow easy,” Meehan said. “But what so many women don’t understand is that they’re going to miscarry at home.”

They’ll go through this “loss,” she noted, “by themselves.”

“Women are really ill-prepared for what’s going to happen in their bodies. There’s the whole idea of women’s choice, but you’re not giving them informed choice,” she said.

Pacholczyk shared similar concerns for women undergoing chemical abortions, saying that self-administered chemical abortions are a “harsh reality.”

The abortion “often takes place in a bathroom, with psychological trauma experienced by a mother who may see her aborted baby floating in a toilet,” he said.

Chemical abortions can sometimes lead to “serious medical complications — including sepsis, hemorrhage, or a need for repeated attempts to expel the child’s body” — for 1 in 10 women within 45 days of taking the abortion pill, he added.

If a woman has an ectopic pregnancy, “administering the abortion pill could increase the risk of complications or delay urgently needed treatment,” he added.

“Rather than treating women as anonymous entities and forcing them into greater isolation … mothers deserve the supportive medical attention and active care of their health care team,” he said.

“Ideally, such attentive care should help them feel strengthened and empowered to carry their pregnancies to term rather than defaulting to a fear-driven and desperate attempt to end their child’s life,” he said.

Lower standard of care

Jordan Butler, spokesperson for pro-life advocacy group Students for Life of America, called the policy “reckless.”

“Eliminating requirements for identification and pregnancy verification creates dangerous loopholes that allow sexual abusers to evade accountability,” Butler said.

Through the policy, Newsom and the abortion industry are “exploiting vulnerable women and children for profit,” she said.

Pacholczyk and Meehan expressed similar concerns for the lower standard of care women — especially vulnerable women — would receive under the law.

For women and girls facing human trafficking or coercion, protections “don’t exist,” Meehan said.

“You could have your local pedophile, a sex offender, stockpiling them,” Meehan said.

“Politicians, the media, and many in the medical profession have decided that abortion deserves an entirely different and lower standard than the rest of medicine,” Pacholczyk said.

“We would never sanction such a loose approach with other potent pharmaceuticals like opioids or cancer medications,” Pacholczyk said.

Cash aid for moms: Michigan program cuts infant poverty, boosts families

unitedyam October 6, 2025

null / Credit: Tatiana Vdb via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 6, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

A Michigan-based program is providing thousands of dollars to expecting mothers to lessen poverty and improve babies’ health — and all that’s needed is an ultrasound and an ID.

The first community-wide and unconditional cash transfer program for new families in the United States called Rx Kids began with the mission to improve “health, hope, and opportunity.” The initiative began in January 2024 in Flint, Michigan, where enrolled mothers receive $1,500 during their pregnancies and an additional $500 a month for the first year of their child’s life.

In 2024, Dr. Mona Hanna, a pediatrician and the director of the Michigan State University-Hurley Children’s Hospital Pediatric Public Health Initiative, launched the program with the help of Luke Shaefer, the inaugural director of Poverty Solutions, an initiative that partners with communities to find ways to alleviate poverty.

The city of Flint had been struggling with childhood poverty, “which is a major challenge and economic hardship, especially for new families,” Shaefer told CNA. In order to find ways to combat it, Hanna spoke directly with mothers. They shared how impactful the 2021 expanded Child Tax Credit was, which provided parents funds to put toward necessities for their children.

The program had helped “child poverty plummet to the lowest level ever recorded,” Shaefer explained. He had worked on the program design himself, so he was brought in to help create Rx Kids with a similar goal.

The hope for Rx Kids was simply “to support expectant moms during pregnancy,” Shaefer said. Oftentimes, “the period of pregnancy and the first year of life is actually when families are the poorest,” he said. To combat this, the money helps fund food, rent, car seats, diapers, and other baby supplies and necessities.

Even families higher on “the economic ladder really struggle to make ends meet when they’re welcoming a new baby, which is really maddening because it’s such a critical period for the development of a child,” Shaefer said. “What happens in the womb, and then what happens in the first year of life, are fundamental to shaping the architecture for kids throughout the life course.”

Expecting mothers from all economic backgrounds can apply to the program. To enroll, women submit an ultrasound and identification to verify residency within the participating location. The only other qualification is that the mothers are at least 16 weeks along in their pregnancies or will have legal guardianship over the child after birth.

Funding and operations

Rx Kids is funded through a public-private partnership model that combines federal funds, often Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and private support from philanthropic foundations, local businesses, and health care systems.

Since it started, the program has provided nearly $11 million in cash transfers to the more than 2,000 enrolled mothers in Flint. There have also been 1,800 babies being born in the city within the program.

The cash transfers are sent through the nonprofit GiveDirectly, which solely administers cash payments to families through programs like Rx Kids to lessen global poverty. It currently has operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Uganda, and the U.S.

After seeing success with Rx Kids mothers in Flint, the program expanded to help Michigan families in Kalamazoo, Eastern Upper Peninsula, Clare County, and Oakland County. It has now enrolled more than 3,500 mothers, provided nearly $15 million in funds, and contributed to more than 2,800 babies.

“Not unlike the support provided by the nearly 100 pregnancy resource centers in Michigan whose staff and volunteers walk alongside women providing material support, counseling, and parenting classes, the Rx Kids program aims to care for women and babies during the challenging time of pregnancy and infancy by providing a no-strings-attached cash program,” Genevieve Marnon, legislative director at Right to Life of Michigan, told CNA.

“The pro-life community has long recognized that when women are supported, respected, and valued, they are more likely to choose birth to abortion and experience better health outcomes,” Marnon said.

In a state where abortion is “considered a constitutional right, every effort to ensure women have the support they need to make a choice for life is something to applaud.”

Success and benefits

“Programs like [Rx Kids] lead to healthier birth weights, lower rates of postpartum depression, and an atmosphere that celebrates each and every woman and child,” Maron said. “The data speaks for itself.”

Recently, Rx Kids received back “the first line of research that is looking really positive,” Shaefer said. Researchers from Michigan State University and the University of Michigan conducted a study published by the American Journal of Public Health that analyzed more than 450,000 births across Michigan.

The researchers reported that after the program launched in 2024, Flint experienced an 18% drop in preterm births and a 27% reduction in low birth weight when compared with the previous year and similar Michigan cities.

There was also a reported 29% reduction in NICU admissions, which prevented nearly 60 hospitalizations annually. The outcomes were linked to behavioral changes of women during their pregnancies, including increased prenatal care.

“We’re not forcing anyone to go to prenatal care, but when we provide the economic resources, they go,” Schaefer explained.

Church support

The Catholic Church in Michigan has also been in favor of the program. Jacob Kanclerz, communications associate for the Michigan Catholic Conference (MCC), told CNA that it helps provide “mothers facing difficult circumstances with the resources they need to make a choice for life and avoid resorting to abortion.”

MCC, which serves as the public policy voice for the Church in the state, “supports the Rx Kids program because of its direct assistance to mothers and children in need in lower-income communities in Michigan.”

In line with the Church, the program works “to promote and protect human life as well as provide for the poor and vulnerable in society,” Kanclerz said. MCC has supported funding in the state budget for the Rx Kids program and has testified in support of the expansion of Senate Bill 309, which would incorporate the program officially into state law.

At a hearing for the bill, Tom Hickson, vice president for public policy and advocacy for MCC, said: “By helping mothers pay for critical prenatal and infant health care services and other expenses surrounding childbirth, Rx Kids can help mothers provide their babies the care they need while in the womb and after they are born.”

He added: “This program has been a wonderful help to expectant mothers and their babies who need extra support during this critical stage of life.”

Rx Kids is currently helping Michigan families, but it also offers a startup guide for other states and communities interested in modeling the program. Schaefer said there is “a ton of interest” from other states that hope to implement the program.

There are two versions of the Rx Kids model that areas can implement, depending on their funding availability and goals. One offers $1,500 during pregnancy and an additional $500 each month for six months following the child’s birth. Communities can also model the original version implemented in Flint, which offers a $1,500 cash transfer during pregnancy, and the additional monthly funds for a whole year.

To secure funding, Rx Kids encourages communities to utilize public sources, state or federal dollars, and private support from philanthropic organizations that want to contribute to the mission of alleviating poverty and supporting babies and their mothers.

unitedyam October 5, 2025

A reading from the Book of Jonah
1:1–2:1-2, 11

This is the word of the LORD that came to Jonah, son of Amittai:

"Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and preach against it;
their wickedness has come up before me."
But Jonah made ready to flee to Tarshish away from the LORD.
He went down to Joppa, found a ship going to Tarshish,
paid the fare, and went aboard to journey with them to Tarshish,
away from the LORD.

The LORD, however, hurled a violent wind upon the sea,
and in the furious tempest that arose
the ship was on the point of breaking up.
Then the mariners became frightened and each one cried to his god.
To lighten the ship for themselves, they threw its cargo into the sea.
Meanwhile, Jonah had gone down into the hold of the ship,
and lay there fast asleep.
The captain came to him and said, "What are you doing asleep?
Rise up, call upon your God!
Perhaps God will be mindful of us so that we may not perish."

Then they said to one another, "Come, let us cast lots
to find out on whose account we have met with this misfortune."
So they cast lots, and thus singled out Jonah.
"Tell us," they said, "what is your business?
Where do you come from?
What is your country, and to what people do you belong?"
Jonah answered them, "I am a Hebrew,
I worship the LORD, the God of heaven,
who made the sea and the dry land."

Now the men were seized with great fear and said to him,
"How could you do such a thing!–
They knew that he was fleeing from the LORD,
because he had told them.–
They asked, "What shall we do with you,
that the sea may quiet down for us?"
For the sea was growing more and more turbulent.
Jonah said to them, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea,
that it may quiet down for you;
since I know it is because of me
that this violent storm has come upon you."

Still the men rowed hard to regain the land, but they could not,
for the sea grew ever more turbulent.
Then they cried to the LORD: "We beseech you, O LORD,
let us not perish for taking this man’s life;
do not charge us with shedding innocent blood,
for you, LORD, have done as you saw fit."
Then they took Jonah and threw him into the sea,
and the sea’s raging abated.
Struck with great fear of the LORD,
the men offered sacrifice and made vows to him.

But the LORD sent a large fish, that swallowed Jonah;
and Jonah remained in the belly of the fish
three days and three nights.
From the belly of the fish Jonah prayed
to the LORD, his God.
Then the LORD commanded the fish to spew Jonah upon the shore.

From the Gospel according to Luke
10:25-37

There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus and said,
"Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
Jesus said to him, "What is written in the law?
How do you read it?"
He said in reply,
"You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your being,
with all your strength,
and with all your mind,
and your neighbor as yourself."
He replied to him, "You have answered correctly;
do this and you will live."

But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus,
"And who is my neighbor?"
Jesus replied,
"A man fell victim to robbers
as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho.
They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead.
A priest happened to be going down that road,
but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
Likewise a Levite came to the place,
and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him
was moved with compassion at the sight.
He approached the victim,
poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them.
Then he lifted him up on his own animal,
took him to an inn, and cared for him.
The next day he took out two silver coins
and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction,
‘Take care of him.
If you spend more than what I have given you,
I shall repay you on my way back.’
Which of these three, in your opinion,
was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?"
He answered, "The one who treated him with mercy."
Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

Compassion is expressed through practical gestures. The Evangelist Luke ponders the actions of the Samaritan, whom we call “good”, but in the text he is simply a person: a Samaritan approaches, because if you want to help someone, you cannot think of keeping your distance, you have to get involved, get dirty, perhaps be contaminated; he binds the wounds after cleaning them with oil and wine; he loads him onto his horse, taking on the burden, because one who truly helps if one is willing to feel the weight of the other’s pain; he takes him to an inn where he spends money, “two silver coins”, more or less two days of work; and he undertakes to return and eventually pay more, because the other is not a package to deliver, but someone to care for. Dear brothers and sisters, when will we too be capable of interrupting our journey and having compassion? When we understand that the wounded man in the street represents each one of us. And then the memory of all the times that Jesus stopped to take care of us will make us more capable of compassion. (Pope Leo XIV, General Audience, 28 May 2025)

For first time in U.S., Catholics will be able to venerate the habit of Padre Pio

unitedyam October 5, 2025

St. Pio of Pietrelcina, better known as Padre Pio. / Credit: After Elia Stelluto, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Staff, Oct 5, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

For the first time in the United States, Catholics will have the opportunity to venerate the full-size habit worn by St. Pio of Pietrelcina, also known as Padre Pio.

The rare opportunity will take place from Oct. 11–14 at the National Centre for Padre Pio in Barto, Pennsylvania, in the Diocese of Allentown.

A group of Italian Capuchin friars from Padre Pio’s friary — the Our Lady of Grace Capuchin Friary in San Giovanni Rotondo in southern Italy — will bring the habit to be displayed at the national center, which has been designated a jubilee site within the Allentown Diocese.

“This unprecedented visit from the friars of San Giovanni Rotondo is an amazing opportunity for us to be able to share a rare and intimate relic of Padre Pio with his devotees,” Vera Marie Calandra, the vice president of the center, said on the group’s website.

“We expect to have pilgrims visiting from throughout the United States, and we will be ready to make their visit a special time of veneration, prayer, and reflection.”

The weekend of festivities will open on Saturday, Oct. 11, with Mass celebrated by the Capuchin friars from San Giovanni Rotondo. Following the Mass, there will be a procession honoring Padre Pio.

