Media – United Yam

Illinois Senate passes assisted suicide measure #Catholic

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 31, 2025 / 14:53 pm (CNA).
The Illinois State Senate passed a bill to legalize physician-assisted suicide in the state. The legislation (SB 1950), known as the “End-of-Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act,” would authorize medical aid in dying for terminally ill adults in Illinois if signed into law by Democrat Gov. J.B. Pritzker.The House passed the bill in May 2025, and it stalled in the Senate during the regular session. It was taken up during the Fall veto session, and senators passed it early in the morning of Oct. 31. Pritzker will have 60 days to decide whether to sign or veto the bill before it automatically becomes law.The bill would allow individuals to request and self-administer medication to end their lives. According to the bill, anyone requesting medically assisted suicide must be at least 18 years old, a resident of Illinois, and have a terminal disease with a prognosis of six months or less to live.The bill also requires two verbal requests for the medication from the patient, with a five-day waiting period between the first and second request. The death certificates of individuals using physican-assisted suicide in the state would list the terminal disease as the cause of death, not suicide. “Please continue to pray for vulnerable populations and for those who feel hopeless and are near end-of-life,” the Catholic Conference of Illinois, the public policy voice of the Catholic Church in the state, wrote in a post to the social media platform X.”It is quite fitting that the forces of the culture of death in the Illinois General Assembly passed physician-assisted suicide on October 31—a day that, culturally, has become synonymous with glorifying death and evil,” said Bishop Thomas John Paprocki of the Diocese of Springfield in a statement. “It’s also ironic that these pro-death legislators did it under the cloud of darkness at 2:54 a.m.”“Doctors take an oath to do no harm. Now, they can prescribe death. There are documented cases of patients being denied treatment and instead offered life-ending drugs,” Paprocki said. “Individuals could also be coerced into taking the lethal drug.”The bishop called for prayers for Pritzker to reject the legislation as “physician assisted suicide undermines the value of each person, especially the vulnerable, the poor, and those with disabilities.”The anti-assisted suicide group Patients Rights Action Fund called on Pritzker to veto the legislation. “We encourage lawmakers to instead prioritize expanding access to mental health services, hospice care, and palliative support,” the advocacy group said in a statement. “Every patient deserves compassionate care and a full spectrum of options to live with dignity. The passage of SB 1950 introducing the use of lethal drugs in Illinois compromises that fundamental right. “Cardinal Blase Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago, strongly criticized the bill in May after it passed the House.“I speak to this topic not only as a religious leader but also as one who has seen a parent die from a debilitating illness,” Cupich said, recalling his father’s death. Cupich urged Illinois to promote “compassionate care,” not assisted suicide. “There is a way to both honor the dignity of human life and provide compassionate care to those experiencing life-ending illness,” Cupich said. “Surely the Illinois Legislature should explore those options before making suicide one of the avenues available to the ill and distressed.” The Catholic Conference of Illinois also asked the governor to veto the bill and improve palliative care programs “that offer expert assessment and management of pain and other symptoms.”“The Illinois General Assembly has put our state on a slippery path that jeopardizes the well-being of the poor and marginalized, especially those in the disability community and have foreseeable tragic consequences,” the conference said in a statement.

unitedyam October 31, 2025

null / Credit: Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 31, 2025 / 14:53 pm (CNA).

The Illinois State Senate passed a bill to legalize physician-assisted suicide in the state.

The legislation (SB 1950), known as the “End-of-Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act,” would authorize medical aid in dying for terminally ill adults in Illinois if signed into law by Democrat Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

The House passed the bill in May 2025, and it stalled in the Senate during the regular session. It was taken up during the Fall veto session, and senators passed it early in the morning of Oct. 31. Pritzker will have 60 days to decide whether to sign or veto the bill before it automatically becomes law.

The bill would allow individuals to request and self-administer medication to end their lives. According to the bill, anyone requesting medically assisted suicide must be at least 18 years old, a resident of Illinois, and have a terminal disease with a prognosis of six months or less to live.

The bill also requires two verbal requests for the medication from the patient, with a five-day waiting period between the first and second request. The death certificates of individuals using physican-assisted suicide in the state would list the terminal disease as the cause of death, not suicide.

“Please continue to pray for vulnerable populations and for those who feel hopeless and are near end-of-life,” the Catholic Conference of Illinois, the public policy voice of the Catholic Church in the state, wrote in a post to the social media platform X.

“It is quite fitting that the forces of the culture of death in the Illinois General Assembly passed physician-assisted suicide on October 31—a day that, culturally, has become synonymous with glorifying death and evil,” said Bishop Thomas John Paprocki of the Diocese of Springfield in a statement. “It’s also ironic that these pro-death legislators did it under the cloud of darkness at 2:54 a.m.”

“Doctors take an oath to do no harm. Now, they can prescribe death. There are documented cases of patients being denied treatment and instead offered life-ending drugs,” Paprocki said. “Individuals could also be coerced into taking the lethal drug.”

The bishop called for prayers for Pritzker to reject the legislation as “physician assisted suicide undermines the value of each person, especially the vulnerable, the poor, and those with disabilities.”

The anti-assisted suicide group Patients Rights Action Fund called on Pritzker to veto the legislation.

“We encourage lawmakers to instead prioritize expanding access to mental health services, hospice care, and palliative support,” the advocacy group said in a statement. “Every patient deserves compassionate care and a full spectrum of options to live with dignity. The passage of SB 1950 introducing the use of lethal drugs in Illinois compromises that fundamental right. “

Cardinal Blase Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago, strongly criticized the bill in May after it passed the House.

“I speak to this topic not only as a religious leader but also as one who has seen a parent die from a debilitating illness,” Cupich said, recalling his father’s death. Cupich urged Illinois to promote “compassionate care,” not assisted suicide.

“There is a way to both honor the dignity of human life and provide compassionate care to those experiencing life-ending illness,” Cupich said. “Surely the Illinois Legislature should explore those options before making suicide one of the avenues available to the ill and distressed.”

The Catholic Conference of Illinois also asked the governor to veto the bill and improve palliative care programs “that offer expert assessment and management of pain and other symptoms.”

“The Illinois General Assembly has put our state on a slippery path that jeopardizes the well-being of the poor and marginalized, especially those in the disability community and have foreseeable tragic consequences,” the conference said in a statement.

Texas private school bans social media, sees students thrive with parent support #Catholic

Faustina Academy, a K–12 private school in Irving, Texas, bans social media use among its students, and parents have been totally supportive. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Faustina Academy

CNA Staff, Oct 30, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).
As the harmful effects of smartphone use on children become more well known, one school in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex is partnering with parents to enforce a no-social-media policy and witnessing students flourish as a result.Faustina Academy, a K–12 private, independent Catholic school in Irving, Texas, asks parents to formally commit to a school policy of keeping their kids socia-media-free while enrolled. In addition to asking families to commit to prohibiting TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and CapCut, Faustina students have never been permitted to have phones with them during school hours. Student drivers must leave their phones in their cars during the school day and younger high school students who need phones for after-school activities turn them in to the office in the morning and pick them up after school and can only take them out once they are off campus.In the school’s early days, years before the smartphone’s launch, Christina Mehaffey, principal since the school’s founding in 2003, told CNA she paid attention to technology trends, researching MySpace and other early social-networking sites available on desktop or laptop computers.She concluded the sites “opened doors to inappropriate material” such as pornography and violence and “tweaked the tech policy to be more restrictive” over the years by informally asking parents to keep their children off devices at home (they were never allowed to have phones during the school day). She also asked parents to limit their children’s video game time.In 2017, after seeing the effects of years of smartphone use and social media apps on the children, Mehaffey began asking parents to prohibit social media use among students. She held two weeks of mandatory parent meetings for every grade level, discussing the harms of popular smartphone apps that were “drawing kids away from reality” and exposing them to “horrifying” content that was “right at their fingertips.” Mehaffey brought in an IT expert to explain to both parents and students that the app and smartphone creators “intentionally” made the devices and apps addictive because “they knew kids don’t have self-control; all for the sake of making money.”The expert told parents that kids could easily access content so harmful it was “far beyond what anyone could even imagine,” Mehaffey said. “Parents were amazed” at what they learned, she said, and 100% were willing to verbally commit to keeping their children off social media. Mehaffey said it was necessary that every parent “get on board” in order to address the “collective action problem, the fear of missing out” that would be present among the students if every family did not have the same policy at home.Speaking of the overwhelming support of the parents, Mehaffey told CNA that many parents even “asked me to just make a school-wide policy prohibiting social media so they would be relieved of the burden of having to enforce the rules. A few parents said: ‘Our lives will be easier if the school makes it a policy.’”So, in 2022, the school’s official policy became “no social media use by Faustina students.” “Every single parent signed on,” Mehaffey said. Heidi Maher, whose family has been at Faustina since 2020, told CNA her family already had a no-social-media policy, but when Mehaffey took the no-phone policy in school a step further and banned social media, “it was a huge blessing to me as a parent. It took that battle off the table. We have enough battles as parents. If no one else has social media, I don’t have to battle with my children.” At previous schools her children attended, Maher said “they weren’t willing to lay down the law on more controversial social issues and they weren’t being direct enough about what being Catholic means.”Faustina Academy students attended the March for Life in Washington, D.C., in 2022 and plan to go again this coming January. Credit: Photo courtesy of Faustina Academy“Kids are catechized on the playground,” Maher said. “Their peers, and what their peers’ families are doing, affect them, regardless of what their teachers say.”“My kids have grown up in one of the most liberal neighborhoods in Dallas. But when it came to education, we wanted an orthodox Catholic school,” she said.Since the policy change, Maher said she now sees a level of innocence in her children and their friends that she has not seen in a long time.The Dominicans visit the school once a week to read, answer questions, or give a talk to the students at Faustina Academy. Credit: Photo courtesy of Faustina AcademyJane Petres, who has two daughters at the school, agreed, telling CNA she appreciates raising her family among “mostly like-minded families” and school staff whom she can trust.“The other parents here seem very ‘with it’ and proactive,” she said of Faustina. “You can ban everything in the world, but unless the parents are enforcing it, kids are still going to be exposed to harmful things.”She said that at a previous school, an eighth-grade girl became involved with a 45-year-old man (who she thought was a teenage boy) through social media, and rather than recognizing the dangers and changing their policies, the school hushed it up. Every year, Faustina hosts parent orientations where Mehaffey tells them that “our purpose on earth is to get people to heaven. It has to be in everything we do; in our choices, friendships, our technology use, everything.”Faustina students attend Mass. Credit: Photo courtesy of Faustina Academy“We want a school where everyone is on the same page, but we’re open to all,” Mehaffey said. “If someone comes in who isn’t Catholic, they have to commit to doing things the way the school does. Not only the technology policy but also prayers, the Mass, all of it. We’re going to teach the truth.”

unitedyam October 30, 2025

Faustina Academy, a K–12 private school in Irving, Texas, bans social media use among its students, and parents have been totally supportive. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Faustina Academy

CNA Staff, Oct 30, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

As the harmful effects of smartphone use on children become more well known, one school in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex is partnering with parents to enforce a no-social-media policy and witnessing students flourish as a result.

Faustina Academy, a K–12 private, independent Catholic school in Irving, Texas, asks parents to formally commit to a school policy of keeping their kids socia-media-free while enrolled.

In addition to asking families to commit to prohibiting TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and CapCut, Faustina students have never been permitted to have phones with them during school hours.

Student drivers must leave their phones in their cars during the school day and younger high school students who need phones for after-school activities turn them in to the office in the morning and pick them up after school and can only take them out once they are off campus.

In the school’s early days, years before the smartphone’s launch, Christina Mehaffey, principal since the school’s founding in 2003, told CNA she paid attention to technology trends, researching MySpace and other early social-networking sites available on desktop or laptop computers.

She concluded the sites “opened doors to inappropriate material” such as pornography and violence and “tweaked the tech policy to be more restrictive” over the years by informally asking parents to keep their children off devices at home (they were never allowed to have phones during the school day). She also asked parents to limit their children’s video game time.

In 2017, after seeing the effects of years of smartphone use and social media apps on the children, Mehaffey began asking parents to prohibit social media use among students.

She held two weeks of mandatory parent meetings for every grade level, discussing the harms of popular smartphone apps that were “drawing kids away from reality” and exposing them to “horrifying” content that was “right at their fingertips.”

Mehaffey brought in an IT expert to explain to both parents and students that the app and smartphone creators “intentionally” made the devices and apps addictive because “they knew kids don’t have self-control; all for the sake of making money.”

The expert told parents that kids could easily access content so harmful it was “far beyond what anyone could even imagine,” Mehaffey said.

“Parents were amazed” at what they learned, she said, and 100% were willing to verbally commit to keeping their children off social media.

Mehaffey said it was necessary that every parent “get on board” in order to address the “collective action problem, the fear of missing out” that would be present among the students if every family did not have the same policy at home.

Speaking of the overwhelming support of the parents, Mehaffey told CNA that many parents even “asked me to just make a school-wide policy prohibiting social media so they would be relieved of the burden of having to enforce the rules. A few parents said: ‘Our lives will be easier if the school makes it a policy.’”

So, in 2022, the school’s official policy became “no social media use by Faustina students.”

“Every single parent signed on,” Mehaffey said.

Heidi Maher, whose family has been at Faustina since 2020, told CNA her family already had a no-social-media policy, but when Mehaffey took the no-phone policy in school a step further and banned social media, “it was a huge blessing to me as a parent. It took that battle off the table. We have enough battles as parents. If no one else has social media, I don’t have to battle with my children.”

At previous schools her children attended, Maher said “they weren’t willing to lay down the law on more controversial social issues and they weren’t being direct enough about what being Catholic means.”

Faustina Academy students attended the March for Life in Washington, D.C., in 2022 and plan to go again this coming January. Credit: Photo courtesy of Faustina Academy

“Kids are catechized on the playground,” Maher said. “Their peers, and what their peers’ families are doing, affect them, regardless of what their teachers say.”

“My kids have grown up in one of the most liberal neighborhoods in Dallas. But when it came to education, we wanted an orthodox Catholic school,” she said.

Since the policy change, Maher said she now sees a level of innocence in her children and their friends that she has not seen in a long time.

The Dominicans visit the school once a week to read, answer questions, or give a talk to the students at Faustina Academy. Credit: Photo courtesy of Faustina Academy

Jane Petres, who has two daughters at the school, agreed, telling CNA she appreciates raising her family among “mostly like-minded families” and school staff whom she can trust.

“The other parents here seem very ‘with it’ and proactive,” she said of Faustina. “You can ban everything in the world, but unless the parents are enforcing it, kids are still going to be exposed to harmful things.”

She said that at a previous school, an eighth-grade girl became involved with a 45-year-old man (who she thought was a teenage boy) through social media, and rather than recognizing the dangers and changing their policies, the school hushed it up.

Every year, Faustina hosts parent orientations where Mehaffey tells them that “our purpose on earth is to get people to heaven. It has to be in everything we do; in our choices, friendships, our technology use, everything.”

Faustina students attend Mass. Credit: Photo courtesy of Faustina Academy

“We want a school where everyone is on the same page, but we’re open to all,” Mehaffey said. “If someone comes in who isn’t Catholic, they have to commit to doing things the way the school does. Not only the technology policy but also prayers, the Mass, all of it. We’re going to teach the truth.”

