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.
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.”
Former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte gives a speech during a campaign rally at Southorn Stadium on March 9, 2025, in Hong Kong, China. / Credit: Anthony Kwan/Getty Images
Here is a roundup of Catholic world news from the past week that you might have missed:
Former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte charged with murder
After Filipino Catholic bishops welcomed the arrest of Rodrigo Duterte in March, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has now charged Duterte, the former president of the Philippines, with murder.
The three charges laid against Duterte, made public on Sept. 22, were dated back to July, according to the BBC. The first charge relates to Duterte’s involvement in the murder of 19 people in Davao City while he served as mayor from 2013 to 2016. The remaining charges relate to Duterte’s “war on drugs,” which saw the murder of 14 people across the country and the attempted murder of 45 others.
Caritas Philippines President Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo of Kidapawan called Duterte’s detention a critical step toward justice, Vatican News reported in March. “For years Duterte has claimed that he is ready to face the consequences of his actions. Now is the time for him to prove it,” the bishop said.
Syriac Catholic bishop discusses role of Christians in rebuilding Syria
In a meeting with the Levantine National Council, Syriac Catholic Bishop Hanna Jallouf discussed the role of Christians in public life as the country rebuilds after the fall of the Assad regime last winter.
According to a report from the Syriac Press, the meeting took place on Sept. 25 at the Monastery of St. Lazarus in Daramsuq (Damascus). “The meeting featured an in-depth discussion on the country’s current challenges, focusing on ways to enhance the role of Christians in public life while also addressing their concerns and fears amid ongoing instability,” the report said.
Jallouf reportedly advocated for “citizenship and pluralism as the foundation for Syria’s stability” and encouraged the council to continue its efforts “to preserve the Church’s witness and unity” amid a period marked by fear for Christians and other religious minorities in the country.
Christians in India suffer harassment, arrests at hands of Hindu groups
Police in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh arrested 14 Christians on Sept. 19 for allegedly violating the state’s stringent anti-conversion law and the national criminal code, according to UCA News.
The report also noted that a group of 19 girls accompanied by a Catholic nun and two staff members of a nongovernmental organization were also arrested Sept. 19 in Jharkhand, which borders Uttar Pradesh from the south, for violating the conversion law as well. The group was released the following day. According to Church sources cited in the report, the arrests were made after “allegations by some right-wing Hindu groups as the girls were traveling to attend a training program, and the nuns came to the railway station to welcome them.”
Chair of Philippines Bishops’ Conference speaks out against corruption
Bishop Broderick Pabillo of Taytay in Palawan, Philippines, chair of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines Office on Stewardship, has published a pastoral letter condemning the normalization of corruption in the country.
“We must not accept corruption as the norm — it is stealing the people’s taxes,” he said in the letter, according to local reports, pointing out that government funds have been redirected away from critical services such as hospitals, clean water initiatives, safe roads, and electricity for political reasons. “If we want to reduce corruption, we must stop voting for relatives in power,” the bishop added.
Chaldean Catholics return to ancestral homeland in Turkey after nearly half a century
A Chaldean Catholic community from the southeast village of Köreli in the Şirnak Silopi district of Turkey returned to their ancestral homeland after nearly half a century, according to a local report on Sept. 25.
About 150 pilgrims, who traveled from across Turkey and abroad, participated in the 10-day visit and celebrated a “deeply symbolic Mass and offered prayers at the village cemetery.”
According to the report, Turkey’s Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Sabri Anar expressed gratitude to the government and for those who welcomed the group. “Our aim is to reconcile those who left this land with their past and show them that the region is safe,” he noted. “Each visit fills us with happiness. In the eyes of our people, we can see the longing for homeland, for soil, and for history.”
Australian bishop returned to public ministry after abuse allegation dismissed
Bishop Richard Umbers of the Archdiocese of Sydney has been reinstated to public ministry after an independent investigation determined abuse allegations lodged against him were “not sustained,” according to an internal email cited in a Sept. 24 report by the Pillar.
“The report from the independent investigator highlighted information given by the complainant that was inconsistent with other evidence obtained and therefore, the investigator could not be satisfied that the alleged conduct occurred,” the email by archdiocesan vicar general Father Samuel Lynch said.
The claim of historical abuse against the Opus Dei bishop had been made in early July, after which he stepped down in accordance with archdiocesan protocol.
Bangladesh Catholics fear Muslim extremist persecution as elections loom
The Catholic community in Bangladesh is “living in fear” of persecution as Islamic fundamentalism is on the rise and elections loom in the coming February, according to a Sept. 24 Crux report.
“We are afraid of the upcoming elections. Because, before and after the elections, we have been subjected to many injustices and this time there is a greater possibility of it. So, we are constantly praying to God to protect us,” Welcome Lamba, a leader of the Khasi Indigenous village of Pratappur Punjee, told Crux, which noted that there were over 1,000 cases of human rights violations against religious minorities in the country from 2023 to 2024.
Australia donates vehicles to Catholic Church Health Services in Papua New Guinea
After government officials in Papua New Guinea (PNG) announced in June a nationwide HIV emergence, the Australian government has now donated “a fleet of vehicles” to the Catholic Church Health Services in PNG to help aid efforts to expand access to treatment for HIV, according to a local report on Sept. 25.
“The vehicles will support outreach services that include community-based HIV testing, prevention of mother-to-child transmission, antiretroviral therapy adherence, and referrals to other clinics and social services,” the report stated.
Angolan bishop speaks out against deforestation, poaching
Bishop Martín Lasarte Topolansky in Lwena, Angola, spoke out this week against escalating environmental destruction in eastern Angola, particularly in border areas with Zambia, where illegal logging and poaching are severely impacting the population, ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, reported Thursday.
“It is with a heavy heart that I see the felling of precious trees and the disappearance of animals that are part of our environmental heritage. We are witnessing a true plunder of what belongs to the Angolan people,” Lasarte told ACI Africa, while recalling a recent pastoral visit to communities in Eastern Moxico.
The bishop also noted “illegal exploitation of our forests by foreign citizens crossing our border,” likely by Zambians taking advantage of weak local enforcement. He further called on the Angolan government to secure the country’s eastern border and establish stricter environmental laws. “This land is a gift from God, and we will be accountable for how we treat it,” he said.
Bishop James Checchio of Metuchen, New Jersey, on Sept. 24, 2025, was named coadjutor bishop of the Archdiocese of New Orleans. / Credit: Leo Song, Seminarian, Pontifical North American College
Rome Newsroom, Sep 24, 2025 / 06:25 am (CNA).
Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday named Bishop James Checchio coadjutor archbishop of New Orleans, positioning him to head an archdiocese facing bankruptcy and a costly clergy abuse settlement.
The 59-year-old Checchio — bishop of Metuchen, New Jersey, since 2016 — will assist Archbishop Gregory Aymond in the leadership of over half a million Catholics in southeastern Louisiana. Prior to becoming a bishop, Checchio was rector of the Pontifical North American College in Rome from 2006 to 2016. He has a doctorate in canon law.
As coadjutor, Checchio will automatically succeed Aymond, who turned 75, the age when bishops are required to submit their resignation to the pope, last year. Aymond, a New Orleans native, has led the archdiocese since 2009.
Checchio joins the leadership of New Orleans as the archdiocese moves to resolve yearslong bankruptcy negotiations with a settlement for over 600 clergy sexual abuse claimants. Earlier this month, the archdiocese announced a $230 million settlement offer to clergy sexual abuse claimants, up from a previous offer of $180 million.
The settlement offer follows five years of negotiations in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, where the nation’s second-oldest Catholic archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in May 2020.
Aymond, who has served as chairman of the child protection commission for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in May that the settlement gave him “great hope.”
The agreement “protects our parishes and begins to bring the proceedings to a close,” he said, adding: “I am grateful to God for all who have worked to reach this agreement and that we may look to the future towards a path to healing for survivors and for our local Church.”
Archbishop Gregory Aymond of New Orleans in Rome on Jan. 26, 2012. Credit: Alan Holdren/CNA
The settlement represents one of the largest sums in the U.S. paid out to victims of clergy sexual abuse.
Aymond was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of New Orleans in 1975. His priestly ministry focused on education — including serving as the president-rector of Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans from 1986 to 2000 — and missionary work in Mexico and Nicaragua.
In 1996, he was appointed auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese and given oversight over its Catholic schools.
Aymond came under fire in the late 1990s for allowing the coach at Sacred Heart of Jesus School in Norco, Brian Matherne, to remain in his role for several months after Aymond received information about alleged abuse of a minor boy by Matherne.
Matherne was later arrested and is now serving a 30-year sentence after pleading guilty to the molestation of 17 children over a 15-year period ending in 1999.
Aymond later admitted his mistake in keeping Matherne in his post and called the case a “painful experience — I will never forget it. It helped me to understand the complexity of pedophilia better.”
He was appointed coadjutor bishop of Austin, Texas, in June 2000 and succeeded Bishop John E. McCarthy as bishop of Austin in January 2021.
In that position, Aymond strengthened the diocese’s sex abuse policies, though clerical abuse activists from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) have criticized the archbishop’s record, claiming he only “postures as someone who takes clergy sex crimes seriously.”
Lila Rose (left) debates Frances Kissling on Sept. 16, 2025, at Yale University. / Credit: Live Action via YouTube screenshot
National Catholic Register, Sep 19, 2025 / 10:40 am (CNA).
The news that pro-life activist Lila Rose was declared the winner by students attending a debate earlier this week with an abortion activist at Yale University — a campus not particularly known for its pro-life sentiment — lit up the pro-life corners of the internet.
Rose, the founder and president of Live Action, posted on X following Tuesday night’s debate, which was hosted by the Yale Political Union. She said the event’s organizer was “shocked” after those in attendance voted in favor of the pro-life argument by a margin of 60-31.
