Catholic – United Yam

Gospel and Word of the Day – 30 January 2026 – A reading from the Letter of Samuel 2, 11:1-4a, 5-10a, 13-17 At the turn of the year, when kings go out on campaign, David sent out Joab along with his officers and the army of Israel, and they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. David, however, remained in Jerusalem. One evening David rose from his siesta and strolled about on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing, who was very beautiful. David had inquiries made about the woman and was told, “She is Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam, and wife of Joab’s armor bearer Uriah the Hittite.” Then David sent messengers and took her. When she came to him, he had relations with her. She then returned to her house. But the woman had conceived, and sent the information to David, “I am with child.” David therefore sent a message to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent Uriah to David. When he came, David questioned him about Joab, the soldiers, and how the war was going, and Uriah answered that all was well. David then said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and bathe your feet.” Uriah left the palace, and a portion was sent out after him from the king’s table. But Uriah slept at the entrance of the royal palace with the other officers of his lord, and did not go down to his own house. David was told that Uriah had not gone home. On the day following, David summoned him, and he ate and drank with David, who made him drunk. But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his bed among his lord’s servants, and did not go down to his home. The next morning David wrote a letter to Joab which he sent by Uriah. In it he directed: “Place Uriah up front, where the fighting is fierce. Then pull back and leave him to be struck down dead.” So while Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew the defenders were strong. When the men of the city made a sortie against Joab, some officers of David’s army fell, and among them Uriah the Hittite died.From the Gospel according to Mark 4:26-34 Jesus said to the crowds: “This is how it is with the Kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come.” He said, “To what shall we compare the Kingdom of God, or what parable can we use for it? It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.” With many such parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it. Without parables he did not speak to them, but to his own disciples he explained everything in private.With images taken from the farming world the Lord presents the mystery of the Word and of the Kingdom of God, and points out the reasons for our hope and our dedication. (…) The image of the seed is especially dear to Jesus, because it clearly expresses the mystery of the Kingdom of God. In today’s two parables it represents “growth” and “contrast”: the growth that occurs thanks to an innate dynamism within the seed itself and the contrast that exists between the minuscule size of the seed and the greatness of what it produces. The message is clear: even though the Kingdom of God demands our collaboration, it is first and foremost a gift of the Lord, a grace that precedes man and his works. If our own small strength, apparently powerless in the face of the world’s problems, is inserted in that of God it fears no obstacles because the Lord’s victory is guaranteed. It is the miracle of the love of God who causes every seed of good that is scattered on the ground to germinate. And the experience of this miracle of love makes us optimists, in spite of the difficulty, suffering and evil that we encounter. The seed sprouts and grows because God’s love makes it grow.(Benedict XVI, Angelus, 17 June 2012)

unitedyam January 29, 2026

A reading from the Letter of Samuel
2, 11:1-4a, 5-10a, 13-17

At the turn of the year, when kings go out on campaign,
David sent out Joab along with his officers
and the army of Israel,
and they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah.
David, however, remained in Jerusalem.
One evening David rose from his siesta
and strolled about on the roof of the palace.
From the roof he saw a woman bathing, who was very beautiful.
David had inquiries made about the woman and was told,
“She is Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam,
and wife of Joab’s armor bearer Uriah the Hittite.”
Then David sent messengers and took her.
When she came to him, he had relations with her.
She then returned to her house.
But the woman had conceived,
and sent the information to David, “I am with child.”

David therefore sent a message to Joab,
“Send me Uriah the Hittite.”
So Joab sent Uriah to David.
When he came, David questioned him about Joab, the soldiers,
and how the war was going, and Uriah answered that all was well.
David then said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and bathe your feet.”
Uriah left the palace,
and a portion was sent out after him from the king’s table.
But Uriah slept at the entrance of the royal palace
with the other officers of his lord, and did not go down
to his own house.
David was told that Uriah had not gone home.
On the day following, David summoned him,
and he ate and drank with David, who made him drunk.
But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his bed
among his lord’s servants, and did not go down to his home.
The next morning David wrote a letter to Joab
which he sent by Uriah.
In it he directed:
“Place Uriah up front, where the fighting is fierce.
Then pull back and leave him to be struck down dead.”
So while Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah
to a place where he knew the defenders were strong.
When the men of the city made a sortie against Joab,
some officers of David’s army fell,
and among them Uriah the Hittite died.

From the Gospel according to Mark
4:26-34

Jesus said to the crowds:
“This is how it is with the Kingdom of God;
it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land
and would sleep and rise night and day
and the seed would sprout and grow,
he knows not how.
Of its own accord the land yields fruit,
first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.
And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once,
for the harvest has come.”

He said,
“To what shall we compare the Kingdom of God,
or what parable can we use for it?
It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground,
is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth.
But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants
and puts forth large branches,
so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.”
With many such parables
he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it.
Without parables he did not speak to them,
but to his own disciples he explained everything in private.

With images taken from the farming world the Lord presents the mystery of the Word and of the Kingdom of God, and points out the reasons for our hope and our dedication. (…) The image of the seed is especially dear to Jesus, because it clearly expresses the mystery of the Kingdom of God. In today’s two parables it represents “growth” and “contrast”: the growth that occurs thanks to an innate dynamism within the seed itself and the contrast that exists between the minuscule size of the seed and the greatness of what it produces. The message is clear: even though the Kingdom of God demands our collaboration, it is first and foremost a gift of the Lord, a grace that precedes man and his works. If our own small strength, apparently powerless in the face of the world’s problems, is inserted in that of God it fears no obstacles because the Lord’s victory is guaranteed. It is the miracle of the love of God who causes every seed of good that is scattered on the ground to germinate. And the experience of this miracle of love makes us optimists, in spite of the difficulty, suffering and evil that we encounter. The seed sprouts and grows because God’s love makes it grow.(Benedict XVI, Angelus, 17 June 2012)

unitedyam January 29, 2026

Snow delay briefly pauses Bishop’s Catholic Schools Week launch #Catholic –

On Jan. 27, Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney opened the weeklong celebration of Catholic Schools Week (CSW) in the Paterson Diocese in New Jersey during a Mass at St. Philip the Apostle Church in Clifton, N.J., with students and staff of its parish school, St. Philip Preparatory School.

Father David Monteleone, St. Philip’s pastor, concelebrated the Mass with Bishop Sweeney, who served as the principal celebrant.

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For the occasion, Bishop Sweeney shared on social media that the Catholic Schools Week Mass was delayed by snow, but he expressed joy at celebrating Catholic schools and education with the St. Philip’s School community in Clifton.

“Delaying the Mass for a day allowed us to celebrate also the Feast of St. Angela Merici, foundress of the Ursuline Sisters and patron saint of teachers and educators. As we celebrate Catholic Schools Week, we are especially grateful for all our Catholic school teachers, school leaders, staff, and volunteers,” Bishop Sweeney posted.

BEACON PHOTOS | JOE GIGLI

[See image gallery at beaconnj.org]

– On Jan. 27, Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney opened the weeklong celebration of Catholic Schools Week (CSW) in the Paterson Diocese in New Jersey during a Mass at St. Philip the Apostle Church in Clifton, N.J., with students and staff of its parish school, St. Philip Preparatory School. Father David Monteleone, St. Philip’s pastor, concelebrated the Mass with Bishop Sweeney, who served as the principal celebrant. Click here to subscribe to our weekly newsletter. For the occasion, Bishop Sweeney shared on social media that the Catholic Schools Week Mass was delayed by snow, but he expressed joy at celebrating Catholic schools

unitedyam January 29, 2026

Diocesan high schoolers learn to apply faith to life #Catholic –

On a recent Midnight Run excursion in New York City, Derelle Berryman — a junior at DePaul Catholic High School in Wayne, N.J.—distributed clothing, coffee, and toiletries to people who are homeless, all while thinking of his uncle’s real-life struggles.

For Berryman, the experience was personal: his uncle had suffered homelessness briefly.

“I put myself in my uncle’s shoes and other people who experience homelessness. He told me he was cold and scared. I figured if I can do something, I will. ” I don’t want other people to be in that situation,” said Berryman, who plays varsity football for the Spartans. “By getting involved in service, we are doing what our faith asks of us in a real-world setting.”

Often, Catholic high school students connect with their faith through Christian service. This is especially true in the Campus Ministry programs at the three Catholic high schools in the Paterson Diocese of New Jersey, where service helps students deepen their love for Christ and share the Gospel. The schools are DePaul, Morris Catholic in Denville, N.J., and Pope John XXIII Regional in Sparta, N.J.

Campus Ministries guides students through this exciting and challenging life stage, helping them listen for God’s vocational call. As these programs report increased student involvement in spiritual and service activities and a growing zeal for being Catholic, which mirrors a national trend. BeaconNJ.org is highlighting several students inspired by their school’s Campus Ministries in its coverage of Catholic Schools Week, being celebrated this week.

DePaul’s Campus Ministry deepens the spirituality of its roughly 475 students through daily practices such as Mass, Adoration, and praying the rosary together. Students also attend retreats, read Scripture, receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and participate in monthly schoolwide Masses. DePaul welcomes many non-Catholic students who also participate in its spiritual and service activities.

“Faith cannot involve only classroom subjects. We see the fruit of our approach evidenced by our growing daily Mass attendance,” said Father Frank Lennie, the school’s chaplain and a Class of 2010 alum.

Father Lennie and Jean Caughey, a theology teacher, work together with the other members of the Theology Department in DePaul’s campus ministry.

“This time in high school is so uncertain for our students. Jesus and faith are constant. We need to show them and lead them in how they can disconnect with the world, ground themselves in prayer, and then reconnect through evangelization and service, which help them live out their discipleship,” Caughey said.

Pope John: ‘Students are bold in their faith’

At dinner two years ago, Hayden Marshall, 16, now a sophomore at Pope John XXIII Regional High School in Sparta, N.J., asked his family a question they hadn’t yet contemplated: “Why aren’t we baptized?” He then asked, “May I get baptized?”

At that point, the Marshall family wasn’t religious. But they were inspired to join Hayden for Order of Christian Initiation (OCIA) classes at Our Lady of the Lake (OLL), also in Sparta, the parent parish of Pope John High School. During last year’s Easter Vigil Mass at OLL, Hayden, his mother, Amy, his father, Steven, and his sister, Hannah, 13, received their sacraments and were fully initiated into the Church.

Hayden, first a student at Pope John Middle School —part of the Catholic Academy of Sussex County— found motivation in the theology classes and spiritual experiences at Pope John.

“I was inspired by stories of Jesus’ miracles and the fact that teachers teach about Jesus straight out of the bible. My faith came to life. I’m now closer to Jesus,” said Hayden. He said about being welcomed into the Church with his family, “It was a special day for all of us.”

Also, Amy Marshall joined the middle school as a sixth- and seventh-grade science teacher this current academic year.

Campus Ministry serves 600 students at Pope John High School. The outreach offers retreats, Masses, and service opportunities. High schoolers pair up with younger students to serve as mentors and prayer buddies. Campus Ministry recently formed a leadership board of 27 upperclassmen, said Shannon Jones, Pope John High School campus minister and eighth-grade theology teacher.

“The students are bold in sharing their faith,” said Jones, adding that students devise their own activities, such as Bible readings recited over the intercom at the start of the school week.

Father John Calabro, a Pope John chaplain and teacher, said, “Our Catholic schools are important for evangelization. With our students, we can explore the deep questions, such as ‘Why are we here?’ which is so needed today.”

Pope John High School is unique among the three diocesan high schools because it has two other schools at the Academy, the middle school and Rev. Brown Memorial School, that, over time, prepare many students for high school — academically, socially, and spiritually.

Father Richard Carton, OLL’s pastor and the Academy’s vice president, taught OCIA to the Marshall family and welcomed them into the Church during last year’s Easter Vigil Mass.

“The Academy exposes students like Hayden to the Gospel’s truth and Christ’s offerings — often for the first time. Many respond enthusiastically,” Father Carton said.

Morris Catholic: Priests model Jesus’ love and joy’

Alian Peralta, 17, a senior at Morris Catholic High School in Denville, N.J., felt “nervous but also calm” before a recent interview with a college seminary — the first step in pursuing his goal of becoming a priest.

Providing Peralta with some calm — and confidence in his priestly discernment — were the wise words of two priests serving Morris Catholic: Father Peter Clarke, president, and Father Carmen Buono, part-time chaplain. Peralta also finds solace while listening to God during the school’s Campus Ministry activities, including monthly Eucharistic adoration.

“Through Father Peter and Father Carmen, I see what serving as a priest means — approaching people with love and joy, as Jesus did,” said Peralta. “Adoration helps me ask Jesus, ‘What do you want me to do with my life?’ and discern my calling.”

At Morris Catholic, there has been an increase in spiritual enthusiasm among its less-than 400-student population. Attendance for the 9:30 a.m. Mass has jumped from 5 to 50 people. During the Easter Vigil Mass last year, Father Buono received Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney’s permission to confirm a several students, welcoming them into full communion with the Church.

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Campus Ministry also offers retreats, school-wide Masses, bible study, and Divine Mercy rosary. The school also encourages students to use faith-based phone apps such as Hallow and Dynamic Catholic.

Father Buono, who also has a counseling background, said, “The value of Morris Catholic priests is that we are present to students not only to talk about their challenges with faith, but also with school or their families. We are also present to them in the Sacrament of Reconciliation and the Eucharist.”

Morris Catholic students expand their faith through service by helping Celebrate the Child in Denville, running proms and Valentine dances for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities. The schools has a Respect Life group and God’s Children Club, started by a former student, which makes care packages for homeless shelters.

“Students take what they learn in theology class and apply it to their lives. Service gives them a strong connection to the faith,” said Susan Drew, Morris Catholic’s campus minister.

– On a recent Midnight Run excursion in New York City, Derelle Berryman — a junior at DePaul Catholic High School in Wayne, N.J.—distributed clothing, coffee, and toiletries to people who are homeless, all while thinking of his uncle’s real-life struggles. For Berryman, the experience was personal: his uncle had suffered homelessness briefly. “I put myself in my uncle’s shoes and other people who experience homelessness. He told me he was cold and scared. I figured if I can do something, I will. ” I don’t want other people to be in that situation,” said Berryman, who plays varsity football for

unitedyam January 29, 2026

Obituary: Msgr. Elso Charles Introini, pastor emeritus of Hawthorne parish, 89 #Catholic –

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Friday, Jan. 30, at 7:30 p.m. at St. Anthony Church in Hawthorne, N.J., for Msgr. Elso Charles Introini, pastor emeritus of St. Anthony Parish, who died on Jan. 24. He was 89. He lived at Merry Heart Senior Care Services in the Succasunna neighborhood of Roxbury, N.J.

Born and raised in Clifton, N.J., to the late Charles and Velia Maria (nee: Moret) Introini, Msgr. Introini belonged to Sacred Heart Parish there. In 1954, he graduated from Pope Pius XII High School in Passaic, N.J. He studied at Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J., and Immaculate Conception Seminary, then in Darlington, N.J.

Msgr. Introini earned a bachelor’s from Seton Hall University, a master’s in secondary education from Darlington School of Theology, and a Doctor of Divinity from New York Theological Seminary.

In 1962, Msgr. Introini was ordained a priest of the Paterson Diocese in New Jersey at the Cathedral of St. John’s in Paterson. He began his ministry as an associate pastor at St. Paul Parish in Clifton. Later, he also served as associate pastor at Corpus Christi Parish in Chatham Township, N.J.

Msgr. Introini was a member of the religious faculty at Pope Pius XII High School and also Neumann Prep High School in Wayne, N.J. During that period, he also served weekend duty at St. Anthony Parish in Hawthorne. He was also chaplain to the Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth in the Convent Station neighborhood of Morris Township, N.J.

For the diocese, Msgr. Introini served as director of Clergy Personnel. He was executive secretary for Pastoral Ministry from 1979 to 1987, a member of the Priest Senate for two terms, and served on the Priests’ Retirement Fund for two years.

Msgr. Introini served as pastor of St. Simon the Apostle Parish in the Green Pond neighborhood of Rockaway Township from 1985 to 1987. He later served as pastor of St. Clement Pope and Martyr Parish in Rockaway Township from 1987 to 1993. He was dean of Northern Morris County from 1990 to 1993. In 1993, St. Pope John Paul II designated him a Prelate of Honor with the title of monsignor.

He served his final assignment as pastor of St. Anthony Parish in Hawthorne, retiring in 2002. In retirement, Msgr. Introini was a priest assistant to the chaplain at the Lakehurst Naval Base, located primarily in Manchester Township, N.J., and as a weekend assistant at St. John Parish in Lakehurst, N.J.

The Rite of Reception of the Body for Msgr. Introini will take place at St. Anthony Church in Hawthorne, N.J., on Friday, Jan. 30, at 3:45 p.m. Visitation will be held that day from 4 to 7:30 p.m., before his Mass of Christian Burial at 7:30 p.m. Interment at Calvary Cemetery in Paterson will be private.

Please consider making a charitable donation in Msgr. Introini’s honor.

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– A Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Friday, Jan. 30, at 7:30 p.m. at St. Anthony Church in Hawthorne, N.J., for Msgr. Elso Charles Introini, pastor emeritus of St. Anthony Parish, who died on Jan. 24. He was 89. He lived at Merry Heart Senior Care Services in the Succasunna neighborhood of Roxbury, N.J. Born and raised in Clifton, N.J., to the late Charles and Velia Maria (nee: Moret) Introini, Msgr. Introini belonged to Sacred Heart Parish there. In 1954, he graduated from Pope Pius XII High School in Passaic, N.J. He studied at Seton Hall University in

unitedyam January 28, 2026

A reading from the Letter of Samuel
2, 7:18-19, 24-29

After Nathan had spoken to King David,
the king went in and sat before the LORD and said,
“Who am I, Lord GOD, and who are the members of my house,
that you have brought me to this point?
Yet even this you see as too little, Lord GOD;
you have also spoken of the house of your servant
for a long time to come:
this too you have shown to man, Lord GOD!

“You have established for yourself your people Israel as yours forever,
and you, LORD, have become their God.
And now, LORD God, confirm for all time the prophecy you have made
concerning your servant and his house,
and do as you have promised.
Your name will be forever great, when men say,
‘The LORD of hosts is God of Israel,’
and the house of your servant David stands firm before you.
It is you, LORD of hosts, God of Israel,
who said in a revelation to your servant,
‘I will build a house for you.’
Therefore your servant now finds the courage to make this prayer to you.
And now, Lord GOD, you are God and your words are truth;
you have made this generous promise to your servant.
Do, then, bless the house of your servant
that it may be before you forever;
for you, Lord GOD, have promised,
and by your blessing the house of your servant
shall be blessed forever.”

From the Gospel according to Mark
4:21-25

Jesus said to his disciples,
“Is a lamp brought in to be placed under a bushel basket
or under a bed,
and not to be placed on a lampstand?
For there is nothing hidden except to be made visible;
nothing is secret except to come to light.
Anyone who has ears to hear ought to hear.”
He also told them, “Take care what you hear.
The measure with which you measure will be measured out to you,
and still more will be given to you.
To the one who has, more will be given;
from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

By what standard do I measure others? By what standard do I measure myself? Is it a generous standard, filled with God’s love, or is it a low standard? And by this standard I will be judged, not by any other: the one, precisely the one that I use. What level have I set my bar at? At a high level? We must think about this. And we see this not only, not so much in the good things we do or the bad things we do, but in our ongoing lifestyle. (…) And as a Christian, do I ask myself, what is the benchmark, the touchstone for knowing if I am at a Christian level, a level that Jesus wants? It is the ability to make oneself humble; it is the ability to suffer humiliation. A Christian who is not able to bear the humiliations of life is lacking something. He is a Christian by “veneer”, or out of expediency. … “With the measure you use, you will be measured”, the same measure. If it is a Christian measure, which follows Jesus on his path, I will be judged with the same measure, with much, much, much pity, with much compassion, with much mercy. But if my measure is worldly and I only use the Christian faith – yes, I do, I go to Mass, but I live like a worldly person – I will be measured by that measure. (Pope Francis, Homily of the Mass at Santa Marta, 30 January 2020)

unitedyam January 28, 2026

Catholic Schools Week: Message from Superintendent Mary D. Baier #Catholic –

Catholic Schools Week has been an annual celebration of Catholic education across the United States, which has been sponsored by the National Catholic Education Association since 1974. This is a time to celebrate both our mission and our ministries. We embrace the national theme for this week: Catholic Schools: United in Faith and Community. “Catholic education provides an atmosphere in which the Gospel message is proclaimed, community in Christ is experienced, service to our sisters and brothers is the norm and thanksgiving and worship of God is cultivated.” (Renewing our Commitment, 2005)

Community is at the heart of Catholic education. Having experienced community in our schools, our students, faculties and families are empowered to build community in all areas of life. Catholic Schools Week is a recognition of all that our schools do every day to enable the total development of the whole person in light of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Gospel message.

Catholic schools in the Paterson Diocese in New Jersey work diligently to maintain a culture of academic excellence indicative of a Catholic school education. Our principals and teachers through their faith, passion and dedication have a resolute commitment to their ministry which is seen as a privilege and a blessing.

Academic excellence in our schools is complimented by our attention to service. Students learn early on that the Church is a servant community in which it is their responsibility to be of service to those less fortunate than themselves. Our schools form and inform students to acknowledge their God-given talents and to be respectful of their responsibilities. Catholic education empowers our students to achieve their dreams and goals to become future citizens in our global society. We strive to live by our mission to develop, improve, promote and support a Catholic school system where students become transformers of a faith-filled future.

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All elementary schools and diocesan high schools have achieved accreditation by Cognia, which is a global, nonprofit improvement organization dedicated to helping institutions and other education providers grow learners, teachers, and leaders. Cognia offers accreditation and certification, assessment, and improvement services within a framework of continuous improvement. We will be addressing reaccreditation from Cognia in 2026.

Catholic Schools Week is also a time to give thanksgiving to those who lead, administer, teach and lend support to our schools in our Catholic community: to our Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney, our clergy, religious, lay men and women, our parents who selflessly make the necessary sacrifices to provide a Catholic education for their children, all others who assist us in our educational endeavors, and most importantly, to our students who are the future of our Church — and our hope. Thank you for all you do, have done and will continue to do.

As we continue on our journey of a faith-filled education, may we all learn with an open mind and accepting heart. May we serve with great compassion, a gentle kindness and a generous spirit. May we proclaim God’s message and succeed with faith, strength and courage empowering us to continue the teaching mission of our Church.

– Catholic Schools Week has been an annual celebration of Catholic education across the United States, which has been sponsored by the National Catholic Education Association since 1974. This is a time to celebrate both our mission and our ministries. We embrace the national theme for this week: Catholic Schools: United in Faith and Community. “Catholic education provides an atmosphere in which the Gospel message is proclaimed, community in Christ is experienced, service to our sisters and brothers is the norm and thanksgiving and worship of God is cultivated.” (Renewing our Commitment, 2005) Community is at the heart of Catholic education.

unitedyam January 27, 2026

A reading from the Book ok Samuel
2, 7:4-17

That night the LORD spoke to Nathan and said:
"Go, tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD:
Should you build me a house to dwell in?
I have not dwelt in a house
from the day on which I led the children of Israel
out of Egypt to the present,
but I have been going about in a tent under cloth.
In all my wanderings everywhere among the children of Israel,
did I ever utter a word to any one of the judges
whom I charged to tend my people Israel, to ask:
Why have you not built me a house of cedar?’

"Now then, speak thus to my servant David,
‘The LORD of hosts has this to say:
It was I who took you from the pasture
and from the care of the flock
to be commander of my people Israel.
I have been with you wherever you went,
and I have destroyed all your enemies before you.
And I will make you famous like the great ones of the earth.
I will fix a place for my people Israel;
I will plant them so that they may dwell in their place
without further disturbance.
Neither shall the wicked continue to afflict them as they did of old,
since the time I first appointed judges over my people Israel.
I will give you rest from all your enemies.
The LORD also reveals to you that he will establish a house for you.
And when your time comes and you rest with your ancestors,
I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins,
and I will make his Kingdom firm.
It is he who shall build a house for my name.
And I will make his royal throne firm forever.
I will be a father to him,
and he shall be a son to me.
And if he does wrong,
I will correct him with the rod of men
and with human chastisements;
but I will not withdraw my favor from him
as I withdrew it from your predecessor Saul,
whom I removed from my presence.
Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me;
your throne shall stand firm forever.’"

Nathan reported all these words and this entire vision to David.

From the Gospel according to Mark
4:1-20

On another occasion, Jesus began to teach by the sea.
A very large crowd gathered around him
so that he got into a boat on the sea and sat down.
And the whole crowd was beside the sea on land.
And he taught them at length in parables,
and in the course of his instruction he said to them,
"Hear this! A sower went out to sow.
And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path,
and the birds came and ate it up.
Other seed fell on rocky ground where it had little soil.
It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep.
And when the sun rose, it was scorched and it withered for lack of roots.
Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it
and it produced no grain.
And some seed fell on rich soil and produced fruit.
It came up and grew and yielded thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold."
He added, "Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear."

