The prayer event kicked off a worldwide Eucharistic procession honoring the Blessed Mother including more than 550 parishes and 15 prominent shrines across six continents in what organizers say is the first-ever united and coordinated global Marian Eucharistic procession.

Participating Marian shrines included Knock, Fátima, Lourdes, La Salette and Pontmain Shrine in France, Garabandal in Spain, Beauraing Shrine in Belgium, and the Coimbra convent in Portugal, where Our Lady is believed to have appeared to Sister Lucia, one of the Fátima seers.

Barry Mallett from the Guardians of the Faith group, who organized the Derry procession, spent over a year contacting parishes, dioceses, and Marian shrines around the world to bring them together for this remarkable global outpouring of Eucharistic adoration, held in unison at the same time in each area of the world.

“Fruits from the last Eucharistic processions [held in February and November 2025 in Derry] are an increase in Mass attendance and vocations, with a real hunger and desire to see these continue to help lead our youth back to God,” Mallett told EWTN News. “We have seen an increase in conversions and an uplift in faith amongst the Gen Z population locally.”

He added: “There isn’t any coincidence that this is all taking place so shortly after Archbishop Eamon Martin, a Derry man, reconsecrated Ireland to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in June 2025 and to the Immaculate Heart of Mary at the Rosary Rally in Knock on the 6th of June.”

Mallett said he has been getting messages from around the world from participants in the procession who say “they were overwhelmed and that it was such an honor to be part of this synchronized event to honor the holy mother of God.”

“Locally here in Derry the buzz is incredible; people were saying it’s absolutely beautiful. As the procession wound its way through the city, devotional items were handed out to passersby, and people came out of shops, restaurants, and public houses to watch the very significant event,” Millet explained.

“There’s a very famous prophecy by St. Patrick in 433 about a light rising and shining from the north of Ireland, spreading throughout the whole of Ireland, on to Britain, Europe, and the whole world.”

The city of Derry is remembered for some of the most notorious incidents of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

During the opening Mass before the procession, Father Roland Colhoun, curate in the Derry Diocese, Parish of Ardstraw East, said: “A procession visually and spiritually transforms streets and sanctuaries into places of contemplative peace. The exercise of communal prayer elevates the district into a place of holiness. We walk under banners with messages of faith, carrying our rosary beads as instruments of prayer. We venerate the image of Our Lady, adore the Eucharist, and meditate on the mysteries of the faith as we process. By taking part in the worldwide Marian procession today, you and I are making our contribution to world peace. May the Prince of Peace reign in our hearts and in the hearts of our brothers and sisters across the world.”

After Mass, celebrated in the Creggan estate, a well-known housing development built for working-class Catholics, where the 1972 Bloody Sunday civil rights march started, the route of the procession followed that of the march, culminating at the Long Tower church — the site of the last Penal mass in the city in 1784 and now known as the home parish church of Servant of God Sister Clare Crockett, an Irish sister who died in an earthquake in Ecuador at the age of 33. The church is also close to the site of St. Columba’s original church in Derry.

Sister Clare Crockett’s uncle, Danny Doyle, said: “Clare would have loved today and been thrilled to have this on her own patch where she was born and reared.”

Sisters from the Letterkenny convent of Sister Claire Crockett’s congregation, Home of the Mother, were present in Derry, and other sisters participated from their convent in Spain.

Among the procession participants was Father Patrick Desmond, OP, from the Dominican congregation in Newry, who told EWTN News: “It’s great to be here. It was so well organized, and everyone played their part. So many young people. So many young families. It would just give you confidence and encourage you to remember that the Lord is in control and it’s his Church!”

Desmond said he believes the Lord “is going to renew the Church in the world in his way and in his time, and it’s happening. It’s very exciting to be at the heart of it. I’m very encouraged, and I’m going to go back to my congregation, and I’m going to try to encourage them with some of the joy that I’ve experienced here and remind them that God will have the victory ultimately! This needs to be multiplied and magnified!”