Bill proposed in Hungary could require priests to violate seal of confession #Catholic

null / Credit: AS photo studio/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 24, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).
Here is a roundup of Catholic world news from the past week that you might have missed:Bill proposed in Hungary could require priests to violate seal of confessionThe Permanent Council of the Hungarian Catholic Bishops’ Conference has expressed shock over the proposition of a bill that would require Catholic priests to violate the seal of confession. “This is in serious conflict with the agreement between the Republic of Hungary and the Holy See of Feb. 9, 1990, which states that the Catholic Church in our county operates on the basis of [canon law],” the council stated in an Oct. 17 press release. The council expressed regret over “extremely crude” and “baseless sentiment-mongering and slander” that has occurred during the ongoing election cycle. “We emphasize to our priests, all believers, and society that we are not a political organization, we do not wish to participate in the campaign,” it stated. “Our mission is to serve the salvation of souls.” Church in South Korea pledges help for Timorese migrants The Catholic Church in South Korea has pledged to help improve the situation for migrants from the small Catholic-majority island country of Timor-Leste.During an Oct. 11–15 visit to the island, a 12-member delegation of South Korean Catholics from the Committee for Pastoral Care for Migrants of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea visited with groups that send migrant workers to South Korea, Cardinal Virgílio do Carmo da Silva, as well as President José Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão, according to UCA News. The delegation pledged to help bring about “better protection and welfare of migrant communities” and to “improve better pastoral care program[s] for Timor-Leste migrants,” of which there are approximately 7,000 living in South Korea.Australian archbishop renews commitment to safeguarding childrenArchbishop Tony Ireland of Hobart in Tasmania, Australia, has reaffirmed his commitment to ensuring all Catholic communities and workplaces throughout his diocese uphold safe environment standards. “The safety and well-being of all who engage with the Church is foremost in my mind and heart,” the archbishop said in an Oct. 17 statement. “Ensuring that every person — regardless of age or circumstance — feels safe, valued, and respected is an essential part of our mission and witness.” On behalf of his archdiocese, Ireland endorsed the National Catholic Safeguarding Standards, stating: “Our commitment to these standards is unwavering, reflecting zero tolerance of any form of abuse, neglect, or exploitation.” The archdiocese has remained engaged in its safeguarding measures since 2017. Madagascar cardinal urges international community to refrain from sanctioning country Cardinal Désiré Tsarahazana of Toamasina, Madagascar, is appealing to the international community not to sanction Madagascar in wake of a coup staged by military-backed youth protesters. The cardinal told Vatican media that imposing sanctions “would be illogical and immoral.”“Supporting young people who demand a better life and then killing them with sanctions would make no sense,” Vatican News Italy reported. Religious conversion case against Christian university officials in India droppedThe Supreme Court of India has dropped a criminal case against three Christian university officials in Uttar Pradesh who were accused of violating the state’s stringent anti-conversion laws. The court dropped the case on Oct. 17, citing “legal defect” in the allegations filed by Himanshu Dixit, vice president of the World Hindu Council, according to UCA News. The Hindu leader had accused officials from the Presbyterian Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology, and Sciences of “unlawful conversion activities” in addition to “cheating, criminal intimidation, and forgery,” according to the report.The judges noted that under Uttar Pradesh law, only an “aggrieved” person — that is, a victim or close relative — of the violation is permitted to lodge a complaint. The court declined to dismiss charges related to cheating and forgery but ordered protection of the accused from arrest.Church in Mozambique proposes political guide for dialogueThe Episcopol Justice and Peace Commission in Mozambique has proposed a document outlining “concrete proposals for reforms of the state, the electoral system, natural resource policies, economic inclusion, and national reconciliation.”The document, “A Political Guide for National Dialogue,” proposes limited power for the president in appointing heads of state, that judges be elected among their peers, and that the position of secretary of state be eliminated in provinces for the sake of the country’s budget, according to an Oct. 20 report from Vatican News. The guide also recommends the elimination of electronic voting to combat fraud as well as economic and natural resource reforms. To address the county’s unrest, the document proposes “building a collective memory based on truth, exercising forgiveness and mutual listening, promoting a culture of dialogue and trust, and changing mentalities to value differences while combatting prejudices.”Latin American bishops host ‘virtual jubilee’ for Indigenous people The Episcopal Conference of Latin America hosted a virtual jubilee event for Indigenous people of Latin America and the Caribbean on Oct. 14–16. Organized by the Advisory Team on Indian Theology, together with the Pastoral Care of Indigenous People of the Latin American and Caribbean Episcopal Council and the Latin American Ecumenical Articulation of Indigenous Pastoral Care, the event centered on sharing experiences “as pilgrims of hope together with our Indigenous people, authentic custodians of culture, and our common home,” according to a message from Cardinal Michael Czerny, SJ, prefect of the dicastery for promoting integral human development.“Your love for the earth, your respect for the elderly, your sense of community, and your ability to live in harmony with creation are a gift to the whole Church. You teach that life is best understood when lived simply, in relationship with God, with nature, and with others,” he said.

unitedyam October 24, 2025

null / Credit: AS photo studio/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 24, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Here is a roundup of Catholic world news from the past week that you might have missed:

Bill proposed in Hungary could require priests to violate seal of confession

The Permanent Council of the Hungarian Catholic Bishops’ Conference has expressed shock over the proposition of a bill that would require Catholic priests to violate the seal of confession.

“This is in serious conflict with the agreement between the Republic of Hungary and the Holy See of Feb. 9, 1990, which states that the Catholic Church in our county operates on the basis of [canon law],” the council stated in an Oct. 17 press release.

The council expressed regret over “extremely crude” and “baseless sentiment-mongering and slander” that has occurred during the ongoing election cycle. “We emphasize to our priests, all believers, and society that we are not a political organization, we do not wish to participate in the campaign,” it stated. “Our mission is to serve the salvation of souls.”

Church in South Korea pledges help for Timorese migrants

The Catholic Church in South Korea has pledged to help improve the situation for migrants from the small Catholic-majority island country of Timor-Leste.

During an Oct. 11–15 visit to the island, a 12-member delegation of South Korean Catholics from the Committee for Pastoral Care for Migrants of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea visited with groups that send migrant workers to South Korea, Cardinal Virgílio do Carmo da Silva, as well as President José Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão, according to UCA News.

The delegation pledged to help bring about “better protection and welfare of migrant communities” and to “improve better pastoral care program[s] for Timor-Leste migrants,” of which there are approximately 7,000 living in South Korea.

Australian archbishop renews commitment to safeguarding children

Archbishop Tony Ireland of Hobart in Tasmania, Australia, has reaffirmed his commitment to ensuring all Catholic communities and workplaces throughout his diocese uphold safe environment standards.

“The safety and well-being of all who engage with the Church is foremost in my mind and heart,” the archbishop said in an Oct. 17 statement. “Ensuring that every person — regardless of age or circumstance — feels safe, valued, and respected is an essential part of our mission and witness.”

On behalf of his archdiocese, Ireland endorsed the National Catholic Safeguarding Standards, stating: “Our commitment to these standards is unwavering, reflecting zero tolerance of any form of abuse, neglect, or exploitation.” The archdiocese has remained engaged in its safeguarding measures since 2017.

Madagascar cardinal urges international community to refrain from sanctioning country

Cardinal Désiré Tsarahazana of Toamasina, Madagascar, is appealing to the international community not to sanction Madagascar in wake of a coup staged by military-backed youth protesters.

The cardinal told Vatican media that imposing sanctions “would be illogical and immoral.”

“Supporting young people who demand a better life and then killing them with sanctions would make no sense,” Vatican News Italy reported.

Religious conversion case against Christian university officials in India dropped

The Supreme Court of India has dropped a criminal case against three Christian university officials in Uttar Pradesh who were accused of violating the state’s stringent anti-conversion laws.

The court dropped the case on Oct. 17, citing “legal defect” in the allegations filed by Himanshu Dixit, vice president of the World Hindu Council, according to UCA News. The Hindu leader had accused officials from the Presbyterian Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology, and Sciences of “unlawful conversion activities” in addition to “cheating, criminal intimidation, and forgery,” according to the report.

The judges noted that under Uttar Pradesh law, only an “aggrieved” person — that is, a victim or close relative — of the violation is permitted to lodge a complaint. The court declined to dismiss charges related to cheating and forgery but ordered protection of the accused from arrest.

Church in Mozambique proposes political guide for dialogue

The Episcopol Justice and Peace Commission in Mozambique has proposed a document outlining “concrete proposals for reforms of the state, the electoral system, natural resource policies, economic inclusion, and national reconciliation.”

The document, “A Political Guide for National Dialogue,” proposes limited power for the president in appointing heads of state, that judges be elected among their peers, and that the position of secretary of state be eliminated in provinces for the sake of the country’s budget, according to an Oct. 20 report from Vatican News.

The guide also recommends the elimination of electronic voting to combat fraud as well as economic and natural resource reforms.

To address the county’s unrest, the document proposes “building a collective memory based on truth, exercising forgiveness and mutual listening, promoting a culture of dialogue and trust, and changing mentalities to value differences while combatting prejudices.”

Latin American bishops host ‘virtual jubilee’ for Indigenous people

The Episcopal Conference of Latin America hosted a virtual jubilee event for Indigenous people of Latin America and the Caribbean on Oct. 14–16.

Organized by the Advisory Team on Indian Theology, together with the Pastoral Care of Indigenous People of the Latin American and Caribbean Episcopal Council and the Latin American Ecumenical Articulation of Indigenous Pastoral Care, the event centered on sharing experiences “as pilgrims of hope together with our Indigenous people, authentic custodians of culture, and our common home,” according to a message from Cardinal Michael Czerny, SJ, prefect of the dicastery for promoting integral human development.

“Your love for the earth, your respect for the elderly, your sense of community, and your ability to live in harmony with creation are a gift to the whole Church. You teach that life is best understood when lived simply, in relationship with God, with nature, and with others,” he said.

Catholic college graduates leading in purpose, belonging, financial stability, report says #Catholic

null / Credit: RasyidArt/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 22, 2025 / 10:07 am (CNA).
Here’s a roundup of the latest Catholic education news in the United States:Catholic college graduates leading in purpose, belonging, financial stability, report saysGraduates of Catholic colleges and universities are outperforming other students in purpose and belonging and are reporting higher levels of mental health and financial stability, a report has found. Students from Catholic institutions of higher education are 7% more likely to view their careers as meaningful, 14% more likely to report a strong sense of belonging, and 17% more likely to say they are satisfied with their mental health, according to this year’s Holistic Impact Report.The annual report is published by the Center for Catholic Studies at St. Mary’s University (San Antonio) in partnership with YouGov. The report also found that Catholic university graduates are more than 50% more likely to say their education encouraged them to engage in faith-based conversations and 12% more likely to say their courses promoted dialogue across differing perspectives. “Higher education has been disrupted by political battles and financial pressures,” stated Jason King, the Beirne director and chair of the Center for Catholic Studies at St. Mary’s University. But “Catholic higher education does not appear to be caught in those tides,” he said.“With two years of data, we can see that it continues to form graduates for meaningful lives, community engagement, and ethical decision-making. And, because of this focus, it also supports graduates’ mental, financial, and social well-being.”Los Angeles-area school aims to ‘raise’ 1 million prayers by All Saints’ Day A Catholic school in California is leading an initiative to “raise” 1 million prayers by All Saints’ Day. “This special initiative began on the eve of the canonizations of St. Carlo Acutis and St. Pier Giorgio Frassati, two modern witnesses who remind us that holiness is possible for everyone, especially the young,” St. Joseph School explained in a Facebook post on Oct. 3.“Inspired by their example, our students, families, and faculty have already prayed more than 150,000 prayers… and we’re just getting started!” the school said.“During this month of the holy rosary,” the school continued, “we are dedicating ourselves to praying the rosary together each day as a school community. Families are also recording their prayers at home; rosaries, Masses, traditional devotions, and personal prayers spoken from the heart.” Three schools — Epiphany Catholic School in South El Monte, St. Anthony School in San Gabriel, and Santa Clara Elementary School in Oxnard — have also joined the initiative, according to the school.San Antonio Catholic schools to start accepting education saving accounts The Archdiocese of San Antonio says its Catholic schools will now officially accept tuition from the Texas education savings account (ESA) program. “Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of San Antonio are strongly promoting and participating in the Texas Education Freedom Accounts (TEFA) program, which provides funds for tuition at Catholic schools,” the archdiocese said in a statement to local media.Under the program, students at Catholic schools will be able to receive ,000 to cover tuition costs that will be placed in a savings account, providing increased flexibility to parents. Inga Cotton, the founder and executive director of the San Antonio-based School Discovery Network, told media: “Catholic schools are some of the most affordable private schools in our region.” She added that for “so many of them, the annual tuition is already below what the ESA will cover. It makes it more affordable for families.”“Across the archdiocese, schools are preparing to welcome many new families through the launch of this effort,” the archdiocese said.The legislation “was the result of hard work from many people through the years, who have been consistently advocating to give parents a true choice in education for their children.”Pennsylvania diocese: State tax policy allows major break for donating to Catholic schoolsThe Diocese of Pittsburgh is encouraging residents to take advantage of the state’s tax policy, which grants major tax breaks to those who donate to Catholic schools. “The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh is making it easier than ever for individuals and businesses to transform their Pennsylvania state tax dollars into tuition assistance for Catholic school students, at no additional cost to them,” the diocese said in a statement this month. “When you participate, you’re transforming lives,” Pittsburgh Bishop Mark Eckman said. “Every dollar given through this program helps open doors to a Catholic education that forms hearts, minds, and futures. It’s one of the simplest and most powerful ways to make a lasting difference for our children and our Church.”According to the diocese, the state’s Educational Improvement Tax Credit programs enable participants to receive a 90% state tax credit when they contribute to the diocese’s approved scholarship fund. The diocese has launched an online resource that offers step-by-step instructions on how to participate.

unitedyam October 22, 2025

null / Credit: RasyidArt/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 22, 2025 / 10:07 am (CNA).

Here’s a roundup of the latest Catholic education news in the United States:

Catholic college graduates leading in purpose, belonging, financial stability, report says

Graduates of Catholic colleges and universities are outperforming other students in purpose and belonging and are reporting higher levels of mental health and financial stability, a report has found.

Students from Catholic institutions of higher education are 7% more likely to view their careers as meaningful, 14% more likely to report a strong sense of belonging, and 17% more likely to say they are satisfied with their mental health, according to this year’s Holistic Impact Report.

The annual report is published by the Center for Catholic Studies at St. Mary’s University (San Antonio) in partnership with YouGov.

The report also found that Catholic university graduates are more than 50% more likely to say their education encouraged them to engage in faith-based conversations and 12% more likely to say their courses promoted dialogue across differing perspectives.

“Higher education has been disrupted by political battles and financial pressures,” stated Jason King, the Beirne director and chair of the Center for Catholic Studies at St. Mary’s University.

But “Catholic higher education does not appear to be caught in those tides,” he said.

“With two years of data, we can see that it continues to form graduates for meaningful lives, community engagement, and ethical decision-making. And, because of this focus, it also supports graduates’ mental, financial, and social well-being.”

Los Angeles-area school aims to ‘raise’ 1 million prayers by All Saints’ Day

A Catholic school in California is leading an initiative to “raise” 1 million prayers by All Saints’ Day.

“This special initiative began on the eve of the canonizations of St. Carlo Acutis and St. Pier Giorgio Frassati, two modern witnesses who remind us that holiness is possible for everyone, especially the young,” St. Joseph School explained in a Facebook post on Oct. 3.

“Inspired by their example, our students, families, and faculty have already prayed more than 150,000 prayers… and we’re just getting started!” the school said.

“During this month of the holy rosary,” the school continued, “we are dedicating ourselves to praying the rosary together each day as a school community. Families are also recording their prayers at home; rosaries, Masses, traditional devotions, and personal prayers spoken from the heart.”

Three schools — Epiphany Catholic School in South El Monte, St. Anthony School in San Gabriel, and Santa Clara Elementary School in Oxnard — have also joined the initiative, according to the school.

San Antonio Catholic schools to start accepting education saving accounts

The Archdiocese of San Antonio says its Catholic schools will now officially accept tuition from the Texas education savings account (ESA) program.

“Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of San Antonio are strongly promoting and participating in the Texas Education Freedom Accounts (TEFA) program, which provides funds for tuition at Catholic schools,” the archdiocese said in a statement to local media.

Under the program, students at Catholic schools will be able to receive $10,000 to cover tuition costs that will be placed in a savings account, providing increased flexibility to parents.

Inga Cotton, the founder and executive director of the San Antonio-based School Discovery Network, told media: “Catholic schools are some of the most affordable private schools in our region.”

She added that for “so many of them, the annual tuition is already below what the ESA will cover. It makes it more affordable for families.”

“Across the archdiocese, schools are preparing to welcome many new families through the launch of this effort,” the archdiocese said.

The legislation “was the result of hard work from many people through the years, who have been consistently advocating to give parents a true choice in education for their children.”

Pennsylvania diocese: State tax policy allows major break for donating to Catholic schools

The Diocese of Pittsburgh is encouraging residents to take advantage of the state’s tax policy, which grants major tax breaks to those who donate to Catholic schools.

“The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh is making it easier than ever for individuals and businesses to transform their Pennsylvania state tax dollars into tuition assistance for Catholic school students, at no additional cost to them,” the diocese said in a statement this month.

“When you participate, you’re transforming lives,” Pittsburgh Bishop Mark Eckman said. “Every dollar given through this program helps open doors to a Catholic education that forms hearts, minds, and futures. It’s one of the simplest and most powerful ways to make a lasting difference for our children and our Church.”

According to the diocese, the state’s Educational Improvement Tax Credit programs enable participants to receive a 90% state tax credit when they contribute to the diocese’s approved scholarship fund.

The diocese has launched an online resource that offers step-by-step instructions on how to participate.

Instagram revamps restrictions on teen accounts #Catholic

null / Credit: Antonio Salaverry/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 21, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).
Instagram updated restrictions on teen accounts to be guided by PG-13 movie ratings to prevent teenage users from accessing mature and inappropriate content.In 2024, Instagram introduced Teen Accounts to place teens automatically in built-in protections on the app. Last week, the social media platform announced additional updates to the accounts to only show teenagers content “similar to what they’d see in a PG-13 movie.”Teens under 18 will be automatically placed into the updated setting and will not be allowed to opt out without a parent’s permission. The new restrictions ban users from searching inappropriate words and from following or messaging accounts with mature content.Father Michael Baggot, LC, professor of bioethics at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum in Rome, said “any change to help empower parents, protect their children, and restrict age-inappropriate content from them is a positive step forward.”“However, I am concerned because there is quite a difference between static content like a movie that can be thoroughly reviewed by a committee and very dynamic conduct that is performed in social media,” Baggot said in an Oct. 20 interview on “EWTN News Nightly.” Social media platforms include forms of cyberbullying, online predators, and artificial intelligence (AI) companions. “Those kinds of dynamic relationships are not necessarily regulated fully with a mere label,” Baggot said.The updates follow feedback from thousands of parents worldwide who shared their suggestions with Instagram. After hearing from parents, Instagram also added an additional setting that offers even stricter guidelines if parents want more extensive limitations. “Parents have a unique responsibility in constantly monitoring and discussing with their children and with other vulnerable people the type of interactions they’re having,” Baggot said. “But I think we can’t put an undue burden on parents.”Baggot suggested additional laws that hold companies accountable for “exploitative behavior or design techniques,” because they can “become addictive and really mislead guidance and mislead people.”AI in social media Since Instagram recently introduced AI chatbots to the app, it also added preventions on messages sent from AI. The social media platform reported that “AIs should not give age-inappropriate responses that would feel out of place in a PG-13 movie.”AI on Instagram must be handled with “great vigilance and critical discernment,” Baggot said. AI platforms “can be tools of research and assistance, but they can also really promote toxic relationships when left unregulated.”Measures to restrict AI and online content are opportunities for parents and users “to step back and look critically at the digitally-mediated relationships that we constantly have” and to “look at the potentially dangerous and harmful content or relationships that can take place there.”“There should be healthy detachment from these platforms,” Baggot said. “We need healthy friendships. We need strong families. We need supportive communities. Anytime we see a form of social media-related interaction replacing, distracting, or discouraging in-personal contact, that should be an … alarm that something needs to change and that we need to return to the richness of interpersonal exchange and not retreat to an alternative digital world.”

unitedyam October 21, 2025

null / Credit: Antonio Salaverry/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 21, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).

Instagram updated restrictions on teen accounts to be guided by PG-13 movie ratings to prevent teenage users from accessing mature and inappropriate content.

In 2024, Instagram introduced Teen Accounts to place teens automatically in built-in protections on the app. Last week, the social media platform announced additional updates to the accounts to only show teenagers content “similar to what they’d see in a PG-13 movie.”

Teens under 18 will be automatically placed into the updated setting and will not be allowed to opt out without a parent’s permission. The new restrictions ban users from searching inappropriate words and from following or messaging accounts with mature content.

Father Michael Baggot, LC, professor of bioethics at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum in Rome, said “any change to help empower parents, protect their children, and restrict age-inappropriate content from them is a positive step forward.”

“However, I am concerned because there is quite a difference between static content like a movie that can be thoroughly reviewed by a committee and very dynamic conduct that is performed in social media,” Baggot said in an Oct. 20 interview on “EWTN News Nightly.”

Social media platforms include forms of cyberbullying, online predators, and artificial intelligence (AI) companions. “Those kinds of dynamic relationships are not necessarily regulated fully with a mere label,” Baggot said.

The updates follow feedback from thousands of parents worldwide who shared their suggestions with Instagram. After hearing from parents, Instagram also added an additional setting that offers even stricter guidelines if parents want more extensive limitations.

“Parents have a unique responsibility in constantly monitoring and discussing with their children and with other vulnerable people the type of interactions they’re having,” Baggot said. “But I think we can’t put an undue burden on parents.”

Baggot suggested additional laws that hold companies accountable for “exploitative behavior or design techniques,” because they can “become addictive and really mislead guidance and mislead people.”

AI in social media

Since Instagram recently introduced AI chatbots to the app, it also added preventions on messages sent from AI. The social media platform reported that “AIs should not give age-inappropriate responses that would feel out of place in a PG-13 movie.”

AI on Instagram must be handled with “great vigilance and critical discernment,” Baggot said. AI platforms “can be tools of research and assistance, but they can also really promote toxic relationships when left unregulated.”

Measures to restrict AI and online content are opportunities for parents and users “to step back and look critically at the digitally-mediated relationships that we constantly have” and to “look at the potentially dangerous and harmful content or relationships that can take place there.”

“There should be healthy detachment from these platforms,” Baggot said. “We need healthy friendships. We need strong families. We need supportive communities. Anytime we see a form of social media-related interaction replacing, distracting, or discouraging in-personal contact, that should be an … alarm that something needs to change and that we need to return to the richness of interpersonal exchange and not retreat to an alternative digital world.”

Catholic experts say new AI ‘Friend’ device undermines real relationships #Catholic

A commuter waits at the Westchester/Veterans Metro K Line station on Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025, in Los Angeles. / Credit: Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 21, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).
A controversial ad campaign posted in the New York City subway system has sparked criticism and vandalism over the past few weeks. The print ads are selling an AI companion necklace called “Friend” that promises to be “someone who listens, responds, and supports.”The device first launched in 2024, retailing at 9. It is designed to listen to conversations, process the information, and send responses to the user’s phone via a connected app. While users can tap the disc’s button to prompt an immediate response, the product will also send unprompted texts. The device’s microphones don’t offer an off switch, so it is constantly listening and sending messages based on conversations it picks up.CNA did not receive a response to a question from Friend.com about the success of its subway ad campaign and how many people are currently using the devices, but Sister Nancy Usselmann, FSP, director of the Daughters of St. Paul’s Pauline Media Studies who also studies AI, told CNA that “people are turning to AI for companionship because they find human relationships too complicated.” But “without that complicatedness, we cannot grow to become the best that we can be. We remain stagnant or selfish, which is a miserable existence,” she said.Creating ‘Friend’ amid loneliness epidemic Avi Schiffmann, the 22-year-old who started Friend.com, was a Harvard student before leaving school to focus on a number of projects. At 18, he created a website that tracked early COVID-19 data from Chinese health department sources. In 2022, he built another website that matched Ukrainian refugees with hosts around the world to help them find places to stay. He then founded Friend and now serves as the company’s CEO. Schiffmann and his company first turned heads when an eerie video announcing the new gadget was released in July 2024. The advertisement featured four different individuals interacting with their “friends.” One woman takes a hike with her pendant, while another watches a movie with hers. A man gets a text from his “friend” while playing video games with his human friends. He first appears to be sad and lonely around his friends, until his AI “friend” texts him, which appears to put him at ease.The marketing video ends with a young man and woman spending time together as the woman discusses how she has only ever brought “her” to where they are hanging out, referencing her AI gadget. “It’s so strange because it’s awkward to have an AI in between a human friendship,” Usselmann said about the video ad. Hundreds took to the comments section of the YouTube video to respond — mostly negatively — to both the Friend.com ads and the technology. Commentators called out the company for capitalizing on loneliness and depression. One user even called the video “the most dystopian advertisement” he had ever seen, and others wrote the video felt like a “horror film.”“While its creators might have good intentions to bring more people the joys of companionship, they are misguided in trying to achieve this through a digital simulacrum,” Father Michael Baggot, LC, professor of bioethics at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum in Rome, told CNA.The device “suffers from a misnomer, since authentic friendship involves an interpersonal relationship of mutual support,” said Baggot, who studies AI chatbots and works on the development of the Catholic AI platform Magisterium AI. “The product risks both worsening the loneliness epidemic by isolating users from others and undermining genuine solitude by intruding on quiet moments with constant notifications and surveillance. Friend commodities connection and may exploit human emotional vulnerabilities for profit,” he said, adding: “It might encourage users to avoid the challenging task of building real relationships with people and encourage them to settle for the easily controllable substitute.” Usselmann agreed. “Only by reaching out in genuine compassion and care can another person who feels lonely realize that they matter to someone else,” she said. “We need to get to know our neighbors and not remain so self-centered in our apartments, neighborhoods, communities, or places of work.”AI device ad campaign causes stirIn a post to social media platform X on Sept. 25, Schiffmann announced the launch of the subway ad campaign. The post has more than 25 million views and nearly 1,000 comments criticizing the pendant and campaign — and some commending them.Dozens of the ads have since been torn up and written on. People have posted images to social media of the vandalized ads with messages about the surveillance dangers and the general threats of chatbots. One urged the company to “stop profiting off of loneliness,” while another had “AI is not your friend” written on it.One person added to the definition of “friend,” writing it is also a “living being.” It also had the message: “Don’t use AI to cure your loneliness. Reach out into the world!”Usselmann said the particular issue with the campaign and device is “the tech world assuming certain words and giving them different connotations.” “A ‘friend’ is someone with whom you have a bond based on mutual affection,” she said. “A machine does not have real affection because it cannot love. It does not have a spiritual soul from which intellect, moral agency, and love stem.”She continued: “And from a Christian understanding, a friend is someone who exhibits sacrificial love, who supports through the ups and downs of life, and who offers spiritual encouragement and forgiveness. An AI ‘friend’ can do none of those things.”

unitedyam October 21, 2025

A commuter waits at the Westchester/Veterans Metro K Line station on Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025, in Los Angeles. / Credit: Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 21, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

A controversial ad campaign posted in the New York City subway system has sparked criticism and vandalism over the past few weeks. The print ads are selling an AI companion necklace called “Friend” that promises to be “someone who listens, responds, and supports.”

The device first launched in 2024, retailing at $129. It is designed to listen to conversations, process the information, and send responses to the user’s phone via a connected app. While users can tap the disc’s button to prompt an immediate response, the product will also send unprompted texts. The device’s microphones don’t offer an off switch, so it is constantly listening and sending messages based on conversations it picks up.

CNA did not receive a response to a question from Friend.com about the success of its subway ad campaign and how many people are currently using the devices, but Sister Nancy Usselmann, FSP, director of the Daughters of St. Paul’s Pauline Media Studies who also studies AI, told CNA that “people are turning to AI for companionship because they find human relationships too complicated.”

But “without that complicatedness, we cannot grow to become the best that we can be. We remain stagnant or selfish, which is a miserable existence,” she said.

Creating ‘Friend’ amid loneliness epidemic

Avi Schiffmann, the 22-year-old who started Friend.com, was a Harvard student before leaving school to focus on a number of projects. At 18, he created a website that tracked early COVID-19 data from Chinese health department sources. In 2022, he built another website that matched Ukrainian refugees with hosts around the world to help them find places to stay. He then founded Friend and now serves as the company’s CEO.

Schiffmann and his company first turned heads when an eerie video announcing the new gadget was released in July 2024. The advertisement featured four different individuals interacting with their “friends.” One woman takes a hike with her pendant, while another watches a movie with hers. A man gets a text from his “friend” while playing video games with his human friends. He first appears to be sad and lonely around his friends, until his AI “friend” texts him, which appears to put him at ease.

The marketing video ends with a young man and woman spending time together as the woman discusses how she has only ever brought “her” to where they are hanging out, referencing her AI gadget.

“It’s so strange because it’s awkward to have an AI in between a human friendship,” Usselmann said about the video ad.

Hundreds took to the comments section of the YouTube video to respond — mostly negatively — to both the Friend.com ads and the technology. Commentators called out the company for capitalizing on loneliness and depression. One user even called the video “the most dystopian advertisement” he had ever seen, and others wrote the video felt like a “horror film.”

“While its creators might have good intentions to bring more people the joys of companionship, they are misguided in trying to achieve this through a digital simulacrum,” Father Michael Baggot, LC, professor of bioethics at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum in Rome, told CNA.

The device “suffers from a misnomer, since authentic friendship involves an interpersonal relationship of mutual support,” said Baggot, who studies AI chatbots and works on the development of the Catholic AI platform Magisterium AI.

“The product risks both worsening the loneliness epidemic by isolating users from others and undermining genuine solitude by intruding on quiet moments with constant notifications and surveillance. Friend commodities connection and may exploit human emotional vulnerabilities for profit,” he said, adding: “It might encourage users to avoid the challenging task of building real relationships with people and encourage them to settle for the easily controllable substitute.”

Usselmann agreed. “Only by reaching out in genuine compassion and care can another person who feels lonely realize that they matter to someone else,” she said. “We need to get to know our neighbors and not remain so self-centered in our apartments, neighborhoods, communities, or places of work.”

AI device ad campaign causes stir

In a post to social media platform X on Sept. 25, Schiffmann announced the launch of the subway ad campaign. The post has more than 25 million views and nearly 1,000 comments criticizing the pendant and campaign — and some commending them.

Dozens of the ads have since been torn up and written on. People have posted images to social media of the vandalized ads with messages about the surveillance dangers and the general threats of chatbots. One urged the company to “stop profiting off of loneliness,” while another had “AI is not your friend” written on it.

One person added to the definition of “friend,” writing it is also a “living being.” It also had the message: “Don’t use AI to cure your loneliness. Reach out into the world!”

Usselmann said the particular issue with the campaign and device is “the tech world assuming certain words and giving them different connotations.”

“A ‘friend’ is someone with whom you have a bond based on mutual affection,” she said. “A machine does not have real affection because it cannot love. It does not have a spiritual soul from which intellect, moral agency, and love stem.”

She continued: “And from a Christian understanding, a friend is someone who exhibits sacrificial love, who supports through the ups and downs of life, and who offers spiritual encouragement and forgiveness. An AI ‘friend’ can do none of those things.”

