Priests process into Lucas Oil Stadium on Nov. 22, 2025, for the concluding Mass in Lucas Oil Stadium at the National Catholic Youth Conference in Indianapolis. / Credit: Tessa Gervasini/CNA
Indianapolis, Indiana, Nov 24, 2025 / 10:35 am (CNA).
The 2025 National Catholic Youth Conferences (NCYC) concluded with a nighttime Mass drawing around 16,000 teenagers.
After three days of prayer, community, sacraments, and a conversation with Pope Leo XIV, young Catholics packed into Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis to end the conference with Mass on Nov. 22. Archbishop Nelson Pérez told CNA it was “beautiful” to celebrate the Mass alongside 25 of his brother bishops and more than 240 priests.
“It’s the Church in its splendor,” Pérez said. “Tonight, we experienced the Church in its splendor.”
The final Mass was celebrated on the Saturday before the solemnity of Christ the King. In his homily, Pérez said: “When I think about a king, I think about palaces and big thrones and power and authority.”
“But when Jesus talks about king it’s … different,” Pérez said. “His throne is a cross. His crown is not made of gold and gems. It’s made of thorns. He doesn’t wear fancy, beautiful, priceless rings on his hands. He has nails.”
The “very mystery of the life and the death of Christ, the King, and all of our lives is actually a dying and a rising — dying to sin, dying to the parts of our humanity that might be warped and wounded, and rising to new life to renewal of our soul.”
Then “that process goes over and over over and over and over again until we die in Christ for the last time and then rise with him,” Pérez said. “How blessed, how filled with hope we are.”
Pérez reminds teens: ‘Christ loves you just as you are’
Pérez concluded his homily by tying his message back to what Pope Leo told the teens in his digital encounter with them on Nov. 21. Pérez told the teenagers Pope Leo spoke with them because he loves them.
Pope Leo has “gathered with youth all over the place, especially this summer, [during] the Jubilee of Youth,” Pérez said. The pope’s “message is profound, powerful, and simple at the same time: ‘Christ loves you just as you are.’”
Pérez reminded the crowd to listen to what the pope said to them. “Think of your closest friends. If they were hurting, you would walk with them, listen, and stay close,” the pope said. “Our relation with Jesus is similar. He knows when life feels heavy, even when we do not feel his presence, our faith tells us he is there.”
“To entrust our struggles to Jesus, we have to spend time in prayer … We can speak honestly about what’s in our hearts,” Pérez said, quoting the pope. “That is why daily moments of silence are so important, whether through adoration, reading Scripture, or simply talking to him.”
“‘Little by little, we learn to hear his voice, both from within and through the people he sends us. As you grow closer to Jesus,’ he said to us, ‘Do not fear what he may ask of you. If he challenges you to make changes in your life, it’s always because he wants to give you greater joy and freedom. God is never outdone in generosity.’”
“The pope’s digital visit was what made this NCYC epic, really epic and different from any other,” Pérez told CNA. The success was from “the excitement of our youth to welcome the Holy Father” and Pope Leo’s “generosity and willingness” to speak with them.
Being a part of the conference and seeing so many young Catholics at Mass together made Pérez feel “hopeful,” he said. “In a world and a country that’s so divided right now and violent at times, after this, I’m just so full of hope. It’s almost like we’re going to be OK.”
“It’s incredible to see the young Church alive,” Pérez said. “It’s such a beautiful, beautiful gathering.”
Pope calls treatment of migrants in U.S. ‘extremely disrespectful’ #Catholic –
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Insisting that the dignity of all people, including immigrants, must be respected, Pope Leo XIV asked U.S. Catholics and “people of goodwill” to read and listen to the U.S. bishops’ recent pastoral message on the topic.
“When people are living good lives — and many of them (in the United States) for 10, 15, 20 years — to treat them in a way that is extremely disrespectful, to say the least,” is not acceptable, the pope said Nov. 18.
Meeting reporters outside his villa in Castel Gandolfo, Pope Leo was asked what he thought of the “special pastoral message on immigration” approved overwhelmingly by members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Nov. 12.
“We are disturbed when we see among our people a climate of fear and anxiety around questions of profiling and immigration enforcement,” the bishops said. “We are saddened by the state of contemporary debate and the vilification of immigrants. We are concerned about the conditions in detention centers and the lack of access to pastoral care. We lament that some immigrants in the United States have arbitrarily lost their legal status.”
The bishops also said, “We oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people,” and they prayed “for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence, whether directed at immigrants or at law enforcement.”
Pope Leo told reporters in Castel Gandolfo that the pastoral message is “a very important statement. I would invite especially all Catholics, but people of goodwill, to listen carefully to what they said.”
“No one has said that the United States should have open borders,” the pope said. “I think every country has a right to determine who and how and when people enter.”
However, he said, in enforcing immigration policy “we have to look for ways of treating people humanely, treating people with the dignity that they have.”
“If people are in the United States illegally, there are ways to treat that,” he said. “There are courts. There’s a system of justice,” but the system has “a lot of problems” that should be addressed.
Pope Leo also was asked about what he does in Castel Gandolfo.
Tuesdays traditionally are the one day a week when popes have no official audiences or public events. When his schedule permits, Pope Leo goes to Castel Gandolfo late Monday afternoon and returns to the Vatican Tuesday night.
Pope Leo said he uses the day for “a bit of sport, a bit of reading, a bit of work,” specifying that at Castel Gandolfo he plays tennis and swims in the pool.
Having a break during the week “helps a lot,” the pope said. And it is important to take care of the body as well as the soul.
As he prepares for his first trip outside Italy as pope — a visit to Turkey and Lebanon Nov. 27-Dec. 2 — he also was asked when he thought he would get back to Peru where he served as a missionary and as a bishop.
Pope Leo said he likes to travel, but the events of the Jubilee year kept his 2025 calendar full. The challenge for 2026 will be finding a way to schedule the trips he would like to make, including to the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal, Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico and then a trip to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru, “of course.”
– VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Insisting that the dignity of all people, including immigrants, must be respected, Pope Leo XIV asked U.S. Catholics and “people of goodwill” to read and listen to the U.S. bishops’ recent pastoral message on the topic. “When people are living good lives — and many of them (in the United States) for 10, 15, 20 years — to treat them in a way that is extremely disrespectful, to say the least,” is not acceptable, the pope said Nov. 18. Meeting reporters outside his villa in Castel Gandolfo, Pope Leo was asked what he thought of the
Father Gary Graf walks down a rural road during his trek across America in support of immigrants on Friday, Oct. 17, 2025. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Father Gary Graf
CNA Staff, Nov 24, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).
After a month and a half of walking an average of 17 miles a day, 67-year-old Father Gary Graf said he is starting to get “a little pain in one shin,” but his broken ribs are “getting much better.”
On Oct. 6, Graf, a Catholic priest from Chicago, began a journey on foot from Pope Leo XIV’s childhood home in Dolton, Illinois, to New York City to bring attention to the plight of immigrants amid the sometimes “inhumane” ways the Trump administration is treating them during its immigration enforcement actions.
He hopes to arrive at the Statue of Liberty on Ellis Island, where his own great-grandparents entered the country as immigrants, by Dec. 2.
Father Gary Graf speaks to a fellow American at Red Horse Tavern in Pleasant Gap, Pennsylvania, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. Credit: Photo courtesy of Father Gary Graf
A few weeks ago, when visiting a parish in Indiana, he was invited to ride a horse. He fell off as it galloped and broke several ribs, which led him to take one day off to recover. That day, friends walked in his stead.
Graf, the pastor of the mostly Hispanic Our Lady of the Heights Catholic Church in Chicago Heights and a longtime member of Priests for Justice for Immigrants, has committed his life to helping immigrants. Ordained in 1984, he spent five years as a priest in Mexico serving a people “with whom I fell deeply in love.”
He told CNA that after initially feeling helpless watching the raids taking place against his beloved community in his hometown of Chicago, he “felt a call that was directly from above” to start walking.
Father Gary Graf poses before a sunrise near Fremont, Ohio, Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025. Credit: Photo courtesy of Father Gary Graf
Within weeks, he was on the road. He first spoke to an old friend about his idea, who immediately connected him with Lauren Foley, the head of a public relations firm. She “immediately embraced the idea,” and between her help and that of some “young people who understand social media,” a website as well as social media accounts were set up to chronicle his journey and to share the stories of immigrant families.
Of the immigrants on whose behalf he is walking, Graf said: “I look to help people who get up every single morning to work and raise their families. If I can do this small gesture on their behalf, what a blessing it is, what a privilege.”
Asked about the most profound insight he has gained thus far, Graf said his long days walking through the wide expanse of rural America have helped him understand better the ways of people who did not grow up in a multicultural city like he did.
“We have to reverently appreciate and try to connect with those whose lives we’re passing through,” he said.
As he has spoken with people in diners along his path, Graf has developed “a greater sensitivity,” discovering that “there’s not a lot of animosity against the immigrant.”
Many of the people he has met simply do not know any, he said.
Along the way, he has also experienced unity with Christians from other denominations, as well as with those without religious faith, who all care about the humane treatment of human beings.
“I have seen so much goodness,” he said. “This has brought so many of us together: people from many different faith traditions, or none. This is an opportunity given to us.”
During his quiet walks through rural farmland, he has marveled at the amount of labor it took to build the many roads, bridges, and overpasses he has seen.
“I’m sure the hands of many immigrants helped build these things,” he reflected.
Graf said he is delighted that both the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Pope Leo XIV addressed the immigration enforcement situation in the past week.
The U.S. bishops issued a special message during its Fall Plenary Assembly two weeks ago, calling for “a meaningful reform of our nation’s immigration laws and procedures.” The bishops argued that “human dignity and national security are not in conflict. Both are possible if people of goodwill work together.”
The pope echoed the bishops’ message. On Nov. 18, he acknowledged to reporters that “every country has a right to determine who and how and when people enter.”
“But when people are living good lives, and many of them for 10, 15, 20 years, to treat them in a way that is extremely disrespectful, to say the least — and there’s been some violence, unfortunately — I think that the bishops have been very clear in what they said.”
“I think that I would just invite all people in the United States to listen to them,” the pope said.
“Both the pope and the bishops used the word ‘indiscriminate’ to talk about the way people are being singled out and aggressively having their wrists zip-tied behind their backs as their faces are pushed to the ground in front of their children,” Graf said.
“It is indeed indiscriminate. This reflects dishonesty on the administration’s part,” he said. “They said they were going after the ‘worst of the worst,’ criminals, but this isn’t the case, at least in Chicago. They’re grabbing people first and asking questions later.”
“The violent way many of these people are being treated is amoral and un-American,” he said.
Like the pope and the American bishops, Graf said he hopes the federal government will establish a more humane immigration system that respects the dignity of immigrants as well as the rule of law and the country’s right to regulate its borders.
“I am not a politician,” he said. “My job is to mediate, to speak up, in God’s name, in the united name of the Church. But can we look for a way for those who are fulfilling their responsibilities; for them to one day receive the rights of citizens?”
The priest, who appeared on “EWTN News Nightly” in October, said he has been “impressed by the media” and is grateful his message is being spread.
“If we don’t hear the whole truth, the incredible ignorance and darkness we live in can paralyze us, and keep us from doing what we ought to do,” he said.
In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came and laid siege to Jerusalem. The Lord handed over to him Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and some of the vessels of the temple of God; he carried them off to the land of Shinar, and placed the vessels in the temple treasury of his god.
The king told Ashpenaz, his chief chamberlain, to bring in some of the children of Israel of royal blood and of the nobility, young men without any defect, handsome, intelligent and wise, quick to learn, and prudent in judgment, such as could take their place in the king’s palace; they were to be taught the language and literature of the Chaldeans; after three years’ training they were to enter the king’s service. The king allotted them a daily portion of food and wine from the royal table. Among these were men of Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.
But Daniel was resolved not to defile himself with the king’s food or wine; so he begged the chief chamberlain to spare him this defilement. Though God had given Daniel the favor and sympathy of the chief chamberlain, he nevertheless said to Daniel, "I am afraid of my lord the king; it is he who allotted your food and drink. If he sees that you look wretched by comparison with the other young men of your age, you will endanger my life with the king." Then Daniel said to the steward whom the chief chamberlain had put in charge of Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, "Please test your servants for ten days. Give us vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then see how we look in comparison with the other young men who eat from the royal table, and treat your servants according to what you see." He acceded to this request, and tested them for ten days; after ten days they looked healthier and better fed than any of the young men who ate from the royal table. So the steward continued to take away the food and wine they were to receive, and gave them vegetables. To these four young men God gave knowledge and proficiency in all literature and science, and to Daniel the understanding of all visions and dreams. At the end of the time the king had specified for their preparation, the chief chamberlain brought them before Nebuchadnezzar. When the king had spoken with all of them, none was found equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; and so they entered the king’s service. In any question of wisdom or prudence which the king put to them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his kingdom.
From the Gospel according to Luke 21:1-4
When Jesus looked up he saw some wealthy people putting their offerings into the treasury and he noticed a poor widow putting in two small coins. He said, "I tell you truly, this poor widow put in more than all the rest; for those others have all made offerings from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has offered her whole livelihood."
The works of mercy are the most secure and profitable bank where we can entrust the treasure of our existence, because there, as the Gospel teaches us, with “two small copper coins” even the poor widow becomes the richest person in the world (…).
To understand what he means by this, we can think of a mother who embraces her children: is she not the most beautiful and richest person in the world? Or a boyfriend and girlfriend, when they are together: do they not feel like king and queen? We could think of many other examples.
Therefore, wherever we are, in the family, parish, school or workplace, we should try not to miss any opportunity to act with love. This is the type of vigilance that Jesus asks of us: to grow in the habit of being attentive, ready and sensitive to one another, just as he is with us in every moment. (Pope Leo XIV, Angelus, 10 August 2025)
Pastor installed at N.J.’s oldest parish in West Milford #Catholic –
St. Joseph Parish in West Milford, New Jersey’s oldest Catholic faith community, marked three major milestones during a Mass with Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney on Nov. 16: the parish’s 260th birthday, the 120th anniversary of its current church, and the installation of its new pastor, Father Jakub Grzybowski.
The rural 300-family Passaic County parish lives that long legacy of faith through liturgical, spiritual, and religious-formation activities, social justice outreaches, and improvement and historical preservation projects. St. Joseph’s is also the oldest Catholic parish in the Paterson Diocese in New Jersey.
St. Joseph Church was filled as Bishop Sweeney served as the principal celebrant and homilist at the Mass. Many priests concelebrated, including Father Grzybowski and Father Zig Peplowski, pastor of St. Cecilia Parish in Rockaway, N.J., and a former pastor of the parish. A diverse congregation of current and former members of St. Joseph’s attended the liturgy.
Bishop Sweeney also installed Grzybowski as pastor during the Mass. The priest was named the parish’s administrator in 2019 and its pastor on March 19 this year.
“Becoming pastor of St. Joseph’s fills my heart with profound gratitude and humility,” the Polish-born Father Grzybowski said. “What stands out about this parish is its beauty and its quiet, prayerful atmosphere. I love this church, its history, and the way it holds the memories of so many generations. Although it has suffered fires and undergone significant changes during various periods of reformation, the people today are working with tremendous dedication to restore the original character of the oldest church in New Jersey. Their love for this place is visible everywhere, and it inspires me daily.”
St. Joseph’s has embarked on projects to honor its history, such as reinstalling rediscovered altar rails from the earliest days of the current church, which opened in 1905, and installing new side altars to replace those removed years ago, as well as a new ambo. The parish also renovated its pastoral center.
The parish lives out its faith through Masses, Friday Eucharistic adoration, various religious devotions, Bible study, Generations of Faith religious formation, a food pantry, and Disciples of Christ, an evangelization and service group.
In 1765, German immigrants founded the Catholic settlement that became St. Joseph’s upon their arrival in the U.S. In time, Jesuit Father Ferdinand Farmer, also born in Germany, began riding horseback from his parish, St. Joseph in Philadelphia, Penn., to West Milford. In between his twice-yearly visits, these pioneers gathered in their homes to pray. Father Farmer stopped visiting in 1786, and no Masses were celebrated in the area for 25 years. Yet, the faithful continued to pray and catechize.
In 1829, the first church, dedicated to St. Luke, was built. Back in 1880, the renamed St. Joseph was considered a mission church, part of St. Anthony Parish in Butler, N.J., and was administered by Franciscan friars. They would include Father Mychal Judge, St. Joseph’s pastor from 1979 to 1985, and chaplain of the New York City Fire Department, who died in the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.
In 1887, a larger church was built, but it was burnt to the ground in 1904. The current church opened in 1905. In 1956, the Sisters of Charity arrived to administer the parish school, which opened that year. The Franciscans returned the parish to the Paterson Diocese’s administration in 2003. The school closed in 2006.
“To now be installed as pastor in this Jubilee year celebrating 260 years of the parish and 120 years since the church’s rebuilding is meaningful,” Father Grzybowski said. “It feels like stepping into a living story of faith, resilience, and God’s ongoing presence.”
– St. Joseph Parish in West Milford, New Jersey’s oldest Catholic faith community, marked three major milestones during a Mass with Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney on Nov. 16: the parish’s 260th birthday, the 120th anniversary of its current church, and the installation of its new pastor, Father Jakub Grzybowski. The rural 300-family Passaic County parish lives that long legacy of faith through liturgical, spiritual, and religious-formation activities, social justice outreaches, and improvement and historical preservation projects. St. Joseph’s is also the oldest Catholic parish in the Paterson Diocese in New Jersey. St. Joseph Church was filled as Bishop Sweeney served as
Theo is a free Catholic prayer and meditation app for children and their parents. / Credit: Theo
CNA Staff, Nov 23, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).
Theo, a free Catholic prayer and meditation app for children and their parents, plans to host the largest Advent celebration for children to help them discover the true meaning of the season.
From Nov. 30 to Dec. 24, more than 1 million children are expected to take part in a 25-day journey filled with stories, songs, activities, and reflections.
The Advent campaign will be led by Theodore, a cheerful animated donkey who is described as a direct descendant of the donkey that carried the Blessed Virgin Mary to Bethlehem. It will also feature several special guests including Catholic actor David Henrie and Father Ambrose Criste, among others.
Participants will read through the first two chapters of Luke, which will be accompanied by some meditations and reflection questions for children to do with their parents as well as hearing the stories of several saints, listening to songs, and explaining activities that both parent and child can do together.
Theo, a free Catholic prayer and meditation app for children and their parents, plans to host the largest Advent celebration for children to help them discover the true meaning of the season. Credit: Theo
Francisco Cornejo, CEO of Theo, told CNA in an interview that this campaign will help children “hear the word of God” and “prepare their hearts for the birth of Jesus.”
“We prepared these four weeks in a way that is engaging; it’s fun, but it’s also educational,” he added.
While Theo can be used for children of all ages, Cornejo pointed out that the Advent campaign is best suited for children between the ages of 4 and 12.
“The content tends to be on the more mature side of things, I would say, meaning 6 to 8 and older, but again this is the beauty of creating an app that is for the parent and the child — if the theme or the topic is a little hard to grasp or we want to go deeper in the learning, you have your parent by your side,” Cornejo said. “So you can discuss that and we’ll provide those discussion points and all the guidance there.”
Theo launched seven months ago and already has over 2 million users. Cornejo attributes the app’s success first and foremost to God but also to the need among Catholics families for a tool like this.
“We’ve seen over the last few years how families and how parents specifically wanted to have something like Theo because it’s not enough to take kids to Mass every Sunday or to get them through holy Communion preparation or confirmation preparation,” he said. “What happens every other day of the year or of their lives? So we really wanted to create a tool that makes faith accessible and teachings accessible for everyday kids and families regardless of where they are in their faith journey.”
He added: “It’s not meant to replace all the good things that we parents have to do, but it’s meant to help make faith an everyday thing. Something that kids want to hear more because it’s packed in a way that it’s accessible for them.”
The content on Theo includes daily Scripture readings, prayers, bedtime stories, faith-based affirmations, meditations, novenas, stories of the saints, the rosary, and much more.
Cornejo also highlighted the importance of having both child and parent involved in using the app because “education needs to be done together.”
“You need to exemplify what you want to try to teach and you have to do it with your kids — that’s the domestic Church. That’s what we are meant to do as parents,” he added.
As for what he hopes children and their parents will take away from participating in the Advent campaign, Cornejo said: “I think the main thing is remembering and living the actual meaning of Advent — the waiting for Jesus’ birth, preparing our hearts as the manger to welcome Jesus into our hearts” and that participants “forget about the fluff and the gifts and the ‘me me me’ and start thinking about what this actually represents.”
null / Credit: Kara Monroe via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
CNA Staff, Nov 23, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).
As Advent quickly approaches and the hustle and bustle of the holiday season begins to make its way into our lives, here are five resources to help you prepare to welcome Jesus this Christmas.
Beginning Nov. 30, a 26-day video series will guide viewers on becoming aware of how God is shaping them through seasons of waiting and how to wait well. Each day a five-minute video will be released and feature a reflection from Schmitz that unpacks the daily Mass reading as well as Scripture versus, catechism excerpts, and reflection questions to encourage participants to go deeper into the meaning of Advent.
Ascension’s “Waiting Well: Advent with Fr. Mike Schmitz” video series. Credit: Ascension
Schmitz’s weekly homily videos during Advent are part of the “Waiting Well” series and available for free on YouTube. However, the daily reflections will only be available on the Ascension app with a subscription or free trial.
This year’s video reflections will also be accompanied by the “Waiting Well” printed journal for individuals, parishes, and small-group study. It is designed to help readers slow down for 15 minutes a day as they prepare to meet Christ in the manger. Each day includes a word or Scripture verse to pray with, a reflection, and a prompt to write down your thoughts and insights.
From Hallow:
Hallow’s annual “Advent Prayer Challenge” is back once again. Beginning Dec. 1, “Pray25: Be Still” features Jonathan Roumie; Chris Pratt; Gwen Stefani; Father John Burns; Mother Natalia; Sister Miriam James Heidland, SOLT; and Father Pierre Toussaint, CFR. This Advent, listeners are invited to discover deeper stillness amid the chaos of the holiday season, just like the Blessed Mother did that first Christmas.
Roumie and Heidland will lead reflections on “The Reed of God” by Caryll Houselander, while Pratt will guide sessions on “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry” by John Mark Comer. Stefani and Mother Natalia will guide sessions focusing on being still, using the lives of saints as inspiration. Burns will guide listeners through sessions of imaginative prayer and Toussaint will offer homily reflections each Sunday during Advent.
From Blessed Is She:
Blessed Is She has Advent devotionals for the whole family this year — women, men, and children. “In Time: An Advent Devotional for Women” invites readers to reflect on God’s continuous presence in our lives. Written by Claire Dwyer, this devotional helps women see that waiting is filled with God’s loving action.
“Feast: An Advent Devotional for Men” is written by Paul George, rooted in Scripture, and inspired by the story of the prodigal son. This devotional invites men to return to God the Father with courage, humility, and hope. It also aims to encourage those seeking renewal, healing, and deeper faith during Advent. Both the devotionals for men and women include daily Scripture readings, prayer, and reflection.
Lastly, “Watch and Wait: A Kids Advent Devotional” written by Olivia Spears helps kids prepare for Christmas with daily prayers, reflections, and simple Scripture-based activities. This devotional teaches children to wait with hope and joy as they prepare for the birth of Christ. It is recommended for children older than 7 years old.
The Augustine Institute’s campus in St. Louis. Credit: Courtesy of the Augustine Institute
From the Augustine Institute:
The Augustine Institute is inviting Catholics to enter into the Advent season with renewed purpose and joyful expectation with a new video series titled “How To Advent.”
The video series will consist of four 12- to 15-minute-long episodes that explore the beauty and meaning of Advent traditions in an engaging and meaningful way and highlight a different cherished Advent tradition — the Advent calendar, Advent wreath, Jesse Tree, and Nativity scene. The video series is available on Formed.
From EWTN’s Religious Catalogue:
The EWTN Religious Catalogue offers a wide variety of Advent devotionals including “Encountering Emmanuel: A Guided Advent Journal for Prayer and Meditation” by Heather Khym, cohost of the “Abiding Together” podcast, and “The True Gifts of Christmas” by Megan Alexander, which takes readers on a journey through the deeper meaning of our most cherished Christmas traditions. (Editor’s note: EWTN is CNA’s parent company.)
In those days, all the tribes of Israel came to David in Hebron and said: "Here we are, your bone and your flesh. In days past, when Saul was our king, it was you who led the Israelites out and brought them back. And the LORD said to you, ‘You shall shepherd my people Israel and shall be commander of Israel.’" When all the elders of Israel came to David in Hebron, King David made an agreement with them there before the LORD, and they anointed him king of Israel.
A reading from the Letter of St. Paul to the Colossians 1:12-20
Brothers and sisters: Let us give thanks to the Father, who has made you fit to share in the inheritance of the holy ones in light. He delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he himself might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile all things for him, making peace by the blood of his cross through him, whether those on earth or those in heaven.