Mass will also be celebrated on Sunday, Oct. 12, with a procession following. On Oct. 13, Harrisburg Bishop Emeritus Ronald Gainer will celebrate Mass in English followed by a Mass celebrated in Italian by the friars.

Allentown Bishop Alfred Schlert will celebrate Mass on Oct. 14 followed by a Mass celebrated in Italian by the friars.

“We could not be more excited about having the opportunity to have Padre [Francesco] Dileo and other friars from Padre Pio’s Our Lady of Grace friary in San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy, visit us with these rare and precious relics,” said Nick Gibboni, the executive director of the National Centre for Padre Pio.

“We continue to be enormously blessed to have a close relationship with Padre Pio’s brother friars, and we are excited about our continued relationship.”

In addition to the habit’s visit at the national center, the friars will also be taking the habit to the Padre Pio Foundation of America in Cromwell, Connecticut. The habit will be available for veneration at St. Pius X Church in Middletown, Connecticut, from Oct. 15–18.

Padre Pio was a Capuchin Franciscan friar, priest, and mystic of the 20th century. He is known for his deep wisdom about prayer and peace, having the stigmata, miraculous reports of his bilocation, being physically attacked by the devil, and mastering the spiritual life.

His tomb can be found in the Sanctuary of St. Mary Our Lady of Grace in San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy.

unitedyam October 4, 2025

A reading from the Book of Habakkuk
1:2-3; 2:2-4

How long, O LORD? I cry for help
but you do not listen!
I cry out to you, "Violence!"
but you do not intervene.
Why do you let me see ruin;
why must I look at misery?
Destruction and violence are before me;
there is strife, and clamorous discord.
Then the LORD answered me and said:
Write down the vision clearly upon the tablets,
so that one can read it readily.
For the vision still has its time,
presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint;
if it delays, wait for it,
it will surely come, it will not be late.
The rash one has no integrity;
but the just one, because of his faith, shall live.

A reading from the Second Letter to Timothy
1:6-8, 13-14

Beloved:
I remind you, to stir into flame
the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands.
For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice
but rather of power and love and self-control.
So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord,
nor of me, a prisoner for his sake;
but bear your share of hardship for the gospel
with the strength that comes from God.

Take as your norm the sound words that you heard from me,
in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
Guard this rich trust with the help of the Holy Spirit
that dwells within us.

From the Gospel according to Luke
17:5-10

The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith."
The Lord replied,
"If you have faith the size of a mustard seed,
you would say to this mulberry tree,
‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.

"Who among you would say to your servant
who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field,
‘Come here immediately and take your place at table’?
Would he not rather say to him,
‘Prepare something for me to eat.
Put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink.
You may eat and drink when I am finished’?
Is he grateful to that servant because he did what was commanded?
So should it be with you.
When you have done all you have been commanded,
say, ‘We are unprofitable servants;
we have done what we were obliged to do.’"

Jesus makes us aware that (…) we are God’s servants, we are not his creditors but are always indebted to him, because we owe him everything since everything is a gift from him. Accepting and doing his will is the approach to have every day, at every moment of our life. Before God we must never present ourselves as if we believe we have done a service and deserve a great reward. This is an illusion that can be born in everyone, even in people who work very hard in the Lord’s service, in the Church. Rather, we must be aware that in reality we never do enough for God. We must say, as Jesus suggests: "we are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty" (Lk 17: 10). This is an attitude of humility that really puts us in our place and permits the Lord to be very generous to us. In fact, in another Gospel passage, he promises people that "he will gird himself and have them sit at table, and he will come and serve them" (cf. Lk 12: 37). Dear friends, if we do God’s will today with humility, without claiming anything from him, it will be Jesus himself who serves us, who helps us, who encourages us, who gives us strength and serenity. (Pope Benedict XVI, Homily, Pastoral visit to Palermo, 3 October 2010)

Father Davey at 100: ‘I’m successful because of prayer’

unitedyam October 4, 2025

Father Davey at 100: ‘I’m successful because of prayer’ – Father Edward M. Davey attributes two essential habits to his miraculously long life as he blows out candles for his 100th birthday today, Oct. 4. A retired priest of the Diocese of Paterson in New Jersey, Father Davey doesn’t think it has to do with his diet, family history, or the exercise he did as a younger man. Instead, he credits his longevity to the daytime naps he takes and a practice that has sustained him throughout his priesthood: constant prayer. “Prayer is the answer to most people’s problems. I’m successful because of prayer,” said Father Davey, a priest for

Salesian centenarian stays active one step at a time

unitedyam October 4, 2025

Salesian centenarian stays active one step at a time – Turning 100 years old today, Oct. 4, Salesian Sister Domenica Di Peri jokes that her biggest worry at her age is that she will quickly wear out her shoes — and the floors of the convent where she lives in Paterson, N.J. That’s because Sister Domenica spends much of her busy days strolling the halls of the three-story convent with the aid of a walker, stopping to chat along the way with fellow Salesian Sisters in residence. In part, the Paterson-born centenarian credits her miraculous longevity to being active and social, as well as inheriting “good genes” from her family.

New film tells story of how broken Virgin Mary statue changed the life of a radio host

unitedyam October 4, 2025

The broken Virgin Mary statue Kevin Matthews found in a dumpster. / Credit: ODB Films

CNA Staff, Oct 4, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Kevin Matthews was at the top of his game as one of the most famous on-air radio personalities in Chicago in the 1980s and ’90s. He was partying with professional athletes and celebrities and posting 10 million listeners a week at the peak of his popularity.

All of that changed when he received a life-altering medical diagnosis. Yet the biggest change in his life happened when he found a broken Virgin Mary statue in the trash.

Kevin Matthews, former radio personality, speaks at a Catholic parish. His true story is told in the new documentary "Broken Mary: The Kevin Matthews Story." Credit: ODB Films — Kevin Matthews, former radio personality, speaks at a Catholic parish. His true story is told in the new documentary “Broken Mary: The Kevin Matthews Story.” Credit: ODB Films

“Broken Mary: The Kevin Matthews Story” is a new documentary recounting Matthews’ true story of fame, brokenness, and finding redemption in Jesus Christ thanks to his devotion to the Blessed Mother. The documentary will be in theaters for one night only on Oct. 7, the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.

Matthews was born and raised in Pontiac, Michigan, in a Catholic household. As a child he struggled to read and write, though it wasn’t until he was an adult that he discovered he was dyslexic.

In order to prevent himself from getting beaten up by both kids in his neighborhood and his physically abusive father, he used comedy and making others laugh as a shield he could hide behind.

Kevin Matthews, former radio personality, wheels "Broken Mary" into a Catholic parish. Credit: ODB Films — Kevin Matthews, former radio personality, wheels “Broken Mary” into a Catholic parish. Credit: ODB Films

In college Matthews was first introduced to radio through his roommate’s hosting of a show at the student station. In 1987, he began his career with “The Loop” AM 1000 in Chicago. It was here that he rose to fame and became known for his edgy humor, sharp wit, and comedic characters — the most popular being “Jim Shorts.”

Yet after years of mega-success, his life began to unravel when he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in 2008. It became more difficult to be on-air and new radio personalities were on the rise. But it wasn’t until 2011 that he had a life-changing experience.

Matthews told CNA in an interview that while driving on his way home from just having been fired from his job, he “heard the Holy Spirit say, ‘Go and get your wife some flowers.’” He pulled into a flower shop he happened to be passing at the time.

“I got out of my car and I’m starting to walk towards the door and over by the dumpster, I see a statue of the Virgin Mary,” he recalled. “I walked over to it and there she is on the ground broken in half. She’s looking up at me. Her hands are broken. She’s sunk in the mud, so she’s been there for a while, she’s got garbage on her.”

“And I’m a zombie Catholic at that point, I’m not religious,” he said, “but I knew at that moment, no one treats our Blessed Mother like that.”

“I just was appalled, but then I heard the voice of Christ say to me, ‘Will you deny me? Will you deny my mother?’ And I was like, ‘What do I do?’”

Matthews entered the store and told the store clerk that he wanted to buy the broken Mary statue out by the dumpster. Though the store clerk said it was not for sale, he recognized Matthews’ voice from the radio and allowed him to take the statue.

The statue weighed 73 pounds and due to his MS and a recent snowstorm, it took Matthews nearly an hour to get the broken Mary statue from out of the ground and into the back of his car.

“I remember I turned the heat up and I said, ‘Mary, I will take care of you for the rest of my life,’” Matthews shared.

He called a priest friend and told him about the broken statue. The priest told him about a sculptor who could fix her. Matthews took the broken Mary and was told that she could be completely restored.

“That was the first time I really cried in front of a total stranger and said, ‘Don’t you dare touch her.’ I said, ‘That is me.’ And I said, ‘She’s broken like me. Just keep her broken. Just put her together, keep her hands broken, don’t paint her — she’s broken Mary,” he said.

From then on, Matthews began to go back to Mass, he learned how to pray the rosary, and he completely left his life of luxury to instead take his broken statue of Mary to parishes across the country to share how his life was radically changed by the Blessed Mother.

Matthews said he hopes the film will show “that we’re all broken, but we’re loved by God and just go to him … I’ve never been happier in my life.”

Burned-out pastor builds global mental health resources for churches

unitedyam October 4, 2025

Young people listen to the stories of Christian youth with lived experience of mental health challenges as part of “The Sanctuary Youth Series” by Sanctuary Mental Health Ministries. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Sanctuary Mental Health Ministries

CNA Staff, Oct 4, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Daniel Whitehead knew it was time for a change when his wife told him she couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen him smile. With the strain of constantly meeting with people who were struggling, the Christian pastor said he had “gone numb.”

“I realized in that moment, it had been well over a year that I’d felt any emotion,” he told CNA. “No laughter, no tears, just numbness.”

Then he discovered Sanctuary Mental Health Ministries. At the time, it was a small, local ecumenical group creating resources for mental health in pastoral ministry. Nine years later, Whitehead has become its leader and Sanctuary has become a large-scale resource operating across the world.

Daniel Whitehead is the CEO of Sanctuary Mental Health Ministries. Credit: Photo courtesy of Sanctuary Mental Health Ministries

Working through burnout “was really confusing,” Whitehead said of his own experience.

“I didn’t have language, or self-permission, or a framework to really understand what I was going through,” he said. “But how I would describe it was a feeling of fear, anxiety, and feeling trapped.”

Looking back at his challenges in ministry, Whitehead said he was experiencing “emotional overwhelm” from “moving from meeting to meeting, feeling the weight of people’s expectations, having to be there for people when they’re at their worst, and not really having an outlet to process that with.”

This experience helped him “realize the great need that exists in the church for support in this area,” he said.

“From that moment throughout my recovery journey I was looking for a cause to give myself to, and Sanctuary was that cause,” he said. “I very much felt called to the work.”

Reaching young people

Whitehead told CNA that amid an ongoing mental health crisis, the church can be a great resource.

“The church is so perfectly placed to offer hope, belonging, community, and purpose to people in crisis — all of which are vital components of a person’s recovery and all of which are areas that the church has a monopoly on,” Whitehead said.

In the United States, depression and anxiety rates rose by more than 50% from 2010 to 2019 and suicide rates for adolescents ages 10 to 19 rose 48%.

“It really is an opportunity for the church to step in and offer Christ’s hope to people in crisis,” Whitehead said.

Youth pilot "The Sanctuary Youth Series" at The Way Church’s youth ministry in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in summer 2024. Credit: Photo courtesy of Sanctuary Mental Health Ministries — Youth pilot “The Sanctuary Youth Series” at The Way Church’s youth ministry in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in summer 2024. Credit: Photo courtesy of Sanctuary Mental Health Ministries

Sanctuary’s resources guide both the church and people struggling with mental health.

The ministry “creates high-quality resources that anyone anywhere can access,” which Whitehead said “makes us quite a unique proposition globally speaking.”

Resources include video courses designed to be taken in small-group settings.

Since its launch, more than 365,000 Christians in 102 countries have participated in the Sanctuary Course, according to the organization.

Sanctuary’s work “allows people who are experiencing crisis to feel seen and gives the church more confidence to know what its role is and what its role isn’t when walking with a person in crisis,” Whitehead explained.

This year, the organization is developing resources to reach young people.

It recently launched “The Sanctuary Youth Series,” which is all about starting “important conversations” with youth in youth ministry, explained Bryana Russell, Sanctuary’s director of engagement and interim director of development.

The series, Russell told CNA, “targets the pressing questions young people are asking about mental health” and is designed “to raise awareness and reduce stigma” about mental health.

“We know young people want to talk about the intersection of faith and mental health,” Russell said. “This series is one of the few resources available to help faith communities do so.”

“Our hope is that the next generation will experience the Church as a supportive place and that youth ministry leaders, parents and caregivers, and youth will all be equipped to have conversations about mental health,” Russell said.

Sanctuary Ambassador and Grammy nominated artist Matt Maher sings at an event hosted at the Archdiocese of Vancouver, where Sanctuary was presenting on mental health and faith on July 21, 2025. Credit: Nicholas Elbers/The BC Catholic

The series is “designed to be used in groups” to help “young people connect with trusted adults in their church or school community,” Russell said, noting that being in community helps mental health.

“Young people benefit from the support of trusted adults, but few are having the conversations they need to,” she said.