Virtual summit aims to inspire attendees to grow as digital missionaries for the Church #Catholic

The Engage Virtual Summit, presented by eCatholic, is a two-day virtual conference bringing together lay Catholics, clergy, and religious from parishes, schools, dioceses, and ministries to explore innovative tools and strategies and share insights into evangelization in the digital world. / Credit: eCatholic

CNA Staff, Oct 19, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).
A two-day virtual conference will bring together lay Catholics, clergy, and religious to explore innovative tools and strategies and share insights into evangelization in the digital world. The Engage Virtual Summit, presented by eCatholic, will take place online Oct. 21–22 and will feature many notable Catholic figures including Monsignor James Shea, Monsignor Roger Landry, co-founder of Hallow Alex Jones, radio host Katie McGrady, and evangelist Chris Stefanick, among others.eCatholic is an organization that supports parishes, schools, and dioceses to evangelize effectively and efficiently through the use of eCatholic’s digital engagement platform. Jason Jaynes, president and CEO of eCatholic; Michael Josephs, director of marketing at eCatholic; and Brandon Duncan, eCatholic’s marketing evangelist, spoke to CNA about the conference and what they hope attendees will take away from it.Duncan explained that they’ve had the idea for the conference for several years but it wasn’t until last September that he put a plan together for it and had it approved by the leadership team at eCatholic.“It’s amazing what we’ve been able to do and being able to turn this around so quickly and by the grace of God, everything’s been going so smoothly in the planning process,” Duncan said. “We’re so excited about this this opportunity and just what this summit means for the Church as a whole and for the leaders and to be able to provide them with the tools and inspiration to continue to carry out the mission of the Church.”The theme of the conference is “Made for Mission,” which, Jaynes explained, aims “to engage both religious and lay alike, who are out there, who are in this digital continent and trying to reach people — whether you’re a priest, you’re a ministry leader, you’re a communicator, an educator, a media professional — with practical strategies and things that they can do to really help to inspire them to be part of that digital evangelization.”Josephs added: “We are as humans made for mission. The Church is made for mission. And so we just felt like the theme resonated on all these different levels.”During a year in which the Vatican hosted the Jubilee of Digital Missionaries and the Church’s first digital missionary was canonized a saint (Carlo Acutis), the importance of digital missionaries in today’s world seemed obvious. While the “online world is not perfect … the Church needs to not ignore it but engage with it and be a light in that space,” Josephs said. Jaynes pointed out the many Catholic ministries and organizations doing important work for the Church in the digital space and said he believes there is a “shift happening in the mainstream culture right now where people are looking through the emptiness of some of the secular narratives that we’ve all been sold for the past couple of decades and saying, ‘There has to be more, there has to be more meaning to the human condition and to this need for joy that’s in a part of all of us.’”As for what they hope attendees will take away from the summit, they said practical tips, inspiration, and “feeling challenged to do more.” “I hope that attendees come away with practical tips to make them better communicators … inspiration, new strategies, new ideas, even a renewed zeal,” Josephs said. Jaynes added: “We see it as a chance for folks to, if you will, in a retreat-style way, go to the mountain to pause, pray, seek wisdom, receive some form of renewal before they then go back out into the mission field.”

unitedyam October 19, 2025

The Engage Virtual Summit, presented by eCatholic, is a two-day virtual conference bringing together lay Catholics, clergy, and religious from parishes, schools, dioceses, and ministries to explore innovative tools and strategies and share insights into evangelization in the digital world. / Credit: eCatholic

CNA Staff, Oct 19, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

A two-day virtual conference will bring together lay Catholics, clergy, and religious to explore innovative tools and strategies and share insights into evangelization in the digital world.

The Engage Virtual Summit, presented by eCatholic, will take place online Oct. 21–22 and will feature many notable Catholic figures including Monsignor James Shea, Monsignor Roger Landry, co-founder of Hallow Alex Jones, radio host Katie McGrady, and evangelist Chris Stefanick, among others.

eCatholic is an organization that supports parishes, schools, and dioceses to evangelize effectively and efficiently through the use of eCatholic’s digital engagement platform.

Jason Jaynes, president and CEO of eCatholic; Michael Josephs, director of marketing at eCatholic; and Brandon Duncan, eCatholic’s marketing evangelist, spoke to CNA about the conference and what they hope attendees will take away from it.

Duncan explained that they’ve had the idea for the conference for several years but it wasn’t until last September that he put a plan together for it and had it approved by the leadership team at eCatholic.

“It’s amazing what we’ve been able to do and being able to turn this around so quickly and by the grace of God, everything’s been going so smoothly in the planning process,” Duncan said. “We’re so excited about this this opportunity and just what this summit means for the Church as a whole and for the leaders and to be able to provide them with the tools and inspiration to continue to carry out the mission of the Church.”

The theme of the conference is “Made for Mission,” which, Jaynes explained, aims “to engage both religious and lay alike, who are out there, who are in this digital continent and trying to reach people — whether you’re a priest, you’re a ministry leader, you’re a communicator, an educator, a media professional — with practical strategies and things that they can do to really help to inspire them to be part of that digital evangelization.”

Josephs added: “We are as humans made for mission. The Church is made for mission. And so we just felt like the theme resonated on all these different levels.”

During a year in which the Vatican hosted the Jubilee of Digital Missionaries and the Church’s first digital missionary was canonized a saint (Carlo Acutis), the importance of digital missionaries in today’s world seemed obvious. While the “online world is not perfect … the Church needs to not ignore it but engage with it and be a light in that space,” Josephs said.

Jaynes pointed out the many Catholic ministries and organizations doing important work for the Church in the digital space and said he believes there is a “shift happening in the mainstream culture right now where people are looking through the emptiness of some of the secular narratives that we’ve all been sold for the past couple of decades and saying, ‘There has to be more, there has to be more meaning to the human condition and to this need for joy that’s in a part of all of us.’”

As for what they hope attendees will take away from the summit, they said practical tips, inspiration, and “feeling challenged to do more.”

“I hope that attendees come away with practical tips to make them better communicators … inspiration, new strategies, new ideas, even a renewed zeal,” Josephs said.

Jaynes added: “We see it as a chance for folks to, if you will, in a retreat-style way, go to the mountain to pause, pray, seek wisdom, receive some form of renewal before they then go back out into the mission field.”

Relic that appeared to move on its own ‘not of supernatural origin,’ diocese says #Catholic

The relic of St. Gemma Galgani rests in the reliquary at the Newman Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025. / Credit: Corbin Hubbell

CNA Staff, Oct 10, 2025 / 15:07 pm (CNA).
The Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska, has determined that a moving relic was “not of supernatural origin” after video of the apparent phenomenon spread across social media.The viral video depicted a first-class relic of St. Gemma Galgani appearing to move of its own accord behind a display case.A relic of St. Gemma Galgani has reportedly moved within its sealed reliquary at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Newman Center, drawing Catholics from across the state eager to witness it.Video: Lillian Johnson pic.twitter.com/DngPROJScQ— Sachin Jose (@Sachinettiyil) October 8, 2025 Visitors reportedly came to the Newman Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to see the apparently moving relic. But a diocesan investigation found that the source of the movement was a bent hook. Father Caleb La Rue, the chancellor for the Diocese of Lincoln, investigated whether the moving relic could be of supernatural origin with the help of another priest. He told CNA that the Church has to look at such things with a “healthy skepticism” to see if there are any “natural” causes of the occurrences. “Not that these things can’t happen — of course, they absolutely can,” he said. “God can work in any myriad of ways.” La Rue found that the hook was bent, causing a similar relic to move in the same way when hung on the same hook. When St. Gemma’s relic was removed from the hook, it ceased moving on its own. La Rue said because of the bend in the hook, the weight of the reliquary was likely “not evenly distributed.” Artifacts are displayed in the reliquary at the Newman Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025. Credit: Corbin HubbellBut La Rue also noted that miracles do happen and encouraged people to look for the ordinary ways God shows his presence in our lives. “Even if it’s not supernatural, I think there’s something that God wants all of us to take away from this experience because he either willed or permitted it to happen,” La Rue said.What qualifies as a miracle?Church authorities investigate alleged miracles when they receive reports of them. Apparently miraculous phenomena often have to do with the Eucharist, Marian apparitions, and miracles of healing, among others. Michael O’Neill, a miracle expert who developed a miracle-tracking website and hosts the EWTN show “Miracle Hunter,” told CNA that the Church “would not in modern times investigate a moving relic.” “Traditionally, only a few types of miracles are ever investigated, specifically healing miracles, Marian apparitions, Eucharistic miracles, weeping statues or icons, and incorrupt saints,” O’Neill said. “And each has their own investigative process.” La Rue, however, noted that it’s not impossible for a relic to be moving miraculously in this way. “It’s, of course, possible. There’s far more miraculous things that happen every day,” La Rue said. “You don’t want to prematurely begin dampening the fervor. But at the same time, the Church is cautious for a reason because she wants our attention to be on truly miraculous things.”Do miracles still occur? The Church has documented many miracles related to healing, the Eucharist, and Marian apparitions.Healing miracles are especially important in the investigation of potential saints. Would-be-saints need several miraculous healings to be attributed to their intercession before the Church will canonize them.These healing miracles undergo a scrutinous investigation in line with what is called “the Lambertini Criteria,” according to O’Neill. A miracle can be confirmed only if there is no possible scientific explanation for the healing.The Diocese of Lincoln noted in a statement that miracles still do occur, especially the miracle of the Eucharist, where the consecrated bread and wine become Jesus’ body, blood, soul, and divinity. “God surrounds us with miracles every day, with the Lord’s real presence in the Blessed Sacrament being preeminent of all,” the diocese said in a statement shared with CNA on Thursday. La Rue noted that the Newman Center has all-day Eucharistic adoration, where students and staff come to pray in the presence of Jesus Christ. “The entire time this was happening, there was Eucharistic exposition going on,” La Rue said. He noted that the Eucharist “is the ultimate sign of God’s abiding presence with his people and his desire to be a part of our life.” “Even if this wasn’t what some people were hoping it would be, it doesn’t mean that God isn’t still very active in our lives,” La Rue said. “Sometimes we maybe just don’t pay attention to the little ways in which he is.”O’Neill noted that the official norms for addressing miracles were adjusted last year, meaning that the Church doesn’t explicitly declare occurrences to be supernatural, but rather uses the designation “nihil obstat,” meaning “nothing obstructs.” This means that the miracle has “signs” of the Holy Spirit and nothing “critical or risky” has been detected. While nihil obstat is the highest designation a proposed miracle can receive in modern times, the Vatican, according to the recent norms, can also denounce alleged miracles if the Church finds them to be concerning, not of supernatural origin, or even fraudulent. La Rue encouraged those who had hoped for a miracle to “be mindful of the ordinary ways in which God communicates his love and his grace to us throughout the day.”“It doesn’t necessarily need to be something spectacular, but there’s lots of little ways that God is constantly showing us his care for us,” La Rue said. A thriving faith community La Rue, who is in residence at the Newman Center, noted that the vibrant community is growing. “It’s a place where young people are really encountering Our Lord and encountering each other and building strong friendships and lasting friendships founded on shared love of God and wanting to live a full life, a joyful life,” La Rue said. About 70 people entered the Church through the center’s OCIA program last year. “The number of people who came to join the church last year who just literally just showed up — nobody went and found them,” La Rue said. “We certainly have those people, but a lot of them just came on their own.” Sunday Mass, he said, is “standing room only.” “I’ve been able to see just the reality of young people recognizing that the world doesn’t have the answers — that the things of the world aren’t satisfying,” he said. “And they come here to find actual peace and love and freedom in Our Lord.”

unitedyam October 10, 2025

The relic of St. Gemma Galgani rests in the reliquary at the Newman Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025. / Credit: Corbin Hubbell

CNA Staff, Oct 10, 2025 / 15:07 pm (CNA).

The Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska, has determined that a moving relic was “not of supernatural origin” after video of the apparent phenomenon spread across social media.

The viral video depicted a first-class relic of St. Gemma Galgani appearing to move of its own accord behind a display case.

A relic of St. Gemma Galgani has reportedly moved within its sealed reliquary at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Newman Center, drawing Catholics from across the state eager to witness it.

Video: Lillian Johnson pic.twitter.com/DngPROJScQ

— Sachin Jose (@Sachinettiyil) October 8, 2025

Visitors reportedly came to the Newman Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to see the apparently moving relic.

But a diocesan investigation found that the source of the movement was a bent hook.

Father Caleb La Rue, the chancellor for the Diocese of Lincoln, investigated whether the moving relic could be of supernatural origin with the help of another priest.

He told CNA that the Church has to look at such things with a “healthy skepticism” to see if there are any “natural” causes of the occurrences.

“Not that these things can’t happen — of course, they absolutely can,” he said. “God can work in any myriad of ways.”

La Rue found that the hook was bent, causing a similar relic to move in the same way when hung on the same hook. When St. Gemma’s relic was removed from the hook, it ceased moving on its own. La Rue said because of the bend in the hook, the weight of the reliquary was likely “not evenly distributed.”

Artifacts are displayed in the reliquary at the Newman Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025. Credit: Corbin Hubbell

But La Rue also noted that miracles do happen and encouraged people to look for the ordinary ways God shows his presence in our lives.

“Even if it’s not supernatural, I think there’s something that God wants all of us to take away from this experience because he either willed or permitted it to happen,” La Rue said.

What qualifies as a miracle?

Church authorities investigate alleged miracles when they receive reports of them. Apparently miraculous phenomena often have to do with the Eucharist, Marian apparitions, and miracles of healing, among others.

Michael O’Neill, a miracle expert who developed a miracle-tracking website and hosts the EWTN show “Miracle Hunter,” told CNA that the Church “would not in modern times investigate a moving relic.”

“Traditionally, only a few types of miracles are ever investigated, specifically healing miracles, Marian apparitions, Eucharistic miracles, weeping statues or icons, and incorrupt saints,” O’Neill said. “And each has their own investigative process.”

La Rue, however, noted that it’s not impossible for a relic to be moving miraculously in this way.

“It’s, of course, possible. There’s far more miraculous things that happen every day,” La Rue said. “You don’t want to prematurely begin dampening the fervor. But at the same time, the Church is cautious for a reason because she wants our attention to be on truly miraculous things.”

Do miracles still occur?

The Church has documented many miracles related to healing, the Eucharist, and Marian apparitions.

Healing miracles are especially important in the investigation of potential saints. Would-be-saints need several miraculous healings to be attributed to their intercession before the Church will canonize them.

These healing miracles undergo a scrutinous investigation in line with what is called “the Lambertini Criteria,” according to O’Neill. A miracle can be confirmed only if there is no possible scientific explanation for the healing.

The Diocese of Lincoln noted in a statement that miracles still do occur, especially the miracle of the Eucharist, where the consecrated bread and wine become Jesus’ body, blood, soul, and divinity.

“God surrounds us with miracles every day, with the Lord’s real presence in the Blessed Sacrament being preeminent of all,” the diocese said in a statement shared with CNA on Thursday.

La Rue noted that the Newman Center has all-day Eucharistic adoration, where students and staff come to pray in the presence of Jesus Christ.

“The entire time this was happening, there was Eucharistic exposition going on,” La Rue said.

He noted that the Eucharist “is the ultimate sign of God’s abiding presence with his people and his desire to be a part of our life.”

“Even if this wasn’t what some people were hoping it would be, it doesn’t mean that God isn’t still very active in our lives,” La Rue said. “Sometimes we maybe just don’t pay attention to the little ways in which he is.”

O’Neill noted that the official norms for addressing miracles were adjusted last year, meaning that the Church doesn’t explicitly declare occurrences to be supernatural, but rather uses the designation “nihil obstat,” meaning “nothing obstructs.”

This means that the miracle has “signs” of the Holy Spirit and nothing “critical or risky” has been detected.

While nihil obstat is the highest designation a proposed miracle can receive in modern times, the Vatican, according to the recent norms, can also denounce alleged miracles if the Church finds them to be concerning, not of supernatural origin, or even fraudulent.

