CatholicCulture.org - Catholic World News

In Barcelona, Pope addresses questions from young people about depression, family violence (CWN)

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 08:06:57 GMT

Pope Leo XIV addressed questions from three young people in Barcelona last evening and preached that the nights we experience “can be an opportunity to receive new life, to change and be renewed, to be ‘born again from above,’ as Jesus tells Nicodemus.”

The Church is Christ's bride and body, Pope preaches in Barcelona (CWN)

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 08:06:11 GMT

Pope Leo XIV celebrated Sext (Midday Prayer) in Barcelona Cathedral today and reflected on the Church as Christ’s bride and body.

'Bring the leaven of selflessness into the world,' Pope says in final Madrid address (CWN)

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 04:06:30 GMT

This morning, on the fourth day of his apostolic journey to Spain, Pope Leo XIV delivered his final address in Madrid and said that “Christians are called to bring the leaven of selflessness to the world.”

Vatican diplomat says platform economy raises ethical concerns (Holy See Mission)

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 09:06:40 GMT

In an address to a recent session of the International Labour Conference, a Vatican diplomat said that the platform economy raises “many ethical concerns.”

“The Holy See has repeatedly questioned the fact that power over mainstream AI models is concentrated in the hands of a few companies,” said Archbishop Ettore Balestrero, apostolic nuncio and Permanent Observer to the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva, Switzerland.

“The power to grant or limit access to work may rest entirely with the platform operator,” he continued. “This means that workers may have to pay to access work opportunities. This reversal of the principle that no worker should ever have to pay to get a job has consequences on the dignity of work and the very foundational assumption that labor is not a commodity.”

Cases of anti-Christian harassment on the rise in Israel (OSV News)

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 09:06:42 GMT

Harassment against Christians in Israel is on the rise, according to a new report from the Israeli-based Religious Freedom Data Center.

Yisca Harani, the center’s founder, described harassment as “an everyday occurrence.”

“Most of the incidents, which include spitting and verbal insults, vandalism and desecration of graves, tombstones, statues and crosses, and defacement of signs and graffiti, have taken place in Jerusalem’s Old City, on Mount Zion and near the Armenian Patriarchate,” OSV News reported. “However, there have also been cases of harassment, vandalism and arson at Christian holy sites in northern Israel.”

Nigerian bishop: 'At last, killers have been held to account' (Aid to the Church in Need)

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 09:06:12 GMT

A Nigerian bishop welcomed the conviction of four members of the Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab for perpetrating the Owo church attack in 2022.

The four were sentenced to death, and “the Church does not accept the death penalty,” said the local bishop, Bishop Jude Arogundade. “But it is important that those responsible are held accountable.”

“We are pleased that, at last, the families and victims in general can move towards a kind of closure, although we realize that they will never fully reach closure, as they will carry the scars of what happened that day for the rest of their lives,” he added.

Bad Bunny, Pope Leo meet briefly in Madrid (OSV News)

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 09:06:20 GMT

The popular rapper Bad Bunny, whose performances in Madrid coincided with the papal visit, met briefly with the Pontiff on June 8.

Bad Bunny “comes from a Catholic family, and he wanted to meet the Pope,” said Yago de la Cierva, the Spanish bishops’ general coordinator of the papal visit. “The deal was—meeting, yes, but no pictures—and Bad Bunny respected it.”

Police arrest man for threat against Philadelphia-area parish (WPVI-TV)

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 09:06:21 GMT

Police in Marple Township, Pennsylvania, arrested a man who posted an online threat against a parish there. The parish is part of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

“I firmly believe we stopped a tragedy before it happened. He had no weapons on him, but you don’t need weapons to commit violence,” said Marple Township Police Chief Brandon Graeff.

Historic church near Milan vandalized (OIDAC Europe)

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 10:06:31 GMT

A small historic church, constructed at the suggestion of St. Charles Borromeo and consecrated in 1580, was vandalized recently, the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe reported.

The Church of St. Bernardine is located in Legnano, a city of 60,000 near Milan.

USCCB president welcomes Alvarado's appointment as prefect of Dicastery for Communication (USCCB)

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 09:06:22 GMT

The president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops welcomed the appointment of Maria Montserrat (Montse) Alvarado, the president and chief operating officer of EWTN News, as prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication.

“We are grateful for her work as a Catholic journalist, faithfully covering the work of the bishops, and also for her advocacy and dedication to upholding religious freedom and human dignity at the Becket Fund,” said Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City. “On behalf of the Conference, I assure her of our prayers as she continues to serve the universal Church with her unique talents.”

2 martyrs beatified in Czech Republic (EWTN News)

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 10:06:32 GMT

Cardinal Michael Czerny, S.J., the prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, returned to his native Czech Republic to celebrate the June 6 Mass of beatification of Fathers Jan Bula and Václav Drbola.

