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.
From Ascension:
Join Father Mike Schmitz this Advent for “Waiting Well: Advent with Fr. Mike Schmitz” on the Ascension app.
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.
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.
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.)
Read More
![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)
![Religious sisters announce historic land return to Wisconsin Native American tribe #Catholic
LaCrosse, Wisconsin. / Credit: JTTucker/Shutterstock
CNA Staff, Nov 7, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).
A Wisconsin religious community says it has completed the first known instance of a Catholic group returning land to a Native American tribe, hailing it as a move made in the “spirit of relationship and healing.”The Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration announced the transfer in an Oct. 31 news release on its website. The community is located in La Crosse, Wisconsin, near the state’s border with Minnesota.The sisters had purchased the land from the Lac du Flambeau Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa tribe in 1966 and used the property for its Marywood Franciscan Spirituality Center.The sisters said they sold the property to the tribe for $30,000, the exact amount for which they paid for the land six decades ago. The modern sale price represented “just over 1% of [the land’s] current market value,” the sisters said.The bargain sale represents “the first known return of Catholic-owned land to a tribal nation as an act of repair for colonization and residential boarding schools,” the sisters said.“Today, the tribe’s reservation represents only a fraction of [its] traditional territories,” the news release said. “Rebuilding and protecting tribal land bases is vital to sustaining sovereignty — it restores the ability for self-determination, cultural preservation, and community development.” “A strong land base supports essential services, creates employment opportunities, and provides a foundation for long-term economic and social resilience,” the sisters said. Tribal President John Johnson hailed the sale as “an example of what true healing and partnership can look like.” “We are proud to welcome Marywood home, to ensure it continues to serve future generations of the Lac du Flambeau people,” Johnson said. The sisters said the retreat center was “facing challenges to its viability,” leading the community to “discern a future for the land” in line with its institutional priorities. In their press release, the sisters said they have also been in “a process of reckoning” with the history of St. Mary’s Catholic Indian Boarding School. The sisters administered the school in Odanah, Wisconsin, from 1883 to 1969.Critics in recent years have claimed that such boarding schools participated in the erasure of Native American culture. Others have alleged that significant clergy sex abuse took place at such institutions.The sisters on Oct. 31 said such schools were guilty of “separating children from their families, suppressing Native identity, and paving the way for the large-scale seizure of Native homelands.”“It was painful to address our complicity, but we knew it had to be done,” former community president Sister Eileen McKenzie said in the press release.Diocese of Superior Bishop James Powers, meanwhile, praised the transfer, describing it as “a tangible act of justice and reconciliation that flows directly from the heart of our Catholic faith.”The Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration traces its roots to a group of Bavarian immigrants who traveled to Milwaukee in 1849 “intent upon founding a religious community to spread the Gospel among German immigrants.”The community has run hospitals and schools in Wisconsin and has also sponsored medical clinics and mission schools abroad.](https://unitedyam.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/religious-sisters-announce-historic-land-return-to-wisconsin-native-american-tribe-catholic-lacrosse-wisconsin-credit-jttucker-shutterstockcna-staff-nov-7-2025-0600-am-cna-a-wiscon.webp)
![‘Every execution should be stopped’: How U.S. bishops work to save prisoners on death row #Catholic
null / Credit: txking/Shutterstock
CNA Staff, Oct 25, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).