La Rue encouraged those who had hoped for a miracle to “be mindful of the ordinary ways in which God communicates his love and his grace to us throughout the day.”

“It doesn’t necessarily need to be something spectacular, but there’s lots of little ways that God is constantly showing us his care for us,” La Rue said.

A thriving faith community

La Rue, who is in residence at the Newman Center, noted that the vibrant community is growing.

“It’s a place where young people are really encountering Our Lord and encountering each other and building strong friendships and lasting friendships founded on shared love of God and wanting to live a full life, a joyful life,” La Rue said.

About 70 people entered the Church through the center’s OCIA program last year.

“The number of people who came to join the church last year who just literally just showed up — nobody went and found them,” La Rue said. “We certainly have those people, but a lot of them just came on their own.”

Sunday Mass, he said, is “standing room only.”

“I’ve been able to see just the reality of young people recognizing that the world doesn’t have the answers — that the things of the world aren’t satisfying,” he said. “And they come here to find actual peace and love and freedom in Our Lord.”

Catholic media organizations to publish second edition of Liturgy of the Hours #Catholic

null / Credit: Krzysztof Slusarczyk/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 9, 2025 / 14:28 pm (CNA).
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has chosen Catholic media companies Ascension and Word on Fire to publish the Liturgy of the Hours, Second Edition.The Liturgy of the Hours, also known as the Divine Office, is a set of daily prayers that priests and religious are obliged to pray and that many lay Catholics also partake in. The prayers are set according to the Church calendar and are composed of psalms, hymns, and readings from Scripture.In November 2012, the U.S. bishops voted to revise the translation, following English translations of the Roman Missal, Third Edition, and the 2001 Vatican document Liturgiam Authenticam. The approval process was completed in November 2024 and on May 29 of this year, the USCCB sent the completed manuscript to the Holy See for confirmation.Ascension and Word on Fire, both known for their print, online, and video works, announced Oct. 7 that they will each publish the new version of the Liturgy of the Hours. A release date for the daily prayer will be shared upon final approval from the Vatican. The current edition was translated and designed in the 1970s, making the new version the first updated English translation of the prayer in more than 50 years. It has been developed over the past decade by the USCCB in collaboration with the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL). “Our goal is to create a reverent and beautiful edition that embodies the dignity of the Church’s common prayer. This new translation marks an extraordinary moment for Catholics everywhere,” said Jonathan Strate, president and CEO of Ascension, in an announcement. Strate said Ascension is “honored to serve the Church” by being one of the publishers.Ascension, known for its popular podcast “The Bible in a Year with Mike Schmitz,” reported publishing the prayers “furthers its mission in creating resources to help Catholics deepen their prayer life, joining the universal Church in encountering the truth and beauty of the Catholic faith.”“When you pray the Liturgy of the Hours, you are uniting your prayer to the entire Church,” Schmitz said in a recent video explaining the Liturgy of the Hours. He added: “It gives us the opportunity to create holy time… by stopping at various moments throughout the day and calling upon the Lord, renewing our mind with his word.”“This is more than a publishing project — it is a spiritual mission,” Word on Fire founder Bishop Robert Barron said in a press release. “We want to help thousands of priests, religious, and laypeople pray more deeply and more beautifully each day.” The new version, he said, is “a profound service to the Church and to the world.”Word on Fire has “spent the past three years introducing tens of thousands of Catholics to this rhythm of daily prayer through our monthly booklets,” said Brandon Vogt, senior publishing director at Word on Fire. “This four-volume series is the next step … that will draw countless more into the Church’s ancient prayer, day by day, hour by hour.” The Liturgy of the Hours is “the Church’s highest prayer outside the Mass and sacraments,” Vogt said. “Our aim is simple — to create the most beautiful, most prayerful, most accessible edition of the Liturgy of the Hours ever produced.”

unitedyam October 9, 2025

null / Credit: Krzysztof Slusarczyk/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 9, 2025 / 14:28 pm (CNA).

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has chosen Catholic media companies Ascension and Word on Fire to publish the Liturgy of the Hours, Second Edition.

The Liturgy of the Hours, also known as the Divine Office, is a set of daily prayers that priests and religious are obliged to pray and that many lay Catholics also partake in. The prayers are set according to the Church calendar and are composed of psalms, hymns, and readings from Scripture.

In November 2012, the U.S. bishops voted to revise the translation, following English translations of the Roman Missal, Third Edition, and the 2001 Vatican document Liturgiam Authenticam. The approval process was completed in November 2024 and on May 29 of this year, the USCCB sent the completed manuscript to the Holy See for confirmation.

Ascension and Word on Fire, both known for their print, online, and video works, announced Oct. 7 that they will each publish the new version of the Liturgy of the Hours. A release date for the daily prayer will be shared upon final approval from the Vatican.

The current edition was translated and designed in the 1970s, making the new version the first updated English translation of the prayer in more than 50 years. It has been developed over the past decade by the USCCB in collaboration with the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL).

“Our goal is to create a reverent and beautiful edition that embodies the dignity of the Church’s common prayer. This new translation marks an extraordinary moment for Catholics everywhere,” said Jonathan Strate, president and CEO of Ascension, in an announcement. Strate said Ascension is “honored to serve the Church” by being one of the publishers.

Ascension, known for its popular podcast “The Bible in a Year with Mike Schmitz,” reported publishing the prayers “furthers its mission in creating resources to help Catholics deepen their prayer life, joining the universal Church in encountering the truth and beauty of the Catholic faith.”

“When you pray the Liturgy of the Hours, you are uniting your prayer to the entire Church,” Schmitz said in a recent video explaining the Liturgy of the Hours. He added: “It gives us the opportunity to create holy time… by stopping at various moments throughout the day and calling upon the Lord, renewing our mind with his word.”

“This is more than a publishing project — it is a spiritual mission,” Word on Fire founder Bishop Robert Barron said in a press release. “We want to help thousands of priests, religious, and laypeople pray more deeply and more beautifully each day.” The new version, he said, is “a profound service to the Church and to the world.”

Word on Fire has “spent the past three years introducing tens of thousands of Catholics to this rhythm of daily prayer through our monthly booklets,” said Brandon Vogt, senior publishing director at Word on Fire. “This four-volume series is the next step … that will draw countless more into the Church’s ancient prayer, day by day, hour by hour.”

The Liturgy of the Hours is “the Church’s highest prayer outside the Mass and sacraments,” Vogt said. “Our aim is simple — to create the most beautiful, most prayerful, most accessible edition of the Liturgy of the Hours ever produced.”

Mother Cabrini Institute aims to change ‘mental pattern’ of associating immigrants with crime

unitedyam October 7, 2025

null / Credit: Amy Lutz/Shutterstock

Vatican City, Oct 7, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

A new institute at Pope Leo XIV’s undergraduate alma mater wants to change the “mental pattern” that associates immigrants with crime.

In the 19th century, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini embraced the travails of millions of recently arrived Italian immigrants to the United States. Inspired by this legacy of the first American saint, Villanova University — the flagship institution of the Order of St. Augustine — has just launched the Mother Cabrini Institute on Immigration.

It was from this institution of higher learning in Philadelphia that Robert Francis Prevost — now Pope Leo XIV — earned his bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1977.

The initiative is based on the Augustinian values of “veritas, unitas, and caritas” (truth, unity, and charity) and seeks to bring together the academic community and other external stakeholders to promote concrete actions to address the contemporary challenges of migration.

“Currently, there is a mentality that associates immigrants with crime, drug trafficking, or human trafficking. However, immigrants are the ones who care for our children and our elders; we open the doors of our homes to them so they can clean our homes. We invite them into the most intimate parts of our lives, yet the media generates contrary images that make it difficult to recognize their humanity,” explained Professor Michele Pistone, director of the center, which was inaugurated at the Vatican on Sept. 30.

Mother Cabrini Institute on Immigration Director Michele Pristone is shown here accompanied by Father Joseph Lawrence Farrell, OSA, prior general of the Augustinians. Credit: Photo courtesy of Mother Cabrini Institute on Immigration

The institute seeks to reverse negative perceptions through an interdisciplinary approach based on four pillars: teaching, research, advocacy, and service.

“We want to transform hearts and minds, work with all Villanova colleges, and connect with centers, alumni, and community partners to create systemic change,” the professor said.

For Pistone, the university is an ideal setting for this type of work. “What better place to do it than at a university, where we can study it, be active on the ground, learn from the experience, and teach students — the future leaders of our country and businesses — to understand the migrant experience?”

The scholar also participated in the event “Refugees and Migrants in Our Common Home,” which took place in Rome from Oct. 1–3 ahead of the Jubilee of Migrants (Oct. 4–5). The more than 200 participants in the global gathering from over 40 countries were welcomed to the Vatican last week by Pope Leo XIV.

As Pistone explained in conversation with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, the seed of the Mother Cabrini Institute on Immigration was planted in 2022 when Pope Francis called on universities to research and teach more about migrants and refugees.

“I was in the front row and felt like he was speaking directly to me. I felt a personal calling to be part of the solution,” said the law professor at Villanova’s Charles Widger School of Law.

Personal inspiration and lifelong commitment

Pistone’s passion for migration is deeply rooted in her family history. During her studies in Italy, she visited Sicily in search of the origins of her grandparents, who immigrated to the United States at the beginning of the 20th century.

Professor Michele Pistone is director of the Mother Cabrini Institute on Immigration. Credit: Victoria Cardiel/EWTN News

“Seeing my relatives, who didn’t know my father, and seeing how they rejoiced in his accomplishments in New York, changed my life. I began to understand the history of migrants from a lived perspective, and that led me to work with asylum seekers since 1999,” Pistone said.

For Pistone, migration is part of the identity and mission of the United States. “My state, Pennsylvania, was founded as a refuge for those fleeing religious persecution. That’s what asylum is all about: offering refuge to those who cannot live according to their beliefs or express themselves freely,” she explained.

Inspired by the life and work of Mother Cabrini, canonized by Pius XII in 1946, Pistone emphasized the value of the newly inaugurated center as an intellectual and social hub: “Mother Cabrini was a visionary and social entrepreneur. Her charisma guides us today in asking ourselves: What is Mother Cabrini’s work in the contemporary world? We want to carry out that mission through education, research, public advocacy, and service.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

California law allowing anonymous abortion pill prescriptions endangers women, experts say

unitedyam October 6, 2025

Members of Students for Liberty protest chemical abortions at March for Life, Jan. 24, 2025. / Credit: Tyler Arnold/CNA

CNA Staff, Oct 6, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill last week allowing doctors to anonymously prescribe abortion pills, a move ethicists and medical professionals say will endanger women.

The law, designed to protect abortionists, allows them to prescribe the pill anonymously, protecting them from any professional, legal, or ethical oversight and from lawsuits filed by other states.

California abortionists are already facing lawsuits for prescribing abortion drugs in states where they are illegal. In some cases, women maintain that they were coerced or deceived into taking the drugs by the father of their unborn child.

According to the new law, the doctor remains anonymous — even to the patient being prescribed the pill. His or her identity is only accessible via a subpoena within the state of California.

Even the pharmacists dispensing the abortion drug may do so without including their names, or the names of the patient or prescriber, on the bottle.

Abandoning women

Dolores Meehan, a nurse practitioner and the executive director of Bella Primary Care in San Francisco, said the law is “codifying a type of back-alley abortion.”

“There’s no safety oversight at all from the perspective of the patient,” she told CNA. “It’s such a violation of patients’ rights.”

Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, a senior ethicist at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, called the policy “patient abandonment.”

Health care professionals “have a duty to provide careful medical supervision and oversight to patients who seek to obtain dangerous pharmaceuticals,” he told CNA.

“This oversight calls for significant patient scrutiny, medical testing, interviews, and in-person exams to assure that any prescribed medications will be appropriate for the specific medical situation of the patient,” Pacholczyk continued. “Such attentive oversight gets thrown to the wind when lawmakers and politicians like Gov. Newsom seek to pass unprincipled laws.”

Offering anonymous prescriptions, Pacholczyk said, “is a significant dereliction of duty.”

To do so implies “a willingness to look past important procedural requirements and duties, whether it’s health screening of the woman, obtaining her emergency contact information, or assuring follow-up care and support for her,” he continued.

The policy, Pacholczyk said, “works to corrode the very core of authentic medicine.”

Meehan expressed similar concerns about the anonymity of doctors prescribing abortion pills.

She noted that licenses exist to ensure that “individuals are clear of any malfeasance or any malpractice.”

“You can look up my license, and you can look up everything about me,” she said. “But if you don’t know my license, you don’t know who I am, you can’t.”

She noted that patients are turned into consumers but without any recourse should something go wrong.

“You might as well go on Craigslist,” Meehan said.

Not an informed choice

After he signed the bill, Newsom said that “California stands for a woman’s right to choose.”

But Meehan noted that women don’t always know what they are choosing when they take the abortion pills.

“It’s not about women’s rights, and it’s certainly not about women’s safety, and women’s health, and women’s choice,” Meehan said. “Because choice should always, always, always be accompanied by informed consent.”

“The gross misunderstanding about the abortion pill is that it’s somehow easy,” Meehan said. “But what so many women don’t understand is that they’re going to miscarry at home.”

They’ll go through this “loss,” she noted, “by themselves.”

“Women are really ill-prepared for what’s going to happen in their bodies. There’s the whole idea of women’s choice, but you’re not giving them informed choice,” she said.

Pacholczyk shared similar concerns for women undergoing chemical abortions, saying that self-administered chemical abortions are a “harsh reality.”

The abortion “often takes place in a bathroom, with psychological trauma experienced by a mother who may see her aborted baby floating in a toilet,” he said.

Chemical abortions can sometimes lead to “serious medical complications — including sepsis, hemorrhage, or a need for repeated attempts to expel the child’s body” — for 1 in 10 women within 45 days of taking the abortion pill, he added.

If a woman has an ectopic pregnancy, “administering the abortion pill could increase the risk of complications or delay urgently needed treatment,” he added.

“Rather than treating women as anonymous entities and forcing them into greater isolation … mothers deserve the supportive medical attention and active care of their health care team,” he said.

“Ideally, such attentive care should help them feel strengthened and empowered to carry their pregnancies to term rather than defaulting to a fear-driven and desperate attempt to end their child’s life,” he said.

Lower standard of care

Jordan Butler, spokesperson for pro-life advocacy group Students for Life of America, called the policy “reckless.”

“Eliminating requirements for identification and pregnancy verification creates dangerous loopholes that allow sexual abusers to evade accountability,” Butler said.

Through the policy, Newsom and the abortion industry are “exploiting vulnerable women and children for profit,” she said.

Pacholczyk and Meehan expressed similar concerns for the lower standard of care women — especially vulnerable women — would receive under the law.

For women and girls facing human trafficking or coercion, protections “don’t exist,” Meehan said.

“You could have your local pedophile, a sex offender, stockpiling them,” Meehan said.

“Politicians, the media, and many in the medical profession have decided that abortion deserves an entirely different and lower standard than the rest of medicine,” Pacholczyk said.

“We would never sanction such a loose approach with other potent pharmaceuticals like opioids or cancer medications,” Pacholczyk said.

Texas boys school establishes policy to destroy smartphones

unitedyam October 4, 2025

Boys swing on a rope during recess at Western Academy in Houston, Texas. / Credit: Courtesy of Western Academy

Houston, Texas, Oct 4, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

After years of boys (and their parents) repeatedly ignoring the rules, a private boys school in Houston is taking a novel approach to its smartphone and digital device policy: Bring it to school, and “we will destroy it.”

Western Academy, an independent, liberal arts school that states its goal is to educate young men “in the good, the true, and the beautiful,” has never allowed students to bring electronic devices to school.