From the Gospel accoording to Luke 23:35-43
The rulers sneered at Jesus and said, "He saved others, let him save himself if he is the chosen one, the Christ of God." Even the soldiers jeered at him. As they approached to offer him wine they called out, "If you are King of the Jews, save yourself." Above him there was an inscription that read, "This is the King of the Jews."
Now one of the criminals hanging there reviled Jesus, saying, "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us." The other, however, rebuking him, said in reply, "Have you no fear of God, for you are subject to the same condemnation? And indeed, we have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing criminal." Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." He replied to him, "Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."
On the cross, we see a single phrase: “This is the King of the Jews” (Lk 23:38). That is Jesus’ title: he is a king. Yet as we gaze upon him, our idea of a king is turned upside down. When we try to visualize a king, what comes to mind is a powerful man seated on a throne with magnificent insignia, a sceptre in his hand and precious rings on his fingers, speaking in solemn tones to his subjects. That, more or less, is what we imagine. Looking at Jesus, though, we see the complete opposite. He is not comfortably enthroned, but hanging on a gibbet. The God who “casts down the mighty from their thrones” (Lk 1:52) appears as a slave executed by those in power. Appareled only with nails and thorns, stripped of everything yet rich in love, from his throne on the cross he no longer teaches the crowds by his words; he no longer lifts his hands as a teacher. He does more: pointing a finger at no one, he opens his arms to all. That is how he shows himself to be our king: with open arms. (…) Only by entering into his embrace do we understand: we come to realize that God went to this extreme, even to the paradox of the cross, in order to embrace every one of us, no matter how far distant we may be from him: he embraces our death, our pain, our poverty, our weakness. He embraced all of it. He became a slave so that each of us could become a son. (Pope Francis, Homily, Asti Cathedral, Solemnity of Christ the King, 20 November 2022)
Wrapped with Love to spread holiday cheer at Chester event #Catholic –
For the first time, the holiday craftwork of Wrapped in Love, a new ministry of volunteer knitters and crocheters at St. Lawrence the Martyr Parish in Chester, N.J., will appear at the township’s annual Festival of Trees fundraiser, to be held from Saturday, Dec. 6 to Saturday, Dec. 13. The group is donating a Christmas tree filled with 70 handmade ornaments to be displayed for the public’s enjoyment and available for purchase at auction.
The Festival of Trees is a community celebration featuring a spectacular display of holiday trees in a winter wonderland setting at the rustically stunning Barn at Highlands Ridge Park in Chester. The many decorated trees donated by various organizations are available for purchase through a silent auction. All proceeds support the Senior Resource Center, which offers programming that facilitates a healthy, joyful lifestyle for people 55-plus in the greater Chester area.
Wrapped with Love’s appearance at the Festival of Trees also will also help promote the ministry, St. Lawrence, and Catholicism in Chester area.
Founded in 2003, The Festival of Trees draws in thousands of people from across the region. The event will be open on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., on Sunday to Thursday from noon to 6 p.m., and on Friday from noon to 8 p.m. The silent auction closes on Saturday, Dec.13, at 3 p.m.
Wrapped in Love has knitted and crocheted prayer shawls and donated them to anyone, regardless of faith, who needed hugs and prayers. Founded a year ago, the ministry has grown to include making baby blankets and scarves for donations to schools and shelters.
The cost for Festival of Trees is $10 for general admission and $5 for seniors/students.
– For the first time, the holiday craftwork of Wrapped in Love, a new ministry of volunteer knitters and crocheters at St. Lawrence the Martyr Parish in Chester, N.J., will appear at the township’s annual Festival of Trees fundraiser, to be held from Saturday, Dec. 6 to Saturday, Dec. 13. The group is donating a Christmas tree filled with 70 handmade ornaments to be displayed for the public’s enjoyment and available for purchase at auction. The Festival of Trees is a community celebration featuring a spectacular display of holiday trees in a winter wonderland setting at the rustically stunning Barn at
Here is a roundup of recent pro-life and abortion-related news.
4 out of 5 Americans have concerns with embryonic screening, study finds
Four in five voters have some at least some concerns about embryo screening, a recent Ethics and Public Policy Center poll found.
Embryonic screening is the practice of selecting some babies to be born because of their genetic traits — such as appearance, health, or predicted intelligence — while discarding other unborn babies.
The Ethics and Public Policy Center poll, led by center fellow Patrick Brown, comes in the wake of some Silicon Valley-funded startups saying they will give parents the ability to screen embryos.
The poll found that very few Americans want Silicon Valley to “hack” reproduction.
“While Americans support measures to help infertile couples have children, they express concerns about broader implications of these technologies,” the report says.
Across demographic groups, voters voiced support for “commonsense regulations.”
Women were more likely to have concerns about embryo screening than men, while older voters (ages 46+) were more likely to have concerns than younger voters (ages 18-45).
South Carolina right-to-life group opposes proposed bill to criminalize women who have abortions
A South Carolina bill would enable prosecution of women who have abortions — a practice that South Carolina Citizens for Life (SCCL) and most pro-life groups oppose.
The bill, which would designate abortion as equivalent to the homicide of a born person, contains no provisions protecting women who obtain abortions.
While pro-life groups tend to support prosecution of abortionists who illegally perform the deadly procedure, most groups oppose the prosecution of abortive mothers themselves, whom they also consider to be victims of abortion.
Holly Gatling, who heads South Carolina Citizens for Life, called the bill “unacceptable.”
“This provision of the law alone would shut down post-abortion ministries such as Rachel’s Vineyard and jeopardize the livesaving, compassionate work of pregnancy care ministries,” she told CNA.
The Catholic bishops ask that Project Rachel, a counseling resource for post-abortive women, be present in every diocese in the U.S.
Gatling said she opposes the bill “because it criminalizes post-aborted women, jeopardizes the work of pregnancy care centers and post-abortion ministries, and undermines the pro-life legislation previously passed by the General Assembly.”
“Not only are post-aborted women subject to criminal prosecution, but pastors, counselors, and any ‘person’ also can be compelled to testify in the criminal prosecution of a post-aborted woman,” Gatling said.
Gatling noted that South Carolina’s current heartbeat law has saved thousands of lives while explicitly protecting women from prosecution.
“SCCL and many other pro-life and pro-family organizations in South Carolina oppose legislation that reverses this protection for women,” Gatling said.
U.S. government can’t compel Christian employers to accommodate abortions, judge rules
A federal court has issued a permanent injunction ruling that Christian employers will not be compelled to accommodate abortions.
The Herzog Foundation in a lawsuit had argued that a Biden-era rule requiring employers to accommodate abortions for pregnant employees violated the First Amendment.
On Tuesday, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri granted the permanent injunction protecting faith-based employers.
Herzog Foundation spokeswoman Elizabeth Roberts lauded the court’s decision in a Nov. 20 statement, saying that the ruling “solidifies that the government cannot overstep its authority by trying to dictate or suppress our beliefs.”
3 state attorneys general file challenge to mail-in chemical abortion drugs
Attorneys general of Idaho, Kansas, and Missouri filed a challenge to stop mail-order abortion drugs and block the recent approval of generic mifepristone.
The Nov. 20 challenge claims that the FDA “cut corners when it removed safeguards from this dangerous drug.”
Mifeprisotone’s label says that 1 in 25 women will go to the emergency room after taking the drug, while other studies have found that it poses a risk to the women and girls who take it.
Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway said in a statement that Missouri “will not stand by while manufacturers gamble with women’s lives.”
“Mifepristone is sending women to the hospital with life-threatening complications, and yet drug companies continue pushing new versions of it into the market without basic medical safeguards,” Hanaway said.
Texas sees decrease in minors getting abortions
After Texas implemented a heartbeat law protecting unborn children when their heartbeats are detectable, the state has seen a marked drop in abortions among minors, a recent study found.
Published online on Nov. 13 by the American Journal of Public Health, the study found that abortions decreased by more than 25% among minors in Texas.
Additionally, among Texans ages 18-24, abortions decreased by about 20%; for Texans aged 25-29, abortions decreased by 17%, the study found.
The study, which cited concerns about “young people’s reproductive autonomy,” has several authors affiliated with abortion clinics including Planned Parenthood as well as two authors affiliated with a pro-abortion research center, Resound Research for Reproductive Health.
Pope Leo XIV greets young American Catholics from the Vatican during a digital dialogue held between the Holy Father and participants in the National Catholic Youth Conference in Indianapolis, Friday, Nov. 21, 2025 / Credit: Vatican Media
CNA Staff, Nov 22, 2025 / 07:56 am (CNA).
The 2025 National Catholic Youth Conference features prayer, community, evangelization, and service among Catholic teenagers from Nov. 20–22 in Indianapolis. Follow CNA’s live coverage of the event below.
As King Antiochus was traversing the inland provinces, he heard that in Persia there was a city called Elymais, famous for its wealth in silver and gold, and that its temple was very rich, containing gold helmets, breastplates, and weapons left there by Alexander, son of Philip, king of Macedon, the first king of the Greeks. He went therefore and tried to capture and pillage the city. But he could not do so, because his plan became known to the people of the city who rose up in battle against him. So he retreated and in great dismay withdrew from there to return to Babylon.
While he was in Persia, a messenger brought him news that the armies sent into the land of Judah had been put to flight; that Lysias had gone at first with a strong army and been driven back by the children of Israel; that they had grown strong by reason of the arms, men, and abundant possessions taken from the armies they had destroyed; that they had pulled down the Abomination which he had built upon the altar in Jerusalem; and that they had surrounded with high walls both the sanctuary, as it had been before, and his city of Beth-zur.
When the king heard this news, he was struck with fear and very much shaken. Sick with grief because his designs had failed, he took to his bed. There he remained many days, overwhelmed with sorrow, for he knew he was going to die.
So he called in all his Friends and said to them: "Sleep has departed from my eyes, for my heart is sinking with anxiety. I said to myself: ‘Into what tribulation have I come, and in what floods of sorrow am I now! Yet I was kindly and beloved in my rule.’ But I now recall the evils I did in Jerusalem, when I carried away all the vessels of gold and silver that were in it, and for no cause gave orders that the inhabitants of Judah be destroyed. I know that this is why these evils have overtaken me; and now I am dying, in bitter grief, in a foreign land."
From the Gospel accoording to Luke 20:27-40
Some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, came forward and put this question to Jesus, saying, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us, If someone’s brother dies leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married a woman but died childless. Then the second and the third married her, and likewise all the seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be? For all seven had been married to her." Jesus said to them, "The children of this age marry and remarry; but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. They can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise. That the dead will rise even Moses made known in the passage about the bush, when he called ‘Lord’ the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive." Some of the scribes said in reply, "Teacher, you have answered well." And they no longer dared to ask him anything.
With this response, first and foremost, Jesus invites His interlocutors — and us too — to consider that this earthly dimension in which we now live is not the only dimension, but that there is another, no longer subject to death, which will fully manifest that we are children of God. It is of great comfort and hope to listen to this simple and clear word of Jesus about life beyond death; we need it very much especially in our time, so rich in knowledge about the universe but so lacking in wisdom about eternal life. (…) Jesus responds that life belongs to God, who loves us and cares very deeply about us, to the point of linking His name to ours (…) Life exists where there is [a] bond, communion, brotherhood; and it is a life stronger than death when it is built on true relationships and bonds of fidelity. On the contrary, there is no life where one has the presumption of belonging only to oneself and of living as an island: death prevails in these attitudes. It is selfishness. If I live for myself, I am sowing death in my heart. (Pope Francis, Angelus, 10 November 2019)
Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney’s Schedule: December, 2025 #Catholic –
12/1
Mon., 12 Noon Priests’ Advent Day of Recollection – St. Paul Inside the Walls, Madison.
12/2
Tue., 10 a.m. Board of Bishops’ Meeting – Diocese of Trenton, Trenton; 6 p.m. Firefighters’ Annual Christmas Dinner.
12/5
Fri., 7:30 p.m. Diocesan Christmas Concert – Our Lady of the Valley Parish in Wayne.
12/6
Sat., 8 a.m. Mass for Life & Procession – St. Margaret of Scotland Parish, Morristown.
12/7
Sun., 11 a.m. Installation Mass for Father Yojaneider Garcia, Resurrection Parish, Randolph (preceded by a blessing of a new parish room); 1 p.m. Mass celebrating Our Lady of Guadalupe – Holy Trinity Parish, Passaic; 5 p.m. Noche de las Velitas – Holy Face Monastery, Clifton.
12/8
Mon., 8:30 a.m. Mass on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception – Holy Spirit School, Pequannock, followed by the Ring Ceremony; 11 a.m. Straight & Narrow grand opening ribbon cutting and blessing for the new 410 Straight St. Building — Paterson; 7 p.m. Mass – St. Paul Parish, Clifton.
12/9
Tue., 12 Noon Retired Priests’ Christmas Luncheon – St. Ann Parish, Parsippany; 6:30 p.m. Mass – Christ the King Parish, New Vernon.
12/10
Wed., 8:30 a.m. Mass with the Religious Sisters of Mercy – St. Michael the Archangel, Paterson.
12/11
Thu., 10 a.m. Finance Council Meeting – the Chancery, Clifton; 8 p.m. Bilingual Mass – St. Anthony of Padua Parish, Passaic; 11 p.m. Mass del Sagardo Corazon celebrating Our Lady of Guadalupe and 125 years of the Mass – Sacred Heart and Our Lady Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Parish, Dover.
12/12
Fri., 7 p.m. Mass celebrating Our Lady of Guadalupe – the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Paterson.
12/14
Sun., 10:30 a.m. Mass – Ss. Cyril and Methodius Parish, Boonton.
12/16
Tue., 5 p.m. Mass celebrating Simbang Gabi – St. Joseph’s Health, Paterson.
12/17
Wed., 7 p.m. Mass and Advent Reflection – St. Joseph Parish, Mendham.
Sat., 5 p.m. Mass celebrating Simbang Gabi – St. Anthony of Padua Parish, Passaic.
12/23
Tue., 7 p.m. Mass celebrating Simbang Gabi – Our Lady of the Holy Angels Parish, Little Falls.
12/28
Sun., 11 a.m. Mass – St. Paul Parish, Clifton; 3 p.m. Jubilee Closing Mass – the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Paterson, on the Feast of the Holy Family.
– 12/1 Mon., 12 Noon Priests’ Advent Day of Recollection – St. Paul Inside the Walls, Madison. 12/2 Tue., 10 a.m. Board of Bishops’ Meeting – Diocese of Trenton, Trenton; 6 p.m. Firefighters’ Annual Christmas Dinner. 12/5 Fri., 7:30 p.m. Diocesan Christmas Concert – Our Lady of the Valley Parish in Wayne. 12/6 Sat., 8 a.m. Mass for Life & Procession – St. Margaret of Scotland Parish, Morristown. 12/7 Sun., 11 a.m. Installation Mass for Father Yojaneider Garcia, Resurrection Parish, Randolph (preceded by a blessing of a new parish room); 1 p.m. Mass celebrating Our Lady of Guadalupe – Holy Trinity
Students and staff at All Saints Academy in Parsippany, N.J., held a Spirit Week event to commemorate the Solemnity of All Saints on Nov. 1.
To start the week, the school hosted speakers who answered questions submitted by students and teachers. The panel of speakers included Bishop Emeritus Arthur J. Serratelli; Father Joe Garbarino, a retired priest of the Paterson Diocese in New Jersey; Father Peter Clarke, principal of Morris Catholic High School in Denville, N.J.; and Sister Maria Angeline Weiss, vocation director of her congregation, the Sisters of Christian Charity in Mendham, N.J.
Panelists were asked to share their reflections on their favorite saints, how saints lived and shared their love for Jesus each day, and how the school community is called to do the same.
– Students and staff at All Saints Academy in Parsippany, N.J., held a Spirit Week event to commemorate the Solemnity of All Saints on Nov. 1. To start the week, the school hosted speakers who answered questions submitted by students and teachers. The panel of speakers included Bishop Emeritus Arthur J. Serratelli; Father Joe Garbarino, a retired priest of the Paterson Diocese in New Jersey; Father Peter Clarke, principal of Morris Catholic High School in Denville, N.J.; and Sister Maria Angeline Weiss, vocation director of her congregation, the Sisters of Christian Charity in Mendham, N.J. Panelists were asked to share their reflections
Alessandro Allori, “The Presentation of Mary,” 1598. / Credit: Public domain
National Catholic Register, Nov 21, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).
It’s easy to conceptualize the presentation of the Lord because we find it in Scripture. Luke’s Gospel tells of the Holy Family’s journey to the Temple when Jesus was 8 days old. According to Jewish custom, Jesus was to be circumcised and Mary purified.
There Mary and Joseph meet the prophets Anna and Simeon, who recognized the child as the Messiah who would bring about the fall and rise of many and become a sign of contradiction and the cause of a sword that would one day pierce Mary’s heart. We celebrate the feast of the Presentation of the Lord annually on Feb. 2.
The presentation of Mary, however, is not found in Scripture. Instead, we learn about Mary’s presentation from accounts that have come to us from apostolic times. What we know is found mainly in Chapter 7 of the “Protoevangelium of James,” which has been dated by historians before the year A.D. 200.
The “Protoevangelium of James” was ostensibly written by the apostle of the same name. It gives a detailed account in which Mary’s father, Joachim, tells his wife, Anna, that he wishes to bring their daughter to the Temple and consecrate her to God. Anna responds that they should wait until Mary is 3 years old so that she will not need her parents as much.
On the agreed day for Mary to be taken to the Temple, Hebrew virgins accompanied the family with burning lamps. The Temple priest received Mary, kissed her, and blessed her. According to James’ writing, the priest then proclaimed: “The Lord has magnified thy name in all generations. In thee, the Lord will manifest his redemption to the sons of Israel.”
After that, Mary was placed on the third step of the Temple and danced with joy. All the House of Israel loved Mary, and she was nurtured from then on in the Temple while her parents returned to their Nazareth home, glorifying God.
The celebration of the feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary grew slowly over the years.
On Nov. 21, 543, Emperor Justinian dedicated a church to Mary in the Temple area of Jerusalem. Many of the early Church Fathers celebrated this feast day, such as St. Germanus and St. John Damascene. In 1373, it was formally celebrated in Avignon, France, and in 1472, Pope Sixtus IV extended it to the universal Church. The Byzantine Church considers Mary’s Presentation one of the 12 great feasts of the liturgical year.
In 1974, Pope Paul VI wrote about this feast in his encyclical Marialis Cultus, saying: “Despite its apocryphal content, it presents lofty and exemplary values and carries on the venerable traditions having their origins in the Eastern Churches.”
The memorial of the Presentation of Mary has been noted in the Church since its early years and yet is easily forgotten or misunderstood.
Since it’s classified as a memorial and not a solemnity or holy day of obligation, it doesn’t draw much attention to itself other than a special opening prayer in the Mass. With this memorial, we celebrate the fact that God chose to dwell in Mary in a unique way. In response, she placed her whole self at his service. By our baptism, God invites us, too, into his service.
But there’s more to celebrating the presentation of Mary.
This feast gives us cause for great joy since Mary is truly our mother, given to us by Christ as he hung dying on the cross. Because we are part of her Son’s body, she loves us with as much devotion and tenderness as she loves Jesus. When we celebrate Mary’s presentation, we are giving Mary the honor she deserves and witnessing to her perfect purity as the virgin of Nazareth, the mother of God, and our mother.
Sts. Joachim and Anne surrendered their only daughter to God so that she would be completely free to follow his holy will. Although they loved her dearly, they knew that in the Temple Mary would always be near the Holy of Holies, surrounded by an atmosphere of godliness and grace. She would be instructed in Scripture and the history of the Jewish people. She would be under the guardianship and tutelage of the holy women of the Temple who had given their lives to God. One of them, Scripture scholars believe, was Anna — the woman who prophesied at the presentation of Our Lord. In the Temple, Mary would be completely focused on God and well prepared for becoming the mother of the Savior and mother of the body of Christ.
When we celebrate the presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we remember the tremendous sacrifice Sts. Joachim and Anne made for our sakes. We give honor and respect to the Virgin, who is an example for all of us in our struggle for holiness. It is a privilege and an opportunity to express our gratitude for the gift of a pure, tender, and always-loving mother.
This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, on Nov. 21, 2023, and has been adapted and updated by CNA.
A reading from the First Book of Maccabees 4:36-37, 52-59
Judas and his brothers said, “Now that our enemies have been crushed, let us go up to purify the sanctuary and rededicate it.” So the whole army assembled, and went up to Mount Zion.
Early in the morning on the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month, that is, the month of Chislev, in the year one hundred and forty-eight, they arose and offered sacrifice according to the law on the new altar of burnt offerings that they had made. On the anniversary of the day on which the Gentiles had defiled it, on that very day it was reconsecrated with songs, harps, flutes, and cymbals. All the people prostrated themselves and adored and praised Heaven, who had given them success.
For eight days they celebrated the dedication of the altar and joyfully offered burnt offerings and sacrifices of deliverance and praise. They ornamented the facade of the temple with gold crowns and shields; they repaired the gates and the priests’ chambers and furnished them with doors. There was great joy among the people now that the disgrace of the Gentiles was removed. Then Judas and his brothers and the entire congregation of Israel decreed that the days of the dedication of the altar should be observed with joy and gladness on the anniversary every year for eight days, from the twenty-fifth day of the month Chislev.
From the Gospel accoording to Luke 19:45-48
Jesus entered the temple area and proceeded to drive out those who were selling things, saying to them, “It is written, My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.” And every day he was teaching in the temple area. The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people, meanwhile, were seeking to put him to death, but they could find no way to accomplish their purpose because all the people were hanging on his words.
Jesus formed a new family, no longer based on natural ties, but on faith in him, on his love which welcomes us and unites us to each other, in the Holy Spirit. All those who welcome Jesus’ word are children of God and brothers and sisters among themselves. Welcoming the word of Jesus makes us brothers and sisters, makes us Jesus’ family. Speaking ill of others, destroying others’ reputations, makes us the devil’s family.
Jesus’ response was not a lack of respect for his mother and his brethren. Rather, for Mary it is the greatest recognition, precisely because she herself is the perfect disciple who completely obeyed God’s will. May the Virgin Mother help us to live always in communion with Jesus, recognizing the work of the Holy Spirit who acts in him and in the Church, regenerating the world to new life. (Pope Francis, Angelus, 10 June 2018)
Pope Leo XIV waves to pilgrims gathered at his general audience on Oct.25, 2025. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 20, 2025 / 15:30 pm (CNA).
Pope Leo XIV will hold a historic live digital conversation with American teenagers at the National Catholic Youth Conference (NCYC) on Friday. The faithful across the globe can also tune in to watch the encounter.
The pope will speak at 10:15 a.m. ET on Nov. 21 and enter into dialogue with a group of high school students.
People attending NCYC in Indianapolis at Lucas Oil Stadium can watch the encounter at the event, but others across the world are able to join online from homes, schools, and parishes.
The exchange will be broadcast via a livestream available on EWTN YouTube. Viewers can also watch through the EWTN app or on EWTN’s cable channel.
This marks the first time that a pope will directly engage with U.S. youth in a live digital encounter at NCYC. More than 40 teens have participated in the dialogue planning process, and five of them will get the chance to speak directly with the Holy Father.
For other news about the pope’s discussion and NCYC, the faithful can stay informed on CNA’s live updates page.
Pope to bishops: Be prophets of peace, harmony in your dioceses #Catholic –
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Following the example of St. Francis of Assisi, bishops are called to be close to the people in their dioceses and peacemakers in a world marked by division and tension, Pope Leo XIV told the bishops of Italy.
Standing in front of the Porziuncola, the small church where St. Francis founded the Franciscan order, Pope Leo said bishops must be “artisans of friendship, fraternity and authentic relationships within our communities, where — without reluctance or fear — we must listen to and harmonize tensions, cultivating a culture of encounter and thus becoming a prophecy of peace for the world.”
Pope Leo traveled to Assisi by helicopter Nov. 20 to speak at the closing session of the fall meeting of the Italian bishops’ conference. The session was closed to the press, but the Vatican released the pope’s text and some video clips of his speech a few hours later.
Before joining the bishops in the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels, which encloses the Porziuncola, Pope Leo prayed with dozens of friars at the tomb of St. Francis in the basilica named after him.
And after his meeting with the bishops, he flew by helicopter to Montefalco to celebrate Mass and have lunch with the cloistered Augustinian nuns at the Monastery of St. Clare of the Cross.
Pope Leo’s talk to the bishops focused on the Italian church’s ongoing synod process. But he also spoke of practical matters, including the need to continue combining smaller Italian dioceses and indicating that he would be accepting more bishops’ resignations when they reached the mandatory retirement age of 75 than Pope Francis did.
The challenge of evangelization and the falling population of many Italian cities and towns “ask us not to go backward on the matter of merging dioceses,” he told them.