JD Vance is the second Catholic to serve as U.S. vice president, following President Joe Biden, who held the office from 2009 to 2017. Vance has discussed his Catholic faith and shared about his conversion but is not seen or reported by the media attending Mass in the Washington, D.C., area.

Vance said in a June 14 interview with “CBS Sunday Morning” that Mass is sometimes said in his home or he attends small churches.

Having priests come to celebrate Mass at home is “one of the rare privileges of this life,” Vance said.

“I try not to do it too much” because “I try to … have a little bit more of a ritual to it,” he said. “So we do try to leave the house and actually go to church. And thatʼs important.”

“But sometimes … you have a late day at work, or somethingʼs going on at the White House, or somethingʼs going on in the world and you say, ‘Could a priest just come by and say Mass at our house?’” Vance said.

“It makes it very easy, but itʼs one of those creature comforts of being vice president I try not to use too much because I think it makes us a little lazy,” he said.

“Itʼs a perk,” Usha Vance added. “But I think itʼs also important to say that itʼs sometimes a necessity, because a motorcade just shuts down streets.”

“It means sometimes people canʼt get into Mass when they arrive,” she said. “It means that you have people trickling in after the start because theyʼre being put through magnetometers.”

The second lady, who practices Hinduism, said they try to adjust the “timing of Mass and location” in order “to mitigate all of these discomforts for all the other people who are just trying to live their lives.”

“We try to go to smaller churches and we try to get there exactly on time, because if we get there 10 minutes earlier,” security becomes “a nightmare for everybody else,” JD Vance said.

“So you try to obviously take your kids to church, but you also try to do it in a way that doesnʼt inconvenience everybody. Thatʼs very important to us,” he said.

Vance has attended some highly publicized liturgies. The vice president attended Pope Leo XIV’s inaugural Mass on May 18, 2025, in St. Peter’s Square. He led the U.S. delegation for the ceremony and was joined by Usha Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

He also attended a private Mass celebrated by Franciscan monks at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem during a three-day diplomatic trip to Israel in October 2025.

Vance met with a group of bishops and went to confession prior to Mass, according to the White House press pool report.

Memoir on Vance’s Catholic conversion

Vance’s memoir discusses why he left his faith and describes his conversion to Catholicism.

The book has been published by HarperCollins Publishers, which also produced Vance’s 2016 bestselling book “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis.”

The book addresses the “story of how I regained my faith,” which “only happened because I had lost it to begin with,” Vance wrote in a HarperCollins press release. “The interesting question that hangs over this book, and over my mind, is why I ever strayed from the path. Why the Christian faith of my youth failed to properly take root.”

In the “CBS Sunday Morning” interview, Vance explained some of what the book uncovers about finding his “home” in the Catholic Church.

“I was raised in evangelical tradition that in a lot of ways I really loved,” he said.

The evangelical faith offered an “incredible generosity of spirit” and an “incredible spirit of ‘welcomingness,’” Vance said.

While he said he still tries to “apply” these aspects to his life, he “drift[ed] away from that faith.”

“I donʼt think that I was properly rooted,” Vance said. “I started to see myself as too smart, maybe too high-minded. I was going to make decisions based on rationality and science and not on this religious mumbo jumbo.”

Then, he said, “as I started to think to myself, ‘Maybe there is some real truth to these Christian ideas that I grew up with‘ … I was just incredibly attracted to the tradition of the church that I ultimately selected.”

“Things are constantly changing. Social media is changing how we communicate with each other,” he said. “You go to one church and itʼs … one thing. You go to another church and itʼs something different.”

Catholicism “felt rooted” and “if I went to a foreign country and I didnʼt understand the language, I kind of knew what was going on. And I liked that feeling of rootedness.”

“Fundamentally, when I started thinking to myself, ‘Maybe I do believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Maybe I do believe in the core tenets of the Christian faith.’ A lot of the people who [were] encouraging me on that journey … were Catholic, and they took me to Catholic churches, and I felt at home there, and eventually I converted,” Vance said.