In the past, if a boy was caught with a phone or other device at the school or a school-sponsored event, faculty would confiscate the device, which would be returned to the parents only after they had met with headmaster Jason Hebert. He would explain the harms to boys caused by smartphone use and why parents “should not put the phone back into your son’s hands.”

Boys look for toads in a pond during recess. Credit: Courtesy of Western Academy

Under the new policy, which Hebert laid out in a four-page letter to parents last month, after the device is discovered and destroyed, the boy will be suspended. If it happens again, the boy will be automatically expelled.

Along with its singular smartphone policy, the school, which has 230 students in third through eighth grade, takes a unique approach to education. The boys are free to play throughout the park-like, rambling grounds, where they climb and swing from trees, build forts, shoot Nerf guns, and care for (or chase) chickens before and after school and multiple times throughout the school day.

The all-male faculty expects respect and responsibility from the boys at a young age, according to Hebert. The teachers have the boys rise when an adult visits a classroom and encourage parents to let their sons learn to endure hardship and experience natural consequences when they forget their homework or their lunch at home.

Jason Hebert, headmaster at Western Academy in Houston. Credit: Courtesy of Western Academy

A Catholic priest of the Prelature of Opus Dei serves as chaplain to the school, which was founded in 2010, and oversees the religious education program.

The model is popular: Even with middle-school tuition close to $28,000 a year, every grade has extensive waitlists, and the school may start wait-listing boys beginning as early as kindergarten.

At the beginning of each school year, the boys are sorted into one of four houses that compete throughout the year in games such as capture the flag and “The Hero’s Race,” where the boys in each house choose one boy to race across campus, climbing over obstacles and crawling through mud. There is also a poetry recitation competition known as “The Bard.” One mother, Stephanie Creech, told CNA her sons are so happy at the school they “beg to get to school early and to stay afterward to play.”

Hebert sat down with CNA and discussed what brought about the change in the smartphone policy, saying he chose the words in his letter very carefully.

Hebert speaks to the boys on the first day of school as the faculty looks on. Credit: Courtesy of Western Academy

Witnessing the damage

“Smartphones are causing significant, unimagined damage to the students who have them,” Hebert wrote in his letter to parents, “as well as to the sons of those parents who have chosen not to give phones to their sons.”

“The damage these phones have caused to our children,” he told CNA in the interview, “it literally has never been imagined.”

“It’s not just pornography,” Hebert continued. “YouTube actors and other characters just trying to get clicks perform the most shameless actions on video. They just have zero respect for the dignity of their bodies and for life, zero. And these boys want to emulate these people.”

Hebert said the last straw came after a mother called him complaining her son saw a graphic, violent video on a smartphone at a school event.

After that, Hebert said he and the other administrators agreed: “That’s it. We’re done.”

Asked why the school did not just consider automatic expulsion after the first offense rather than the destruction of the devices, Hebert said with a laugh: “To be perfectly candid, I want to destroy the phone. I want to give the boys an opportunity to have life without it.”

He ordered a metal grinder for the purpose.

“Look, I am not an alarmist. I am not reactionary. But the bottom line is this: These devices are not neutral. The research is definitive: They are bad for our kids. I have dealt with hundreds and hundreds of boys over two decades in education and I have yet to see an exception to this,” he said.

Hebert said that over the years, he has noticed a degradation in the quality of the boys’ conversation. “You can’t imagine the level of shamelessness” among some of the boys,” many of whom are generally considered “good kids.”

“This type of behavior is unprecedented in my tenure as an educator, and even as a professional athlete,” he said.

Boys cheer their teammates on as the houses compete in a game of "Thud," in which two boys throw a medicine ball at one another as hard as they can until one of them drops it or gives up. Credit: Courtesy of Western Academy — Boys cheer their teammates on as the houses compete in a game of “Thud,” in which two boys throw a medicine ball at one another as hard as they can until one of them drops it or gives up. Credit: Courtesy of Western Academy

In the early 2000s, before beginning his teaching career, which included teaching at The Heights School in Maryland, he spent one year as a professional football player on practice squads for three NFL teams: the Chargers, the Titans, and the Raiders.

“I never played in a regular-season game. This is what I tell people: I made it to the NFL. I did not make it in the NFL,” he said, laughing.

“Let me make it clear: I was an athlete around some of the most earthy human beings on the planet,” he said. “These men were not ashamed to say anything in the locker room. Yet these same men would have blushed if they heard some of the things these boys talk about! This is so unimaginable. Yet it is becoming more common now, thanks to these devices.”

Parents on board

Asked if he was worried parents would leave over the school’s new policy, Hebert said if parents are not on board with the school’s values, it might be better if they left and one of the many others on the waitlist could take their spot.

In his letter to parents, Hebert wrote that the “school is a true partnership with parents. We say this not for poetic effect, but because it must be so for the authentic growth of your sons to become a reality.”

He told CNA parents should ask themselves: “How valuable is the phone to you? Are you willing to leave this place for it? This place where your son is so abundantly happy? Is your phone worth that? And if it is, well, it’s a mismatch of vision.”

Since the change in policy, however, Hebert said parental response has been “100% positive.”

After hearing about the school’s new policy, a mother whose son graduated from the school several years ago dropped off a financial donation at the front desk recently “for the phone grinder.”

“Everybody just knows it’s right. Parents might be frustrated because saying no to their sons makes their lives harder, but they know it’s right,” he said.

Hebert, a father of seven, said he and his wife do not allow their children to have smartphones or social media. “My children may not know a lot of the lingo or some of the jokes or about all the parties. They’re on the outside, to a degree.”

“And even though that’s a big deal,” he continued, “the alternative overrides that. It’s a bigger deal.”

“The alternative is not worth it,” he said.

“We all want the truth,” he said, “and the truth is these devices are severely hurting kids. I’m not a doomsday guy, but some day these kids will be in charge of society. Think about that.”

Brooklyn bishop calls on faithful to lobby against New York assisted suicide legislation

unitedyam September 30, 2025

Brooklyn Bishop Robert Brennan carries the thurible around the altar inside Louis Armstrong Stadium on April 20, 2024. / Credit: Jeffrey Bruno

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 30, 2025 / 17:32 pm (CNA).

Brooklyn Bishop Robert Brennan is calling on the faithful to contact New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to oppose the assisted suicide legislation that currently awaits her signature.

“Our fight against assisted suicide is not over,” Brennan said in a post on the social media platform X.

Assisted suicide is not yet legal in New York, but the Medical Aid in Dying Act was passed by the state Legislature in June and will become legal upon Hochul’s signature. The law will allow terminally ill New York residents who are over 18 to request medically assisted death.

“Gov. Hochul, we know difficult decisions weigh heavily on leaders and you carefully consider the impact of every decision on New Yorkers,” Brennan wrote. “As you review the assisted suicide legislation, we respectfully urge you to veto it.”

“Assisted suicide targets the poor, the vulnerable, and especially individuals suffering with mental illness. There are better ways to support those facing end-of-life challenges, through improved palliative care, pain management, and compassionate support systems.”

In a video to the faithful, Brennan addressed Hochul and said: “You championed New York’s suicide prevention program and invested millions of dollars to, as you said, ‘ensure New Yorkers are aware of this critical resource.’ That groundbreaking program has worked to provide the right training and crisis intervention measures to prevent suicides.”

Hochul has previously launched several campaigns to bring New York suicide rates down including a crisis hotline and initiatives to help schools, hospitals, first responders, and veterans. She has also helped develop and fund a number of youth suicide prevention programs.

The programs offer “hope to those who are most in need,” Brennan said. He added: “But now you are being asked to sign a bill that contradicts your efforts and targets high-risk populations. How can we justify preventing suicide for some while helping others to die?”

In support of the New York State Catholic Conference’s mission to “work with the government to shape laws and policies that pursue social justice, respect for life, and the common good,” Brennan asked the faithful to message the governor directly with a pre-written email to stop the legislation.

“I urge Catholics to reach out to Gov. Hochul now and to ask her to stay consistent on this issue,” Brennan said. “Let us continue to pray for the respect of all life and the human dignity of all people.”

Lobbying against the legislation is ‘critical’

Catholic bioethicist Father Tad Pacholczyk told CNA that “it’s critical” that New Yorkers “respond to the bishop’s call for action.”

“The push of anti-life forces has continued unabated for many years, and the incessant turning of the wheels of their finely-tuned propaganda machine has managed to gradually draw more and more of us into a perspective of complacency when it comes to physician-assisted suicide,” he said.

Pacholczyk added: “Combined with a tendency to substitute emotion for ethical reasoning, prevalent in much of the media and society, I think we stand on the edge of a well-greased slope, poised to hurl down headlong.”

The bioethicist highlighted that if assisted suiside “is not outlawed and strong protections for vulnerable patients are not enacted,” the U.S is likely to replicate the repercussions seen in Canada, which is experiencing disproportionately high rates of premature deaths among vulnerable groups.

“We need to do what we can to light a fire and raise heightened awareness of the rights of patients not to be pressured in this manner,” Pacholczyk said. “We also need to take steps to offer real support and accompaniment to our loved ones as they pass through one of the most important stretches of their lives, so their journey can be indelibly imprinted by a genuinely good and holy death.”

Shooting at LDS church in Michigan prompts Catholic solidarity, prayers

unitedyam September 29, 2025

Nurses who are on strike hold signs in support of the community following a shooting and fire at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in front of Henry Ford Genesys Hospital on Sept. 29, 2025, in Grand Blanc, Michigan. / Credit: Emily Elconin/Getty Images

CNA Staff, Sep 29, 2025 / 21:45 pm (CNA).

Multiple U.S. Catholic bishops offered prayers and expressed their solidarity after a gunman attacked a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) chapel in Grand Blanc, Michigan, on Sept. 28, killing four people, injuring eight, and setting the building on fire. The incident occurred just before 10:30 a.m. during a Sunday service with hundreds in attendance.

The suspect, identified as 40-year-old Thomas Jacob Sanford of Burton, Michigan, drove a pickup truck into the chapel’s entrance, entered with an assault-style rifle, and began shooting. Witnesses reported Sanford shouting anti-LDS slurs. He then used an accelerant to start a fire inside the building. Grand Blanc Township Police arrived within a minute of 911 calls, engaging Sanford in a shootout and killing him. Firefighters extinguished the blaze, but the chapel was destroyed.

The victims included two adults and one child found in the debris, and one person who died from gunshot wounds at the hospital. Eight others were injured, five with gunshot wounds and three with smoke inhalation.

In a statement, Archbishop Bernard Hebda of St. Paul-Minneapolis promised prayers for the LDS community, saying the LDS church had recently ”extended their sincere condolences and prayers to the faithful of this archdiocese,” referring to the August shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, where two students were killed and over 20 people were injured.

”Please join me in praying for them and for an end to senseless violence around the globe,” Hebda said.

In a separate statement, Bishop Earl Boyea of Lansing, Michigan, also offered his prayers for those killed at the church, while also “assuring those who mourn, and those who are injured, my solace and support.”

”Any place of worship should be a sanctuary of peace,” Boyea continued. “The violation of such a haven, especially upon a Sunday morning, makes yesterday’s act of mass violence even more shocking. I commend the first responders for heroically assisting at the scene and for working to safeguard other local places of worship.”

”Lastly, let us remember that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life,” he said. ”Hence, in this moment of tragedy, let us all draw closer to Jesus, prince of peace.”

Meanwhile, Detroit Archbishop Edward Weisenburger said he was “heartbroken” by the gun violence and arson in Grand Blanc. “In this time of immense sorrow, I ask that we stand in solidarity with the victims, their families, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints,” Weisenburger said.

”In an era marked by hostilities and division, let us all come together in faith and compassion, upholding the fundamental right to worship freely and without fear. May God’s infinite love and mercy embrace and heal us all.”

Bishop David Walkowiak of Grand Rapids, Michigan, also expressed his sorrow after the tragic attack, saying: “No one should ever fear for their safety while gathering to worship. The ability to pray, to assemble peacefully, and to express one’s faith is not only a constitutional right but a moral necessity for a compassionate society. My prayers are with the victims, their families, and the entire Latter-day Saints community as they grieve and seek healing in the face of this senseless violence.”

Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia, prayed for healing in another post, saying: “May we be united in prayer for those who lost their lives in the tragic violence at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan. We pray for their eternal rest, for comfort to their families, and for healing and peace for the entire community.”

The attack came one day after the death of LDS Church President Russell M. Nelson on Saturday, Sept. 27, at age 101 in Salt Lake City.

President Donald Trump addressed the incident in a post on Truth Social, stating: “This appears to be yet another targeted attack on Christians in the United States of America. The Trump administration will keep the public posted, as we always do. In the meantime, PRAY for the victims, and their families. THIS EPIDEMIC OF VIOLENCE IN OUR COUNTRY MUST END, IMMEDIATELY!”

Vice President JD Vance also addressed the attack in a social media post: “Just an awful situation in Michigan. FBI is on the scene and the entire administration is monitoring things. Say a prayer for the victims and first responders.”

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also issued a statement expressing grief and gratitude for support: “We are deeply grateful for the outpouring of prayers and concern from so many people around the world. In moments of sorrow and uncertainty, we find strength and comfort through our faith in Jesus Christ. Places of worship are meant to be sanctuaries of peacemaking, prayer, and connection. We pray for peace and healing for all involved.”

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered flags lowered statewide, describing the incident as “unacceptable violence in a sanctuary” and pledging support for the investigation. Grand Blanc area schools, both Catholic and public, closed Sept. 29.

The FBI, with support from the ATF and Michigan State Police, is investigating the attack as targeted violence. Three unexploded devices were found at the scene. Sanford, a former Marine and truck driver, had no known ties to the church but expressed anti-LDS views, according to neighbors. His social media included posts about religious “deceptions.” The FBI is examining his motives.

Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael: The 3 great archangels of the Bible

unitedyam September 29, 2025

A stained-glass window in St. Sulpice Church in Fougeres, France, depicts (from left to right) the archangels Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel. / Credit: Tiberiu Stan/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Sep 29, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

Many Catholics can, at the drop of a hat, recite the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel — the famous petition to that venerable saint to “defend us in battle” and “cast into hell Satan.”

In the culture of the Church, Michael is often accompanied by his two fellow archangels — Sts. Gabriel and Raphael — with the three forming a phalanx of protection, healing, and petition for those who ask for their intercession. The Church celebrates the three archangels with a joint feast day on Sept. 29.

St. Michael the Archangel

St. Michael the Archangel is hailed in the Book of Daniel as “the great prince who has charge of [God’s] people.”

Michael Aquilina, the executive vice president and trustee of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology in Steubenville, Ohio, described Michael among angels as “the one most often named — and most often invoked — and most often seen in history-changing apparitions.”

Devotion to Michael, Aquilina told CNA, “has been with the Church from the beginning. And Michael has been with God’s people since before the beginning of the Church.”

Michael’s history in the Bible is depicted through Daniel, in Jude (in which he battles Satan for possession of Moses’ body), and in Revelation as he “wag[es] war with the dragon” alongside his fellow angels.

Michael, Aquilina said, was “a supremely important character who was there from the beginning of the story.” Rabbinic tradition holds that Michael was at the center of many of the great biblical dramas even if not explicitly mentioned.

He was an early subject of veneration in the Church, though Aquilina noted that the Reformation led to a steep decline in devotion to the angels — until the end of the 19th century, when Michael began an “amazing comeback journey” in the life of the Church.

Following a vision of Satan “running riot” on the planet, “Pope Leo composed three prayers to St. Michael, ranging from short to long,” Aquilina said. “The brief one, he commanded, should be prayed at the end of every Mass.”

This was a regular feature of the Mass until the Vatican II era, after which it came to an end — though Pope John Paul II in 1994 urged Catholics to make the prayer a regular part of their lives.