For defenders of the lives of unborn babies, it was heartening to see apparent evidence that arguments against abortion are making headway, even at one of the country’s most elite educational institutions.
Rose’s opponent, Frances Kissling, the former head of Catholics for Choice and founding president of the National Abortion Federation, laid bare the diabolical essence of the “pro-choice” argument. An unborn baby may be human, according to Kissling, but a woman should be able to decide whether the child lives or dies.
“We need to begin to think about abortion as a conflict of values. I tend to favor more or think more about the value of women’s lives,” Kissling said.
“I’m not talking about whether they’re going to die or not,” she said. “I’m talking about the fact that they have decisions to make about how they are going to live that life,” Kissling clarified.
Kissling, who is Catholic and had spent two years as a religious sister in a convent, went on to say that abortion should be condoned by what she said is an ever-evolving Catholic Church.
“The idea that Catholicism never changes is not true, even in very serious decisions,” she said. “I was thinking about this. Whatever happened to limbo?”
“I’m in the group of Catholics who look at the idea that even the Catholic Church can change. We learn new things,” she said.
Rose countered by describing what allowing “choice” to trump life really looks like, citing the recent case of a 21-year-old college student whose newborn baby was found dead, wrapped in a towel and stuffed in a closet.
“A child hidden in a closet, his humanity denied. If this does not grieve us, then what will? This is what choice over life looks like when the choice of adults is made supreme,” Rose said.
“What about the child’s choice? That has not been represented here yet tonight. And so let me ask the question here plainly: Should murder be legal? Of course not. Then why do we excuse abortion? Abortion is the direct and intentional killing of an innocent human being,” she said.
Rose called for more federal funding for pregnancy-resource centers, for government-funded cash credits for parents, and for making childbirth free.
“Instead of turning to violence against the most vulnerable as a solution to problems that we face, instead, we should be a society that uplifts, that makes life better for the vulnerable, that focuses our energy and our efforts and our organizations and our resources on supporting women and young families and children,” Rose said.
At the conclusion of the debate, Kissling revealed that at the heart of her position is a concession that an unborn child is, in fact, a human being.
Kissling then presented the argument put forward by adherents of utilitarian moral theory that an action can be justified if it leads to the “happiness” of the greatest number of people.
The abortion activist suggested considering a “thought experiment” involving a situation in which there is a fire in a building, and one is faced with deciding whether to rescue a poor family of six or a doctor who was about to come up with a cure for cancer.
“I’m asking you to think for yourself about how much you really believe and how much you act and how all our governments act within the principle of ‘every single life [has equal value],’” she said.
“The greatest good for the greatest number of people. Good principle. Do you save the family of six or do you save the doctor? That’s it,” she said.
Following the debate, Sabrina Soriano, a junior and art history major at Yale, said she thought Rose was the clear winner.
“I think Lila definitely just swept the floor and took the trophy prize because she came in with a sense of humility, and also with a deep sense of wanting to do justice to the Church in general, and also to the unborn.”
“I think regardless of if you were pro-choice, you understood that the argument [Kissling made] was weak, and it was based on more of a crowd-surfing or sentimentality rather than the facts,” said Soriano, who is Catholic and a member of the campus pro-life group, as were many students in attendance.
Kylyn Smith, a 19-year-old senior and double major in physics and economics, told the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, that while there was a strong contingent of pro-life advocates in the audience, Rose bested Kissling in the debate fair and square.
“Lila Rose valiantly defended the pro-life position with a secular, logical argument centered on the humanity of the unborn child. It was incredible watching her speak just as incisively and coherently live and in person as on her videos,” Smith said.
“Passion from attendees of all opinions quite literally rang throughout the auditorium, from hissing in disagreement to stomping in support. Ms. Rose’s cogent reasoning stood in stark contrast to the often-contradictory statements of the other guest, solidifying Lila’s win.”
This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and has been adapted by CNA.
Priests throughout the country have mentioned assassinated conservative Christian activisit Charlie Kirk in their homilies this week. / Credit: ChoeWatt/Shutterstock
Catholic priests around the country have discussed the assassination of Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk during their homilies in the last week.
Kirk, 31, was shot during a campus event at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10. The alleged shooter has since been apprehended and identified as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson. Kirk is survived by his wife, Erika, and their two young children.
“So many times it seems almost surreal how the Gospel passage for the day fits … a situation that we face as Christians in our daily lives,” Father Chris Alar at the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, said during his homily on Sept. 11, referencing the day’s reading from the Gospel of Luke, when Jesus instructs his disciples to love their enemies.
“That is what Charlie Kirk did. I was watching some of his videos last night, and he was saying of murderers that they are still children of God, and he prayed for them,” the priest reflected, noting that though Kirk was political, he had not been a politician.
“When one side realizes they can’t defeat the truth, they turn to violence,” he said, citing the emperor Herod, who he said “realized that he couldn’t defeat the truth, so he turned to violence.”
Father John Hollowell at All Saints Parish in Indianapolis also reflected during his homily on the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that he had felt “a great welling up in my heart” to join the military in the aftermath of the tragic event 24 years ago. Ultimately, he said, “I felt God telling me that the way that I was supposed to respond to the tragedy that I was seeing unfolding 24 years ago today was to become a diocesan priest.”
“Throughout the last 12 hours,” he said, “some of your young adult children and young adult family and friends are having that same urge to join the military, to join the police.”
He continued: “We need to just take a minute to just calmly ask ourselves: ‘Lord, what do you want me to do with my life? How can I lay down my life more perfectly for other people, for my country, for my community, for my parish?’ And God will let you know.”
“On Sept. 11, my prayers are with Charlie Kirk’s wife, with his children, but also in this tragic time in the United States of America,” said Father Jonathan Meyer, also of All Saints Parish. “My prayers are also with the family of the refugee from Charlotte, the families in Minnesota that … grieve and mourn, but also for those 24 years ago who, due to acts of hate, still don’t have their grandparents, their parents, their sons.”
“Just this week we were reminded once again of how fallen our world is with the murder of Charlie Kirk,” said Father Eric Ayers of St. Bede Catholic Church in Williamsburg, Virginia, during his Sunday homily. “He was the most recent in a long line in the last number of years of attempts at assassinations … [and] other acts of violence that occur in the political spheres.”
“These acts of violence of course are unconscionable and are a horrible tragedy for our nation,” he added.
The priest stated “before we blame one side or another, we need to remember that those actions don’t represent the vast majority of people for whom politics is important.”
Noting that “language over politics has gotten more extreme, more polarizing, more divisive,” Ayers concluded his reflections by advocating for self-sacrifice and the abandonment of “ego” as ways to foster civility in political discourse in the U.S.
In churches where Kirk’s death was not mentioned in the priest’s homily, prayers were offered for the repose of his soul, including on Sunday Mass at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C, and at St. Joseph’s on Capitol Hill.
Father John Evans of the Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City told a local news outlet that people began gathering at the cathedral in the wake of Kirk’s assassination, with many coming to the church before Sunday Mass, “praying privately, some in groups, praying the rosary, and different prayers of different sorts.”
Several users on social media noted their priests offered homilies about Kirk’s death, with one account on X writing: “Today at my Catholic Mass the homily was about Charlie Kirk, what he stood for … It was about walking in Jesus’ shoes and bearing our cross.”
Today at my Catholic mass the Homily was about Charlie Kirk, what he stood for & the message his widow displayed on the way to the airport holding the Crucifix out of the window. It was about walking in Jesus’s shoes & bearing our cross. #ChristisKing
Catholic social media influencer Sachin Jose also noted the church where he attended Mass in New York “remembered Charlie Kirk in the priest’s homily.”
The Catholic Church where I attended Mass today remembered Charlie Kirk in the priest’s homily. Masses are being offered across the country for the repose of his soul. Here is a Mass card from New York.
The Catholic University of America has announced that Taylor Black, director of artificial intelligence at Microsoft, will lead a new institute on emerging technologies and AI at the Washington, D.C.-based university. / Credit: The Catholic University of America
The Catholic University of America (CUA) announced that Taylor Black, director of artificial intelligence (AI) at Microsoft, will lead a new institute on emerging technologies and AI at the Washington, D.C.-based university.
At the technology conglomerate, Black serves as the director of AI and venture ecosystems in the Office of the Chief Technology Officer. In the role, he designs and leads cross-company initiatives that integrate innovation, product development, and community engagement to foster the next generation of technologies. He will remain in the position but plans to travel regularly to CUA’s campus.
“Taylor’s background in innovation, AI, and entrepreneurship; studies in philosophy and law; and his formation as a deacon candidate make him the ideal person for this new venture,” H. Joseph Yost, senior vice provost of research for CUA, said in a statement. “From our first conversation, we knew he was the person we wanted to lead Catholic University’s expansion of AI programs and innovation.”
Black received an undergraduate degree in philosophy and classics from Gonzaga University and a master’s degree in philosophy and a law degree from Boston College. His career took off after he created a successful web development business while still in school. He went on to hold consulting, business development, and venture positions before joining Microsoft in 2021.
While working in the technology field, Black said he has noticed an increase in questions related to human dignity from his secular colleagues. The new institute will work to tackle some of the concerns by pursuing innovation in AI and engaging in dialogue about human issues central to the Catholic Church.
“The Church has been trying to get people to ask the question ‘What does it mean to be human?’ for a very long time. Now a bunch of people are asking it unprompted,” Black said in an interview with CUA. “This lends itself to addressing the gaping hole in understanding what people should know about what it means to be human in a deeper way.”
“Universities are for the formation of human persons. If you’re well-formed, you generally do a better job in the workplace,” Black said. He is interested in “how we reinvigorate the heart of what the university is — its human formation roots — while still providing the tools and training necessary from an entrepreneurial perspective to take this new economic paradigm in stride.”