“God put a lot of people in my path who were very good Christians and ended up being Catholics. And thatʼs where … I found a home,” he said.

The origins of this Church lie in the Christian tradition of India, specifically in the state of Kerala, and trace back to the Christians evangelized by the Apostle Thomas in the first century.

After greeting the bishops present and highlighting the spiritual renewal of this Church in preparation for the centenary of its reunion with the Catholic Church in 1930, he said the Syro-Malankara Church as “your Church has always been a beacon of evangelical energy and apostolic charity, bringing social justice, education, and integral human development to those on the margins of society.”

In his address, the pope also noted that this Church began to grow rapidly beyond ethnic or linguistic boundaries, initially in the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu as the fruit of evangelization efforts begun in 1934.

In this vein, he highlighted the need for “an urgent commitment” to preserving and promoting “the inestimable treasures incarnated by all the Eastern Churches,” especially within the growing diaspora.

The pope underscored the presence of these faithful in the United States, just as Benedict XVI and Pope Francis had done.

Along the same lines, he addressed in particular Bishop Kuriakose Mar Osthathios, whom he recently appointed as apostolic visitator for the Syro-Malankara faithful residing in Europe.

His responsibility includes, according to the pontiff, “surveying the current state of pastoral care with a view to making proposals to the local bishops and to the Holy See for the spiritual good of the faithful.”

He also recalled having asked the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches to help him “to evaluate the best ways to establish firm and enduring foundations” so that future generations of Syro-Malankara faithful may continue to deepen their friendship with the Lord Jesus through their own traditions, thereby contributing to the good of the entire Catholic Church.

In this regard, he asked them to promote greater awareness about “the precious identity of the Syro-Malankara Church” and the “experience of its unique heritage.”

Noting that the St. Thomas Christians of India, considered one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, have a “well-deserved reputation for devout families from which arise many vocations to the priesthood and religious life,” Leo XIV prayed that a steadfast faith “may continue to thrive in your homes and your hearts, particularly in those of the young.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Daniel Grand filed a lawsuit against the city of University Heights, Ohio, in September 2022 after the city blocked his efforts to convene a minyan, or Jewish prayer group, of about a dozen friends at his home. The city directed that he would have to acquire a special-use permit to host the group.

“They said if I got the permit, I could have the prayer group,” he told EWTN News. “But halfway into this ordeal, I learned that if anybody qualifies for this permit, there is no residence allowed [where the permit is granted].” His family would have to move in the event the permit was granted, he said.

The federal district court dismissed his case on the grounds of a legal concept known as “finality,” a rule that holds that a lawsuit can only be brought if a plaintiff has exhausted all other relevant options first.

Jonathan Gross, an attorney who is representing Grand in the ongoing dispute,  said governments will sometimes use this rule in order to thwart a lawsuit attempt.

“Certain jurisdictions recognize that the government controls everything and that if they want they can 'jerk you around’ and table your case indefinitely to prevent you from ever getting finality that allows you to sue,” he said.

“If local government can do whatever they want with your application and make it so you never get a final decision, then you’re ultimately blocked from ever suing them, and they know that,” he said.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio dismissed the case on finality grounds; the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit upheld that dismissal. Grand and his attorneys are asking the Supreme Court to review the case and rule on the finality question so that the religious liberty suit can proceed.

“We obviously assert that Daniel was harmed,” Gross said. “But we didn’t even go to court because we didn’t get the final decision.”

Decision would ‘open up the Hoover Dam’ for some lawsuits

Grand and his attorneys are hoping to resolve the finality question at the Supreme Court for the sake of both themselves and plaintiffs in other lawsuits.

A favorable decision from the high court would “open up the Hoover Dam for everyone who wants to get into federal court but is being denied because you didn’t complete some sort of process,” Grand told EWTN News.

Yet Grand himself is still focused on resolving the religious liberty dispute as well. Among other supporters, the lawsuit has received backing from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which filed an amicus brief in appeals court arguing that Grandʼs religious liberty claims should be considered without being subject to “finality.”