And when he was alone,
those present along with the Twelve
questioned him about the parables.
He answered them,
"The mystery of the Kingdom of God has been granted to you.
But to those outside everything comes in parables, so that
they may look and see but not perceive,
and hear and listen but not understand,
in order that they may not be converted and be forgiven."

Jesus said to them, "Do you not understand this parable?
Then how will you understand any of the parables?
The sower sows the word.
These are the ones on the path where the word is sown.
As soon as they hear, Satan comes at once
and takes away the word sown in them.
And these are the ones sown on rocky ground who,
when they hear the word, receive it at once with joy.
But they have no roots; they last only for a time.
Then when tribulation or persecution comes because of the word,
they quickly fall away.
Those sown among thorns are another sort.
They are the people who hear the word,
but worldly anxiety, the lure of riches,
and the craving for other things intrude and choke the word,
and it bears no fruit.
But those sown on rich soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it
and bear fruit thirty and sixty and a hundredfold."

A rather unusual sower goes out to sow, but does not care where the seed falls. He throws the seeds even where it is unlikely they will bear fruit: on the path, on the rocks, among the thorns. This attitude surprises the listener and induces him to ask: how come? We are used to calculating things – and at times it is necessary – but this does not apply in love! The way in which this “wasteful” sower throws the seed is an image of the way God loves us. Indeed, it is true that the destiny of the seed depends also on the way in which the earth welcomes it and the situation in which it finds itself, but first and foremost in this parable Jesus tells us that God throws the seed of his Word on all kinds of soil, that is, in any situation of ours: at times we are more superficial and distracted, at times we let ourselves get carried away by enthusiasm, sometimes we are burdened by life’s worries, but there are also times when we are willing and welcoming. God is confident and hopes that sooner or later the seed will blossom. This is how he loves us: he does not wait for us to become the best soil, but he always generously gives us his word. Perhaps by seeing that he trusts us, the desire to be better soil will be kindled in us. This is hope, founded on the rock of God’s generosity and mercy. (Leo XIV – General audience, 21 May 2025)

unitedyam January 27, 2026

Orthodontist makes learning about teeth fun at Pequannock school #Catholic –

On Jan. 13, Dr. Sally Song from the Orthodontic Center in Wayne, N.J., visited Holy Spirit School in Pequannock, N.J., to deliver an engaging dental presentation to second- and third-graders.

Dr. Song highlighted the importance of dental care, stressing daily brushing, flossing, and healthy eating to protect teeth.

She explained what to expect at orthodontic visits and how orthodontic care keeps smiles healthy, sharing age-appropriate explanations of common tools and techniques to ease students’ nerves about appointments.

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Students participated in a fun activity: creating dental impressions using alginate. This interactive experience helped students better understand how orthodontists create dental molds during treatment planning. The students were enthusiastic and engaged throughout the presentation, asking thoughtful questions and enjoying the opportunity to learn through hands-on exploration.

– On Jan. 13, Dr. Sally Song from the Orthodontic Center in Wayne, N.J., visited Holy Spirit School in Pequannock, N.J., to deliver an engaging dental presentation to second- and third-graders. Dr. Song highlighted the importance of dental care, stressing daily brushing, flossing, and healthy eating to protect teeth. She explained what to expect at orthodontic visits and how orthodontic care keeps smiles healthy, sharing age-appropriate explanations of common tools and techniques to ease students’ nerves about appointments. Click here to subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Students participated in a fun activity: creating dental impressions using alginate. This interactive experience helped

unitedyam January 26, 2026

A reading from the letter of Samuel
2, 6:12b-15, 17-19

David went to bring up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom
into the City of David amid festivities.
As soon as the bearers of the ark of the LORD had advanced six steps,
he sacrificed an ox and a fatling.
Then David, girt with a linen apron,
came dancing before the LORD with abandon,
as he and all the house of Israel were bringing up the ark of the LORD
with shouts of joy and to the sound of the horn.
The ark of the LORD was brought in and set in its place
within the tent David had pitched for it.
Then David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD.
When he finished making these offerings,
he blessed the people in the name of the LORD of hosts.
He then distributed among all the people,
to each man and each woman in the entire multitude of Israel,
a loaf of bread, a cut of roast meat, and a raisin cake.
With this, all the people left for their homes.

From the Gospel according to Mark
3:31-35

The mother of Jesus and his brothers arrived at the house.
Standing outside, they sent word to Jesus and called him.
A crowd seated around him told him,
"Your mother and your brothers and your sisters
are outside asking for you."
But he said to them in reply,
"Who are my mother and my brothers?"
And looking around at those seated in the circle he said,
"Here are my mother and my brothers.
For whoever does the will of God
is my brother and sister and mother."

This word of Jesus radically renewed the family, so that the strongest, most important bond for us Christians is no longer that of blood, but of the love of Christ. His love transforms the family, freeing it from the dynamics of selfishness, which derive from the human condition and from sin; he frees it and enriches it with a new bond, even stronger but free, not dominated by the interests and conventions of kinship, but animated by gratitude, recognition, and reciprocal service. (…) Jesus Christ has called us to be part of his family, in which what counts is doing the will of the Father who is in Heaven. And this new family of Jesus, while it gives a new meaning to family relations – between spouses, parents and offspring, brothers and sisters – at the same time also “leavens” the life of the ecclesial and civil community. For example, it nurtures gratuitousness, respect, acceptance and other human values. (…) And so, in the city, in the villages, in the parishes, the word “fraternity” is not only a nice figure of speech, an ideal for dreamers; it has a foundation, Jesus Christ, who made us all brothers and sisters, and it has a path, the Gospel, that is, the way of walking in love, in service, in forgiveness, and in bearing each other’s burdens. (Francis – Address to the pilgrimage of the diocese of Asti, 5 May 2023)

unitedyam January 26, 2026

Dominican pride fills Paterson church for colorful Altagracia celebration #Catholic –

On Jan. 21, Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney presided over Mass at St. Stephen Parish in Paterson, N.J., celebrating the Feast of Our Lady of Altagracia — a major expression of Dominican faith and identity, as she is considered the protective mother of the Dominican people.

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St. Stephen’s pastor, Father Rafael Ciro, concelebrated. During the Mass, the bishop blessed an image of Our Lady of Altagracia, which was displayed alongside the Dominican flag, candles, and flowers on the altar. To honor their heritage and devotion, many churchgoers wore colorful traditional clothing.

On Jan. 21, 1691, the Spanish army, led by Antonio Miniel, defeated the French army during the Battle of the Sabana Real in the eastern part of the island of Santo Domingo. This historical victory is linked to the belief that the Spanish asked for the intercession of Our Lady of Altagracia, thereby embedding her role as a symbol of hope and protection for Dominicans, a role the community commemorates each year.

BEACON PHOTOS | JOE GIGLI

[See image gallery at beaconnj.org]

– On Jan. 21, Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney presided over Mass at St. Stephen Parish in Paterson, N.J., celebrating the Feast of Our Lady of Altagracia — a major expression of Dominican faith and identity, as she is considered the protective mother of the Dominican people. Click here to subscribe to our weekly newsletter. St. Stephen’s pastor, Father Rafael Ciro, concelebrated. During the Mass, the bishop blessed an image of Our Lady of Altagracia, which was displayed alongside the Dominican flag, candles, and flowers on the altar. To honor their heritage and devotion, many churchgoers wore colorful traditional clothing. On Jan.

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney’s Schedule: February, 2026 #Catholic –

2/1
Sun., 8:30 a.m. Mass celebrating Catholic Schools Week – St. Anthony Parish, Hawthorne; 11:30 a.m. Mass for the Feast of St. Agnes – St. Agnes Parish, Paterson.

2/2–5
Mon.–Thu. CLI Episcopal ongoing Formation & Support Conference – Ponte Vedra Beach, FL.

2/6
Fri., 2 p.m. Installation Mass of Bishop Ronald A. Hicks – Archdiocese of New York; 6:30 p.m. Project Andrew – St. Mary Parish, Denville.

2/7
Sat., 8 a.m. Mass for Life & Procession – St. Margaret of Scotland Parish, Morristown; 9 a.m. Confirmation – St. Mary Parish, Pompton Lakes; 11 a.m. Confirmation – St. Mary Parish, Pompton Lakes.

2/8
Sun., 3 p.m. Confirmation – St. Mary Parish, Pompton Lakes.

2/9
Mon., 1 p.m. Dean’s Meeting – Chancery, Clifton.

2/10
Tue., 12:30 p.m. Pastoral Planning Meeting with Priests – St. Philip the Apostle Parish, Clifton; 5:45 p.m. Franciscan Sisters of St. Elizabeth – Parsippany.

2/12
Thu., 10 a.m. Finance Council – Chancery, Clifton.

2/13
Fri., 12:30 p.m. Pastoral Planning Meeting with Priests – St. Paul Inside the Walls, Madison; 5:30 p.m. Night to Shine – St. Francis of Assisi Parish, Haskell.

2/14
Sat., 9:30 a.m. Scout Mass – Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish, Pompton Plains; 7 p.m. Mass – Ss. Cyril and Methodius Parish, Clifton.

2/15
Sun. 6 p.m. 56th Murray House Dinner Dance – The Brownstone, Paterson.

2/17
Tue. 8:30 a.m. Annual Encounter with High School Youth – St. Paul Inside the Walls, Madison.

2/18
Wed. 9 a.m. Ash Wednesday Mass – St. Joseph’s University Medical Center, Paterson.

2/19
Thu. 7 p.m. Diocesan Pastoral Council – St. Paul Inside the Walls, Madison.

2/20
Fri., all day Diocesan Leaders’ Lenten Day of Prayer – Loyola Jesuit Center, Morristown.

2/21
Sat., 11 a.m. Confirmation – St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish, Flanders.

2/22
Sun., 3 p.m. Rite of Election ceremony – Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Paterson.

2/24
Tue., 10 a.m. Board of Bishops meeting.

2/27–3/1
Fri.-Sun Vocation Discernment Retreat – Loyola Jesuit Center, Morristown.

unitedyam January 26, 2026

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney’s Schedule: February, 2026 #Catholic –

2/1	Sun., 8:30 a.m. Mass celebrating Catholic Schools Week – St. Anthony Parish, Hawthorne; 11:30 a.m. Mass for the Feast of St. Agnes – St. Agnes Parish, Paterson.
2/2–5	Mon.–Thu. CLI Episcopal ongoing Formation & Support Conference – Ponte Vedra Beach, FL.
2/6	Fri., 2 p.m. Installation Mass of Bishop Ronald A. Hicks – Archdiocese of New York; 6:30 p.m. Project Andrew – St. Mary Parish, Denville.
2/7	Sat., 8 a.m. Mass for Life & Procession – St. Margaret of Scotland Parish, Morristown; 9 a.m. Confirmation – St. Mary Parish, Pompton Lakes; 11 a.m. Confirmation – St. Mary Parish, Pompton Lakes.
2/8	Sun., 3 p.m. Confirmation – St. Mary Parish, Pompton Lakes.
2/9	Mon., 1 p.m. Dean’s Meeting – Chancery, Clifton.
2/10	Tue., 12:30 p.m. Pastoral Planning Meeting with Priests – St. Philip the Apostle Parish, Clifton; 5:45 p.m. Franciscan Sisters of St. Elizabeth – Parsippany.
2/12	Thu., 10 a.m. Finance Council – Chancery, Clifton.
2/13	Fri., 12:30 p.m. Pastoral Planning Meeting with Priests – St. Paul Inside the Walls, Madison; 5:30 p.m. Night to Shine – St. Francis of Assisi Parish, Haskell.
2/14	Sat., 9:30 a.m. Scout Mass – Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish, Pompton Plains; 7 p.m. Mass – Ss. Cyril and Methodius Parish, Clifton.
2/15	Sun. 6 p.m. 56th Murray House Dinner Dance – The Brownstone, Paterson.
2/17	Tue. 8:30 a.m. Annual Encounter with High School Youth – St. Paul Inside the Walls, Madison.
2/18	Wed. 9 a.m. Ash Wednesday Mass – St. Joseph’s University Medical Center, Paterson.
2/19	Thu. 7 p.m. Diocesan Pastoral Council – St. Paul Inside the Walls, Madison.
2/20	Fri., all day Diocesan Leaders’ Lenten Day of Prayer – Loyola Jesuit Center, Morristown.
2/21	Sat., 11 a.m. Confirmation – St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish, Flanders.
2/22	Sun., 3 p.m. Rite of Election ceremony – Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Paterson.
2/24	Tue., 10 a.m. Board of Bishops meeting.
2/27–3/1	Fri.-Sun Vocation Discernment Retreat – Loyola Jesuit Center, Morristown.

– 2/1 Sun., 8:30 a.m. Mass celebrating Catholic Schools Week – St. Anthony Parish, Hawthorne; 11:30 a.m. Mass for the Feast of St. Agnes – St. Agnes Parish, Paterson. 2/2–5 Mon.–Thu. CLI Episcopal ongoing Formation & Support Conference – Ponte Vedra Beach, FL. 2/6 Fri., 2 p.m. Installation Mass of Bishop Ronald A. Hicks – Archdiocese of New York; 6:30 p.m. Project Andrew – St. Mary Parish, Denville. 2/7 Sat., 8 a.m. Mass for Life & Procession – St. Margaret of Scotland Parish, Morristown; 9 a.m. Confirmation – St. Mary Parish, Pompton Lakes; 11 a.m. Confirmation – St. Mary Parish, Pompton

unitedyam January 26, 2026

Catholic Schools Week 2026: Reflecting on the ‘value’ of Catholic education #Catholic –

“Catholic Schools Week” annually provides all Catholics — whether they have children in Catholic schools or not — with the chance to think about how the faith is taught and witnessed and the “value” that Catholic schools offer to children, to parents, to families, to the Church and to society at large with respect to that faith and its influence.

Is that “value” worth the sacrifice it takes for parents and families to provide Catholic school education to their children when public school education is readily available without any extra cost required? … Having worked in Catholic education most of my life, I can state without hesitation, Catholic education is definitely worth it!”

—Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., J.C.D., Catholic Schools Week

BISHOP KEVIN J. SWEENEY

As I prepared to write about Catholic Schools Week 2026, I went online for some background, to do some research, and to hear and see how other bishops and dioceses may be promoting Catholic Schools Week. For others who would like to learn more about Catholic Schools Week 2026, I would say that the BEST place to go would be the Website of the Catholic Schools Office of the Diocese of Paterson where you will find an excellent and informative message from our Diocesan Superintendent of Schools Mary D. Baier and much more information about Catholic Education and the Catholic Schools in our diocese.

As Bishop, Catholic Schools Week is one of my favorite weeks of the year for many reasons. One of those reasons is that it is a wonderful opportunity for me to say THANK YOU to our Superintendent Mary Baier, and all the staff in our Catholic Schools Office, as well as to thank Father Paul Manning, our Episcopal Vicar for Education (and for Evangelization). It is also an opportunity to THANK all of our Catholic School Leaders, presidents, principals, pastors, consecrated religious, chaplains and administrators, as well as all of our dedicated Catholic School Teachers, staff, and volunteers for their daily dedication, hard work, and generous sacrifices that allow us, as a diocese to continue to offer the BEST in Catholic School Education to our students, their parents, and the wider community.

I decided to begin this column by sharing a quote from our “neighbor,” Bishop David O’Connell of the Diocese of Trenton, who wrote an excellent letter for Catholic Schools Week 2026. I have been blessed to know Bishop O’Connell since I was a college student at St. John’s University (in Queens) and “Father O’Connell” was serving as the Academic Dean of St. John’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. I was a junior when Father O’Connell arrived as Dean and, although I did not have the pleasure of having him as a teacher, it was around the time of Fr. O’Connell’s arrival that I was (finally) beginning to appreciate the tremendous value of the 21! years of Catholic Education I would receive from first grade, through high school, college, and (the last five years) in the major seminary.

When Bishop O’Connell says that he has “… worked in Catholic Education most of my life…”, that is “putting it mildly.” You can read Bishop O’Connell’s Biography on the Diocese of Trenton’s website. There you will see that one of the “highlights” of his work and ministry in Catholic Education was 12 years serving as the President of the Catholic University of America.

In addition to Bishop O’Connell’s “bio,” I would also encourage you to read the full text of his brief, but inspiring letter for Catholic Schools Week 2026, in which Bishop O’Connell speaks of the role of parents, as the “first catechists” of their children and the vital importance of the parents’, “direct and active involvement in their child’s Catholic faith formation…” He goes on to articulate the great “value” of Catholic Schools and Catholic Education as well as the very significant challenges faced by “many Catholic schools throughout the country, including our own Diocese…” We face those same challenges here in our Diocese of Paterson. Yet, despite the challenges, I echo the words of Bishop O’Connell, “Catholic education is definitely worth it!”

I also agree with Bishop O’Connell when he says that Catholic Schools Week provides an opportunity for, “all Catholics – whether they have children in Catholic schools or not” to reflect on and consider the “value” of Catholic Schools and, not only the great academic education, but the “formation in faith” that our Catholic Schools provide for students, collaborating with parents in that most important responsibility of raising children in the practice of our Faith.

Another reason why Catholic Schools Week is one of my favorite weeks of the year is that I get to visit many of our Diocesan Catholic Schools for Mass and other special events that take place during this week when we try to highlight the great value of the Catholic Schools throughout our diocese, affirming and thanking parents, school leaders, teachers and ALL members of our wider “School Communities.” If you hear of a Catholic Schools Week Mass, Open House, or other event in your parish or in a neighboring parish, please consider attending and inviting others – especially parents with school-age children – to attend.

I love the choice of the Theme for Catholic Schools Week 2026: “United in Faith and Community.” The more that we are ALL, “united in Faith and Community” in the recognition and appreciation of the value of our Catholic Schools, the more that we will be able to meet the significant challenges that we face. You may recall that the theme for our Diocesan Ministries Appeal this year was, “Three Counties, One Family of Fath.” The DMA is one of many ways that we, as “One Family of Faith,” can support the Catholic Schools throughout the three Counties that make up our diocese, as we recognize and give thanks for the great value of our Catholic Schools.

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– “Catholic Schools Week” annually provides all Catholics — whether they have children in Catholic schools or not — with the chance to think about how the faith is taught and witnessed and the “value” that Catholic schools offer to children, to parents, to families, to the Church and to society at large with respect to that faith and its influence. Is that “value” worth the sacrifice it takes for parents and families to provide Catholic school education to their children when public school education is readily available without any extra cost required? … Having worked in Catholic education most of

unitedyam January 26, 2026

Pequannock parish overjoyed as bishop installs new pastor at Mass #Catholic –

On a snow-blanketed Saturday evening, Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney installed Father Cesar Jaramillo as the eighth pastor of Holy Spirit Parish in Pequannock, N.J., during a Mass on Jan. 17.

Father Jaramillo was appointed Holy Spirit’s pastor on July 1, 2025. He continues his work at the Tribunal of the Paterson Diocese and as an adjunct professor at Seton Hall University and Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology’s Center for Diaconal Formation in South Orange. Father Jaramillo is fluent in English, Spanish, and Italian.

Bishop Sweeney was the main celebrant and homilist of the Mass. Around 32 priests concelebrated the Mass of Installation, including the following former pastors: Father Stephen Prisk, pastor of St. Anthony Parish in Hawthorne, N.J.; Father David Monteleone, pastor of St. Philip the Apostle Parish in Clifton, N.J.; and Father John Tarantino. Also in attendance was Auxiliary Bishop Bismarck Chau of the Newark Archdiocese, also in New Jersey.

At the end of the liturgy, the Holy Spirit community presented Bishop Sweeney with a new pectoral cross and a bouquet of flowers for his birthday that day. He turned 56. The Knights of Columbus and the parish school participated in the liturgy. A reception followed in the school gym where parishioners and school families gathered to congratulate their newly installed pastor.

Father Jaramillo was ordained a diocesan priest on July 1, 2017. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Catholic studies from Seton Hall in 2013 and a bachelor’s degree in theology and licentiate in canon law from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He also earned diplomas in seminary formation praxis and administrative canonical praxis from the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Clergy. Father Jaramillo is a member of the Canon Law Society of America.

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Father Jaramillo has served as parochial vicar at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson, N.J., and St. Peter the Apostle Parish in Parsippany, N.J. In the diocese, he has been a member of the Presbyteral Council, the College of Consultors, the Clergy Personnel Board, the Priestly Life Committee, and the Advisory Council for Hispanic Ministry.

Also in the diocese, FatherJaramillo has taught as an adjunct professor at St. Elizabeth University in the Convent Station neighborhood of Morris Township in the Certificate in Catholic Evangelization program, a collaboration between St. Paul Inside the Walls in Madison, N.J., and St. Elizabeth’s.

BEACON PHOTOS | JOE GIGLI

[See image gallery at beaconnj.org]

– On a snow-blanketed Saturday evening, Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney installed Father Cesar Jaramillo as the eighth pastor of Holy Spirit Parish in Pequannock, N.J., during a Mass on Jan. 17. Father Jaramillo was appointed Holy Spirit’s pastor on July 1, 2025. He continues his work at the Tribunal of the Paterson Diocese and as an adjunct professor at Seton Hall University and Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology’s Center for Diaconal Formation in South Orange. Father Jaramillo is fluent in English, Spanish, and Italian. Bishop Sweeney was the main celebrant and homilist of the Mass. Around 32 priests concelebrated the

unitedyam January 26, 2026

Bethlehem Hermits warmly welcome bishop for Mass in Chester #Catholic –

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney made a pastoral visit to Bethlehem Hermitage in Chester, N.J., on Jan. 17, where he celebrated Mass for the Hermits of Bethlehem and visitors in the chapel. Bethlehem Hermitage is a foundation of Catholic hermits, men and women, who live a life of prayer, penance, silence, and solitude.

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Founded on March 15, 1975, Bethlehem Hermitage sits on 18 acres of land and consists of several small wooden cottages. The hermits live in solitary cabins, combining hours of work with hours of prayer. The hermitage has guest cottages and a central building with a chapel.

BEACON PHOTOS | JOE GIGLI

[See image gallery at beaconnj.org]

– Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney made a pastoral visit to Bethlehem Hermitage in Chester, N.J., on Jan. 17, where he celebrated Mass for the Hermits of Bethlehem and visitors in the chapel. Bethlehem Hermitage is a foundation of Catholic hermits, men and women, who live a life of prayer, penance, silence, and solitude. Click here to subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Founded on March 15, 1975, Bethlehem Hermitage sits on 18 acres of land and consists of several small wooden cottages. The hermits live in solitary cabins, combining hours of work with hours of prayer. The hermitage has guest cottages and

Catholic Schools Week: Pope John announces partnership with St. John’s University #Catholic – Pope John XXIII Regional High School in Sparta, N.J., recently announced a new partnership with St. John’s University in Queens, N.Y., through its College Advantage Program, giving qualified juniors and seniors the opportunity to earn college credit while completing their high school coursework. This collaboration reflects shared Catholic values, commitment to academic excellence, and dedication to making higher education more accessible and affordable.
Key benefits of the program include:

Accelerated academic progress: Students earn credits directly from St. John’s University while still in high school.
Affordable tuition: Each course is offered at a significantly reduced cost of 5, lower than traditional undergraduate tuition.
Long-term value and support: Students who later enroll at St. John’s University qualify for up to ,000 per-year toward their undergraduate studies.
College-level transcript recognition: Students receive an official St. John’s University transcript for all completed courses.

The program will begin for the spring semester. Students may take the following approved courses: Principles of Marketing, Sports Marketing, College Physics I, and College Physics II. All instructors will be certified by St. John’s University to ensure college-level rigor. Course offerings will expand for the fall 2026 semester.
“We believe deeply in forming young people who are ready to excel in college and beyond,” said Daniel O’Keefe, school president. “Partnering with St. John’s University allows us to offer a powerful advantage to our students and makes Pope John a destination as a college preparatory school.”
Eligible students should contact their guidance counselor for enrollment information and program requirements.
More information: (973) 729-6125 or geneemering@popejohn.org.

unitedyam January 26, 2026

Catholic Schools Week: Pope John announces partnership with St. John’s University #Catholic –

Pope John XXIII Regional High School in Sparta, N.J., recently announced a new partnership with St. John’s University in Queens, N.Y., through its College Advantage Program, giving qualified juniors and seniors the opportunity to earn college credit while completing their high school coursework. This collaboration reflects shared Catholic values, commitment to academic excellence, and dedication to making higher education more accessible and affordable.

Key benefits of the program include:

Accelerated academic progress: Students earn credits directly from St. John’s University while still in high school.
Affordable tuition: Each course is offered at a significantly reduced cost of $325, lower than traditional undergraduate tuition.
Long-term value and support: Students who later enroll at St. John’s University qualify for up to $6,000 per-year toward their undergraduate studies.
College-level transcript recognition: Students receive an official St. John’s University transcript for all completed courses.

The program will begin for the spring semester. Students may take the following approved courses: Principles of Marketing, Sports Marketing, College Physics I, and College Physics II. All instructors will be certified by St. John’s University to ensure college-level rigor. Course offerings will expand for the fall 2026 semester.

“We believe deeply in forming young people who are ready to excel in college and beyond,” said Daniel O’Keefe, school president. “Partnering with St. John’s University allows us to offer a powerful advantage to our students and makes Pope John a destination as a college preparatory school.”