“St. Michael is there for us in the day of battle, which is every day,” Aquilina said.

The St. Michael Prayer: St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil / May God rebuke him, we humbly pray / And do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the divine power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

St. Gabriel the Archangel

Gabriel appears regularly in Scripture as a messenger of God’s word, both in the Old and New Testaments. Daniel identifies Gabriel as a “man” who came “to give [him] insight and understanding,” relaying prophetic answers to Daniel’s entreaties to God.

In the New Testament, Luke relays Gabriel’s appearances to both Zechariah and the Virgin Mary. At the former, he informs the priest that his wife, Elizabeth, will soon conceive a child; at the latter he informs Mary herself that she will do the same. The two children in question, of course, were respectively John the Baptist and Jesus Christ.

Christian tradition further associates Gabriel with the apostle Paul’s reference in his First Letter to the Thessalonians to the “archangel’s call” and “the sound of the trumpet of God.”

“Judgment will begin with the archangel’s call and the sound of the horn,” Aquilina told CNA. “Thus we hear often of Gabriel’s trumpet.”

Media workers in particular have “good professional reasons to go to Gabriel,” Aquilina said.

“Since he is the Bible’s great communicator — the great teller of good news — he is the natural patron of broadcasters and all those who work in electronic media,” he said.

“For the same reason, he’s the patron saint of preachers … but also of postal workers, diplomats, and messengers.”

The St. Gabriel Prayer: O Blessed Archangel Gabriel, we beseech thee, do thou intercede for us at the throne of divine mercy in our present necessities, that as thou didst announce to Mary the mystery of the Incarnation, so through thy prayers and patronage in heaven we may obtain the benefits of the same, and sing the praise of God forever in the land of the living. Amen.

St. Raphael the Archangel

Lesser-known among the three great archangels, Raphael’s mission from God “is not obvious to the casual reader” of the Bible, Aquilina said. Yet his story, depicted in the Book of Tobit, is “something unique in the whole Bible.” In other depictions of angels, they come to Earth only briefly, to deliver a message or to help God’s favored people in some way.

“Raphael is different,” Aquilina said. “He stays around for the whole story, and by the end he’s become something more than an angel … he’s become a friend.”

In Tobit, Raphael accompanies Tobias, the son of the book’s namesake, as he travels to retrieve money left by his father in another town, helping him along the way and arranging for his marriage to Sarah.

The biblical account “has in every generation provided insight and consolation to the devout,” Aquilina said.

Notably, Raphael deftly uses the natural world to work God’s miracles: “What we would ordinarily call catastrophes — blindness, multiple widowhood, destitution, estrangement — all these become providential channels of grace by the time the threads of the story are all wound up in the end.”

“Raphael is patron of many kinds of people,” Aquilina said. “Of course, he’s the patron of singles in search of a mate — and those in search of a friend. He is the patron of pharmacists because he provided the salve of healing. He is a patron for anyone in search of a cure.”

He is also the patron saint of blind people, travelers, sick people, and youth.

“Raphael’s story,” Aquilina said, “remains a model for those who would enjoy the friendship of the angels.”

Prayer to St. Raphael: St. Raphael, of the glorious seven who stand before the throne of him who lives and reigns, angel of health, the Lord has filled your hand with balm from heaven to soothe or cure our pains. Heal or cure the victim of disease. And guide our steps when doubtful of our ways. Amen.

This story was first published on Sept. 29, 2023, and has been updated.

Pro-life group pledges million to Georgia and Michigan Senate races

unitedyam September 26, 2025

null / Credit: Andy via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)

CNA Staff, Sep 26, 2025 / 16:28 pm (CNA).

Here is a roundup of recent pro-life and abortion-related news:

Pro-life group pledges $9 million to Georgia and Michigan Senate races

A pro-life advocacy group is launching a massive $9 million campaign in the Senate races of Georgia and Michigan.

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America and its partner group, Women Speak Out PAC, are working to flip the U.S. Senate in Michigan, pouring $4.5 million into a field effort for the state’s open Senate seat.

Focused in Lansing, Detroit, and Grand Rapids, the pro-life groups aim to expand the U.S. Senate’s pro-life majority. In Michigan, four Planned Parenthoods have closed this year after Congress paused funding for abortion providers.

In Georgia, the same groups will pour $4.5 million into a field effort for Georgia’s U.S. Senate election. The campaign — aiming to defeat U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, a Georgia senator who has backed pro-abortion policies — will be focused in Savannah, Augusta, Columbus, and Chattanooga.

SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a Sept. 24 statement that the group aims to “stop the abortion lobby from clawing back $500 million in annual Medicaid dollars for their own political machine.”

“No American should be forced to bankroll a brutal industry that kills over 1.1 million unborn children each year, harms women with substandard care, and funnels millions into partisan politics — especially when better, more accessible health care alternatives outnumber Planned Parenthood 15 to 1,” Dannenfelser said.

Pro-life groups celebrate as Google admits to political censorship

Pro-life groups that have experienced censorship in the past are celebrating after Google admitted to political censorship under the Biden administration.

The tech giant admitted the censorship to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and said it was taking steps to open previously banned YouTube accounts.

Kelsey Pritchard, the political communications director for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said companies like Google have a pattern of targeting pro-life advocacy groups.

“We are not at all surprised by Google’s admissions of censorship,” Pritchard told CNA.

“For years, tech giants have demonstrated a pattern of bias, actively undermining, suppressing, and censoring groups like Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, who share the pro-life message in a highly effective way.”

In a timeline on its website, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America detailed censorship and suppression of pro-life groups since 2015 by sites such as Facebook, Yelp, and Google.

For instance, in 2022, Google allegedly shadow banned an online educational resource by Life Issues Institute. In 2021, Google banned Live Action and Heartbeat International’s abortion pill reversal advertisements, including Live Action’s Baby Olivia video, detailing the growth of an unborn child.

SBA Pro-Life America also criticized the Biden administration for allegedly targeting pro-life activists with the law.

“The Biden administration, too, weaponized federal might to target pro-life Americans and even put peaceful activists in jail,” Pritchard said. “The right to voice one’s convictions is a foundational American value and the pro-life movement will always fight back against censorship.”

Students for Life of America spokesperson Jordan Butler, meanwhile, told CNA that the pro-life group “is no stranger to the challenges of free speech in the digital age.”

“While we’ve been fortunate to avoid censorship on platforms like YouTube and Google, TikTok has proven to be a battleground: banning our content 180 times in just 24 hours,” Butler said.

After outcry from pro-life advocates, Butler said the TikTok account, belonging to Lydia Taylor Davis, was restored.

She sees this as “proof that when we stand together, we can push back.”

“That’s why unity matters now more than ever in defending pro-life free speech across America,” Butler said.

“Abortion propaganda is everywhere online, saturating platforms from social media to search engines,” she continued. “Whether it’s digital censorship or campus pushback, we fight relentlessly to protect our voice and our values.”

‘Second-chance-at-life’ bill could protect unborn children across the nation

A group of U.S. congressmen is introducing a bill that could give unborn children a second chance at life even if a mother takes the first pill in the chemical abortion regimen.

U.S. Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, recently introduced the Second Chance at Life Act, which is designed to protect unborn children and mothers from the harms of abortion.

The act, co-sponsored by 16 representatives from 13 states, would establish federal informed consent requirements for abortion pills. This would require abortion providers to inform women seeking to terminate their pregnancies that a chemical abortion can be reversible after the first abortion pill is taken.

Pfluger said many women “are pressured into taking the abortion pill without being fully informed of all their options” and later “express deep regret as they come to terms with the loss of their unborn child.”

“It is unacceptable that so many women are never told by their provider that the effects of the first pill can be reversible,” Pfluger said in a Sept. 18 statement.

Pfluger said the legislation will “empower women to make fully informed choices at every stage of the process, protecting their right to know the full details” about the drugs.

Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, supported the bill in a statement, noting that women are often pressured into abortion.

“Many mothers regret their abortions and wish they had been told about abortion pill reversal before it was too late,” she said. “And too many women are exposed to the deadly pills by those who are coercing them.”

Senate investigates alleged abortion facilitation by Virginia school faculty

U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, is investigating allegations that school officials in Virginia facilitated an abortion for a minor and attempted to do the same for another student without notifying their parents.

Cassidy, who chairs the U.S. Senate Health Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, sent a letter to Superintendent Michelle Reid demanding answers after an investigative reporter broke the news that officials at Fairfax County’s Centreville High School reportedly pressured students to have abortions.

Missouri judge approves pro-life ballot measure, requires plainer language

A Cole County Circuit judge approved a ballot measure that would protect minors and unborn children from transgender surgeries and abortion, respectively, if passed by Missouri voters.

Because the ballot combines protections for minors against transgender surgeries and pro-life protections, activists challenged it in court. But Judge Daniel Green approved the combination in a Sept. 19 ruling, with the caveat that the ballot measure language must explicitly state that it would repeal a previous ballot measure.

The previous ballot measure, passed in 2024, created a right to abortion in the Missouri Constitution.

Wisconsin Planned Parenthood pauses abortions after federal funding cut

Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin will stop scheduling abortions beginning Oct. 1 following federal funding cuts by the Trump administration.

Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin President and CEO Tanya Atkinson said the pause is meant to be temporary as the group deals with Medicaid funding cuts following the “Big Beautiful Bill.” The location will continue to operate and offer other services in the meantime.

The Trump administration temporarily paused any funding for abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood. At least 40 Planned Parenthoods are closing this year.

Courage International marks 45 years helping faithful address same-sex attraction

unitedyam September 26, 2025

Patricipants gather at a Courage and EnCourage annual conference. / Credit: Courage International

CNA Staff, Sep 26, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Courage International, the Catholic apostolate that helps men and women experiencing same-sex attraction “persevere on the path of holiness,” marked 45 years of ministry on Sept. 26, celebrating nearly half a century of helping individuals struggling with sexuality to “live a chaste life” in line with Church teaching.

The Connecticut-based organization traces its earliest roots to an effort started by New York archbishop Cardinal Terence Cooke, who in 1978 conceived of a same-sex attraction ministry and asked Father John Harvey, OSFS, to lead the effort.

Harvey, who died in 2010, authored the 1979 pamphlet “A Spiritual Plan to Redirect One’s Life,” offering a program for “homosexually-oriented persons” to “achieve a chaste, productive, and happy life.”

The apostolate held its first official meeting the following year on Sept. 26 at the Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Manhattan. In 1981 the group published the first version of its “Five Goals,” which include dedications to chastity, service, the sacraments, and fellowship.

Within a few years the program expanded to Canada, officially becoming an international organization; it also began to expand throughout the U.S. at the time.

An endorsement by the Holy See came in 1994. The group by this time had already begun hosting annual “Courage Conferences,” with Harvey publishing several new works on the ministry over the years.

The group’s offerings for those struggling with same-sex attraction include retreats, literature, online chat groups, and a men’s sports camp — a weekend of “team sports with encouragement, coaching, and an abundance of Christian fellowship” (where teams compete in an “annual epic battle for the coveted Harvey Cup”).

‘Such a needed ministry’

Father Brian Gannon, the executive director of Courage, said the group was originally founded to minister to men with same-sex attraction and eventually expanded to include women. A sister program, “EnCourage,” ministers to family members of those with same-sex attraction.

The group works primarily through chapters, which number around 160 worldwide and function as clergy-led support groups.

“There’s individual groups in various dioceses that are run by chaplains — either priests or deacons — and they meet on a regular basis, usually about once a week,” Gannon said.

Group members “come together, read through the goals, discuss their experiences and challenges during the week, and pray,” he said. “Prayer is absolutely central to it.”

Courage has a presence in numerous countries worldwide, including the Philippines, Singapore, and Poland. In addition to executive leadership, the group is overseen by an episcopal board of several bishops. “It’s fully sanctioned by the Church,” Gannon said.

Gannon himself came into the leadership role in 2024. Years before he helped to start a Courage chapter in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He was approached by the organization last year and asked to serve as director.

The priest took on that role in addition to his pastorship at St. Theresa Parish in Trumbull, Connecticut. “It’s a challenge,” he said with a chuckle. ”But you balance it as best you can. You always want to do more for both [roles].”

He described the men and women who take part in the apostolate as “truly inspirational,” while the organization’s staff, including another full-time priest, are “very hardworking.”

Looking to the future, Gannon said the group is hoping to expand its social media presence. He also said it is making efforts to contact each new bishop installed in the U.S.

“We’ve just started to reach out to newly appointed bishops, sending them a welcome letter and encouraging them to get in touch with us, letting them know we’d love to come and talk to them about starting a Courage chapter if they don’t have one,” he said.

Gannon said participants in the ministry do not seek a watered-down version of Catholic doctrine. “They want to follow exactly what the Church is teaching,” he said.

“The secular world has a twisted view of sexuality,” he said. “This is such a needed ministry. It helps people find peace.”

Catholic University of America panel explores how Christians should think about AI

unitedyam September 25, 2025

From left: Ross Douthat, media fellow at the Institute for Human Ecology; Will Wilson, CEO of AI company Antithesis; Father Michael Baggot, LC, professor of bioethics at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum in Rome; and Brian J.A. Boyd, director for the Center for Ethics and Economic Justice at Loyola University New Orleans discuss AI and the Church on Sept. 23, 2025, at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Tessa Gervasini/CNA

Washington, D.C., Sep 25, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

The Catholic University of America (CUA) hosted a panel this week to discuss how Christians should think about the developing technology surrounding artificial intelligence (AI).

The Sept. 23 panel was hosted by CUA’s Institute for Human Ecology, which works to identify the economic, cultural, and social conditions vital for human flourishing. The group discussed the threats posed by AI, the future of the technology, and the Church’s place in the conversation.

Ross Douthat, media fellow at the Institute for Human Ecology, led the discussion between Father Michael Baggot, LC, professor of bioethics at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum in Rome; Will Wilson, CEO of AI company Antithesis; and Brian J.A. Boyd, director for the Center for Ethics and Economic Justice at Loyola University New Orleans.

Douthat asked the panelists what they each believe to be the greatest threat of the emerging technology as it poses new challenges to the defense of human dignity, justice, and labor.

According to Boyd, the potential loss of human connection is the most prominent threat of AI. He said: “To be human is to be created in and for relationships of love — by love of God. Our nature is made to be receptive to grace.”

AI becomes an issue if “our main relationship and reference point is talking to a computer rather than to humans,” Boyd said. “I think that is an existential threat, and something worth discussing.”

“If we’re habituated to look at the screen before we look at our neighbor … and AI is [the] constant reference point, it will make habits of prayer much more difficult to include. It will make it harder to learn to listen to the voice of God, because the answer is always in your pocket.”

Baggot said his greatest concern is that “artificial intimacy is going to distract us from, and deter us from, the deep interpersonal bonds that are central to our happiness and our flourishing.”

“Companies now grip not only our minds but also are capturing our affections,” Baggot said. “We can all read about these tragic cases of exploitation and manipulation that are only going to continue unless we put proper guardrails in place and also provide the information that allows us to have the kind of deep interpersonal relationships we were made for.”

While many people worry that AI could create “mass unemployment,” Wilson said he disagrees: “I think that this is a very silly fear because human desires and human wants are infinite, and therefore, we always find new things for people to do.”

Rather, Wilson shared his concern that humans will no longer create their own ideas and will lose their intelligence and knowledge.

“The trouble with AI is even if it’s not actually intelligent, it does a very good simulacrum of intelligence, and it’s very tempting to use it to substitute for human intelligence,” Wilson said. “It’s very possible that we’re entering a world where very soon any cognitive labor, any reason, [or] any thought will be a luxury.”

Catholic AI

While there are dangers to AI, Baggot addressed the positive aspects the tool can offer, highlighting the benefits of Catholic AI companies.