The new AI initiative will bring faculty together from multiple departments including engineering, business, science, art, philosophy, and theology to engage collaboration within as well as outside the university.
The new institute follows a number of other advances at CUA. Earlier this year, the university achieved R1 status, which placed it among the top 5% of universities nationwide in terms of research funding and doctorates.
Vice President JD Vance (R) second lady Usha Vance (C) and Erika Kirk deplane Air Force Two while escorting the body of Charlie Kirk on Sept. 11, 2025 in Phoenix, Arizona. / Credit: Kirk, Eric Thayer/Getty Images
CNA Newsroom, Sep 13, 2025 / 10:05 am (CNA).
Erika Kirk, the widow of slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk, vowed to continue her husband’s work Friday night during an impassioned and deeply personal televised address that focused on the importance of faith and family life.
Appearing on Fox News just two days after her husband was shot and killed by an assassin’s bullet, fired from a rooftop on the campus of Utah Valley University where he was holding an outdoor event, she spoke for more than 16 minutes, maintaining her composure as she stood at a podium in her husband’s podcast studio, beside his empty chair.
“I will never, ever have the words to describe the loss that I feel in my heart,” said Erika Kirk, the mother of two young children, ages 1 and 3.
“I honestly have no idea what any of this means,” she said. “I know that God does, but I don’t. But Charlie, baby, I know you do, too. So does our Lord.”
“The evildoers responsible for my husband’s assassination have no idea what they have done,” she said.
“They killed Charlie because he preached a message of patriotism, faith, and of God’s merciful love.”
Here are other highlights from her remarks:
She revealed that she had not yet told the couple’s 3-year-old daughter of her father’s death.
“When I got home last night, Gigi, our daughter, just ran into my arms. And I talked to her, and she said, ‘Mommy, I missed you.’ I said, ‘I missed you too, baby.’
“She goes, ‘Where’s daddy?’ She’s 3. I said, ‘Baby, daddy loves you so much. He’s on a work trip with Jesus, so he can afford your blueberry budget.'”
She talked about why her husband advocated so passionately for marriage and family life.
“Charlie always believed that God’s design for marriage in the family was absolutely amazing. And it is. It is. And it was the greatest joy of his life. And over and over, he would tell all these young people to come and find their future spouse, become wives and husbands and parents. And the reason why is because he wanted you all to experience what he had, and still has,” she said.
“He wanted everyone to bring heaven into this earth through love and joy that comes from raising a family. It’s beautiful. Charlie always said that if he ever ran for office —I know a lot of you asked if he ever was going to — but privately, he told me if he ever did run for office, that his top priority would be to revive the American family. That was his priority.
“One of Charlie’s favorite Bible verses was Ephesians 5 verse 25: ‘Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.’
“My husband laid down his life for me, for our nation, for our children. He showed the ultimate and true covenantal love,” she said.
Erika, who is a baptized Catholic, witnessed to the Christian faith she and her husband shared.
“Charlie always said that when he was gone, he, he wanted to be remembered for his courage and for his faith,” she said.
“And one of the final conversations that he had on this earth, my husband witnessed for his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now and for all eternity, he will stand at his Savior’s side, wearing the glorious crown of a martyr.”
During the broadcast, Erika Kirk urged others to make faith central to their lives, as her husband had done.
“But most important of all, if you aren’t a member of a church, I beg you to join one, a Bible-believing church,” she said.
“Our battle is not simply a political one above all. It is spiritual. It is spiritual. The spiritual warfare is palpable. Charlie loved his Savior with all of his heart, and he wanted every one of you to know him, too. He wanted everyone to know that if they confess, if they confess the Lord Jesus Christ who rose from the dead, then they will be saved.
“Hear me when I say this. Nobody is ever too young to know the gospel. Nobody. Nobody is ever too young to get involved with saving this beautiful country, this country my husband loved and still loves. And nobody is ever too old, either.”
She vowed to continue Charlie’s work with Turning Point USA, the conservativve advocacy organization he founded, and said the campus speaking tour he had just embarked on would go on.
“If you thought that my husband’s mission was powerful before, you have no idea. You have no idea what you just have unleashed across this entire country and this world. You have no idea,” she said.
“You have no idea the fire that you have ignited within this wife. The cries of this widow will echo around the world like a battle cry.
“To everyone listening tonight across America, the movement my husband built will not die,” she said. “It won’t. I refuse to let that happen. It will not die.”
In an interview with “EWTN News In Depth,” Hawkins called Kirk “a joyful warrior.” She pointed out: “He was a man of God and just moments before he was assassinated, he had proclaimed that Jesus Christ is his Lord and Savior. And he never shirked away from that, just like he never shirked away from any of the other political debates … I believe with my whole heart, he died a martyr.”
Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA and campus activist, “truly enjoyed having conversations with those who disagreed with him and having the opportunity to change their minds,” Hawkins said. “He was a huge learning advocate … He was always wanting to find out the best ways to save our country and to advance our faith.”
“We work symbiotically on campuses to spread the good news of the Gospel, but then also spread the voice of reason, which Pope Benedict was very clear [about]. He wrote about how reason is God’s gift and when reason is abandoned, violence becomes the only remaining path … When people stop talking, when they disagree with each other, it only leads to violence.”
Hawkins highlighted Kirk’s mission to protect human life. Students for Life honored him in January at the National Pro-Life Summit with the Defender of Life Award “for his advocacy for life on college campuses.”
Turning Point, Students for Life, and similar organizations that work to defend life “have become increasingly effective [in] winning back students,” Hawkins said, especially because of Kirk’s “ability to reach young men.”
While the pro-life organizations have been “effective and things have started to shift in our country, it hasn’t shifted enough,” Hawkins said. “We still have a culture of death.”
Manifestation of the ‘culture of death’
The day of Kirk’s death, Hawkins was speaking to students at the University of Montana. “I was on campus for two hours before Charlie was shot and every argument from the 150 pro-choice students who surrounded me … was: ‘Maybe it is a baby, maybe it is human, but I can still kill it because I want to. That’s a culture of death.”
“When I announced to them that my friend had been shot and we were trying to find updates on Charlie’s condition … they laughed.”
This is the callous response of pro-choice students at the University of Montana when I told them my friend Charlie Kirk had been shot.
It was horrific. I share this because evil must be exposed in our nation, now more than ever. We may be at one of the lowest points in our… pic.twitter.com/1QFpG754AX
“This is what a culture of death breeds. When you say it’s OK to kill innocent babies and that there should be no recourse [for] killing innocent, helpless babies who are the most innocent among us, this is what it leads to. This is why we say it’s a culture of death that must be defeated and this is why we can’t abandon the campuses right now,” Hawkins said. “Do we abandon violence or accept reason?”
Despite this tragedy, Hawkins said: “We have to stay on campuses, because we have to teach this generation, Gen Z, that violence isn’t acceptable.” She shared that her organizations will be going to “160 campuses this semester talking about [their] fall theme, which is ‘every human life matters.’ Charlie Kirk’s life matters.”
“We have to go now harder and louder than ever before because God’s gift of reason must prevail. That is the only way our mission survives this.”
Hawkins also asked people to pray for Kirk’s wife, Erika, and their young children. “I can’t even imagine the pain that Erika is going through,” Hawkins said. “To lose the love of her life, the father of her children, her rock, one that she loves so dearly, and Erika loves so fiercely. But she also loves the Lord.”
“And so my prayer for her right now is that her faith prevails, and her faith carries her through this moment, and God grants her strength. She is strong enough to endure this. I would ask folks every morning when you wake up, pray for Erika. Pray for those two young children.”
Alveda King has suffered three assassinations in her family: that of her father, Rev. Alfred Daniel Williams King; her grandmother, Alberta King; and her renowned uncle, Martin Luther King Jr. / Credit: “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo”/Screenshot
CNA Staff, Sep 12, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).
After the assassination of Charlie Kirk at a college campus on Wednesday, Alveda King, the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., encouraged people to pray.
“It broke my heart,” King said when asked about her reaction to learning of the assassination.
“I was so very startled when I got the news that Charlie had been shot, and my heart immediately went to him and his family, his beautiful wife, his little children,” she told Raymond Arroyo on EWTN’s “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo.”
“Having experienced those kinds of occurrences in my own family, I immediately went into prayer,” she said.
King shared about her own experience with political assassinations in her family. Not only was her uncle, Dr. King, assassinated but her father, Rev. Alfred Daniel Williams King, was also assassinated as well as her grandmother, Alberta King.
“For me, I am a Christian. I still have the peace and the joy of the Lord, but it’s almost like a trauma or a trigger point when those things happen,” King said.
But amid the trauma, King encouraged listeners to “do what my uncle talked about,” encouraging people to have “regard for human dignity.”
“We’ve got to care again,” King said. “We’ve got to see human beings as human beings — from the womb to the tomb and beyond.”
“We’ve got to get back to a point of caring, of loving, of repenting, of forgiving,” she continued. “Therein lies the answer.”
The greatest of these is love
Calling Charlie Kirk a “man of faith,” King said she will remember him with a Scripture verse: 1 Corinthians 13:13.
“Now abides faith, hope, and love. The greatest of these is love,” she said. “That’s the way that I do remember Charlie.”
King said she believed that if Charlie Kirk, Dr. King, or President John F. Kennedy were still with us, they would encourage us to not “seek our answers in humanity.”
“We’re going to find not our heroes in humanity, but we’re going to have to look to Jesus at these times,” King said.
“We’re living in tumultuous times, and social media drives us to retaliate, to strike back,” she said. “I want to remind people that if you don’t agree with someone, you don’t shoot the person. You pray, you talk, and you consider your position. But this violence is just absolutely wrong.”
She noted that we are living in “a time of violence and anger and fear and frustration.”