Bishops in multiple U.S. states are leading efforts to spare the lives of condemned prisoners facing execution — urging clemency in line with the Catholic Church’s relatively recent but unambiguous declaration that the death penalty is not permissible and should be abolished. Executions in the United States have been increasingly less common for years. Following the death penalty’s re-legalization by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976, executions peaked in the country around the turn of the century before beginning a gradual decline.Still, more than 1,600 prisoners have been executed since the late 1970s. The largest number of those executions has been carried out in Texas, which has killed 596 prisoners over that time period.As with other states, the Catholic bishops of Texas regularly petition the state government to issue clemency to prisoners facing death. Jennifer Allmon, the executive director of the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops, told CNA that the state’s bishops regularly urge officials to commute death penalty sentences to life in prison. “We refer to it as the Mercy Project,” she said. Though popular perception holds that the governor of a state is the ultimate arbiter of a condemned prisoner’s fate, Allmon said in Texas that’s not the case. “The state Board of Pardons and Paroles has the ultimate authority,” she said. “The governor is only allowed to issue a 30-day stay on an execution one time. He doesn’t actually have the power to grant a permanent clemency.” “We don’t encourage phone calls to the governor because it’s not going to be a meaningful order,” she pointed out. “The board has a lot more authority.”Allmon said the bishops advocate on behalf of every condemned prisoner in the state. “We send a letter to the Board of Pardons and Paroles and copy the governor for every single execution during the time period when the board is reviewing clemency applications,” she said. “Typically they hold reviews about 21 days before the execution. We time our letters to arrive shortly before that.” “We research every single case,” she said. “We speak to the defendant’s legal counsel for additional information. We personalize each letter to urge prayer for the victims and their families, we mention them by name, and we share any mitigating circumstances or reason in particular that the execution is unjust, while always acknowledging that every execution should be stopped.”Some offenders, Allmon said, want to be executed. “We do a letter anyway. We think it’s important that on principle we speak out for every execution.”In Missouri, meanwhile, the state’s Catholic bishops similarly advocate for every prisoner facing execution by the government. Missouri has been among the most prolific executors of condemned prisoners since 1976. More than half of the 102 people executed there over the last 50 years have been under Democratic governors; then-Gov. Mel Carnahan oversaw 38 state executions from 1993 to 2000 alone. Jamie Morris, the executive director of the Missouri Catholic Conference, told CNA that the state bishops “send a clemency request for every prisoner set to be executed, either through a letter from the Missouri Catholic Conference or through a joint letter of the bishops.”“We also highlight every upcoming execution through our MCC publications and encourage our network to contact the governor to ask for clemency,” he said. Individual dioceses, meanwhile, carry out education and outreach to inform the faithful of the Church’s teaching on the death penalty. What does the Church actually teach?The Vatican in 2018 revised its teaching on the death penalty, holding that though capital punishment was “long considered an appropriate response” to some crimes, evolving standards and more effective methods of imprisonment and detention mean the death penalty is now “inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.”The Church “works with determination for its abolition worldwide,” says the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the revision of which was approved by Pope Francis. The Church’s revision came after years of increasing opposition to the death penalty by popes in the modern era. Then-Pope John Paul II in 1997 revised the catechism to reflect what he acknowledged was a “growing tendency, both in the Church and in civil society, to demand that [the death penalty] be applied in a very limited way or even that it be abolished completely.”The Death Penalty Information Center says that 23 states and the District of Columbia have abolished capital punishment. Morris told CNA that bills to abolish the death penalty are filed “every year” in Missouri, though he said those measures have “not been heard in a legislative committee” during his time at the Catholic conference. Bishops have thus focused their legislative efforts on advocating against a provision in the Missouri code that allows a judge to sentence an individual to death when a jury cannot reach a unanimous decision on the death penalty. Brett Farley, who heads the Catholic Conference of Oklahoma, said the state’s bishops have been active in opposing capital punishment there after a six-year moratorium on the death penalty lapsed in 2021 and executions resumed. Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley and Tulsa Bishop David Konderla “have been very outspoken both in calling for clemency of death row inmates and, generally, calling for an end to the death penalty,” Farley said. The prelates have called for abolition via Catholic publications and in op-eds, he said.The state’s bishops through the Tulsa Diocese and Oklahoma City Archdiocese have also instituted programs in which clergy and laity both minister to the condemned and their families, Farley said. The state Catholic conference, meanwhile, has led the effort to pass a proposed legislative ban on the death penalty. That measure has moved out of committee in both chambers of the state Legislature, Farley said. “We have also commissioned recent polls that show overwhelming support for moratorium among Oklahoma voters, which demonstrate as many as 78% agreeing that ‘a pause’ on executions is appropriate to ensure we do not execute innocent people,” he said. Catholics across the United States have regularly led efforts to abolish the death penalty. The Washington, D.C.-based group Catholic Mobilizing Network, for instance, arose out of the U.S. bishops’ 2005 Catholic Campaign to End the Use of the Death Penalty. The group urges activists to take part in anti-death penalty campaigns in numerous states, including petitioning the federal government to end the death penalty, using a “three-tiered approach of education, advocacy, and prayer.”Catholics have also worked to end the death penalty at the federal level. Sixteen people have been executed by the federal government since 1976. Executions in the states have increased over the last few years, though they have not come near the highs of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Allmon said Texas is seeing “fewer executions in general” relative to earlier years. The number of executions was very high under Gov. Rick Perry, she said; the Republican governor ultimately witnessed the carrying out of 279 death sentences over his 15 years as governor. Since 2015, current Gov. Greg Abbott has presided over a comparatively smaller 78 executions. “It still shouldn’t happen,” she said, “but it’s a huge reduction.”](https://unitedyam.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/every-execution-should-be-stopped-how-u-s-bishops-work-to-save-prisoners-on-death-row-catholic-null-credit-txking-shutterstockcna-staff-oct-25-2025-0600-am-cna-bi.webp)
![Missouri court says man can sue St. Louis Archdiocese over abuse he repressed for decades #Catholic
The Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis. / Credit: legacy1995/Shutterstock
CNA Staff, Oct 16, 2025 / 11:48 am (CNA).
