Day: October 19, 2025

Vatican City, Oct 19, 2025 / 08:15 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV proclaimed seven new saints on Sunday before an estimated 70,000 people in St. Peter’s Square, including the first saints from Venezuela and Papua New Guinea and a former Satanist who underwent a dramatic conversion to become an “apostle of the rosary.”

“Today we have before us seven witnesses, the new saints, who with God’s grace, kept the lamp of faith burning,” Pope Leo XIV said in his homily on Oct. 19. “Indeed, they themselves became lamps capable of spreading the light of Christ.”

“May their intercession assist us in our trials and their example inspire us in our shared vocation to holiness,” he said.

The canonization Mass unfolded under a bright Roman sun, with Venezuelan flags waving across the square as the pope declared two of the country’s beloved figures saints: St. José Gregorio Hernández Cisneros, known as “the doctor of the poor,” and St. María del Carmen Rendiles Martínez, a religious sister born without her left arm who went on to found the Servants of Jesus in Caracas in 1965.

Among the new saints were also two martyrs. St. Peter To Rot, a lay catechist martyred in Papua New Guinea during the Japanese occupation in World War II, became the country’s first saint. To Rot defied Japanese authorities who permitted polygamy, defending Christian marriage until his death.

St. Ignatius Maloyan, an Armenian Catholic archbishop, was executed during the Armenian genocide after refusing to convert to Islam. “I consider the shedding of my blood for my faith to be the sweetest desire of my heart,” Maloyan said before his death. “If I am tortured for the love of him who died for me, I will be among those who will have joy and bliss, and I will have obtained to see my Lord and my God.”

After the crowd prayed the Litany of the Saints, Pope Leo XIV pronounced the canonization formula in Latin, greeted by enthusiastic cheers.

Among the most well known of the new saints is St. Bartolo Longo, a 19th-century Italian lawyer who abandoned his Catholic faith for Satanism before returning to the Church with zeal. After his conversion, Longo dedicated his life to promoting the rosary and built the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary in Pompeii, now one of Italy’s most beloved Marian pilgrimage sites.

In his homily, Pope Leo XVI said that “what is most precious in the Lord’s eyes” is “faith, namely, the bond of love between God and man.”

“Our relationship with God is of the utmost importance because at the beginning of time he created all things out of nothing and, at the end of time, he will save mortal beings from nothingness,” the pope said. “A world without faith, then, would be populated by children living without a Father, that is, by creatures without salvation.”

Three women were also declared saints. In addition to Venezuela’s St. María del Carmen Rendiles Martínez, the Italian foundress St. Vincenza Maria Poloni was also canonized. Poloni founded the Sisters of Mercy of Verona and is remembered for her tireless service to the poor, including at the risk of her life during the cholera epidemic of 1836.

Pope Leo also canonized St. Maria Troncatti, an Italian Salesian sister who spent 44 years as a missionary among the Indigenous Shuar people in Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest. Known affectionately as “Madrecita,” or “little mother,” she served as a nurse, surgeon, and catechist with missionary zeal.

The canonization coincided with World Mission Sunday. Before praying the Angelus, Pope Leo XIV, who was once an Augustinian missionary himself in Peru, urged the faithful to pray for today’s missionaries.

“The Church is entirely missionary, but today we pray especially for those men and women who left everything to bring the Gospel to those who do not know it. They are missionaries of hope among the people. May the Lord bless them,” he said.

The pope also made a heartfelt plea for peace, expressing sorrow over renewed violence in Myanmar.

“The news coming from Myanmar is sadly distressing,” he said. “I renew my heartfelt appeal for an immediate and effective ceasefire. May the instruments of war give way to those of peace, through inclusive and constructive dialogue.”

Pope Leo XIV entrusted his prayer for peace to the intercession of the new saints, praying in particular for the Holy Land, Ukraine, and other places of conflict.

“May God grant all leaders wisdom and perseverance to advance in the search for a just and lasting peace,” he said.

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ACI Africa, Oct 19, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Children from across Africa, including those in countries experiencing persecution and instability, joined their peers in the “One Million Children Praying the Rosary” campaign held on Oct. 7, the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.

The campaign by Catholic Pontifical and charity foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) International is a global prayer initiative inspired by St. Pio of Pietrelcina’s vision of children changing the world through prayer.



In Mozambique, a southern African country weighed down by insurgency against Christians, some children prayed the rosary for the first time in their lives.

One of the testimonies shared with ACN from a parish in Mozambique’s Diocese of Lichinga recounted how the community brought together 100 young people to pray for peace in their country and beyond.

The testimony stated: “The children were very interested … We had met with them twice before, to prepare them. Many of the children didn’t know about the rosary or had never prayed it, so the initiative was the first of many opportunities to pray the rosary with them in the future.”

Nigeria’s Diocese of Jalingo also wrote to ACN explaining that the children of their diocese also joined in the prayer campaign, which was held in parishes, chaplaincies, and pastoral areas across the diocese.

“We also added Holy Hour adoration to the Blessed Sacrament as pilgrims of hope among the peoples. May God hear our prayers and grant us unity and peace in our troubled world,” the message from Jalingo said.