“So that leads me to say to everyone: fear not, listen, love, communicate,” she said.
King encouraged listeners “to do something good for someone” in remembrance of Charlie Kirk and in memory of the victims of the violence on the 24th anniversary of 9/11.
“I would remind us to call for peace, to call for prayer,” she said. “And I know Charlie would want us to do that as well.”
The premiere of “Triumph of the Heart” in Dallas on Sept. 8, 2025. / Credit: Nicole Marie Richards
CNA Staff, Sep 12, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).
A new film called “Triumph of the Heart” depicts St. Maximilian Kolbe’s last days on earth in a starvation bunker in the German death camp of Auschwitz. The film will be released in theaters on Sept. 12.
St. Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish Franciscan friar and priest who volunteered to die in place of another man in Auschwitz. He spent the last 14 days of his life in a starvation bunker alongside nine other men.
The red carpet at the premiere of “Triumph of the Heart” in Dallas on Sept. 8, 2025. Credit: Nicole Marie Richards
At the film’s Sept. 8 premiere in Dallas, where over 1,000 people gathered at the Edith O’Donnell Arts and Technology Building on the University of Texas at Dallas campus to show their support and watch the film, writer and director Anthony D’Ambrosio told CNA on the red carpet that it was “surreal” to see the magnitude of the premiere.
He explained that it was originally meant to be a more intimate gathering with roughly 200 people in attendance but “God, of course, had other plans,” D’Ambrosio said. “I think that what I’m seeing is that God keeps on growing our vision for where he wants to take the film, where he wants to take this story.”
The current rise in faith-based media
Actors who also spoke on the red carpet discussed the resurgence of faith-based media being seen in today’s culture.
Michael Iskander, who portrays King David in Prime Video’s “House of David” and served as the master of ceremonies for the premiere, said he believes “Christ is pouring his heart out to all of us in every way possible and media is one of those frontiers that hasn’t really been touched yet.”
He credited the hit series “The Chosen” for “paving the path for so much faith-based filmmaking and showing people that this is a market that people want to see.”
Michael Iskander, the actor who portrays King David in Prime Video’s “House of David,” at the Sept. 8, 2025, premiere of “Triumph of the Heart.” Credit: Nicole Marie Richards
A recent convert to Catholicism, Iskander shared that St. Maximilian Kolbe was one of the first saints he learned about from the Catholic Church. He highlighted the saint’s use of media to spread the Gospel message to the masses and said it is “fitting that this film and this rise in Christianity, especially in filmmaking, had to do with St. Kolbe.”
Jeff Schiefelbein, co-host of the podcast “The Beatidudes” and an investor in “Triumph of the Heart,” said he believes there is a resurgence in faith-based media because people are “sick of all the fake stuff.”
“We’re being told to compare ourselves to things that aren’t even important. The materialism has swung so far that the pendulum is making its way back,” he said. “… I think there’s going to be this resurgence … of young people, Gen Xers, old people coming back and saying, ‘Wait, we want what’s real, what’s true, what’s good, and what’s beautiful’ and so it is rooted in the Gospel when we go and seek those.”
Marcellino D’Ambrosio, a well-known author, Catholic commentator, and executive producer of the film — also the father of Anthony D’Ambrosio — called this moment we’re seeing in faith-based media “a Holy Spirit moment.”
“Human beings always need God but I think something really special is going on right now,” he said.
“St. Augustine said it well: Our hearts are restless until we rest in him. And success in the culture — this is a fascinating thing that actually goes back even to the successful cultures in Rome — there’s an emptiness when you have a certain amount of success and you have leisure; nothing satisfies but God,” he added. “So it oftentimes leads people to that restlessness that St. Augustine talks about — to look for him, to be open to him, and I think that’s what’s going on in our culture right now.”
Actor Marcin Kwaśny as Maximilian Kolbe in “Triumph of the Heart.” Credit: Triumph of the Heart movie/Sherwood Fellows
A film that inspires hope
As for what those involved in the film hope viewers take away from it, the major theme they mentioned was their wish that it fills the audience with hope.
“I hope they will take away hope,” Marcellino D’Ambrosio said. “I hope that everyone realizes that God is real; I have a future, no matter how bad the present looks … he’s with me in the present and he has something in store for me that’s greater than my wildest dreams.”
Rowan Polonski, the actor who portrays Albert in the film — one of the men in the starvation bunker alongside Kolbe — told CNA his hope is for the audience to be “pleasantly surprised in the way that they’re moved.”
“Entering into this movie, you could quite easily walk in thinking it’s going to be a pretty dark and heavy write, but what I want them to walk out with is a sense of joy and catharsis,” he added. “And a sense that no matter how dark times can get, how low one can feel, there’s always a way out, there’s always a crack of light somewhere that you can cling onto and follow through and it’s normally in the form of love.”
Producer Cecilia Stevenson added: “I really want people to feel love when they watch this movie and specifically to feel the love of Our Lord and how he enters into our suffering with us, just like Kolbe did for those men in that film. Our movie, Kolbe’s story, it’s a modern-day example that ultimately points us to Christ, and I really hope people feel that love and I hope it gives them hope, that there is meaning in life and that suffering itself can have meaning.”
A makeshift memorial is seen at Timpanogos Regional Hospital in honor of political activist Charlie Kirk on Sept. 11, 2025, in Orem, Utah. / Credit: George Frey/Getty Images
Faith leaders and political leaders are uniting their voices to condemn politically motivated violence following the assassination of Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk.
Following the confirmation of Kirk’s death by President Donald Trump, some hours after the TPUSA founder was shot at a Utah Valley University event on Wednesday afternoon, Sept. 10, countless faith and political leaders began to speak out against the scourge of political violence.
In a statement, Bishop Michael Burbidge of the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, railed against the “vicious pattern of political and social disorder” of the past several weeks, citing the Annunciation Catholic school shooting, the murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, “and now the political assassination of Charlie Kirk, known for his commitment to civil and rational discourse.”
As Americans, we are witnesses in just the past few weeks to a vicious pattern of political and social disorder. At Annunciation Catholic Parish in Minneapolis, the killings of Harper Moyski and Fletcher Merkel, two innocent children. In Charlotte, the murder of Ukrainian refugee…
“What we see unfolding in our nation is a vicious pattern of hatreds rooted in the rejection of God, of the dignity of the human person, and the sanctity of the family,” the bishop observed.
“We are living through a perilous moment,” Burbridge continued. “Our challenge is not only one of partisan disagreement, law, and policy, but in a deeper way our challenge is to uphold the central goods of American political life: of faith, of families, and of a national commitment to live together in harmony as brothers and sisters.”
Kirk’s assasination hit Bishop Barron particularly hard
“I am devastated by the news of Charlie Kirk’s death,” Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, Bishop Robert Barron said after news of Kirk’s death was confirmed by President Donald Trump.
Barron went on to reveal that Kirk had been scheduled to appear on his show, “Bishop Barron Presents,” in 10 days. The founder of Word on Fire called Kirk “a great debater and also one of the best advocates in our country for civil discourse, but he was, first and last, a passionate Christian,” recalling that when they first met four years ago, “we didn’t talk much about politics. We talked about theology, in which he had a deep interest, and about Christ. I know I’m joining millions of people around the world in praying that he rests now in the peace of the Lord.”
Moral theologian on root of problem
“You have to be willfully blind not to see that the root of the problem is political hatred, and that that hatred is no more obvious than in those who cannot restrain themselves from badmouthing a man even when he lay dying,” said Edward Feser, a Catholic philosopher and professor at Pasadena City College.
I have nothing against reasonable gun control laws. But you have to be willfully blind not to see that the root of the problem is political hatred, and that that hatred is no more obvious than in those who cannot restrain themselves from badmouthing a man even when he lay dying.
In a joint post showcasing their shared perspective across ideological divides, Princeton legal scholar Robert George and Harvard theology and philosophy professor Cornel West said: “For our nation, this is a moment for deep healing and for bearing witness to the precious humanity of all our brothers and sisters — those with whom we agree and those with whom we disagree.” The pair had appeared together on Kirk’s show recently.
We join our fellow citizens of all faiths in praying for the repose of the soul of Charlie Kirk and for the comfort and consolation of his wife, two small children, and other loved ones.
We recently appeared as guests on Charlie’s podcast, where he engaged us with moral…
Meanwhile, CatholicVote President Kelsey Reinhardt said the tragic shooting “was not merely an assault on one man: It was an assault on the principles of free dialogue, civic order, and human dignity.”
It is with profound grief that I respond to the brutal assassination of Charlie Kirk during his “American Comeback” tour at Utah Valley University. Today, our nation mourns not only the loss of a bold voice for truth, but a husband and father who leaves behind a wife and two…
“As Catholics, we affirm with unwavering conviction that every human life is sacred,” Reinhardt continued, offering prayers for the repose of Kirk’s soul. “I call upon every leader, regardless of party or persuasion, to condemn this murder unequivocally. To remain silent in the face of such evil is to be complicit in its advance. Let this tragedy awaken America to the urgent need to recover respect for life, civility in discourse, and courage in the pursuit of truth.”
Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts also weighed in, writing: “What a horrific day in American history.”
What a horrific day in American history.
To Charlie’s family, friends, and @TPUSA colleagues: we must never, never, never, never, never, never stop fighting to build the America that he helped make possible. He restored optimism about the American future for millions of… pic.twitter.com/VYP2WUaRiD
“To Charlie’s family, friends, and @TPUSA colleagues: We must never, never, never, never, never, never stop fighting to build the America that he helped make possible,” Roberts added.
Netanyahu: Kirk ‘stood tall for Judeo-Christian civilization’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu joined world leaders in condemning Kirk’s assasination, writing: “Charlie Kirk was murdered for speaking truth and defending freedom. A lion-hearted friend of Israel, he fought the lies and stood tall for Judeo-Christian civilization.”