Working together

The ecumenicism of Sanctuary is what drew Whitehead to the group nine years ago.

“Our staff represent a range of church traditions, the majority of which are Protestant, but I would suggest that the spiritual practices that many of us draw from both individually and corporately are often more liturgical in nature,” Whitehead said.

“I think we all have a deep appreciation for the richness and vitality that different church traditions and denominations bring to the table,” Whitehead said.

Sanctuary works with various churches, including Catholic dioceses and parishes.

“Across the United States and Canada, many other dioceses are providing the leadership and support for mental health ministry,” Russell said.

Sanctuary’s course for Catholics — designed specifically for Catholic parishes and in use in parishes around the world — features Catholic voices including Archbishop J. Michael Miller of Vancouver and Archbishop Samuel Aquila of Denver.

“The Sanctuary Course for Catholics plays an important role in opening the conversation and equipping parishes to begin such a ministry,” Russell said.

This year, Sanctuary officially teamed up with the Archdiocese of Vancouver, which is formally launching a Mental Health Ministry with the help of Sanctuary.

“We are delighted that our resources will be a part of their designed reach to build this ministry of presence,” Russell said.

To kick off the event, Sanctuary and the archdiocese hosted Matt Maher, a Catholic contemporary Christian worship musician and Sanctuary’s ambassador.

Matt Maher and Bryana Russell (Sanctuary’s director of engagement and interim director of development) speak about Sanctuary, mental health, and faith at an event hosted at the Archdiocese of Vancouver on July 21, 2025. Credit: Nicholas Elbers/The BC Catholic

“Through stories, conversation, and song, themes of psychology, theology, and lived experience were introduced, offering an accessible and inspiring call to this ministry,” Russell said of the launch event.

“What makes Sanctuary unique is our ability to bring psychology and theology together to really validate and sanctify peoples’ stories,” Whitehead said. “Which means that in order to hold mental health well we have to really take each of these disciplines seriously.”

He added: “I’m inspired to continue this work when I look at the great need and also the great opportunity we have for the church to step into a gap that exists in society.”

Bishop Sweeney’s dispatches from Italy (Part 2)

unitedyam October 4, 2025

Bishop Sweeney’s dispatches from Italy (Part 2) – Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney is continuing his pilgrimage with a group of faithful, including priests and laity of the Diocese of Paterson, to mark the Jubilee Year of Hope in Rome, Italy. The diocesan pilgrims visited Assisi, Italy, where they paid homage to the tomb of the newly canonized saint, St. Carlo Acutis, and walked through the hometown of St. Francis and St. Clare. Then in Rome, they journeyed to St. Peter’s Basilica, St. Mary Major, St. Peter’s Square, the Sistine Chapel and other holy sites. Seminarian Lucas Folan was ordained a deacon in St. Peter’s Basilica. Bishop Sweeney shared

Texas boys school establishes policy to destroy smartphones

unitedyam October 4, 2025

Boys swing on a rope during recess at Western Academy in Houston, Texas. / Credit: Courtesy of Western Academy

Houston, Texas, Oct 4, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

After years of boys (and their parents) repeatedly ignoring the rules, a private boys school in Houston is taking a novel approach to its smartphone and digital device policy: Bring it to school, and “we will destroy it.”

Western Academy, an independent, liberal arts school that states its goal is to educate young men “in the good, the true, and the beautiful,” has never allowed students to bring electronic devices to school.

In the past, if a boy was caught with a phone or other device at the school or a school-sponsored event, faculty would confiscate the device, which would be returned to the parents only after they had met with headmaster Jason Hebert. He would explain the harms to boys caused by smartphone use and why parents “should not put the phone back into your son’s hands.”

Boys look for toads in a pond during recess. Credit: Courtesy of Western Academy

Under the new policy, which Hebert laid out in a four-page letter to parents last month, after the device is discovered and destroyed, the boy will be suspended. If it happens again, the boy will be automatically expelled.

Along with its singular smartphone policy, the school, which has 230 students in third through eighth grade, takes a unique approach to education. The boys are free to play throughout the park-like, rambling grounds, where they climb and swing from trees, build forts, shoot Nerf guns, and care for (or chase) chickens before and after school and multiple times throughout the school day.

The all-male faculty expects respect and responsibility from the boys at a young age, according to Hebert. The teachers have the boys rise when an adult visits a classroom and encourage parents to let their sons learn to endure hardship and experience natural consequences when they forget their homework or their lunch at home.

Jason Hebert, headmaster at Western Academy in Houston. Credit: Courtesy of Western Academy

A Catholic priest of the Prelature of Opus Dei serves as chaplain to the school, which was founded in 2010, and oversees the religious education program.

The model is popular: Even with middle-school tuition close to $28,000 a year, every grade has extensive waitlists, and the school may start wait-listing boys beginning as early as kindergarten.

At the beginning of each school year, the boys are sorted into one of four houses that compete throughout the year in games such as capture the flag and “The Hero’s Race,” where the boys in each house choose one boy to race across campus, climbing over obstacles and crawling through mud. There is also a poetry recitation competition known as “The Bard.” One mother, Stephanie Creech, told CNA her sons are so happy at the school they “beg to get to school early and to stay afterward to play.”

Hebert sat down with CNA and discussed what brought about the change in the smartphone policy, saying he chose the words in his letter very carefully.

Hebert speaks to the boys on the first day of school as the faculty looks on. Credit: Courtesy of Western Academy

Witnessing the damage

“Smartphones are causing significant, unimagined damage to the students who have them,” Hebert wrote in his letter to parents, “as well as to the sons of those parents who have chosen not to give phones to their sons.”

“The damage these phones have caused to our children,” he told CNA in the interview, “it literally has never been imagined.”

“It’s not just pornography,” Hebert continued. “YouTube actors and other characters just trying to get clicks perform the most shameless actions on video. They just have zero respect for the dignity of their bodies and for life, zero. And these boys want to emulate these people.”

Hebert said the last straw came after a mother called him complaining her son saw a graphic, violent video on a smartphone at a school event.

After that, Hebert said he and the other administrators agreed: “That’s it. We’re done.”

Asked why the school did not just consider automatic expulsion after the first offense rather than the destruction of the devices, Hebert said with a laugh: “To be perfectly candid, I want to destroy the phone. I want to give the boys an opportunity to have life without it.”

He ordered a metal grinder for the purpose.

“Look, I am not an alarmist. I am not reactionary. But the bottom line is this: These devices are not neutral. The research is definitive: They are bad for our kids. I have dealt with hundreds and hundreds of boys over two decades in education and I have yet to see an exception to this,” he said.

Hebert said that over the years, he has noticed a degradation in the quality of the boys’ conversation. “You can’t imagine the level of shamelessness” among some of the boys,” many of whom are generally considered “good kids.”

“This type of behavior is unprecedented in my tenure as an educator, and even as a professional athlete,” he said.

Boys cheer their teammates on as the houses compete in a game of "Thud," in which two boys throw a medicine ball at one another as hard as they can until one of them drops it or gives up. Credit: Courtesy of Western Academy — Boys cheer their teammates on as the houses compete in a game of “Thud,” in which two boys throw a medicine ball at one another as hard as they can until one of them drops it or gives up. Credit: Courtesy of Western Academy

In the early 2000s, before beginning his teaching career, which included teaching at The Heights School in Maryland, he spent one year as a professional football player on practice squads for three NFL teams: the Chargers, the Titans, and the Raiders.

“I never played in a regular-season game. This is what I tell people: I made it to the NFL. I did not make it in the NFL,” he said, laughing.

“Let me make it clear: I was an athlete around some of the most earthy human beings on the planet,” he said. “These men were not ashamed to say anything in the locker room. Yet these same men would have blushed if they heard some of the things these boys talk about! This is so unimaginable. Yet it is becoming more common now, thanks to these devices.”

Parents on board

Asked if he was worried parents would leave over the school’s new policy, Hebert said if parents are not on board with the school’s values, it might be better if they left and one of the many others on the waitlist could take their spot.

In his letter to parents, Hebert wrote that the “school is a true partnership with parents. We say this not for poetic effect, but because it must be so for the authentic growth of your sons to become a reality.”

He told CNA parents should ask themselves: “How valuable is the phone to you? Are you willing to leave this place for it? This place where your son is so abundantly happy? Is your phone worth that? And if it is, well, it’s a mismatch of vision.”

Since the change in policy, however, Hebert said parental response has been “100% positive.”

After hearing about the school’s new policy, a mother whose son graduated from the school several years ago dropped off a financial donation at the front desk recently “for the phone grinder.”

“Everybody just knows it’s right. Parents might be frustrated because saying no to their sons makes their lives harder, but they know it’s right,” he said.

Hebert, a father of seven, said he and his wife do not allow their children to have smartphones or social media. “My children may not know a lot of the lingo or some of the jokes or about all the parties. They’re on the outside, to a degree.”

“And even though that’s a big deal,” he continued, “the alternative overrides that. It’s a bigger deal.”

“The alternative is not worth it,” he said.

“We all want the truth,” he said, “and the truth is these devices are severely hurting kids. I’m not a doomsday guy, but some day these kids will be in charge of society. Think about that.”

unitedyam October 3, 2025

A reading from the Book of Baruch
4:5-12, 27-29

Fear not, my people!
Remember, Israel,
You were sold to the nations
not for your destruction;
It was because you angered God
that you were handed over to your foes.
For you provoked your Maker
with sacrifices to demons, to no-gods;
You forsook the Eternal God who nourished you,
and you grieved Jerusalem who fostered you.
She indeed saw coming upon you
the anger of God; and she said:

"Hear, you neighbors of Zion!
God has brought great mourning upon me,
For I have seen the captivity
that the Eternal God has brought
upon my sons and daughters.
With joy I fostered them;
but with mourning and lament I let them go.
Let no one gloat over me, a widow,
bereft of many:
For the sins of my children I am left desolate,
because they turned from the law of God.

Fear not, my children; call out to God!
He who brought this upon you will remember you.
As your hearts have been disposed to stray from God,
turn now ten times the more to seek him;
For he who has brought disaster upon you
will, in saving you, bring you back enduring joy."

From the Gospel according to Luke
10:17-24

The seventy-two disciples returned rejoicing and said to Jesus,
"Lord, even the demons are subject to us because of your name."
Jesus said, "I have observed Satan fall like lightning from the sky.
Behold, I have given you the power
‘to tread upon serpents’ and scorpions
and upon the full force of the enemy
and nothing will harm you.
Nevertheless, do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you,
but rejoice because your names are written in heaven."

At that very moment he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said,
"I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
for although you have hidden these things
from the wise and the learned
you have revealed them to the childlike.
Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.
All things have been handed over to me by my Father.
No one knows who the Son is except the Father,
and who the Father is except the Son
and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him."

Turning to the disciples in private he said,
"Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.
For I say to you,
many prophets and kings desired to see what you see,
but did not see it,
and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it."

There is a case where the evangelist explicitly attributes to the Holy Spirit the prayer of Jesus, not without hinting at the habitual state of contemplation from which it sprang. It is when, on His journey toward Jerusalem, He converses with the disciples, among whom He has chosen seventy-two to send out, after having properly instructed them, to evangelize the people in the places He is about to visit (cf. Luke 10). Upon their return from that mission, the seventy-two recount to Jesus what they have accomplished, including the “submission” of demons in His Name. And Jesus, after telling them that He had seen “Satan fall from heaven like lightning,” rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.” This text from Luke, alongside the one from John that relates the farewell discourse in the upper room (cf. Jn 13-14), is particularly significant and eloquent regarding the revelation of the Holy Spirit in Christ’s messianic mission. […] In the entirety of the preaching and actions of Jesus Christ, which flow from His union with the Holy Spirit-Love, there is contained an immense richness of the heart: “Learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart,” He urges, “and you will find rest for your souls” (Mt 11:29), but at the same time, there is the firmness of the truth regarding the kingdom of God, and therefore the persistent invitation to open the heart, under the action of the Holy Spirit, to be admitted to it and not excluded. In all of this, the “power of the Holy Spirit” is revealed – and indeed, the Holy Spirit Himself is manifested with His presence and action as the Paraclete, the comforter of man, the confirmer of divine truth, and the one who defeats the “ruler of this world.” (St. John Paul II, General Audience, 25 July 1990)

Report: Abortion declines even in states where it is still legal

unitedyam October 3, 2025

null / Credit: Mike Blackburn via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

CNA Staff, Oct 3, 2025 / 10:30 am (CNA).

Here is a roundup of recent pro-life and abortion-related news.

Abortion declines even in states where it is still legal

The number of abortions in clinics in pro-abortion states saw a decline in the first half of 2025, according to a recent report.

The report by the pro-abortion group Guttmacher found a 5% decrease in abortions provided by clinics from for the same period in 2024.

The review found declines in clinician-provided abortions in 22 states, all states that did not have “abortion bans.” The report also found an 8% decline in out-of-state travel for abortion to states with fewer protections for unborn children.

States with protections for unborn children at six weeks, such as Florida and Iowa, also saw a decline in abortions so far this year.

The report did not take mail-in or telehealth abortion pill numbers into account.

Michael New, a professor at the Busch School of Business at The Catholic University of America and a scholar at Charlotte Lozier Institute, called the report “good news” but noted that the survey wasn’t “comprehensive.”