Italy, which has about 57.3 million Catholics, has 224 dioceses; 41 of those have been joined to another diocese “in the person of the bishop,” without formally suppressing or uniting the dioceses. By contrast, the 75.5 million Catholics in the United States belong to 194 dioceses, the Archdiocese for the Military Services or the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter.
“A synodal church that walks along the furrows of history while facing the emerging challenges of evangelization needs constant renewal,” the pope told the bishops. “We must avoid allowing inertia — however well-intentioned — to slow necessary changes.”
As part of that, he said, “we must all cultivate that interior attitude Pope Francis had described as ‘learning how to take our leave,’ a precious disposition when one must prepare to step down from office.”
“It is good that the norm of age 75 for ordinaries concluding their service in dioceses be respected,” Pope Leo said, “and only in the case of cardinals may the continuation of their ministry be considered, possibly for another two years.”
As bishops and as a church, he said, “Fixing our gaze on the face of Jesus enables us to look into the faces of our brothers and sisters. It is his love that moves us toward them. And faith in him, our peace, calls us to offer everyone the gift of his peace.”
At a time “marked by fractures, both nationally and internationally,” the pope said, “messages and language steeped in hostility and violence often spread; the race for efficiency leaves the most vulnerable behind; technological omnipotence compresses freedom; loneliness consumes hope, while numerous uncertainties weigh on our future like unknowns.”
Being a “synodal church,” he said, means “walking together, walking with everyone,” which requires “being a church that lives among the people, welcomes their questions, soothes their sufferings and shares their hopes.”
That attitude, Pope Leo told them, must include special attention to the most vulnerable people “so that a culture of prevention of every form of abuse may also develop.”
“The welcome and listening offered to victims are the authentic mark of a church which, in communal conversion, knows how to acknowledge wounds and strives to heal them, because ‘where pain is deep, even stronger must be the hope that is born of communion,’” the pope said.
Pope Leo also encouraged the bishops to pay special attention to “the challenge posed to us by the digital world.”
“Pastoral ministry cannot be limited to ‘using’ the media,” he said, but it must “educate people to inhabit the digital sphere in a human way, without allowing truth to be lost behind the multiplication of connections, so that the internet may truly become a space of freedom, responsibility and fraternity.”
– VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Following the example of St. Francis of Assisi, bishops are called to be close to the people in their dioceses and peacemakers in a world marked by division and tension, Pope Leo XIV told the bishops of Italy. Standing in front of the Porziuncola, the small church where St. Francis founded the Franciscan order, Pope Leo said bishops must be “artisans of friendship, fraternity and authentic relationships within our communities, where — without reluctance or fear — we must listen to and harmonize tensions, cultivating a culture of encounter and thus becoming a prophecy of peace
St. Joseph Cathedral, Buffalo, New York. / Credit: CiEll/Shutterstock
CNA Staff, Nov 20, 2025 / 10:40 am (CNA).
Advocates in New York state are petitioning a Catholic foundation there to help fund major pension shortages and church preservation efforts as well as to help support victims of clergy sex abuse.
In a Nov. 13 letter to the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation in New York City, representatives of the group Save Our Buffalo Churches, sexual abuse victims, and pensioners of the former St. Clare’s Hospital asked the foundation to help the three communities with the “profound hardship” they are experiencing.
Numerous parishes in Buffalo have been fighting diocesan-mandated closures and mergers over the past year. Hundreds of former workers of St. Clare’s, meanwhile, saw their pensions reduced or eliminated starting in 2018 due to major shortfalls. The hospital itself closed about a decade before.
Abuse victims, meanwhile, have “been locked in a legal morass, denied the long-term healing resources and institutional acknowledgment of the harm they endured,” the letter said.
The foundation arose in 2018 after the Diocese of Brooklyn sold the health insurer Fidelis Care. The organization, whose roughly $3.2 billion in assets came from that sale, is named after Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini, the first American recognized as a saint, who founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The letter noted that Cabrini “devoted her life to the people others overlooked,” including immigrants and the poor.
“Guided by that legacy, we ask the foundation to explore emergency relief, stabilization funds, and community support initiatives” to help fund the three groups.
The letter-writers asked for a meeting with foundation leaders “to explore potential pathways for assistance aligned with both the foundation’s mission and the pressing needs of survivors, pensioners, and parish communities.”
Mary Pruski, who leads the Save Our Buffalo Churches group, told CNA that advocates in New York City would be following up with the foundation this week.
“This is a complex project and will bring much peace and healing across [New York state],” she said.
Pensioners with St. Clare’s Hospital are currently in the midst of a lawsuit brought by New York state against the Diocese of Albany for what the state attorney general’s office says was “[failure] to adequately fund, manage, and protect hospital employees’ hard-earned pensions.”
The prosecutor’s office alleges that the diocese “[failed] to take adequate measures” to secure the pension fund, including “failing to make any annual contributions to the pension for all but two years from 2000 to 2019 and hiding the collapse of the pension plan from former hospital workers who were vested in the plan.”
Parishioners in Buffalo, meanwhile, have challenged the diocesan parish merger and closure plan, with advocates securing a reprieve against the diocese at the state Supreme Court in July.
Parish celebrates 100 years as pioneering Wayne church #Catholic –
On Nov. 9, Holy Cross Parish celebrated a century of vibrant faith and service as the Roman Catholic mother church of Wayne, N.J., during a Mass with Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney, who served as the celebrant and homilist.
The Mass was concelebrated by Father Peter VB Wells, pastor of Holy Cross and its twin parish, Our Lady of the Valley (OLV), also in Wayne, and director of cemeteries of the Paterson Diocese in New Jersey; Father Edward Lambro, a retired diocesan priest and a weekend assistant of the two parishes; and Father Duberney Villamizar, pastor of St. Margaret of Scotland Parish in Morristown, N.J., diocesan vicar of Hispanic Affairs, and a former parochial vicar of the parishes.
The first Roman Catholic church in Wayne, Holy Cross, officially began in 1925 as a mission of the Franciscan Friars of St. Bonaventure’s Monastery in Paterson, N.J. Today, Wayne is home to four other parishes established after Holy Cross: OLV and Immaculate Heart of Mary, both in 1960, and Our Lady of Consolation and Annunciation, both in 1963. Holy Cross is on Van Duyne Avenue in the Mountain View section of Wayne.
“Holy Cross is a parish of people who are faithful and dedicated. The congregation loves to sing hymns at Mass. They are also generous,” said Father Wells, pastor of OLV and Holy Cross since 2015.
Today, Holy Cross, which ministers to 300 families, offers a Mass on Sunday and another on Saturday. Parishioners conduct a Christmas outreach to St. Agnes Parish in Paterson; support Several Sources, a non-profit organization that helps pregnant women and new mothers; and donate to the food pantry of Father English Community Center, also in Paterson.
The Franciscans started offering bi-monthly Masses in the area in 1905. In 1925, they bought a home on Route 23 and renovated it as a mission chapel. Father Luke Panfoerder became the first pastor in 1929, when the mission was elevated to a parish. The cornerstone for the present church was laid in 1934, when Holy Cross consisted of 93 families.
The friars continued to serve the mission until 1945, when Bishop Thomas McLaughlin erected Holy Cross as a parish under the care of diocesan clergy. In 1950, Holy Cross opened a parish school, the first Catholic school in Wayne, which later closed. Around 2010, Holy Cross became twinned with OLV, a parish of 5,000 families. Both faith communities remain separate parishes.
– On Nov. 9, Holy Cross Parish celebrated a century of vibrant faith and service as the Roman Catholic mother church of Wayne, N.J., during a Mass with Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney, who served as the celebrant and homilist. The Mass was concelebrated by Father Peter VB Wells, pastor of Holy Cross and its twin parish, Our Lady of the Valley (OLV), also in Wayne, and director of cemeteries of the Paterson Diocese in New Jersey; Father Edward Lambro, a retired diocesan priest and a weekend assistant of the two parishes; and Father Duberney Villamizar, pastor of St. Margaret of Scotland
Most students in virtual confirmation classes for two Paterson, N.J., parishes this past summer were able to join from the comfort of their homes, with little or no distractions. But some took part wherever and however they could — from young mothers caring for their children to late-night workers closing their office doors to concentrate.
Raysa Gonzales of Our Lady of Pompei (OLP) Parish in Paterson often joined the first-time confirmation classes of OLP and St. Gerard Majella Parish, also in Paterson, from her office. Over the summer, she was one of 28 adults who took advantage of the convenience of attending 8 to 10 90-minute English-language classes on Tuesday evenings via Zoom.
Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney confirmed these Catholics during a Mass at St. Gerard’s on Oct. 12, the feast of St. Carlo Acutis, the first millennial saint, canonized by Pope Leo XVI in Rome on Sept. 7. Students attended eight classes for confirmation prep and twice more for first Holy Communion prep, followed by an in-person retreat.
“I was happy that we [students] could see and interact with each other and express our thoughts — like being in a classroom,” said Gonzales. A Paterson resident who returned to attending Mass, she works full time, started her own business, and is a parent to Elijah, 8, and an OLP lector. “Going to church makes me feel peaceful. I want to teach Elijah the faith. I have more knowledge but have more to learn.”
The classes consisted of 18- to 40-year-olds who wanted to complete their sacraments to get married, become godparents, or enter full communion with the Church. Participants hailed from as far away as New York State and Princeton, N.J., through word of mouth. Jan Figenshu, who volunteers at her parish, St. Gerard’s, coordinated the course.
“There is a need for this type of formation. The Zoom classes make sense for people with family commitments, those who work late, or those who don’t have time for a long commute. It was beautiful to see their dedication,” Figenshu said. “Some brought their friends and family to the classes. One person found the program by asking Chat GPT ‘Where can I prepare for confirmation?’”
Each class consisted of an opening prayer, a time when students described a “holy moment” of God’s grace they experienced that week, a lesson on the week’s topic, small-group discussions, a review of the Sunday readings, and a closing prayer.
“I promote the joy of being Catholic and in a faith community. I also encourage the students to go to church without nagging them. Some have gotten more involved in their faith,” Figenshu said.
The course ended with a retreat at St. Gerard’s, which concluded with the Sacrament of Penance presided over by Msgr. George Hundt, pastor of both Paterson parishes, and Father Manuel Cuellar, parochial vicar. Many participants got to know each other. The process has led Msgr. Hundt to help some couples convalidate their civil marriages in the eyes of the Church.
Figenshu started a Zoom confirmation course when Msgr. Hundt previously was pastor of St. Vincent Martyr Parish in Madison, N.J.
Stacey Strover, who was confirmed in the Easter Vigil earlier this year, helped lead small-group discussions on Zoom.
“Getting students involved on Zoom was challenging. We asked open-ended, interactive questions to encourage participation. Sometimes, they would come up with their own questions,” Strover said.
– Most students in virtual confirmation classes for two Paterson, N.J., parishes this past summer were able to join from the comfort of their homes, with little or no distractions. But some took part wherever and however they could — from young mothers caring for their children to late-night workers closing their office doors to concentrate. Raysa Gonzales of Our Lady of Pompei (OLP) Parish in Paterson often joined the first-time confirmation classes of OLP and St. Gerard Majella Parish, also in Paterson, from her office. Over the summer, she was one of 28 adults who took advantage of the convenience
After pushback from investors, Microsoft has signed a statement agreeing not to discriminate against religious or conservative nonprofit groups seeking a discount the tech giant offers to other nonprofits.
On Oct. 10, Microsoft and Boyer Research, a group of shareholders represented by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a Christian legal group, signed the agreement. News of the agreement was published on Nov. 14.
The shareholders had planned to put forth a proposal asking Microsoft on Dec. 5 at its annual meeting for a report on the company’s discounting practices, according to Bloomberg News.
The shareholders agreed not to move forward with the proposal after Microsoft signed the agreement, which stated that nonprofits no longer needed to affirm a nondiscrimination attestation. The company also said a categorical ban on pregnancy centers would be removed.
In a statement to CNA on Nov. 19, Microsoft said: “The broad and diverse array of nonprofits is one of America’s great strengths, and the purpose of this nonprofit program is to provide discounts to a broad group of organizations that qualify as nonprofits under the federal tax code. We don’t think it’s desirable to pick and choose among these organizations based on ideological orientation. In this instance, we found that a small number of organizations that should have been eligible for these discounts were not receiving them. We’ve fixed this and those organizations are now eligible.”
ADF attorney Alexandra Gaiser, who represented the shareholders, told CNA that the legal group and some pregnancy centers they represent are now in “wait-and-see mode.”
She said since the agreement was signed, one pregnancy center has applied for the discount and been denied, but “a couple have received the nonprofit discount.”
“We are looking forward to seeing more nonprofits get the discount,” Gaiser said.
Microsoft is not the only corporation alleged to have discriminatory practices against faith-based or conservative groups that ADF has contended with.
ADF filed two federal lawsuits this year, one against California-based software company Asana and the other against OpenAI, makers of ChatGPT, who both agreed in settlements to give previously withheld nonprofit discounts to Holy Sexuality, a Christian nonprofit group that makes videos and courses that teach about biblical principles on human sexuality.
In the settlements, both tech companies said they would remove barriers to the discounts for religious organizations, according to ADF.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier shared a letter he sent to Microsoft on social media on Nov. 3 in which he said the state might take legal action against the company if discriminatory practices against religious groups continued.
A reading from the First Book of Maccabees 1, 2:15-29
The officers of the king in charge of enforcing the apostasy came to the city of Modein to organize the sacrifices. Many of Israel joined them, but Mattathias and his sons gathered in a group apart. Then the officers of the king addressed Mattathias: “You are a leader, an honorable and great man in this city, supported by sons and kin. Come now, be the first to obey the king’s command, as all the Gentiles and the men of Judah and those who are left in Jerusalem have done. Then you and your sons shall be numbered among the King’s Friends, and shall be enriched with silver and gold and many gifts.” But Mattathias answered in a loud voice: “Although all the Gentiles in the king’s realm obey him, so that each forsakes the religion of his fathers and consents to the king’s orders, yet I and my sons and my kin will keep to the covenant of our fathers. God forbid that we should forsake the law and the commandments. We will not obey the words of the king nor depart from our religion in the slightest degree.”
As he finished saying these words, a certain Jew came forward in the sight of all to offer sacrifice on the altar in Modein according to the king’s order. When Mattathias saw him, he was filled with zeal; his heart was moved and his just fury was aroused; he sprang forward and killed him upon the altar. At the same time, he also killed the messenger of the king who was forcing them to sacrifice, and he tore down the altar. Thus he showed his zeal for the law, just as Phinehas did with Zimri, son of Salu.
Then Mattathias went through the city shouting, “Let everyone who is zealous for the law and who stands by the covenant follow after me!” Thereupon he fled to the mountains with his sons, leaving behind in the city all their possessions. Many who sought to live according to righteousness and religious custom went out into the desert to settle there.
From the Gospel accoording to Luke 19:41-44
As Jesus drew near Jerusalem, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If this day you only knew what makes for peace– but now it is hidden from your eyes. For the days are coming upon you when your enemies will raise a palisade against you; they will encircle you and hem you in on all sides. They will smash you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another within you because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”
Jesus weeps, because we have chosen the way of war, the way of hatred, the way of hostility”. This is even more glaring now that “we are approaching Christmas: there will be lights, there will be celebrations, trees lit up, even nativity scenes… all decorated: the world continues to wage war, to wage wars. The world has not comprehended the way of peace”. (…)
“What shall remain? Ruins, thousands of children without education, so many innocent victims: and lots of money in the pockets of arms dealers. Jesus once said: ‘You cannot serve two masters: either God or riches.’ War is the right choice for him, who would serve wealth: ‘Let us build weapons, so that the economy will right itself somewhat, and let us go forward in pursuit of our interests. There is an ugly word the Lord spoke: ‘Cursed!’ Because He said: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers!.’ The men who work war, who make war, are cursed, they are criminals. A war can be justified – so to speak – with many, many reasons, but when all the world as it is today, at war – piecemeal though that war may be – a little here, a little there, and everywhere – there is no justification – and God weeps. Jesus weeps.” (Pope Francis, Santa Marta, 19 November 2015)
Beyond The Beacon Episode 101: The future is now – Inspiring interviews from our diocesan youth conference #Catholic –
Just back from the fall meeting of the United States’ bishops, Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney shares his perspective on participating in the issuance of a rare “special message” regarding the bishops’ concern for the evolving situation affecting immigrants in the United States.
For the second half of the episode, we go remote to the 2025 Diocese of Paterson Youth Conference, “Anchored in Hope,” where Bishop Sweeney interviewed participants.
Hosted by Bishop Sweeney and Communications Director Jai Agnish of the Diocese of Paterson.
Guests:
Jessica Martinez – Christ is Alive Youth Ministry, Our Lady of Fatima & St Nicholas in Passaic, N.J.
Juan-Pablo Martinez – Christ is Alive Youth Ministry, Our Lady of Fatima & St Nicholas in Passaic, N.J.
Janely Jose – Youth Minister at Our Lady of Fatima & St Nicholas in Passaic, N.J.
Meryl Payyappilly – St. Jude Parish in Budd Lake, N.J.
Etelka Moliner – St. Jude Parish in Budd Lake, N.J.
Mary Hill – Youth Minister at St. Jude Parish in Budd Lake, N.J.
– Just back from the fall meeting of the United States’ bishops, Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney shares his perspective on participating in the issuance of a rare “special message” regarding the bishops’ concern for the evolving situation affecting immigrants in the United States. For the second half of the episode, we go remote to the 2025 Diocese of Paterson Youth Conference, “Anchored in Hope,” where Bishop Sweeney interviewed participants. Hosted by Bishop Sweeney and Communications Director Jai Agnish of the Diocese of Paterson. Guests: Jessica Martinez – Christ is Alive Youth Ministry, Our Lady of Fatima & St Nicholas in Passaic,
84 anniversary couples celebrate marital love at Paterson Mass #Catholic –
On Nov. 16, 84 couples who marked 25, 50, and 60 or more years of marriage celebrated their love for each other and their example to all in the world with Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney during the annual Diocesan Silver and Gold Mass at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson, N.J.
Bishop Sweeney was the principal celebrant of the Mass, which the Office of Family Life of the Paterson Diocese in New Jersey coordinated. The couples renewed their vows before Bishop Sweeney. Several priests from parishes where the couples are parishioners came to support them and were concelebrants of the Mass.
Mr. and Mrs. Albert Alexander, 69 years Our Lady of Pompei, Paterson
Mr. and Mrs. Butch Pomante, 66 years Our Lady of Pompei, Paterson
Mr. and Mrs. Peter Ferriso, 63 years St. Luke, Long Valley, Washington Twp.
Mr. and Mrs. Terry LaCorte, 63 years St. Philip the Apostle, Clifton
Mr. and Mrs. James Whelpley, 62 years St. Joseph, Mendham
60 Years
Mr. and Mrs. Francis Ays St. Luke, Long Valley, Washington Twp.
Mr. and Mrs. Paul Brubaker St. Joseph, Mendham
Mr. and Mrs. George Cozzolino Our Lady of Mercy, Whippany, Hanover Twp.
Mr. and Mrs. Alfonso Falivene St. Catherine of Siena, Mountain Lakes
Mr. and Mrs. William Feeney Church of the Sacred Heart, Clifton
Mr. and Mrs. Phillip Guidone St Lawrence, Chester
Mr. and Mrs. Edward Keegan St. Matthew the Apostle Parish, Randolph
Mr. and Mrs. William Kuehner Our Lady of Mercy, Whippany, Hanover Twp.
Mr. and Mrs. Louis Lanzerotti Christ the King, New Vernon, Harding Twp.
Mr. and Mrs. James Meng St. Philip, Clifton
Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Rosa St. Mary Parish, Pompton Lakes
Mr. and Mrs. James Scannelli St. Virgil, Morris Plains
Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas Sciarrillo St. Rose of Lima, East Hanover
Mr. and Mrs. Wilhelmus Schouten St. Catherine of Bologna, Ringwood
Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Sullivan Holy Spirit, Pequannock
Mr. and Mrs. John Trombetta St. Virgil, Morris Plains
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Volpe St. Thomas More, Morristown
50 Years
Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Albizati St. Philip the Apostle, Clifton
Mr. and Mrs. Edward Ament St. Philip the Apostle, Clifton
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Babula St. Pius X, Montville
Mr. and Mrs. Candido Baldino St. Mary’s, Wharton/Dover
Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Becker St. Mary’s, Denville
Mr. and Mrs. Steve Carlsson Corpus Christi, Chatham
Mr. and Mrs. Robert V. Chester Our Lady of Good Counsel, Pompton Plains
Mr. and Mrs. Richard Czaplinski Our Lady of the Holy Angels, Little Falls
Mr. and Mrs. John D’Agostino St. Mary’s, Denville
Mr. and Mrs. Antonio Del Valle St. Gerard Majella, Paterson
Mr. and Mrs. Peter DeNigris Notre Dame of Mount Carmel, Cedar Knolls, Hanover Twp.
Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Dietlein Our Lady of the Mountain, Long Valley, Washington Twp.
Mr. and Mrs. David DiNapoli St. Paul, Clifton
Mr. and Mrs. Lou D’Onofrio St. Mary’s, Pompton Lakes
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Filosa St. Pius X, Montville
Mr. and Mrs. Victor Jovino Notre Dame of Mount Carmel, Cedar Knolls, Hanover Twp.
Mr. and Mrs. Michael Kirchmer St. Francis de Sales, McAfee, Vernon
Mr. and Mrs. Peter Klein St. Mary’s, Denville
Mr. and Mrs. Gary Lis St. Mary’s, Wharton/Dover
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Little St. Mary’s, Denville
Mr. and Mrs. Jesus Lopez Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Paterson
Mr. and Mrs. Bob Miller St. Lawrence, Chester
Mr. and Mrs. John Novalis Church of the Holy Family, Florham Park
Mr. and Mrs. John O’Mullane Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Boonton
Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Polcari St. Mary’s, Pompton Lakes
Mr. and Mrs. Michael Prendergast St. Margaret of Scotland, Morristown
Mr. and Mrs. Roque Ramos St. Clement Pope & Martyr, Rockaway Twp.
Deacon and Mrs. James Rizos St. Mary’s, Denville
Mr. and Mrs. Luis Salerna Our Lady of Pompei, Paterson
Mr. and Mrs. John Sette Assumption Morristown
Mr. and Mrs. Rich Sokerka St. Matthew the Apostle, Randolph
Mr. and Mrs. James Tangen St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Flanders, Mount Olive Twp.
Mr. and Mrs. William Trodden St. Francis de Sales, McAfee, Vernon
Mr. and Mrs. John Ukson Our Lady of Fatima, Highland Lakes, Vernon Twp.
Mr. and Mrs. Angel Ventura Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Paterson
Mr. and Mrs. Michael Wozniak St. Luke, Long Valley, Washington Twp.
25 Years
Mr. and Mrs. Gregory Bubniak St. John Vianney, Stockholm, Hardyston Twp.
Mr. and Mrs. Gary Cheski St. Andrew the Apostle, Clifton
Mr. and Mrs. Arvind D’Cunha St. Pius X, Montville
Mr. and Mrs. Saverio Dello Russo Notre Dame of Mount Carmel, Cedar Knolls, Hanover Twp.
Mr. and Mrs. Domenico Di Maio Our Lady of the Valley, Wayne
Mr. and Mrs. James Fischer St. Virgil, Morris Plains
Mr. and Mrs. Felix Hernandez Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Paterson
Mr. and Mrs. Christopher Horn St. Joseph Church, Newton
Mr. and Mrs. Edward Jassin Our Lady of the Valley, Wayne
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Kelly Assumption Parish, Morristown
Mr. and Mrs. John Kilkeary St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Flanders, Mount Olive Twp.
Mr. and Mrs. Mario Lemongello St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Flanders, Mount Olive Twp.
Mr. and Mrs. Frank Marinelli Holy Family, Florham Park
Mr. and Mrs. David Meehan St. Luke, Long Valley
Mr. and Mrs. Peter Onufryk St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Flanders, Mount Olive Twp.
Mr. and Mrs. Lou Palazzo St. Bonaventure, Paterson
Mr. and Mrs. Scott Passaro St. Luke, Long Valley, Washington Twp.
Mr. and Mrs. Kingsley Pathrose St. Peter the Apostle, Parsippany
Mr. and Mrs. Sebasten Raffal St. Ann Parish, Parsippany
Mr. and Mrs. Leopoldo Ramirez St. Mary Parish, Pompton Lakes
Mr. and Mrs. Wayne Redyke St. Francis de Sales, McAfee, Vernon
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Reisinger Our Lady of Mercy, Whippany
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Scerbak St. Mary’s, Pompton Lakes
Mr. and Mrs. David Schulz St. Virgil, Morris Plains
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Sweezy Our Lady of the Holy Angels, Little Falls
Mr. and Mrs. Ramon Villafuerte St. Mary’s Parish, Pompton Lakes
– On Nov. 16, 84 couples who marked 25, 50, and 60 or more years of marriage celebrated their love for each other and their example to all in the world with Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney during the annual Diocesan Silver and Gold Mass at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson, N.J. Bishop Sweeney was the principal celebrant of the Mass, which the Office of Family Life of the Paterson Diocese in New Jersey coordinated. The couples renewed their vows before Bishop Sweeney. Several priests from parishes where the couples are parishioners came to support them and were
Mia Smothers is among the teens chosen to ask Pope Leo XIV questions at the National Catholic Youth Conference Nov. 21, 2025. / Credit: Photo courtesy of National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 19, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).