Charlie Kirk was murdered for speaking truth and defending freedom. A lion-hearted friend of Israel, he fought the lies and stood tall for Judeo-Christian civilization. I spoke to him only two weeks ago and invited him to Israel. Sadly, that visit will not take place. We lost an…
Netanyahu revealed he had spoken to Kirk “only two weeks ago” and had invited the late TPUSA founder to visit Israel.
“Sadly, that visit will not take place,” the prime minister said. “We lost an incredible human being. His boundless pride in America and his valiant belief in free speech will leave a lasting impact.”
In another tribute, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who hosted Kirk as the first guest on his new podcast, said: “His senseless murder is a reminder of how important it is for all of us, across the political spectrum, to foster genuine discourse on issues that deeply affect us all without resorting to political violence.”
We should all feel a deep sense of grief and outrage at the terrible violence that took place in Utah today. Charlie Kirk’s murder is sick and reprehensible, and our thoughts are with his family, children, and loved ones.
I knew Charlie, and I admired his passion and commitment…
“The best way to honor Charlie’s memory is to continue his work: Engage with each other, across ideology, through spirited discourse,” he continued. “In a democracy, ideas are tested through words and good-faith debate — never through violence.”
Newsom added: “Honest disagreement makes us stronger; violence only drives us further apart and corrodes the values at the heart of this nation.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden both took to social media as well, with Biden writing in a post: “There is no place in our country for this kind of violence. It must end now. Jill and I are praying for Charlie Kirk’s family and loved ones.”
There is no place in our country for this kind of violence. It must end now. Jill and I are praying for Charlie Kirk’s family and loved ones.
“I am deeply disturbed by the shooting in Utah. Doug and I send our prayers to Charlie Kirk and his family,” Harris wrote, adding: “Let me be clear: Political violence has no place in America. I condemn this act, and we all must work together to ensure this does not lead to more violence.”
I am deeply disturbed by the shooting in Utah. Doug and I send our prayers to Charlie Kirk and his family.
Let me be clear: Political violence has no place in America. I condemn this act, and we all must work together to ensure this does not lead to more violence.
Bishop Pedro Bismarck Chau at his episcopal consecration Mass as the new auxiliary bishop of Newark, New Jersey, on Sept. 8, 2025. / Credit: Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart
ACI Prensa Staff, Sep 11, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).
“Today, we Nicaraguans are making history again. Do not forget: God is with us and God is with Nicaragua!” said Pedro Bismarck Chau, the new auxiliary bishop of Newark, New Jersey, at the Sept. 8 Mass for his episcopal consecration, making him the first Nicaraguan-born bishop in the United States.
Amid a festive atmosphere and before a packed Sacred Heart Cathedral in Newark, where he had been rector since 2020, Chau received episcopal consecration through the laying on of hands by several bishops. The principal consecrator was Cardinal Joseph Tobin, the archbishop of Newark.
As part of the celebration, Cardinal Christoph Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, read the letter in which Pope Leo XIV officially appointed Chau as bishop and encouraged him to allow himself to be strengthened “by the grace of this jubilee year and you will have reason to be confident in the gift of hope, which does not disappoint. May God continue to bless you and may he bless the people of God in this archdiocese.”
The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep
In his homily in English and Spanish, Tobin encouraged the new bishop to remember that “you have been called from among the people of God and for the people of God. Not for yourself, but for the things that belong to God. Indeed, episcopacy is the name of a service, not an honor, for a bishop should strive to serve rather than rule.”
“According to the Master’s commandment, whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of all … Be a faithful steward and dispenser of the mysteries of Christ. Always follow the example of the Good Shepherd, who knows his sheep and is known by them, and who did not hesitate to give his life for them.”
The cardinal then recalled that “Pope Francis never tired of repeating to bishops that there are three aspects to a bishop’s closeness to the people he serves: closeness to God in prayer, the first task; closeness to the priests and deacons of the Church; and closeness to the people of God. … Do not forget your roots, do not forget those who have passed on the faith to you.”
‘God is with Nicaragua!’
At the beginning of his address as a newly consecrated bishop, Chau thanked the Deaf community in sign language, recalling that for 17 years they have been a great support and encouragement in his ministry, offering them his prayers and concluding with a clear: “I love you!”
Speaking later in Spanish, he addressed his “dear Hispanic community: Thank you for the faith and devotion you possess. You are a great gift of life for the Church in the United States. Continue, brothers, to be a Church that goes out in search of the lost sheep.”
“I would also like to acknowledge the presence this afternoon,” Chau continued, “of a group of people here from a very small country but with a big and resilient heart that cries out with a phrase that no other country has: ‘Who causes so much joy? The conception of Mary. Mary of Nicaragua! Nicaragua of Mary!’”
The prelate addressed his family, especially his mother: “Thank you, my dearest mother, for everything and for praying so many rosaries for me, three, four, and five times a day that you pray for me. I need them, so don’t stop praying those rosaries for me. OK, Mommy?”
“I love you very much,” he told his family, “you know I love you with all my heart.”
The example of the Virgin Mary
Chau said he hopes to “follow the example of Mary, whose birthday we celebrate today. Happy birthday, Mary! She trusted in God’s plan even though she didn’t know what she was being called to or where it would take or lead her. She renounced all the dreams and aspirations that a young girl would have and put God’s will first.”
Then addressing all those assembled he said: “I humbly ask you to remember me in your prayers to the Lord and to ask the Virgin to watch over me and bring me closer to her son, Jesus, so that I may reflect for you the image of the Good Shepherd. Thank you, and may God bless you all!” he said.
Words of Bishop Silvio Báez
Following the Mass, Bishop Silvio Báez, the exiled auxiliary bishop of Managua, Nicaragua, who has been living in the U.S. since 2019, said the episcopal consecration of Chau was a “historic celebration. The first Nicaraguan, born in Nicaragua, to be ordained a bishop in the United States. He was baptized and took his first steps in the faith in Nicaragua.”
“This is a sign of the richness and fruitfulness of the Church of Nicaragua and a message of hope for all the people of God in our country. The fact that Bismarck came from Nicaragua and settled in the United States shows that it is possible to move forward despite the difficulties one may encounter,” he added.
When asked about his meeting with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican in August, along with two other exiled Nicaraguan bishops — Carlos Herrera and Isidoro Mora — the prelate said: “The interview with the Holy Father was a moment of grace, a moment of hope, seeing how deeply he holds Nicaragua in his heart as well as the situation the Nicaraguan people are experiencing at this time.”
Who is Bishop Pedro Bismarck Chau?
Pedro Bismarck Chau was born on June 28, 1967, in Managua, Nicaragua. He studied at Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey, earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology.
He completed his ecclesiastical studies at Immaculate Conception Seminary in South Orange and later earned a master’s degree in counseling from Seton Hall University.
He was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Newark on May 24, 2008.
He served as parochial vicar of Our Lady of Mount Virgin in Garfield, New Jersey, from 2008–2012; as director of vocations from 2012–2016; and as head of campus ministry at Rutgers University and the New Jersey Institute of Technology from 2015–2020.
He also served as pastor of the Pro-Cathedral of Sts. John and Patrick in Newark from 2015–2020 and rector of the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart since 2020.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, Rochester, New York. / Credit: DanielPenfield via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)
CNA Staff, Sep 8, 2025 / 12:37 pm (CNA).
One of the nation’s largest sexual abuse settlements unfolded in a federal bankruptcy court in Rochester, New York, on Friday, bringing about resolution for the nearly 500 survivors of child sex abuse by clergy within the Diocese of Rochester.
After a six-year legal battle, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of New York approved a $246 million settlement, which will average approximately $500,000 per survivor.
The settlement concludes a process that began when the diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2019 following the passage of the New York Child Victims Act, which allows abuse victims to file civil lawsuits until they are 55 years old. The law temporarily lifted the statute of limitations, enabling survivors to pursue claims against their abusers.
Bankruptcy attorney Ilan Scharf described the day as a “milestone for survivors in the Rochester area after being the first bankruptcy filed in New York” after the passage of the Child Victims Act.
Survivors expressed a mix of emotions, with many ready to move forward.
Gregory Stanley noted: “The healing can start now, which is more important than the money. I’m just glad it’s over.” Merle Sweet echoed this sentiment, saying: “Relief. It’s all finally over,” while John McHugh added: “I am actually, for the first time, excited for the future.”
Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, representing 97 victims, emphasized the survivors’ resilience, stating in a press release that the process validated their experiences and contributed to a safer world for children, setting an example of determination for others globally.
Survivor Carol Dupre shared the profound impact on her community. “This was a real wounding of a lot of people and their families. There’s literally thousands upon thousands of people that have been negatively affected by what happened to us,” she said.
Bishop Salvatore Matano of the Diocese of Rochester addressed the media after the settlement, offering a message of hope and regret. “I pray that this is certainly a step toward their healing,” he said of the victims. “I apologize to them. I deeply regret what transpired in their lives, which, as the judge said, never should have happened.”
He continued: “While this process legally concludes today, I take them in my heart every day of my life, and every time I approach the altar, they will be in my memory, asking the good Lord to give them the strength and the courage to continue on, and that they be blessed in the years ahead.”
Matano issued a letter the same day in which he said the “settlement provisions can be effectuated” in the next several weeks. Of the $246 million settlement, $55 million will be paid by the diocese and affiliated entities, according to the letter, and the rest by the diocese’s insurers.
The bishop concluded the letter addressing abusers, saying he entrusts “them to Jesus, the final judge, and I pray they have acknowledged their offenses and used their remaining years to seek his mercy and have prayed fervently for those they have hurt.”
From left to right: Actor Marcin Kwaśny as Maximilian Kolbe and Christopher Sherwood as Karl Fritzsch in “Triumph of the Heart.” / Credit: Triumph of the Heart movie/Sherwood Fellows
CNA Staff, Sep 6, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).