A Missouri appeals court has ordered that an alleged victim of clergy sexual abuse can sue the Archdiocese of St. Louis, ruling that an arcane aspect of bankruptcy law does not negate the archdiocese’s potential liability for abuse that the plaintiff allegedly repressed for decades.The case touches on both the complex character of U.S. bankruptcy statutes as well as the often-protracted nature of abuse allegations, which frequently only come to light years or decades after the abuse is alleged to have occurred. In its Oct. 14 ruling, the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, said the alleged victim, John Doe, claims to have been abused at the St. Joseph’s Home for Boys in the late 1980s. Doe alleges that Father Alexander Anderson, who was assigned as a counselor to the home, sexually abused him; the plaintiff said he “reported the abuse [but] no action was taken,” according to the court. Doe “alleged he repressed his memory of the abuse until 2016,” the court said. He ultimately filed suit against the archdiocese in August 2022. The archdiocese argued in response that Doe’s abuse claim was effectively negated by two bankruptcy claims he had filed in 2008 and 2009. U.S. law dictates that when debtors file for bankruptcy, they create “an estate that includes nearly all of the debtor’s legal or equitable interests in property,” including legal causes of action. The archdiocese claimed that since Doe did not list his abuse claims as “exempted assets” in his bankruptcy proceedings, they became part of that “estate” and can only be administered by the trustee that handled those proceedings. The appeals court rejected the archdiocese’s argument, reversing a lower court decision and holding that Doe’s “cause of action” only arose when he said he remembered the alleged abuse in 2016, “well after” his bankruptcy filings. Doe’s standing to sue “did not accrue [when] the sexual abuse was allegedly committed” but rather when it was “capable of ascertainment,” the court held. The court’s ruling cited Missouri Supreme Court precedent, which holds that, in some cases of abuse, “the victim may be so young, mentally incompetent, or otherwise innocent and lacking in understanding that the person could not reasonably have understood that substantial harm could have resulted from the wrong.”The St. Louis Archdiocese did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling on Oct. 16. This is not the first instance in which the archdiocese has been held accountable for abuse allegations that an alleged victim claimed to have repressed for decades.In 2023 the archdiocese agreed to pay a $1 million settlement to a man who said he was abused by Father Gary Wolken in the mid-1990s but repressed the memories until he was an adult. Wolken was in prison from 2003 to 2015 for sexually abusing another boy in the St. Louis area from 1997 to 2000.](https://unitedyam.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/missouri-court-says-man-can-sue-st-louis-archdiocese-over-abuse-he-repressed-for-decades-catholic-the-cathedral-basilica-of-st-louis-credit-legacy1995-shutterstockcna-staff-oct-16-2025.webp)
![Israelis, Gazan Christians, Catholics in U.S. weigh in on historic peace deal #Catholic
Daniel Ayalon, former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. and former foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaks with “EWTN News Nightly” anchor Veronica Dudo on Oct. 10, 2025. / Credit: “EWTN News Nightly”
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 11, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).