“It does not appear that Guttmacher collects data on telehealth abortions from states where strong pro-life laws are in effect but abortion is not banned,” he told CNA. “Pro-lifers should take these figures with a grain of salt.”

In terms of mail-in, telehealth abortions, New noted that pro-lifers should “continue to push for more timely action to protect mothers and preborn children.”

“The Trump administration is within its power to halt telehealth abortions,” he said, noting that “Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently said the FDA would conduct a new review of abortion pills.”

Florida’s Heartbeat Act, which took effect in May 2024, played “a large role in this decline,” New said.

“The Heartbeat Act is protecting preborn children in Florida and is preventing women from other states from obtaining abortions in the Sunshine State,” he said. “Birth data from Florida shows that the Heartbeat Act is saving nearly 300 lives every month.”

Government takes action against Virginia school system following alleged abortions for students

The U.S. Department of Education has called on a Virginia public school system to investigate reports that high school staff facilitated abortions for students without their parents’ knowledge.

The department took action against Fairfax County Public Schools under the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendments, according to a Sept. 29 press release.

The investigation follows reports that a Centreville High School social worker scheduled and paid for an abortion for a minor and pressured a second student to have an abortion. The federal agency is requiring that Fairfax investigate whether this practice has continued.

The Fairfax report “shocks the conscience,” the department’s acting general counsel, Candice Jackson, said in a statement.

“Children do not belong to the government — decisions touching deeply-held values should be made within loving families,” Jackson said. “It is both morally unconscionable and patently illegal for school officials to keep parents in the dark about such intimate, life-altering procedures pertaining to their children.”

Jackson said the Trump administration will “take swift and decisive action” to “restore parental authority.”

Virginia bishop speaks out against potential ‘abortion rights’ amendment

Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia, this week spoke out against a proposed amendment to create a right to abortion in the Virginia Constitution.

“While the amendment is not yet on the ballot, the outcome of this fall’s elections will determine whether it advances or is halted,” he said in an October “Respect Life Month” message.

“If adopted, this amendment would embed in our state constitution a purported right to abortion through all nine months of pregnancy with no age limits,” he said.

He noted that Virginia has “some modest protections” for life, but “the proposed amendment would likely make it impossible … to pass similar protective laws in the future.”

Protections for unborn children, for parental consent, and for conscience rights “would be severely jeopardized under this amendment,” he added.

“Parents have the sacred right to be involved in the most serious decisions facing their daughters,” Burbidge said. “No one should ever be forced to participate in or pay for an abortion.”

“Most importantly, the lives of vulnerable women and their unborn children are sacred and must be welcomed and protected,” he said.

He called on Catholics to not “remain silent,” urging the faithful to inform themselves and others about “the devastating impact this amendment would have.”

“Our faith compels us to stand firmly for life, in prayer and witness, and also in advocacy and action,” he said.

“We must speak with clarity and compassion in the public square, reminding our legislators and neighbors that true justice is measured by how we treat the most defenseless among us,” he concluded.

Planned Parenthood closes its only 2 clinics in Louisiana

The only two Planned Parenthood locations in Louisiana closed this week following the Trump administration’s decision to halt federal funding for abortion providers for a year.

The president of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast cited “political attacks” as the reason for the closures of the two facilities located in Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

The closures follow a court ruling last month enforcing the Trump administration’s defunding of Planned Parenthood, which halted government funding for abortion providers.

Louisiana authorities issue arrest warrant for California abortionist

Louisiana authorities issued an arrest warrant for a California doctor for allegedly providing abortion drugs to a woman without consulting her.

The woman, Rosalie Markezich, said she felt coerced into the abortion by her boyfriend at the time, who arranged for an abortionist in California to prescribe drugs to induce a chemical abortion.

The same abortionist, Remy Coeytaux, has faced charges for telehealth abortions after the abortionist allegedly sent abortion pills to Texas, where they are illegal.

Christian photographer wins lawsuit against Louisville over same-sex discrimination rule

unitedyam October 3, 2025

Photographer holding camera against newlywed couple. / Credit: Vectorfusionart/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 3, 2025 / 09:30 am (CNA).

A federal court awarded nominal damages to a Christian photographer after the city government of Louisville, Kentucky, sought to enforce an anti-discrimination ordinance that could have forced her to provide photography services for same-sex civil weddings.

Judge Benjamin Beaton found that Louisville’s Fairness Ordinance contained “two provisions” that limited the expression of Christian wedding photographer Chelsey Nelson, who sought $1 in damages. The court awarded Nelson the requested damages.

According to the ruling, the ordinance prohibited “the denial of goods and services to members of protected classes,” which includes people with same-sex attraction.

The publication provision of the ordinance also prevented her “from writing and publishing any indication or explanation that she wouldn’t photograph same-sex weddings, or that otherwise causes someone to feel unwelcome or undesirable based on his or her sexual orientation or gender identity.”

Both provisions, Beaton ruled, “limit Nelson’s freedom to express her beliefs about marriage.”

The court stated Nelson “suffered a First Amendment injury” because she decided to limit the promotion of her business, ignore opportunities posted online, refrain from advertising to grow her business, and censored herself, which was done to avoid prosecution.

“The government can’t force Americans to say things they don’t believe, and state officials have paid and will continue to pay a price when they violate this foundational freedom,” Nelson said in a statement through her attorneys at Alliance Defending Freedom following the ruling.

“The freedom to speak without fear of censorship is a God-given constitutionally guaranteed right,” she added.

In his ruling, Beaton noted the Supreme Court set nationwide precedent when it ruled on 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis. In that decision, the court ruled a Colorado law violated a web designer’s First Amendment rights because it would have forced him to design websites for same-sex civil weddings in spite of his religious beliefs.

Beaton wrote that in spite of the Supreme Court precedent, “Louisville apparently still ‘actively enforces’ the ordinance … [and] still won’t concede that the First Amendment protects Nelson from compelled expression.”

His ruling noted that the mayor publicly stated that he would keep enforcing the ordinance, including against Nelson, after the 303 Creative decision.

Although the city’s lawyers argued in court that the city did not intend to enforce the law against Nelson, Beaton wrote: “Nothing in Louisville’s informal disavowal would prevent the city from making good on that promise [to enforce the rule against Nelson] tomorrow.”

“Anyone who’s tussled with the city’s lawyers this long and who continues to do business in and around Louisville might reasonably look askance at the city’s assurances that enforcement is unlikely,” Beaton wrote in his ruling.

Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Bryan Neihart said in a statement that “free speech is for everyone” and the precedent set in 303 Creative ensures that Americans “have the freedom to express and create messages that align with their beliefs without fear of government punishment.”

“For over five years, Louisville officials said they could force Chelsey to promote views about marriage that violated her religious beliefs,” he said.

“But the First Amendment leaves decisions about what to say with the people, not the government. The district court’s decision rests on this bedrock First Amendment principle and builds on the victory in 303 Creative.”

unitedyam October 2, 2025

A reading from the Book of Baruch
1:15-22

During the Babylonian captivity, the exiles prayed:
"Justice is with the Lord, our God;
and we today are flushed with shame,
we men of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem,
that we, with our kings and rulers
and priests and prophets, and with our ancestors,
have sinned in the Lord’s sight and disobeyed him.
We have neither heeded the voice of the Lord, our God,
nor followed the precepts which the Lord set before us.
From the time the Lord led our ancestors out of the land of Egypt
until the present day,
we have been disobedient to the Lord, our God,
and only too ready to disregard his voice.
And the evils and the curse that the Lord enjoined upon Moses, his servant,
at the time he led our ancestors forth from the land of Egypt
to give us the land flowing with milk and honey,
cling to us even today.
For we did not heed the voice of the Lord, our God,
in all the words of the prophets whom he sent us,
but each one of us went off
after the devices of his own wicked heart,
served other gods,
and did evil in the sight of the Lord, our God."

From the Gospel according to Luke
10:13-16

Jesus said to them,
"Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!
For if the mighty deeds done in your midst
had been done in Tyre and Sidon,
they would long ago have repented,
sitting in sackcloth and ashes.
But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon
at the judgment than for you.
And as for you, Capernaum, ‘Will you be exalted to heaven?
You will go down to the netherworld.’
Whoever listens to you listens to me.
Whoever rejects you rejects me.
And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me."

Jesus speaks to me, He speaks to you, He speaks to each one of us. Jesus’ preaching is meant for each one of us. How is it that those pagans, as soon as they heard the preaching of Jesus, went with him; and I who was born here, in a Christian society, have become accustomed to it, and Christianity has become like a social habit, a garment that I put on and then lay aside? And Jesus weeps over each one of us when we live out our Christianity formally, not really. (…) There is the hypocrisy of sinners, but the hypocrisy of the just is the fear of the love of Jesus, the fear of allowing ourselves to love. And in reality, when we do this, we try to take control of our relationship with Jesus. [We tell Him] “Yes, I go to Mass, but afterwards You stay in the Church while I go home.” (…) Today can be a day for us to make an examination of conscience, with this refrain [from Jesus]: “‘Woe to you, woe to you,’ because I have given you so much, I have given you Myself, I have chosen you to be Christian, and you prefer a life by halves, a superficial life: a little bit of Christianity and holy water, but nothing more.” When this kind of Christian hypocrisy is lived, what we end up doing is casting Jesus from our hearts. We pretend to have Him, but we have cast him out. “We are Christians,” [we say.] “We are proud to be Christians.” But we live like pagans. (Pope Francis, Santa Marta, 5 October 2018)

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney’s Schedule: October, 2025

unitedyam October 2, 2025

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney’s Schedule: October, 2025 – 9/26–10/4 Jubilee Pilgrimage to Assisi and Rome. 10/5 Sun., 3 p.m. Rosary Coast to Coast Procession, Order of Malta – St. Vincent Parish, Madison. 10/7 Tue., 11:30 a.m. Mass for diocesan staff – St. Bonaventure Parish, Paterson; 7 p.m. Confirmation – Resurrection Parish, Randolph. 10/8 Wed., 10 a.m. Board of Bishops meeting – Eparchy of Passaic, Woodland Park; 3 p.m. Priestly Life Committee – diocesan center, Clifton. 10/9 Thu., 10 a.m. Finance Council meeting – diocesan center, Clifton. 10/10 Fri., 2 p.m. Mass with the order of the Holy Sepulchre – New York City; 6:30 p.m. Procession of the Blessed

Celebrating 75 years, Chester parish continues welcoming Hispanic community

unitedyam October 2, 2025

Celebrating 75 years, Chester parish continues welcoming Hispanic community – Hispanic Catholics have found a spiritual home at St. Lawrence the Martyr Parish in Chester, N.J., which, in recent years, has welcomed local Spanish speakers with the loving arms of Christ. Having just closed its 75th anniversary celebrations, St. Lawrence has helped area Hispanics create a Spanish-speaking faith community and encouraged them to become more incorporated into the entire parish. Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney visited St. Lawrence on Sept. 20 and celebrated a Mass with the 1,100-family parish to help conclude its anniversary observances. For the Hispanic community, St. Lawrence offers a Spanish Mass on Sundays at 12:30 p.m., a

Retired priests pray with the bishop at Parsippany gathering

unitedyam October 2, 2025

Retired priests pray with the bishop at Parsippany gathering – The Ministry of Retired Priests of the Diocese of Paterson in New Jersey held a Gathering for Retired Priests with Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney on Sept. 23 at St. Ann Parish in Parsippany. About 30 priests attended the event, which began with midday prayer led by Bishop Sweeney, who made some remarks. Click here to subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Then, Bill Rafferty, the executive director of diocesan human resources and the Benefits Office; Mary Lennon, diocesan technology director; and Jorge Teixeira, technical coordinator, talked about benefits fraud and cybersecurity awareness to help the priests stay safe in the digital

Girl Scouts, Cincinnati Archdiocese announce ‘renewed’ partnership after LGBT dispute

unitedyam October 2, 2025

null / Credit: maximino/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Oct 2, 2025 / 09:41 am (CNA).

After cutting ties with the Girl Scouts over the group’s endorsement of gender ideology, the Archdiocese of Cincinnati said this week that it has struck up a renewed partnership with the more-than-century-old youth organization.

Last year, the archdiocese ended a 110-year relationship with Girl Scouts of the USA due to the group promoting gender ideology contrary to Catholic teaching.

The decision was spearheaded by then-Archbishop Dennis Schnurr, who now serves as archbishop emeritus. At the time, Schnurr endorsed a faith-based scouting group, American Heritage Girls, as an alternative.

Newly-instated Archbishop Robert Casey has since made an agreement with the local Girl Scouts of Western Ohio to maintain Church moral teaching while operating in Catholic parishes.

Girl Scouts groups are “welcome” on Catholic campuses, so long as they pledge not to promote anything counter to the Church’s teaching on faith and morals, according to an archdiocesan press release.

Casey said he is “proud” that the archdiocese and the Girl Scouts “focused on our shared desire for the flourishing of young women in virtue and faith, rather than being solely focused on our differences.”

“Girl Scouts is a secular organization, and as such, they do not share all of our views,” he said in a Sept. 30 statement. “As the Catholic Church we are called to uphold the Gospel and teach young people the truth of the Catholic faith.”

“Despite these differences, we have reached a mutual understanding that allows us to fulfill our mission as Church in the faithful formation of young girls while also accessing all that is best about Girl Scouting,” he continued.