Eligible students should contact their guidance counselor for enrollment information and program requirements.

More information: (973) 729-6125 or geneemering@popejohn.org.

– Pope John XXIII Regional High School in Sparta, N.J., recently announced a new partnership with St. John’s University in Queens, N.Y., through its College Advantage Program, giving qualified juniors and seniors the opportunity to earn college credit while completing their high school coursework. This collaboration reflects shared Catholic values, commitment to academic excellence, and dedication to making higher education more accessible and affordable. Key benefits of the program include: Accelerated academic progress: Students earn credits directly from St. John’s University while still in high school. Affordable tuition: Each course is offered at a significantly reduced cost of $325, lower than

unitedyam January 25, 2026

A reading from the Letter to Timothy
2, 1:1-8

Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God
for the promise of life in Christ Jesus,
to Timothy, my dear child:
grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father
and Christ Jesus our Lord.

I am grateful to God,
whom I worship with a clear conscience as my ancestors did,
as I remember you constantly in my prayers, night and day.
I yearn to see you again, recalling your tears,
so that I may be filled with joy,
as I recall your sincere faith
that first lived in your grandmother Lois
and in your mother Eunice
and that I am confident lives also in you.

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

From the Gospel according to Luke
10:1-9

After this the Lord appointed seventy[-two]others whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit.
He said to them, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.
Go on your way; behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves.
Carry no money bag,d no sack, no sandals;e and greet no one along the way.
Into whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this household.’
If a peaceful person* lives there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you.
Stay in the same house and eat and drink what is offered to you, for the laborer deserves his payment. Do not move about from one house to another.
Whatever town you enter and they welcome you, eat what is set before you,
cure the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God is at hand for you.’

Jesus sends out seventy-two disciples (v. 1). This symbolic number indicates that the hope of the Gospel is meant for all peoples, for such is the breadth of God’s heart and the abundance of his harvest. Indeed, God continues to work in the world so that all his children may experience his love and be saved. At the same time, Jesus says, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (v. 2). (…) The Lord wishes to do something great in our lives and in the history of humanity, yet there are few who perceive this, pause to receive the gift and then proclaim and share it with others. (…) Perhaps there is no shortage of “intermittent Christians” who occasionally act upon some religious feeling or participate in sporadic events. But there are few who are ready, on a daily basis, to labor in God’s harvest, cultivating the seed of the Gospel in their own hearts in order then to share it in their families, places of work or study, their social contexts and with those in need. To do this, we do not need too many theoretical ideas about pastoral plans. Instead, we need to pray to the Lord of the harvest. Priority must be given, then, to our relationship with the Lord and to cultivating our dialogue with him. In this way, he will make us his laborers and send us into the field of the world to bear witness to his Kingdom. (Leo XIV – Angelus, 6 July 2025)

unitedyam January 24, 2026

A reading from the Book of Isaiah
8:23—9:3

First the Lord degraded the land of Zebulun
and the land of Naphtali;
but in the end he has glorified the seaward road,
the land west of the Jordan,
the District of the Gentiles.

Anguish has taken wing, dispelled is darkness:
for there is no gloom where but now there was distress.
The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom
a light has shone.
You have brought them abundant joy
and great rejoicing,
as they rejoice before you as at the harvest,
as people make merry when dividing spoils.
For the yoke that burdened them,
the pole on their shoulder,
and the rod of their taskmaster
you have smashed, as on the day of Midian.

From the Gospel according to Matthew
4:12-23 or 4:12-17

When Jesus heard that John had been arrested,
he withdrew to Galilee.
He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea,
in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali,
that what had been said through Isaiah the prophet
might be fulfilled:
Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,
the way to the sea, beyond the Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles,
the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light,
on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death
light has arisen.
From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say,
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

As he was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers,
Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew,
casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen.
He said to them,
“Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
At once they left their nets and followed him.
He walked along from there and saw two other brothers,
James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John.
They were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets.
He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father
and followed him.
He went around all of Galilee,
teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom,
and curing every disease and illness among the people.

“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light” (Is 9:2) … The Evangelist Saint Matthew uses this prophecy as the prologue to Jesus’ ministry in Galilee, when, from the house of Nazareth, he came to live in the city of Capernaum. … Jesus starts teaching in Capernaum; and the content of his magisterium is summed up in the words: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt 4:16). Indeed, to “repent” means to see “a light”! To see “a great light”! The light that comes from God. The light that is God himself. Through the Gospel, which Christ proclaims, Isaiah’s prophetic words appear: “Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined” (Is 9:1). In the darkness – a symbol of confusion, error and even death – the light suddenly shines forth, which is the Son of God himself, who has taken on human nature; he, the Word, “the true light that enlightens every man” (Jn 1:9). (Pope John Paul II, Homily of the Holy Mass in the parish of Santa Rita a Torbellamonaca, 22 January1984)

unitedyam January 24, 2026

Marchers celebrate the unique gift of life at 53rd annual March for Life #Catholic –

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — As thousands gathered in the cold, to stand for the unborn, March for Life president Jennie Bradley Lichter reminded the crowd that what has “saved so many lives and moved countless hearts” on the abortion issue over the years is the marchers’ “unfailing hope” their “love for the littlest ones and for moms who need a hand,” their joy and “the sheer number of you who are here year after year.”

The theme of the 53rd annual March for Life was “Life Is a Gift” and both the crowd and the speakers at the rally embraced their personal experience of the gift of life.

At the start of the event, Lichter introduced the “Friends of Club 21” choir, a group of teens and young adults with Down syndrome who sang the national anthem. She said the group embodied the theme of the march.

For Ariel Hartshorn, who traveled 17 hours to the march on a bus from Benedictine College in Kansas, her brother with Down syndrome was a big part of her reason for attending.

“I know that a lot of people with Down syndrome are aborted and that just breaks my heart,” she told OSV News, calling her brother “the most joyful” person who “brings so much joy to everybody’s life.” She said “it’s really important that we march for life and that we be that change” in society for people like her brother.

Vice President JD Vance, who recently announced that he and his wife, Usha, are expecting their fourth child, also felt the march’s theme in a personal way, telling the crowd, “Life is a gift and I know for me personally this year, there is so much to be thankful for. I’m grateful to my own family, for my beautiful wife, Usha, and that God has given us the miracle of new life again.”

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One speaker at the march, Sarah Hurm, told those gathered that she was “living proof” that life is a gift through her journey of nearly aborting her son with the abortion pill regimen and being able to reverse that procedure through the help of a pro-life ministry.

She spoke about being a 26-year-old single mom who already had three children and was not receiving support from her baby’s father or the abortion clinic where she felt like a “transaction,” not a person.

The words of an abortion clinic worker stuck with her. The worker told her the baby had a “strong heartbeat” and she was “lucky the heartbeat bill hadn’t passed because if it had we wouldn’t be able to continue.”

“As soon as I walked out of the facility,” Hurm said, “it was as if the world went from dark gray to bright blue. The clinic had felt lifeless, outside I felt life again. That sharp contrast between darkness and light made me feel something I will never forget. I instantly began to regret my decision and I broke down in my car.”

Despite having taken the first pill in the regimen, Hurm was able to save her son through a hotline number that offered abortion pill reversal treatment. “Today,” she said, “my son is one of the greatest joys of my life.”

She encouraged the crowd to make efforts to help women facing unexpected pregnancies. “Saving a life can be as simple as answering a phone call, driving a friend to an ultrasound, or helping her pick out a car seat,” she emphasized. “Small sacrifices can become enormous victories that support moms like me and children like mine. You have that power. Be that person who connects a woman to hope.”

Benedictine College student Maria Draves felt the importance of supporting women facing unplanned pregnancies, saying she traveled to the march “for the innocent children who don’t have a voice for themselves” but that it was also important to “remember the mothers because a lot of these mothers are in really difficult situations, and so we have to keep them in our prayers as well and do everything we can to take care of them.”

Lily Doyle, a student at Franciscan University, saw defending the dignity of the unborn as connected to the dignity of all vulnerable people. “It’s important now more than ever to be sure that everyone, no matter who they are, what they feel, young, old, pre-born, know that their life is worth living,” she emphasized, “every person matters no matter what.”

Lichter noted the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and its emphasis on the right to life, telling the crowd “never forget that the United States of America was built on the foundation of the right to life” and “you are standing in a great American tradition when you stand up for the right to life like you’re doing today.”

Bringing her husband and three children out on stage, Lichter celebrated past generations of marchers and noted that her kids “have grown up as marchers and they are thrilled to see you all here today.”

Amanda and Drew Ide from Minnesota were also a part of bringing the next generation of marchers as they went along the route with their young baby, Zoey, following the rally. Drew said he felt “like there’s a turn in our culture to be able to see people seeing the value in protecting even the youngest people of our society.”

“We are just out here representing the value of life and hoping that it can impact legislation,” Amanda said, adding that as evangelical Christians they wanted to be “walking the walk, not just talking the talk.”

Lauretta Brown is culture editor for OSV News. Follow her on X @LaurettaBrown6.

– WASHINGTON (OSV News) — As thousands gathered in the cold, to stand for the unborn, March for Life president Jennie Bradley Lichter reminded the crowd that what has “saved so many lives and moved countless hearts” on the abortion issue over the years is the marchers’ “unfailing hope” their “love for the littlest ones and for moms who need a hand,” their joy and “the sheer number of you who are here year after year.” The theme of the 53rd annual March for Life was “Life Is a Gift” and both the crowd and the speakers at the rally embraced

EWTN News #Catholic 1/20Keynote speakers at “The Beauty of Truth: Navigating Society Today as a Catholic Woman” conference, held Jan. 9-10, 2026, in Houston (left to right): Erika Bachiochi, Mary Eberstadt, Angela Franks, Pia de Solenni, and Leah Sargeant. | Credit: Photo courtesy of the University of St. Thomas

unitedyam January 24, 2026

1/20

Keynote speakers at “The Beauty of Truth: Navigating Society Today as a Catholic Woman” conference, held Jan. 9-10, 2026, in Houston (left to right): Erika Bachiochi, Mary Eberstadt, Angela Franks, Pia de Solenni, and Leah Sargeant. | Credit: Photo courtesy of the University of St. Thomas

unitedyam January 23, 2026

A reading from the Second Book of Samuel
2 Samuel 1:1-4, 11-12, 19, 23-27

David returned from his defeat of the Amalekites
and spent two days in Ziklag.
On the third day a man came from Saul’s camp,
with his clothes torn and dirt on his head.
Going to David, he fell to the ground in homage.
David asked him, “Where do you come from?”
He replied, “I have escaped from the camp of the children of Israel.”
“Tell me what happened,” David bade him.
He answered that many of the soldiers had fled the battle
and that many of them had fallen and were dead,
among them Saul and his son Jonathan.

David seized his garments and rent them,
and all the men who were with him did likewise.
They mourned and wept and fasted until evening
for Saul and his son Jonathan,
and for the soldiers of the LORD of the clans of Israel,
because they had fallen by the sword.

“Alas! the glory of Israel, Saul,
slain upon your heights;
how can the warriors have fallen!

“Saul and Jonathan, beloved and cherished,
separated neither in life nor in death,
swifter than eagles, stronger than lions!
Women of Israel, weep over Saul,
who clothed you in scarlet and in finery,
who decked your attire with ornaments of gold.

“How can the warriors have fallen–
in the thick of the battle,
slain upon your heights!

“I grieve for you, Jonathan my brother!
most dear have you been to me;
more precious have I held love for you than love for women.

“How can the warriors have fallen,
the weapons of war have perished!”

From the Gospel according to Mark
3:20-21

Jesus came with his disciples into the house.
Again the crowd gathered,
making it impossible for them even to eat.
When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him,
for they said, “He is out of his mind.”

For Jesus, what matters above all is reaching out to save those far off, healing the wounds of the sick, restoring everyone to God’s family! And this is scandalous to some people! Jesus is not afraid of this kind of scandal! He does not think of the closed-minded who are scandalized even by a work of healing, scandalized before any kind of openness, by any action outside of their mental and spiritual boxes, by any caress or sign of tenderness which does not fit into their usual thinking and their ritual purity. He wanted to reinstate the outcast, to save those outside the camp (cf. Jn 10). There are two ways of thinking and of having faith: we can fear to lose the saved and we can want to save the lost. Even today it can happen that we stand at the crossroads of these two ways of thinking. The thinking of the doctors of the law, which would remove the danger by casting out the diseased person, and the thinking of God, who in his mercy embraces and accepts by reinstating him and turning evil into good, condemnation into salvation and exclusion into proclamation. (Francis – Homily in the Holy Mass with the new cardinals, 15 February 2015)

unitedyam January 23, 2026

Diocese of Paterson prepares for massive winter storm to hit area #Catholic –

A severe Arctic cold front threatens to bring up to 14 inches of snow from late Saturday night to Monday afternoon, impacting northeast New Jersey, southern Connecticut, and southeast New York as the Paterson Diocese braces for the storm.

Diocesan parishes, schools, and agencies are preparing to ensure the safety of the faithful and protect Church property ahead of the anxiety-inducing storm. The Arctic blast is expected to plunge area temperatures into the teens during the day and into the single digits at night. The heaviest snow should fall from Sunday morning into early evening, according to the National Weather Service.

The Paterson Diocese, located in northern New Jersey, issued the following statement to the local faith community before the storm:

“In case of emergency weather conditions, please follow State of New Jersey and local travel recommendations and do not attempt to travel until conditions significantly improve. Please check your local parish website or its social media for Mass livestreaming possibilities and giving options.”

So far, Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney has changed one stop on his busy schedule. The opening Catholic Schools Week Mass for the diocese at St. Anthony Parish in Hawthorne, N.J., was moved from Sunday, Jan. 25, to Sunday, Feb. 1 at 8:30 a.m.

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Some parishes, such as St. Joseph Parish in West Milford, N.J., have added vigil Masses on Saturday for those not comfortable traveling on Sunday due to the weather. St. Joseph’s scheduled an extra vigil Mass at 6:15 p.m., in addition to its regular 5 p.m. vigil Mass. A few parishes cancelled Masses or religious education classes.

In rural Sussex County, N.J., St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in Sandyston and St. James the Greater Parish in Montague “will figure out how to handle” the storm and its aftereffects, said Father Wayne Varga, pastor of both parishes. Usually, they cancel daytime Masses when local schools close or have delayed openings, or use their best judgment. The parishes are 10 miles apart in the diocese’s most northern part, connected by winding roads

“Everybody is traveling from a distance to Mass. The temperature up here is about five degrees colder than the parishes south of us. That makes a difference whether we get snow or rain,” said Father Varga. He added, “The county plows the main roads well — and quickly. I just hope the storm doesn’t cause any power outages. Each storm is different. People are rugged up there. Many have pick-up trucks and SUVs. They’re concerned but take it in stride.”

The 22 diocesan Catholic schools are ready for whatever the storm throws at them, said Mary Baier, the schools superintendent. Depending on the severity of the storm, schools may close or switch to remote learning on Monday. These schools normally close if their local school district closes, she said.

“If we could get through COVID, we can get through anything. We’re prepared for the storm. We are making sure of everything,” Baier said.

However, the storm could impact more CSW events or other school events on Sunday, as it did with the rescheduled Mass with Bishop Sweeney at St. Anthony’s in Hawthorne. St. Gerard Majella School in Paterson has already postponed its open house for Sunday to Sunday, Feb. 15, at 2:30 p.m.

In urban Passaic County, the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson, N.J., will cancel its 650-student Faith Formation classes for Sunday. However, it will hold regular Masses on that day, regardless of the weather. Msgr. Geno Sylva, St. John’s rector and diocesan vicar for special projects, predicts the storm will drive more people to attend its Spanish and English vigil Masses on Saturday.

If snow-plow crews cannot reach St. John’s during the storm, the parish will be ready with shovels and salt for sidewalks and stairs. Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney still plans to celebrate a Mass for Altagracia at 1 p.m. on Sunday, if he can make it. Msgr. Sylva emphasized that St. John’s top priority is the safety of parishioners. Many travel a great distance for Mass.

On Jan. 21, Richard Ziccardi, the risk manager who oversees the diocese’s Insurance Office, sent a notice to diocesan leaders, cautioning them about the risk of hypothermia and burst pipes due to the impending storm. He said buildings should be heated to 55 degrees or higher to prevent pipes from freezing and bursting. He also said all outdoor hoses should be disconnected, and indoor valves that supply outdoor water should be turned off.

“Be safe. Don’t put your life in jeopardy. If the State of New Jersey declares a state of emergency, don’t drive on the roads at all. Many people are scared, but we’ll know more as the storm gets closer,” Ziccardi said.

For the latest updates on storm preparations in the Paterson Diocese, check back with BeaconNJ.org

– A severe Arctic cold front threatens to bring up to 14 inches of snow from late Saturday night to Monday afternoon, impacting northeast New Jersey, southern Connecticut, and southeast New York as the Paterson Diocese braces for the storm. Diocesan parishes, schools, and agencies are preparing to ensure the safety of the faithful and protect Church property ahead of the anxiety-inducing storm. The Arctic blast is expected to plunge area temperatures into the teens during the day and into the single digits at night. The heaviest snow should fall from Sunday morning into early evening, according to the National Weather

unitedyam January 23, 2026

Cardinal Seán O’Malley, archbishop emeritus of Boston, offers the homily at the closing Mass for the annual National Prayer Vigil for Life at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 23, 2026. | Credit: EWTN

Jan 23, 2026 / 10:34 am (CNA).

Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley said life is a “precious gift from a loving God” ahead of the 2026 annual March for Life.

O’Malley, archbishop emeritus of Boston, celebrated Mass on Jan. 23 before the March for Life, concluding the annual National Prayer Vigil for Life at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.

“I know that many of you are tired and have made many sacrifices to be here,” O’Malley said. “I assure you, you could not be doing anything more important than being here today. And your presence is not by accident. The Lord in his providence has brought all of us here today.”

The Mass featured prayers for the pro-life movement and provided a moment to strengthen commitment to defending human life ahead of the march.

“Abortion is the greatest moral crisis faced by our country and by our world. It’s a matter of life and death in a very grand scale," O’Malley said. “It’s been a joy and a privilege for me to be at every March for Life here in Washington for the past 53 years.”

“It’s such a joy to be with you here today in this March for Life. This is a pilgrimage for life, and it begins with prayer, here in Mary’s shrine. I thank God for all of you,” he said.

‘Life Is a gift’

O’Malley spoke about the 2026 March for Life theme: “Life Is a Gift.”

“What a powerful theme,” O’Malley said. “Sadly, life is not always seen as a gift. For some, it seems a burden or a curse.”

The cardinal detailed a recent poll that found “for the very first time in the history of our nation, the majority of Americans say they do not want to have children.” O’Malley called it “an alarming statistic.”

“Life is a gift, a gift given by a loving God,” he said. “Life is beautiful, especially when it is received with gratitude and love.”

We must “love as God loves,” O’Malley said. “We must love first, forgive first, give first. That’s why we’re here in this Mass for life.”

“We’re here because life is a gift. God has given us this precious gift. We must be grateful and express our gratitude by proclaiming the gospel of life,” he said.

Future of the pro-life movement

O’Malley, who has been active in the pro-life movement for decades, said the opposition once believed the pro-life advocates would “die off,” but “we’re still here, proclaiming the gospel of life.”

“Our mission is not a political crusade. It’s a response to God’s command to love and to care for each other. And God bless us, the crowd is getting younger and younger. You are beautiful,” he said.

To end abortion, “our task is not to judge others but to bring healing,” O’Malley said. We must be “gentle” like Jesus was with “the Samaritan woman, the poor, the tax collector, the adulterous woman, the good thief,” he said.

“Our task is to build a society that takes care of everybody, where every person counts, where every life is important. Political polarization, racism, economic injustice will only continue to fuel abortion in a post-Roe v. Wade world,” O’Malley said.

“Our world is wracked by divisions and violence. Pope Leo is inviting us to be messengers of unity and of peace. But we do not want to get in the way of the message,” O’Malley said.

“Together, we can protect and nurture that gift of life. We must look for opportunities to be apostles of life, building a civilization of love and ethic of care,” he said.

“The antidote to abortion is love. Love manifests in community, compassion, and solidarity. Life is a gift. Every person is a gift. Every person counts. All are important. Our mission is to work so that no child be left behind. Every baby will be welcomed, loved, cared for, nurtured, and protected,” he said.

“Thank God for the gift of life. Thank God for love. Thank God for you,” O’Malley concluded.

EWTN News’ coverage of the 2026 March for Life can be found here.

If you’re attending the March for Life, don’t forget to use #ewtnprolife on all your posts across X, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook!

Want to relive interviews and special moments from the march? Visit ewtnnews.com/watch and subscribe to youtube.com/@EWTNNews for full coverage.

unitedyam January 23, 2026

Sisters of Life and All the Living Band perform at Life Fest on Jan. 23, 2026, at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in Oxon Hill, Maryland. | Credit: Madalaine Elhabbal/EWTN News English

Jan 23, 2026 / 09:34 am (CNA).

Young Catholics who traveled from across the country for the March for Life started their day singing and praying with the Sisters of Life early Friday morning.

Life Fest 2026 participants gathered at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in Oxon Hill, Maryland, to get energized, sing songs, and receive the sacraments before heading to the National Mall for the March for Life 2026.

Lansing Catholic High School students participate in Life Fest on Jan. 23, 2026, at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in Oxon Hill, Maryland.| Credit: Madalaine Elhabbal/EWTN News English

The event, organized by the Sisters of Life and Knights of Columbus, began at 6 a.m. with music, pro-life testimonies, and chances to go to confession and venerate the relics of numerous saints. Several nuns played music as a part of the All the Living Band alongside Father Isaiah Marie Hofmann, CFR, while participants in the crowd sang along and clapped.

The crowd included everyone from young children to elderly people, Sisters of Life, Dominican brothers and priests, and the Knights of Columbus, who sponsored the event.

Students from Lansing Catholic High School in Lansing, Michigan, waited in a line to venerate relics of St. Carlos Acutis and St. John Paul II.

A young woman venerates Mother Teresa’s relics at Life Fest on Jan. 23, 2026, at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in Oxon Hill, Maryland. | Credit: Madalaine Elhabbal/EWTN News English

The event featured pro-life testimony from women and families who experienced crisis pregnancies and chose life, including the Schachle family, whose son Michael McGivny Schachle, who helped make his namesake a “blessed” through the miracle of his birth.

Schachle’s parents, Michelle and Daniel, gave their testimony while he stood alongside them on stage.

If you’re attending the March for Life, don’t forget to use #ewtnprolife on all your posts across X, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook!

Want to relive interviews and special moments from the march? Visit ewtnnews.com/watch and subscribe to youtube.com/@EWTNNews for full coverage.

unitedyam January 22, 2026

A reading from the Book of Samuel
1 Samuel 24:3-21

Saul took three thousand picked men from all Israel
and went in search of David and his men
in the direction of the wild goat crags.
When he came to the sheepfolds along the way, he found a cave,
which he entered to relieve himself.
David and his men were occupying the inmost recesses of the cave.

David’s servants said to him,
"This is the day of which the LORD said to you,
‘I will deliver your enemy into your grasp;
do with him as you see fit.’"
So David moved up and stealthily cut off an end of Saul’s mantle.
Afterward, however, David regretted that he had cut off
an end of Saul’s mantle.
He said to his men,
"The LORD forbid that I should do such a thing to my master,
the LORD’s anointed, as to lay a hand on him,
for he is the LORD’s anointed."
With these words David restrained his men
and would not permit them to attack Saul.
Saul then left the cave and went on his way.
David also stepped out of the cave, calling to Saul,
"My lord the king!"
When Saul looked back, David bowed to the ground in homage and asked Saul:
"Why do you listen to those who say,
‘David is trying to harm you’?
You see for yourself today that the LORD just now delivered you
into my grasp in the cave.
I had some thought of killing you, but I took pity on you instead.
I decided, ‘I will not raise a hand against my lord,
for he is the LORD’s anointed and a father to me.’
Look here at this end of your mantle which I hold.
Since I cut off an end of your mantle and did not kill you,
see and be convinced that I plan no harm and no rebellion.
I have done you no wrong,
though you are hunting me down to take my life.
The LORD will judge between me and you,
and the LORD will exact justice from you in my case.
I shall not touch you.
The old proverb says, ‘From the wicked comes forth wickedness.’
So I will take no action against you.
Against whom are you on campaign, O king of Israel?
Whom are you pursuing? A dead dog, or a single flea!
The LORD will be the judge; he will decide between me and you.
May he see this, and take my part,
and grant me justice beyond your reach!"
When David finished saying these things to Saul, Saul answered,
"Is that your voice, my son David?"
And Saul wept aloud.
Saul then said to David: "You are in the right rather than I;
you have treated me generously, while I have done you harm.
Great is the generosity you showed me today,
when the LORD delivered me into your grasp
and you did not kill me.
For if a man meets his enemy, does he send him away unharmed?
May the LORD reward you generously for what you have done this day.
And now, I know that you shall surely be king
and that sovereignty over Israel shall come into your possession."