Religious plaintiffs have standing to sue “as soon as a credible threat arises,” the bishops said in their filing, arguing that court processes that play out over “months or years” due to finality rules serve as a “constitutional harm” in and of themselves.

In his filing with the Supreme Court, Grand argued that the case is “a playbook for government-sponsored religious discrimination.”

Speaking to EWTN News, Grand disputed the implicit contention that “10 Jews in a room makes it a synagogue.” He said his aim was simply to host a small group to speak to God.

“It was on my heart to have a prayer gathering, and I thought nothing more than that,” he said.

Reflecting on this theme, taken from a verse of the book of the prophet Isaiah, the Holy Father emphasized that “these are words that fill us with comfort and hope.” He recalled the “painful feeling of being forgotten,” something shared by many people, especially the elderly.

God’s love as a response to anonymity

In the face of this sense of abandonment, the Holy Father recalled that God’s love, which “forgets no one,” is also “an act of justice and a response to the anonymity in which human life all too often ends up lost.”

The pontiff turned his attention to elderly people who have been forgotten and who live in homes “where loneliness reigns” or in care facilities “where each person’s uniqueness risks being reduced to a bed number or an illness.”

He proposed the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly as an opportunity “to rediscover that the Church is called to be a mother to all and that at any age it is always possible to recognize ourselves as sons and daughters of God.”

He also invited this day to be “an inspiration for everyone, especially the young, to revive the beautiful custom of visiting their grandparents, the elderly members of the family, and even those who have no one to visit them.”

Leo said the Church “understands the suffering of her elderly members; she knows full well that they are all too often viewed through the lens of stereotypes and considered a burden.” He noted in particular the weakening of family ties and the abandonment of many elderly people by children forced to migrate or to fight in wars.

Recalling the words of Pope John Paul I, Leo stressed that we are the recipients “of undying love on the part of God. We know: He has always his eyes open on us, even when it seems to be dark. He is our father; even more he is our mother.” He added that even in old age “we do not cease to be sons and daughters; therefore, the invitation to return to the arms of God — whose love is both paternal and maternal — remains worthwhile at any age.”

‘It is never too late to begin turning to him’

He then noted that the final stage of life “can become the right time to begin or resume a spiritual life” and to encounter God anew.

The pope invited the elderly “not to feel embarrassed by the fragility that emerges” and to recognize that “we are always in need of one another and in need of attention and care.” To God, he said, “we can now turn with filial trust in prayer. It is never too late to begin turning to him.”

He also emphasized that advanced age can be a time to reflect on one’s vocation: “Do not be afraid of fragility! It is precisely this weakness that holds within itself a new potential that also illuminates the other stages of life.”

In this sense, he explained that when “we acknowledge our fragility, our hearts become open to supporting one another and to invoking the One who can grant what no human power can ensure: the profound reconciliation of hearts and, with it, true peace.”

A path toward renewal and peace

In conclusion, the pope stressed that it is possible to live old age as Christians, “fragile” yet at the same time “called.” He noted that a person can be “born anew in old age” and choose paths not of power but of reconciliation and peace.

Finally, he urged the elderly to join in prayer “that peace may soon come to the whole world,” so that a better future may be secured for their grandchildren.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Colombia’s June 21 election pits right-wing candidate Abelardo de la Espriella against left-wing candidate Iván Cepeda of President Gustavo Petroʼs party.

In a June 10 statement, the CEC warned that “certain posts and comments are circulating on digital platforms presenting partisan interpretations of recent episcopal statements, even going so far as to use them to support specific political positions.”

The bishops called for these “messages to be understood and disseminated within their full context, avoiding uses unrelated to their pastoral purpose.”

“The statements and exhortations issued by the presidency of the Colombian Bishops’ Conference are inspired by the Gospel, the Church’s social doctrine, and the magisterium,” with the aim of “offering criteria for reflection that foster citizen participation in the country’s democratic life, grounded in responsible discernment, freedom, respect, a culture of encounter, reconciliation, and the pursuit of the common good,” the press release noted.