Aimée Sproles, president and CEO of Girl Scouts of Western Ohio, said that organization hopes to encourage girls in their faith journey.

“At Girl Scouts, we believe that a part of girls’ healthy development is encouraging girls in their spiritual journey, through partnerships with their individual faith communities,” Sproles said in a statement.

“Girl Scouts of Western Ohio and the Archdiocese of Cincinnati have helped generations of girls to grow in their faith and develop the critical thinking and decision-making skills they need in order to act on the values of their faith in our complex world,” she said.

“This renewed partnership allows our Catholic Girl Scouts to have the support of their family and the Catholic community as they grow in courage, confidence, and character,” she added.

The agreement comes after “continued dialogue,” archdiocesan spokeswoman Jennifer Schack told CNA.

“While this announcement highlights the renewed partnership, there has been ongoing dialogue, given the two agencies share a common interest to strengthen and support girls in our communities,” Schack said.

The agreement specifies that the Girl Scouts cannot promote anything that goes against Catholic faith and moral teachings, according to documents shared with CNA.

Whether the renewal of the Girl Scouts will affect the archdiocese’s partnership with American Heritage Girls is unclear.

When asked about the effect of the partnership renewal, American Heritage Girls told CNA that it looks forward to “deepening its relationship” with the archdiocese.

The interdenominational group has programs and activities designed for its Catholic scouting groups that promote the Catholic faith, including troop-led Stations of the Cross and Eucharistic Revival patches.

“Catholic families in Cincinnati and beyond have embraced AHG as a trusted youth ministry option,” the organization stated. “AHG looks forward to deepening its relationship with the Archdiocese of Cincinnati as more Catholic families and parishes build communities where virtue and faith flourish.”

Schack affirmed that the recent announcement “has no impact on American Heritage Girls troops” in the archdiocese.

American Heritage Girls, which has been endorsed by Catholic dioceses across the country, features a National Catholic Committee headed by Bishop James Conley of the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska.

The group forms “girls of integrity through Catholic Faith Awards, troop life, service, outdoor adventure, and leadership,” the group stated.

“American Heritage Girls is grateful for over 30 years of ministry rooted in a Christ-centered foundation, deeply aligned with the Catholic Church,” it added.

Benedictines of Morristown celebrate a century of faith, service

unitedyam October 2, 2025

Benedictines of Morristown celebrate a century of faith, service – With great joy, the Benedictine monks of St. Mary’s Abbey in Morristown, N.J., marked their resilient community’s 100 years of strong faith, unceasing communal prayer and worship, and devoted service to the local Church on Sept. 21. They held a solemn vespers service in the abbey church on their palatial campus. The abbey’s 15 monks — both priests and brothers — also celebrated their community’s dedication to education as the founder of the Delbarton School for young men from grades 7 to 12, which opened there in 1939. Joining the monks and their abbot, Jonathan Licari, for the service were

World must come together to fight climate change, Pope Leo says

unitedyam October 2, 2025

World must come together to fight climate change, Pope Leo says – CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (CNS) — People of faith cannot love God while despising his creatures, and people cannot call themselves Christians without caring for everything fragile and wounded, including the earth, Pope Leo XIV told climate activists and political and religious leaders. “There is no room for indifference or resignation,” he said, inaugurating an international conference celebrating the 10th anniversary of Pope Francis’ encyclical “Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home.” Seated behind a slowly melting chunk of ice from a glacier in Greenland, the pope said, “God will ask us if we have cultivated and cared for the

9 quotes from the saints about guardian angels

unitedyam October 2, 2025

null / Credit: Petra Homeier/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Oct 2, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

During the month of October, the Catholic Church celebrates guardian angels.

Guardian angels are instruments of providence who help protect their charges from suffering serious harm and assist them on the path of salvation.

It is a teaching of the Church that every one of the faithful has his or her own guardian angel, and it is the general teaching of theologians that everyone has a guardian angel from birth.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “From its beginning until death, human life is surrounded by their [angels’] watchful care and intercession. ‘Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life.’ Already here on earth, the Christian life shares by faith in the blessed company of angels and men united in God” (No. 336).

Several of our greatest saints have also shared their thoughts on guardian angels. Here’s what they had to say:

St. John Vianney

“Our guardian angels are our most faithful friends, because they are with us day and night, always and everywhere. We ought often to invoke them.”

St. John Bosco

“When tempted, invoke your angel. He is more eager to help you than you are to be helped. Ignore the devil and do not be afraid of him; he trembles and flees at the sight of your guardian angel.”

St. Jerome

“How great is the dignity of souls, that each person has from birth received an angel to protect it.”

St. Thérèse of Lisieux

“My holy Guardian Angel, cover me with your wing. With your fire light the road that I’m taking. Come, direct my steps… help me, I call upon you. Just for today.”

St. Basil the Great

“Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd, leading him to life.”

St. Bernard of Clairvaux

“We should show our affection for the angels, for one day they will be our co-heirs just as here below they are our guardians and trustees appointed and set over us by the Father.”

St. Francis de Sales

“Make yourself familiar with the angels, and behold them frequently in spirit. Without being seen, they are present with you.”

St. Josemaría Escrivá

“If you remembered the presence of your angel and the angels of your neighbors, you would avoid many of the foolish things which slip into your conversations.”

St. John Cassian

“Cherubim means knowledge in abundance. They provide an everlasting protection for that which appeases God, namely, the calm of your heart, and they will cast a shadow of protection against all the attacks of malign spirits.”

This story was first published on Oct. 2, 2022, and has been updated.

unitedyam October 1, 2025

A reading from the Book of Nehemiah
8:1-4a, 5-6, 7b-12

The whole people gathered as one in the open space before the Water Gate,
and they called upon Ezra the scribe
to bring forth the book of the law of Moses
which the LORD prescribed for Israel.
On the first day of the seventh month, therefore,
Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly,
which consisted of men, women,
and those children old enough to understand.
Standing at one end of the open place that was before the Water Gate,
he read out of the book from daybreak until midday,
in the presence of the men, the women,
and those children old enough to understand;
and all the people listened attentively to the book of the law.
Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform
that had been made for the occasion.
He opened the scroll
so that all the people might see it
(for he was standing higher up than any of the people);
and, as he opened it, all the people rose.
Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God,
and all the people, their hands raised high, answered,
"Amen, amen!"
Then they bowed down and prostrated themselves before the LORD,
their faces to the ground.
As the people remained in their places,
Ezra read plainly from the book of the law of God,
interpreting it so that all could understand what was read.
Then Nehemiah, that is, His Excellency, and Ezra the priest-scribe
and the Levites who were instructing the people
said to all the people:
"Today is holy to the LORD your God.
Do not be sad, and do not weep"–
for all the people were weeping as they heard the words of the law.
He said further: "Go, eat rich foods and drink sweet drinks,
and allot portions to those who had nothing prepared;
for today is holy to our LORD.
Do not be saddened this day,
for rejoicing in the LORD must be your strength!"
And the Levites quieted all the people, saying,
"Hush, for today is holy, and you must not be saddened."
Then all the people went to eat and drink,
to distribute portions, and to celebrate with great joy,
for they understood the words that had been expounded to them.

From the Gospel according to Matthew
18:1-5, 10

The disciples approached Jesus and said,
"Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?"
He called a child over, placed it in their midst, and said,
"Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children,
you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven.
Whoever humbles himself like this child
is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.
And whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me.

"See that you do not despise one of these little ones,
for I say to you that their angels in heaven
always look upon the face of my heavenly Father."

We are all sons and daughters. And this always brings us back to the fact that we did not give ourselves life but that we received it. The great gift of life is the first gift that we received. Sometimes in life we risk forgetting about this, as if we were the masters of our existence, and instead we are fundamentally dependent. In reality, it is a motive of great joy to feel at every stage of life, in every situation, in every social condition, that we are and we remain sons and daughters. This is the main message that children give us, by their very presence: simply by their presence they remind us that each and every one of us is a son or daughter. But there are so many gifts, so many riches that children bring to humanity. I shall mention only a few. They bring their way of seeing reality, with a trusting and pure gaze. A child has spontaneous trust in his father and mother; he has spontaneous trust in God, in Jesus, in Our Lady. At the same time, his interior gaze is pure, not yet tainted by malice, by duplicity, by the “incrustations” of life which harden the heart. We know that children are also marked by original sin, that they are selfish, but they preserve purity, and interior simplicity. But children are not diplomats: they say what they feel, say what they see, directly. (…) Furthermore, children — in their interior simplicity — bring with them the capacity to receive and give tenderness. Tenderness is having a heart “of flesh” and not “of stone”, as the Bible says (cf. Ezek 36:26). Tenderness is also poetry: it is “feeling” things and events, not treating them as mere objects, only to use them, because they are useful.(…) For all these reasons Jesus invited his disciples to “become like children”, because “the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like them” (cf. Mt 18:3; Mk 10:14). (Pope Francis, General Audience, 18 March 2015)

Bishop urges Morristown students to look to saints for inspiration

unitedyam October 1, 2025

Bishop urges Morristown students to look to saints for inspiration – Villa Walsh Academy in Morristown, N.J., on Sept. 23, welcomed Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney, who celebrated a Mass for the feast of St. Padre Pio and the opening of the current academic year. Villa Walsh is a college preparatory school for girls, grades 7 to 12, run by the Religious Teachers Filippini. In his homily, Bishop Sweeney urged the Villa Walsh community to reflect on two questions: “What makes a Catholic school truly Catholic?” and “What does it mean, for me, to attend a Catholic school?” Bishop Sweeney reminded the students that while it’s natural to ask “What do I

How to pray the St. Thérèse of Lisieux novena

unitedyam October 1, 2025

St. Thérèse of Lisieux. / Credit: Public domain

CNA Staff, Oct 1, 2025 / 05:00 am (CNA).

The Catholic Church celebrates the feast of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, also known as the Little Flower, on Oct. 1.

Born to Zelie and Louis Martin in 1873 — both canonized saints — Thérèse was the youngest of five siblings. Devout from a young age, she experienced a miraculous healing at around the age of 9 from an unknown illness for which doctors could not find a treatment. After turning to the Blessed Virgin Mary for her intercession, young Thérèse was healed and felt called to religious life.

In 1888, at the age of 15, she entered a Carmelite monastery in Lisieux, France. Her ability to live her ordinary life in an extraordinary way became known as the “Little Way” — a journey toward Christ made up of small acts of love in everyday life.

In 1896, Thérèse was diagnosed with tuberculosis and passed away at the age of 24 the following year. Pope Pius XI canonized her in 1925, making her the youngest canonized saint at the time. In 1997, Pope John Paul II declared her a doctor of the Church for her significant spiritual contribution to the universal Church.

Over the years, the St. Thérèse Novena has become popular for those seeking to live a life of love and simplicity. While many pray it leading up to her feast day, the nine-day novena can be prayed any time of the year. Here’s how to pray it:

— Begin by making the sign of the cross.

— Recite the Holy Spirit prayer:

Come Holy Spirit and fill the hearts of the faithful, and kindle in them the fire of divine love.

— Recite the following prayer:

Dearest St. Thérèse of Lisieux, you said that you would spend your time in heaven doing good on earth.

Your trust in God was complete. Pray that he may increase my trust in his goodness and mercy as I ask for the following petitions: [state your intentions]

Pray for me that I, like you, may have great and innocent confidence in the loving promises of our God. Pray that I may live my life in union with God’s plan for me and one day see the face of God, whom you loved so deeply.

St. Thérèse, you were faithful to God even unto the moment of your death. Pray for me that I may be faithful to our loving God. May my life bring peace and love to the world through faithful endurance in love for God our savior.

Loving God, you blessed St. Thérèse with a capacity for a great love. Help me to believe in your unconditional love for each of your children, especially for me.

I love you, Lord. Help me to love you more!

— Recite the “Glory Be” prayer:

Glory be to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

— Conclude by making the sign of the cross.

unitedyam September 30, 2025

A reading from the Book of Nehemiah
2:1-8

In the month Nisan of the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes,
when the wine was in my charge,
I took some and offered it to the king.
As I had never before been sad in his presence,
the king asked me, "Why do you look sad?
If you are not sick, you must be sad at heart."
Though I was seized with great fear, I answered the king:
"May the king live forever!
How could I not look sad
when the city where my ancestors are buried lies in ruins,
and its gates have been eaten out by fire?"
The king asked me, "What is it, then, that you wish?"
I prayed to the God of heaven and then answered the king:
"If it please the king,
and if your servant is deserving of your favor,
send me to Judah, to the city of my ancestors’ graves,
to rebuild it."
Then the king, and the queen seated beside him,
asked me how long my journey would take
and when I would return.
I set a date that was acceptable to him,
and the king agreed that I might go.

I asked the king further: "If it please the king,
let letters be given to me for the governors
of West-of-Euphrates,
that they may afford me safe-conduct until I arrive in Judah;
also a letter for Asaph, the keeper of the royal park,
that he may give me wood for timbering the gates
of the temple-citadel and for the city wall
and the house that I shall occupy."
The king granted my requests,
for the favoring hand of my God was upon me.