From the Gospel according to Mark
3:13-19

Jesus went up the mountain and summoned those whom he wanted
and they came to him.
He appointed Twelve, whom he also named Apostles,
that they might be with him
and he might send them forth to preach
and to have authority to drive out demons:
He appointed the Twelve:
Simon, whom he named Peter;
James, son of Zebedee,
and John the brother of James, whom he named Boanerges,
that is, sons of thunder;
Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew,
Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus;
Thaddeus, Simon the Cananean,
and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him.

On the site of the revelation, "the mount", taking initiative that demonstrates absolute awareness and determination, Jesus establishes the Twelve so that, together with him, they are witnesses and heralds of the coming of the Kingdom of God. (…) The twelve Apostles are the most evident sign of Jesus’ will regarding the existence and mission of his Church, the guarantee that between Christ and the Church there is no opposition: despite the sins of the people who make up the Church, they are inseparable. Therefore, a slogan that was popular some years back: "Jesus yes, Church no", is totally inconceivable with the intention of Christ. This individualistically chosen Jesus is an imaginary Jesus. We cannot have Jesus without the reality he created and in which he communicates himself. Between the Son of God-made-flesh and his Church there is a profound, unbreakable and mysterious continuity by which Christ is present today in his people. He is always contemporary with us, he is always contemporary with the Church, built on the foundation of the Apostles and alive in the succession of the Apostles. And his very presence in the community, in which he himself is always with us, is the reason for our joy. Yes, Christ is with us, the Kingdom of God is coming. (Benedict XVI – General audience, 15 March 2006)

unitedyam January 22, 2026

Beyond The Beacon Ep. 104: Faith in action, How the Interfaith Food Pantry serves the community #Catholic –

Morris County is among the wealthiest counties in New Jersey, but food insecurity is very real for many families living there. For this episode, Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney and Communications Director Jai Agnish visited the Interfaith Food Pantry in Morris Plains to learn more. After touring the facility and meeting clients and volunteers, they sat down for this remote episode with Carolyn Lake, executive director of the Interfaith Food Pantry Network, and Board President Helen Hallberg.

Listen to the episode here, or on any major podcast platform, or watch it on Bishop Sweeney’s YouTube channel.

Click here to subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

– Morris County is among the wealthiest counties in New Jersey, but food insecurity is very real for many families living there. For this episode, Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney and Communications Director Jai Agnish visited the Interfaith Food Pantry in Morris Plains to learn more. After touring the facility and meeting clients and volunteers, they sat down for this remote episode with Carolyn Lake, executive director of the Interfaith Food Pantry Network, and Board President Helen Hallberg. Listen to the episode here, or on any major podcast platform, or watch it on Bishop Sweeney’s YouTube channel. Click here to subscribe to

unitedyam January 22, 2026

Living with a spirit of hope #Catholic –

Saint Francis of Assisi has been quoted as saying, “All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.” It’s a statement that so perfectly captures the spirit of hope that he strove to live by and that we all are called to cultivate within our hearts. We are called to be light to the world by inviting Christ into our lives to allow His light to shine through us in all that we do. And spreading hope is most vital in trying times because that’s when our light is most needed.

“It’s better to light one candle than to curse the darkness,” is the ancient Chinese proverb that Father James Keller, M.M., adopted as a motto in founding The Christophers back in 1945. It’s a bit of wisdom that reminds us to always be positive amid the challenges of life.

Father Keller said, “Rebellion against difficulties and obstacles that cannot legitimately be avoided only makes a bad situation worse. Ordinary common sense recommends that we ride the storm, not buck it.” Though we must certainly be realistic about the challenges we face, Father Keller understood that we’ll never overcome our obstacles if we don’t stay positive.

A quote attributed to Saint Catherine of Siena states, “Start being brave about everything, driving out darkness and spreading light as well. Don’t look at your weakness, but realize that in Christ crucified you can do everything.”

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Catherine and Francis were separated by over a century in time, but they lived in cities less than a hundred miles apart in central Italy—and their actions had ripple effects felt throughout the world to this day. This is the legacy of those who devote their lives to God. They become the fertile ground upon which good fruit can flourish.

Francis was so humble that he interpreted the command from God, “Rebuild my Church,” as a simple instruction to repair stonework in a hillside chapel. That may have been God’s first and simplest intention for Francis, but the world now knows that Francis was also called to lead a renewal of devotion to Christ.

Catherine followed in his footsteps over a hundred years later. Although she started by confining herself to a cloister to grow in devotion to God, she eventually felt called to ministry to the poor and sick, and her mission just kept growing until her counsel was sought by leaders on the world stage.

Another quote attributed to Saint Catherine states, “Be who you were born to be, and you will set the world on fire.” She and Francis both answered the call to simply be themselves. In each case, it was a humble path that led to great things.

Two centuries after the time of Saint Catherine of Siena and a thousand miles away in Spain, Saint Teresa of Avila set the world on fire by charting a path of prayer and contemplation. Saint Teresa also understood the importance of staying positive. She once said, “From somber, serious, sullen saints, save us, O Lord.”

Like Catherine and Francis, Saint Teresa knew she was called to bring light into the world. These saints teach us that the path to accomplishing great things for God is forged in hope and a positive outlook on life. So let’s resolve to stay positive, knowing God will meet us in our hope and transform it into a seed from which good fruit will blossom in the world around us.

Father Ed Dougherty, M.M., is on the board of directors of The Christophers. For free copies of the Christopher News Note “Guided By the Holy Spirit,” write: The Christophers, 264 West 40^th Street, Room 603, New York, N.Y. 10018; or e-mail: mail@christophers.org

– Saint Francis of Assisi has been quoted as saying, “All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.” It’s a statement that so perfectly captures the spirit of hope that he strove to live by and that we all are called to cultivate within our hearts. We are called to be light to the world by inviting Christ into our lives to allow His light to shine through us in all that we do. And spreading hope is most vital in trying times because that’s when our light is most needed. “It’s better to light

unitedyam January 22, 2026

Actor David Henrie in the new series “Seeking Beauty,” which airs on EWTN+. | Credit: EWTN Studios

Jan 22, 2026 / 12:00 pm (CNA).

Catholic figures gathered in Los Angeles on Jan. 16 for the premiere of “Seeking Beauty,” the first original series from EWTN Studios airing exclusively on the network’s brand-new streaming platform, EWTN+.

Here are five things to know about the new series and its host, actor David Henrie.

What is ‘Seeking Beauty’?

“Seeking Beauty” is a first-of-its-kind adventure documentary series that explores culture, architecture, food, art, and music, and aims to point viewers to the beautiful — and ultimately to the divine.

The series follows Henrie’s journey into the heart of Italy to explore what makes Italian culture one of the most beautiful in the world. It not only looks at the physical beauty of the country but also its spiritual richness.

Where can I watch it?

“Seeking Beauty” is available to watch exclusively on EWTN+, a free digital streaming platform that offers faith-based content. EWTN+ is available on RokuTV, GoogleTV, AppleTV, AmazonFireTV, and on EWTN.com.

Where does ‘Seeking Beauty’ take place?

The first season of “Seeking Beauty” takes place in several cities across Italy including Vatican City, Rome, Milan, Florence, and Venice.

Who is David Henrie?

Henrie is best known for his breakout role as Justin Russo on Disney Channel’s “Wizards of Waverly Place.” He grew up in a Catholic household with Italian heritage; however, Henrie’s early adult years were marked by what he has described as a relativistic and agnostic period. He has also spoken about how the successes of early fame left him feeling unfulfilled and searching for deeper meaning.

Henrie’s return to the Catholic faith was a profound personal transformation that he says began around age 21 or 22.

A significant influence came while working on the movie “Little Boy,” where conversations with Catholic cast members Kevin James and Eduardo Verástegui, as well as a visit to St. Michael Abbey in Orange County, California — including his first confession since childhood — played a pivotal role in rediscovering his faith.

Since then, Henrie has embraced his faith publicly and personally, integrating his beliefs into his family life, creative projects, and charity work, including serving as a brand ambassador for Cross Catholic Outreach and participating in mission trips that reflect his commitment to living out his faith. He is married and has three children.

Will there be another season of ‘Seeking Beauty’?

Yes! The second season of the series was filmed in Spain and is scheduled to premiere this fall.

unitedyam January 22, 2026

Obituary: Sister Emily Marie Walsh, oldest living Sister of Charity, 104 #Catholic –

A Mass of Christian Burial was held on Thursday, Jan. 22, at 11 a.m. in Holy Family Chapel in the Convent Station neighborhood of Morris Township, N.J., for Sister of Charity Emily Marie Walsh, who died on Jan. 17 at Complete Care at St. Vincent’s in Cedar Grove, N.J. She was 104. At the time of her death, she was the oldest living Sister of Charity of St. Elizabeth.

Sister Walsh was born in Orange, N.J., the daughter of Margaret Mary (Treacy) and John Walsh. She entered the Sisters of Charity in 1938 and was a member for 87 years. She earned a bachelor’s degree in education from the College of St. Elizabeth, now St. Elizabeth University, in Convent Station, and a master’s degree in administration and supervision from Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J. Sister Walsh also completed continuing education courses in gerontology, pastoral counseling, and ministry to the sick.

Sister Walsh served as an educator and pastoral minister in the Newark Archdiocese in New Jersey. She was a teacher at the former St. Paul of the Cross School in Jersey City, Our Lady of Sorrows School in South Orange, and the former St. Andrew School in Westwood, where she was also principal.

In 1964, Sister Walsh began her 51 years in ministry at Holy Trinity Parish and the former parish school, both in Hackensack, N.J. She started as a teacher and assistant principal at the school, and became principal two years later. In 1979, Sister Walsh began her pastoral ministry at Holy Trinity Parish. Among her duties, she visited the sick and coordinated the Bereavement Ministry and the St. Vincent de Paul Society.

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Sister Walsh retired from her ministry at Holy Trinity in 2015. The parish honored her with the unveiling of a sign on Maple Avenue, the street in front of the church, bearing the name “Sister Emily’s Way” in 2018.

At 94, Sister Walsh moved to the Sisters of Charity Motherhouse in Convent Station. There, she volunteered as a receptionist at the motherhouse and at St. Anne Villa, also in Convent Station. She also served as a lector at Masses in the motherhouse chapel.

Sister Walsh was predeceased by her parents; her sisters, Margaret Bradley and Patricia Marinaro; her brothers, James, John, Robert, Luke, and Charles; her nieces, Kathryn Walsh Inge, Treacy Mallon Krisztinicz, Susan Walsh Moynihan, and Nancy Walsh Krawczyk; and her nephew, James J. Walsh. She is survived by the Sisters of Charity; her sister, Catherine Mallon; and many loving nieces, nephews, grandnieces, grandnephews, great-grandnieces, and great-grandnephews.

The wake for Sister Walsh will be held on Thursday, Jan. 22, from 9:30 to 11 a.m. in Holy Family Chapel in Convent Station, followed her Mass of Christian Burial at 11 a.m., which will be livestreamed. Burial in Holy Family Cemetery, also in Convent Station, will follow the Mass.

Please make a memorial donation in Sister Emily Marie Walsh’s name to the Sisters of Charity Legacy and Mission Advancement Office, P.O. Box 476, Convent Station, N.J. 07961-0476.

– A Mass of Christian Burial was held on Thursday, Jan. 22, at 11 a.m. in Holy Family Chapel in the Convent Station neighborhood of Morris Township, N.J., for Sister of Charity Emily Marie Walsh, who died on Jan. 17 at Complete Care at St. Vincent’s in Cedar Grove, N.J. She was 104. At the time of her death, she was the oldest living Sister of Charity of St. Elizabeth. Sister Walsh was born in Orange, N.J., the daughter of Margaret Mary (Treacy) and John Walsh. She entered the Sisters of Charity in 1938 and was a member for 87 years.

‘Carmel Encounter’ to mark centennial of Morristown monastery #Catholic – This year, the Discalced Carmelite Monastery of the Most Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel is celebrating 100 years of Carmelite presence in Morristown, N.J. To commemorate the centennial anniversary, the monastery is hosting a “Carmel Encounter” event for eight days during February during which the sisters will give a presentation on Carmelite history, share their personal stories, and respond to questions from guests. The event will be held at the monastery in their Speak Room from Feb. 8 to 15 and is open to the public by reservation only by calling 973-538-0816.
More information is available here.

unitedyam January 22, 2026

‘Carmel Encounter’ to mark centennial of Morristown monastery #Catholic –

This year, the Discalced Carmelite Monastery of the Most Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel is celebrating 100 years of Carmelite presence in Morristown, N.J. To commemorate the centennial anniversary, the monastery is hosting a “Carmel Encounter” event for eight days during February during which the sisters will give a presentation on Carmelite history, share their personal stories, and respond to questions from guests. The event will be held at the monastery in their Speak Room from Feb. 8 to 15 and is open to the public by reservation only by calling 973-538-0816.

More information is available here.

– This year, the Discalced Carmelite Monastery of the Most Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel is celebrating 100 years of Carmelite presence in Morristown, N.J. To commemorate the centennial anniversary, the monastery is hosting a “Carmel Encounter” event for eight days during February during which the sisters will give a presentation on Carmelite history, share their personal stories, and respond to questions from guests. The event will be held at the monastery in their Speak Room from Feb. 8 to 15 and is open to the public by reservation only by calling 973-538-0816. More information is available here.

unitedyam January 21, 2026

A reading from the First Book of Samuel
1 Samuel 18:6-9; 19:1-7

When David and Saul approached
(on David’s return after slaying the Philistine),
women came out from each of the cities of Israel to meet King Saul,
singing and dancing, with tambourines, joyful songs, and sistrums.
The women played and sang:

“Saul has slain his thousands,
and David his ten thousands.”

Saul was very angry and resentful of the song, for he thought:
“They give David ten thousands, but only thousands to me.
All that remains for him is the kingship.”
And from that day on, Saul was jealous of David.

Saul discussed his intention of killing David
with his son Jonathan and with all his servants.
But Saul’s son Jonathan, who was very fond of David, told him:
“My father Saul is trying to kill you.
Therefore, please be on your guard tomorrow morning;
get out of sight and remain in hiding.
I, however, will go out and stand beside my father
in the countryside where you are, and will speak to him about you.
If I learn anything, I will let you know.”

Jonathan then spoke well of David to his father Saul, saying to him:
“Let not your majesty sin against his servant David,
for he has committed no offense against you,
but has helped you very much by his deeds.
When he took his life in his hands and slew the Philistine,
and the LORD brought about a great victory
for all Israel through him,
you were glad to see it.
Why, then, should you become guilty of shedding innocent blood
by killing David without cause?”
Saul heeded Jonathan’s plea and swore,
“As the LORD lives, he shall not be killed.”
So Jonathan summoned David and repeated the whole conversation to him.
Jonathan then brought David to Saul, and David served him as before.

From the Gospel according to Mark
3:7-12

Jesus withdrew toward the sea with his disciples.
A large number of people followed from Galilee and from Judea.
Hearing what he was doing,
a large number of people came to him also from Jerusalem,
from Idumea, from beyond the Jordan,
and from the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon.
He told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd,
so that they would not crush him.
He had cured many and, as a result, those who had diseases
were pressing upon him to touch him.
And whenever unclean spirits saw him they would fall down before him
and shout, “You are the Son of God.”
He warned them sternly not to make him known.

Jesus, who goes towards wounded humanity, shows us the face of the Father. It may be that within us there is still the idea of a distant, cold God, who is indifferent to our fate. (…) On the contrary, he is a Father filled with love who makes himself close to us, who visits our homes, who wants to save and liberate, heal from every ill of the body and spirit. God is always close to us. God’s attitude can be expressed in three words: closeness, compassion and tenderness. God makes himself close to accompany us tenderly, and to forgive us. Do not forget this: closeness, compassion and tenderness. This is God’s attitude. (…) Let us look, then, at Jesus’ journeying and remind ourselves that our first spiritual task is this: to abandon the God we think we know, and to convert every day to the God Jesus presents to us in the Gospel, who is the Father of love and the Father of compassion. The Father who is close, compassionate and tender. And when we discover the true face of the Father, our faith matures: we no longer remain “sacristy Christians”, or “parlour Christians”, but rather we feel called to become bearers of God’s hope and healing. (Francis – Angelus, 4 February 2024)

Health spending bill would keep ban on tax-funded abortion #Catholic

An unborn baby at 20 weeks. | Credit: Steve via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Jan 21, 2026 / 15:49 pm (CNA).
A federal health spending bill would impose a long-enforced ban on using taxpayer funds for elective abortion, known as the Hyde Amendment.The U.S. House is set to consider the bill this week, which would fund the departments of Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services. Lawmakers would need to pass spending bills in both chambers and send them to the White House by Jan. 30 or the government could face another partial shutdown.Republican President Donald Trump had asked his party to be “flexible” in its approach to the provision in a separate funding bill. According to a Jan. 19 news release from the Republican-led House Appropriations Committee, the Labor-HHS-Education spending bill includes the provision “protecting the lives of unborn children” known as the Hyde Amendment.The Hyde Amendment, which is not permanent law, was first included as a rider in federal spending bills in 1976. It was included consistently since then although some recent legislation and budget proposals have sometimes excluded it. The provision would ban federal funds for abortion except when the unborn child is conceived through rape or incest or if the life of the mother is at risk.Katie Glenn Daniel, director of legal affairs and policy counsel for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said the amendment is “a long-standing federal policy that’s been included for the last five decades and is popular with the American people.”“Americans don’t want to pay for abortion on demand,” she said.Many Democratic lawmakers have sought to eliminate the rider in recent years, saying it disproportionately limits abortion access for low-income women. Former President Joe Biden reversed his longtime support of the Hyde Amendment in the lead-up to the 2020 election and refused to include it in his spending proposals, saying: “If I believe health care is a right, as I do, I can no longer support an amendment that makes that right dependent on someone’s zip code.” But Republicans successfully negotiated the rider’s inclusion into spending bills.In January 2025, Trump issued an executive order directing the government to enforce the Hyde Amendment. A year later, Trump urged Republicans to be “a little flexible on Hyde” when lawmakers were negotiating the extension of health care subsidies related to the Affordable Care Act. A White House spokesperson also said the president would work with Congress to ensure the strongest possible pro-life protections.The House eventually passed the extension without the Hyde Amendment after 17 Republicans joined Democrats to support the bill. The Senate has not yet advanced the measure, where the question of whether to include the Hyde Amendment has been a point of contention between Republicans and Democrats.In mid-January, Trump announced a plan to change how health care subsidies are disbursed. There was no mention of the Hyde Amendment in the White House’s 827-word memo.The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has consistently lobbied for the inclusion of the Hyde Amendment in spending bills. On Jan. 14, the bishops sent a letter to Congress “to stress in the strongest possible terms that Hyde is essential for health care policy that protects human dignity.”“Authentic health care and the protection of human life go hand in hand,” the letter said. “There can be no compromise on these two combined values.”

unitedyam January 21, 2026

An unborn baby at 20 weeks. | Credit: Steve via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Jan 21, 2026 / 15:49 pm (CNA).

A federal health spending bill would impose a long-enforced ban on using taxpayer funds for elective abortion, known as the Hyde Amendment.

The U.S. House is set to consider the bill this week, which would fund the departments of Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services. Lawmakers would need to pass spending bills in both chambers and send them to the White House by Jan. 30 or the government could face another partial shutdown.

Republican President Donald Trump had asked his party to be “flexible” in its approach to the provision in a separate funding bill. According to a Jan. 19 news release from the Republican-led House Appropriations Committee, the Labor-HHS-Education spending bill includes the provision “protecting the lives of unborn children” known as the Hyde Amendment.

The Hyde Amendment, which is not permanent law, was first included as a rider in federal spending bills in 1976. It was included consistently since then although some recent legislation and budget proposals have sometimes excluded it. The provision would ban federal funds for abortion except when the unborn child is conceived through rape or incest or if the life of the mother is at risk.

Katie Glenn Daniel, director of legal affairs and policy counsel for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said the amendment is “a long-standing federal policy that’s been included for the last five decades and is popular with the American people.”

“Americans don’t want to pay for abortion on demand,” she said.

Many Democratic lawmakers have sought to eliminate the rider in recent years, saying it disproportionately limits abortion access for low-income women. Former President Joe Biden reversed his longtime support of the Hyde Amendment in the lead-up to the 2020 election and refused to include it in his spending proposals, saying: “If I believe health care is a right, as I do, I can no longer support an amendment that makes that right dependent on someone’s zip code.” But Republicans successfully negotiated the rider’s inclusion into spending bills.

In January 2025, Trump issued an executive order directing the government to enforce the Hyde Amendment. A year later, Trump urged Republicans to be “a little flexible on Hyde” when lawmakers were negotiating the extension of health care subsidies related to the Affordable Care Act. A White House spokesperson also said the president would work with Congress to ensure the strongest possible pro-life protections.

The House eventually passed the extension without the Hyde Amendment after 17 Republicans joined Democrats to support the bill. The Senate has not yet advanced the measure, where the question of whether to include the Hyde Amendment has been a point of contention between Republicans and Democrats.

In mid-January, Trump announced a plan to change how health care subsidies are disbursed. There was no mention of the Hyde Amendment in the White House’s 827-word memo.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has consistently lobbied for the inclusion of the Hyde Amendment in spending bills. On Jan. 14, the bishops sent a letter to Congress “to stress in the strongest possible terms that Hyde is essential for health care policy that protects human dignity.”

“Authentic health care and the protection of human life go hand in hand,” the letter said. “There can be no compromise on these two combined values.”

unitedyam January 21, 2026

The challenge of the Gospel #Catholic –

Though she has been spreading the gospel for more than a decade, Meg Hunter-Kilmer’s love for Jesus grew even more when she immersed herself in commentaries that explained the cultural context of His words and actions. As she expresses in her recent book “Eyes Fixed on Jesus, Volume 1,” Meg came to believe that the ways in which Jesus affirmed people’s dignity was just as important as His physical healings.

Take Jesus’ healing of the woman who was bleeding for 12 years as an example. Not only was her ailment cured, but Jesus called her, “Daughter,” conveying that she was a beloved child of God who should be embraced, not ostracized, by society. Why is that affirmation so important?

“This is the big question of what it is to be human,” Meg observed during a “Christopher Closeup” interview. “Am I as good as you are by my very existence? This is something that we’re still wrestling with today. Does people’s immigration documentation status make them less valuable as human beings? Does people’s race or ethnicity make them less valuable? Does people’s status as being born or unborn make them less valuable?…Jesus makes it clear again and again, there’s nothing [that makes anyone less valuable]. He comes to women, to the unclean. He’s going to Samaritans and to Gentiles, to Roman oppressors. He’s actually doing good deeds for the people who are trying to destroy the people of God. And Jesus is making it clear to us that every person is equal in dignity.”

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While this concept should be familiar to us today, it wasn’t in Jesus’ era, when a human being’s value was based on status. Then along comes Jesus with His Sermon on the Mount, declaring, “Blessed are the poor.” This contradicted people’s beliefs that the poor were cursed; that’s why they were poor. Again, Jesus affirmed that everyone was equal in dignity. Meg explained, “Enslaved pagan women are just as valuable as the high priest. That’s a radical and revolutionary thing and something that continues to be a challenge for us today…Jesus came in with an incredibly demanding message, particularly for those who were good Jews.”

In essence, Jesus made it clear that outward religious practices were not enough to please God. The same holds true today. Meg noted, “These are the people who are doing all the right things, who are religious in all of the right ways. This is Jesus coming to us who listen to Catholic radio and saying, ‘Yes, very good! But do you actually love your sister-in-law? Do you actually live a sacrificial life so that the poor can live a meaningful life? Do you actually follow the gospel?’… If the gospel doesn’t challenge you, man, you’re just not reading it.”

As devoted as Meg remains to Jesus and spreading His message, she encounters times of darkness in life, like we all do. How does she respond?

“For me, everything is about sitting with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament,” Meg concluded. “When I am an absolute wreck, the thing that I need more than anything is just to get in front of a tabernacle and pour my mess out on Him. And there’s a light that comes. I mean, that sanctuary lamp really begins to glow brighter. And even if nothing is resolved at the end of that time, I have put everything back in His hands, and I have continued to make the deliberate choice to let Him be my God.”