“In no case,” the bishops clarified, “do these statements seek to favor, endorse, or delegitimize any candidacy, nor to express support for specific political projects.”

For these reasons, the CEC reiterated its call for the bishops' statements to be shared or discussed “while respecting their context, content, and original purpose, and avoiding interpretations that could cause confusion or contribute to the polarization affecting our society.”

Likewise, the CEC called for verifying any information through “the institution’s official channels before replicating or interpreting its statements.”

It noted that, at this decisive moment for Colombia, the CEC “maintains its call to foster a climate of mutual respect, serenity, dialogue, and hope, as well as to reject all forms of violence, stigmatization, or division.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

The Punjab Board of Revenue seized Ewing Hall, a British-era building constructed in 1916 and long associated with Forman Christian College University (FCCU), prompting widespread condemnation from alumni, church leaders, and minority rights advocates.

Jonathan Addleton, rector of FCCU, described the action as a “forcible takeover” in a video statement posted on the universityʼs Facebook page on June 12.

Standing with staff members outside the locked gates of the hostel in Lahoreʼs historic Anarkali Bazaar, Addleton said Ewing Hall had been part of the Forman campus for more than a century.

“The initial lease was signed in 1915 and subsequently renewed multiple times, most recently to extend it well into the 2040s,” he said, adding that university officials were given only 24 hours by telephone to remove movable property, including generators, furniture, and historical artifacts, a task he called impossible.

Addleton urged the government to return the property and called for consultations with stakeholders, including Pakistanʼs minority communities, “for whom Forman means so much.”

The video attracted more than 233,000 views within days.

The government, however, offered a sharply different account.

Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari, speaking to Dawn on June 14, said the lease for Ewing Hall had expired and had not been renewed for several years.

She said the property was reclaimed as part of the Lahore Heritage Area Revival Project, which aims to restore historic buildings in the provincial capital, and alleged that the lessee had failed to clear outstanding lease payments dating back to 1975.

Documents shared by the government show alleged outstanding lease liabilities totaling 107.79 million rupees (about $387,000): 29.19 million rupees (about $105,000) accrued between 1975 and 2018, and a further 78.59 million rupees (about $282,000) calculated for the period from 2018 to 2026.

The records also contend that the land was leased exclusively for educational purposes but had not been used as such since 2015.

Reuben Qamar, a pastor at the Presbyterian Church on the FCCU campus, said the college had refused to pay the lease during three decades of nationalization when the building was under government possession.

“We were in the midst of negotiations with the officials to reduce the lease amount when the takeover took place,” he told EWTN News.

Qamar remained doubtful about the propertyʼs return.

“Basically, it is a property dispute. The building was still being used for educational purposes. We are not sure whether it will be handed back to us,” he said.

He noted the 6,070-square-meter site had been vacated in 2018 after cracks appeared in the structure and the COVID-19 pandemic that followed. A professional firm had only recently completed a safety assessment.

Founded in 1864 by American Presbyterian missionaries, FCCU is Pakistanʼs only church-run chartered university. It was nationalized in 1972 under former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto before being returned to Presbyterian Church management in 2003.

Qamar warned the seizure sent a troubling message to minority institutions across the country.

“The governmentʼs priority appears to be monetary interests rather than education, despite Formanʼs role in producing generations of national leaders,” he said, adding that the move reeked of bad intention.

Nasir William, convener of Minority Forum Pakistan, called the seizure a violation of minority rights and demanded a transparent and impartial investigation.

“Such actions not only violate constitutional and legal principles but are deeply concerning for the protection, dignity, and equal citizenship of minorities in Pakistan,” he said.

The case has renewed attention on the broader issue of nationalized church properties.

According to the Lahore-based Centre for Social Justice, 118 church-owned educational institutions remained under provincial government control as of June 2020.

William noted that despite past discussions about returning some of those properties, including Rang Mahal School, described as the first English-medium institution in northern India, “nothing materialized.”

The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan also weighed in on June 13, describing Ewing Hall as a building of “historical, educational, and cultural significance.”