From the Gospel according to Luke
9:57-62

As Jesus and his disciples were proceeding
on their journey, someone said to him,
"I will follow you wherever you go."
Jesus answered him,
"Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests,
but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head."
And to another he said, "Follow me."
But he replied, "Lord, let me go first and bury my father."
But he answered him, "Let the dead bury their dead.
But you, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God."
And another said, "I will follow you, Lord,
but first let me say farewell to my family at home."
Jesus answered him, "No one who sets a hand to the plow
and looks to what was left behind is fit for the Kingdom of God."

Today the Evangelist presents us three characters — three cases of vocation, we could say — that shed light on what is required of those who wish to follow Jesus to the end, completely. (…) In order to follow Jesus, the Church is itinerant, acts promptly, quickly and decisively. The value of these conditions set by Jesus — itnerancy, promptness and decision — does not lie in a series of saying ‘no’ to the good and important things in life. Rather, the emphasis is placed on the main objective: to become a disciple of Christ! A free and conscious choice, made out of love, to reciprocate the invaluable grace of God, and not made as a way to promote oneself. This is sad! Woe to those who think about following Jesus for their own advantage, that is, to further their career, to feel important or to acquire a position of prestige. Jesus wants us to be passionate about him and about the Gospel. A heartfelt passion which translates into concrete gestures of proximity, of closeness to the brothers and sisters most in need of welcome and care. Precisely as he himself lived. (Pope Francis, Angelus, 30 June 2019)

Brooklyn bishop calls on faithful to lobby against New York assisted suicide legislation

unitedyam September 30, 2025

Brooklyn Bishop Robert Brennan carries the thurible around the altar inside Louis Armstrong Stadium on April 20, 2024. / Credit: Jeffrey Bruno

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 30, 2025 / 17:32 pm (CNA).

Brooklyn Bishop Robert Brennan is calling on the faithful to contact New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to oppose the assisted suicide legislation that currently awaits her signature.

“Our fight against assisted suicide is not over,” Brennan said in a post on the social media platform X.

Assisted suicide is not yet legal in New York, but the Medical Aid in Dying Act was passed by the state Legislature in June and will become legal upon Hochul’s signature. The law will allow terminally ill New York residents who are over 18 to request medically assisted death.

“Gov. Hochul, we know difficult decisions weigh heavily on leaders and you carefully consider the impact of every decision on New Yorkers,” Brennan wrote. “As you review the assisted suicide legislation, we respectfully urge you to veto it.”

“Assisted suicide targets the poor, the vulnerable, and especially individuals suffering with mental illness. There are better ways to support those facing end-of-life challenges, through improved palliative care, pain management, and compassionate support systems.”

In a video to the faithful, Brennan addressed Hochul and said: “You championed New York’s suicide prevention program and invested millions of dollars to, as you said, ‘ensure New Yorkers are aware of this critical resource.’ That groundbreaking program has worked to provide the right training and crisis intervention measures to prevent suicides.”

Hochul has previously launched several campaigns to bring New York suicide rates down including a crisis hotline and initiatives to help schools, hospitals, first responders, and veterans. She has also helped develop and fund a number of youth suicide prevention programs.

The programs offer “hope to those who are most in need,” Brennan said. He added: “But now you are being asked to sign a bill that contradicts your efforts and targets high-risk populations. How can we justify preventing suicide for some while helping others to die?”

In support of the New York State Catholic Conference’s mission to “work with the government to shape laws and policies that pursue social justice, respect for life, and the common good,” Brennan asked the faithful to message the governor directly with a pre-written email to stop the legislation.

“I urge Catholics to reach out to Gov. Hochul now and to ask her to stay consistent on this issue,” Brennan said. “Let us continue to pray for the respect of all life and the human dignity of all people.”

Lobbying against the legislation is ‘critical’

Catholic bioethicist Father Tad Pacholczyk told CNA that “it’s critical” that New Yorkers “respond to the bishop’s call for action.”

“The push of anti-life forces has continued unabated for many years, and the incessant turning of the wheels of their finely-tuned propaganda machine has managed to gradually draw more and more of us into a perspective of complacency when it comes to physician-assisted suicide,” he said.

Pacholczyk added: “Combined with a tendency to substitute emotion for ethical reasoning, prevalent in much of the media and society, I think we stand on the edge of a well-greased slope, poised to hurl down headlong.”

The bioethicist highlighted that if assisted suiside “is not outlawed and strong protections for vulnerable patients are not enacted,” the U.S is likely to replicate the repercussions seen in Canada, which is experiencing disproportionately high rates of premature deaths among vulnerable groups.

“We need to do what we can to light a fire and raise heightened awareness of the rights of patients not to be pressured in this manner,” Pacholczyk said. “We also need to take steps to offer real support and accompaniment to our loved ones as they pass through one of the most important stretches of their lives, so their journey can be indelibly imprinted by a genuinely good and holy death.”

Long Hill volunteers improve lives during Appalachian mission trip

unitedyam September 30, 2025

Long Hill volunteers improve lives during Appalachian mission trip – On July 27, a group of 28 adult, young adult, and teen volunteers from St. Vincent de Paul Parish in the Stirling neighborhood of Long Hill Township attended 7 a.m. Mass. With the blessing of Father Hernan Cely, the pastor, the group then hit the road for Terra Alta, W.V., for the parish’s 23rd mission trip to Appalachia. The St. Vincent’s volunteers attended an orientation with the summer home repair group. They spent the evening getting to know one another. The following five days were filled with working on repair jobs, growing in faith, making new connections, and having fun.

Sisters of Christian Charity host second Family Fun Day

unitedyam September 30, 2025

Sisters of Christian Charity host second Family Fun Day – The Sisters of Christian Charity held their second annual Family Fun Day on Sept. 20 at their motherhouse in Mendham, NJ. More than 70 families and 175 children participated in various games and activities, including face painting, slime-making, relay races, and a bounce house. The event raised funds to help with the education of the sisters in formation. Click here to subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

Shooting at LDS church in Michigan prompts Catholic solidarity, prayers

unitedyam September 29, 2025

Nurses who are on strike hold signs in support of the community following a shooting and fire at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in front of Henry Ford Genesys Hospital on Sept. 29, 2025, in Grand Blanc, Michigan. / Credit: Emily Elconin/Getty Images

CNA Staff, Sep 29, 2025 / 21:45 pm (CNA).

Multiple U.S. Catholic bishops offered prayers and expressed their solidarity after a gunman attacked a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) chapel in Grand Blanc, Michigan, on Sept. 28, killing four people, injuring eight, and setting the building on fire. The incident occurred just before 10:30 a.m. during a Sunday service with hundreds in attendance.

The suspect, identified as 40-year-old Thomas Jacob Sanford of Burton, Michigan, drove a pickup truck into the chapel’s entrance, entered with an assault-style rifle, and began shooting. Witnesses reported Sanford shouting anti-LDS slurs. He then used an accelerant to start a fire inside the building. Grand Blanc Township Police arrived within a minute of 911 calls, engaging Sanford in a shootout and killing him. Firefighters extinguished the blaze, but the chapel was destroyed.

The victims included two adults and one child found in the debris, and one person who died from gunshot wounds at the hospital. Eight others were injured, five with gunshot wounds and three with smoke inhalation.

In a statement, Archbishop Bernard Hebda of St. Paul-Minneapolis promised prayers for the LDS community, saying the LDS church had recently ”extended their sincere condolences and prayers to the faithful of this archdiocese,” referring to the August shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, where two students were killed and over 20 people were injured.

”Please join me in praying for them and for an end to senseless violence around the globe,” Hebda said.

In a separate statement, Bishop Earl Boyea of Lansing, Michigan, also offered his prayers for those killed at the church, while also “assuring those who mourn, and those who are injured, my solace and support.”

”Any place of worship should be a sanctuary of peace,” Boyea continued. “The violation of such a haven, especially upon a Sunday morning, makes yesterday’s act of mass violence even more shocking. I commend the first responders for heroically assisting at the scene and for working to safeguard other local places of worship.”

”Lastly, let us remember that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life,” he said. ”Hence, in this moment of tragedy, let us all draw closer to Jesus, prince of peace.”

Meanwhile, Detroit Archbishop Edward Weisenburger said he was “heartbroken” by the gun violence and arson in Grand Blanc. “In this time of immense sorrow, I ask that we stand in solidarity with the victims, their families, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints,” Weisenburger said.

”In an era marked by hostilities and division, let us all come together in faith and compassion, upholding the fundamental right to worship freely and without fear. May God’s infinite love and mercy embrace and heal us all.”

Bishop David Walkowiak of Grand Rapids, Michigan, also expressed his sorrow after the tragic attack, saying: “No one should ever fear for their safety while gathering to worship. The ability to pray, to assemble peacefully, and to express one’s faith is not only a constitutional right but a moral necessity for a compassionate society. My prayers are with the victims, their families, and the entire Latter-day Saints community as they grieve and seek healing in the face of this senseless violence.”

Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia, prayed for healing in another post, saying: “May we be united in prayer for those who lost their lives in the tragic violence at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan. We pray for their eternal rest, for comfort to their families, and for healing and peace for the entire community.”

The attack came one day after the death of LDS Church President Russell M. Nelson on Saturday, Sept. 27, at age 101 in Salt Lake City.

President Donald Trump addressed the incident in a post on Truth Social, stating: “This appears to be yet another targeted attack on Christians in the United States of America. The Trump administration will keep the public posted, as we always do. In the meantime, PRAY for the victims, and their families. THIS EPIDEMIC OF VIOLENCE IN OUR COUNTRY MUST END, IMMEDIATELY!”

Vice President JD Vance also addressed the attack in a social media post: “Just an awful situation in Michigan. FBI is on the scene and the entire administration is monitoring things. Say a prayer for the victims and first responders.”

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also issued a statement expressing grief and gratitude for support: “We are deeply grateful for the outpouring of prayers and concern from so many people around the world. In moments of sorrow and uncertainty, we find strength and comfort through our faith in Jesus Christ. Places of worship are meant to be sanctuaries of peacemaking, prayer, and connection. We pray for peace and healing for all involved.”

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered flags lowered statewide, describing the incident as “unacceptable violence in a sanctuary” and pledging support for the investigation. Grand Blanc area schools, both Catholic and public, closed Sept. 29.

The FBI, with support from the ATF and Michigan State Police, is investigating the attack as targeted violence. Three unexploded devices were found at the scene. Sanford, a former Marine and truck driver, had no known ties to the church but expressed anti-LDS views, according to neighbors. His social media included posts about religious “deceptions.” The FBI is examining his motives.

Religious Liberty Commission hears from teachers, coaches, school leaders

unitedyam September 29, 2025

President Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission meets on Sept. 29, 2025, in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Tessa Gervasini/CNA

Washington, D.C., Sep 29, 2025 / 19:13 pm (CNA).

Teachers, coaches, and other public and private school leaders said their religious liberty was threatened in American schools at a hearing conducted by President Donald Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission on Sept. 29.

Speakers said there must be a fight for schools to bring back the “truth” to protect students and religious liberty. Joe Kennedy, a high school football coach; Monica Gill, a high school teacher; Marisol Arroyo-Castro, a seventh grade teacher; and Keisha Russell, a lawyer for First Liberty Institute, addressed the commission led by Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

“There has to be a call to action,” commission member Dr. Phil McGraw said. “The most common way to lose power is to think you don’t have it to begin with. We do have power, and we need to rally with that power.”

Teachers and coaches describe experiences

Kennedy said he was suspended — and later fired — from his position as a football coach at Bremerton High School in Washington for praying a brief and quiet prayer after football games.

“After the game, I took a knee to say thanks,” Kennedy explained. “That’s all. If that could be turned into a national controversy, it says more about the confusion in our country than the conduct of the person performing it.”

Kennedy told the commission the law is “cloudy and muddy” and they “have the power to clarify it.” Kennedy also said some lawyers “need to be held accountable” for actions taken in religious liberty cases.

Kennedy said: “I don’t know a lot about law and liberty, but I know that you’re supposed to advise people on the truth and the facts, and they’re not. They have an agenda, and their agenda is well set and in place and is working very well, keeping prayer out of the public square. They’re still doing it. That needs to be exposed.”

“Being a teacher has been one of the greatest blessings of my life,” Gill said to the committee. “God really gave my heart a mission … to show all of my students every day that they are loved. No matter what they’re going through, no matter what their grades are, no matter what their status is with their peers, I love them.”

“But in the summer of 2021 … Loudoun County Public Schools adopted a policy that forced teachers to deny the foundational truth of what it means to be human, created as male and female,” Gill said.

“This policy forced teachers to affirm all transgender students,” Gill said. “My employer gave teachers a choice: deny truth or risk everything … I knew that I could not stand in front of my Father in heaven one day and say: ‘My pension plan was more important than your truth.’ I also knew that if I say that I love my students, the only right choice would be to stand in love and truth for them.”

To combat the policy, Gill joined a lawsuit by Alliance Defending Freedom after a fellow Virginia teacher was fired for speaking out against the same policy. The lawsuit “resulted in victory for all teachers to freely speak truth and love when Loudoun County finally agreed not to require teachers to use pronouns in accordance with the student’s sex,” Gill said.

Arroyo-Castro testified that she was punished for displaying a cross in her private workspace in her seventh grade classroom in a New Britain School District school in Connecticut.

“I share this with you to help you understand why the crucifix is so significant to me and why I will never hide it from anyone’s view,” Arroyo-Castro said. “The vice principal told me that the crucifix was of a religious nature, so against the Constitution of the United States, and that it had to be taken down by the end of the day.”