Mia Smothers said she is looking forward to the “opportunity of a lifetime” as she prepares to speak with Pope Leo XIV during a digital encounter at the upcoming National Catholic Youth Conference (NCYC).
The Holy Father will hold a 45-minute digital encounter with young people from across the United States during the Nov. 20–22 conference hosted by the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry (NFCYM) in Indianapolis.
More than 40 teens have participated in the dialogue planning process, and five of them will get the chance to speak directly with the Holy Father. Smothers, a high school freshman from Joppa, Maryland, is the youngest teen selected to speak with the pontiff.
“I’m feeling excited,” Smothers said in a Nov. 18 interview with “EWTN News Nightly.” She added: “This is a very good opportunity for me to learn more about my faith and others around me.”
This year marks the first time Smothers will attend NCYC. She said she is looking forward to the opportunity for adoration at the conference, because she heard it “is a very powerful experience.”
Smothers said she thinks the young attendees of NCYC want to get a better understanding of how the Church wants them to act in the faith, how they can be more helpful, and how they can be more hands-on in the Church.
The NCYC team and the students who will speak with the Holy Father have been preparing and practicing in anticipation for the encounter to get a better idea of how they can establish themselves in the Church.
“We have been meeting up on Zoom and doing follow-up questions — practicing what the pope might tell us and to figure out how we could answer and how we could switch the conversation to something that we want to ask,” Smothers said.
As a teenager in the Church, Smothers is concerned about how people are supposed to find their vocations in life. She said: “I really want to ask him how he found out he wanted to become a priest and then how he felt about becoming pope.”
“This is an opportunity of a lifetime and something that you’ve never heard of and never … seen before,” Smothers said. “I plan to tell all of my siblings, all of my friends, and everyone at my school … to be involved and see what the pope wants for us.”
The Vatican choosing to set up this dialogue with the youth at the conference is “making a difference,” Smothers said. She said the Vatican and the pope are starting something that will be passed on to the following generations.
It is impactful that the pope himself is going to be “talking with young kids and trying to make a difference in their lives,” Smothers said.
A family grieves their lost baby at a funeral at the crypt at St. Patrick’s Cemetery in New Orleans. Many friends, relatives, and families attended the funeral that day. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Compassionate Burials for Indigent Babies
CNA Staff, Nov 19, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).
Sandy Schaetz still mourns the baby she never met.
“It was terrifying and traumatic,” she said of her miscarriage. “I was consoled after by the prayers of a deacon, but never named the baby or knew if it was a boy or girl.”
“It was not something I understood at the time and I only wish I had known more of what was happening,” she told CNA.
Now, Schaetz volunteers with Compassionate Burials for Indigent Babies (CBIB), an organization that buries babies who died, whether stillborn, miscarried, or aborted.
The group organizes everything for the funerals, which are held at a crypt at St. Patrick’s Cemetery in New Orleans.
A shoebox-sized casket lined with donated white fabric, usually from wedding dresses, is processed through the cemetery, with Knights of Columbus present as the honor guard. A volunteer musician plays at every funeral; a Catholic deacon presides at almost every burial.
Two Knights of Columbus carry the casket of a baby who was murdered. Credit: Photo courtesy of Compassionate Burials for Indigent Babies
When Schaetz attended her first burial service as a volunteer, it hit her to the core.
“I find it difficult to put into words how it affected me,” Schaetz said. “All God needed me to do that day was to be present, to pray, to honor the life he had created.”
“It opened my eyes to how each life is such a gift, and when that life ends how important it is to show respect and pray for the soul and bury the dead with love,” Schaetz said.
Death and resurrection
Women who lose children through miscarriage often suffer silently, according to Lise Naccari, the founder of CBIB.
“Losing a child is hard. Often women suffer in silence the pain of infant loss and ride that sad emotional roller coaster ride alone,” Naccari told CNA.
One in four pregnancies ends in miscarriage — a devastating statistic for many couples.
Naccari herself experienced a miscarriage as well as several challenging pregnancies.
“I feel a special connection with poor mothers who have lost a child. My heart goes out to them,” Naccari said.
Lise Naccari (right) embraces a grieving mother at a burial at the crypt at St. Patrick’s Cemetery in New Orleans. Credit: Photo courtesy of Compassionate Burials for Indigent Babies
Naccari buries the babies who were wanted and loved, but also the babies who were thrown out or mistreated.
“CBIB has buried babies as big as a blueberry and up to 2 years old,” Naccari said. “We buried babies stillborn, miscarried, abandoned, unclaimed, aborted, murdered, and thrown away in the trash — and every situation possible.”
“Many babies were mistreated, abused, and tossed out … these are heartbreaking funerals to go to,” Naccari said.
CBIB dressed and buried seven babies who were left at hospitals labeled “unclaimed and abandoned,” Naccari said. CBIB buried the babies at the crypt at St. Patrick’s Cemetery in New Orleans. Credit: Photo courtesy of Compassionate Burials for Indigent Babies
“Babies are left sometimes because some families can not afford funerals for them but would like one,” Naccari said. “Also, many parents are young, and the grief can be overwhelming and they cannot navigate through funeral arrangements.”
Her life’s work is to bury the dead — and she looks to the Resurrection.
“I consider what I do holy,” Naccari said. “I feel like this is my vocation and I know God orchestrated all of this. I give all honor and glory to him, our loving Father.”
“What I do is not about sorrow and death,” Naccari continued. “What I do is really about joy and life — eternal life.”
A father (right) whose child was murdered carries the casket with the help of others. Credit: Photo courtesy of Compassionate Burials for Indigent Babies
It’s not an easy job, and Naccari looks to God for strength.
“Lord, I don’t want to do this anymore. It hurts my heart too much,” Naccari remembered praying as she prepared one baby for burial — a baby girl who had been abandoned and tossed out after she was born.
“I felt a still small voice within me say, ‘Lise, don’t think about their bodies, focus on the Resurrection,’” Naccari recalled.
“The sunlight from the stained-glass windows was shining down a warm yellow color on my face, as I looked up in it and I thought, yes, this is what I needed to hear to keep going — focus on the Resurrection,” she continued.
A resource for women in need
Sheena Lewis was in jail when her son, still a baby, passed away. She couldn’t attend the funeral, but Naccari organized the burial for her.
Lewis, now sober and out of jail, visits her son’s crypt often.
“I have solace in the fact he was laid to rest in a beautiful manner when I couldn’t be there for him or myself at the time,” Lewis told CNA.
Many young mothers CBIB helps are often “steeped in poverty” and have no support system. They are often “low income, uneducated, coming from sometimes addiction or problem homes,” Naccari said.
“Often I find at these funerals that the young mothers are alone or they may come with children or other women — but there are no men to help support them,” Naccari said.
“My heart is broken for them, for they are not only battling their poverty, they also have to deal with losing a child,” she said.
A moment to mourn
Funerals help families process their grief — a grief that’s often hidden away due to the nature of miscarriages.
Deacon Ricky Suprean preaches at almost every graveside burial — but after a couple years of volunteering, he realized God had called him to this so he could find healing.
Suprean and his wife, Lynn, experienced two miscarriages.
Suprean struggled to process it at the time, but through his volunteering, he’s found some healing. He still remembers the first CBIB funeral he presided at.
“I felt the power of life that day,” he told CNA. “It was cold. I had no idea I would kneel in front of each little coffin and pray for each child and each family with my hand touching each coffin.”
Volunteers hugged each family member, he recalled.
Deacon Ricky Suprean at the burial of two babies at the crypt at St. Patrick’s Cemetery in New Orleans. Credit: Photo courtesy of Compassionate Burials for Indigent Babies
“God has allowed me to give a proper burial to my own two lost children through CBIB time and time again,” Suprean said.
“God created these children in my wife’s womb, and they will be waiting for us in heaven,” Suprean continued.
Struggling to process grief is common with loss of children, according to Naccari.
“Too often people are hurting so much and don’t want to face a funeral,” Naccari said. “They feel vulnerable and so it is easier to turn away and do nothing.”
“But on the contrary, I have observed that these funerals provide consolation, comfort, solace, and even a healthy way of healing after the loss of a baby,” Naccari said.
“It’s a good grief,” Naccari continued. “Funerals are about love and holding onto friends and family at a time of need. It can be life-changing.”
Some funerals have had as many as 100 people in attendance.
Many volunteers are “faithfully committed” to being present at every funeral.
“It could be freezing cold or blistering hot in the summer, but they just show up and either help set up, greet the parents, or stand tall next to a casket to show the love of Jesus to our families,” Naccari said.
The altar at a burial at the crypt at St. Patrick’s Cemetery in New Orleans. CBIB has buried hundreds of babies at the crypt. Credit: Photo courtesy of Compassionate Burials for Indigent Babies
These funerals “allow parents that special moment to mourn their loss and to remember their little one and ponder the person that little one could have been,” Naccari said.
“CBIB celebrates each life, and we believe that God somehow rights all the wrongs and makes all things new,” Naccari said. “And then we move to the next funeral.”
A reading from the Second Book of Maccabees 2, 7:1, 20-31
It happened that seven brothers with their mother were arrested and tortured with whips and scourges by the king, to force them to eat pork in violation of God’s law.
Most admirable and worthy of everlasting remembrance was the mother, who saw her seven sons perish in a single day, yet bore it courageously because of her hope in the Lord. Filled with a noble spirit that stirred her womanly heart with manly courage, she exhorted each of them in the language of their ancestors with these words: "I do not know how you came into existence in my womb; it was not I who gave you the breath of life, nor was it I who set in order the elements of which each of you is composed. Therefore, since it is the Creator of the universe who shapes each man’s beginning, as he brings about the origin of everything, he, in his mercy, will give you back both breath and life, because you now disregard yourselves for the sake of his law."
Antiochus, suspecting insult in her words, thought he was being ridiculed. As the youngest brother was still alive, the king appealed to him, not with mere words, but with promises on oath, to make him rich and happy if he would abandon his ancestral customs: he would make him his Friend and entrust him with high office. When the youth paid no attention to him at all, the king appealed to the mother, urging her to advise her boy to save his life. After he had urged her for a long time, she went through the motions of persuading her son. In derision of the cruel tyrant, she leaned over close to her son and said in their native language: "Son, have pity on me, who carried you in my womb for nine months, nursed you for three years, brought you up, educated and supported you to your present age. I beg you, child, to look at the heavens and the earth and see all that is in them; then you will know that God did not make them out of existing things; and in the same way the human race came into existence. Do not be afraid of this executioner, but be worthy of your brothers and accept death, so that in the time of mercy I may receive you again with them."
She had scarcely finished speaking when the youth said: "What are you waiting for? I will not obey the king’s command. I obey the command of the law given to our fathers through Moses. But you, who have contrived every kind of affliction for the Hebrews, will not escape the hands of God."
From the Gospel accoording to Luke 19:11-28
While people were listening to Jesus speak, he proceeded to tell a parable because he was near Jerusalem and they thought that the Kingdom of God would appear there immediately. So he said, "A nobleman went off to a distant country to obtain the kingship for himself and then to return. He called ten of his servants and gave them ten gold coins and told them, ‘Engage in trade with these until I return.’ His fellow citizens, however, despised him and sent a delegation after him to announce, ‘We do not want this man to be our king.’ But when he returned after obtaining the kingship, he had the servants called, to whom he had given the money, to learn what they had gained by trading. The first came forward and said, ‘Sir, your gold coin has earned ten additional ones.’ He replied, ‘Well done, good servant! You have been faithful in this very small matter; take charge of ten cities.’ Then the second came and reported, ‘Your gold coin, sir, has earned five more.’ And to this servant too he said, ‘You, take charge of five cities.’ Then the other servant came and said, ‘Sir, here is your gold coin; I kept it stored away in a handkerchief, for I was afraid of you, because you are a demanding man; you take up what you did not lay down and you harvest what you did not plant.’ He said to him, ‘With your own words I shall condemn you, you wicked servant. You knew I was a demanding man, taking up what I did not lay down and harvesting what I did not plant; why did you not put my money in a bank? Then on my return I would have collected it with interest.’ And to those standing by he said, ‘Take the gold coin from him and give it to the servant who has ten.’ But they said to him, ‘Sir, he has ten gold coins.’ He replied, ‘I tell you, to everyone who has, more will be given, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. Now as for those enemies of mine who did not want me as their king, bring them here and slay them before me.’"
After he had said this, he proceeded on his journey up to Jerusalem.
Fear always immobilizes and often leads to making bad choices. Fear discourages us from taking the initiative; it induces us to take refuge in secure and guaranteed solutions, and thus end up not accomplishing anything good. To move forward and grow on the journey of life, we must not have fear; we must have faith.
This parable helps us understand how important it is to have a true concept of God. We must not think that he is a cruel, hard and severe master who wishes to punish us. If this mistaken image of God is within us our life cannot be fruitful, because we will live in fear and this will not lead us to anything constructive. On the contrary, fear paralyzes us; it causes our self-destruction. (…) And Jesus always showed us that God is not a severe or intolerant master, but a father full of love, of tenderness, a father full of goodness. Therefore, we can and must have immense faith in him. (Pope Francis, Angelus, 19 November 2017)
NJ’s longest-running group home opens doors at new location #Catholic –
Christmas came early at Murray House in Clifton, N.J.
“Welcome home!” Joanna Miller, executive director of the Department for Persons with Disabilities (DPD) of Catholic Charities of the Paterson Diocese in N.J., and her staff exclaimed as they greeted clients of Murray House, a group home for men and women with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Murray House staff and clients joined diocesan and community leaders, family members, and volunteers for the blessing and ribbon-cutting celebration of the group home’s new location on Nov. 14. DPD is part of Catholic Charities.
Opened in 1971, Murray House was the first group home for men and women with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the Garden State. The home is named in honor of Jimmie Murray, who had a developmental disability and died in 1969. DPD aims to make the move to the new location by Christmas.
Residents were excited to tour the home and see their bedrooms freshly painted in the colors they selected. Laura Beahm said her sister, a resident of Murray House for 14 years, is looking forward to moving in.
“My sister called me every day about it. The house is beautiful. I love the garden, the ramp. It makes you feel so safe,” Beahm said.
Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney led the blessing and prayer.
“We thank God for the gift of life and the gift of family. And the family needs a home. And we’re so grateful to all those who have made this moment possible. We pray that every family would know peace and happiness in a safe home,” Bishop Sweeney said.
During the ribbon-cutting, Miller presented a plaque to the Murray family for its dedication, in partnership with DPD, for more than 50 years in making the home “a beacon of compassion and dignity.”
Jimmie’s brothers, Dennis Murray, vice president of the board of Catholic Charities, and Patrick Murray, officer in charge of the Paterson Police Department, and other family members, celebrated the milestone with residents and the community. The late Father Jack Wehrlen, founder of DPD, and the Murray family opened the first Murray House in 1971.
Bishop Sweeney thanked community and government leaders for their support, including U.S. Rep. Nellie Pou and State Sen. Kristin Corrado, both of whom attended the event.
“This is a sign of hope in this Jubilee Year of Hope for the Church. Look what we can do when we work together as neighbors and as a community,” Bishop Sweeney said.
The lawmakers applauded the Murray family and the DPD staff for their commitment to helping the residents flourish and grow. They wished the residents much happiness in their home.
“All of you will become one family. That is what we all want,” Pou said.
Corrado noted that there was a time when homes like Murray House were not available for “our most special and wonderful residents with intellectual and developmental disabilities.” It takes a village, said Corrado, adding, “Every person in this room is part of that village.”
Scott Milliken, CEO of Catholic Charities, said it has been their dream to relocate Murray House so that the residents can age in place.
“It’s a testament to our belief that every person deserves to age with dignity, independence, safety, and comfort. This fully accessible ranch-style home in Clifton will ensure they can continue to thrive safely in the place they love. Murray House has set the standard for compassionate, person-centered care for over five decades. This relocation honors that legacy while securing their future,” Milliken said. “This is your home, and you can stay here for a very long time. Enjoy it, live well, and prosper.”
Celebrating its 60th anniversary, DPD operates 10 group homes and one supervised apartment program, with a new group home scheduled to open in Morris County in 2026, to help individuals live with dignity and respect. DPD has been accredited by the Council on Accreditation since 1986 and is the only provider in the intellectual and developmental disabilities field in New Jersey to hold this accreditation.
Miller also said it was essential to the Catholic Charities staff to keep Murray House in Clifton because the residents have been part of the community’s fabric, and their day and support programs are nearby.
“They’re engaged in many activities. They worship there. They shop there. They take part in recreational activities and all the different activities that make Clifton a great place for them,” Miller said.
– Christmas came early at Murray House in Clifton, N.J. “Welcome home!” Joanna Miller, executive director of the Department for Persons with Disabilities (DPD) of Catholic Charities of the Paterson Diocese in N.J., and her staff exclaimed as they greeted clients of Murray House, a group home for men and women with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Murray House staff and clients joined diocesan and community leaders, family members, and volunteers for the blessing and ribbon-cutting celebration of the group home’s new location on Nov. 14. DPD is part of Catholic Charities. Opened in 1971, Murray House was the first group home
Sparta Knights reach fundraising goal for medical center #Catholic –
On a brisk, windy November morning, the Knights of Columbus Marquette Council 588 in New Jersey held its annual street collection fundraiser, benefiting Deborah Heart and Lung Center and accomplished their financial goal.
“Deborah Heart and Lung Center is New Jersey’s premier provider of high-quality heart, lung and vascular care. The Deborah Foundation relies annually on the generous support of individuals, corporations, foundations and membership organizations. Deborah has never issued a bill to a patient,” according to the Marquette Council. “Thank you to the Sparta and Sussex County communities for your charitable contributions to this critical, life-saving organization.”
The Marquette Council serves three Sussex County parishes in New Jersey: Our Lady of the Lake in Sparta, St. Thomas of Aquin in Ogdensburg, and Immaculate Conception in Franklin.
– On a brisk, windy November morning, the Knights of Columbus Marquette Council 588 in New Jersey held its annual street collection fundraiser, benefiting Deborah Heart and Lung Center and accomplished their financial goal. “Deborah Heart and Lung Center is New Jersey’s premier provider of high-quality heart, lung and vascular care. The Deborah Foundation relies annually on the generous support of individuals, corporations, foundations and membership organizations. Deborah has never issued a bill to a patient,” according to the Marquette Council. “Thank you to the Sparta and Sussex County communities for your charitable contributions to this critical, life-saving organization.” Click here
Children play as procession participants wait to enter the Shrine of St. Rose Philippine Duchesne for adoration. / Credit: Jonah McKeown/CNA
CNA Staff, Nov 18, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).
On Nov. 18 the Catholic Church celebrates the feast day of St. Rose Philippine Duchesne, a French religious sister who came to the United States as a missionary in the 1800s.
Rose was born on Aug. 29, 1769, in Grenoble, France. On the day of her baptism, she received the names Philip, honoring the apostle, and Rose, honoring St. Rose of Lima. She was educated at the Convent of the Visitation of Ste. Marie d’en Haut and became drawn to contemplative life. At the age of 18, she became a novice at the convent.
During the revolution in France, Rose’s community was dispersed and she ended up returning to her family home. After the Concordat of 1801, she tried to rebuild her community’s monastery but was unable to do so.
In 1804, Rose heard of a new congregation — the Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She became a novice in the society that same year.
Despite her great desire for contemplative life, Rose also felt a calling for missionary work.
In a letter she wrote to Mother Madeleine Sophie Barat, the foundress of the society, Rose described an experience she had during adoration: “I spent the entire night in the New World … carrying the Blessed Sacrament to all parts of the land … I had all my sacrifices to offer: a mother, sisters, family, my mountain! When you say to me ‘now I send you,’ I will respond quickly, ‘I go.’”
In 1818, Rose was finally sent to do missionary work. Bishop Louis William Valentine DuBourg, the St. Louis area’s first bishop, was looking for a congregation of educators to help him evangelize the children of the diocese. At St. Charles, near St. Louis, Rose founded the first house of the society outside of France.
That same year, Rose and four other sisters opened the first free school for Native American children in the United States. By 1828 Rose had founded six schools.
The saint once said: “You may dazzle the mind with a thousand brilliant discoveries of natural science; you may open new worlds of knowledge which were never dreamed of before; yet, if you have not developed in the soul of the pupil strong habits of virtue, which will sustain her in the struggle of life, you have not educated her.”
Rose always carried a desire to serve Native Americans. In 1841, at the age of 71, she established a school for Potawatomi girls in Sugar Creek, Kansas. She spent a year with the Potawatomi, spending much of her time in prayer because she was unable to help with much of the physical work. They gave her the name “Quah-kah-ka-num-ad,” which means “woman who is always praying.”
In 1842, Rose returned to St. Charles and died there on Nov. 18, 1852, at the age of 83. She was declared a saint by Pope John Paul II on July 3, 1988, and is buried at the Shrine of St. Rose Philippine Duchesne in St. Charles, Missouri.
This story was first published on Nov. 18, 2024, and has been updated.
A reading from the First Book of Maccabees [From the descendants of Alexander’s officers] 2, 6:18-31
Eleazar, one of the foremost scribes, a man of advanced age and noble appearance, was being forced to open his mouth to eat pork. But preferring a glorious death to a life of defilement, he spat out the meat, and went forward of his own accord to the instrument of torture, as people ought to do who have the courage to reject the food which it is unlawful to taste even for love of life. Those in charge of that unlawful ritual meal took the man aside privately, because of their long acquaintance with him, and urged him to bring meat of his own providing, such as he could legitimately eat, and to pretend to be eating some of the meat of the sacrifice prescribed by the king; in this way he would escape the death penalty, and be treated kindly because of their old friendship with him. But Eleazar made up his mind in a noble manner, worthy of his years, the dignity of his advanced age, the merited distinction of his gray hair, and of the admirable life he had lived from childhood; and so he declared that above all he would be loyal to the holy laws given by God.
He told them to send him at once to the abode of the dead, explaining: “At our age it would be unbecoming to make such a pretense; many young people would think the ninety-year-old Eleazar had gone over to an alien religion. Should I thus pretend for the sake of a brief moment of life, they would be led astray by me, while I would bring shame and dishonor on my old age. Even if, for the time being, I avoid the punishment of men, I shall never, whether alive or dead, escape the hands of the Almighty. Therefore, by manfully giving up my life now, I will prove myself worthy of my old age, and I will leave to the young a noble example of how to die willingly and generously for the revered and holy laws.”
Eleazar spoke thus, and went immediately to the instrument of torture. Those who shortly before had been kindly disposed, now became hostile toward him because what he had said seemed to them utter madness. When he was about to die under the blows, he groaned and said: “The Lord in his holy knowledge knows full well that, although I could have escaped death, I am not only enduring terrible pain in my body from this scourging, but also suffering it with joy in my soul because of my devotion to him.” This is how he died, leaving in his death a model of courage and an unforgettable example of virtue not only for the young but for the whole nation.
From the Gospel accoording to Luke 19:1-10
At that time Jesus came to Jericho and intended to pass through the town. Now a man there named Zacchaeus, who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man, was seeking to see who Jesus was; but he could not see him because of the crowd, for he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus, who was about to pass that way. When he reached the place, Jesus looked up and said, “Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house.” And he came down quickly and received him with joy. When they saw this, they began to grumble, saying, “He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner.” But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.”
Zacchaeus wants to see Jesus. Something drives him to see him. “He ran on ahead”, says the Gospel, “and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass that way” (v. 4). He climbed a sycamore: Zacchaeus, the man who dominated all, makes a fool of himself, takes the path of the ridiculous, to see Jesus. Let us think a little of what would happen if, for instance, a minister of the economy climbed a tree to look at something: he would risk mockery. And Zacchaeus risked mockery to see Jesus, he made himself look ridiculous. Zacchaeus, in his lowliness, feels the need to seek another gaze, that of Christ. He does not know him yet, but he awaits someone who will free him from his condition — morally low — to bring him out of the mire in which he finds himself. This is fundamental: Zacchaeus teaches us that, in life, all is never lost. Please, all is never lost, never! We can always make room for the desire to begin again, to start over, to convert. (Pope Francis, Angelus, 30 October 2022)
Jessica Williams and her 3-year-old daughter were helped by First Choice Pregnancy Services in Las Vegas. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America
CNA Staff, Nov 17, 2025 / 16:11 pm (CNA).
When Jessica Williams became pregnant with another man’s child while she and her husband were separated, her husband pressured her to abort the child.
As soon as she took the first abortion pill, mifepristone, she regretted it.