Tony Rossi is director of communications for The Christophers. For free copies of the Christopher News Note “Turn Your Brokenness Into Holiness,” write: The Christophers, 264 West 40^th Street, Room 603, New York, N.Y. 10018; or e-mail: mail@christophers.org

– Though she has been spreading the gospel for more than a decade, Meg Hunter-Kilmer’s love for Jesus grew even more when she immersed herself in commentaries that explained the cultural context of His words and actions. As she expresses in her recent book “Eyes Fixed on Jesus, Volume 1,” Meg came to believe that the ways in which Jesus affirmed people’s dignity was just as important as His physical healings. Take Jesus’ healing of the woman who was bleeding for 12 years as an example. Not only was her ailment cured, but Jesus called her, “Daughter,” conveying that she was

How to watch the March for Life 2026: EWTN’s live coverage #Catholic

Pro-life advocates march through Washington, D.C., to protest abortion during the 2025 March for Life on Friday, Jan. 24, 2025. | Credit: Dominic Gwinn/Middle East Images/Middle East Images via AFP/Getty Images

Jan 21, 2026 / 06:00 am (CNA).
With tens of thousands of pro-life Americans gathering for the 53rd annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., on Friday, Jan. 23, EWTN will provide live coverage of the event.The yearly national pro-life event marks the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, drawing together thousands to protest abortion and advocate for life. This year’s theme is “Life Is a Gift,” which the March for Life official website says emphasizes the “unshakeable conviction that life is very good and worthy of protection, no matter the circumstances.”Thursday, Jan. 22: March for Life prayer vigil5 p.m. ET: EWTN’s National March for Life coverage kicks off before the march with a night of prayer at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. The National Prayer Vigil for Life is held annually on the eve of the March for Life, bringing thousands of pilgrims across the nation together to pray for an end to abortion. At 5 p.m. ET, EWTN will stream the opening Mass followed by the Holy Hour of the National Prayer Vigil for Life at 7 p.m. as pro-lifers pray and prepare for the upcoming march.Friday, Jan. 23: March for Life8 a.m. ET: The all-night prayer vigil will conclude with the closing Mass of the National Prayer Vigil for Life at the shrine, televised live by EWTN.9:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET: EWTN will air coverage of the March for Life, featuring a keynote by Sarah Hurm, a single mom of four who went through a chemical abortion reversal to save the life of her child.Other speakers include Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana; Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey; and March for Life President Jennie Bradley Lichter. The march will also feature pro-life entrepreneurs including Shawnte Mallory, founder of Labir Love And Care, and Debbie Biskey, CEO of Options for Her, as well as student activist Elizabeth Pillsbury Oliver, a convert to Catholicism who heads Georgetown University’s Right to Life group. Rev. Irinej Dobrijevic, a Serbian Orthodox bishop of the Diocese of Eastern America, and Cissie Graham Lynch, spokesperson for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, will also speak at the event.In addition, the Christian band Sanctus Real will perform at the rally and the Friends of Club 21 choir — a chorus of young adults with Down syndrome — will perform the national anthem.4 p.m. ET: EWTN will broadcast the second annual Life Fest Mass, sponsored by the Sisters of Life and the Knights of Columbus as part of the Life Fest Rally. The Life Fest Rally begins the evening before the march with live music from Matt Maher and other Christian bands.Saturday: Walk for Life West Coast2:30 p.m. ET: The 21st annual Walk for Life West Coast will begin with a rally followed by the walk. EWTN will livestream coverage of the walk.5 p.m. ET: EWTN will televise highlights from One Life (Una Vida), a one-day event centered on witnessing human dignity with a focus on the pro-life issues as well as other issues such as human trafficking and homelessness. The coverage will be hosted by Astrid Bennett and Patricia Sandoval, along with EWTN producers, during the march.8 p.m. ET: EWTN will televise a pro-life Mass from Los Angeles, concluding the weekend’s pro-life coverage.

unitedyam January 21, 2026

Pro-life advocates march through Washington, D.C., to protest abortion during the 2025 March for Life on Friday, Jan. 24, 2025. | Credit: Dominic Gwinn/Middle East Images/Middle East Images via AFP/Getty Images

Jan 21, 2026 / 06:00 am (CNA).

With tens of thousands of pro-life Americans gathering for the 53rd annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., on Friday, Jan. 23, EWTN will provide live coverage of the event.

The yearly national pro-life event marks the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, drawing together thousands to protest abortion and advocate for life. This year’s theme is “Life Is a Gift,” which the March for Life official website says emphasizes the “unshakeable conviction that life is very good and worthy of protection, no matter the circumstances.”

Thursday, Jan. 22: March for Life prayer vigil

5 p.m. ET: EWTN’s National March for Life coverage kicks off before the march with a night of prayer at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. The National Prayer Vigil for Life is held annually on the eve of the March for Life, bringing thousands of pilgrims across the nation together to pray for an end to abortion.

At 5 p.m. ET, EWTN will stream the opening Mass followed by the Holy Hour of the National Prayer Vigil for Life at 7 p.m. as pro-lifers pray and prepare for the upcoming march.

Friday, Jan. 23: March for Life

8 a.m. ET: The all-night prayer vigil will conclude with the closing Mass of the National Prayer Vigil for Life at the shrine, televised live by EWTN.

9:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET: EWTN will air coverage of the March for Life, featuring a keynote by Sarah Hurm, a single mom of four who went through a chemical abortion reversal to save the life of her child.

Other speakers include Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana; Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey; and March for Life President Jennie Bradley Lichter. The march will also feature pro-life entrepreneurs including Shawnte Mallory, founder of Labir Love And Care, and Debbie Biskey, CEO of Options for Her, as well as student activist Elizabeth Pillsbury Oliver, a convert to Catholicism who heads Georgetown University’s Right to Life group.

Rev. Irinej Dobrijevic, a Serbian Orthodox bishop of the Diocese of Eastern America, and Cissie Graham Lynch, spokesperson for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, will also speak at the event.

In addition, the Christian band Sanctus Real will perform at the rally and the Friends of Club 21 choir — a chorus of young adults with Down syndrome — will perform the national anthem.

4 p.m. ET: EWTN will broadcast the second annual Life Fest Mass, sponsored by the Sisters of Life and the Knights of Columbus as part of the Life Fest Rally. The Life Fest Rally begins the evening before the march with live music from Matt Maher and other Christian bands.

Saturday: Walk for Life West Coast

2:30 p.m. ET: The 21st annual Walk for Life West Coast will begin with a rally followed by the walk. EWTN will livestream coverage of the walk.

5 p.m. ET: EWTN will televise highlights from One Life (Una Vida), a one-day event centered on witnessing human dignity with a focus on the pro-life issues as well as other issues such as human trafficking and homelessness. The coverage will be hosted by Astrid Bennett and Patricia Sandoval, along with EWTN producers, during the march.

8 p.m. ET: EWTN will televise a pro-life Mass from Los Angeles, concluding the weekend’s pro-life coverage.

unitedyam January 20, 2026

A reading from the Book of Samuel
1 Samuel 17:32-33, 37, 40-51

David spoke to Saul:
"Let your majesty not lose courage.
I am at your service to go and fight this Philistine."
But Saul answered David,
"You cannot go up against this Philistine and fight with him,
for you are only a youth, while he has been a warrior from his youth."

David continued:
"The LORD, who delivered me from the claws of the lion and the bear,
will also keep me safe from the clutches of this Philistine."
Saul answered David, "Go! the LORD will be with you."

Then, staff in hand, David selected five smooth stones from the wadi
and put them in the pocket of his shepherd’s bag.
With his sling also ready to hand, he approached the Philistine.

With his shield bearer marching before him,
the Philistine also advanced closer and closer to David.
When he had sized David up,
and seen that he was youthful, and ruddy, and handsome in appearance,
the Philistine held David in contempt.
The Philistine said to David,
"Am I a dog that you come against me with a staff?"
Then the Philistine cursed David by his gods
and said to him, "Come here to me,
and I will leave your flesh for the birds of the air
and the beasts of the field."
David answered him:
"You come against me with sword and spear and scimitar,
but I come against you in the name of the LORD of hosts,
the God of the armies of Israel that you have insulted.
Today the LORD shall deliver you into my hand;
I will strike you down and cut off your head.
This very day I will leave your corpse
and the corpses of the Philistine army for the birds of the air
and the beasts of the field;
thus the whole land shall learn that Israel has a God.
All this multitude, too,
shall learn that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves.
For the battle is the LORD’s and he shall deliver you into our hands."

The Philistine then moved to meet David at close quarters,
while David ran quickly toward the battle line
in the direction of the Philistine.
David put his hand into the bag and took out a stone,
hurled it with the sling,
and struck the Philistine on the forehead.
The stone embedded itself in his brow,
and he fell prostrate on the ground.
Thus David overcame the Philistine with sling and stone;
he struck the Philistine mortally, and did it without a sword.
Then David ran and stood over him;
with the Philistine’s own sword which he drew from its sheath
he dispatched him and cut off his head.

From the Gospel according to Mark
3:1-6

Jesus entered the synagogue.
There was a man there who had a withered hand.
They watched Jesus closely
to see if he would cure him on the sabbath
so that they might accuse him.
He said to the man with the withered hand,
"Come up here before us."
Then he said to the Pharisees,
"Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil,
to save life rather than to destroy it?"
But they remained silent.
Looking around at them with anger
and grieved at their hardness of heart,
Jesus said to the man, "Stretch out your hand."
He stretched it out and his hand was restored.
The Pharisees went out and immediately took counsel
with the Herodians against him to put him to death.

In the Gospels, many pages tell of Jesus’ encounters with the sick and of his commitment to healing them. He presents himself publicly as one who fights against illness and who has come to heal mankind of every evil: evils of the spirit and evils of the body. (…) When a father or mother, or even just friends brought a sick person for him to touch and heal, he never let time be an issue; healing came before the law, even one as sacred as resting on the Sabbath (cf. Mk 3:1-6). The doctors of the law reproached Jesus because he healed on the Sabbath, he did good on the Sabbath. But the love of Jesus was in giving health, doing good: this always takes priority! (…) In the face of illness, even in families, difficulties arise due to human weakness. But in general, times of illness enable family bonds to grow stronger. (…) The weakness and suffering of our dearest and most cherished loved ones can be, for our children and grandchildren, a school of life (…) and they become so when times of illness are accompanied by prayer and the affectionate and thoughtful closeness of relatives. (Francis – General audience, 10 June 2015)

Pro-life movement has mixed reaction after Trump’s first year of second term #Catholic

Participants in a pro-life rally hold signs in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., on June 24, 2023, at a rally marking the first anniversary of the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. | Credit: Joseph Portolano/EWTN News

Jan 20, 2026 / 14:37 pm (CNA).
Members of the pro-life movement have mixed thoughts on the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, noting many wins early into his presidency but a number of shortfalls as time has gone by.Some wins include defunding Planned Parenthood, walking back some of President Joe Biden’s initiatives, and removing foreign aid funding for organizations that promote abortion. However, a lack of action on chemical abortions and weakened rhetoric surrounding taxpayer-funded abortions are causing concern.A notable pro-life win was included in the tax overhaul bill signed by Trump in July, which cut off all Medicaid reimbursements for organizations that provide a large number of abortions, such as Planned Parenthood.Amid funding cuts, nearly 70 Planned Parenthood affiliates shut down. The administration also initially cut off Title X family planning grants from the abortion giant, but those have resumed.The president pardoned pro-life protesters convicted of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and blocked foreign aid from supporting organizations that promote abortion. He rescinded several policies from the Biden administration, including one that paid Pentagon workers to travel for abortions. He also established strong conscience protections for pro-life doctors.“Right out the gate, we saw some progress on the pro-life issue,” Kelsey Pritchard, a spokesperson for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America (SBA), told EWTN.Yet, she cautioned: “We have also not seen progress in the one area that matters the most — and that’s on abortion drugs.”Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. launched a study into the safety of the abortion pill mifepristone in September 2025, but so far no action has been taken to curtail the drug. Rather, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) went in the opposite direction, approving a generic version of mifepristone later that same month.Pritchard said that move was “the opposite of what they should have done,” and referred to the generic mifepristone as “a new kill pill to increase the number of abortions that are done in this country.”She said Kennedy’s promised study has “absolutely been moving too slow” and added that there is no confirmation it even began or is taking place. SBA called for FDA Commissioner Marty Makary to be fired following allegations he was “slow-walking the report for political reasons,” she said.Trump has said abortion should be regulated by the states, but Pritchard warned “those [pro-life] laws can’t be in effect at all, really, when mail-order abortion happens with the abortion drugs.”“They’re allowing [California Gov.] Gavin Newsom and [New York Gov.] Kathy Hochul and their blue state friends to completely nullify the pro-life laws in states like Texas and Florida,” she said.Joseph Meaney, a senior ethicist at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, similarly said “the delay in the promised review of the rushed process in which mifepristone was approved as an abortion drug by the FDA has frustrated pro-lifers.”“When the FDA approved a second generic version of mifepristone, … it highlighted the lack of progress in fighting the leading means of doing abortions in the [United States],” he said.Trump also began to waver on taxpayer-funded abortions early in 2026, asking Republicans to be “flexible” on the Hyde Amendment amid negotiations on extending health care subsidies for the Affordable Care Act. Trump later unveiled “The Great Healthcare Plan” and said the White House intends to negotiate with Congress to ensure pro-life protections.Pritchard called taxpayer-funded abortion “a very basic red line” and said it’s “concerning to see Republicans back away from something so basic.”She warned Republicans to not take pro-life voters for granted in the upcoming midterms, saying “you’ll lose the elections and we won’t have the majority of Congress” without pro-life voters.“You must remain the pro-life party or you will lose the midterms if you decide to bow to the pro-death Democrat agenda,” Pritchard said.Meaney said there is “a widespread feeling that the second Trump administration has seemed to deprioritize issues important to the pro-life community,” adding he has “seen calls for pro-life groups to ‘flex their muscles’ and show that they cannot be taken for granted.”However, he said the shortfalls “should not obscure the fact that the Trump administration has rolled back the Biden-era pro-abortion measures internationally and domestically.”“It even achieved a temporary defunding of Planned Parenthood domestically in legislation,” he said. “The federal government no longer funds research on fetal tissues and defends the conscience rights of health care professionals and others robustly.”Trump also signed an executive order that directed departments and agencies to boost access to and reduce the cost of in vitro fertilization (IVF). The Catholic Church opposes IVF, which results in the destruction of human embryos, ending human lives.

unitedyam January 20, 2026

Participants in a pro-life rally hold signs in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., on June 24, 2023, at a rally marking the first anniversary of the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. | Credit: Joseph Portolano/EWTN News

Jan 20, 2026 / 14:37 pm (CNA).

Members of the pro-life movement have mixed thoughts on the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, noting many wins early into his presidency but a number of shortfalls as time has gone by.

Some wins include defunding Planned Parenthood, walking back some of President Joe Biden’s initiatives, and removing foreign aid funding for organizations that promote abortion. However, a lack of action on chemical abortions and weakened rhetoric surrounding taxpayer-funded abortions are causing concern.

A notable pro-life win was included in the tax overhaul bill signed by Trump in July, which cut off all Medicaid reimbursements for organizations that provide a large number of abortions, such as Planned Parenthood.

Amid funding cuts, nearly 70 Planned Parenthood affiliates shut down. The administration also initially cut off Title X family planning grants from the abortion giant, but those have resumed.

The president pardoned pro-life protesters convicted of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and blocked foreign aid from supporting organizations that promote abortion. He rescinded several policies from the Biden administration, including one that paid Pentagon workers to travel for abortions. He also established strong conscience protections for pro-life doctors.

“Right out the gate, we saw some progress on the pro-life issue,” Kelsey Pritchard, a spokesperson for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America (SBA), told EWTN.

Yet, she cautioned: “We have also not seen progress in the one area that matters the most — and that’s on abortion drugs.”

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. launched a study into the safety of the abortion pill mifepristone in September 2025, but so far no action has been taken to curtail the drug. Rather, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) went in the opposite direction, approving a generic version of mifepristone later that same month.

Pritchard said that move was “the opposite of what they should have done,” and referred to the generic mifepristone as “a new kill pill to increase the number of abortions that are done in this country.”

She said Kennedy’s promised study has “absolutely been moving too slow” and added that there is no confirmation it even began or is taking place. SBA called for FDA Commissioner Marty Makary to be fired following allegations he was “slow-walking the report for political reasons,” she said.

Trump has said abortion should be regulated by the states, but Pritchard warned “those [pro-life] laws can’t be in effect at all, really, when mail-order abortion happens with the abortion drugs.”

“They’re allowing [California Gov.] Gavin Newsom and [New York Gov.] Kathy Hochul and their blue state friends to completely nullify the pro-life laws in states like Texas and Florida,” she said.

Joseph Meaney, a senior ethicist at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, similarly said “the delay in the promised review of the rushed process in which mifepristone was approved as an abortion drug by the FDA has frustrated pro-lifers.”

“When the FDA approved a second generic version of mifepristone, … it highlighted the lack of progress in fighting the leading means of doing abortions in the [United States],” he said.

Trump also began to waver on taxpayer-funded abortions early in 2026, asking Republicans to be “flexible” on the Hyde Amendment amid negotiations on extending health care subsidies for the Affordable Care Act. Trump later unveiled “The Great Healthcare Plan” and said the White House intends to negotiate with Congress to ensure pro-life protections.

Pritchard called taxpayer-funded abortion “a very basic red line” and said it’s “concerning to see Republicans back away from something so basic.”

She warned Republicans to not take pro-life voters for granted in the upcoming midterms, saying “you’ll lose the elections and we won’t have the majority of Congress” without pro-life voters.

“You must remain the pro-life party or you will lose the midterms if you decide to bow to the pro-death Democrat agenda,” Pritchard said.

Meaney said there is “a widespread feeling that the second Trump administration has seemed to deprioritize issues important to the pro-life community,” adding he has “seen calls for pro-life groups to ‘flex their muscles’ and show that they cannot be taken for granted.”

However, he said the shortfalls “should not obscure the fact that the Trump administration has rolled back the Biden-era pro-abortion measures internationally and domestically.”

“It even achieved a temporary defunding of Planned Parenthood domestically in legislation,” he said. “The federal government no longer funds research on fetal tissues and defends the conscience rights of health care professionals and others robustly.”

Trump also signed an executive order that directed departments and agencies to boost access to and reduce the cost of in vitro fertilization (IVF). The Catholic Church opposes IVF, which results in the destruction of human embryos, ending human lives.

Catholics express mixed views on first year of Trump’s second term #Catholic

With Speaker of the House Mike Johnson by his side, President Donald Trump speaks to the press following a House Republican meeting at the U.S. Capitol on May 20, 2025, in Washington, D.C. | Credit: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Jan 20, 2026 / 12:21 pm (CNA).
Catholics are offering mixed reactions to the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, which included domestic policy actions that align with U.S. bishops on gender-related issues, and also tensions over immigration, expansion of the death penalty, and reduced funding for organizations that provide food and basic support to people in need.Trump secured his electoral victory in 2024 with the help of Catholics, who supported him by a double-digit margin, according to exit polls. A Pew Research Center report found that nearly a quarter of Trump’s voters in 2024 were Catholic.Throughout his first year, Trump — who calls himself a nondenominational Christian — has invoked Christianity and created a White House Faith Office. He created a Religious Liberty Commission by executive order in May 2025 and became the first president to issue a proclamation honoring the Catholic feast of the Immaculate Conception in December.Last year, the president also launched the “America Prays” initiative, which encouraged people to dedicate one hour of prayer for the United States and its people in preparation for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 2026.Immigration, poverty, and NGOsJohn White, professor of politics at The Catholic University of America, said the first year of Trump’s second term “challenged Catholics on many levels.”“The brutality of ICE has caused the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to issue an extraordinary statement at the prompting of Pope Leo XIV,” White said, referring to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) issued a special message in November opposing indiscriminate mass deportations, calling for humane treatment, urging meaningful reform, and affirming the compatibility of national security with human dignity.The Trump administration, with JD Vance, the second Catholic vice president in U.S. history, cut billions of dollars in funding to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), which financially damaged several Catholic nonprofits that had received funding. Trump also signed into law historic cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.“The cuts to NGO funding, SNAP, and Medicaid benefits, alongside the huge increases in health care costs, have hurt the poor and middle class at home and around the world,” he said. “Instead of being the good Samaritan, Trump has challenged our Catholic values and narrowed our vision of who we are and what we believe. JD Vance’s interpretation of ‘Ordo Amoris’ of a hierarchy to those whom we love rather than a universal love is a case in point and has been repudiated by Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV,” he said.The cuts aligned federal policy with the administration’s agenda, which included strict immigration enforcement, mass deportations of immigrants who are in the country illegally, and less foreign aid support.Catholic Charities USA was previously receiving more than $100 million annually for migrant services, and the Trump administration cut off those funds. In response, the organization scaled back its services.Since Trump took office, the administration said it has deported more than 600,000 people.Karen Sullivan, director of advocacy for the Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC), which provides legal services to migrants, said she is “very concerned about the way that immigration enforcement has been carried out,” adding her organization is “very concerned that human dignity of all persons [needs to] be respected.”Sullivan said the administration is “enabling their officers to use excessive force as they are taking people into custody” and “denying access to oversight at their detention centers.” She also expressed concern about the administration increasing fees for asylum applications and giving agents more leeway to conduct immigration enforcement at sensitive locations, such as churches, schools, and hospitals.She said the large number of deportations and the increase in expedited removals has “been a strain” on organizations that seek to provide legal help to migrants.CLINIC receives inquiries from people who are facing deportation and also those who fear they may be deported. She said: “The worry and the fear among those people [who may face deportation] makes them seek out assistance and advice even more often.”“The pace of the changes that have been happening in the past year have been very difficult to manage,” she said. “We are having to respond very quickly to changes."Executive actions on genderSusan Hanssen, a history professor at the University of Dallas (a Catholic institution), viewed the first year of Trump’s second term in mostly successful terms.“As Catholics we know that the law educates, and during Trump’s first year in office we witnessed an actual shift in public opinion on the LGBT/transgender ideology due to his asserting the scientific and natural common sense that there are only male and female,” Hanssen said.Trump took executive action to prohibit what he called the “chemical and surgical mutilation” of children, such as hormone therapy and surgical transition. He signed a policy restricting participation of transgender athletes in women’s sports. He legally recognized only two genders, determined by biology: male and female.“His strong executive action on this essential point — domestically in making the executive branch remove its trans-affirming language, the executive department of education stop subverting parental rights over their children, and women’s rights in sports, and (importantly) putting an end to USAID’s [U.S. Agency for International Development] pushing this gender agenda on the countries who need our economic assistance,” she said.“This has led to a genuine public shift, with fewer independent corporations choosing to enforce June as LGBT Pride month on their customer base, fewer DEI programs pushing the gender agenda on hiring, and a shift (especially among young men) towards disapproval of gender transitioning children and even towards disapproval of the legalization of so-called same sex ‘marriage,’” she added. “We will need to see how these executive branch victories will affect judicial and legislative action moving forward.”Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, senior ethicist at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, had a similar view of some of the social changes.“The current administration has focused significant energy on the important task of ‘putting folks on notice,’ so it’s hard to deny, for example, that the misguided medico-pharmaceutical industry that has profited handsomely from exploiting vulnerable youth and other gender dysphoric individuals can no longer miss the loud indicators that these practices will not be able to continue unabated,” he said.Death penaltyTrump signaled a renewed and more aggressive federal capital-punishment policy in 2025, in opposition to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which teaches that the death penalty is “inadmissible.”Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office directing the Justice Department to actively pursue the federal death penalty for serious crimes. He also directed federal prosecutors to seek death sentences in Washington, D.C., homicide cases. His administration lifted a moratorium on executions, reversing a pause in federal executions and following President Joe Biden’s commutations of federal death sentences.Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, then-president of the USCCB, in a Jan. 22, 2025, statement called Trump’s support for expanding the federal death penalty “deeply troubling.” Newly elected USCCB president Archbishop Paul Coakley likewise called for the abolition of the death penalty.

unitedyam January 20, 2026

With Speaker of the House Mike Johnson by his side, President Donald Trump speaks to the press following a House Republican meeting at the U.S. Capitol on May 20, 2025, in Washington, D.C. | Credit: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Jan 20, 2026 / 12:21 pm (CNA).

Catholics are offering mixed reactions to the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, which included domestic policy actions that align with U.S. bishops on gender-related issues, and also tensions over immigration, expansion of the death penalty, and reduced funding for organizations that provide food and basic support to people in need.

Trump secured his electoral victory in 2024 with the help of Catholics, who supported him by a double-digit margin, according to exit polls. A Pew Research Center report found that nearly a quarter of Trump’s voters in 2024 were Catholic.

Throughout his first year, Trump — who calls himself a nondenominational Christian — has invoked Christianity and created a White House Faith Office. He created a Religious Liberty Commission by executive order in May 2025 and became the first president to issue a proclamation honoring the Catholic feast of the Immaculate Conception in December.

Last year, the president also launched the “America Prays” initiative, which encouraged people to dedicate one hour of prayer for the United States and its people in preparation for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 2026.

Immigration, poverty, and NGOs

John White, professor of politics at The Catholic University of America, said the first year of Trump’s second term “challenged Catholics on many levels.”

“The brutality of ICE has caused the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to issue an extraordinary statement at the prompting of Pope Leo XIV,” White said, referring to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) issued a special message in November opposing indiscriminate mass deportations, calling for humane treatment, urging meaningful reform, and affirming the compatibility of national security with human dignity.

The Trump administration, with JD Vance, the second Catholic vice president in U.S. history, cut billions of dollars in funding to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), which financially damaged several Catholic nonprofits that had received funding. Trump also signed into law historic cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

“The cuts to NGO funding, SNAP, and Medicaid benefits, alongside the huge increases in health care costs, have hurt the poor and middle class at home and around the world,” he said. “Instead of being the good Samaritan, Trump has challenged our Catholic values and narrowed our vision of who we are and what we believe. JD Vance’s interpretation of ‘Ordo Amoris’ of a hierarchy to those whom we love rather than a universal love is a case in point and has been repudiated by Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV,” he said.

The cuts aligned federal policy with the administration’s agenda, which included strict immigration enforcement, mass deportations of immigrants who are in the country illegally, and less foreign aid support.