Anthony D’Ambrosio grew up Catholic and always viewed his faith as one of the most important aspects of his life — even entering seminary for a brief period of time. However, he felt called to leave seminary and go into youth ministry. He fell in love and was about to get engaged when he was diagnosed with a life-altering medical condition — a chronic mold infection with a major symptom being severe and even life-threatening insomnia.
D’Ambrosio’s relationship ended, he couldn’t maintain a job, and his faith unraveled. It was during the sleepless nights that he began to discover the story of St. Maximilian Kolbe, which led to creating a movie about the saint — “Triumph of the Heart.” It will be released in theaters on Sept. 12.
St. Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish Franciscan friar, priest, and martyr who volunteered to die in place of another man in the German death camp of Auschwitz. Kolbe spent the last 14 days of his life in a starvation bunker alongside nine other men. “Triumph of the Heart” focuses on Kolbe’s last days on earth spent in the starvation bunker.
While writing the film, D’Ambrosio began to see his own battle with insomnia as “being a bit of a stand-in for starvation,” he told CNA in an interview. The fact that Kolbe was also able to accompany three other men “to that miracle of staying alive for 14 days without food or water with him” was also meaningful for D’Ambrosio because “I knew that if Kolbe could have helped men in that situation to find a reason to live, that he could help me to find a reason to live.”
As D’Ambrosio spent more and more time with Kolbe’s story, he began to “see what true sanctity looked like, what love looked like.”
“This idea that he had volunteered to take on the suffering of these men in order to be with them — that really began to melt my own heart and to open me back up to God’s presence,” he added.
It was then that D’Ambrosio began his journey to create the film. He began to write the script, pilgrimaged several times to Poland to learn more about Kolbe, lived with the Franciscan friars in Poland, studied his story with the librarian who handles his archives, and ultimately worked with an American crew and partnered with Poles to tell the martyr’s story.
A portrayal seen in “Triumph of the Heart” of Maximilian Kolbe, along with the other men, in the starvation bunker. Credit: Triumph of the Heart movie/Sherwood Fellows
Despite facing numerous challenges while making the film, D’Ambrosio said the most beautiful aspect was seeing “how generous the Catholic world has been.”
“Triumph of the Heart” was an entirely crowdfunded movie — meaning all production costs were covered thanks to donations from individuals.
D’Ambrosio shared that not only did everyday Catholics generously donate financially, but they also donated airline miles for the crew to be able to travel and many volunteered to go to Poland on their own dime to help with the production while the team was there for three months filming.
“I mean the whole movie is just a compilation of the stories of people who have sacrificed immensely in order to tell the story,” D’Ambrosio said.
When reflecting on the life and story of Kolbe, D’Ambrosio said it serves as a great reminder to Catholics that “when everything is hopeless, really, truly, love has the power to overcome darkness and to change the world.”
“The choice to have to maintain love and hope and faith in the face of darkness is the most powerful expression of God’s love and presence that any person can offer the world,” he added.
Despite having his life’s work destroyed by the Nazis and witness his country of Poland be conquered and destroyed by the Germans, Kolbe maintained his faith, and for D’Ambrosio “that has been the part of his life that has resounded the most throughout history and throughout time.”
“I think for anybody that is struggling in any way in their lives right now, they can look at his suffering and look at the fruit of it and make sense in many ways — maybe not make sense but they can like find a balm and find a compass for their own action the way that I did,” he said.
D’Ambrosio emphasized that the movie is primarily about hope and said he finds it “very apropos that this year was declared to be a Jubilee of Hope and that somehow Kolbe’s movie and his story is coming out in the jubilee year.”
The filmmaker said he hopes viewers “will come away with this catharsis — with this feeling of all of that was worth it if that’s what heaven is like.”
“I think that the way that the movie leaves people is like a little promise of ‘Hey, it’s going to be OK. The place we’re going is better and all of the suffering and trials and tribulations that you go through here now and all the crosses that you bear, they will be fully redeemed and you will be completely filled up and made new.’”
Father Rony Salim, chancellor of the Syriac Catholic Archdiocese of Mosul, shared with ACI MENA, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner, that the bishop has called Qaraqosh the “City of Hosanna” due to its uniquely spirited celebration marked by hymns, prayers, and massive crowds of worshippers. / Credit: Ismael Adnan/ACI MENA
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 5, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).
Here is a roundup of Catholic world news from the past week that you might have missed:
Syriac Catholic archpriest attacked in Syria
Tensions in Syria deepened this week after a brutal assault on Archpriest Michel Naaman of the Syriac Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Homs. Returning home one evening, Naaman was ambushed by two masked men who beat him, threatened him at gunpoint, and stripped him of his gold cross and cash, ACI MENA, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner, reported Thursday.
The attack is part of a troubling pattern of insecurity hitting Christian communities across Syria. In recent months, robberies, kidnappings, and even attacks on churches have become increasingly common in Homs, Aleppo, and beyond. For many, the assault on Naaman is another chilling reminder of the dangers Christians still face in a country fractured by war and lawlessness.
European Commission to examine EU abortion funding initiative
The European Commission has said it will examine the European Citizens’ Initiative’s call for EU funding for “safe and accessible” abortion after an initiative reached over 1 million signatures across 19 member states, according to a European News Room report.
A Slovenian nonprofit organization, Institute 8th March, led the initiative, alongside several other EU nongovernmental organizations. “We want the European Union to establish a financial mechanism that would allow countries to provide abortion services to those individuals who do not have access to abortion in their own countries,” Institute 8th March Director Nika Kovač said. The commission said it will provide a response by March 2026.
Internal displacement camps in Nigeria ‘competing for space’ amid ongoing violence
Refugee camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Nigeria are experiencing heightened pressure amid ongoing violence across the West African country, according to Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Abuja.
“People are losing their homes. The growing number of IDP camps is competing for space with estates in the cities,” he said in an Aug. 31 statement posted to his Facebook account. The archbishop further called on the government to “rise up to the occasion and take definitive action to stop the incessant killings, terrorism, banditry, and economic hardships ravaging our people.”
South Sudan bishop expresses solidarity with victims after landslide
Bishop Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala of the Tombura-Yambio Diocese in South Sudan has expressed his solidarity with the victims of a devastating landslide that reportedly wiped out the village of Tarasin in the southwest Darfur region.
“It is with a heart full of sorrow and solidarity that I write to you in the wake of the devastating landslide that has erased the village of Tarasin and claimed so many innocent lives. The scale of this tragedy defies words, yet it is our shared humanity, our common faith, and our spiritual responsibility that compel us to speak to comfort, to support, and to hope,” the bishop said in a Sept. 3 letter shared with ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa. “Please accept my deepest condolences and heartfelt prayers for all those affected. I stand with you in mourning but also in courage and in the pursuit of justice, dignity, and healing for the survivors.”
South Korean priests urge government not to build airport over wetland
The Catholic Priests’ Association for Justice in South Korea is protesting against government proposals to build an airport near the Saemangeum wetland, according to a UCA News report.
The association celebrated Mass on Sept. 1 outside the presidential office in Seoul to express its opposition to the project, which it said “is destroying the environment and people’s livelihoods.” Parish priest Father Song Yeon-hong, who presided over the Mass, spoke out against the project, saying: “Many lives are dying due to the project, migratory birds that once visited Saemangeum have vanished, and local fishermen are leaving.”
St. Anne’s Church in Syria reopens
In a rare scene of celebration from Syria’s battered northwest, hundreds of worshippers gathered in the village of Yacoubiyah for the rededication of St. Anne’s Church, ACI MENA reported Monday. The centuries-old site, scarred by war and earthquakes, has been restored thanks to the efforts of Franciscan friars and local Christians.
The liturgy, led by Bishop Magar Ashkarian of the Armenian Orthodox Church, was filled with music, bells, and the sight of parishioners reclaiming a sacred space long denied to them. St. Anne’s, first built in the 14th century, had suffered destruction and neglect through war and extremism. Only in recent years, under shifting local conditions, were Christians permitted to return and celebrate their patron saint’s feast. For villagers from Yacoubiyah, al-Quniyah, and al-Jadida, and pilgrims from across Syria, the reopening was more than a religious event; it was a sign of endurance and hope.
Relic of Blessed Carlo Acutis on display. / Credit: Courtesy of Milagro Eucarístico Perú – 1649
CNA Staff, Sep 4, 2025 / 05:17 am (CNA).
From the finger of St. Thomas, to the arm of St. Jude, to the miraculous blood of St. Januarius and the Shroud of Turin, the Catholic Church is home to a plethora of relics. To an outsider, the tradition of venerating relics may seem strange; however, the roots of the practice are found in Scripture as well as in the ancient tradition of the Church.
Below are 10 of the most asked questions pertaining to relics and their veneration:
What is a relic?
A relic is a physical object that had a direct association with a saint or with Jesus Christ. The word “relic” derives from the Latin word “relinquere,” which means “to abandon or leave behind.”
What are the different classes of relics?
Traditionally, relics can be broken down into three classes: first, second, and third.
First class relics are the body or fragments of the body of a saint, such as pieces of bone or flesh. An example of a first class relic would be the skull of St. Thomas Aquinas or the bone of St. Jude Thaddeus. Pieces of the cross on which Jesus was crucified are also considered first class relics.
A second class relic is an item that a saint touched or owned, such as a shirt or book, or fragments of these items.
Third class relics are items that a saint has touched or items that have been touched to a first, second, or another third class relic. For example, touching the first class relic of St. Bernadette Soubirous’ bones with your own personal rosary would make your rosary a third class relic.
Additionally, a 2017 decree on relics identified the difference between “significant” and “non-significant” relics.