“As a nurse, the reality of what I had done had hit me hard,” said Williams, who was nine weeks pregnant at the time. “Here I was working to save lives and about to take one of my own child’s lives.”
But as a nurse, Williams knew that in spite of the pill cutting off the progesterone supply to her child, the baby might still be alive. She hadn’t yet taken the second pill, misoprostol, which would expel the child from her body.
When she found a pregnancy center, First Choice Pregnancy Services in Las Vegas, staff immediately brought her in for an ultrasound.
“They provided a free ultrasound, and that moment changed everything,” she said.
Her baby was still alive.
First Choice helped her through the abortion pill reversal process, a practice to reverse the effects of mifepristone soon after the woman takes the first abortion pill.
Now, her daughter is a “healthy” and “thriving” 3-year-old, Williams said when she shared her story at a Nov. 17 online press conference.
Williams is one of many women who have received help from pregnancy resource centers.
Pregnancy centers across the U.S. “provided over $452 million in total medical care, support and education services, and material goods in 2024,” according to a Nov. 17 report by the Charlotte Lozier Institute.
Pregnancy centers saw a total of 1 million new patients last year, “which is the equivalent of each center serving a new client every day in 2024,” Karen Czarnecki, the head of Charlotte Lozier Institute, said during the press conference.
During the press conference, Marjorie Dannenfelser, head of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, called pregnancy centers the “beating heart” of pro-life movement.
Pregnancy centers, Dannenfelser said, “are going to the roots of the problem” by providing support for mothers across the board, whether they are struggling with addiction, domestic abuse, homelessness, completing school, or any other challenge.
Report debunks false claims about pregnancy centers
Dannenfelser noted there are some claims “often unchecked in the media” that call pregnancy centers “fake clinics” or say they “don’t have licensed medical staff.”
“This is flat-out false,” Dannenfelser said. “Eight in 10 centers are providing free or low-cost medical services, staffed by over 10,000 medical professionals.”
More than 80% of these centers provide ultrasound services, according to the report. Many of the centers also provide STD and STI testing and treatment, as well as abortion pill reversal, like in Williams’ experience.
The report also found a 98% satisfaction rate among their clients — something Williams attested to.
“They greeted me gently and were nonjudgmental,” Williams said of the staff and volunteers at the pregnancy clinic she went to. “They provided a safe, calm space for me, emotionally, spiritually.”
“They gave me information and education without pushing me in any direction,” she continued. “They simply supported me in whatever path I chose.”
More than three years later, Williams still keeps up with the women at the clinic.
“I’m meeting with these ladies every month still,” Williams said. “They’re just a phone call, a text away, anything I need. I mean, we’re just almost becoming a family now.”
Pregnancy centers also provide material, educational, and emotional support. For instance, 92% of centers offer material items to women in need. On average, each pregnancy center distributed six-packs of diapers and five baby outfits every day, according to the report.
First Choice “provided diapers, material support, emotional and spiritual support groups, parenting resources, community connections, and just so much practical help in general,” Williams said. “It was a level of compassion that carried me through my entire pregnancy.”
Offering material support is a growing effort in the pro-life movement. At pregnancy centers, material support has grown by more than 300% from 2019 to 2024.
Many pregnancy centers also offer a variety of other resources, including childbirth classes, breastfeeding consultations, and outreach to victims of human trafficking.
“Even right now, they’re doing a monthly get-together — we get to network with other mamas,” Williams said. “We’re [able] to access any resources.”
The majority of pregnancy centers also help support women who are recovering from abortions.
Williams said the women at the clinic “understood the pressure and fear” she was under to abort. Even after the reversal, her husband drove her to an abortion clinic when she was 16 weeks pregnant “to finish the job,” she said.
“The clinic was on the same exact street [where] I saved my baby,” she said. “I couldn’t do it and demanded he take me home. I now know that the strategic location has also saved many other babies.”
“They created a safe place for me to heal and feel supported,” she said of the clinic.
With patriotism, Sparta Knights help honor vets at celebration #Catholic –
Five Knights of Columbus from Marquette Council 588 participated in the Sparta Veterans Day celebration in New Jersey at Sparta Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 7248. Bishop Emeritus Paul Bootkoski of the Metuchen Diocese in New Jersey gave a blessing to the crowd. He is chaplain of the Sparta VFW and the New Jersey Knights of Columbus.
“With deep patriotism, a key principle of the Knights of Columbus, we honor the veterans who served our nation by defending the Constitution of the United States,” according to the Marquette Council.
The Marquette Council serves three Sussex County parishes in New Jersey: Our Lady of the Lake in Sparta, St. Thomas of Aquin in Ogdensburg, and Immaculate Conception in Franklin.
– Five Knights of Columbus from Marquette Council 588 participated in the Sparta Veterans Day celebration in New Jersey at Sparta Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 7248. Bishop Emeritus Paul Bootkoski of the Metuchen Diocese in New Jersey gave a blessing to the crowd. He is chaplain of the Sparta VFW and the New Jersey Knights of Columbus. “With deep patriotism, a key principle of the Knights of Columbus, we honor the veterans who served our nation by defending the Constitution of the United States,” according to the Marquette Council. Click here to subscribe to our weekly newsletter. The Marquette
Holy Spirit School honors veterans with heartfelt ceremony #Catholic –
Holy Spirit School in Pequannock, N.J., honored and remembered the brave men and women who have selflessly served the United States both at home and abroad during a Veterans Day ceremony on Nov. 11.
Students, teachers, parents, and guests filled the gym. They welcomed members from American Legion Post 450, including Dennis Porpora, Daniel Boyle, Pat McKevor, and Morris County American Legion Vice Commander Dominick Sabol Sr. The ceremony began with a prayer of gratitude for all who serve or have served and a moment of silence for those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
Filippini Sister Marie Antonelli, principal of Holy Spirit School, spoke about the importance of Veterans Day. She reminded students that when they see men and women in military uniform, they should express gratitude and remember the many freedoms and liberties that we enjoy as Americans.
Several Holy Spirit School families who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces joined the celebration, including Gregory Mazloom (U.S. Navy), Brady Moore (U.S. Army Green Berets), and Andrew Exposito (U.S. Marine Corps).
During the ceremony, Mazloom shared his experiences serving in the Navy, speaking about teamwork, perseverance, and the honor of representing the United States. His words encouraged students to appreciate the freedoms they enjoy and recognize the sacrifices made to protect them.
Mazloom and Moore led a flag-folding demonstration. The gymnasium fell silent for the playing of “Taps” by eighth grader Christiano Levia on the trumpet.
McKevor, one of Holy Spirit School’s earliest alumni and a veteran, was specially recognized for his service to the nation and lifelong dedication to the Holy Spirit community. He shared memories from his student days and expressed his joy at seeing the next generation continue the school’s traditions.
Paul J. Hirsch is the academic dean and technology coordinator, and an eighth-grade religion teacher at Holy Spirit School in Pequannock, N.J.
PHOTOS | PAUL J. HIRSCH
[See image gallery at beaconnj.org] – Holy Spirit School in Pequannock, N.J., honored and remembered the brave men and women who have selflessly served the United States both at home and abroad during a Veterans Day ceremony on Nov. 11. Students, teachers, parents, and guests filled the gym. They welcomed members from American Legion Post 450, including Dennis Porpora, Daniel Boyle, Pat McKevor, and Morris County American Legion Vice Commander Dominick Sabol Sr. The ceremony began with a prayer of gratitude for all who serve or have served and a moment of silence for those who made the ultimate sacrifice. Filippini Sister Marie Antonelli, principal of
Organizers of Pope Leo XIV’s upcoming digital dialogue with young people Nov. 21 at the National Catholic Youth Conference in Indianapolis speak to the media at the site of the United States Catholic Bishops’ Conference Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore on Nov. 12, 2025. Left to right: Cardinal Christophe Pierre, papal nuncio to the United States; Montse Alvarado, president and COO of EWTN News; Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez, Archdiocese of Philadelphia; Christina Lamas, executive director of National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry; and Archbishop Charles Thompson, Archdiocese of Indianapolis. / Credit: Shannon Mullen/National Catholic Register
Baltimore, Maryland, Nov 17, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).
Bishops discussed young Catholics’ place in the Church ahead of the National Catholic Youth Conference.
At the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore, bishops spoke about the young generation as many prepare to attend NCYC. The conference will take place Nov. 20–22 in Indianapolis for prayer, community, evangelization, and service among Catholic teenagers.
During NCYC, Pope Leo XIV will hold a digital dialogue with teens from across the nation. “When the pope speaks, he speaks to the world, and this will be a wonderful, wonderful moment. This encounter will engage young people in real time,” said Archbishop Nelson Pérez of Philadelphia.
At a Nov. 12 press conference at the USCCB fall plenary, Pérez said “there is a deep significance to this encounter.” He added: “It reflects the Holy Father’s desire to connect with young people, with our youth, whom his predecessor … Pope Francis, called ‘the now of God.’”
Pérez said during his time as a priest and bishop, he has noticed teenagers “want a place in the Church.” He said: “They want to be seen, heard, and valued, which is so beautiful … They want to be loved by the Church.”
“Even in today’s interconnected world, the Church can seem far away from young people. The Holy Father’s choice to encounter the American youth … is an expression of his closeness to the youth of the world.”
“This moment will mark a powerful opportunity for young people to witness the beauty of the universal Church with our Holy Father and to express their concerns, voices, experience, [and] what’s in their hearts,” Pérez said.
Bishop Joseph Espaillat, auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of New York, has attended NCYC more than a dozen times. He told CNA “the energy and the vibrancy of the young people” is why he returns each year.
“It’s not just the local parish or the local diocese, but it’s the national Church and there’s something powerful when we come together,” Espaillat said.
This year’s event is “the first time ever the Holy Father has a live online interview like this,” at NCYC, Espaillat said. “What I love about it is that the Church in the United States is leading right now. The young people being the focus with our Holy Father is going to be great, and it’s going to produce a lot of positive energy in our Church.”
Espaillat encouraged attendees “to be open and allow yourself to be surprised by the Holy Spirit.” He added: “Don’t go in with a preconceived notion. It is a great event in which there are many, many fruits. I’ve seen young people just come to life at the event.”
Youth draw closer to the Church
As thousands of teenagers plan to gather at the national conference, U.S. bishops further explained why so many young Catholics are looking to the Church. A number of bishops highlighted the Catholic presence on social media is helping to draw them in.
Bishop William Byrne of Springfield, Massachusetts, told CNA the exponential growth of young Catholics coming to the Church is “amazing and exciting.” Byrne, who served as chair for the USCCB’s committee on communications, detailed how much its online presence has grown its outreach to the young generation and wider population.
“Beginning with the illness of our beloved Pope Francis, through the funeral, and then the transition to Pope Leo, we’ve actually had a 226% growth in our social media on the four platforms we use — TikTok, Instagram, X, and YouTube,” he said.
“The amazing thing is, it’s still growing. It means that people are seeing it, sharing it,” Byrne said. He specifically noted it’s the “young people” spreading the message online.
“So we see that we are reaching people,” Byrne said. “But our goal is not to get people locked on their phones. Our goal is to get people locked on Jesus Christ and have the impression be Jesus Christ and his bride, the Church.”
“This is an exciting time. It’s not without its challenges, but it’s also a wonderful opportunity,” Byrne said. “We’re reaching young people who are curious and hungry. It’s so exciting to see the Church continue to speak to the world, because the Church has never lost her relevance.”
The start of the Catholic online presence followed the movement of the new atheists, Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, said. He told CNA the movement was made up of “people who were really shaping the culture, saying: ‘There’s no purpose of life. We come from nowhere. We go nowhere. There’s no objective moral value.’”
“A lot of people, myself included, began to get on social media with a religious voice,” Barron said. “People who had not heard a religious voice or who were disaffiliated … could find people like me and many others who were actually talking about God and about religion.”
“But I think as a whole generation came of age, they realized what a desperately sad and empty message that is,” Barron said. “There’s this hunger in the heart for God, and so that just reasserts itself. I think a lot of younger people who were raised on this very vapid philosophy began to look to religion.”
As more young Catholics get involved in youth formation whether in their parishes or at larger gatherings like NCYC, Barron said he encourages them to use the opportunities to “build community and build a sense of family with other believers.”
Barron, who is the founder of the Catholic media organization Word on Fire, has gained nearly 3 million YouTube subscribers and millions of other followers across social media platforms. But, he said, “one drawback of social media is that it’s a little private world. It can be a lot of people accessing it, but privately.”
“Maybe through social media an individual finds a path to religion, but then to look around a room and see thousands of other people that are on a similar path — that’s a great thing,” Barron said.
Slightly over 10 years after it redefined marriage to include same-sex couples, the U.S. Supreme Court on Nov. 10 declined to revisit that controversial decision, upholding at least for now its ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges that made “gay marriage” the law of the land.
A decade after that ruling, nearly a million same-sex couples in the U.S. are participating in what the law now defines as marriage. Yet the Catholic Church has continued to affirm the definition of marriage as being exclusively a union between a man and a woman.
That has been the prevailing definition of marriage around the world for at least about 5,000 years of human history, though many societies have allowed polygamy, or multiple spouses, in various forms. The same-sex variant of marriage, meanwhile, only became accepted in recent decades.
The Church has held since its beginning that marriage is strictly between one man and one woman. The Catechism of the Catholic Church directs that marriage occurs when “a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life.” It is “by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring.”
Church Fathers and theologians from the earliest days of Catholicism have consistently upheld that marriage is meant to be a lifelong, permanent union between one man and one woman, with St. Augustine explicitly naming “offspring” as one of the blessings of marriage, along with “fidelity” and “the sacramental bond.”
Gay marriage a ‘misnomer’ by Church teaching
John Grabowski, a professor of moral theology at The Catholic University of America, told CNA that marriage in the Catholic Church’s teaching is based on “unity, indissolubility, and [is ordered] toward life,” or the begetting of children.
“Those criteria can only be met in a union between a man and a woman,” he said. “They cannot be met in a union between two men and two women. ‘Gay marriage’ is thus a misnomer in the Church’s understanding.”
The Supreme Court’s redefinition of marriage, Grabowski argued, was an act of “judicial fiat” rather than a recognition of what marriage actually is. He said the high court was functioning more as a “cultural barometer” reflecting an erroneous shift in perception on what marriage is.
“It would be similar to if the court passed a rule saying we could call a square a circle,” he said. “It’s just not based on the reality of the natural world.”
The Obergefell ruling came after years of LGBT activist efforts to redefine marriage both within individual states and at the federal level. Advocates had argued that there was no meaningful reason to restrict marriage to opposite-sex couples and that to do so constituted discrimination.
Many critics have claimed that the Church’s broader teaching on marriage actually left the door open for same-sex couples to marry — for instance, they argued, by allowing opposite-sex couples to marry even if one or both of the spouses are infertile, the Church implicitly divorces biological childbearing from marriage itself.
Grabowski acknowledged that the Church does allow infertile couples to get married (and to stay married if infertility occurs at a later date). But he pointed out that the Church does in fact prohibit marriage for those who are impotent, or constitutionally incapable of intercourse.
The key point for the Church, he said, is what St. John Paul II called the “spousal meaning of the body.” The late pope argued that men and women “exist in the relationship of the reciprocal gift of self,” ordered to the communion of “one flesh” of which the Bible speaks in Genesis.
The Church’s teaching, Grabowski said, “is based on the natural law. It tells us that the way God designed us is for the good of our flourishing, both as individuals and as the good of society.”
Though marriage advocates have continued to criticize the Supreme Court’s decision over the past decade, others have at times suggested a pivot away from directly challenging it at the legal level.
In 2017, for instance, Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, Bishop Robert Barron affirmed his opposition to gay marriage but questioned “the prudence and wisdom” of attempting to legislatively outlaw it at that time. The bishop suggested instead that “personal witness and education” were better tools for the current political climate.
Grabowski acknowledged that one “could say, realistically, the ship has sailed and the political question is dead.”
“But that’s a political judgment,” he said. Catholics should not lose sight of the goal to reestablish correct laws on marriage, he argued.
“In terms of something to hope for, pray for, and to the degree that we’re able to, work for it — that’s something Catholics should aspire to.”
A reading from the First Book of Maccabees [From the descendants of Alexander’s officers] 1:10-15, 41-43, 54-57, 62-63
there sprang a sinful offshoot, Antiochus Epiphanes, son of King Antiochus, once a hostage at Rome. He became king in the year one hundred and thirty seven of the kingdom of the Greeks.
In those days there appeared in Israel men who were breakers of the law, and they seduced many people, saying: "Let us go and make an alliance with the Gentiles all around us; since we separated from them, many evils have come upon us." The proposal was agreeable; some from among the people promptly went to the king, and he authorized them to introduce the way of living of the Gentiles. Thereupon they built a gymnasium in Jerusalem according to the Gentile custom. They covered over the mark of their circumcision and abandoned the holy covenant; they allied themselves with the Gentiles and sold themselves to wrongdoing.
Then the king wrote to his whole kingdom that all should be one people, each abandoning his particular customs. All the Gentiles conformed to the command of the king, and many children of Israel were in favor of his religion; they sacrificed to idols and profaned the sabbath.
On the fifteenth day of the month Chislev, in the year one hundred and forty-five, the king erected the horrible abomination upon the altar of burnt offerings and in the surrounding cities of Judah they built pagan altars. They also burned incense at the doors of the houses and in the streets. Any scrolls of the law which they found they tore up and burnt. Whoever was found with a scroll of the covenant, and whoever observed the law, was condemned to death by royal decree. But many in Israel were determined and resolved in their hearts not to eat anything unclean; they preferred to die rather than to be defiled with unclean food or to profane the holy covenant; and they did die. Terrible affliction was upon Israel.
From the Gospel accoording to Luke 18:35-43
As Jesus approached Jericho a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging, and hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what was happening. They told him, "Jesus of Nazareth is passing by." He shouted, "Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!" The people walking in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent, but he kept calling out all the more, "Son of David, have pity on me!" Then Jesus stopped and ordered that he be brought to him; and when he came near, Jesus asked him, "What do you want me to do for you?" He replied, "Lord, please let me see." Jesus told him, "Have sight; your faith has saved you." He immediately received his sight and followed him, giving glory to God. When they saw this, all the people gave praise to God.
The figure of this blind man represents the many people who, today too, are marginalized because of a disability, be it physical or of another kind. He is separated from the flock, sitting there while people pass by: busy, lost in their thoughts and in so many things…. And the road, which could be a place of encounter, for him is instead a place of solitude. Crowds pass by … and he is alone. (…) Jesus stopped, and commanded that he be brought to him” (v. 40). By doing so, Jesus takes the blind man away from the roadside and puts him at the centre of the attention of His disciples and of the crowd. Let us also think about when we have been in awful situations, including situations of sin, how it was in fact Jesus who took us by the hand away from the roadside and gave us salvation. (…) Jesus also passes by in your Life; and when Jesus passes by, and I realize it, it is an invitation to draw near to him, to be better, to be a better Christian, to follow Jesus. (Pope Francis, General Audience, 15 June 2016)
The University of Notre Dame. / Credit: Matt B. via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 16, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).
Here’s a roundup of the latest Catholic education news in the United States:
Notre Dame drops ‘acceptance and support for Catholic mission’ from staff values
The University of Notre Dame has dropped acceptance and support for its Catholic mission from the list of staff values it has held for the past 20 years.
The university’s leadership announced new updates to its staff values at its Fall 2025 Staff Town Halls on Oct. 29 and 30, according to a press release. Human Resources President Heather Christophersen said the new values were “an expression of how we seek to advance Notre Dame’s mission as a global, Catholic research university.”
Prior to the change, Notre Dame’s staff values were as follows:
— Accountability: Takes responsibility and ownership for decisions, actions, and results. Accountable for both how and what is accomplished
— Teamwork: Works cooperatively as a member of a team and is committed to the overall team objectives rather than own interests
— Integrity: Demonstrates honest and ethical behavior that displays a high moral standard. Widely trusted, respectful, and honorable
— Leadership in Excellence: Demonstrates energy and commitment to improving results, takes initiatives often involving calculated risks while considering the common good
— Leadership in Mission: Understands, accepts, and supports the Catholic mission of the university and fosters values consistent with that mission
The new and pared down values and their descriptions are:
— Community: Treat every person with dignity and respect.
— Collaboration: Work together with honesty, kindness, and humility.
— Excellence: Pursue the highest standards with a commitment to truth and service.
— Innovation: Embrace opportunities with creativity and dedication.
According to the Notre Dame Observer, Christophersen said in an email to staff that the former Notre Dame values “had only one value that pointed into mission” and that the decision to remove the “Leadership in Mission” value was motivated by a desire to reframe the school’s Catholic mission as all-encompassing. She said the old values had caused confusion in staff evaluation processes during annual performance reviews and that the school does not monitor religious affiliation for staff in the same way as faculty and students.
Notre Dame did not return multiple requests for comment.
University of St. Francis and Belleville Diocese announce student admission partnership
The University of St. Francis (USF) and the Diocese of Belleville, Illinois, have announced a new partnership guaranteeing admission for diocesan high school graduates.
Students from Althoff Catholic High School, Mater Dei Catholic High School, and Gibault Catholic High School will have guaranteed admission at the university as well as the opportunity to earn scholarships of up to $3,000.
“We are so pleased with this partnership and look forward to welcoming students from the Catholic high schools within the Belleville Diocese,” University of St. Francis President Ryan C. Hendrickson said in a press release announcing the partnership.
“In addition to the guaranteed admission, USF plans to host workshops and information sessions for diocese-based school counselors, teachers, parents, and prospective students. USF will also offer campus visitation days, facilitating exploration and engagement with the diocese schools,” the release stated.
Archdiocese of Hartford to open 2 new Catholic schools amid Mass attendance boom
The Archdiocese of Hartford, Connecticut, will open two new Catholic schools next year as Mass attendance and renewed interest in the faith continues to rise.
“A lot of the decisions that are being made in the public-school systems are not decisions that a lot of people find easy to hold, and they’re looking for places where they could just find a little bit less politics,” Archbishop Christopher Coyne said, emphasizing the important role of Catholic schools in this environment, according to a local report. Coyne said elsewhere that the new school openings come amid “a great reversal of the downward trends we experienced before and during COVID.”
One of the schools, Chesterton Academy of St. Francis of Assisi, will accept ninth and 10th grade students in fall 2026. The other school, the Catholic Academy of Hartford, will accept pre-K through second graders starting in the fall, adding a grade each year until it reaches the eighth grade. The school will operate on an income-based tuition model.
St. Anselm College announces reception of $40 million gift
St. Anselm College, a Benedictine liberal arts school in New Hampshire, announced a $40 million gift, the largest donation in the school’s 136-year history.
The gift was from Robert and Beverly Grappone, whose son, Greg, graduated from the college in 2004 and passed away from cancer at the age of 35. “While many colleges and universities are struggling in a challenging higher education environment, St. Anselm is fortunate to have a different story,” the college said in a press release announcing the historic gift. “The college has seen enrollment growth over the last four years, increasing each year since the post-COVID class. This year’s incoming freshmen class set a record with 647 students. The college has a retention rate of 90%.”
The gift includes $11 million designated for the school of business, which will be named the Robert J. Grappone School of Business and Innovation, a $5 million endowment to the Grappone Humanities Institute, and “multimillion dollar renovations” to the school’s residence halls, support for the athletic complex, an endowment for the school’s nursing program, scholarships, and further campus improvements.
Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven, when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire, leaving them neither root nor branch, says the LORD of hosts. But for you who fear my name, there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays.
A reading from the Second Letter of St. Paul to the Thessalonians 2, 3:7-12
Brothers and sisters: You know how one must imitate us. For we did not act in a disorderly way among you, nor did we eat food received free from anyone. On the contrary, in toil and drudgery, night and day we worked, so as not to burden any of you. Not that we do not have the right. Rather, we wanted to present ourselves as a model for you, so that you might imitate us. In fact, when we were with you, we instructed you that if anyone was unwilling to work, neither should that one eat. We hear that some are conducting themselves among you in a disorderly way, by not keeping busy but minding the business of others. Such people we instruct and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to work quietly and to eat their own food.
From the Gospel according to Luke 21:5-19
While some people were speaking about how the temple was adorned with costly stones and votive offerings, Jesus said, "All that you see here– the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down."
Then they asked him, "Teacher, when will this happen? And what sign will there be when all these things are about to happen?" He answered, "See that you not be deceived, for many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and ‘The time has come.’ Do not follow them! When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for such things must happen first, but it will not immediately be the end." Then he said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues from place to place; and awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky.
"Before all this happens, however, they will seize and persecute you, they will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons, and they will have you led before kings and governors because of my name. It will lead to your giving testimony. Remember, you are not to prepare your defense beforehand, for I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute. You will even be handed over by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends, and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name, but not a hair on your head will be destroyed. By your perseverance you will secure your lives."