Catholic Charities USA was previously receiving more than $100 million annually for migrant services, and the Trump administration cut off those funds. In response, the organization scaled back its services.

Since Trump took office, the administration said it has deported more than 600,000 people.

Karen Sullivan, director of advocacy for the Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC), which provides legal services to migrants, said she is “very concerned about the way that immigration enforcement has been carried out,” adding her organization is “very concerned that human dignity of all persons [needs to] be respected.”

Sullivan said the administration is “enabling their officers to use excessive force as they are taking people into custody” and “denying access to oversight at their detention centers.” She also expressed concern about the administration increasing fees for asylum applications and giving agents more leeway to conduct immigration enforcement at sensitive locations, such as churches, schools, and hospitals.

She said the large number of deportations and the increase in expedited removals has “been a strain” on organizations that seek to provide legal help to migrants.

CLINIC receives inquiries from people who are facing deportation and also those who fear they may be deported. She said: “The worry and the fear among those people [who may face deportation] makes them seek out assistance and advice even more often.”

“The pace of the changes that have been happening in the past year have been very difficult to manage,” she said. “We are having to respond very quickly to changes."

Executive actions on gender

Susan Hanssen, a history professor at the University of Dallas (a Catholic institution), viewed the first year of Trump’s second term in mostly successful terms.

“As Catholics we know that the law educates, and during Trump’s first year in office we witnessed an actual shift in public opinion on the LGBT/transgender ideology due to his asserting the scientific and natural common sense that there are only male and female,” Hanssen said.

Trump took executive action to prohibit what he called the “chemical and surgical mutilation” of children, such as hormone therapy and surgical transition. He signed a policy restricting participation of transgender athletes in women’s sports. He legally recognized only two genders, determined by biology: male and female.

“His strong executive action on this essential point — domestically in making the executive branch remove its trans-affirming language, the executive department of education stop subverting parental rights over their children, and women’s rights in sports, and (importantly) putting an end to USAID’s [U.S. Agency for International Development] pushing this gender agenda on the countries who need our economic assistance,” she said.

“This has led to a genuine public shift, with fewer independent corporations choosing to enforce June as LGBT Pride month on their customer base, fewer DEI programs pushing the gender agenda on hiring, and a shift (especially among young men) towards disapproval of gender transitioning children and even towards disapproval of the legalization of so-called same sex ‘marriage,’” she added. “We will need to see how these executive branch victories will affect judicial and legislative action moving forward.”

Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, senior ethicist at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, had a similar view of some of the social changes.

“The current administration has focused significant energy on the important task of ‘putting folks on notice,’ so it’s hard to deny, for example, that the misguided medico-pharmaceutical industry that has profited handsomely from exploiting vulnerable youth and other gender dysphoric individuals can no longer miss the loud indicators that these practices will not be able to continue unabated,” he said.

Death penalty

Trump signaled a renewed and more aggressive federal capital-punishment policy in 2025, in opposition to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which teaches that the death penalty is “inadmissible.”

Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office directing the Justice Department to actively pursue the federal death penalty for serious crimes. He also directed federal prosecutors to seek death sentences in Washington, D.C., homicide cases. His administration lifted a moratorium on executions, reversing a pause in federal executions and following President Joe Biden’s commutations of federal death sentences.

Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, then-president of the USCCB, in a Jan. 22, 2025, statement called Trump’s support for expanding the federal death penalty “deeply troubling.” Newly elected USCCB president Archbishop Paul Coakley likewise called for the abolition of the death penalty.

unitedyam January 20, 2026

A request for prayers, from a community, suddenly, living in fear #Catholic –

“ICE was here in Morristown today. Please pray for us.”

BISHOP KEVIN J. SWEENEY

That was the text message I received midday on Sunday, Jan. 11, from Father Duberney Villamizar, the pastor of St. Margaret of Scotland parish in Morristown. I would presume that most readers, by now, would have heard that there was an “Immigration Enforcement Action” in Morristown on the morning of Sunday, Jan. 11, reportedly focused on a laundromat located a few blocks from St. Margaret’s Church, as well as in another area, also within a few blocks of the church. The enforcement activity apparently began while the 8:45 a.m. Mass was being celebrated. By the end of the Mass, word had spread, and some of the parishioners were afraid to leave the church to go home.

I called Father Duberney soon after receiving his text message and was speaking with him at 12:30 p.m. The last morning Mass on a Sunday at St. Margaret’s is the 12:15 p.m. Spanish Mass and on most Sundays, the Church is full for the 12:15 p.m. Mass. Often, there is standing room only in a church that seats 700 people. At 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 11, as another priest was celebrating the Mass, Father Duberney told me that the church was almost empty. People had heard what had happened that morning and were afraid to leave their homes to go to church. The next day, Monday, Father Duberney received a phone call from the local public school, asking for his assistance, because so many students were absent. Parents were afraid to send their children to school, or they were afraid to leave their homes to drop their children off or pick them up from school.

One of the people who was apprehended and detained on Sunday morning, Jan. 11, was a 17-year-old high school senior who was injured in the course of being detained. Fortunately, with the help of the St. Margaret’s community and legal assistance, the young man was released from detention on Thursday afternoon. There were reports that the father of a 6-year-old girl was detained as he left his home to pick up food, and the little girl was left alone and uncared for until neighbors found her as she looked for her father.

In an interview with a local television reporter, Father Duberney made the point that a large majority of the parishioners at St. Margaret’s were immigrants who had come here legally, but they were now living in fear that they could be detained at any moment if they left their homes. In the same report, on Tuesday, Jan. 13, two women who lived in the community were interviewed, but were afraid to give their names or show their faces. They were out for a walk, for exercise, but now realized that they had to cut their walk short because one of them had forgotten to bring her passport with her and was afraid she would be detained if she encountered a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent.

I ask myself, as I believe many are asking themselves, could we have imagined that we would be living in these conditions in the United States of America in 2026? On Monday morning, I received an email from a concerned parishioner expressing his thoughts about what was happening. The following is part of what he wrote: “It’s especially disturbing that ICE would conduct these raids on a Sunday morning within sight of a church, at a time when people are coming to and going from Mass. It’s enough to make one’s blood boil.” Upon reading the message, my first reaction was that I might reply and let the person know that I shared his feelings, but, upon prayer and reflection, I realized I should send a different reply. I hope and pray that we are learning that we need to be attentive to our emotions in times and circumstances such as these. We need to bring all of this to prayer, asking the Lord to guide us in choosing our words and actions.

Some may not wish to hear from me (or others) that we need to remember that the law enforcement agents are doing their jobs. As leaders, in the Church and in the community, we need, at times such as this, to ask (or demand that) our elected leaders and those responsible for law enforcement ensure that agents treat each person with respect for their human rights and human dignity. We also must work with elected leaders at the local, state, and federal levels to ask whether there is not a better way to enforce the law without causing such fear in law-abiding communities.

Father Duberney, along with his parochial vicar, Father Sebastian Munoz Chavarria, the staff, leaders, and volunteers of St. Margaret’s parish are working closely with local leaders in Morristown and beyond to offer assistance, support, and accompaniment to those who are currently living in fear. There is a Catholic Charities sponsored ministry in St. Margaret’s, called “Mary’s Hands,” which, for many years, has been offering material, emotional, and spiritual support to families with small children and, especially to single mothers. The director of “Mary’s Hands” at St. Margaret’s, Theresa Prendergast told me on Sunday, Jan. 18 that, in the course of the week, volunteers had been in phone contact with more than 70 mothers, offering them assistance, as many of those mothers are currently afraid to leave their homes. We, as a diocese, are working together with leaders and elected officials at many levels to express our concerns about the present circumstances in Morristown and in other immigrant communities in our diocese and surrounding areas.

As Christians, especially in moments and circumstances such as these, we must remember the words of Jesus, “You are the salt of the earth … You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lamp stand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Heavenly Father.” (Mt. 5:13-16)

I had the opportunity to celebrate the 8:45 a.m. Spanish Mass at St. Margaret’s on Sunday, Jan. 18. The attendance was less than 50 percent of normal. The Mass was livestreamed, and many parishioners and families were watching and united in prayer, but they surely would have preferred to be at Mass in person and able to receive Communion. It seems that the presence and activity of ICE agents may be abating in Morristown at the moment, but it seems to be increasing in other local communities within our diocese.

I would ask you, dear reader, on behalf of Father Duberney and the people in Morristown and those in other places who are currently living in fear, to respond with me to their request. Yes, to keep them in our prayers and also to pray for our country, for our elected leaders, and for all those facing challenging and difficult circumstances at this time. Let us pray and work for justice and for Peace. For more information and resources to support those in our immigrant communities, you can go to the USCCB (U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops) “You are Not Alone: Justice for Immigrants” website.

BEACON PHOTOS | JOE GIGLI

[See image gallery at beaconnj.org]

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– “ICE was here in Morristown today. Please pray for us.” BISHOP KEVIN J. SWEENEY That was the text message I received midday on Sunday, Jan. 11, from Father Duberney Villamizar, the pastor of St. Margaret of Scotland parish in Morristown. I would presume that most readers, by now, would have heard that there was an “Immigration Enforcement Action” in Morristown on the morning of Sunday, Jan. 11, reportedly focused on a laundromat located a few blocks from St. Margaret’s Church, as well as in another area, also within a few blocks of the church. The enforcement activity apparently began while

unitedyam January 19, 2026

A reading from the Book of Samuel
16:1-13

The LORD said to Samuel:
“How long will you grieve for Saul,
whom I have rejected as king of Israel?
Fill your horn with oil, and be on your way.
I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem,
for I have chosen my king from among his sons.”
But Samuel replied:
“How can I go?
Saul will hear of it and kill me.”
To this the LORD answered:
“Take a heifer along and say,
‘I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.’
Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I myself will tell you what to do;
you are to anoint for me the one I point out to you.”

Samuel did as the LORD had commanded him.
When he entered Bethlehem,
the elders of the city came trembling to meet him and inquired,
“Is your visit peaceful, O seer?”
He replied:
“Yes! I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.
So cleanse yourselves and join me today for the banquet.”
He also had Jesse and his sons cleanse themselves
and invited them to the sacrifice.
As they came, he looked at Eliab and thought,
“Surely the LORD’s anointed is here before him.”
But the LORD said to Samuel:
“Do not judge from his appearance or from his lofty stature,
because I have rejected him.
Not as man sees does God see,
because he sees the appearance
but the LORD looks into the heart.”
Then Jesse called Abinadab and presented him before Samuel,
who said, “The LORD has not chosen him.”
Next Jesse presented Shammah, but Samuel said,
“The LORD has not chosen this one either.”
In the same way Jesse presented seven sons before Samuel,
but Samuel said to Jesse,
“The LORD has not chosen any one of these.”
Then Samuel asked Jesse,
“Are these all the sons you have?”
Jesse replied,
“There is still the youngest, who is tending the sheep.”
Samuel said to Jesse,
“Send for him;
we will not begin the sacrificial banquet until he arrives here.”
Jesse sent and had the young man brought to them.
He was ruddy, a youth handsome to behold
and making a splendid appearance.
The LORD said,
“There–anoint him, for this is he!”
Then Samuel, with the horn of oil in hand,
anointed him in the midst of his brothers;
and from that day on, the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David.
When Samuel took his leave, he went to Ramah.

From the Gospel according to Mark
2:23-28

As Jesus was passing through a field of grain on the sabbath,
his disciples began to make a path while picking the heads of grain.
At this the Pharisees said to him,
“Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?”
He said to them,
“Have you never read what David did
when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry?
How he went into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest
and ate the bread of offering that only the priests could lawfully eat,
and shared it with his companions?”
Then he said to them,
“The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.
That is why the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”

Those who suffer from the affliction of the Pharisees are Christians who put their faith and their religiosity in many commandments: Ah, I must do this, I must do that. Christians with attitudes such as: “But why are you doing this?” “No, you must do it”. “But why?” “Ah, I don’t know, you must do it”. And where is Jesus? A commandment is valid if it comes from Jesus. … But, Father, what is the rule for being Christian with Jesus, and for not becoming Christians without Christ? And what is the “sign” that a person is a Christian with Christ? The rule is simple: only that which leads you to Jesus is valid, only that which comes from Jesus is valid. Jesus is at the centre, the Lord, as he himself says. Does this lead you to Jesus? Go ahead. Does this commandment, this attitude, come from Jesus? Go ahead. But if it does not lead you to Jesus, and if it does not come from Jesus, then it is a bit dangerous. … The rule is: I am a good Christian, I am on the path of the good Christian, if I do what comes from Jesus and if I do what leads me to Jesus, because he is the centre. (Pope Francis, Homily of the Mass at Santa Marta, 7 September 2013)

unitedyam January 18, 2026

A reading from the Book of Samuel
15:16-23

Samuel said to Saul:
“Stop! Let me tell you what the LORD said to me last night.”
Saul replied, “Speak!”
Samuel then said: “Though little in your own esteem,
are you not leader of the tribes of Israel?
The LORD anointed you king of Israel and sent you on a mission, saying,
‘Go and put the sinful Amalekites under a ban of destruction.
Fight against them until you have exterminated them.’
Why then have you disobeyed the LORD?
You have pounced on the spoil, thus displeasing the LORD.”
Saul answered Samuel: “I did indeed obey the LORD
and fulfill the mission on which the LORD sent me.
I have brought back Agag, and I have destroyed Amalek under the ban.
But from the spoil the men took sheep and oxen,
the best of what had been banned,
to sacrifice to the LORD their God in Gilgal.”
But Samuel said:
“Does the LORD so delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as in obedience to the command of the LORD?
Obedience is better than sacrifice,
and submission than the fat of rams.
For a sin like divination is rebellion,
and presumption is the crime of idolatry.
Because you have rejected the command of the LORD,
he, too, has rejected you as ruler.”

From the Gospel according to Mark
2:18-22

The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were accustomed to fast.
People came to Jesus and objected,
“Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast,
but your disciples do not fast?”
Jesus answered them,
“Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?
As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.
But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,
and then they will fast on that day.
No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak.
If he does, its fullness pulls away,
the new from the old, and the tear gets worse.
Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins.
Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins,
and both the wine and the skins are ruined.
Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.”

The Gospel of Mark (…) guides the disciple to recognize Jesus as the Son of God. (…) Today’s Gospel passage touches on the topic of fasting: (…) indeed, it recounts how while Jesus was at table in the house of Levi, the publican, the Pharisees and John the Baptist’s disciples asked why Jesus’ disciples were not fasting as they were. Jesus answered that wedding guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them and that they will fast when the bridegroom is taken away from them (cf. Mk 2: 18, 20). With these words, Christ reveals his identity of Messiah, Israel’s bridegroom, who came for the betrothal with his people. Those who recognize and welcome him are celebrating. However, he will have to be rejected and killed precisely by his own; at that moment, during his Passion and death, the hour of mourning and fasting will come. (Benedict XVI – Angelus, 26 February 2006)

unitedyam January 18, 2026

Obituary: Capuchin Franciscan Father John Aurilia, St. Padre Pio secretary, 85 #Catholic –

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Tuesday, Jan. 20, at 10:30 a.m. in the Sacred Heart Oratory in Wilmington, Del., for Capuchin Franciscan Father John Aurilia, former personal secretary of St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, Italy and a former pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Passaic, N.J., who died on Jan. 13 at St. Francis of Assisi Friary, also in Wilmington. Father Aurilia was 85.

Father Aurilia was considered one of the last direct links to Padre Pio. He also was well known for sharing firsthand accounts of the Italian saint’s mystical gifts and daily life, according to Shekinah Global News.

Born on Dec. 8, 1940, in Montemarano, Italy, Father Aurilia entered the Capuchin Franciscan Order and was ordained a priest in 1966. He spent a month during the first year of his priesthood as the personal secretary of Padre Pio, born Francesco Forgione, ministering from the Capuchin friary in San Giovanni Rotondo in rural Italy.

Father Aurilia witnessed the miracle of the stigmata suffered by St. Pio, like the profuse bleeding in his hands, feet, and left side of his body that corresponded with the wounds suffered by the crucified Christ. This miracle attracted the devotion of faithful around the globe, as well as great fascination and even disbelief from some people, according to a story about Father Aurilia published in The Beacon on Jan. 3, 2013. Padre Pio was canonized a saint in 2002 in Rome.

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“Thousands of people around the world would write to St. Pio for prayers and advice. Hundreds of people would wait in line before his Masses at 4 a.m. It wasn’t St. Pio’s miracles [like the stigmata] that impressed me, but rather his simplicity and humility,” Father Aurilia told the Beacon.

Later, Father Aurilia came to the United States to work with the Italian-speaking community in northern New Jersey, including serving as associate pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Passaic, N.J., from 1974 to 1976, and as pastor of the parish from approximately 2012 to 2015.

Father Aurilia continued his studies of philosophy, earning a doctorate, while serving in various parishes and ministries. He wrote a book, “Dearest Soul: A Spiritual Journey with Padre Pio,” published by Our Sunday Visitor in 2024.

The priest also served in other locations in the Garden State, including the former Don Bosco College, Newton, where he taught ethics; St. Francis Seminary in Lafayette; and Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish in Orange. He also served parishes in New York and North Carolina. Virginia, Florida, and Delaware.

Father Aurilia was predeceased by his sister, Sophia Ricciadi, and his brother, Orazio. He is survived by his sister, Maria Riccio; his brother, Generoso; his nephews, Michael Riccio and Anthony Ricciadi; and his nieces, Emanuela Harting and Nancy Rodriquez, and their spouses and children.

A viewing for Father Aurilia will be held on Tuesday, Jan. 20, beginning in the Sacred Heart Oratory in Wilmington, Del., followed by his 10:30 a.m. Mass of Christian Burial. A repast will be offered at the Francis X. Norton Center after the Mass. Burial will take place on Wednesday, Jan. 21, at 11 a.m. at St. Lawrence Friary in Beacon, N.Y.

– A Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Tuesday, Jan. 20, at 10:30 a.m. in the Sacred Heart Oratory in Wilmington, Del., for Capuchin Franciscan Father John Aurilia, former personal secretary of St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, Italy and a former pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Passaic, N.J., who died on Jan. 13 at St. Francis of Assisi Friary, also in Wilmington. Father Aurilia was 85. Father Aurilia was considered one of the last direct links to Padre Pio. He also was well known for sharing firsthand accounts of the Italian saint’s mystical gifts and daily life, according to

unitedyam January 18, 2026

Obituary: Elizabeth ‘Betsy’ A. Sutherland, Birth Haven founder, 95 #Catholic –

A Mass of Christian Burial was held on Jan. 15 at Our Lady Of The Lake Church in Sparta, N.J., for Elizabeth “Betsy” A. Sutherland, founder of Birth Haven in Newton, N.J., who died on Jan. 11. She was 95.

Many parishes, religious organizations, and individual Catholics in the Paterson Diocese in New Jersey have supported Birth Haven, an independent, nonsectarian, nonprofit organization that provides shelter, support, and education for homeless pregnant women and girls. It was founded in 1985.

Born on March 4, 1930, in Newark, N.J., Sutherland moved with her family to South Orange, N.J., graduating from Our Lady of the Valley High School in Orange, N.J. In 1952, she earned an accounting degree from the College of St. Elizabeth, now St. Elizabeth College, in the Convent Station neighborhood of Morris Township, N.J., and started working at Picatinny Arsenal in Rockaway Township, N.J., that same year. Later, she earned a bachelor’s degree from the former Upsala College in East Orange, N.J., in her 50’s.

In 1952, Sutherland married Gene Sutherland. They settled in Lake Mohawk, a neighborhood between Byram and Sparta townships in New Jersey, where they had met as teens on the boardwalk. They founded Sutherland Poly Box (now Sutherland Packaging) in 1964.

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Sutherland was chairwoman of the Sussex County Chapter of the Fresh Air Fund from the late 1960s into the 1970s while hosting many children; became the first woman member of the Sparta Planning and Zoning Board in 1975; and was the leading force in the founding of Birth Haven in 1985. For decades, she served as chair of Birth Haven, which celebrated its 40th anniversary last year.

Also, Sutherland was an extraordinary minister of the Eucharist at Our Lady of the Lake Parish in Sparta, N.J., and at Andover Nursing Home. She was involved with the Parents’ Association of Rev. Brown Memorial School in Sparta, the Booster Club for Pope John XXIII Regional High School in Sparta, the Sparta Ecumenical Council on Senior Citizen Housing as a founding member, and the Sussex County Arts Council. Sutherland was a trained artist and worked in many mediums, including oil, acrylics, pastels, and charcoal.

Sutherland’s honors include Grand Marshal of the 2018 Sussex County St. Patrick’s Day Parade, Patriots’ Council Tribute to Women Award and Lifetime Achievement Award, Birth Haven Lifetime Achievement Award, Soroptimist International Community Service Award, Pope John XXIII Endowment Humanitarian Award and the Sussex County Chamber of Commerce David Herzenburg Memorial Award on behalf of Birth Haven.

Sutherland was predeceased by her parents, Walter and Katherine Reilly; her husband, Eugene; her son, Peter; and her siblings, Frances Corbin, Peggy McGovern, and Daniel Reilly.

Survivors include her children, Eileen Brupbacher (Josh), Mike (Joanna), Tom (Irene), Dan (Therese), Margaret Keller (Mike), Joe (Anna) and Patrick (Sonali); her grandchildren, Jason Brupbacher, Dan Brupbacher, Jake Sutherland, Natalie Sutherland, Ian Sutherland, Kristin Whitehouse, Brian Sutherland, Brielle Medina, Alex McCaffrey, Michael McCaffrey, Andrew McCaffrey, Kiera Keller, Ella Sutherland, Rish Sutherland, and Lokesh Sutherland; and her great grandchildren, Tory Brupbacher, Will Brupbacher, Jack Brupbacher, Reilly Brupbacher, Quinn Brupbacher, Reid Brupbacher, Amara Edemobi, Rowan Sutherland, Sophia Sudziarski, Mila Whitehouse, Ella Whitehouse, Fern Sutherland, Olive Sutherland, Madie Sutherland, Roy Sutherland, and James McCaffrey.

Please make donations in Elizabeth Sutherland’s honor to Birth Haven, Our Lady of the Lake, or the Peter J. Sutherland Memorial Scholarship Fund.

– A Mass of Christian Burial was held on Jan. 15 at Our Lady Of The Lake Church in Sparta, N.J., for Elizabeth “Betsy” A. Sutherland, founder of Birth Haven in Newton, N.J., who died on Jan. 11. She was 95. Many parishes, religious organizations, and individual Catholics in the Paterson Diocese in New Jersey have supported Birth Haven, an independent, nonsectarian, nonprofit organization that provides shelter, support, and education for homeless pregnant women and girls. It was founded in 1985. Born on March 4, 1930, in Newark, N.J., Sutherland moved with her family to South Orange, N.J., graduating from Our Lady of

Catholic women discuss beauty, difficulty, redemptive nature of Church’s teachings on sexuality #Catholic

Keynote speakers at “The Beauty of Truth: Navigating Society Today as a Catholic Woman” conference, held Jan. 9-10, 2026, in Houston (left to right): Erika Bachiochi, Mary Eberstadt, Angela Franks, Pia de Solenni, and Leah Sargeant. | Credit: Photo courtesy of the University of St. Thomas

Jan 18, 2026 / 10:26 am (CNA).
This past week, nearly a quarter of U.S. states sued the federal government for defining biological sex as binary, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments for and against legally allowing males to compete against females in sports, and a Vatican official called surrogacy a “new form of colonialism” that commodifies women and their children.These are just the latest legal and cultural effects of a “mass cultural confusion” surrounding the meaning and purpose of the human body, and particularly women’s bodies, according to Leah Jacobson, program coordinator of the Catholic Women’s and Gender Studies Program at the University of St. Thomas in Houston.On Jan. 9–10, the program sponsored a symposium titled “The Beauty of Truth: Navigating Society Today as a Catholic Woman,” which brought together a group of Catholic women who have used their gifts of intellect and faith to serve as what Jacobson calls an “antidote” to the “chaos and confusion” of the cultural moment.The speakers presented on a wide range of topics concerned with the beauty, truth, and necessity of the Church’s teachings on human sexuality, while also acknowledging how difficult living according to those teachings can sometimes be.‘Each of these acts is an act of human subtraction’In one of the first talks, writer Mary Eberstadt argued that the question “Who am I?” became harder to answer due to the widespread use of the birth control pill, which has led to huge increases in abortion, divorce, fatherlessness, single parenthood, and childlessness. “Each of these acts is an act of human subtraction,” Eberstadt said. “I’m not trying to make a point about morality, but arithmetic.”“The number of people we can call our own” became smaller, she said. While she acknowledged that not everyone has been affected equally, “members of our species share a collective environment. Just as toxic waste affects everyone," she said, the reduction in the number of human connections “amounts to a massive disturbance to the human ecosystem,” leading to a crisis of human identity.This reduction in the number of people in an individual's life, she argued, resulted in widespread confusion over gender identity and the meaning and purpose of the body.Eberstadt also attributed the decline in religiosity to the smaller number of human connections modern people have.“The sexual revolution subtracted the number of role models,” she said. “Many children have no siblings, no cousins, no aunts or uncles, no father; yet that is how humans conduct social learning.”“Without children, adults are less likely to go to church,” she said. “Without birth, we lose knowledge of the transcendent. Without an earthly father, it is hard to grasp the paradigm of a heavenly father.”‘A love deficit’“Living without God is not liberating people,” she continued. “It’s tearing some individuals apart, making people miserable and lonely.”When the sexual revolution made sex "recreational and not procreative, what it produced above all is a love deficit,” Eberstadt said.At the same time, secularization produced “troubled, disconnected souls drifting through society without gravity, shattering the ability to answer ‘Who am I?’”“The Church is the answer to the love deficit because Church teachings about who we are and what we’re here for are true,” she said.She concluded with a final note on hope, saying “it is easy to feel embattled, but we must never lose sight of the faces of the sexual revolution’s victims,” she said, “who are sending up primal screams for a world more ordered than many of today’s people now know; more ordered to mercy, to community and redemption.”The Church’s teachings were ’truly beautiful’ but 'very, very hard to live'Erika Bachiochi, a legal scholar and fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center who has taught a class for the graduate program, shared her experience as a mother of seven who tried to live according to the Church’s “difficult” teachings.As her children began to arrive at “a breakneck pace” and each pregnancy was “a bit of a crucible,” Bachiochi said being a mother was “very hard” for her, partly due to wounds from her youth (among other troubles, her own mother had been married and divorced three times), and partly because of a lack of community. Echoing Eberstadt’s “arithmetic” problem, Bachiochi described having very few examples of Catholic family life and a very small support system.Bachiochi said she believes God heals us from our wounds through our “particular vocations,” however.Of motherhood, she said: “I think God really healed me through being faithful to teachings that I found quite hard, but truly beautiful. I was intellectually convinced by them and found them spiritually beautiful, but found them to be very, very hard to live.” “Motherhood has served to heal me profoundly," she said, encouraging young mothers to have faith that though it might be difficult now, there is an “amazing future” awaiting them. “It’s really an incredible gift that Church has given me … the gift of obedience,” she said. She also said by God’s grace, she was given an “excellent husband” and has found that “just as the Church promises, that leaning into motherhood, into the little things, the daily needs, the constant requests for my attention, has truly been a school of virtue.” The Catholic Women’s and Gender Studies Program is a new part of the Nesti Center for Faith and Culture at the University of St. Thomas, a recognized Catholic cultural center of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Culture and Education.

unitedyam January 18, 2026

Jan 18, 2026 / 10:26 am (CNA).