If she did not take it down it would be considered “insubordination and could lead to termination,” Arroyo-Castro said. She asked if she could have time to pray on it, and was told she could, but “it wouldn’t change anything.”

“I was later called to a meeting with the district chief of staff, the principal, the vice principal, [and a] union representative. The chief of staff suggested that I put the crucifix in a drawer. I knew I couldn’t do that since my grandmother has instilled in me the meaning of the crucifix and how it should be treated with respect. But the chief of staff said that the Constitution says that I had to take it down,” Arroyo-Castro said.

After she refused to remove it, Arroyo-Castro was released from school with an unpaid suspension. She was offered legal defense by lawyers at First Liberty, which sued the school for violating the Constitution. While the lawsuit is ongoing she works in the administrative building “far from the students.”

Arroyo-Castro said: “Every day, I wonder how they’re doing.”

“Please do what you can to educate the districts in American schools about the true meaning of the establishment clause and the free exercise clause,” Arroyo-Castro advised the commission members. “How can we do our jobs well when many education leaders today don’t understand the Constitution themselves? We must understand as Americans that freedom of religion is a right that benefits all Americans.”

Suggestions from faith leaders

Leaders at Jewish, Catholic, and Christian schools also recounted religious freedom issues facing faith-based schools across the nation and what the country can do.

The leaders highlighted the need to protect the financial aid faith-based institutions receive and stop any threats of losing money if certain values are not enforced. Todd J. Williams, provost at Cairn University, said: “Schools will begin to cave because they’re worried about the millions of dollars that will go out the door.”

Father Robert Sirico, a priest at Sacred Heart Catholic School in Grand Rapids, Michigan, said he was recently affected by a decision by the Michigan Supreme Court that redefined sex to include sexual orientation and gender identity.

“While presented as a matter of fairness, this reinterpretation proposes grave dangers, grave risks for all religious institutions, even those like Sacred Heart that receive absolutely no public support,” he said.

Sacred Heart has filed a lawsuit to combat the issue, but Sirico said what needs to be done “exceeds the competency of [the] commission and the competency of this administration.”

“We have to think of this in existential terms, and we have to come at this project with the understanding that this is going to take years to transform. This is why religious people can transform the world: We believe in something that’s greater than our politics. We can reenvision.”

unitedyam September 29, 2025

A reading from the Book of Zechariah
8:20-23

Thus says the LORD of hosts:
There shall yet come peoples,
the inhabitants of many cities;
and the inhabitants of one city shall approach those of another,
and say, "Come! let us go to implore the favor of the LORD";
and, "I too will go to seek the LORD."
Many peoples and strong nations shall come
to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem
and to implore the favor of the LORD.
Thus says the LORD of hosts:
In those days ten men of every nationality,
speaking different tongues, shall take hold,
yes, take hold of every Jew by the edge of his garment and say,

"Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you."

From the Gospel according to Luke
9:51-56

When the days for Jesus to be taken up were fulfilled,
he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem,
and he sent messengers ahead of him.
On the way they entered a Samaritan village
to prepare for his reception there,
but they would not welcome him
because the destination of his journey was Jerusalem.
When the disciples James and John saw this they asked,
"Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven
to consume them?"
Jesus turned and rebuked them,
and they journeyed to another village.

Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem” (9:51). Jerusalem is the final destination where Jesus, at his last Passover, must die and rise again and thus bring his mission of salvation to fulfilment. From that moment, after that “firm decision” Jesus aimed straight for his goal and in addition said clearly to the people he met and who asked to follow him what the conditions were: to have no permanent dwelling place; to know how to be detached from human affections and not to give in to nostalgia for the past. Jesus, however, also told his disciples to precede him on the way to Jerusalem and to announce his arrival, but not to impose anything: if the disciples did not find a readiness to welcome him, they should go ahead, they should move on. Jesus never imposes, Jesus is humble, Jesus invites. If you want to, come. The humility of Jesus is like this: he is always inviting but never imposing. All of this gives us food for thought. It tells us, for example, of the importance which the conscience had for Jesus too: listening in his heart to the Father’s voice and following it.(…) This is why we must learn to listen to our conscience more. But be careful! This does not mean following my own ego, doing what interests me, what suits me, what I like…. It is not this! The conscience is the interior place for listening to the truth, to goodness, for listening to God; it is the inner place of my relationship with him, the One who speaks to my heart and helps me to discern, to understand the way I must take and, once the decision is made, to go forward, to stay faithful. (Pope Francis, Angelus, 30 June 2013)

unitedyam September 29, 2025

A ‘three minute’ reminder – When Jesus is asked what the greatest commandment is, Mark’s Gospel cites Him as saying, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength…[and] you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.” Those words are The Christophers’ guiding principles every year when we write and publish our annual “Three Minutes a Day” book of daily stories and reflections. Volume 60 is our newest, and while the entries may be brief to accommodate the busyness of life,

Philadelphia Archdiocese launches ‘missionary hubs’ to help bring faithful back to Church

unitedyam September 29, 2025

Archbishop of Philadelphia Nelson J. Perez speaks to members of his congregation at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Peter and St. Paul following a special Mass for Pope Francis on April 21, 2025, in Philadelphia. / Credit: Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images

CNA Staff, Sep 29, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Philadelphia Archbishop Nelson Pérez on Sept. 29 announced the designation of multiple “missionary hubs” throughout the Philadelphia Archdiocese, part of a broad effort to help bring lapsed Catholics back into the Church while highlighting the “deeply positive impact” the Church has had on the region.

The rollout comes after Pérez earlier this year revealed the 10-year plan meant to bring Catholics back to the pews. The archdiocese said in January that the effort would be “phased in” across the region.

A “standout feature” of the campaign, the archdiocese said on Monday, is the creation of five “missionary hubs” at parishes in the region’s four major counties of Delaware, Bucks, Montgomery, and Chester as well as Philadelphia County itself.

Those parishes will serve as “a new method of evangelization that will be instrumental in reaching out to Catholics who no longer attend Mass regularly and others seeking a spiritual connection in their lives and an outlet to serve those in need.”

“Following the example of Jesus Christ, we are moving to encounter all of our brothers and sisters where they are,” Pérez said in a press release. “I want everyone to know that they are not alone and that they will always have a home in the Catholic Church.”

The hubs will feature trained individuals under the leadership of the parish’s pastor, with teams working to “address the distinct needs and priorities of the people living within the neighborhoods of that parish and beyond.” The designation of the hubs came after “dozens of meetings” with hundreds of Catholics throughout the year.

The parishes will use pastoral, educational, and charitable ministries to “reach people who feel far from the Church,” according to the archdiocese.

‘Catholic. Every day’

In addition to the hub effort, the archdiocese will also be rolling out a marketing campaign, dubbed “Catholic. Every Day,” that will broadcast on local TV and radio stations. It will also be featured on displays such as billboards and bus shelters.

The archdiocese described the effort as an “extensive and privately funded marketing and advertising campaign covering Philadelphia and its suburbs.”

The donor-sponsored ads will feature “the many faces of Catholicism in the region” and will run in several phases through July 2026, coinciding with multiple major events in the region, including the FIFA World Cup and events marking the 250th anniversary of the founding of the U.S.

“This campaign will remind Catholics of their rich heritage of service to others in Philadelphia while introducing our message to new audiences in fresh and compelling ways,” Pérez said.

The archbishop said in the Monday press release that the Philadelphia Church “has 1.5 million Catholics, directly helps hundreds of thousands of people through our schools and charitable ministries, and has an economic impact of more than $1 billion a year.”

Organizers wanted to “highlight the broad scope of compassionate and dignified service we provide to people of faith traditions and diverse walks of life,” he said.

Archdiocesan spokesman Kenneth Gavin told CNA earlier this year that the entire effort will be funded primarily by “private philanthropic funding secured over time and hopefully endowed for long-term sustainability.”

“The archbishop recognizes the urgency of reaching out to the 83% of baptized Catholics not regularly practicing their faith while continuing to serve more effectively and efficiently the 17% who do attend Mass,” he said.

Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael: The 3 great archangels of the Bible

unitedyam September 29, 2025

A stained-glass window in St. Sulpice Church in Fougeres, France, depicts (from left to right) the archangels Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel. / Credit: Tiberiu Stan/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Sep 29, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

Many Catholics can, at the drop of a hat, recite the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel — the famous petition to that venerable saint to “defend us in battle” and “cast into hell Satan.”

In the culture of the Church, Michael is often accompanied by his two fellow archangels — Sts. Gabriel and Raphael — with the three forming a phalanx of protection, healing, and petition for those who ask for their intercession. The Church celebrates the three archangels with a joint feast day on Sept. 29.

St. Michael the Archangel

St. Michael the Archangel is hailed in the Book of Daniel as “the great prince who has charge of [God’s] people.”

Michael Aquilina, the executive vice president and trustee of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology in Steubenville, Ohio, described Michael among angels as “the one most often named — and most often invoked — and most often seen in history-changing apparitions.”

Devotion to Michael, Aquilina told CNA, “has been with the Church from the beginning. And Michael has been with God’s people since before the beginning of the Church.”

Michael’s history in the Bible is depicted through Daniel, in Jude (in which he battles Satan for possession of Moses’ body), and in Revelation as he “wag[es] war with the dragon” alongside his fellow angels.

Michael, Aquilina said, was “a supremely important character who was there from the beginning of the story.” Rabbinic tradition holds that Michael was at the center of many of the great biblical dramas even if not explicitly mentioned.

He was an early subject of veneration in the Church, though Aquilina noted that the Reformation led to a steep decline in devotion to the angels — until the end of the 19th century, when Michael began an “amazing comeback journey” in the life of the Church.

Following a vision of Satan “running riot” on the planet, “Pope Leo composed three prayers to St. Michael, ranging from short to long,” Aquilina said. “The brief one, he commanded, should be prayed at the end of every Mass.”

This was a regular feature of the Mass until the Vatican II era, after which it came to an end — though Pope John Paul II in 1994 urged Catholics to make the prayer a regular part of their lives.

“St. Michael is there for us in the day of battle, which is every day,” Aquilina said.

The St. Michael Prayer: St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil / May God rebuke him, we humbly pray / And do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the divine power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

St. Gabriel the Archangel

Gabriel appears regularly in Scripture as a messenger of God’s word, both in the Old and New Testaments. Daniel identifies Gabriel as a “man” who came “to give [him] insight and understanding,” relaying prophetic answers to Daniel’s entreaties to God.

In the New Testament, Luke relays Gabriel’s appearances to both Zechariah and the Virgin Mary. At the former, he informs the priest that his wife, Elizabeth, will soon conceive a child; at the latter he informs Mary herself that she will do the same. The two children in question, of course, were respectively John the Baptist and Jesus Christ.

Christian tradition further associates Gabriel with the apostle Paul’s reference in his First Letter to the Thessalonians to the “archangel’s call” and “the sound of the trumpet of God.”

“Judgment will begin with the archangel’s call and the sound of the horn,” Aquilina told CNA. “Thus we hear often of Gabriel’s trumpet.”

Media workers in particular have “good professional reasons to go to Gabriel,” Aquilina said.

“Since he is the Bible’s great communicator — the great teller of good news — he is the natural patron of broadcasters and all those who work in electronic media,” he said.

“For the same reason, he’s the patron saint of preachers … but also of postal workers, diplomats, and messengers.”

The St. Gabriel Prayer: O Blessed Archangel Gabriel, we beseech thee, do thou intercede for us at the throne of divine mercy in our present necessities, that as thou didst announce to Mary the mystery of the Incarnation, so through thy prayers and patronage in heaven we may obtain the benefits of the same, and sing the praise of God forever in the land of the living. Amen.

St. Raphael the Archangel

Lesser-known among the three great archangels, Raphael’s mission from God “is not obvious to the casual reader” of the Bible, Aquilina said. Yet his story, depicted in the Book of Tobit, is “something unique in the whole Bible.” In other depictions of angels, they come to Earth only briefly, to deliver a message or to help God’s favored people in some way.

“Raphael is different,” Aquilina said. “He stays around for the whole story, and by the end he’s become something more than an angel … he’s become a friend.”

In Tobit, Raphael accompanies Tobias, the son of the book’s namesake, as he travels to retrieve money left by his father in another town, helping him along the way and arranging for his marriage to Sarah.

The biblical account “has in every generation provided insight and consolation to the devout,” Aquilina said.

Notably, Raphael deftly uses the natural world to work God’s miracles: “What we would ordinarily call catastrophes — blindness, multiple widowhood, destitution, estrangement — all these become providential channels of grace by the time the threads of the story are all wound up in the end.”

“Raphael is patron of many kinds of people,” Aquilina said. “Of course, he’s the patron of singles in search of a mate — and those in search of a friend. He is the patron of pharmacists because he provided the salve of healing. He is a patron for anyone in search of a cure.”

He is also the patron saint of blind people, travelers, sick people, and youth.

“Raphael’s story,” Aquilina said, “remains a model for those who would enjoy the friendship of the angels.”

Prayer to St. Raphael: St. Raphael, of the glorious seven who stand before the throne of him who lives and reigns, angel of health, the Lord has filled your hand with balm from heaven to soothe or cure our pains. Heal or cure the victim of disease. And guide our steps when doubtful of our ways. Amen.