Today, too, in fact there are false “saviours” who attempt to replace Jesus: worldly leaders, religious gurus, even sorcerers, people who wish to attract hearts and minds to themselves, especially those of young people. Jesus warns us: “Do not follow them, do not follow them!”. The Lord also helps us not to be afraid in the face of war, revolution, natural disasters and epidemics. Jesus frees us from fatalism and false apocalyptic visions. The second aspect challenges us as Christians and as a Church: Jesus predicts that his disciples will have to suffer painful trials and persecution for his sake. He reassures them, however, saying: “Not a hair of your head will perish” (v. 18). This reminds us that we are completely in God’s hands! The trials we encounter for our faith and our commitment to the Gospel are occasions to give witness; we must not distance ourselves from the Lord, but instead abandon ourselves even more to him, to the power of his Spirit and his grace. (Pope Francis, Angelus, 17 November 2013)
The Archdiocese of Denver and a coalition of Catholic preschools are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to allow them to access a Colorado universal preschool program.
The petition to the high court comes after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit ruled in September that Colorado may continue to exclude Catholic preschools from its Universal Preschool Program because of their religious beliefs.
Catholic preschools in Denver ask teachers and families to sign a pledge promising to uphold their religious mission, including teachings on sexuality and gender identity. The Colorado preschool program’s nondiscrimination clause, however, requires schools to uphold provisions on sexual orientation and “gender identity.”
Two Catholic parish preschools and the Denver Archdiocese first filed suit in August 2023 against the requirement.
In a Nov. 14 press release, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty — which has represented the schools and the archdiocese in the lawsuit — said the Catholic schools “are asking the Supreme Court to ensure that Colorado makes good on its promise of universal preschool.”
“Colorado is picking winners and losers based on the content of their religious beliefs,” Nick Reaves, a senior lawyer at Becket, said in the release.
“That sort of religious discrimination flies in the face of our nation’s traditions and decades of Supreme Court rulings,” he said. “We’re asking the court to step in and make sure ‘universal’ preschool really is universal.”
Scott Elmer, who serves as chief mission officer for the Denver Archdiocese, said the schools are seeking “the ability to offer families who choose a Catholic education the same access to free preschool services that’s available at thousands of other preschools across Colorado.”
Becket in its press release said the Colorado rules have had a “predictable effect” in which “enrollment at Catholic preschools has swiftly declined, while two Catholic preschools have shuttered their doors.”
The law group said the lower court rulings go against recent Supreme Court decisions on religious freedom, including Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, which held that the Montana Constitution’s bar on public funding of religious institutions violated the First Amendment.
In May the Supreme Court declined to rule in a contentious case involving what was proposed to be the nation’s first religious charter school, leaving untouched a lower court ruling that forbade the Oklahoma Catholic institution from accessing state funds.
President Donald Trump signs an executive order related to foster care and foster parents on Nov. 13, 2025. / Credit: Alliance Defending Freedom
CNA Staff, Nov 15, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).
U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday that aims to improve the nation’s foster care system, including the modernization of the current child welfare system, the development of partnerships with private sector organizations, and prioritizing the participation of those with sincerely held religious beliefs.
The executive order issued Nov. 13 states that the Trump administration is “dedicated to empowering mothers and fathers to raise their children in safe and loving homes.”
The order says current problems with the foster care system include overworked caseworkers, antiquated information systems, and policies that “prohibit qualified families from serving children in need as foster and adoptive parents because of their sincerely-held religious beliefs or adherence to basic biological truths.”
The legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) has represented Christian families who were barred from serving as foster parents because of their faith, suing on behalf of Brian and Katy Wuoti and Bryan and Rebecca Gantt after the Vermont Department for Children and Families informed the two families that their belief that persons cannot change biological sex and that marriage is only between a man and a woman precluded them from serving as foster parents in the state.
Despite describing the Wuotis and the Gantts as “amazing,” “wonderful,” and “welcoming,” state officials revoked the couples’ foster care licenses after they expressed those beliefs. The state said these beliefs made them “unqualified” to parent any child, regardless of the child’s age, beliefs, or identity.
ADF Senior Counsel Johannes Widmalm-Delphonse, who represents the Wuotis, Gantts, and other Christian families who are prohibited from fostering in lawsuits in Massachusetts, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington, told CNA that he hopes the executive order will lead to the states “prioritizing the best interests of children rather than ideological agendas.”
In the face of shortages of foster families, he said the states should be “pursuing a big tent, welcoming as many loving families as possible. But they’re doing the opposite while children who need foster care are sleeping in unlicensed group homes, police stations, and hospitals.”
Trump’s executive order directs the department of Health and Human Services, the White House Faith Office, and the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs to “take appropriate action to address state and local policies and practices that inappropriately prohibit participation in federally-funded child-welfare programs by qualified individuals or organizations based upon their sincerely-held religious beliefs or moral convictions.”
It also directs those agencies to “increase partnerships between agencies and faith-based organizations and houses of worship to serve families” involved with the foster care system.
Widmalm-Delphonse told CNA it is “difficult to say how the states will respond” to the executive order, indicating that he hopes either the order or the pending lawsuits will lead to changes in their “discriminatory” policies against families of faith.
“The path the states should take is obvious: It’s a win-win when you open up foster care to people of faith and put the interests of children first,” he said.
St. John Paul II. / Credit: Adrian Tusar/Shutterstock
CNA Staff, Nov 15, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).
A new Vatican-set thriller based on a true story is currently in the works, according to Variety.
“Santo Subito!” will follow Father Joseph Murolo, an American priest asked by the Vatican to serve as the “devil’s advocate” in the investigation of Pope John Paul II’s life and his path to sainthood.
The film will take place after the pontiff’s death and follows Murolo, who “must make sure that nothing undermines the sanctification of Karol Wojtyla, the first non-Italian pope in 450 years,” the synopsis reads, as he interviews candidates and witnesses. The description goes on to say that the priest will navigate a “moral labyrinth” that will “put his own faith to the test.”
Murolo will be played by actor Mark Ruffalo, known for his role as Bruce Banner, or the Hulk, in “The Avengers” movies.
Filming is expected to begin on March 9, 2026, on location in Italy and Poland.
“The film offers a genuine behind-the-scenes investigation of the Vatican world, while also taking us into the deeper realm of faith and values,” a co-producer of the film, Nicolas Brigaud-Robert, said. “The script itself is a page-turner, and I can’t imagine any audience remaining indifferent to Father Murolo’s journey.”
In the canonization process of the Catholic Church, the “advocatus diaboli,” or the devil’s advocate, was established to ensure rigorous scrutiny of a candidate’s life, virtues, and reported miracles. The role’s purpose was to consider all possible doubts and inconsistencies, and to present evidence that might challenge claims of holiness, so that only those truly worthy would be declared saints.
However, in 1983, Pope John Paul II reformed the process through the apostolic constitution Divinus Perfectionis Magister, changing the role of the devil’s advocate, also known as the “promoter of faith.” The emphasis shifted from an adversarial model to one more focused on collecting and verifying evidence, with the Congregation for the Causes of Saints overseeing the process.
A reading from the Book of Wisdom 18:14-16; 19:6-9
When peaceful stillness compassed everything and the night in its swift course was half spent, Your all-powerful word, from heaven’s royal throne bounded, a fierce warrior, into the doomed land, bearing the sharp sword of your inexorable decree. And as he alighted, he filled every place with death; he still reached to heaven, while he stood upon the earth.
For all creation, in its several kinds, was being made over anew, serving its natural laws, that your children might be preserved unharmed. The cloud overshadowed their camp; and out of what had before been water, dry land was seen emerging: Out of the Red Sea an unimpeded road, and a grassy plain out of the mighty flood. Over this crossed the whole nation sheltered by your hand, after they beheld stupendous wonders. For they ranged about like horses, and bounded about like lambs, praising you, O Lord! their deliverer.
From the Gospel according to Luke 18:1-8
Jesus told his disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary. He said, “There was a judge in a certain town who neither feared God nor respected any human being. And a widow in that town used to come to him and say, ‘Render a just decision for me against my adversary.’ For a long time the judge was unwilling, but eventually he thought, ‘While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being, because this widow keeps bothering me I shall deliver a just decision for her lest she finally come and strike me.’” The Lord said, “Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says. Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them? I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
This is a serious question. Let us imagine that the Lord came on earth today. Unfortunately, he would see many wars, much poverty and many inequalities, and at the same time, tremendous technical achievements, modern means, and people who are always rushing, who never stop. But would he find someone who dedicates time and affection to him, someone who would put him in first place? Above all, let us ask ourselves, “What would he find in me, if the Lord were to come today, what would he find in me, in my life, in my heart? What priorities would he see in my life?”
We often focus on so many urgent but unnecessary things. We occupy and preoccupy ourselves with so many secondary realities. And perhaps without even realizing it, we neglect what matters most and we allow our love for God to grow cold, to grow cold bit by bit. Today, Jesus offers us the remedy to rekindle a tepid faith. And what is the remedy? Prayer. Prayer is the medicine for faith, it is a tonic for the soul. However, it needs to be constant prayer. (…) How often we send text messages to the people we love! Let us do this with the Lord as well so that our hearts remain connected to him. And let us not forget to read his responses. The Lord always responds. Where do we find them? In the Gospel which should always be kept at hand and should be opened several times every day, to receive a Word of life directed to us. (Pope Francis, Angelus, 16 October 2022)
The Austrian Parliament building is lit red as part of the international “Red Week” in honor of persecuted Christians across the globe. / Credit: Aid to the Church in Need
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 14, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).
Here is a roundup of Catholic world news from the past week that you might have missed:
More than half a million people to participate in Aid to the Church in Need ‘Red Week’
Over 500,000 people will take part in Aid to the Church in Need International’s Red Week 2025, which will see churches and landmarks around the world illuminated in red to raise awareness of religious persecution internationally.
Set to take place Nov. 15–23, the global initiative is expected to see “over 10,000 direct participants for prayers, public events, school gatherings, concerts, and marches,” and to draw in “more than 500,000 participants through media outreach and online platforms,” according to an ACN International press release.
More than 100 events are scheduled around the world, including in Australia, Austria, Germany, Portugal, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Ireland, Switzerland, Hungary, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, and more.
Catholic bishops in Ghana express closeness with stampede victims
Catholic bishops in Ghana have expressed their closeness with victims of a stampede at the El-Wak Stadium in Accra that left six people dead and several others injured during a Ghana Armed Forces recruitment exercise, ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, reported Nov. 13.
“We unite our hearts with the bereaved families in grief and lift our prayers to Almighty God for the eternal repose of the departed and the swift recovery of all who are injured,” Ghana’s Catholic bishops said in a statement following the Nov. 12 stampede.
Citing figures released by the acting minister of defense, Cassiel Ato Forson, the bishops noted that 34 casualties were recorded. Of these, six were reportedly confirmed dead, five were in critical condition, 12 were in fairly critical condition, and others were under observation.
Oman opens Catholic pastoral center in Muscat
Oman has inaugurated a new Catholic pastoral center in Muscat — an important sign of the country’s long-standing respect for religious diversity, according to ACI MENA, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner.
Built on land donated in 1977 by the late Sultan Qaboos, the center provides formation programs, catechesis, and housing for clergy.
Omani Ambassador Mahmoud al-Hassani said the project reflects the nation’s vision of peaceful coexistence and aligns with the Vatican’s mission of dialogue. The center also strengthens ties between Oman and the Holy See, which formally established diplomatic relations in 2023.
International contemplative congregation of sisters celebrates 200 years
The Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd (RGS) officially concluded the yearlong celebration of their 200th anniversary on Nov. 11. The contemplative order was founded in 1825 by St. Mary Euphrasia Pelletier in Myanmar.
“I hope it rekindles in all of us a renewed openness to be shaped and made radiant by grace, so that together, as one congregation, and, as one people of God, we allow the fire of God’s love to warm, illumine, and shine through us into the heart of the world,” said Sister Joan Marie Lopez, RGS congregational leader, on her hope for the bicentenary year, according to Vatican News.
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, presided over a Mass in Rome for the bicentennial celebration.
Christian families return to al-Ghassaniyah, Syria, after 13 years
After more than a decade of displacement, Christian families have begun returning to the village of al-Ghassaniyah in Idlib, Syria, ACI MENA reported Nov. 13.
Their return was made possible by a firm government decision to remove foreign extremist groups and by sustained efforts from the Franciscan community. Although many homes are damaged or looted, residents spoke of renewed hope as the Church offered support for the first returning families. The development comes amid wider security shifts in the region and ongoing diplomatic efforts related to extremist fighters.
The Catholic Church is calling for communities to respond after Typhoon Kalmaegi destroyed buildings across the Qui Nhon Diocese, including the house of the bishop and Lang Song Seminary.
“The main house of the Congregation of the Lovers of the Holy Cross in Qui Nhon, the Congregation of the Handmaids of Jesus of Mercy, and many parish churches like Qui Nhon Cathedral and other churches throughout the diocese were severely damaged,” Fides News Agency reported. This comes after severe flooding the week prior, which left 13 dead, 34 injured, and 11 missing.
Maria Vu Thi Hong Anh, head of Da Nang Cathedral Parish Caritas, said in wake of the flooding: “Seeing the images of this historic flood, I feel very sorry for the residents in the rural areas; they are poor and now their life is much more difficult when losing their properties.”
Youth Encounter Triduum in Baghdad encourages holiness
The Catholic Youth Committee in Baghdad held a three-day gathering titled “Think, Discern, Decide,” bringing together young people from several dioceses, according to a Nov. 10 report from ACI MENA.
The event focused on the call to holiness, drawing inspiration from biblical teaching and modern Iraqi witnesses of faith such as Father Ragheed Ganni and other martyrs. Workshops, talks, and prayer times encouraged young participants to live holiness through everyday acts of love and commitment.
Catholic patriarchs and bishops open 58th session in Lebanon
Lebanon’s Catholic leaders gathered in Bkerke, Lebanon, for the opening of the 58th session of the Council of Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops, ACI MENA reported.
The meeting focuses on building a synodal Church that listens and acts with spiritual discernment.
Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rahi highlighted preparations for Pope Leo XIV’s upcoming visit and called for nationwide prayers and the ringing of church bells upon his arrival. Apostolic Nuncio Paolo Borgia noted that the papal visit will include meetings with all segments of Lebanese society.
A person detained is taken to a parking lot on the far north side of the city before being transferred to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Chicago on Oct. 31, 2025. / Credit: Jamie Kelter Davis/Getty Images
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 13, 2025 / 18:26 pm (CNA).
The Catholic advocacy organization CatholicVote has released a report examining the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts, concluding Christians must balance charity toward the immigrant with the common good of the receiving state.
“A faithful Catholic approach to immigration begins not with politics but with people. Compassion, hospitality, and solidarity with the poor are not optional virtues,” CatholicVote President and CEO Kelsey Reinhardt said in a press release accompanying the report.
“They are at the center of the Gospel,” she added. “Yet, mercy and justice travel together. One without the other distorts both.”
The report by author Benjamin Mann labels the Biden administration’s border policies as “reckless” and credits them for resulting in human trafficking, sexual exploitation of immigrants without legal status, and rampant drug cartels.
“Catholics who advocate strong but humane immigration enforcement are sometimes accused of disobeying their bishops or the pope, and even violating Church teaching,” the report states. “Properly speaking, there is no such thing as an official ‘Catholic position’ on the practical details of immigration policy.”
The report says that “despite what some Church leaders in America have indicated, a faithful Catholic can support strong and humane immigration law enforcement — by means such as physical barriers, detention, and deportation — without violating the teaching of the Church.”
The report asserts that Catholic teaching on immigration has been distorted by “an ideological immigration lobby” within the Church that “has sought to present amnesty, minimal law enforcement, and more legal immigration as the only acceptable position for Catholics.”
“This is not an act of disobedience or disrespect toward the Church hierarchy but a legitimate difference of opinion according to magisterial teaching,” the report says.
“The truth is that faithful Catholics can certainly disagree with the anti-enforcement position — even if some bishops happen to share the policy preferences of these activists. Such disagreement is not a dissent from Church teaching,” the document continues, citing “recent popes” as having said the Catholic Church “has no ‘official position’ on the practical details of issues like immigration policy.”
“Rather, our faith teaches a set of broad moral principles about immigration, and their application in public life is a matter of practical judgment for laypersons,” the report said.
The CatholicVote document further argues that “it is actually immoral in the eyes of the Church for a country to accept immigrants to the detriment of its own citizens,” citing paragraph 1903 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which states: “Authority is exercised legitimately only when it seeks the common good of the group concerned and if it employs morally licit means to attain it. If rulers were to enact unjust laws or take measures contrary to the moral order, such arrangements would not be binding in conscience. In such a case, ‘authority breaks down completely and results in shameful abuse.’”
All men were by nature foolish who were in ignorance of God, and who from the good things seen did not succeed in knowing him who is, and from studying the works did not discern the artisan; But either fire, or wind, or the swift air, or the circuit of the stars, or the mighty water, or the luminaries of heaven, the governors of the world, they considered gods. Now if out of joy in their beauty they thought them gods, let them know how far more excellent is the Lord than these; for the original source of beauty fashioned them. Or if they were struck by their might and energy, let them from these things realize how much more powerful is he who made them. For from the greatness and the beauty of created things their original author, by analogy, is seen. But yet, for these the blame is less; For they indeed have gone astray perhaps, though they seek God and wish to find him. For they search busily among his works, but are distracted by what they see, because the things seen are fair. But again, not even these are pardonable. For if they so far succeeded in knowledge that they could speculate about the world, how did they not more quickly find its Lord?
A Gospel according to Luke 17:26-37
Jesus said to his disciples: "As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man; they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage up to the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Similarly, as it was in the days of Lot: they were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building; on the day when Lot left Sodom, fire and brimstone rained from the sky to destroy them all. So it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, someone who is on the housetop and whose belongings are in the house must not go down to get them, and likewise one in the field must not return to what was left behind. Remember the wife of Lot. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses it will save it. I tell you, on that night there will be two people in one bed; one will be taken, the other left. And there will be two women grinding meal together; one will be taken, the other left." They said to him in reply, "Where, Lord?" He said to them, "Where the body is, there also the vultures will gather."
We must be awake, alert, vigilant. Jesus warns us: there is the danger we may not notice his coming and may be unprepared for his visit. I have recalled on other occasions what Saint Augustine said: “I fear the Lord who passes by” (Sermons, 88, 14.13), that is, I fear that he will pass by and I will not recognize him! Indeed, Jesus says that those people in the time of Noah ate and drank “and they did not know until the flood came and swept them all away” (Mt 24:39). Let us pay attention to this: they did not realize anything! They were absorbed in their own things and did not realize that the flood was about to come. (…) Let us try to ask ourselves: am I aware of what I am living, am I alert, am I awake? Do I try to recognize God’s presence in daily situations, or am I distracted and a little overwhelmed by things? If we are unaware of his coming today, we will also be unprepared when he arrives at the end of time. (Pope Francis, Angelus, 27 November 2022)
Obispos de EE. UU. emiten un «mensaje especial» sobre inmigración durante su asamblea plenaria en Baltimore #Catholic –
BALTIMORE – Al reunirse la Conferencia de Obispos Católicos de los Estados Unidos (USCCB) durante su Asamblea Plenaria de Otoño en Baltimore, los obispos emitieron un mensaje especial en el que expresaron su preocupación por la situación cambiante que afecta a los inmigrantes en los Estados Unidos. Fue la primera vez en doce años que la USCCB recurrió a esta forma particularmente urgente de expresarse como cuerpo episcopal. La última vez que lo hizo fue en 2013, en respuesta al mandato federal sobre anticonceptivos.
De conformidad con las normas relativas a las declaraciones y publicaciones de la Conferencia, solo se pueden emitir «mensajes especiales» en las asambleas plenarias y se trata de declaraciones que el presidente de la Conferencia, el Comité Administrativo o el conjunto de los miembros considera apropiadas en vista de las circunstancias del momento. Para demostrar el consenso del organismo, un «mensaje especial» debe recibir dos tercios de los votos de los miembros de la Conferencia presentes y votantes en la sesión plenaria para ser aprobado. Con 216 votos a favor, 5 en contra y 3 abstenciones, los obispos aprobaron por abrumadora mayoría el mensaje especial, lo que fue seguido de un prolongado aplauso del organismo tras la votación.
El texto completo del mensaje especial de los obispos a continuación:
Como pastores, los obispos de los Estados Unidos, estamos unidos a nuestro pueblo en nuestro Señor Jesucristo, por lazos de comunión y compasión. Nos inquieta ver en nuestras comunidades un clima de temor y ansiedad ante las prácticas de perfilamiento y la aplicación de las leyes migratorias. Nos entristece profundamente el tono que ha adoptado el debate contemporáneo y la creciente denigración de los inmigrantes. Nos preocupan las condiciones en los centros de detención y la falta de acceso a una atención pastoral adecuada. Lamentamos que algunos inmigrantes que viven en los Estados Unidos han perdido su estatus migratorio de manera arbitraria. Nos preocupan las amenazas contra la santidad de los lugares de culto, y el carácter especial de los hospitales y las escuelas. Nos entristece profundamente cuando nos encontramos con padres que temen ser detenidos al llevar a sus hijos a la escuela o cuando intentamos consolar a familiares que ya han sido separados de sus seres queridos.
A pesar de los obstáculos y prejuicios, por generaciones, los inmigrantes han contribuido inmensamente al bienestar de nuestra nación. Como obispos católicos, profesamos nuestro amor por nuestro país y oramos por su paz y prosperidad. Por este preciso motivo nos sentimos obligados en este entorno a elevar nuestras voces en defensa de la dignidad humana otorgada por Dios.
La enseñanza católica exhorta a las naciones a reconocer la dignidad fundamental de todas las personas, incluidos los inmigrantes. Como obispos, abogamos por una reforma significativa de las leyes y los procedimientos migratorios de nuestra nación. La dignidad humana y la seguridad nacional no son valores en conflicto. Ambas pueden alcanzarse con buena voluntad y uniendo esfuerzos.
Reconocemos que las naciones tienen la responsabilidad de controlar sus fronteras y establecer un sistema de inmigración justo y ordenado por el bien común. Sin dichos procedimientos, los inmigrantes corren el riesgo de caer en la trata de personas y en otras formas de explotación. Las vías legales y seguras sirven como antídoto frente a esos riesgos.
La enseñanza de la Iglesia se basa en la preocupación fundamental por la persona humana, creada a imagen y semejanza de Dios. (Génesis 1:27). Como pastores, recurrimos a las Sagradas Escrituras y al ejemplo de Dios mismo, donde encontramos la sabiduría de la compasión de Dios. La prioridad del Señor, como nos recuerdan los profetas, es para los más vulnerables: las viudas, los huérfanos, los pobres y los migrantes (Zacarías 7:10). En el Señor Jesús, vemos a Aquel que se hizo pobre por nosotros (2 Corintios 8:9), vemos al buen samaritano que nos levanta del polvo (Lucas 10:30-37) y vemos a Aquel que se encuentra en los más pequeños (Mateo 25). La preocupación de la Iglesia por el prójimo y nuestra preocupación aquí por los inmigrantes son una respuesta al mandato del Señor de amar como Él nos ha amado (Juan 13:34).
A nuestros hermanos y hermanas inmigrantes, estamos con ustedes en su sufrimiento, pues si un miembro sufre, todos sufren (1 Corintios 12:26). ¡No están solos!
Observamos con gratitud que tantos de nuestros sacerdotes, religiosos consagrados, y fieles laicos ya están acompañando y asistiendo a inmigrantes en sus necesidades humanas básicas. Exhortamos a todas las personas de buena voluntad a continuar y ampliar esos esfuerzos.
Nos oponemos a las deportaciones masivas e indiscriminadas. Oramos por el fin de la retórica inhumana y de la violencia, ya sea dirigida contra inmigrantes o contra los organismos de seguridad. Oramos para que el Señor guíe a los líderes de nuestra nación y estamos agradecidos por las oportunidades pasadas y presentes de dialogar con funcionarios públicos y electos. En este diálogo, continuaremos abogando por una reforma migratoria significativa.
– BALTIMORE – Al reunirse la Conferencia de Obispos Católicos de los Estados Unidos (USCCB) durante su Asamblea Plenaria de Otoño en Baltimore, los obispos emitieron un mensaje especial en el que expresaron su preocupación por la situación cambiante que afecta a los inmigrantes en los Estados Unidos. Fue la primera vez en doce años que la USCCB recurrió a esta forma particularmente urgente de expresarse como cuerpo episcopal. La última vez que lo hizo fue en 2013, en respuesta al mandato federal sobre anticonceptivos. De conformidad con las normas relativas a las declaraciones y publicaciones de la Conferencia, solo se
U.S. bishops issue a ‘Special Message’ on immigration from assembly in Baltimore #Catholic –
BALTIMORE – As the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) gathered for its Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore, the bishops issued a “Special Message” addressing their concern for the evolving situation impacting immigrants in the United States. It marked the first time in 12 years the USCCB invoked this particularly urgent way of speaking as a body of bishops. The last one issued in 2013 was in response to the federal government’s contraceptive mandate.