This past week, nearly a quarter of U.S. states sued the federal government for defining biological sex as binary, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments for and against legally allowing males to compete against females in sports, and a Vatican official called surrogacy a “new form of colonialism” that commodifies women and their children.

These are just the latest legal and cultural effects of a “mass cultural confusion” surrounding the meaning and purpose of the human body, and particularly women’s bodies, according to Leah Jacobson, program coordinator of the Catholic Women’s and Gender Studies Program at the University of St. Thomas in Houston.

On Jan. 9–10, the program sponsored a symposium titled “The Beauty of Truth: Navigating Society Today as a Catholic Woman,” which brought together a group of Catholic women who have used their gifts of intellect and faith to serve as what Jacobson calls an “antidote” to the “chaos and confusion” of the cultural moment.

The speakers presented on a wide range of topics concerned with the beauty, truth, and necessity of the Church’s teachings on human sexuality, while also acknowledging how difficult living according to those teachings can sometimes be.

‘Each of these acts is an act of human subtraction’

In one of the first talks, writer Mary Eberstadt argued that the question “Who am I?” became harder to answer due to the widespread use of the birth control pill, which has led to huge increases in abortion, divorce, fatherlessness, single parenthood, and childlessness.

“Each of these acts is an act of human subtraction,” Eberstadt said. “I’m not trying to make a point about morality, but arithmetic.”

“The number of people we can call our own” became smaller, she said.

While she acknowledged that not everyone has been affected equally, “members of our species share a collective environment. Just as toxic waste affects everyone," she said, the reduction in the number of human connections “amounts to a massive disturbance to the human ecosystem,” leading to a crisis of human identity.

This reduction in the number of people in an individual's life, she argued, resulted in widespread confusion over gender identity and the meaning and purpose of the body.

Eberstadt also attributed the decline in religiosity to the smaller number of human connections modern people have.

“The sexual revolution subtracted the number of role models,” she said. “Many children have no siblings, no cousins, no aunts or uncles, no father; yet that is how humans conduct social learning.”

“Without children, adults are less likely to go to church,” she said. “Without birth, we lose knowledge of the transcendent. Without an earthly father, it is hard to grasp the paradigm of a heavenly father.”

‘A love deficit’

“Living without God is not liberating people,” she continued. “It’s tearing some individuals apart, making people miserable and lonely.”

When the sexual revolution made sex "recreational and not procreative, what it produced above all is a love deficit,” Eberstadt said.

At the same time, secularization produced “troubled, disconnected souls drifting through society without gravity, shattering the ability to answer ‘Who am I?’”

“The Church is the answer to the love deficit because Church teachings about who we are and what we’re here for are true,” she said.

She concluded with a final note on hope, saying “it is easy to feel embattled, but we must never lose sight of the faces of the sexual revolution’s victims,” she said, “who are sending up primal screams for a world more ordered than many of today’s people now know; more ordered to mercy, to community and redemption.”

The Church’s teachings were ’truly beautiful’ but 'very, very hard to live'

Erika Bachiochi, a legal scholar and fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center who has taught a class for the graduate program, shared her experience as a mother of seven who tried to live according to the Church’s “difficult” teachings.

As her children began to arrive at “a breakneck pace” and each pregnancy was “a bit of a crucible,” Bachiochi said being a mother was “very hard” for her, partly due to wounds from her youth (among other troubles, her own mother had been married and divorced three times), and partly because of a lack of community.

Echoing Eberstadt’s “arithmetic” problem, Bachiochi described having very few examples of Catholic family life and a very small support system.

Bachiochi said she believes God heals us from our wounds through our “particular vocations,” however.

Of motherhood, she said: “I think God really healed me through being faithful to teachings that I found quite hard, but truly beautiful. I was intellectually convinced by them and found them spiritually beautiful, but found them to be very, very hard to live.”

“Motherhood has served to heal me profoundly," she said, encouraging young mothers to have faith that though it might be difficult now, there is an “amazing future” awaiting them.

“It’s really an incredible gift that Church has given me … the gift of obedience,” she said.

She also said by God’s grace, she was given an “excellent husband” and has found that “just as the Church promises, that leaning into motherhood, into the little things, the daily needs, the constant requests for my attention, has truly been a school of virtue.”

The Catholic Women’s and Gender Studies Program is a new part of the Nesti Center for Faith and Culture at the University of St. Thomas, a recognized Catholic cultural center of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Culture and Education.

Virginia bishops condemn proposed abortion amendment: ‘We will fight’ #Catholic

Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington and Bishop Barry Knestout of Richmond. | Credit: Katie Yoder/EWTN News; photo courtesy of the Archdiocese of Washington

Jan 18, 2026 / 08:00 am (CNA).
The Virginia Catholic bishops on Friday spoke out against an abortion amendment that would remove state protections for unborn children, calling the measure “extreme.”The Virginia General Assembly passed a proposed amendment that would add a fundamental right to abortion to Virginia’s constitution, if voters approve it this November.The proposed abortion amendment would establish a “fundamental right to reproductive freedom, including the ability to make and carry out decisions relating to one’s own prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, contraception, abortion care, miscarriage management, and fertility care.”Bishops Michael Burbidge of Arlington and Barry Knestout of Richmond called the move “shocking to the conscience,” noting that lawmakers quickly moved the proposed amendment through both chambers in the early days of its 60-day session.“The extreme abortion amendment, which will proceed to a referendum for voters to decide later this year, would go far beyond even what Roe v. Wade previously allowed,” the bishops said in the Jan. 16 statement. “It would enshrine virtually unlimited abortion at any stage of pregnancy, with no age restriction.”The bishops cautioned that the amendment would “severely jeopardize Virginia’s parental consent law, health and safety standards for women, conscience protections for health care providers, and restrictions on taxpayer-funded abortions.”“Most tragically of all, the extreme abortion amendment provides no protections whatsoever for preborn children,” the bishops continued.“Most importantly, human life is sacred,” the bishops said. “The lives of vulnerable mothers and their preborn children must always be welcomed, cared for, and protected.”“Parental rights and the health and well-being of minors must be defended,” the bishops said. “So too must religious liberty. No one should ever be forced to pay for or participate in an abortion. Health and safety should be enhanced, not diminished.”In addition, the bishops urged Virginia voters to oppose a measure that would repeal a 2006 provision defining marriage as between one man and one woman. The bishops also expressed support for a measure that would restore voting rights to those who have completed prison sentences.“We will be deeply engaged in the work of helping to educate voters on these proposed amendments and will fight the extreme abortion amendment with maximum determination,” the bishops concluded.The joint statement followed a statement by Burbidge, who on Jan. 15 urged Catholics to “to pray, fast, and advocate for the cause of life” amid the “looming threat” of the abortion amendment.“Prayer opens our hearts to God’s wisdom and strengthens us to act with courage and charity,” Burbidge wrote. “Fasting makes reparation for sin and reminds us that true freedom is found not in self-indulgence but in self-gift. Advocacy allows us to bring our convictions into the public square with respect, clarity, and perseverance.”“Our response as Catholics — and as citizens committed to justice — must be rooted in faith, truth, and love,” he continued.Burbidge also reminded Catholics of the mercy of the Church. “It is essential to reaffirm a truth that lies at the very center of the Church’s pro-life mission: The Church is a loving mother,” Burbidge continued. “To any man or woman who carries the pain, regret, or sorrow of participation in abortion, know this clearly — you are not alone, and God awaits you with love and mercy. The Church desires to walk with you on a journey of healing and hope.”“May we together pray fervently, act courageously, and serve generously,” Burbidge said. “May our witness help build a culture in Virginia — and beyond — that recognizes every human life as sacred, every person as beloved, and every moment as an opportunity to choose life.”

unitedyam January 18, 2026

Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington and Bishop Barry Knestout of Richmond. | Credit: Katie Yoder/EWTN News; photo courtesy of the Archdiocese of Washington

Jan 18, 2026 / 08:00 am (CNA).

The Virginia Catholic bishops on Friday spoke out against an abortion amendment that would remove state protections for unborn children, calling the measure “extreme.”

The Virginia General Assembly passed a proposed amendment that would add a fundamental right to abortion to Virginia’s constitution, if voters approve it this November.

The proposed abortion amendment would establish a “fundamental right to reproductive freedom, including the ability to make and carry out decisions relating to one’s own prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, contraception, abortion care, miscarriage management, and fertility care.”

Bishops Michael Burbidge of Arlington and Barry Knestout of Richmond called the move “shocking to the conscience,” noting that lawmakers quickly moved the proposed amendment through both chambers in the early days of its 60-day session.

“The extreme abortion amendment, which will proceed to a referendum for voters to decide later this year, would go far beyond even what Roe v. Wade previously allowed,” the bishops said in the Jan. 16 statement. “It would enshrine virtually unlimited abortion at any stage of pregnancy, with no age restriction.”

The bishops cautioned that the amendment would “severely jeopardize Virginia’s parental consent law, health and safety standards for women, conscience protections for health care providers, and restrictions on taxpayer-funded abortions.”

“Most tragically of all, the extreme abortion amendment provides no protections whatsoever for preborn children,” the bishops continued.

“Most importantly, human life is sacred,” the bishops said. “The lives of vulnerable mothers and their preborn children must always be welcomed, cared for, and protected.”

“Parental rights and the health and well-being of minors must be defended,” the bishops said. “So too must religious liberty. No one should ever be forced to pay for or participate in an abortion. Health and safety should be enhanced, not diminished.”

In addition, the bishops urged Virginia voters to oppose a measure that would repeal a 2006 provision defining marriage as between one man and one woman. The bishops also expressed support for a measure that would restore voting rights to those who have completed prison sentences.

“We will be deeply engaged in the work of helping to educate voters on these proposed amendments and will fight the extreme abortion amendment with maximum determination,” the bishops concluded.

The joint statement followed a statement by Burbidge, who on Jan. 15 urged Catholics to “to pray, fast, and advocate for the cause of life” amid the “looming threat” of the abortion amendment.

“Prayer opens our hearts to God’s wisdom and strengthens us to act with courage and charity,” Burbidge wrote. “Fasting makes reparation for sin and reminds us that true freedom is found not in self-indulgence but in self-gift. Advocacy allows us to bring our convictions into the public square with respect, clarity, and perseverance.”

“Our response as Catholics — and as citizens committed to justice — must be rooted in faith, truth, and love,” he continued.

Burbidge also reminded Catholics of the mercy of the Church.

“It is essential to reaffirm a truth that lies at the very center of the Church’s pro-life mission: The Church is a loving mother,” Burbidge continued. “To any man or woman who carries the pain, regret, or sorrow of participation in abortion, know this clearly — you are not alone, and God awaits you with love and mercy. The Church desires to walk with you on a journey of healing and hope.”

“May we together pray fervently, act courageously, and serve generously,” Burbidge said. “May our witness help build a culture in Virginia — and beyond — that recognizes every human life as sacred, every person as beloved, and every moment as an opportunity to choose life.”

How one woman’s unexpected pregnancy launched a pro-life group helping women in need #Catholic

A woman receives a baby shower at her local church through Embrace Grace. | Credit: Embrace Grace

Jan 18, 2026 / 06:00 am (CNA).
Amy Ford was 19 years old when she found herself with an unplanned pregnancy. Scared and thinking her life and dreams were over, she attempted to get an abortion but was unable to go through with it. Ford and the baby’s father turned to their church for support and received none. The experience led her to create Embrace Grace, a nonprofit that provides support and community through local churches for pregnant mothers in need.The story behind the ministryFord told EWTN News that she thought “my life was over, my dreams were over, that my parents were going to hate me.” She said she thought she would end up homeless. “The father of the baby felt the same way and we just thought we could have an abortion and maybe that’s a quick fix and we’ll just deal with the consequences of a broken heart later. And even though we grew up knowing abortion was wrong, we just kind of went into this mode of trying not to feel anything,” Ford recalled.So, she went to an abortion clinic. As the nurses explained what they were going to do during the procedure, Ford began to hyperventilate and passed out. She was told she was “too emotionally distraught” to make a decision and that she could go back to the abortion clinic another day.As she walked into the waiting room, she told the baby’s father that she was still pregnant. At that moment, the two decided they would keep the child. The high school sweethearts knew they wanted to get married one day; they just didn’t expect to have a child before marriage.The two went to an evangelical pastor whom they knew personally to ask him if he could marry them.“He said, ‘No, I’m sorry, because you sinned I will not bless this marriage,’” Ford shared.The couple found another pastor to marry them and got married when Ford was 16 weeks pregnant. They tried going back to their church after that but it was “the elephant in the room” — others changed how they interacted with them and they decided to stop attending church for a period of time.Ford and her husband welcomed their son — who is now 27 years old and also works in the pro-life movement — and have been married for 27 years, welcoming three more children after their firstborn.Amy Ford, founder of Embrace Grace. | Credit: Embrace GraceHelping womenLooking back at her experience, Ford felt called to help women who found themselves in these situations, not sure where to go, and weren’t aware of the resources available to them. So she started a small group at her church for women who were experiencing an unexpected pregnancy.Ford admitted that back then she didn’t know what a pregnancy center was or what the pro-life movement was.“If someone would have said, ‘I work in the pro-life movement,’ I would have assumed that meant picketing because that’s the only thing the media shows,” she admitted. “I didn’t know what a pregnancy center was even when I started Embrace Grace, the group. I didn’t know anything about it. So, I never thought, ‘I’m starting a pro-life group.’ That wasn’t even on my mind. I just wanted to start a small group for women that have unexpected pregnancies.”In 2008 Ford hosted her first group, which was made up of three women who met at a local church in the Dallas-Forth Worth area. After meeting for 12 weeks as a group, “they didn’t even seem like the same person by the end of it,” Ford recalled.“They had completely transformed. They were empowered as women to be the moms that God created them to be.”After the first group, Ford held another Embrace Grace session, and another and another. With each passing session, more and more young women were attending and slowly more and more churches were getting involved.Today, Embrace Grace is in over 1,200 churches across the country — mostly in evangelical, Baptist, and Catholic churches. A woman who joins an Embrace Grace group goes through a 12-week curriculum that aims to help her experience healing and remind her of who God made her to be as a daughter of God and a mother. Additionally, the church hosting the group throws each woman a baby shower.A woman receives a baby shower at her local church through Embrace Grace. | Credit: Embrace GraceEmbrace Grace also has two other programs: Embrace Life and Embrace Legacy. Embrace Life is a 20-week program that teaches the women more practical skills in terms of parenting, the newborn phase and postpartum, how to manage finances, and more. Embrace Legacy is a 12-week program aimed at new or single fathers.Ford hopes that Embrace Grace serves as a tool of “courage and the bridge to get them actually going to church and raising their kids in the church and being a part of a spiritual family.”The nondenominational nonprofit also works in partnership with local pregnancy centers that are within a 30-mile radius of a church that hosts an Embrace Grace group by giving them what they call “Love Boxes” to give women who find out they are pregnant and are seeking support. The Love Box contains a onesie with the words “Best Gift Ever,” a book called “A Bump in Life” — which contains 20 testimonies from women who chose life — a journal, a handwritten letter encouraging a new mother, and an invitation to join the local Embrace Grace group.Love Boxes are given to women at pregnancy centers after they find out they’re pregnant and are in search of support. | Credit: Embrace Grace“Because most pregnancy centers have sonogram machines, that means they’re medical, which means they have HIPAA laws that they have to abide by. So, they can’t just give the church the girl’s name,” Ford explained. “So these Love Boxes are kind of a way, another touch, for the mom to find out more … and that there’s a church that wants to walk alongside you.”Embrace Grace recently reached a milestone by giving out 150,000 Love Boxes since its launch in 2018.Looking ahead, Ford’s goal is to be in 23,400 churches. If that number sounds specific, that’s because it is. By using different tools, Ford and her team concluded that if they want every woman who finds herself in an unplanned pregnancy to be able to turn to a church for support, Embrace Grace needs to be in “23,400 churches strategically placed around the United States … so that no mom would ever have to walk alone.”“We are just putting it out there, trying to partner with as many churches as possible, so that we can make that happen,” she said. “That is our big dream. That that’s what the world would look like — that no mom would have to walk alone and that she would have a church to turn to in her local area.”“I believe in leading Embrace Grace, we have front-row seats to miracles.”

unitedyam January 18, 2026

A woman receives a baby shower at her local church through Embrace Grace. | Credit: Embrace Grace

Jan 18, 2026 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Amy Ford was 19 years old when she found herself with an unplanned pregnancy. Scared and thinking her life and dreams were over, she attempted to get an abortion but was unable to go through with it.

Ford and the baby’s father turned to their church for support and received none. The experience led her to create Embrace Grace, a nonprofit that provides support and community through local churches for pregnant mothers in need.

The story behind the ministry

Ford told EWTN News that she thought “my life was over, my dreams were over, that my parents were going to hate me.” She said she thought she would end up homeless.

“The father of the baby felt the same way and we just thought we could have an abortion and maybe that’s a quick fix and we’ll just deal with the consequences of a broken heart later. And even though we grew up knowing abortion was wrong, we just kind of went into this mode of trying not to feel anything,” Ford recalled.

So, she went to an abortion clinic. As the nurses explained what they were going to do during the procedure, Ford began to hyperventilate and passed out. She was told she was “too emotionally distraught” to make a decision and that she could go back to the abortion clinic another day.

As she walked into the waiting room, she told the baby’s father that she was still pregnant. At that moment, the two decided they would keep the child. The high school sweethearts knew they wanted to get married one day; they just didn’t expect to have a child before marriage.

The two went to an evangelical pastor whom they knew personally to ask him if he could marry them.

“He said, ‘No, I’m sorry, because you sinned I will not bless this marriage,’” Ford shared.

The couple found another pastor to marry them and got married when Ford was 16 weeks pregnant. They tried going back to their church after that but it was “the elephant in the room” — others changed how they interacted with them and they decided to stop attending church for a period of time.

Ford and her husband welcomed their son — who is now 27 years old and also works in the pro-life movement — and have been married for 27 years, welcoming three more children after their firstborn.

Amy Ford, founder of Embrace Grace. | Credit: Embrace Grace

Helping women

Looking back at her experience, Ford felt called to help women who found themselves in these situations, not sure where to go, and weren’t aware of the resources available to them. So she started a small group at her church for women who were experiencing an unexpected pregnancy.

Ford admitted that back then she didn’t know what a pregnancy center was or what the pro-life movement was.

“If someone would have said, ‘I work in the pro-life movement,’ I would have assumed that meant picketing because that’s the only thing the media shows,” she admitted. “I didn’t know what a pregnancy center was even when I started Embrace Grace, the group. I didn’t know anything about it. So, I never thought, ‘I’m starting a pro-life group.’ That wasn’t even on my mind. I just wanted to start a small group for women that have unexpected pregnancies.”

In 2008 Ford hosted her first group, which was made up of three women who met at a local church in the Dallas-Forth Worth area. After meeting for 12 weeks as a group, “they didn’t even seem like the same person by the end of it,” Ford recalled.

“They had completely transformed. They were empowered as women to be the moms that God created them to be.”

After the first group, Ford held another Embrace Grace session, and another and another. With each passing session, more and more young women were attending and slowly more and more churches were getting involved.

Today, Embrace Grace is in over 1,200 churches across the country — mostly in evangelical, Baptist, and Catholic churches.

A woman who joins an Embrace Grace group goes through a 12-week curriculum that aims to help her experience healing and remind her of who God made her to be as a daughter of God and a mother. Additionally, the church hosting the group throws each woman a baby shower.

A woman receives a baby shower at her local church through Embrace Grace. | Credit: Embrace Grace

Embrace Grace also has two other programs: Embrace Life and Embrace Legacy.

Embrace Life is a 20-week program that teaches the women more practical skills in terms of parenting, the newborn phase and postpartum, how to manage finances, and more. Embrace Legacy is a 12-week program aimed at new or single fathers.

Ford hopes that Embrace Grace serves as a tool of “courage and the bridge to get them actually going to church and raising their kids in the church and being a part of a spiritual family.”

The nondenominational nonprofit also works in partnership with local pregnancy centers that are within a 30-mile radius of a church that hosts an Embrace Grace group by giving them what they call “Love Boxes” to give women who find out they are pregnant and are seeking support. The Love Box contains a onesie with the words “Best Gift Ever,” a book called “A Bump in Life” — which contains 20 testimonies from women who chose life — a journal, a handwritten letter encouraging a new mother, and an invitation to join the local Embrace Grace group.

Love Boxes are given to women at pregnancy centers after they find out they’re pregnant and are in search of support. | Credit: Embrace Grace

“Because most pregnancy centers have sonogram machines, that means they’re medical, which means they have HIPAA laws that they have to abide by. So, they can’t just give the church the girl’s name,” Ford explained. “So these Love Boxes are kind of a way, another touch, for the mom to find out more … and that there’s a church that wants to walk alongside you.”

Embrace Grace recently reached a milestone by giving out 150,000 Love Boxes since its launch in 2018.

Looking ahead, Ford’s goal is to be in 23,400 churches. If that number sounds specific, that’s because it is. By using different tools, Ford and her team concluded that if they want every woman who finds herself in an unplanned pregnancy to be able to turn to a church for support, Embrace Grace needs to be in “23,400 churches strategically placed around the United States … so that no mom would ever have to walk alone.”

“We are just putting it out there, trying to partner with as many churches as possible, so that we can make that happen,” she said. “That is our big dream. That that’s what the world would look like — that no mom would have to walk alone and that she would have a church to turn to in her local area.”

“I believe in leading Embrace Grace, we have front-row seats to miracles.”

unitedyam January 17, 2026

A reading from the Book of Isaiah
49:3, 5-6

The LORD said to me: You are my servant,
Israel, through whom I show my glory.
Now the LORD has spoken
who formed me as his servant from the womb,
that Jacob may be brought back to him
and Israel gathered to him;
and I am made glorious in the sight of the LORD,
and my God is now my strength!
It is too little, the LORD says, for you to be my servant,
to raise up the tribes of Jacob,
and restore the survivors of Israel;
I will make you a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.

A reading from the Letter to the Corinthians
1:1-3

Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,
and Sosthenes our brother,
to the church of God that is in Corinth,
to you who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be holy,
with all those everywhere who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ.

From the Gospel according to John
1:29-34

John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said,
“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.
He is the one of whom I said,
‘A man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me
because he existed before me.’
I did not know him,
but the reason why I came baptizing with water
was that he might be made known to Israel.”
John testified further, saying,
“I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from heaven
and remain upon him.
I did not know him,
but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me,
‘On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain,
he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’
Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God.”