The decree defines a significant relic as “the body of the Blesseds and of the Saints or notable parts of the bodies themselves or the sum total of the ashes obtained by their cremation.”
These relics are preserved in properly sealed urns and are to be kept in places that guarantee their safety and respect their sacredness.
“Little fragments of the body of the Blesseds and of the Saints as well as objects that have come in direct contact with their person are considered non-significant relics,” the decree states.
These are also preserved in sealed cases “and honored with a religious spirit, avoiding every type of superstition and illicit trade.”
How are relics authenticated?
The process of authenticating a first or second class relic begins with the certification from a bishop or cardinal. In many cases the relics belong to the diocese to which the saint belonged.
Then, especially for first class relics, the item must be scientifically proven to be human remains, along with other criteria. This is done to ensure that fake relics are not being venerated by the faithful.
There is no process for formally recognizing third class relics.
Why do Catholics venerate relics?
Catholics venerate the relics of saints as a way to honor the saint’s inspiring way of life and bold faith. As Catholics, we strive to become saints ourselves and are encouraged to imitate the lives of the saints in our own daily lives.
St. Jerome, a great biblical scholar, said, “We do not worship relics, we do not adore them, for fear that we should bow down to the creature rather than to the creator. But we venerate the relics of the martyrs in order the better to adore him whose martyrs they are.” (Ad Riparium, i, P.L., XXII, 907).
The veneration of relics is a Catholic practice of honoring the extraordinary work God did in a person’s life – a person who has achieved the highest level of holiness in the Catholic Church.
The major relic of St. Jean de Brebeuf, his skull, flanked by major relics of St. Gabriel Lalemant (left) and St. Charles Garnier (right), both bone fragments. Credit: The Shrine of the Canadian Martyrs Photos
Is relic veneration biblical?
Yes. There are several instances in the Bible where individuals are healed by touching an item.
In 2 Kings 13:20-21, the corpse of a man is touched to the bones of the prophet Elisha and the man comes back to life. In Matthew 9:20-22, the hemorrhaging woman is healed by touching the hem of Jesus’ cloak. People were healed and evil spirits were driven out when handkerchiefs from the apostle Paul were placed on these individuals as is written in Acts of the Apostles 19:11-12.
Can relics perform miracles?
It is important to understand that while relics may be used in many miracles that are mentioned, the Catholic Church does not believe that the relic itself causes the miracle, but God alone. The relic is the vehicle through which God may work, but God is the cause for the healing.
Any good that comes about through a relic is God’s doing. But the fact that God chooses to use the relics of saints to work healing and miracles tells us that He wants to draw our attention to the saints as “models and intercessors” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 828).
Is it okay to own a relic?
Ideally a relic should be kept in a church or shrine where they can be made available for public veneration. However, the Church does not forbid the possession of relics by lay persons. They may even be kept in homes. Additionally, the Church no longer issues relics to individuals — not even clergy. The Church will only issue relics to churches, shrines, and oratories.
Can I buy or sell relics?
According to canon law of the Catholic Church, the sale of first- and second-class relics is strictly forbidden. Relics can only be given away by their owners, and some very significant relics, such as a heart, arm, etc., cannot be given away without the permission of the Vatican.
Where can I see or venerate relics?
Relics are housed all over the world in different churches and shrines. For example, the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Notre Dame, Indiana, is home to an estimated 1,200 relics. In Venice, Italy, St. Mark’s Basilica houses the relics of St. Mark the Evangelist. Catholics can venerate relics of the True Cross at the Basilica of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem in Rome, Italy.
Relics will also go on tour to churches across cities throughout the world in order for the faithful to have an opportunity to venerate them.
Are there relics of Jesus or Mary?
There are no first class relics of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Catholic Church teaches that Mary was assumed body and soul into heaven. However, the most well-known second class relic that is believed to have been Mary’s is her veil, which is kept in Chartres Cathedral in France.
The case is similar for Jesus. While there are no bodily relics of Christ, who rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, there are fragments of the True Cross, a fragment of the holy manger in which Jesus was placed after he was born, and fragments of black and white stone that are said to be from the pillar on which he was scourged.
The disciple John and Jesus in the new animated movie “Light of the World.” / Credit: Salvation Poem Foundation
CNA Staff, Sep 2, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).
A new 2D-animated movie, told through the eyes of Jesus’ beloved disciple John, will be released in theaters on Sept. 5, taking viewers from the beginning of Jesus’ ministry to his passion, death, and resurrection. “Light of the World” is the first movie from the Salvation Poem Project, a nonprofit ministry and independent studio that crafts stories to share Jesus Christ with the world.
Brennan McPherson, producer of the film, told CNA in an interview that his team chose to tell the story from John’s perspective because he was likely the youngest disciple so they believe his perspective is the most relatable.
“Telling it from the perspective of a young teenager — young kids want to age up and they see themselves in that. Teenagers are going through those formative years, so they relate with it. And then adults know what that formative time in their life was like. So it made it more appealing to a full family,” he explained.
He added that the filmmakers “wanted to show how the Gospel changed a young boy’s life and how it can still change our lives today.”
For the filmmakers — who also create other forms of faith-based media — projects such as this one are an “an act of worship.”
“We’re nerdy animation lovers, and we wanted to make a beautiful animated film that honored God, that told the truth about the Gospel, and that could be used as a tool to share our faith with people in a way that’s nonthreatening and that is not just compelling but genuine and respectful towards the audience,” McPherson said.
“What we’re trying to give people is an experience of the goodness of Jesus and let that resonate on a heart level so that they can fall in love with him,” he added.
The disciple John in the new animated movie “Light of the World.” Credit: Salvation Poem Foundation
When deciding what parts of Jesus’ ministry to include in the film, McPherson explained that filmmakers were trying to answer the question “How do you tell the basic big fundamental beats that make the Gospel totally clear to someone who’s had zero background?”
With this in mind, all of the choices “were through the lens of how do we make the actual structure of the story basically symbolize the Gospel itself, show the Gospel in action, as opposed to just telling us about it.”
He also emphasized the importance the filmmakers gave to “the biblical accuracy, the theological accuracy, [and] making it accessible for children.”
As for what he hopes viewers will take away from the film, McPherson said he hopes “that they will see Jesus is beautiful and fall in love with him and decide to follow him with their lives.”
“We wanted to give people a very clear emotional experience of the Gospel so that it just poured into their hearts. We’re so busy in this culture these days that it’s hard to get people to stop and really think about the claims of Jesus, really consider who he was and whether or not he was true,” he said. “And so this is our way of just basically like, ‘Hey, this is the most beautiful thing to us. That’s what we want to spend our time making art about, and we hope that you see what we see in it.’”
The Sisters of Life have launched a new website providing resources and support for women considering an abortion, women seeking healing after having an abortion, and women whose children have an adverse prenatal diagnosis.
Vis Center is named after the Latin word “vis,” which means “force” or “power.” “As women, we know that real power is unleashed when you feel listened to,” the website states.
The website includes several testimonial videos of women sharing their personal stories about finding themselves in unplanned pregnancies and the joy they found in deciding to choose life, as well as women sharing their stories of finding healing after undergoing an abortion.
“As Sisters of Life, we care about you, the whole you — body, mind, and soul. That’s why we offer a holistic approach to pregnancy, because we know that before being a medical issue, it’s a spiritual issue — it’s an issue of the heart,” the website reads.
“We believe that a woman should be empowered to move in freedom, not in fear, and that’s why we stand in solidarity with every woman who is pregnant.”
Sister Virginia Joy, SV, told CNA that while they’ve had a website for many years, “it needed to be updated” as the sisters “are always trying to reach women in crisis with a loving response and practical assistance.”
Sister Virginia Joy explained that walking with women who find themselves in unplanned pregnancies or are in need of healing after undergoing an abortion is crucial because “God entrusts us to one another.”
“To walk with these women, to listen to them, to love them and assist them in whatever way we can, whether it be through prayer or more active service, is the only appropriate response,” she added.
“We desire this website to bring hope into a situation where so many women feel alone and tempted to despair,” Sister Virginia Joy said. “We have had pregnant women in difficult circumstances say that when they read our brochure or looked at our website they felt hope for the first time in their pregnancy.”
“One woman captured it well when she said, ‘Everyone has been for abortion, no one has been for me,’” she recalled.
“We desire to be for them. It is a tremendous privilege to walk with these women, to listen to them, and to love them.”
The Sisters of Life was founded in 1991 by Cardinal John O’Connor in New York. It received formal approval as a religious institute in 2004. In addition to taking vows of chastity, obedience, and poverty, the Sisters of Life take a fourth vow — to protect and enhance the sacredness of human life.
The sisters currently serve in the dioceses and archdioceses of New York; Denver; Albany, New York; Bridgeport, Connecticut; Philadelphia; Phoenix; Washington, D.C.; and Toronto.potpoal
Bishop José Arturo Cepeda. / Credit: Courtesy of the Archdiocese of Detroit
Vatican City, Aug 26, 2025 / 09:45 am (CNA).
Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday appointed Detroit Auxiliary Bishop José Arturo Cepeda as auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of San Antonio.
The transfer marks the Mexican-born bishop’s return to San Antonio, the south-central Texas city where he served as a priest from his ordination in 1996 until his consecration as an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Detroit in 2011.
Born in San Luis Potosí in eastern-central Mexico, the 56-year-old bishop attended Catholic schools and the minor seminary. Cepeda immigrated to the United States with his family at the age of 19.
In the Archdiocese of San Antonio, the auxiliary bishop will assist Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller, also born in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, and two other auxiliary bishops in leading over 1.1 million Catholics.
In an Aug. 26 statement, García-Siller said he is “particularly glad to offer a heartfelt welcome home to Bishop Cepeda. San Antonio is where he grew up and first heard the Lord call him and nurture his priestly vocation.”