Former Israeli government officials, representatives for the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, and Catholic advocates for Israel in the U.S. spoke with EWTN News this week following the historic peace deal brokered by the Trump administration between Israel and Hamas. News of the peace agreement came as “a joy for the entire population of Gaza, for the families of the hostages, and for our parish, our little parish there in Gaza,” according to Farid Jabran, the public and government affairs adviser for the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.In an Oct. 10 interview with “EWTN News Nightly,” Jabran noted there is still an air of “expectation” as the region waits to “see what happens.”Jabran revealed that Latin Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa had spoken to the pastor of Gaza’s only Catholic Church, Father Gabriel Romanelli. “They are all very happy that they are not hearing more bombings,” Jabran said of the Gazan parish community. “They expect a better future, but still they wait to see what is going to happen … They’re all waiting to see what happens after the release of the hostages.” “The Catholic Church, as the patriarch, as the pope, as many said, will give anything in its power to to offer assistance, to offer good services when it’s asked to do so,” said Jabran, noting that the Latin Patriarchate has “big plans for Gaza,” including the construction of a new hospital in the southern region of the enclave. “We’ll have more details on that that will be supported by the Italian Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Latin Patriarchate,” he revealed, adding: “We are planning to create field hospitals in several places and to work on schools and education for the children, not only for the Christian community [but] for everyone.”Breaking down the peace deal In an Oct. 10 appearance on “EWTN News Nightly,” Daniel Ayalon, former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. and former foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, shared how the historic peace deal brokered by the Trump administration will play out in the coming days. Though both Israel and Hamas signed on to the first phase of the peace plan set out by the Trump administration on Wednesday, reports of ongoing bombardment from the IDF in northern Gaza was reported on Friday morning. Avalon explained that “there was a threat that the IDF depicted, and they had to take care of it.” “We have enough experience with Hamas that even though they agree on a ceasefire, they continue their aggression,” he told “EWTN News Nightly” anchor Veronica Dudo. “But we adhere, or Israel adheres to the agreement and to the ceasefire terms … We started right on time, and we are now back off the former position, and hopefully we will see our hostages within the next 72 hours.” President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social on Wednesday that both parties had agreed to the first phase of his 20-point peace plan for the Middle East, in which he noted: “ALL of the hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their troops to an agreed-upon line as the first steps toward a strong, durable, and everlasting peace.”“I think that we should all acknowledge the leadership and the negotiation capabilities of President Trump and his team,” Ayalon said. “I believe that they found the right moment to really bring together an assembly of protagonists in the region that could really be instrumental, namely, Turkey, Qatar, and Egypt, that put a lot of pressure on Hamas that was not there before.” Given that the first phase goes according to plan, Ayalon said, Israel will release its Palestinian prisoners, and IDF troops will continue to withdraw, allowing Gazans to return to their homes. After which, he said, comes the precarious task of disarming Hamas, which will include dismantling its vast network of tunnels. This task, he predicted, could take several months. “I think the people of Gaza deserve this,” Ayalon reflected. “After these two horrendous years … they were actually held hostage by Hamas, which used them as cannon fodder or as human shields.” The former ambassador further expressed hope that Gazans ensure “no more terror organizations will grow there to a monstrous dimension, as we did with Hamas.”Looking ahead, Ayalon expressed hope for a broader normalization of relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors, such as Saudi Arabia and others, as well as other major Islamic countries such as Indonesia or Pakistan, to take place alongside reconstruction. He also floated the start of “a political process with the Palestinians,” noting Hamas will no longer govern the enclave. “It probably will be the Palestinian Authority,” he said, noting that under the agreement the governing body is mandated to promote peaceful coexistence and to “do away with terror” and indoctrination in its schools. “Then we can talk about real peace between Israel and the Palestinians, which may be a cornerstone of a much broader peace with the region,” he said, adding: “And we all deserve it — the world deserves it, and I think it will be to the benefit and the prosperity of all here.”Remembering Oct. 7On the two-year anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, Philos Catholic Director Simone Rizkallah told CNA: “This is not a day to discuss U.S. foreign policy or to analyze political dynamics.” Even with the Trump administration’s efforts in the background to make a peace deal between the Hamas terrorist group and Israel, Rizkallah emphasized, “Oct. 7 is a day to live out the beatitude ‘Blessed are they who mourn.’” Philos Catholic is an arm of the U.S-based nonprofit organization, the Philos Project, which works to foster Catholic-Jewish relations. Over 1,200 Israelis and 22 Americans were confirmed killed, and thousands more wounded in the wake of Hamas’ large-scale surprise attack on Israel. An additional 251 were taken hostage into the Gaza Strip.