Under the regulations pertaining to statements and publications of the Conference, a “Special Message” may only be issued at plenary assemblies, and they are statements which the president of the Conference, the Administrative Committee, or the general membership considers to be appropriate in view of the circumstances at the time. To show the consensus of the body, a “Special Message” must receive the support of two-thirds of the Conference members present and voting at the plenary in order to pass. In a vote of 216 in favor, five against, and three abstentions, the bishops overwhelmingly approved the “Special Message,” with sustained applause of the body following the vote.
The full text of the bishops’ Special Pastoral Message follows:
As pastors, we, the bishops of the United States, are bound to our people by ties of communion and compassion in Our Lord Jesus Christ. We are disturbed when we see among our people a climate of fear and anxiety around questions of profiling and immigration enforcement. We are saddened by the state of contemporary debate and the vilification of immigrants. We are concerned about the conditions in detention centers and the lack of access to pastoral care. We lament that some immigrants in the United States have arbitrarily lost their legal status. We are troubled by threats against the sanctity of houses of worship and the special nature of hospitals and schools. We are grieved when we meet parents who fear being detained when taking their children to school, and when we try to console family members who have already been separated from their loved ones.
Despite obstacles and prejudices, generations of immigrants have made enormous contributions to the well-being of our nation. We, as Catholic bishops, love our country and pray for its peace and prosperity. For this very reason, we feel compelled now in this environment to raise our voices in defense of God-given human dignity.
Catholic teaching exhorts nations to recognize the fundamental dignity of all persons, including immigrants. We bishops advocate for a meaningful reform of our nation’s immigration laws and procedures. Human dignity and national security are not in conflict. Both are possible if people of goodwill work together.
We recognize that nations have a responsibility to regulate their borders and establish a just and orderly immigration system for the sake of the common good. Without such processes, immigrants face the risk of trafficking and other forms of exploitation. Safe and legal pathways serve as an antidote to such risks.
The Church’s teaching rests on the foundational concern for the human person, as created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:27). As pastors, we look to Sacred Scripture and the example of the Lord Himself, where we find the wisdom of God’s compassion. The priority of the Lord, as the Prophets remind us, is for those who are most vulnerable: the widow, the orphan, the poor, and the stranger (Zechariah 7:10). In the Lord Jesus, we see the One who became poor for our sake (2 Corinthians 8:9), we see the Good Samaritan who lifts us from the dust (Luke 10:30–37), and we see the One who is found in the least of these (Matthew 25). The Church’s concern for neighbor and our concern here for immigrants is a response to the Lord’s command to love as He has loved us (John 13:34).
To our immigrant brothers and sisters, we stand with you in your suffering, since when one member suffers, all suffer (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:26). You are not alone!
We note with gratitude that so many of our clergy, consecrated religious, and lay faithful already accompany and assist immigrants in meeting their basic human needs. We urge all people of goodwill to continue and expand such efforts.
We oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people. We pray for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence, whether directed at immigrants or at law enforcement. We pray that the Lord may guide the leaders of our nation, and we are grateful for past and present opportunities to dialogue with public and elected officials. In this dialogue, we will continue to advocate for meaningful immigration reform.
As disciples of the Lord, we remain men and women of hope, and hope does not disappoint! (cf. Romans 5:5)
May the mantle of Our Lady of Guadalupe enfold us all in her maternal and loving care and draw us ever closer to the heart of Christ.
– BALTIMORE – As the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) gathered for its Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore, the bishops issued a “Special Message” addressing their concern for the evolving situation impacting immigrants in the United States. It marked the first time in 12 years the USCCB invoked this particularly urgent way of speaking as a body of bishops. The last one issued in 2013 was in response to the federal government’s contraceptive mandate. Under the regulations pertaining to statements and publications of the Conference, a “Special Message” may only be issued at plenary assemblies, and they are statements
According to a new survey, engagement among U.S. adults who identify as Catholic is strong, especially among the youngest adults, and there is growing trust in the Church after the fallout of the clergy sexual abuse crisis of the early 2000s.
In July, Leadership Roundtable commissioned a polling firm to conduct a national survey of Catholics in the U.S. in order to inform Church leaders of problems as well as strengths within the Catholic Church since the sexual abuse crisis came to national attention in 2002 and the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People was composed to address it.
Researchers composed a 72-question survey and divided respondents into three groups: the Faithful (1,541 respondents), the Occasional (472 respondents), and the Disengaged (1,020). The Faithful said they attend Mass at least monthly, the Occasional said they go a few times a year, and the Disengaged said they go “seldom” or “never.”
Although the Catholic Church in the U.S. has shrunk from 65 million to 50 million people in the more than two decades since the sexual abuse crisis and engagement is “at an all-time low,” the survey’s findings are cause for hope, the authors say.
In a reversal from the organization’s 2003 survey, adults between the ages of 18–29 are now the most likely group (84%) to attend Mass regularly and to be active in their parishes in addition to Mass (attending Eucharistic adoration, social events, and confession), the survey found.
The group’s 2003 survey of 1,004 Catholics found that Mass attendance increased with age. The 2025 survey found the opposite to be true: Two-thirds of young adults (65%) said they attend Mass at least monthly now, compared with 43% of adults aged 45–64 and 42% of those over 65 years old. In 2003, 83% of adults 45–64 and 85% of those over 65 attended monthly.
Trust in the Church
The survey found that Catholics trust their pastor and other parish staff more than they trust the Church as an institution.
Nearly 80% of respondents said they trust parish staff and volunteers to protect children, and 77% said they trust their pastor and other clergy.
“Building a transparent and accountable leadership culture” was one of the highest priorities across all age groups, according to the survey. For 77% of respondents, it was among their top two priorities, with 45% giving it the highest possible rating of “extremely important.”
In 2003, 70% of respondents said they had high confidence in their bishops as doctrinal authorities but low confidence in them (44%) as listeners of the opinions of laity or parish priests.
That low confidence has not changed much in two decades. In the recent survey, just 49% said they think their bishops involve the laity in solving Church issues. Fewer, 47%, believe bishops “lead with financial transparency,” and 45% worry that their donations will go to paying legal fees and abuse settlements.
Catholics who donate regularly to their parishes (61%) say they would give more if they thought the Church was more transparent about financial matters. Nearly three-quarters of them (72%) said they would give less if there was a scandal in their parish or diocese.
Of Catholics who go to Mass sometimes, 58% donate financially to their parish at least once a year. Of the 42% who never give, 39% cited a lack of financial transparency as their reason.
Regarding education, of U.S. Catholics whose parishes have a parish school, only 53% said they think the school is thriving. This was the lowest rating of all youth formation activities surveyed.
According to its website, Leadership Roundtable, founded in 2003 in the aftermath of the clergy sexual abuse crisis, is a nonprofit organization composed of clergy, laity, and religious “working together to promote best practices and accountability in the management, finances, communications, and human resource development of the Catholic Church in the U.S., including greater incorporation of the expertise of the laity.”
![16,000 teens attend Mass together to conclude NCYC #Catholic
Priests process into Lucas Oil Stadium on Nov. 22, 2025, for the concluding Mass in Lucas Oil Stadium at the National Catholic Youth Conference in Indianapolis. / Credit: Tessa Gervasini/CNA
Indianapolis, Indiana, Nov 24, 2025 / 10:35 am (CNA).
The 2025 National Catholic Youth Conferences (NCYC) concluded with a nighttime Mass drawing around 16,000 teenagers.After three days of prayer, community, sacraments, and a conversation with Pope Leo XIV, young Catholics packed into Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis to end the conference with Mass on Nov. 22. Archbishop Nelson Pérez told CNA it was “beautiful” to celebrate the Mass alongside 25 of his brother bishops and more than 240 priests. “It’s the Church in its splendor,” Pérez said. “Tonight, we experienced the Church in its splendor.” The final Mass was celebrated on the Saturday before the solemnity of Christ the King. In his homily, Pérez said: “When I think about a king, I think about palaces and big thrones and power and authority.”“But when Jesus talks about king it’s … different,” Pérez said. “His throne is a cross. His crown is not made of gold and gems. It’s made of thorns. He doesn’t wear fancy, beautiful, priceless rings on his hands. He has nails.”The “very mystery of the life and the death of Christ, the King, and all of our lives is actually a dying and a rising — dying to sin, dying to the parts of our humanity that might be warped and wounded, and rising to new life to renewal of our soul.”Then “that process goes over and over over and over and over again until we die in Christ for the last time and then rise with him,” Pérez said. “How blessed, how filled with hope we are.”Pérez reminds teens: ‘Christ loves you just as you are’Pérez concluded his homily by tying his message back to what Pope Leo told the teens in his digital encounter with them on Nov. 21. Pérez told the teenagers Pope Leo spoke with them because he loves them.Pope Leo has “gathered with youth all over the place, especially this summer, [during] the Jubilee of Youth,” Pérez said. The pope’s “message is profound, powerful, and simple at the same time: ‘Christ loves you just as you are.’”Pérez reminded the crowd to listen to what the pope said to them. “Think of your closest friends. If they were hurting, you would walk with them, listen, and stay close,” the pope said. “Our relation with Jesus is similar. He knows when life feels heavy, even when we do not feel his presence, our faith tells us he is there.”“To entrust our struggles to Jesus, we have to spend time in prayer … We can speak honestly about what’s in our hearts,” Pérez said, quoting the pope. “That is why daily moments of silence are so important, whether through adoration, reading Scripture, or simply talking to him.”“‘Little by little, we learn to hear his voice, both from within and through the people he sends us. As you grow closer to Jesus,’ he said to us, ‘Do not fear what he may ask of you. If he challenges you to make changes in your life, it’s always because he wants to give you greater joy and freedom. God is never outdone in generosity.’”“The pope’s digital visit was what made this NCYC epic, really epic and different from any other,” Pérez told CNA. The success was from “the excitement of our youth to welcome the Holy Father” and Pope Leo’s “generosity and willingness” to speak with them. Being a part of the conference and seeing so many young Catholics at Mass together made Pérez feel “hopeful,” he said. “In a world and a country that’s so divided right now and violent at times, after this, I’m just so full of hope. It’s almost like we’re going to be OK.”“It’s incredible to see the young Church alive,” Pérez said. “It’s such a beautiful, beautiful gathering.”](https://unitedyam.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/16000-teens-attend-mass-together-to-conclude-ncyc-catholic-priests-process-into-lucas-oil-stadium-on-nov-22-2025-for-the-concluding-mass-in-lucas-oil-stadium-at-the-national-catholic-youth-co.webp)
![Pastor installed at N.J.’s oldest parish in West Milford #Catholic - St. Joseph Parish in West Milford, New Jersey’s oldest Catholic faith community, marked three major milestones during a Mass with Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney on Nov. 16: the parish’s 260th birthday, the 120th anniversary of its current church, and the installation of its new pastor, Father Jakub Grzybowski.
The rural 300-family Passaic County parish lives that long legacy of faith through liturgical, spiritual, and religious-formation activities, social justice outreaches, and improvement and historical preservation projects. St. Joseph’s is also the oldest Catholic parish in the Paterson Diocese in New Jersey.
St. Joseph Church was filled as Bishop Sweeney served as the principal celebrant and homilist at the Mass. Many priests concelebrated, including Father Grzybowski and Father Zig Peplowski, pastor of St. Cecilia Parish in Rockaway, N.J., and a former pastor of the parish. A diverse congregation of current and former members of St. Joseph’s attended the liturgy.
Bishop Sweeney also installed Grzybowski as pastor during the Mass. The priest was named the parish’s administrator in 2019 and its pastor on March 19 this year.
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“Becoming pastor of St. Joseph’s fills my heart with profound gratitude and humility,” the Polish-born Father Grzybowski said. “What stands out about this parish is its beauty and its quiet, prayerful atmosphere. I love this church, its history, and the way it holds the memories of so many generations. Although it has suffered fires and undergone significant changes during various periods of reformation, the people today are working with tremendous dedication to restore the original character of the oldest church in New Jersey. Their love for this place is visible everywhere, and it inspires me daily.”
St. Joseph’s has embarked on projects to honor its history, such as reinstalling rediscovered altar rails from the earliest days of the current church, which opened in 1905, and installing new side altars to replace those removed years ago, as well as a new ambo. The parish also renovated its pastoral center.
The parish lives out its faith through Masses, Friday Eucharistic adoration, various religious devotions, Bible study, Generations of Faith religious formation, a food pantry, and Disciples of Christ, an evangelization and service group.
In 1765, German immigrants founded the Catholic settlement that became St. Joseph’s upon their arrival in the U.S. In time, Jesuit Father Ferdinand Farmer, also born in Germany, began riding horseback from his parish, St. Joseph in Philadelphia, Penn., to West Milford. In between his twice-yearly visits, these pioneers gathered in their homes to pray. Father Farmer stopped visiting in 1786, and no Masses were celebrated in the area for 25 years. Yet, the faithful continued to pray and catechize.
In 1829, the first church, dedicated to St. Luke, was built. Back in 1880, the renamed St. Joseph was considered a mission church, part of St. Anthony Parish in Butler, N.J., and was administered by Franciscan friars. They would include Father Mychal Judge, St. Joseph’s pastor from 1979 to 1985, and chaplain of the New York City Fire Department, who died in the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.
In 1887, a larger church was built, but it was burnt to the ground in 1904. The current church opened in 1905. In 1956, the Sisters of Charity arrived to administer the parish school, which opened that year. The Franciscans returned the parish to the Paterson Diocese’s administration in 2003. The school closed in 2006.
“To now be installed as pastor in this Jubilee year celebrating 260 years of the parish and 120 years since the church’s rebuilding is meaningful,” Father Grzybowski said. “It feels like stepping into a living story of faith, resilience, and God’s ongoing presence.”
BEACON PHOTOS | JOE GIGLI
[See image gallery at beaconnj.org]](https://unitedyam.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/pastor-installed-at-n-j-s-oldest-parish-in-west-milford-catholic-st-joseph-parish-in-west-milford-new-jerseys-oldest-catholic-faith-community-marked-three-major-milestones-during.jpg)
![Catholic advocates petition New York foundation to fund pensions, church preservation #Catholic
St. Joseph Cathedral, Buffalo, New York. / Credit: CiEll/Shutterstock
CNA Staff, Nov 20, 2025 / 10:40 am (CNA).
Advocates in New York state are petitioning a Catholic foundation there to help fund major pension shortages and church preservation efforts as well as to help support victims of clergy sex abuse.In a Nov. 13 letter to the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation in New York City, representatives of the group Save Our Buffalo Churches, sexual abuse victims, and pensioners of the former St. Clare’s Hospital asked the foundation to help the three communities with the “profound hardship” they are experiencing.Numerous parishes in Buffalo have been fighting diocesan-mandated closures and mergers over the past year. Hundreds of former workers of St. Clare’s, meanwhile, saw their pensions reduced or eliminated starting in 2018 due to major shortfalls. The hospital itself closed about a decade before.Abuse victims, meanwhile, have “been locked in a legal morass, denied the long-term healing resources and institutional acknowledgment of the harm they endured,” the letter said.The foundation arose in 2018 after the Diocese of Brooklyn sold the health insurer Fidelis Care. The organization, whose roughly $3.2 billion in assets came from that sale, is named after Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini, the first American recognized as a saint, who founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.The letter noted that Cabrini “devoted her life to the people others overlooked,” including immigrants and the poor.“Guided by that legacy, we ask the foundation to explore emergency relief, stabilization funds, and community support initiatives” to help fund the three groups.The letter-writers asked for a meeting with foundation leaders “to explore potential pathways for assistance aligned with both the foundation’s mission and the pressing needs of survivors, pensioners, and parish communities.”Mary Pruski, who leads the Save Our Buffalo Churches group, told CNA that advocates in New York City would be following up with the foundation this week.“This is a complex project and will bring much peace and healing across [New York state],” she said.Pensioners with St. Clare’s Hospital are currently in the midst of a lawsuit brought by New York state against the Diocese of Albany for what the state attorney general’s office says was “[failure] to adequately fund, manage, and protect hospital employees’ hard-earned pensions.”The prosecutor’s office alleges that the diocese “[failed] to take adequate measures” to secure the pension fund, including “failing to make any annual contributions to the pension for all but two years from 2000 to 2019 and hiding the collapse of the pension plan from former hospital workers who were vested in the plan.”Parishioners in Buffalo, meanwhile, have challenged the diocesan parish merger and closure plan, with advocates securing a reprieve against the diocese at the state Supreme Court in July.The state high court ultimately tossed the lawsuit out in September, ruling that the court had no jurisdiction over the dispute.](https://unitedyam.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/catholic-advocates-petition-new-york-foundation-to-fund-pensions-church-preservation-catholic-st-joseph-cathedral-buffalo-new-york-credit-ciell-shutterstockcna-staff-nov-20-2025-10.webp)
![Parish celebrates 100 years as pioneering Wayne church #Catholic - On Nov. 9, Holy Cross Parish celebrated a century of vibrant faith and service as the Roman Catholic mother church of Wayne, N.J., during a Mass with Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney, who served as the celebrant and homilist.
The Mass was concelebrated by Father Peter VB Wells, pastor of Holy Cross and its twin parish, Our Lady of the Valley (OLV), also in Wayne, and director of cemeteries of the Paterson Diocese in New Jersey; Father Edward Lambro, a retired diocesan priest and a weekend assistant of the two parishes; and Father Duberney Villamizar, pastor of St. Margaret of Scotland Parish in Morristown, N.J., diocesan vicar of Hispanic Affairs, and a former parochial vicar of the parishes.
The first Roman Catholic church in Wayne, Holy Cross, officially began in 1925 as a mission of the Franciscan Friars of St. Bonaventure’s Monastery in Paterson, N.J. Today, Wayne is home to four other parishes established after Holy Cross: OLV and Immaculate Heart of Mary, both in 1960, and Our Lady of Consolation and Annunciation, both in 1963. Holy Cross is on Van Duyne Avenue in the Mountain View section of Wayne.
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“Holy Cross is a parish of people who are faithful and dedicated. The congregation loves to sing hymns at Mass. They are also generous,” said Father Wells, pastor of OLV and Holy Cross since 2015.
Today, Holy Cross, which ministers to 300 families, offers a Mass on Sunday and another on Saturday. Parishioners conduct a Christmas outreach to St. Agnes Parish in Paterson; support Several Sources, a non-profit organization that helps pregnant women and new mothers; and donate to the food pantry of Father English Community Center, also in Paterson.
The Franciscans started offering bi-monthly Masses in the area in 1905. In 1925, they bought a home on Route 23 and renovated it as a mission chapel. Father Luke Panfoerder became the first pastor in 1929, when the mission was elevated to a parish. The cornerstone for the present church was laid in 1934, when Holy Cross consisted of 93 families.
The friars continued to serve the mission until 1945, when Bishop Thomas McLaughlin erected Holy Cross as a parish under the care of diocesan clergy. In 1950, Holy Cross opened a parish school, the first Catholic school in Wayne, which later closed. Around 2010, Holy Cross became twinned with OLV, a parish of 5,000 families. Both faith communities remain separate parishes.
BEACON PHOTOS | JOE GIGLI
[See image gallery at beaconnj.org]](https://unitedyam.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/parish-celebrates-100-years-as-pioneering-wayne-church-catholic-on-nov-9-holy-cross-parish-celebrated-a-century-of-vibrant-faith-and-service-as-the-roman-catholic-mother-church-of-wayne-n-j-du.jpg)
![Paterson parishes offer busy confirmation students convenient Zoom classes #Catholic - Most students in virtual confirmation classes for two Paterson, N.J., parishes this past summer were able to join from the comfort of their homes, with little or no distractions. But some took part wherever and however they could — from young mothers caring for their children to late-night workers closing their office doors to concentrate.
Raysa Gonzales of Our Lady of Pompei (OLP) Parish in Paterson often joined the first-time confirmation classes of OLP and St. Gerard Majella Parish, also in Paterson, from her office. Over the summer, she was one of 28 adults who took advantage of the convenience of attending 8 to 10 90-minute English-language classes on Tuesday evenings via Zoom.
Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney confirmed these Catholics during a Mass at St. Gerard’s on Oct. 12, the feast of St. Carlo Acutis, the first millennial saint, canonized by Pope Leo XVI in Rome on Sept. 7. Students attended eight classes for confirmation prep and twice more for first Holy Communion prep, followed by an in-person retreat.
“I was happy that we [students] could see and interact with each other and express our thoughts — like being in a classroom,” said Gonzales. A Paterson resident who returned to attending Mass, she works full time, started her own business, and is a parent to Elijah, 8, and an OLP lector. “Going to church makes me feel peaceful. I want to teach Elijah the faith. I have more knowledge but have more to learn.”
The classes consisted of 18- to 40-year-olds who wanted to complete their sacraments to get married, become godparents, or enter full communion with the Church. Participants hailed from as far away as New York State and Princeton, N.J., through word of mouth. Jan Figenshu, who volunteers at her parish, St. Gerard’s, coordinated the course.
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“There is a need for this type of formation. The Zoom classes make sense for people with family commitments, those who work late, or those who don’t have time for a long commute. It was beautiful to see their dedication,” Figenshu said. “Some brought their friends and family to the classes. One person found the program by asking Chat GPT ‘Where can I prepare for confirmation?'”
Each class consisted of an opening prayer, a time when students described a “holy moment” of God’s grace they experienced that week, a lesson on the week’s topic, small-group discussions, a review of the Sunday readings, and a closing prayer.
“I promote the joy of being Catholic and in a faith community. I also encourage the students to go to church without nagging them. Some have gotten more involved in their faith,” Figenshu said.
The course ended with a retreat at St. Gerard’s, which concluded with the Sacrament of Penance presided over by Msgr. George Hundt, pastor of both Paterson parishes, and Father Manuel Cuellar, parochial vicar. Many participants got to know each other. The process has led Msgr. Hundt to help some couples convalidate their civil marriages in the eyes of the Church.
Figenshu started a Zoom confirmation course when Msgr. Hundt previously was pastor of St. Vincent Martyr Parish in Madison, N.J.
Stacey Strover, who was confirmed in the Easter Vigil earlier this year, helped lead small-group discussions on Zoom.
“Getting students involved on Zoom was challenging. We asked open-ended, interactive questions to encourage participation. Sometimes, they would come up with their own questions,” Strover said.](https://unitedyam.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/paterson-parishes-offer-busy-confirmation-students-convenient-zoom-classes-catholic-most-students-in-virtual-confirmation-classes-for-two-paterson-n-j-parishes-this-past-summer-were-able-to-join.jpg)
![84 anniversary couples celebrate marital love at Paterson Mass #Catholic - On Nov. 16, 84 couples who marked 25, 50, and 60 or more years of marriage celebrated their love for each other and their example to all in the world with Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney during the annual Diocesan Silver and Gold Mass at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson, N.J.
Bishop Sweeney was the principal celebrant of the Mass, which the Office of Family Life of the Paterson Diocese in New Jersey coordinated. The couples renewed their vows before Bishop Sweeney. Several priests from parishes where the couples are parishioners came to support them and were concelebrants of the Mass.
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Each couple was invited to meet Bishop Sweeney after the Mass and take a photo with him, and to receive a commemorative certificate signed by him.
GROUP PHOTOS AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD
BEACON PHOTOS | JOE GIGLI
[See image gallery at beaconnj.org]
60+ Years
Mr. and Mrs. Albert Alexander, 69 years
Our Lady of Pompei, Paterson
Mr. and Mrs. Butch Pomante, 66 years
Our Lady of Pompei, Paterson
Mr. and Mrs. Peter Ferriso, 63 years
St. Luke, Long Valley, Washington Twp.
Mr. and Mrs. Terry LaCorte, 63 years
St. Philip the Apostle, Clifton
Mr. and Mrs. James Whelpley, 62 years
St. Joseph, Mendham
60 Years
Mr. and Mrs. Francis Ays
St. Luke, Long Valley, Washington Twp.
Mr. and Mrs. Paul Brubaker
St. Joseph, Mendham
Mr. and Mrs. George Cozzolino
Our Lady of Mercy, Whippany, Hanover Twp.
Mr. and Mrs. Alfonso Falivene
St. Catherine of Siena, Mountain Lakes
Mr. and Mrs. William Feeney
Church of the Sacred Heart, Clifton
Mr. and Mrs. Phillip Guidone
St Lawrence, Chester
Mr. and Mrs. Edward Keegan
St. Matthew the Apostle Parish, Randolph
Mr. and Mrs. William Kuehner
Our Lady of Mercy, Whippany, Hanover Twp.
Mr. and Mrs. Louis Lanzerotti
Christ the King, New Vernon, Harding Twp.