This story was first published on Sept. 29, 2023, and has been updated.

unitedyam September 28, 2025

A reading from the Book of Daniel
7:9-10, 13-14

As I watched:

Thrones were set up
and the Ancient One took his throne.
His clothing was bright as snow,
and the hair on his head as white as wool;
His throne was flames of fire,
with wheels of burning fire.
A surging stream of fire
flowed out from where he sat;
Thousands upon thousands were ministering to him,
and myriads upon myriads attended him.

The court was convened, and the books were opened.
As the visions during the night continued, I saw

One like a son of man coming,
on the clouds of heaven;
When he reached the Ancient One
and was presented before him,
He received dominion, glory, and kingship;
nations and peoples of every language serve him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion
that shall not be taken away,
his kingship shall not be destroyed.

From the Gospel according to John
1:47-51

Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him,
"Here is a true child of Israel.
There is no duplicity in him."
Nathanael said to him, "How do you know me?"
Jesus answered and said to him,
"Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree."
Nathanael answered him,
"Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel."
Jesus answered and said to him,
"Do you believe
because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree?
You will see greater things than this."
And he said to him, "Amen, amen, I say to you,
you will see heaven opened
and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."

What is an Angel? Sacred Scripture and the Church’s tradition enable us to discern two aspects. On the one hand, the Angel is a creature who stands before God, oriented to God with his whole being. All three names of the Archangels end with the word "El", which means "God". God is inscribed in their names, in their nature. Their true nature is existing in his sight and for him. In this very way the second aspect that characterizes Angels is also explained: they are God’s messengers. They bring God to men, they open heaven and thus open earth. Precisely because they are with God, they can also be very close to man. Indeed, God is closer to each one of us than we ourselves are. The Angels speak to man of what constitutes his true being, of what in his life is so often concealed and buried. They bring him back to himself, touching him on God’s behalf. In this sense, we human beings must also always return to being angels to one another – angels who turn people away from erroneous ways and direct them always, ever anew, to God. (Pope Benedict XVI, Homily, Episcopal Ordination, 29 September 2007)

Monumental censer at Christendom College chapel represents ‘grandeur of Christ the King’

unitedyam September 28, 2025

“Now people need not go as far away as Spain to see this beautiful thing,” said Christendom College President Emeritus Timothy O’Donnell of the school chapel’s monumental thurible. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Christendom College

Ann Arbor, Michigan, Sep 28, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

A tradition dating from the 11th century has been brought to Christendom College in Front Royal, Virginia, extending an enduring symbol of faith and pilgrimage. A jumbo-sized thurible, commissioned by the college and made in Spain, now embellishes the college’s Christ the King chapel.

The connections between Christendom College and the Catholic culture of Spain date back to even before the college’s founding in 1977. Its first president and co-founder, Warren Carroll, took students to Spain on several visits to learn Spain’s history and experience life at El Escorial monastery near Madrid.

Among other works, Carroll, a historian, authored “Isabel of Spain: The Catholic Queen” and “The Last Crusade: Spain 1936” with an interest in defending Catholic faith and culture, said Timothy O’Donnell, the college’s president emeritus, in an interview with CNA.

Drone shot of Christendom College’s Christ the King Chapel in Front Royal, Virginia. Credit: Photo courtesy of Christendom College

Believed to be one of the largest thuribles or censers in the world, the famed Botafumeiro is a giant thurible used at the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral in northern Spain, which has been a pilgrimage destination for centuries, rivaled only by Rome and Jerusalem.

According to tradition, it is the burial place of St. James the Greater, who evangelized the Iberian Peninsula. In a centuries-old tradition, the massive censer, which weighs hundreds of pounds, is swung from ropes when pulled by a team of eight men at the transept of the historic church on feast days. It weighs more than 176 pounds and is over 6 feet tall.

O’Donnell recalled that St. John Paul II said in a homily in 1982, as the first pilgrim pope to Santiago: “This place, so dear to Galicians and Spaniards alike, has in the past been a point of attraction and convergence for Europe and all of Christendom.”

According to O’Donnell: “I was so moved by that because that is the name of our college. So, on certain anniversaries, we would take pilgrimages to Santiago.”

Seeing the giant thurible there ultimately gave him the idea to reproduce such a symbol of faith. “I thought it would be awesome to have something like this in the new chapel.” He turned to Heritage Liturgical, which designed and realized the project.

Seeing the giant thurible at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela gave Timothy O'Donnell, speaking here at the chapel, the idea to reproduce such a symbol of faith in the college's chapel. Credit: Photo courtesy of Christendom College — Seeing the giant thurible at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela gave Timothy O’Donnell, speaking here at the chapel, the idea to reproduce such a symbol of faith in the college’s chapel. Credit: Photo courtesy of Christendom College

“Now people need not go as far away as Spain to see this beautiful thing and incense going up to heaven like the prayers of the faithful and angels going to God on high,” he said. In a tradition dating back to the Old Testament, costly incense was a sacrifice; after the coming of Christ, it joins our prayers with his perfect prayer and sacrifice.

Instead of producing an exact reproduction of the Botafumeiro in Spain, Heritage Liturgical executed a censer that echoes the design of the chapel. Enzo Selvaggi, principal and creative director of Heritage Liturgical, told CNA that Christendom’s monumental thurible was “designed in a cogent and well-defined Gothic Revival mode to fit the architecture of the college’s Chapel of Christ the King.”

Emilio León, a silversmith of Córdoba, Spain, was selected for the project and helped restore the original Botafumeiro. Starting in 2021, León sculpted and chiseled for a year and a half to complete the work, which is silver-plated brass.

In an email to CNA, León wrote: “I incorporated my spiritual and religious values, just as I do in all my work, giving my best effort, knowing that it is for the glory of God.” León belongs to a royal fraternity that preserves Catholic traditions such as Holy Week processions and the dignity of sacred spaces.

León is also working on other projects for Heritage Liturgical to be installed in the U.S. For Catholics in Spain, he continued, the Botafumeiro represents “the grandeur of Christ the King and the apostle James.”

On feast days of the Church, Christendom's thurible is brought near the central altar where it is hoisted on chains and swung by senior students. Credit: Courtesy of Christendom College — On feast days of the Church, Christendom’s thurible is brought near the central altar where it is hoisted on chains and swung by senior students. Credit: Courtesy of Christendom College

Christendom’s thurible is normally displayed near the image of the Virgin Mary in the chapel. On feast days of the Church, it is brought near the central altar where it is hoisted on chains and swung by senior students, much in the tradition of Spain. The next feast day for swinging the grand censer will be the solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, on Nov. 23.

Selvaggi told CNA that in works produced by Heritage Liturgical, the Catholic principle of sacramentality applies at their conception so that designers and artists use matter, as do theologians, to “make a spiritual reality encounterable in the world.”

Both Selvaggi and León are working on other projects destined for the U.S., including helping to restore churches in Nebraska and Georgia, and designing mosaics for churches in Wisconsin. The message from the company affirmed that the new thurible at Christendom College is “captivating not only because of its size and beauty, but more importantly, because it reveals something that already exists: the love of God that causes us to send our prayers rising up to God.”

unitedyam September 27, 2025

A reading from the Book of Amos
6:1a, 4-7

Thus says the LORD the God of hosts:
Woe to the complacent in Zion!
Lying upon beds of ivory,
stretched comfortably on their couches,
they eat lambs taken from the flock,
and calves from the stall!
Improvising to the music of the harp,
like David, they devise their own accompaniment.
They drink wine from bowls
and anoint themselves with the best oils;
yet they are not made ill by the collapse of Joseph!
Therefore, now they shall be the first to go into exile,
and their wanton revelry shall be done away with.

A reading from the First Letter to Timothy
6:11-16

But you, man of God, pursue righteousness,
devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.
Compete well for the faith.
Lay hold of eternal life, to which you were called
when you made the noble confession in the presence of many witnesses.
I charge you before God, who gives life to all things,
and before Christ Jesus,
who gave testimony under Pontius Pilate for the noble confession,
to keep the commandment without stain or reproach
until the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ
that the blessed and only ruler
will make manifest at the proper time,
the King of kings and Lord of lords,
who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light,
and whom no human being has seen or can see.
To him be honor and eternal power. Amen.

From the Gospel according to Luke
16:19-31

Jesus said to the Pharisees:
"There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen
and dined sumptuously each day.
And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores,
who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps
that fell from the rich man’s table.
Dogs even used to come and lick his sores.
When the poor man died,
he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham.
The rich man also died and was buried,
and from the netherworld, where he was in torment,
he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off
and Lazarus at his side.
And he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me.
Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue,
for I am suffering torment in these flames.’
Abraham replied,
‘My child, remember that you received
what was good during your lifetime
while Lazarus likewise received what was bad;
but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented.
Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established
to prevent anyone from crossing who might wish to go
from our side to yours or from your side to ours.’
He said, ‘Then I beg you, father,
send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers,
so that he may warn them,
lest they too come to this place of torment.’
But Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets.
Let them listen to them.’
He said, ‘Oh no, father Abraham,
but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
Then Abraham said, ‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets,
neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.’"

Today, Luke’s Gospel presents to us the parable of the rich man and poor Lazarus (Lk 16: 19-31). The rich man personifies the wicked use of riches by those who spend them on uncontrolled and selfish luxuries, thinking solely of satisfying themselves without caring at all for the beggar at their door. The poor man, on the contrary, represents the person whom God alone cares for: unlike the rich man he has a name: "Lazarus", an abbreviation of "Eleazarus", which means, precisely, "God helps him". God does not forget those who are forgotten by all; those who are worthless in human eyes are precious in the Lord’s. The story shows how earthly wickedeness is overturned by divine justice: after his death, Lazarus was received "in the bosom of Abraham", that is, into eternal bliss; whereas the rich man ended up "in Hades, in torment". This is a new and definitive state of affairs against which no appeal can be made, which is why one must mend one’s ways during one’s life; to do so after serves no purpose. (Pope Benedict XVI, Angelus, Castel Gandolfo, 30 September 2007)

Join Bishop Sweeney on a (virtual) spiritual journey through Assisi and Rome

unitedyam September 27, 2025

Join Bishop Sweeney on a (virtual) spiritual journey through Assisi and Rome – Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney, along with a group of pilgrims from the Diocese of Paterson, is currently in Italy visiting sacred sites in Assisi and Rome as part of the 2025 Jubilee Year celebration. Over the course of nine days, the group will walk in the footsteps of saints, celebrate Mass in historic churches, and reflect on the spiritual significance of this Holy Year. While the pilgrimage is taking place thousands of miles away, you’re invited to be part of the journey—virtually. Bishop Sweeney and some of those traveling with him are sharing photos and moments from the trip, and

Possible U.S. government shutdown could disrupt military Masses, meals for preschoolers

unitedyam September 27, 2025

The U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Andrea Izzotti/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 27, 2025 / 08:30 am (CNA).

A looming U.S. government shutdown could affect Roman Catholic churches and Catholic institutions that depend on government funding.

The closure, which will come about if lawmakers cannot agree on a spending package to fund the federal government, could pause military members’ ability to attend Mass, interrupt subsidized meals for preschoolers in Catholic schools and limit assistance with church security. Congress so far lacks agreement on funding federal agencies when the budget year begins on Oct. 1.

A shutdown would mean housing, health and food programs for people in need could experience cascading delays, according to a Sept. 26 statement by Catholic Charities USA.

“A government shutdown would result in more people falling into poverty, and the recovery from such a setback could take several months or even years,” the statement said.

“One thing we can all agree on is that the poorest of the poor and the most vulnerable in society should not suffer because lawmakers cannot come to an agreement.”

Besides Church-related programs, a shutdown would affect a range of other services, including education for at-risk preschoolers, scientific research, and grants to charitable organizations.

Many Catholic entities rely on federal funding from Head Start, an early childhood education program that offers health screenings and meals to families below the federal poverty level.

Military Masses, Church security

Military worship services could be affected in a lengthy shutdown. In an extended shutdown in 2013, the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA said it would lack a Catholic priest to celebrate Sunday Mass at chapels at some U.S. military installations where non-active-duty priests serve as government contractors.

A spokesperson for the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Federal efforts to “maintain safe and secure houses of worship” also could be degraded at the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency in a government shutdown. Two children died in August in a mass shooting at the Church of the Annunciation in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The federal agency provides resources that assist houses of worship in securing physical and digital infrastructure. The department said in anticipation of a narrowly avoided government shutdown in 2023 that it “would also be forced to suspend both physical and cybersecurity assessments for government and industry partners.”

Federal agencies have not yet issued contingency plans for a potential shutdown, and the security agency did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Two Filipino saints, martyred for their faith, honored at Mass

unitedyam September 27, 2025

Two Filipino saints, martyred for their faith, honored at Mass – Filipinos from around the Diocese of Paterson on Sept. 20 gathered in St. Philip the Apostle Church in Clifton, N.J., to honor two martyrs from the Philippines — St. Lorenzo Ruiz and St. Pedro Calungsod — during the annual diocesan Filipino Martyr Mass. Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney was the principal celebrant of the liturgy, which was coordinated by the Diocesan Commission for Catholic Filipino Ministries (DCCFM). Several diocesan priests, including several born in the Philippines, concelebrated the Mass. Among them was Father Vidal Gonzales, pastor of Notre Dame of Mount Carmel Parish in the Cedar Knolls neighborhood of Hanover Township,

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