Father Drbola was martyred in 1952, and Father Bula in 1951, under the Czechoslovakian Communist regime.

“Blessed Jan and Václav call us not to sell truth for comfort or to avoid conflict, not to exchange faith for the approval of others, not to choose silence where witness should be given, not to sacrifice conscience for comfort, career, or conformism,” said Cardinal Czerny, whose family fled Czechoslovakia for Canada when he was an infant.

Cost of abuse scandal in US soars 82% in single year to $483.5M (CWN)

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 08:06:45 GMT

The costs of the clerical abuse scandal in the United States soared 82% in the July 2024—June 2025 reporting year, to $483,534,316, according to the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection.

Bear joyful witness to the Gospel, with kindness, Pope encourages faithful of Madrid (CWN)

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 04:06:41 GMT

Pope Leo XIV encouraged an estimated 80,000 faithful of the Archdiocese of Madrid to offer joyful witness to the Gospel, with kindness.

What the June consistory reveals about Pope Leo's style of governance [New Analysis] (CWN)

Thu, 04 Jun 2026 07:06:43 GMT

The program for consistory of cardinals scheduled for June 26-27 reveals several things about how Pope Leo XIV intends to govern the Church.

Civil war displaces 5 bishops in Myanmar (Fides)

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 09:06:16 GMT

The Myanmar civil war has displaced of the nation’s 17 bishops from their cathedrals, one of the affected bishops said in an interview with the Fides News Agency.

“They are the bishops of the dioceses of Pekhon, Loikaw, Banmaw, Mindat, and Lashio,” said Bishop Felice Ba Htoo of Pekhon. “I had to leave the pastoral center in Pekhon and move to a parish in a village, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. We have had to close about seven of the 16 existing parishes.”

“Many of our parishes have been closed because they have been damaged, attacked, or because they have lost their faithful,” he explained. “We don’t know what the future holds. We live in the present, trusting in God.”

Pope meets with 6 clergy abuse victims in Madrid, pledges further efforts (Vatican Press Office)

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 09:06:59 GMT

Pope Leo XIV met with six victims of clerical sexual abuse at the apostolic nunciature in Madrid on June 8.

“During the conversation, which lasted almost an hour, each of those present, drawing on their own painful personal experiences, offered the Pope a number of suggestions on how to make the Church’s response to such tragic cases more effective,” the Holy See Press Office said in a statement.

The statement continued:

The Pope listened with affection and attention, assuring them of his closeness, and that of the entire Church community, and of his commitment to ensuring that the proposals received form the basis for further efforts, so that the Church may truly be a safe and spiritually healthy place, where wounds find comfort and healing.

Vatican newspaper profile of Sabastian Sawe, Catholic world record holder in marathon (L'Osservatore Romano (Italian))

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 09:06:39 GMT

The Vatican newspaper published a profile of Sabastian Sawe, the Kenyan runner who shattered the world record in the marathon in April, becoming the first to run a marathon in under two hours.

The runner, who attends Mass every Sunday and some weekdays, was born in a mud hut in a village without electricity or running water. Sawe said his grandmother “raised me with love ... That is how I learned to entrust my life and my hopes to God, striving to do His will.”

His school principal, who is parish council president, recalled that “as a boy, Sabastian was withdrawn; sometimes he would even hide in the school kitchen. Using the language of the Gospel, I convinced him that running could be his mission, because talents must never be hidden.”

Father Pius Tawei, his parish priest, said that “sometimes Sabastian volunteers to do work around the parish, saying that God has already blessed him enough. He even bought us a flock of sheep and is funding the project for a new, larger church.”

State Dept. grants $240M to Catholic Relief Services (U.S. Department of State)

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 09:06:41 GMT

The U.S. State Department announced a grant of over $240 million to Catholic Relief Services for humanitarian and disaster-response needs.

“This support to CRS also demonstrates the Administration’s commitment to partnering with faith-based organizations that demonstrate faith in action and have proven their ability to deliver humanitarian assistance in the world’s most difficult environments,” according to the announcement. “CRS has a demonstrated track record of excellent humanitarian service and is a natural partner of choice for this type of global assistance.”

In Washington, National Eucharistic Pilgrimage includes national blessing, downtown procession (OSV News)

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 10:06:34 GMT

The 2026 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, whose theme is “One Nation Under God,” arrived in Washington this past weekend. A national blessing took place near the Washington Monument.

The pilgrimage, which began in St. Augustine, Florida, on May 24, will continue to wind its way up the Eastern states to New England, and then back to the south, before concluding in Philadelphia on July 5.

Let Eucharistic piety transform Spanish society, Pope preaches at Mass for 1.2 million (CWN)

Sun, 07 Jun 2026 03:06:10 GMT

Pope Leo XIV celebrated the Mass of Corpus Christi today in Madrid’s Plaza de Cibeles (video 1, video 2) and lauded Spain’s heritage of Eucharistic piety.