Mr. and Mrs. James Meng
St. Philip, Clifton
Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Rosa
St. Mary Parish, Pompton Lakes
Mr. and Mrs. James Scannelli
St. Virgil, Morris Plains
Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas Sciarrillo
St. Rose of Lima, East Hanover
Mr. and Mrs. Wilhelmus Schouten
St. Catherine of Bologna, Ringwood
Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Sullivan
Holy Spirit, Pequannock
Mr. and Mrs. John Trombetta
St. Virgil, Morris Plains
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Volpe
St. Thomas More, Morristown
50 Years
Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Albizati
St. Philip the Apostle, Clifton
Mr. and Mrs. Edward Ament
St. Philip the Apostle, Clifton
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Babula
St. Pius X, Montville
Mr. and Mrs. Candido Baldino
St. Mary’s, Wharton/Dover
Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Becker
St. Mary’s, Denville
Mr. and Mrs. Steve Carlsson
Corpus Christi, Chatham
Mr. and Mrs. Robert V. Chester
Our Lady of Good Counsel, Pompton Plains
Mr. and Mrs. Richard Czaplinski
Our Lady of the Holy Angels, Little Falls
Mr. and Mrs. John D’Agostino
St. Mary’s, Denville
Mr. and Mrs. Antonio Del Valle
St. Gerard Majella, Paterson
Mr. and Mrs. Peter DeNigris
Notre Dame of Mount Carmel, Cedar Knolls, Hanover Twp.
Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Dietlein
Our Lady of the Mountain, Long Valley, Washington Twp.
Mr. and Mrs. David DiNapoli
St. Paul, Clifton
Mr. and Mrs. Lou D’Onofrio
St. Mary’s, Pompton Lakes
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Filosa
St. Pius X, Montville
Mr. and Mrs. Victor Jovino
Notre Dame of Mount Carmel, Cedar Knolls, Hanover Twp.
Mr. and Mrs. Michael Kirchmer
St. Francis de Sales, McAfee, Vernon
Mr. and Mrs. Peter Klein
St. Mary’s, Denville
Mr. and Mrs. Gary Lis
St. Mary’s, Wharton/Dover
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Little
St. Mary’s, Denville
Mr. and Mrs. Jesus Lopez
Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Paterson
Mr. and Mrs. Bob Miller
St. Lawrence, Chester
Mr. and Mrs. John Novalis
Church of the Holy Family, Florham Park
Mr. and Mrs. John O’Mullane
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Boonton
Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Polcari
St. Mary’s, Pompton Lakes
Mr. and Mrs. Michael Prendergast
St. Margaret of Scotland, Morristown
Mr. and Mrs. Roque Ramos
St. Clement Pope & Martyr, Rockaway Twp.
Deacon and Mrs. James Rizos
St. Mary’s, Denville
Mr. and Mrs. Luis Salerna
Our Lady of Pompei, Paterson
Mr. and Mrs. John Sette
Assumption Morristown
Mr. and Mrs. Rich Sokerka
St. Matthew the Apostle, Randolph
Mr. and Mrs. James Tangen
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Flanders, Mount Olive Twp.
Mr. and Mrs. William Trodden
St. Francis de Sales, McAfee, Vernon
Mr. and Mrs. John Ukson
Our Lady of Fatima, Highland Lakes, Vernon Twp.
Mr. and Mrs. Angel Ventura
Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Paterson
Mr. and Mrs. Michael Wozniak
St. Luke, Long Valley, Washington Twp.
25 Years
Mr. and Mrs. Gregory Bubniak
St. John Vianney, Stockholm, Hardyston Twp.
Mr. and Mrs. Gary Cheski
St. Andrew the Apostle, Clifton
Mr. and Mrs. Arvind D’Cunha
St. Pius X, Montville
Mr. and Mrs. Saverio Dello Russo
Notre Dame of Mount Carmel, Cedar Knolls, Hanover Twp.
Mr. and Mrs. Domenico Di Maio
Our Lady of the Valley, Wayne
Mr. and Mrs. James Fischer
St. Virgil, Morris Plains
Mr. and Mrs. Felix Hernandez
Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Paterson
Mr. and Mrs. Christopher Horn
St. Joseph Church, Newton
Mr. and Mrs. Edward Jassin
Our Lady of the Valley, Wayne
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Kelly
Assumption Parish, Morristown
Mr. and Mrs. John Kilkeary
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Flanders, Mount Olive Twp.
Mr. and Mrs. Mario Lemongello
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Flanders, Mount Olive Twp.
Mr. and Mrs. Frank Marinelli
Holy Family, Florham Park
Mr. and Mrs. David Meehan
St. Luke, Long Valley
Mr. and Mrs. Peter Onufryk
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Flanders, Mount Olive Twp.
Mr. and Mrs. Lou Palazzo
St. Bonaventure, Paterson
Mr. and Mrs. Scott Passaro
St. Luke, Long Valley, Washington Twp.
Mr. and Mrs. Kingsley Pathrose
St. Peter the Apostle, Parsippany
Mr. and Mrs. Sebasten Raffal
St. Ann Parish, Parsippany
Mr. and Mrs. Leopoldo Ramirez
St. Mary Parish, Pompton Lakes
Mr. and Mrs. Wayne Redyke
St. Francis de Sales, McAfee, Vernon
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Reisinger
Our Lady of Mercy, Whippany
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Scerbak
St. Mary’s, Pompton Lakes
Mr. and Mrs. David Schulz
St. Virgil, Morris Plains
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Sweezy
Our Lady of the Holy Angels, Little Falls
Mr. and Mrs. Ramon Villafuerte
St. Mary’s Parish, Pompton Lakes](https://unitedyam.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/84-anniversary-couples-celebrate-marital-love-at-paterson-mass-catholic-on-nov-16-84-couples-who-marked-25-50-and-60-or-more-years-of-marriage-celebrated-their-love-for-each-other-and-their-exa.jpg)
![NJ’s longest-running group home opens doors at new location #Catholic - Christmas came early at Murray House in Clifton, N.J.
“Welcome home!” Joanna Miller, executive director of the Department for Persons with Disabilities (DPD) of Catholic Charities of the Paterson Diocese in N.J., and her staff exclaimed as they greeted clients of Murray House, a group home for men and women with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Murray House staff and clients joined diocesan and community leaders, family members, and volunteers for the blessing and ribbon-cutting celebration of the group home’s new location on Nov. 14. DPD is part of Catholic Charities.
Opened in 1971, Murray House was the first group home for men and women with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the Garden State. The home is named in honor of Jimmie Murray, who had a developmental disability and died in 1969. DPD aims to make the move to the new location by Christmas.
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Residents were excited to tour the home and see their bedrooms freshly painted in the colors they selected. Laura Beahm said her sister, a resident of Murray House for 14 years, is looking forward to moving in.
“My sister called me every day about it. The house is beautiful. I love the garden, the ramp. It makes you feel so safe,” Beahm said.
Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney led the blessing and prayer.
“We thank God for the gift of life and the gift of family. And the family needs a home. And we’re so grateful to all those who have made this moment possible. We pray that every family would know peace and happiness in a safe home,” Bishop Sweeney said.
During the ribbon-cutting, Miller presented a plaque to the Murray family for its dedication, in partnership with DPD, for more than 50 years in making the home “a beacon of compassion and dignity.”
Jimmie’s brothers, Dennis Murray, vice president of the board of Catholic Charities, and Patrick Murray, officer in charge of the Paterson Police Department, and other family members, celebrated the milestone with residents and the community. The late Father Jack Wehrlen, founder of DPD, and the Murray family opened the first Murray House in 1971.
Bishop Sweeney thanked community and government leaders for their support, including U.S. Rep. Nellie Pou and State Sen. Kristin Corrado, both of whom attended the event.
“This is a sign of hope in this Jubilee Year of Hope for the Church. Look what we can do when we work together as neighbors and as a community,” Bishop Sweeney said.
The lawmakers applauded the Murray family and the DPD staff for their commitment to helping the residents flourish and grow. They wished the residents much happiness in their home.
“All of you will become one family. That is what we all want,” Pou said.
Corrado noted that there was a time when homes like Murray House were not available for “our most special and wonderful residents with intellectual and developmental disabilities.” It takes a village, said Corrado, adding, “Every person in this room is part of that village.”
Scott Milliken, CEO of Catholic Charities, said it has been their dream to relocate Murray House so that the residents can age in place.
“It’s a testament to our belief that every person deserves to age with dignity, independence, safety, and comfort. This fully accessible ranch-style home in Clifton will ensure they can continue to thrive safely in the place they love. Murray House has set the standard for compassionate, person-centered care for over five decades. This relocation honors that legacy while securing their future,” Milliken said. “This is your home, and you can stay here for a very long time. Enjoy it, live well, and prosper.”
Celebrating its 60th anniversary, DPD operates 10 group homes and one supervised apartment program, with a new group home scheduled to open in Morris County in 2026, to help individuals live with dignity and respect. DPD has been accredited by the Council on Accreditation since 1986 and is the only provider in the intellectual and developmental disabilities field in New Jersey to hold this accreditation.
Miller also said it was essential to the Catholic Charities staff to keep Murray House in Clifton because the residents have been part of the community’s fabric, and their day and support programs are nearby.
“They’re engaged in many activities. They worship there. They shop there. They take part in recreational activities and all the different activities that make Clifton a great place for them,” Miller said.
BEACON PHOTOS | JOE GIGLI
[See image gallery at beaconnj.org]](https://unitedyam.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/njs-longest-running-group-home-opens-doors-at-new-location-catholic-christmas-came-early-at-murray-house-in-clifton-n-j-welcome-home-joanna-miller-executive-director-of-t.jpg)
![How pregnancy centers help women: Centers provide $450 million in value, report finds #Catholic
Jessica Williams and her 3-year-old daughter were helped by First Choice Pregnancy Services in Las Vegas. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America
CNA Staff, Nov 17, 2025 / 16:11 pm (CNA).
When Jessica Williams became pregnant with another man’s child while she and her husband were separated, her husband pressured her to abort the child.As soon as she took the first abortion pill, mifepristone, she regretted it. “As a nurse, the reality of what I had done had hit me hard,” said Williams, who was nine weeks pregnant at the time. “Here I was working to save lives and about to take one of my own child’s lives.” But as a nurse, Williams knew that in spite of the pill cutting off the progesterone supply to her child, the baby might still be alive. She hadn’t yet taken the second pill, misoprostol, which would expel the child from her body. When she found a pregnancy center, First Choice Pregnancy Services in Las Vegas, staff immediately brought her in for an ultrasound.“They provided a free ultrasound, and that moment changed everything,” she said. Her baby was still alive.First Choice helped her through the abortion pill reversal process, a practice to reverse the effects of mifepristone soon after the woman takes the first abortion pill. Now, her daughter is a “healthy” and “thriving” 3-year-old, Williams said when she shared her story at a Nov. 17 online press conference.Williams is one of many women who have received help from pregnancy resource centers. Pregnancy centers across the U.S. “provided over $452 million in total medical care, support and education services, and material goods in 2024,” according to a Nov. 17 report by the Charlotte Lozier Institute. Pregnancy centers saw a total of 1 million new patients last year, “which is the equivalent of each center serving a new client every day in 2024,” Karen Czarnecki, the head of Charlotte Lozier Institute, said during the press conference. During the press conference, Marjorie Dannenfelser, head of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, called pregnancy centers the “beating heart” of pro-life movement. Pregnancy centers, Dannenfelser said, “are going to the roots of the problem” by providing support for mothers across the board, whether they are struggling with addiction, domestic abuse, homelessness, completing school, or any other challenge. Report debunks false claims about pregnancy centers Dannenfelser noted there are some claims “often unchecked in the media” that call pregnancy centers “fake clinics” or say they “don’t have licensed medical staff.”“This is flat-out false,” Dannenfelser said. “Eight in 10 centers are providing free or low-cost medical services, staffed by over 10,000 medical professionals.” More than 80% of these centers provide ultrasound services, according to the report. Many of the centers also provide STD and STI testing and treatment, as well as abortion pill reversal, like in Williams’ experience. The report also found a 98% satisfaction rate among their clients — something Williams attested to.“They greeted me gently and were nonjudgmental,” Williams said of the staff and volunteers at the pregnancy clinic she went to. “They provided a safe, calm space for me, emotionally, spiritually.”“They gave me information and education without pushing me in any direction,” she continued. “They simply supported me in whatever path I chose.”More than three years later, Williams still keeps up with the women at the clinic.“I’m meeting with these ladies every month still,” Williams said. “They’re just a phone call, a text away, anything I need. I mean, we’re just almost becoming a family now.” Pregnancy centers also provide material, educational, and emotional support. For instance, 92% of centers offer material items to women in need. On average, each pregnancy center distributed six-packs of diapers and five baby outfits every day, according to the report. First Choice “provided diapers, material support, emotional and spiritual support groups, parenting resources, community connections, and just so much practical help in general,” Williams said. “It was a level of compassion that carried me through my entire pregnancy.” Offering material support is a growing effort in the pro-life movement. At pregnancy centers, material support has grown by more than 300% from 2019 to 2024.Many pregnancy centers also offer a variety of other resources, including childbirth classes, breastfeeding consultations, and outreach to victims of human trafficking. “Even right now, they’re doing a monthly get-together — we get to network with other mamas,” Williams said. “We’re [able] to access any resources.” The majority of pregnancy centers also help support women who are recovering from abortions.Williams said the women at the clinic “understood the pressure and fear” she was under to abort. Even after the reversal, her husband drove her to an abortion clinic when she was 16 weeks pregnant “to finish the job,” she said. “The clinic was on the same exact street [where] I saved my baby,” she said. “I couldn’t do it and demanded he take me home. I now know that the strategic location has also saved many other babies.” “They created a safe place for me to heal and feel supported,” she said of the clinic.](https://unitedyam.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/how-pregnancy-centers-help-women-centers-provide-450-million-in-value-report-finds-catholic-jessica-williams-and-her-3-year-old-daughter-were-helped-by-first-choice-pregnancy-services-in-las-v.webp)
![Holy Spirit School honors veterans with heartfelt ceremony #Catholic - Holy Spirit School in Pequannock, N.J., honored and remembered the brave men and women who have selflessly served the United States both at home and abroad during a Veterans Day ceremony on Nov. 11.
Students, teachers, parents, and guests filled the gym. They welcomed members from American Legion Post 450, including Dennis Porpora, Daniel Boyle, Pat McKevor, and Morris County American Legion Vice Commander Dominick Sabol Sr. The ceremony began with a prayer of gratitude for all who serve or have served and a moment of silence for those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
Filippini Sister Marie Antonelli, principal of Holy Spirit School, spoke about the importance of Veterans Day. She reminded students that when they see men and women in military uniform, they should express gratitude and remember the many freedoms and liberties that we enjoy as Americans.
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Several Holy Spirit School families who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces joined the celebration, including Gregory Mazloom (U.S. Navy), Brady Moore (U.S. Army Green Berets), and Andrew Exposito (U.S. Marine Corps).
During the ceremony, Mazloom shared his experiences serving in the Navy, speaking about teamwork, perseverance, and the honor of representing the United States. His words encouraged students to appreciate the freedoms they enjoy and recognize the sacrifices made to protect them.
Mazloom and Moore led a flag-folding demonstration. The gymnasium fell silent for the playing of “Taps” by eighth grader Christiano Levia on the trumpet.
McKevor, one of Holy Spirit School’s earliest alumni and a veteran, was specially recognized for his service to the nation and lifelong dedication to the Holy Spirit community. He shared memories from his student days and expressed his joy at seeing the next generation continue the school’s traditions.
Paul J. Hirsch is the academic dean and technology coordinator, and an eighth-grade religion teacher at Holy Spirit School in Pequannock, N.J.
PHOTOS | PAUL J. HIRSCH
[See image gallery at beaconnj.org]](https://unitedyam.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/holy-spirit-school-honors-veterans-with-heartfelt-ceremony-catholic-holy-spirit-school-in-pequannock-n-j-honored-and-remembered-the-brave-men-and-women-who-have-selflessly-served-the-united-stat.jpg)
![Bishops discuss faith formation before National Catholic Youth Conference #Catholic
Organizers of Pope Leo XIV’s upcoming digital dialogue with young people Nov. 21 at the National Catholic Youth Conference in Indianapolis speak to the media at the site of the United States Catholic Bishops’ Conference Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore on Nov. 12, 2025. Left to right: Cardinal Christophe Pierre, papal nuncio to the United States; Montse Alvarado, president and COO of EWTN News; Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez, Archdiocese of Philadelphia; Christina Lamas, executive director of National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry; and Archbishop Charles Thompson, Archdiocese of Indianapolis. / Credit: Shannon Mullen/National Catholic Register
Baltimore, Maryland, Nov 17, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).
Bishops discussed young Catholics’ place in the Church ahead of the National Catholic Youth Conference.At the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore, bishops spoke about the young generation as many prepare to attend NCYC. The conference will take place Nov. 20–22 in Indianapolis for prayer, community, evangelization, and service among Catholic teenagers.During NCYC, Pope Leo XIV will hold a digital dialogue with teens from across the nation. “When the pope speaks, he speaks to the world, and this will be a wonderful, wonderful moment. This encounter will engage young people in real time,” said Archbishop Nelson Pérez of Philadelphia. At a Nov. 12 press conference at the USCCB fall plenary, Pérez said “there is a deep significance to this encounter.” He added: “It reflects the Holy Father’s desire to connect with young people, with our youth, whom his predecessor … Pope Francis, called ‘the now of God.’”Pérez said during his time as a priest and bishop, he has noticed teenagers “want a place in the Church.” He said: “They want to be seen, heard, and valued, which is so beautiful ... They want to be loved by the Church.”“Even in today’s interconnected world, the Church can seem far away from young people. The Holy Father’s choice to encounter the American youth ... is an expression of his closeness to the youth of the world.”“This moment will mark a powerful opportunity for young people to witness the beauty of the universal Church with our Holy Father and to express their concerns, voices, experience, [and] what’s in their hearts,” Pérez said.Bishop Joseph Espaillat, auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of New York, has attended NCYC more than a dozen times. He told CNA “the energy and the vibrancy of the young people” is why he returns each year.“It’s not just the local parish or the local diocese, but it’s the national Church and there’s something powerful when we come together,” Espaillat said.This year’s event is “the first time ever the Holy Father has a live online interview like this,” at NCYC, Espaillat said. “What I love about it is that the Church in the United States is leading right now. The young people being the focus with our Holy Father is going to be great, and it’s going to produce a lot of positive energy in our Church.”Espaillat encouraged attendees “to be open and allow yourself to be surprised by the Holy Spirit.” He added: “Don’t go in with a preconceived notion. It is a great event in which there are many, many fruits. I’ve seen young people just come to life at the event.”Youth draw closer to the ChurchAs thousands of teenagers plan to gather at the national conference, U.S. bishops further explained why so many young Catholics are looking to the Church. A number of bishops highlighted the Catholic presence on social media is helping to draw them in.Bishop William Byrne of Springfield, Massachusetts, told CNA the exponential growth of young Catholics coming to the Church is “amazing and exciting.” Byrne, who served as chair for the USCCB’s committee on communications, detailed how much its online presence has grown its outreach to the young generation and wider population. “Beginning with the illness of our beloved Pope Francis, through the funeral, and then the transition to Pope Leo, we’ve actually had a 226% growth in our social media on the four platforms we use — TikTok, Instagram, X, and YouTube,” he said.“The amazing thing is, it’s still growing. It means that people are seeing it, sharing it,” Byrne said. He specifically noted it’s the “young people” spreading the message online. “So we see that we are reaching people,” Byrne said. “But our goal is not to get people locked on their phones. Our goal is to get people locked on Jesus Christ and have the impression be Jesus Christ and his bride, the Church.”“This is an exciting time. It’s not without its challenges, but it’s also a wonderful opportunity,” Byrne said. “We’re reaching young people who are curious and hungry. It’s so exciting to see the Church continue to speak to the world, because the Church has never lost her relevance.”The start of the Catholic online presence followed the movement of the new atheists, Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, said. He told CNA the movement was made up of “people who were really shaping the culture, saying: ‘There’s no purpose of life. We come from nowhere. We go nowhere. There’s no objective moral value.’”“A lot of people, myself included, began to get on social media with a religious voice,” Barron said. “People who had not heard a religious voice or who were disaffiliated … could find people like me and many others who were actually talking about God and about religion.”“But I think as a whole generation came of age, they realized what a desperately sad and empty message that is,” Barron said. “There’s this hunger in the heart for God, and so that just reasserts itself. I think a lot of younger people who were raised on this very vapid philosophy began to look to religion.”As more young Catholics get involved in youth formation whether in their parishes or at larger gatherings like NCYC, Barron said he encourages them to use the opportunities to “build community and build a sense of family with other believers.”Barron, who is the founder of the Catholic media organization Word on Fire, has gained nearly 3 million YouTube subscribers and millions of other followers across social media platforms. But, he said, “one drawback of social media is that it’s a little private world. It can be a lot of people accessing it, but privately.”“Maybe through social media an individual finds a path to religion, but then to look around a room and see thousands of other people that are on a similar path — that’s a great thing,” Barron said.](https://unitedyam.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/bishops-discuss-faith-formation-before-national-catholic-youth-conference-catholic-organizers-of-pope-leo-xivs-upcoming-digital-dialogue-with-young-people-nov-21-at-the-national-catholi.webp)
![CNA explains: Why does the Catholic Church prohibit ‘gay marriage’? #Catholic
null / Credit: Daniel Jedzura/Shutterstock
CNA Staff, Nov 17, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).
Slightly over 10 years after it redefined marriage to include same-sex couples, the U.S. Supreme Court on Nov. 10 declined to revisit that controversial decision, upholding at least for now its ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges that made “gay marriage” the law of the land.A decade after that ruling, nearly a million same-sex couples in the U.S. are participating in what the law now defines as marriage. Yet the Catholic Church has continued to affirm the definition of marriage as being exclusively a union between a man and a woman. That has been the prevailing definition of marriage around the world for at least about 5,000 years of human history, though many societies have allowed polygamy, or multiple spouses, in various forms. The same-sex variant of marriage, meanwhile, only became accepted in recent decades. The Church has held since its beginning that marriage is strictly between one man and one woman. The Catechism of the Catholic Church directs that marriage occurs when “a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life.” It is “by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring.”Church Fathers and theologians from the earliest days of Catholicism have consistently upheld that marriage is meant to be a lifelong, permanent union between one man and one woman, with St. Augustine explicitly naming “offspring” as one of the blessings of marriage, along with “fidelity” and “the sacramental bond.”Gay marriage a ‘misnomer’ by Church teachingJohn Grabowski, a professor of moral theology at The Catholic University of America, told CNA that marriage in the Catholic Church’s teaching is based on “unity, indissolubility, and [is ordered] toward life,” or the begetting of children.“Those criteria can only be met in a union between a man and a woman,” he said. “They cannot be met in a union between two men and two women. ‘Gay marriage’ is thus a misnomer in the Church’s understanding.”The Supreme Court’s redefinition of marriage, Grabowski argued, was an act of “judicial fiat” rather than a recognition of what marriage actually is. He said the high court was functioning more as a “cultural barometer” reflecting an erroneous shift in perception on what marriage is.“It would be similar to if the court passed a rule saying we could call a square a circle,” he said. “It’s just not based on the reality of the natural world.”The Obergefell ruling came after years of LGBT activist efforts to redefine marriage both within individual states and at the federal level. Advocates had argued that there was no meaningful reason to restrict marriage to opposite-sex couples and that to do so constituted discrimination. Many critics have claimed that the Church’s broader teaching on marriage actually left the door open for same-sex couples to marry — for instance, they argued, by allowing opposite-sex couples to marry even if one or both of the spouses are infertile, the Church implicitly divorces biological childbearing from marriage itself. Grabowski acknowledged that the Church does allow infertile couples to get married (and to stay married if infertility occurs at a later date). But he pointed out that the Church does in fact prohibit marriage for those who are impotent, or constitutionally incapable of intercourse. The key point for the Church, he said, is what St. John Paul II called the “spousal meaning of the body.” The late pope argued that men and women “exist in the relationship of the reciprocal gift of self,” ordered to the communion of “one flesh” of which the Bible speaks in Genesis. The Church’s teaching, Grabowski said, “is based on the natural law. It tells us that the way God designed us is for the good of our flourishing, both as individuals and as the good of society.”Though marriage advocates have continued to criticize the Supreme Court’s decision over the past decade, others have at times suggested a pivot away from directly challenging it at the legal level. In 2017, for instance, Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, Bishop Robert Barron affirmed his opposition to gay marriage but questioned “the prudence and wisdom” of attempting to legislatively outlaw it at that time. The bishop suggested instead that “personal witness and education” were better tools for the current political climate.Grabowski acknowledged that one “could say, realistically, the ship has sailed and the political question is dead.”“But that’s a political judgment,” he said. Catholics should not lose sight of the goal to reestablish correct laws on marriage, he argued.“In terms of something to hope for, pray for, and to the degree that we’re able to, work for it — that’s something Catholics should aspire to.”](https://unitedyam.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/cna-explains-why-does-the-catholic-church-prohibit-gay-marriage-catholic-null-credit-daniel-jedzura-shutterstockcna-staff-nov-17-2025-0600-am-cna-slightly-over-10.webp)