According to statistics gathered by ACN, almost 500,000 children from 111 countries were officially registered online by Oct. 8.

ACN estimated that many more participated in the campaign, saying: “Previous experience shows that many groups, families, and individuals around the world take part in the campaign without registering online, so the full number is likely to far exceed that.”

This initiative began in 2005 in Caracas, Venezuela, when a group of children praying the rosary sparked inspiration for a worldwide movement. Today, it connects millions of young believers across continents.

“Inspired by the words of St. Padre Pio, who believed that “when 1 million children pray the rosary, the world will change,” the campaign has grown into a significant spiritual movement, drawing participation from schools, parishes, and families across continents,” ACN said.

In this year’s campaign, Poland was the country with the most participants, totaling over 86,000, followed by Brazil with almost 50,000.  

The United States is said to have doubled its official participation this year, reaching 22,000.

ACN said that despite more modest numbers, the participation of countries such as Liberia or Algeria, with 100 participants each, “show the global reach of this campaign.”

This story was first published by ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, and has been adapted by CNA.

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Dublin, Ireland, Oct 19, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

A new poll commissioned by the Iona Institute has found a marked revival of interest in religion among young people in Northern Ireland. 

The results are a clear reversal of the previous continuous decline by age. The youngest age group polled, 18- to 24-year-olds, now say they are more likely to have a “very positive” attitude of Christianity (30% vs. only 4% with a “very negative” view) than any other age group, even those over 65.

David Quinn of the Iona Institute told CNA: “What we are seeing in both parts of the island is some kind of revival of interest in religion among a segment of the youngest adults, the 18- to 24-year-olds.” He said a significant number of these young people are men.

The new poll, commissioned by the institute, was conducted by Amárach Research, a market research agency in Dublin, and based on a representative sample of 1,200 adults in Northern Ireland. It revealed that 40% of Catholics in Northern Ireland are regular Massgoers — which is double the percentage of Mass attendees in the Republic of Ireland, which was similarly surveyed earlier in the year by the same research agency.

The Iona Institute was keen to compare the findings in both the north and south of Ireland especially given the higher percentage of Protestant churches in the north.

One big finding of the poll is that Northern Ireland can no longer be viewed as being simply divided between Catholics and Protestants. The “Nones” — that is, those who say they don’t belong to any religion — have become a major force as well. This finding challenges the traditional sectarian stereotypes in Northern Ireland.

Quinn said he believes that indications of some kind of revival of interest in religion among the youngest age group surveyed should encourage all the churches. The finding is not an outlier. The revival of interest among young adults is consistent with poll findings in the Republic of Ireland, Britain, and the United States. In Britain, the phenomenon has been termed the “Quiet Revival.”

Will this growth in interest in the Catholic faith translate into active participation? 

Quinn is wary of making premature or rash claims about the poll results. He sees them as a challenge for the Catholic Church in Ireland. 

“I think the churches will need to get a lot better at finding ways to respond to this kind of revived interest… people like the Dominicans are able to do it, and some of the evangelicals are good at it as well,” he said. “But I think it’s something that the churches are going to have to have a real hard think about, because we’re very much stuck in the ‘decline stage’ mentality that says we’re all getting older and so what’s the point?”

Quinn said he believes that in the future there will probably be fewer “cultural Christians” — those who “say they are Christian but don’t practice.” He said that instead, society could be divided between those who hold religious belief and those who don’t, with few people in between.

“The overall conclusion, however, is that religion is not disappearing, contrary to past predictions,” he said.

Quinn said that throughout Ireland there’s “a lot of outright disengagement from religion,” adding: “You’ve got a growing number of people who say ‘I don’t have any religion.’ Cultural Christianity is beginning to fade — you know, the sort of person who said ‘I used to go to Mass the odd time’ isn’t going at all. There’s a growing number of people who don’t even bother with the sacraments at all. So … this kind of nonpracticing … type of Christianity is failing, and the ‘no religion’ group is increasing.”

The Iona Institute research shows that while the 18- to 24-year-old group had the highest number of respondents with a “very positive” attitude toward the Catholic Church (17%), half said they are neither religious nor spiritual. Those in this age group, however, said they are more likely to pray and read or watch religious content than people in the 25- to 34-year-old age group.

Of those surveyed in the poll, 28% said they are Catholic, 14% said they are Presbyterian, 11% said they are Church of Ireland, and 36% said they don’t belong to any religion. The rest belong to other Christian churches or religions.

Nearly 50% of respondents said they view Christianity favorably, though percentages were lower when specifically asked about the Catholic Church (23%) and Protestant churches (30%). The most unfavorable attitudes toward religion in general are among the nonreligious.

Fifty-six percent of the respondents said they are religious and/or spiritual — a slightly lower percentage than in the Republic of Ireland. Of those surveyed, 51% said they pray, 44% said they attend religious services (which does not mean regularly), 33% meditate, and 38% read religious or spiritual books such as the Bible.

The poll also revealed that Catholics have more favorable views of Protestant churches than the other way around.

Not unexpectedly, the sex abuse scandals are a big driver of unfavorable attitudes toward the Catholic Church throughout Ireland.

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