“We mourn with the Jewish people and with Israel as if we are mourning for our own selves — because, in truth, we are,” she said. “To stand with our Jewish brothers and sisters today is not a political act, and it is certainly not a partisan one. The Church is not a political entity. This is about faith and the culture that faith gives birth to.”According to Rizkhallah: “To speak up and stand with our Jewish friends is not sentimental — it is an act of spiritual realism and solidarity with our own people in the faith.” To do so, she continued, is not a partisan act but a “part of orthodox Catholic theology, rooted in the heart of the Church’s self-understanding.”Catholics, she urged, should “incarnate this love by showing up in the flesh” for their Jewish friends and neighbors. “Call your Jewish friends,” she said. “Reach out to your local synagogue or Jewish community center. Drop off white roses in the wake of antisemitic attacks — a symbol of Christian resistance to hatred, inspired by the White Rose movement that opposed Nazi Germany.”Philos Catholic will host an event commemorating the 60th anniversary of Nostra Aetate this year at the Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Washington, D.C., which will be available to attend both in person and virtually.](https://unitedyam.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/israelis-gazan-christians-catholics-in-u-s-weigh-in-on-historic-peace-deal-catholic-daniel-ayalon-former-israeli-ambassador-to-the-u-s-and-former-foreign-policy-adviser-to-prime-minister-ben.webp)
![Brooklyn usher murdered in subway remembered as ‘tremendous man of faith’ #Catholic
Nicola Tanzi. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Deacon Anthony Mammoliti
CNA Staff, Oct 10, 2025 / 15:37 pm (CNA).
A Catholic man who served as an usher at his Brooklyn parish before he was killed in a brutal attack in a city subway is being remembered as a “good soul” with a “tremendous” faith in Christ.Sixty-four-year-old Nicola Tanzi was killed on Oct. 7, when police say 25-year-old David Mazariegos beat him to death in the Jay Street-MetroTech station in Brooklyn. He later died at New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital. New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch described the attack as “horrific.” Police were able to apprehend the suspect using photos and a physical description transmitted through their phones, Tisch said. Mazariegos has reportedly been arrested multiple times before. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on X that state Gov. Kathy Hochul “has blood on her hands” over the death.“Nicola Tanzi’s life was taken by another repeat offender roaming New York’s streets freely,” Duffy wrote. ”New York needs leaders who will back the blue and make America’s transit system safe again.”Victim mourned as a ‘simple, good person’Those who knew Tanzi have mourned his death in the days following his murder. Deacon Anthony Mammoliti told CNA in an interview on Oct. 10 that Tanzi was “probably the most Christ-like parishioner I’ve encountered.” Mammoliti serves at St. Dominic’s Parish in Bensonhurst where Tanzi attended. Tanzi served as an usher there at the Italian Mass for at least 10 years, the deacon said. “He was a man who would give of himself,” Mammoliti said. “In his civilian job, he would often, without hesitation, switch shifts to allow married colleagues to have family time. When I engaged with him in the parish, it was always with a congenial smile.”Tanzi would regularly greet elderly parishioners with a “Buon Giorni!” and “Come Stai!” while holding the door for them, Mammoliti said. The deacon said the parish is in shock over the news. “We’re all in a state of disbelief. The old expression, ‘Bad things happen to good people,’ that’s the first thought that came to mind,” he said. Deacon John Heyer of Sacred Hearts and St. Stephen Catholic Church in the city’s Carroll Gardens neighborhood told CBS News that Tanzi was “definitely a good person. Like, a simple, good person.”“[He was the] type of guy who went to work and came home and was part of different community organizations,” Heyer said. “Especially those related to his family’s heritage and roots in Mola di Bari, Italy.”Mazariegos, the suspect in the killing, reportedly has multiple criminal cases open against him throughout the city. He allegedly admitted to the killing afterward. Mammoliti said Tanzi, a “tremendous man of faith” with a “good soul,” had he survived the assault, would have forgiven his assailant. “He would have done what he normally did, which was to be a good Christian,” he said.“Your first initial reaction [upon hearing the news] is, you know, eye for eye, tooth for tooth,” the deacon admitted. “But we’re called to be people of faith. We’re called to emulate the teachings of the Gospel.” “We would honor Mr. Tanzi if we would live up to what Jesus teaches us, which is to forgive our enemies.”](https://unitedyam.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/brooklyn-usher-murdered-in-subway-remembered-as-tremendous-man-of-faith-catholic-nicola-tanzi-credit-photo-courtesy-of-deacon-anthony-mammoliticna-staff-oct-10-2025-15.webp)
![Washington state drops effort to make priests violate seal of confession in reporting law #Catholic
null / Credit: Brian A Jackson/Shutterstock
CNA Staff, Oct 10, 2025 / 14:37 pm (CNA).