“I’ve been privileged to work on the Scholarly Advisory Board of Magisterium AI, which is basically a Catholic answer engine that’s very narrowly trained on reliable documents, magisterial documents, [and] theological texts,” Baggot said.

Magisterium AI is a “system designed to give people reliable responses to their questions about the Catholic faith,” Baggot explained. “This is appealing to Catholics who want to go deeper, but it’s also quite appealing to people who have never really had the chance, or aren’t quite ready, to speak to another human person about their curiosities regarding Catholicism.”

Baggot explained that creators of the technology work hard to keep it from being “anthropomorphic” to avoid users confusing the AI with actual connection. He said: “We do not want people having an intimate relationship with it.”

While Magisterium AI can provide useful information, Baggot acknowledged that it is not a tool for spiritual direction. He said: “Spiritual direction … should be with another living, breathing human being who actually has insight into human experience [and] who can develop a relationship of real empathy and real compassion.”

The Church’s place in AI

The panelists had differing viewpoints about the Church’s place in AI and how Christians should approach it. Wilson said he believes “the conversation about where the technology is going and what we’re going to do with it is happening among people who do not care … what any Christian church has to say on the topic.”

“It’s actually a little hard to blame them because Christians have basically sacrificed their place at the forefront of science and technology, which is where we were in centuries past,” Wilson said.

“Control goes to those who can deploy the most capital, and capital gets allocated very fast to people who are able to deploy very efficiently. And by and large, those people are not Christians because Christians aren’t really trying.”

Baggot said that while AI does pose dangers, the Church “has a lot of insight and wisdom” that can help guide the conversation. “The Church is in a privileged position to leverage its incredible patrimony, its reflection on the human person, [and] human flourishing.”

“The Church has reflected a lot about the meaning and value of work, the subjective value of work. It’s not just about economic efficiency, but it’s about how I use my own God-given talents to grow as a person and then also to serve others in intrinsically valuable activities.”

Abortion pill complications are underreported, report finds

unitedyam September 24, 2025

Credit: Ivanko80/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Sep 24, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Abortion pill complications go underreported in abortion industry studies and mainstream media, according to a recent report by the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC).

Abortion industry studies claim that serious complications are incredibly rare — occurring in less than half a percent of cases, according to the report “Missed, Misclassified, and Minimized: Why Abortion Pill Complications Are Underreported.”

But a study last year found that more than 1 in 10 women who took the abortion pill experienced serious complications such as hemorrhaging, infection, failed abortions, and surgical follow-up.

The author of the report, Randall O’Bannon, set out to investigate the discrepancy.

O’Bannon, director of education and research for the National Right to Life, found several factors contributing to the discrepancies. For one, he found that abortion providers often encourage women to conceal negative side effects and tell doctors they are symptoms of a miscarriage. O’Bannon also observed what he called a “contemptible lack of curiosity in the media” toward stories of women hurt by abortion drugs. Finally, serious complications are often categorized as “minor,” O’Bannon found.

O’Bannon said the “flawed or slanted industry studies” are “not good enough.”

“The public — and policymakers — deserve accurate, transparent reporting on the dangers of chemical abortion,” he said in a statement.

Dr. Ingrid Skop, vice president and director of medical affairs for Charlotte Lozier Institute and a board-certified OB-GYN, said she has encountered these medical complications in her own career as a medical provider.

“I have cared for dozens of women presenting to the ER with abortion drug complications, and they are told by abortion advocates there’s no need to report the use of abortion drugs,” she told CNA.

“When I see a woman in the ER with continued pain and bleeding sometimes weeks or even months after taking abortion drugs, she usually has retained pregnancy tissue and/or the dead baby, which the drugs have failed to expel,” Skop continued. “An unaware ER doctor is likely to give her more of the drugs that already failed rather than expediting the surgical aspiration she needs.”

“As a researcher and practicing OB-GYN, I can attest that the lived experience for many women reflects the data documented in this report,” Skop said.

“So where are all the women some of these later reports and studies say have been injured and abused by these drugs and their prescribers?” O’Bannon asked. “Once again, we see that they have been silenced and minimized, told their pain and blood and trauma are ‘minor complications’ that somehow just don’t rise to the level worthy of being noticed. But they suffer and bleed just the same.”

Looking at the numbers

Michael New, assistant professor of practice at the Busch School of Business for The Catholic University of America, noted that “the FDA’s own data shows that there are a number of health risks involved with chemical abortions.”

“Since the FDA approved the chemical abortion pill in 2000, the FDA’s own data indicates that there have been 32 deaths, 4,218 adverse events, 1,049 hospitalizations, 604 cases of blood loss requiring a transfusion, 418 infections, and 75 severe infections,” New, a senior associate scholar at the Charlotte Lozier Institute, told CNA.

The FDA figures “are underreported” due to a change in the reporting requirements implemented nearly a decade ago, according to New.

“In 2016, the FDA quit requiring that health care professionals report complications from chemical abortion drugs,” New said. “Since 2016, the reporting of complications has been voluntary.”

In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the FDA removed the requirement for women to have an in-person medical exam before being prescribed chemical abortion drugs.

Since then, “the number of complications has almost certainly increased,” New said.

Without a medical exam, abortion providers may unwittingly provide abortion drugs to women whose pregnancies are further along than is recommended for chemical abortions, as well as women who have ectopic pregnancies (a life-threatening condition where the embryo implants outside the uterus).

Trump administration continues to implement ‘unwise policy’

“The Biden administration FDA and thus far the Trump administration FDA have continued with this unwise policy,” New said.

Chemical abortions are sometimes falsely advertised as “safer than Tylenol.” But a chemical abortion is far less safe than even a surgical abortion, Skop noted.

“Complications occur at least four times as frequently following drug-induced abortions compared to surgical abortions, causing at least 1 in 15 women to require emergency care when the drugs are used as the FDA recommends,” Skop said. “Even more women suffer when they are taken at advanced gestational ages.”

“The abortion pill is being sold as safe, but independent data tell another story,” Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life, said in a statement. “Women are being harmed, and the dangers are being ignored or hidden.”

“Abortion industry spin makes mifepristone abortions sound easy, but the truth is each abortion takes the life of a living preborn child and places the woman in danger,” Tobias said.

How can policymakers respond?

New noted that public officials could take several steps “to protect mothers and children” from these dangers, including requiring that “medical professionals report complications that arise from chemical abortions.”

In addition, the FDA “could require that women obtaining chemical abortions first have an in-person medical exam,” a change that New said the Trump administration could make “right away.”

“Thus far, it is disappointing that the Trump administration has not prioritized keeping women safe from unregulated chemical abortion drugs,” New said.

Skop added that “policymakers need better abortion data.”

“Extensive deficiencies affect abortion data collection in the U.S., including a lack of anonymized national reporting requirements,” Skop said.

“Women also need to know the true risk of abortion and potential complications, which are both physical and mental,” she continued.

Skop noted that “the majority of women with a history of abortion would have preferred to give birth if they had the necessary support.”

“Women also should know there are 2,750 pregnancy resource centers that want to walk alongside women facing an unintended pregnancy to provide any support they need,” Skop said.

Nonprofit organizations across the country exist to provide pregnant women and mothers with support — from baby clothes to ultrasounds to parenting classes.

“The abortion industry’s goal is to promote all-trimester abortion on demand,” Skop noted. “And lawmakers, the public, and most importantly, women considering abortion, must understand abortion advocates will mislead them to achieve that goal.”

Bomb squad called after Christian nonprofit in Ireland receives possible anthrax

unitedyam September 20, 2025

null / Credit: Andrius Zemaitis/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 20, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Here is a roundup of Catholic world news from the past week that you might have missed.

Bomb squad called after Christian nonprofit CEO in Ireland receives anthrax

The Irish Army bomb squad blocked off part of Dublin city center this week after David Quinn, CEO of the Iona Institute, received a letter in the mail containing a white powdery substance purporting to be anthrax. In a post on social media, Quinn wrote: “Received this in the post today. Nice,” sharing an image of a letter containing the white substance, which read: “Happy anthrax.”

Received in the post today. Nice. pic.twitter.com/PsEfUTV4OY

— David Quinn (@DavQuinn) September 16, 2025

“I opened up the thing about 1 o’clock and all this powder comes out,” Quinn told the Irish Independent. “It was just addressed ‘Iona Institute,’ so it’s basically targeting me and Breda O’Brien,” he continued, adding: “I can only imagine that it’s somebody with a hang-up about the Catholic Church.”

Catholic monastery in Corfu closes after 381 years due to ‘lack of vocations’

The Capuchin Fathers monastery in Corfu, Greece, has been shut down after nearly 400 years due to a “lack of vocations,” according to the Greek Reporter.

A final Mass at the monastery was celebrated by the Catholic archbishop of Corfu, Georgios Altouvas, this week, the report said, noting that “worshippers who had long turned to the friars for guidance and support wept as they bid farewell to the last brothers.” The order reportedly said they could no longer find friars to continue running the monastery’s operations.

Mass attendance in Austria goes up, disaffiliation goes down

Mass attendance in Austria has gone up, according to statistics reported by the Pillar on Sept. 17, and the number of individuals filing for formal disaffiliation from the Church has gone down in the past year.

In addition to the positive attendance trend, the annual statistics also found a rise in Church tax revenue. According to the Pillar, the data reflects a rise from 309,000 worshippers in the spring of 2022 to 378,797 in the fall of 2024. “Attendance rose in the Sankt Pölten Diocese, led by Bishop Alois Schwarz, from 40,193 and 42,652 in 2023 to 63,520 and 46,179 in 2024. In the Vienna Archdiocese, the increase was from 56,906 and 63,157 in 2023 to 78,806 and 84,621 in 2024,” the Pillar reported.

Church in Nepal joins government in condemning unrest

The apostolic administrator of the Vicariate of Nepal, Father Silas Bogati, has signaled approval of the new interim government led by former Chief Justice Sushila Karki amid ongoing anti-corruption protests that have left at least 72 dead, according to UCA news.

“We as a Catholic community have confidence in Sushila Karki, who, among other things, in the past, when she was still a lawyer, defended one of our priests and some religious sisters who had been wrongly accused in several court cases,” Bogati said of the country’s new interim leader. “We have a good opinion of her and trust in her work in the coming months to act in accordance with the rule of law and the democratic principles of justice and legality.”

Democratic Republic of Congo bishops denounce latest killings

The National Episcopal Conference of Congo has condemned the new wave of deadly attacks in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, decrying what they describe as the growing trivialization of human life in the Central African nation, according to ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa.

In a Sept. 16 statement shared with ACI Africa, the bishops highlighted recent attacks and expressed concern about the “evolution of the security situation, particularly in the eastern part of the country, which continues to suffer enormous loss of human life as a result of various forms of violence.” The deadliest incident, the Church leaders said, occurred Sept. 8 when at least 102 people were killed in Ntoyo village, Lubero Territory.

Benin bishop: Jihadist attacks ‘a constant threat to our pastoral activities’

Bishop Martin Adjou Moumouni of the Diocese of N’Dali in the West African country of Benin is speaking out after jihadists carried out an attack on a local village, targeting its police station, looting homes, and taking at least six hostages, according to statements the prelate made to Fides News Agency.

“Nigerian Jihadists have long been spreading terror in our diocese, especially in rural areas,” the bishop said. “We were forced to suspend pastoral activities in the villages, and even in the city, I asked the priests of my diocese to hold services only during daylight hours, as insecurity increases with nightfall.”

Cardinal Vincent Nichols signs joint statement to end war in Gaza

The president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, has signed a joint statement with Catholic, Anglican, Orthodox, and other church leaders from England and Ireland, pushing for an end to the war in Gaza.

“We fear that the unfolding assault on Gaza City will only intensify the human suffering and misery as already malnourished and traumatized families are forced, yet again, to flee the horrors of this war,” the statement reads. “This deadly escalation is futile and must stop.” The statement comes ahead of the United Nations’ International Day of Peace on Sept. 21, for which many Christian leaders have organized a day of prayer and public witness.

Christians in Syria divided over police presence at churches

Syria’s Ministry of the Interior has tightened security measures around churches by deploying armed guards at their entrances following the St. Elias Church bombing in June, according to a Sept. 16 report from ACI MENA, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner.

“Many believe that the guards give them a sense of comfort and reassurance during prayer, as it provides a layer of protection,” said Joseph Kneifati, a deacon in the Melkite Greek Catholic Archdiocese of Aleppo. “But on the other hand, the church is our second home, sometimes even our first.”

“When we enter and are asked where we’re going, it feels less natural,” he added. “Since childhood, we’ve been accustomed to attending church freely and simply. The presence of armed personnel at the doors has erased that spirit.”

Toledo bishop’s letter on gender ideology ‘timely’ and ‘loving,’ Mary Rice Hasson says

unitedyam September 18, 2025

Ethics and Public Policy Center scholar Mary Rice Hasson praised the Bishop of Toledo's recent pastoral letter, titled "The Body Reveals the Person: A Catholic Response to the Challenges of Gender Ideology." / Credit: "EWTN News Nightly"/Screenshot

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 18, 2025 / 15:00 pm (CNA).

Toledo, Ohio, Bishop Daniel Thomas’ recently released pastoral letter offering guidance on sex and gender identity issues received praise from the head of the Ethics and Public Policy Center’s (EPPC) Person and Identity Project, Mary Rice Hasson.

“[Thomas] really hones in so beautifully in this document on the truth that we are body and soul, and that our bodies reveal something wonderful about who we are,” Rice told “EWTN News Nightly” anchor Veronica Dudo on Sept. 17. “And so, rejecting the body, which is really what’s going on in the transgender issue, it’s sex rejection, rejection of yourself, is really turning back on yourself and hating and destroying something that is really, really good.”

Thomas’ letter, “The Body Reveals the Person: A Catholic Response to the Challenges of Gender Ideology,” is the longest statement by a U.S. bishop dealing exclusively with gender ideology.

Drawing on Scripture, theology, philosophy, and social sciences, the letter presents Church teaching in a form the bishop said he hopes is “readable, digestible, accessible, and charitable.”“I think it’s tremendously important that we have a bishop speaking out and giving such timely, but really comprehensive, loving, and hopeful guidance,” Rice said, noting the letter comes in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination.

Kirk was shot while answering a question about transgenderism and gun violence. Tyler Robinson, the man charged with murdering Kirk, has been romantically linked to his transgender roommate, Lance Twiggs, a biological male.

Kirk had said he supported an effort to ban transgender people from owning firearms in light of the shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minnesota last month, which was also carried out by a man who identified as transgender.

EPPC scholar calls on more bishops to emulate Thomas

While some dioceses have offered “terrific responses” to the transgender issue, Rice acknowledged, “there are some dioceses where there’s nothing, there’s not even a statement about how people should understand this issue [and] what the Church’s teaching is.”

“I encourage bishops, if they have not written and spoken to this issue to please do that,” she continued. “People want to hear that. And that’s what I hear from people when I travel all over the U.S. talking about this issue.”

Rice pointed out that while social media can be used well to form connections with other people, “it really has become a channel of evil in many respects,” especially regarding sexual orientation and gender identity issues.

“Our youth are particularly vulnerable because they’re young,” she said. “They don’t have the prudence, the discretion, to be able to judge what’s the truth of what’s coming at them. They’re very subject to manipulation and peer pressure.”

Rice further encouraged parents to be vigilant in monitoring social media usage among their children.

“We have to speak the truth, and we have to be really clear that this is evil,” Rice said of transgenderism. “There are wonderful holistic ways to deal with difficult feelings,” she said, adding: “God loves everyone so much, and he wants something better than what is on offer right now from the culture on this issue.”

unitedyam January 4, 2025

From left, CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jenni Gibbons, NASA astronaut Andre Douglas, CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen, and NASA astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover, and Reid Wiseman participate in a media day event on Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.