The Baptist cannot hold back the urgent desire to bear witness to Jesus and declares: “I have seen and have borne witness” (v. 34). John saw something shocking, that is, the beloved Son of God in solidarity with sinners; and the Holy Spirit made him understand this unheard-of novelty, a true reversal. In fact, while in all religions it is man who offers and sacrifices something to God, in the event Jesus is God Who offers His Son for the salvation of humanity. John manifests his astonishment and his consent to this newness brought by Jesus, through a meaningful expression that we repeat each time in the Mass: “Behold the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world!” (v. 29). The testimony of John the Baptist invites us to start out again and again on our journey of faith: to start afresh from Jesus Christ, the Lamb full of mercy that the Father gave for us. Let us be surprised once again by God’s choice to be on our side, to show solidarity with us sinners, and to save the world from evil by taking it on fully. Let us learn from John the Baptist not to assume that we already know Jesus, that we already know everything about Him (cf. v. 31). This is not so. Let us pause with the Gospel, perhaps even contemplating an icon of Christ, a “Holy face”. Let us contemplate with our eyes and yet more with our hearts; and let us allow ourselves to be instructed by the Holy Spirit, Who tells us inside: It is He! (Pope Francis – Angelus, 19 January 2020)

From Baptist pastor to Catholic priest: A unique journey to priesthood #Catholic

Father Travis Moger on the day of his ordination alongside his son, Mark; wife, Amelia; mother; and daughter, Maddy. | Credit: EWTN News screenshot

Jan 17, 2026 / 11:00 am (CNA).
Father Travis Moger has been a Catholic priest for just nine months, and his journey to ordination was a unique one. A former Baptist pastor and Navy chaplain, he was ordained in May 2025 in the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia, seven years after he, his wife, and his son entered the Catholic Church.“I didn’t come into the Church in order to be a priest; God used prayer to draw me to the Catholic Church,” Moger told EWTN News reporter Julia Convery.During a military campaign as a Navy chaplain, Moger; his wife, Amelia; and his son, Mark, all separately began to feel the call toward Catholicism. While Moger was away, his wife had begun attending RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, which is now called OCIA — the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults).Father Thomas Falkenthal, Moger’s former Navy chaplain supervisor, witnessed the seeds being planted in Moger’s heart.“He was connecting with the liturgy. The Catholic Mass was certainly far from his tradition. I could tell it was touching him,” Falkenthal shared with Convery.“He didn’t realize it, but all the way back home in the United States his wife, Amelia, was going to RCIA and preparing to join the Catholic Church. So when he came home from that deployment, they both had something to share with each other. Now I think that’s an amazing movement of the Spirit to keep that couple so close," Falkenthal said.“It was definitely a God thing definitely to draw her towards the Catholic Church,” Moger added.After a five-year journey of study and conversion, Moger, his wife, and his son were received into the Catholic Church on Easter Sunday 2018.“I entered the Church not knowing if there would be a path to the priesthood for me,” Moger shared.Bishop Mark Brennan of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston explained that Pope Francis eventually granted Moger a dispensation from the usual requirement of celibacy for the Catholic priesthood, allowing him to be ordained a priest. The bishop also pointed out that he believes having a desire for a family is a trait that makes a good priest.“When I was a vocations director, I always looked for would this man make a good husband and father? If he would, then he’d probably make a good priest,” Brennan said.Moger also highlighted this trait as one that allows him to have a unique perspective into his now-spiritual fatherhood.“There’s something about being able to bring a child into the world and then nurture them and you’re fully invested in another person. And I think that experience does inform the way you look at spiritual fatherhood and the way you look at God’s fatherhood,” Moger said.Moger’s son, Mark, told EWTN News that his father’s newly found spiritual fatherhood has brought a “deeper spirituality” into their family.Maddy Cordle, Moger’s daughter, added: “I’ve had the privilege of watching his conversion from the beginning — same with my mom and my brother —and I just got to watch how it brought them so much closer to each other in their marriage, together as a family, but also really, really strengthened their relationship with God.”“To him there’s nothing more important than the impoverished and the cast aside. That’s his charism and you’ll see it throughout his ministry,” Mark added.Despite his unconventional journey to the priesthood, Moger sees it as the result of saying “yes” to God.“God honors it when we start moving in the direction that he’s leading us, trusting that he’s going to work it out,” he said.

unitedyam January 17, 2026

Father Travis Moger on the day of his ordination alongside his son, Mark; wife, Amelia; mother; and daughter, Maddy. | Credit: EWTN News screenshot

Jan 17, 2026 / 11:00 am (CNA).

Father Travis Moger has been a Catholic priest for just nine months, and his journey to ordination was a unique one. A former Baptist pastor and Navy chaplain, he was ordained in May 2025 in the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia, seven years after he, his wife, and his son entered the Catholic Church.

“I didn’t come into the Church in order to be a priest; God used prayer to draw me to the Catholic Church,” Moger told EWTN News reporter Julia Convery.

During a military campaign as a Navy chaplain, Moger; his wife, Amelia; and his son, Mark, all separately began to feel the call toward Catholicism. While Moger was away, his wife had begun attending RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, which is now called OCIA — the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults).

Father Thomas Falkenthal, Moger’s former Navy chaplain supervisor, witnessed the seeds being planted in Moger’s heart.

“He was connecting with the liturgy. The Catholic Mass was certainly far from his tradition. I could tell it was touching him,” Falkenthal shared with Convery.

“He didn’t realize it, but all the way back home in the United States his wife, Amelia, was going to RCIA and preparing to join the Catholic Church. So when he came home from that deployment, they both had something to share with each other. Now I think that’s an amazing movement of the Spirit to keep that couple so close," Falkenthal said.

“It was definitely a God thing definitely to draw her towards the Catholic Church,” Moger added.

After a five-year journey of study and conversion, Moger, his wife, and his son were received into the Catholic Church on Easter Sunday 2018.

“I entered the Church not knowing if there would be a path to the priesthood for me,” Moger shared.

Bishop Mark Brennan of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston explained that Pope Francis eventually granted Moger a dispensation from the usual requirement of celibacy for the Catholic priesthood, allowing him to be ordained a priest.

The bishop also pointed out that he believes having a desire for a family is a trait that makes a good priest.

“When I was a vocations director, I always looked for would this man make a good husband and father? If he would, then he’d probably make a good priest,” Brennan said.

Moger also highlighted this trait as one that allows him to have a unique perspective into his now-spiritual fatherhood.

“There’s something about being able to bring a child into the world and then nurture them and you’re fully invested in another person. And I think that experience does inform the way you look at spiritual fatherhood and the way you look at God’s fatherhood,” Moger said.

Moger’s son, Mark, told EWTN News that his father’s newly found spiritual fatherhood has brought a “deeper spirituality” into their family.

Maddy Cordle, Moger’s daughter, added: “I’ve had the privilege of watching his conversion from the beginning — same with my mom and my brother —and I just got to watch how it brought them so much closer to each other in their marriage, together as a family, but also really, really strengthened their relationship with God.”

“To him there’s nothing more important than the impoverished and the cast aside. That’s his charism and you’ll see it throughout his ministry,” Mark added.

Despite his unconventional journey to the priesthood, Moger sees it as the result of saying “yes” to God.

“God honors it when we start moving in the direction that he’s leading us, trusting that he’s going to work it out,” he said.

unitedyam January 17, 2026

Scene from the 2024 National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis. | Credit: “EWTN News in Depth”/Screenshot

Jan 17, 2026 / 09:00 am (CNA).

Catholic clergy and lay people reported a stronger devotion to the Eucharist after the National Eucharistic Revival.

This week, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) released the report for the National Eucharistic Revival Impact Study. Done in collaboration with the National Eucharistic Congress corporation and Vinea Research, the study surveyed nearly 2,500 lay Catholics, clergy, and Church staff during the summer and fall of 2025.

The online survey asked questions about revival promotion, participation, and impact one year after the initial National Eucharistic Pilgrimage and Congress. The price tag of the Eucharistic congress was more than $10 million, organizers said.

“Never in my tenure of working for the Church have I seen such deep impact,” said Jason Shanks, president of the National Eucharistic Congress, in a press release. “The fruits of the National Eucharistic Revival are real, lasting, and will continue to shape the life of the American Church for years to come.”

The revival, sponsored by the USCCB, launched in June 2022 with the mission to “renew the Church by enkindling a living relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ in the holy Eucharist.”

The three-year initiative, which concluded in 2025, included the 10th National Eucharistic Congress and the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage in 2024 and 2025.

In a Jan. 16 interview on “EWTN News In Depth,” Bishop Andrew Cozzens, chair of the National Eucharistic Congress, said he was “extremely heartened” by the results of the study.

“I had a sense that the revival had a big impact on people and especially on our Church,” he said. “But it was great to see that confirmed by the data and to see some of the actual statistics.”

Impact on clergy members

Of 249 clergy members of priests and deacons surveyed, 49% reported feeling “more encouraged’ since the revival began. Specifically, 38% said they feel “somewhat more encouraged” and 11% said they feel “significantly more encouraged.”

Nearly half, 48%, said they feel “more comfortable encouraging others to share their faith.”

The research found the revival “refocused clergy on the Eucharist,” with the majority reporting changes to their pastoral approach since 2021. The report found that 70% of clergy reported a stronger “focus on the Eucharist in teaching [and] ministry,” and 69% said they have a stronger “emphasis on evangelization and outreach.”

Clergy also reported personal advancements with their relationship with the Eucharist. More than half (51%) said their “time spent in personal adoration” is stronger now than it was in 2021.

“I was so grateful when I saw that priests found it encouraging. They were encouraged by this opportunity to focus on the Eucharist,” Cozzens said. “I know so much more preaching and encouragement about Eucharistic devotion happened in our parishes during this time.”

“If our priests are encouraged and they’re drawing closer to Jesus in the Eucharist, that’s going to help our people so much, and it’s going to help our Church so much,” he said.

Impact on lay Catholics

Among 1,758 of the lay Catholics surveyed, 874 were labeled as “national participants” who attended the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, National Eucharistic Congress, or both.

“We wanted Catholics to come together and to experience more deeply a profound love for Jesus in the Eucharist, and then from that, to be sent out on mission,” Cozzens said. The study “showed that anyone who attended one of our National Eucharistic Pilgrimages or National Eucharistic Congress said they were 50% more likely to do outreach, to share their faith, to do some act of service.”

“I think the thing that most stood out to me is that we accomplished our goal,” he said. “Our goal was really to bring about a missionary conversion of Catholics.”

Another 425 of lay Catholics were “local participants” who took part in local processions, small groups, and revival-specific Holy Hours. Most (83%) of the laypeople surveyed who participated at the national or local level said their “overall level of faith” is stronger now than it was in 2021.

The other 459 laypeople surveyed were “nonparticipating contacts” who did not participate in any revival activities. Most came from the USCCB’s newsletter distribution list and they were aware of the revival but not involved. Even though they did not directly participate, 79% reported their “overall level of faith” was stronger following the revival.

When asked to compare their faith practices with those in 2021, lay Catholics overwhelmingly reported praying more, attending adoration more frequently, and going to confession more often.

The research took a deeper look at how lay Catholics’ faith evolved, examining the changes in the level of “importance” of faith-related activities over the last three years. The greatest growth in importance was observed in volunteering and spending time in Eucharistic adoration.

In 2021, 57% of lay national participants reported “spending quiet time in Eucharistic adoration” was “very important” or “extremely important” to them. Following the revival, the number had jumped to 76%. There was also an increase for local participants with a rise from 65% to 82%. Among those who did not directly participate, there was the largest increase from 49% to 69%.

Continuing to spread the ‘fire’

The bishops have confirmed that the country’s second National Eucharistic Congress of the 21st century will take place in 2029.

“As we continue to strengthen the core of our faith and those people who are committed, and they begin to draw closer to Jesus from Eucharist, what the study showed is that they get on fire, and then they start to spread that fire,” he said.

“It’s the way Jesus worked himself. Jesus certainly did preach to crowds, but most of the time he spent with his 12 apostles and with those people who were with him. Because if he could convert and strengthen them, then they could go out and convert the world,” he said.

“I think that’s really the goal of the whole Eucharistic movement that we have now is strengthening those people so that they can become the witnesses that we’re called to be,” he said.

CUA professor launches AI marketplace in line with Catholic social teaching #Catholic

Credit: David Gyung/Shutterstock

Jan 17, 2026 / 06:00 am (CNA).
An artificial intelligence (AI) marketplace launched by a business professor at The Catholic University of America seeks to offer products and services in a venue consistent with the social teachings of the Catholic Church — it is called Almma AI.Lucas Wall, who teaches finance at the university and has led several entrepreneurial ventures, began building Almma AI in mid-2023. The marketplace facilitates transactions for AI-related products, allowing people to upload their creations to be purchased or, in some cases, used for no charge.The types of products that can be offered on the marketplace include Large Language Models (LLMs) — similar to ChatGPT and Grok — along with AI prompts, personas, assistants, agents, and plugins.Although other marketplaces exist, Wall told EWTN News that Almma AI is designed to ensure the average person can “benefit from this new revolution that is coming” by selling or purchasing products in the marketplace.“With most technological revolutions and changes, there are only a handful of people who make fortunes,” Wall said.Almma’s mission statement is “AI profits for all,” and Wall said it is meant to “help people monetize their knowledge.” He said the marketplace can “build bridges across cultures” because people anywhere can access it, and “allows people to make solutions for their neighbors or for their parishes.”Almma does not exclusively offer Catholic-related products, but it does block the sale of anything that is immoral or could provoke sin, which Wall said was another major contrast with other AI marketplaces.“I want to be part of the group of people who help innovation meet morality,” he said.Among the examples of problems within larger AI companies, he noted, are the development of artificial romantic chatbots and the creation of erotica and artificial pornographic images and videos. He also expressed concern about AI consultation in end-of-life care.“I refuse to believe we don’t have enough imagination as a Catholic community and the courage to build something better,” Wall said.AI and Catholic social teachingWall said the development of Almma AI was “responding to the call of Pope Francis that he very clearly outlined in [the 2025 doctrinal note] Antiqua et Nova” and also took inspiration from Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum.In Antiqua et Nova, the Vatican holds that the development of AI should spur us to “a renewed appreciation of all that is human.” It teaches that AI should be used to serve the common good, promote human development, and not simply be used for individual or corporate gain.That note builds on the framework provided in Rerum Novarum, which expressed Catholic social teaching in the wake of the industrial revolution. At the time, Pope Leo XIII emphasized a need to seek the common good and safeguard the dignity of work when many laborers faced poor working conditions.“Wages ought not to be insufficient to support a frugal and well-behaved wage-earner,” Leo XIII writes. “... If a workman’s wages be sufficient to enable him comfortably to support himself, his wife, and his children, he will find it easy, if he be a sensible man, to practice thrift, and he will not fail, by cutting down expenses, to put by some little savings and thus secure a modest source of income.”Wall said Almma AI follows those guidelines by “trying to help people earn a decent living and keeping their dignity.” He added: “If you want to monetize a skill, we have the tools for you.”When the current pontiff Leo XIV chose the name “Leo,” he said he did so to honor Leo XIII, who “addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution.” He chose the name, in part, because AI developments pose “new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice, and labor,” Leo XIV explained.Leo XIV has spoken at length about AI. This includes warnings about anti-human ideologies, the threat to human connections and interactions, and concern about the displacement of workers. However, he has also highlighted the potential benefits of AI if used to advance humanity and uphold the dignity of the human person.Wall welcomed continued guidance from the Vatican, saying the Church has “moral foundations … beyond what anyone in secular society can point at.” He expressed hope that Leo XIV will author a document similar to Rerum Novarum that addresses the changes AI is bringing about to the global economy“I pray daily for it,” Wall said.

unitedyam January 17, 2026

Credit: David Gyung/Shutterstock

Jan 17, 2026 / 06:00 am (CNA).

An artificial intelligence (AI) marketplace launched by a business professor at The Catholic University of America seeks to offer products and services in a venue consistent with the social teachings of the Catholic Church — it is called Almma AI.

Lucas Wall, who teaches finance at the university and has led several entrepreneurial ventures, began building Almma AI in mid-2023. The marketplace facilitates transactions for AI-related products, allowing people to upload their creations to be purchased or, in some cases, used for no charge.

The types of products that can be offered on the marketplace include Large Language Models (LLMs) — similar to ChatGPT and Grok — along with AI prompts, personas, assistants, agents, and plugins.

Although other marketplaces exist, Wall told EWTN News that Almma AI is designed to ensure the average person can “benefit from this new revolution that is coming” by selling or purchasing products in the marketplace.

“With most technological revolutions and changes, there are only a handful of people who make fortunes,” Wall said.

Almma’s mission statement is “AI profits for all,” and Wall said it is meant to “help people monetize their knowledge.” He said the marketplace can “build bridges across cultures” because people anywhere can access it, and “allows people to make solutions for their neighbors or for their parishes.”

Almma does not exclusively offer Catholic-related products, but it does block the sale of anything that is immoral or could provoke sin, which Wall said was another major contrast with other AI marketplaces.

“I want to be part of the group of people who help innovation meet morality,” he said.

Among the examples of problems within larger AI companies, he noted, are the development of artificial romantic chatbots and the creation of erotica and artificial pornographic images and videos. He also expressed concern about AI consultation in end-of-life care.

“I refuse to believe we don’t have enough imagination as a Catholic community and the courage to build something better,” Wall said.

AI and Catholic social teaching

Wall said the development of Almma AI was “responding to the call of Pope Francis that he very clearly outlined in [the 2025 doctrinal note] Antiqua et Nova” and also took inspiration from Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum.

In Antiqua et Nova, the Vatican holds that the development of AI should spur us to “a renewed appreciation of all that is human.” It teaches that AI should be used to serve the common good, promote human development, and not simply be used for individual or corporate gain.

That note builds on the framework provided in Rerum Novarum, which expressed Catholic social teaching in the wake of the industrial revolution. At the time, Pope Leo XIII emphasized a need to seek the common good and safeguard the dignity of work when many laborers faced poor working conditions.

“Wages ought not to be insufficient to support a frugal and well-behaved wage-earner,” Leo XIII writes. “… If a workman’s wages be sufficient to enable him comfortably to support himself, his wife, and his children, he will find it easy, if he be a sensible man, to practice thrift, and he will not fail, by cutting down expenses, to put by some little savings and thus secure a modest source of income.”

Wall said Almma AI follows those guidelines by “trying to help people earn a decent living and keeping their dignity.” He added: “If you want to monetize a skill, we have the tools for you.”

When the current pontiff Leo XIV chose the name “Leo,” he said he did so to honor Leo XIII, who “addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution.” He chose the name, in part, because AI developments pose “new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice, and labor,” Leo XIV explained.

Leo XIV has spoken at length about AI. This includes warnings about anti-human ideologies, the threat to human connections and interactions, and concern about the displacement of workers. However, he has also highlighted the potential benefits of AI if used to advance humanity and uphold the dignity of the human person.

Wall welcomed continued guidance from the Vatican, saying the Church has “moral foundations … beyond what anyone in secular society can point at.” He expressed hope that Leo XIV will author a document similar to Rerum Novarum that addresses the changes AI is bringing about to the global economy

“I pray daily for it,” Wall said.

unitedyam January 16, 2026

A reading from the Book of Samuel
9:1-4, 17-19; 10:1

There was a stalwart man from Benjamin named Kish,
who was the son of Abiel, son of Zeror,
son of Becorath, son of Aphiah, a Benjaminite.
He had a son named Saul, who was a handsome young man.
There was no other child of Israel more handsome than Saul;
he stood head and shoulders above the people.

Now the asses of Saul’s father, Kish, had wandered off.
Kish said to his son Saul, “Take one of the servants with you
and go out and hunt for the asses.”
Accordingly they went through the hill country of Ephraim,
and through the land of Shalishah.
Not finding them there,
they continued through the land of Shaalim without success.
They also went through the land of Benjamin,
but they failed to find the animals.

When Samuel caught sight of Saul, the LORD assured him,
“This is the man of whom I told you; he is to govern my people.”

Saul met Samuel in the gateway and said,
“Please tell me where the seer lives.”
Samuel answered Saul: “I am the seer.
Go up ahead of me to the high place and eat with me today.
In the morning, before dismissing you,
I will tell you whatever you wish.”

Then, from a flask he had with him, Samuel poured oil on Saul’s head;
he also kissed him, saying:
“The LORD anoints you commander over his heritage.
You are to govern the LORD’s people Israel,
and to save them from the grasp of their enemies roundabout.

“This will be the sign for you
that the LORD has anointed you commander over his heritage.”

From the Gospel according to Mark
2:13-17

Jesus went out along the sea.
All the crowd came to him and he taught them.
As he passed by, he saw Levi, son of Alphaeus,
sitting at the customs post.
Jesus said to him, “Follow me.”
And he got up and followed Jesus.
While he was at table in his house,
many tax collectors and sinners sat with Jesus and his disciples;
for there were many who followed him.
Some scribes who were Pharisees saw that Jesus was eating with sinners
and tax collectors and said to his disciples,
“Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
Jesus heard this and said to them,
“Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do.
I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.”

Like Matthew the tax collector, each of us trusts in the grace of the Lord regardless of our sins. We are all sinners, we have all sinned. By calling Matthew, Jesus shows sinners that he does not look at their past, at their social status, at external conventions, but rather, he opens a new future to them. I once heard a beautiful saying: “There is no saint without a past nor a sinner without a future”. This is what Jesus does. There is no saint without a past nor a sinner without a future. It is enough to respond to the call with a humble and sincere heart. The Church is not a community of perfect people, but of disciples on a journey, who follow the Lord because they know they are sinners and in need of his pardon. Thus, Christian life is a school of humility which opens us to grace. Such behaviour is not understood by those who have the arrogance to believe they are “just” and to believe they are better than others. Hubris and pride do not allow one to recognize him- or herself as in need of salvation, but rather prevent one from seeing the merciful face of God and from acting with mercy. (…) We all need to be nourished by the mercy of God, for it is from this source that our salvation flows. (Pope Francis – General Audience, 13 April 2016)

Vice President Vance, House Speaker Johnson to speak at 2026 March for Life #Catholic

U.S. Vice President JD Vance. | Credit: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Jan 16, 2026 / 16:40 pm (CNA).
Vice President JD Vance is scheduled to speak at the 2026 March for Life Rally in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 23.Vance, who is the nation’s second Catholic vice president, will join Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, among other speakers at the 53rd annual pro-life event, organizers said.“Vice President Vance is grateful to the tens of thousands of Americans who travel to the National Mall each year to speak out in support of life and looks forward to joining them for the second consecutive year,” a spokesperson for the vice president told EWTN News.Vance will be attending and speaking at the event for the second time as vice president. He spoke at the March for Life in 2025 where he delivered his first public remarks in the leadership position.Addressing the crowd at the 2025 march, Vance said becoming a father helped to solidify his convictions that “an unborn life is worthy of protection.”“You remind us that the March for Life is not a single event that takes place on a frigid January day,” he said to the crowd. “The March for Life is the work of the pro-life movement every day from this point forward,” he said.“We will be back next year,” he said.While President Donald Trump will not be attending the 2026 March for Life in person, he told EWTN News’ White House correspondent Owen Jensen on Jan. 16 he will address the crowd through a “beautiful” prerecorded message.“And they’re going to play it,” he said. “And those are great people. I want to tell you they’re great people,” Trump said about attendees.While the president will deliver the virtual message, the Trump administration is receiving backlash from pro-life activists following his claim that Republicans need to be “ flexible” with the Hyde Amendment and the reinstatement of funds to Planned Parenthood.When asked about the Hyde Amendment, Trump said “you’re going to hear about it” in the message. Vance is set to deliver his remarks at the pre-march rally at 11 a.m. on Jan. 23. The March for Life is scheduled to begin after the rally.

unitedyam January 16, 2026

U.S. Vice President JD Vance. | Credit: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Jan 16, 2026 / 16:40 pm (CNA).

Vice President JD Vance is scheduled to speak at the 2026 March for Life Rally in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 23.

Vance, who is the nation’s second Catholic vice president, will join Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, among other speakers at the 53rd annual pro-life event, organizers said.

“Vice President Vance is grateful to the tens of thousands of Americans who travel to the National Mall each year to speak out in support of life and looks forward to joining them for the second consecutive year,” a spokesperson for the vice president told EWTN News.

Vance will be attending and speaking at the event for the second time as vice president. He spoke at the March for Life in 2025 where he delivered his first public remarks in the leadership position.

Addressing the crowd at the 2025 march, Vance said becoming a father helped to solidify his convictions that “an unborn life is worthy of protection.”

“You remind us that the March for Life is not a single event that takes place on a frigid January day,” he said to the crowd. “The March for Life is the work of the pro-life movement every day from this point forward,” he said.

“We will be back next year,” he said.

While President Donald Trump will not be attending the 2026 March for Life in person, he told EWTN News’ White House correspondent Owen Jensen on Jan. 16 he will address the crowd through a “beautiful” prerecorded message.

“And they’re going to play it,” he said. “And those are great people. I want to tell you they’re great people,” Trump said about attendees.

While the president will deliver the virtual message, the Trump administration is receiving backlash from pro-life activists following his claim that Republicans need to be “ flexible” with the Hyde Amendment and the reinstatement of funds to Planned Parenthood.

When asked about the Hyde Amendment, Trump said “you’re going to hear about it” in the message.

Vance is set to deliver his remarks at the pre-march rally at 11 a.m. on Jan. 23. The March for Life is scheduled to begin after the rally.

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