Officials in Washington state have agreed to back off a controversial effort to force priests there to violate the seal of confession as part of a mandatory abuse reporting law. A motion filed in federal district court on Oct. 10 affirmed that state and local governments would stop attempting to require priests to report child abuse learned during the sacrament of reconciliation.The state attorney general’s office on Oct. 10 said in a press release that clergy would remain mandatory reporters under state law, but prosecutors would agree “not to enforce reporting requirements for information clergy learn solely through confession or its equivalent in other faiths.”The agreement brings an end to a high-profile and controversial effort by Washington government leaders to violate one of the Catholic Church’s most sacred and inviolable directives, one that requires priests to maintain absolute secrecy over what they learn during confession or else face excommunication. Washington’s revised mandatory reporting law, passed by the state Legislature earlier this year and signed by Gov. Robert Ferguson, added clergy to the list of mandatory abuse reporters in the state. But it didn’t include an exemption for information learned in the confessional, explicitly leaving priests out of a “privileged communication” exception afforded to other professionals.The state’s bishops successfully blocked the law in federal court in July, though the threat of the statute still loomed if the state government was successful at appeal. In the July ruling, District Judge David Estudillo said there was “no question” that the law burdened the free exercise of religion.“In situations where [priests] hear confessions related to child abuse or neglect, [the rule] places them in the position of either complying with the requirements of their faith or violating the law,” the judge wrote.The state’s reversal on Oct. 10 brought cheers from religious liberty advocates, including the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represented state bishops in their suit against the state government. “Washington was wise to walk away from this draconian law and allow Catholic clergy to continue ministering to the faithful,” Becket CEO and President Mark Rienzi said. “This is a victory for religious freedom and for common sense. Priests should never be forced to make the impossible choice of betraying their sacred vows or going to jail.” Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel John Bursch on Friday said the legal advocacy group was “pleased the state agreed to swiftly restore the constitutionally protected freedom of churches and priests.” The legal group had represented Orthodox churches and a priest in their own suit. “Washington was targeting priests by compelling them to break the sacred confidentiality of confession while protecting other confidential communications, like those between attorneys and their clients. That’s rank religious discrimination,” Bursch said. On X, the Washington State Catholic Conference said that Church leaders in the state “consistently supported the law’s broader goal of strengthening protections for minors.” Church leaders “asked only for a narrow exemption to protect the sacrament of confession,” the conference said. “In every other setting other than the confessional, the Church has long supported — and continues to support — mandatory reporting,” the conference added. “We’re grateful Washington ultimately recognized it can prevent abuse without forcing priests to violate their sacred vows.”The legal fight had drawn the backing of a wide variety of supporters and backers, including the Trump administration, Bishop Robert Barron, and a global priests’ group, among numerous others.Well ahead of the law’s passage, Spokane Bishop Thomas Daly had promised Catholics in the state that priests would face prison time rather than violate the seal of confession. “I want to assure you that your shepherds, bishop and priests, are committed to keeping the seal of confession — even to the point of going to jail,” Daly told the faithful in April 2023.The Washington bishops, meanwhile, noted on Oct. 10 that the Catholic Church has upheld the sanctity of confession “for centuries.” “Priests have been imprisoned, tortured, and even killed for upholding the seal of confession,” the state Catholic conference said. “Penitents today need the same assurance that their participation in a holy sacrament will remain free from government interference.”](https://unitedyam.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/washington-state-drops-effort-to-make-priests-violate-seal-of-confession-in-reporting-law-catholic-null-credit-brian-a-jackson-shutterstockcna-staff-oct-10-2025-1437-pm-cna-officials.webp)