The archbishop added that Cepeda will bring the Archdiocese of San Antonio “valuable perspectives that will assist us in our evangelization efforts to spread the Gospel with missionary zeal.”
Cepeda earned a licentiate degree and later a doctorate in spiritual theology from the Pontifical University of Thomas Aquinas (the Angelicum) in Rome in 2005.
He also has a bachelor’s degree from the College Seminary of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and a master’s degree in biblical theology from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio.
Before being appointed an auxiliary bishop, he spent four years as parochial vicar of the San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio, followed by a decade as a faculty member at Assumption Seminary and the Oblate School of Theology, also in San Antonio.
Cepeda was vocation director and faculty member for the Transitional Ministry Formation Program for the Archdiocese of San Antonio. From 2010 to 2011 he was also rector of Assumption Seminary.
During his 14 years in Detroit, Cepeda was a leader in the Michigan archdiocese’s ministry to Hispanic and Spanish-speaking Catholics. He also served as director of the Department of Evangelization, Catechesis, and Schools from 2013 to 2017.
On the national level, he served as chairman of the U.S. bishops’ conference’s Subcommittee on Hispanic Affairs and Committee on Cultural Diversity in the Church. He was also one of the organizers of the Fifth National Encuentro (“Encounter”) of Hispanic/Latino Ministry.
“I am deeply grateful for the trust placed in me and for the opportunity I had to serve for 14 years in this archdiocese,” Cepeda said in an Aug. 26 message to Catholics of Detroit. “My episcopal ministry undoubtedly took shape here, my temporary home. As I begin my new mission, know that I hold you in my prayers and humbly ask that you keep me in yours.”
Nina Marie Corona thought she was just checking the box like any good cradle Catholic when she sat down in a pew over a decade ago. From her perspective at the time, she wasn’t there for anything dramatic — just the usual holy day of obligation Christmas Mass. Her heart wasn’t in it though. Addiction had crept into her family’s life, and her entire world felt like it was falling apart. So, while others sang and smiled and shook hands at the sign of peace, she wept quietly.
Alone. A stranger. In a church filled with people.
“I remember looking and thinking, you know, why does nobody know that I’m going through this?” she said. “Like, I need you people, you know? Where else do I turn?”
Already immersed in theology classes triggered by a retreat she had attended, Corona — who once ran a successful food manufacturing business — turned to an educational pursuit that sought to weave her spirituality with her social conscience.
In the years that followed, that moment of personal desperation developed into a multipronged outreach titled Afire and launched an international multimedia ministry called “We Thirst: Christian Reflections on Addiction,” which is now in university and seminary libraries, including Trinity College Dublin, and has been shown in churches across the United States and beyond.
The five-part parish-based series is part catechesis, part communal healing, blending Catholic spirituality with the biological, psychological, and social realities of addiction. People have watched it in living rooms, church halls, and classrooms. It’s been used by priests, parents, social workers, and people recovering from addiction. It has freed people to talk about addiction, to open up, to stop hiding.
“They drop the armor,” she said. “They receive the gift of courage to face reality. That’s when healing can begin.”
The way it works is simple. You watch the series as a group — maybe over five weeks, maybe as a weekend retreat, and then you talk — not about solutions or strategies at first, but about what’s real: fear, guilt, grief, love, hope. Each session incorporates comprehensive educational presentations with prayer, music for reflection, and imagery to enlighten and inspire.” On the final night of each series, attendees are encouraged to discern next steps in their own communities.
“I initially didn’t know what they should do, but over time I realized those things that were helpful to me and my family,” she explained. “So, we eventually created kits with leader and member manuals to help guide groups through a discernment process. The leader’s manual has been granted an imprimatur.”
Each parish group is given space to listen to one another, assess the specific needs in their community, and create a plan — whether that’s hosting prayer gatherings, offering support to families affected by addiction, starting recovery ministries, or assembling care packages for local recovery homes. The work is deeply local and highly personal, but its spiritual and emotional resonance is what fuels a broader growth.
Among the programs now offered by Afire Ministries are weekly Vespers via Zoom, an online Advent Prayer Calendar, and Set Hearts AFIRE — an evangelization resource designed to equip both experienced ministers and everyday Catholics to share the Gospel. The program provides everything needed to present the material, including fully developed scripts, music, media, and opportunities for personal witness.
Also forthcoming is Graced Collaboration, an innovative faith-based recovery program developed by Corona during her doctoral studies. It integrates evidence-based scientific approaches with the spiritual wisdom of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola.
“I can’t do this alone,” Corona said. “We need more people stepping up.”
One of the newest groups has formed at St. Isidore in Quakertown, where Sharon Butler is a parishioner. “My daughter has been battling addiction for a very long time,” she said. “My husband and I… we’ve always had each other, but I never went to anything. People would suggest Al-Anon or different groups, but I just didn’t go.”
This was different, she said. Right from the start. “It was very inspiring,” Butler said. “I couldn’t wait for the next week. Each session gave me something to think about. It all just spoke to me.”
The formula is repeated throughout Afire’s various programs, Corona said. And, she believes, God’s fingerprints are all over it.
“I didn’t know how to listen for God’s voice at first, but once I did, he didn’t stop,” she said. “I know the resistance. The shame. You think you’ve heard it all — another addiction talk, more statistics, more blame. But this is different. This is about healing hearts, not just solving problems. It’s about rediscovering our humanity and God’s love for us in the middle of pain.”
She continued: “I believe strongly that God wants to work this way through every person. So many of us are asleep. We’re distracted, numb. But if we just pause — listen — we’ll hear him. And he’ll move. That’s what happened to me. I just finally stopped long enough to listen.”
This story was first published by Catholic Philly and has been reprinted with permission. It is part of the Face of Hope, a series of stories and videos “highlighting the work of those who make the Catholic Church in Philadelphia the greatest force for good in the region.”
Sebastien Lai, son of imprisoned free speech advocate Jimmy Lai, speaks on EWTN’s “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo” on Aug. 21, 2025. / Credit: “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo” screenshot
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 22, 2025 / 13:38 pm (CNA).
Sebastien Lai, son of imprisoned Hong Kong democracy advocate Jimmy Lai, said this week his father is “still fighting” and “holding on” as closing arguments continue in his lengthy national security trial.
Jimmy Lai, the Catholic billionaire, human rights activist, and founder of pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, has been on trial since 2023 in Hong Kong for allegations of colluding with foreign forces under a national security law put in effect by the communist-controlled Chinese government. He faces a life sentence if found guilty.
“It’s a textbook example of a show trial, of the weaponization of the legal system,” Sebastien told EWTN’s “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo” on Thursday.
“He’s not going to see a fair trial … It’s an absolute kangoo trial.”
Sebastien said the evidence brought against his father “all turned out to be completely untrue,” adding: “My father is in prison because of his journalism and because of his courage. Because he stayed to defend his people, because he dared to campaign for democracy and for human rights in Hong Kong. And that didn’t sit well with the Hong Kong government.”
While closing arguments began on Aug. 18, they continue to be postponed. Sebastien said the issue is that “the national security law is so broad,” explaining that the “rule of law” in Hong Kong, which was once fairly enforced, “no longer holds.”
“Instead of the rule of law, it’s the rule of men,” he said. “My father got more than a year in maximum security prison in solitary confinement on one of the sentences, which was for lighting a candle and saying a prayer at a Tiananmen Square massacre vigil.”
People can see it is “not just ridiculous, but how horrible it is to give someone a jail sentence over commemorating people who died, [but] who died for freedom and democracy in China.”
While “it’s an open trial” and people in Hong Kong can follow what is happening, “there’s no free press,” Sebastien said. “People are going to jail for liking social media posts or even writing on bathroom toilets … But foreign journalists can still go and local journalists can still cover parts of it. There’s at least that element of it.”
“My father said it best … when he was giving testimony: ‘My job as a journalist, as a publisher, is to hold a torch to the truth.’”
Call for international support
As leaders around the world rally to support Jimmy, Sebastien said his family is “incredibly grateful” for the help but that he thinks “it’s time to put action” behind words.
President Donald Trump recently vowed to do everything he can to bring about Jimmy’s release.
“The fact that [Trump] is still keeping my father’s case close to heart is something that I’m incredibly grateful for,” he said.
“The U.S. government is much more effective and much stronger in terms of liberating people around the world. Now that both [the U.K. and U.S.] governments are so supportive, it gives us a lot of hope as a family, but … I think the U.K. government can do more to free my father,” he said.
“But I think we are in a situation now where my father dying in jail is not beneficial for any party. It’s not beneficial for Hong Kong. It’s not beneficial for China. It’s obviously not beneficial for anybody who enjoys freedom.” Jimmy would “essentially act as a martyr if he died in prison,” Sebastien said.
Jimmy’s health concerns
“His health is not good,” Sebastien continued. “From my understanding, my father is much skinnier and much weaker, but still strong in spirit and still strong in mind.”
The Chinese government is “always trying to essentially break his spirit with all these multiple show trials. The government tells him that nobody cares about him and that he’s going to die for nothing.”
In solitary confinement, where Jimmy is most of the time, he is “in a little concrete cell, and there’s no air conditioning, so he bakes under the sun … never mind his diabetes,” the younger Lai said. Recently, Jimmy’s lawyers also shared that he is suffering from heart palpitations in prison.
As the trial continues, Sebastien said a statement his father made is what gives him hope: “‘The truth will come out in the kingdom of God, and that is good enough for me.’”
Today is the Feast of Saint James, a day of celebration in the heart of Cesenatico (Italy), with the Leonardo’s Canal Port containing its characteristic historical boats.
An image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus at the center of a rose window in Santa Ifigênia Church São Paulo, Brazil. Today is the Feast of the Sacred Heart in the Roman Catholic Church.
.jpg)