It warned that the reported eviction deadline raised “serious questions about transparency, due process, and the stewardship of shared heritage,” and urged authorities to protect the buildingʼs physical integrity.

Participants in the “Scegliamo della Vita” (“Letʼs Choose Life”) March — an annual pro-life march since 2011 — gathered at the Piazza della Repubblica to voice support for promoting a culture of life in Italy and for respecting the human dignity of every person at all stages.

Current abortion legislation in Italy

Abortion first became legal in Italy in May 1978, allowing women to terminate a pregnancy up to 12 weeks of gestation.

This has since been followed by certain measures in favor of abortion by the Italian Ministry of Health, including permitting abortions as an essential healthcare service during the COVID-19 pandemic and allowing chemical termination of pregnancy up to 63 days.

Maria Rachele Ruiu, a prominent Italian pro-life advocate and participant in the march, expressed her hope to EWTN News that the march will persuade the Italian government to repeal current legislation permitting abortion.

“In Italy, unfortunately, we have Law 194, which governs abortion. It allows abortion up to the 12th week, but it is also permitted beyond that if a specific medical diagnosis is made,” Ruiu told EWTN News. “We want to show that choosing and protecting life is not only right, important, and necessary but also beautiful.”

Potential legislation permitting euthanasia and assisted suicide

Other participants voiced concerns about rumors that the Italian government would enact laws permitting euthanasia and assisted suicide more broadly.

Massimo Gandolfini, spokesperson for the Scegliamo della Vita March, expressed opposition to such laws and discussed the role that men have in promoting a pro-life culture.

“We see that this right [to life] today is deeply wounded and heavily attacked with abortion law, and with this rumored law on assisted suicide, to which we are totally opposed,” Gandolfini said.

“We [men] want to demonstrate to keep attention high on a fundamental issue, which is the right to life. The right to life is the right that underpins every other right of a civil society and a democratic society.”

Ruiu added that the participants at the march would “ask Parliament not to legislate.”

A future of marriages and children

Looking to the future, Ruiu stated that young people can support a culture of life by getting married and having families of their own.

"We want to bear witness to the fact that choosing life is worth it, especially for those who choose it; that having a child is wonderful news for the family and for society; that people can get married. Young people, get married and have children!

“They always portray us, even in the press, as ugly and bad; we want to parade through Rome to show our true face: happy people,” Ruiu said.

The event began with a rally at 11 a.m. in Seventh June Square before participants marched through the capitalʼs streets singing Christian hymns, concluding outside the Norwegian Parliament at 12:30 p.m. There, speakers from medical, social, religious, and political walks of life delivered addresses on the dignity and protection of human life, before the crowd joined together to sing “Navnet Jesus” (“The Name of Jesus”), widely regarded as Norwayʼs most beloved Christian hymn.

Banners bearing slogans such as “A Voice for the Voiceless,” “Choose Life,” and “650,000 Since 1978” — a reference to the number of abortions recorded in Norway since the countryʼs abortion law was liberalized — defined the marchʼs central message: that every child has a right to life.

The discussion is not over

The march was organized by Velg Livet, a pro-life organization whose director, Cecilie Marie Røinås, told EWTN News the event was driven by a growing interest among younger Norwegians and a determination to respond to recent expansions of the countryʼs abortion laws.

“Since it has been around 40 years since the last major March for Life in Norway, we felt it was time for a new public witness,” she said. “With recent expansions of Norwayʼs abortion laws, it is important that we continue to be a voice for unborn life and not act as if the discussion is over.”

The strong presence of young people behind the initiative, many of them in their early 20s, was, for Røinås, one of the marchʼs most significant features.

“The fact that so many young people are involved shows that the issue of abortion is not a lost cause,” she said. “We want to show that there are many in our generation who are willing to stand up for unborn life.”

Røinås said the marchʼs success would ultimately be measured not by attendance figures alone but by its impact on hearts.

“Our prayer is that people would experience Godʼs love,” she said, “because real change begins in the hearts of the people.”

A sign of growing engagement

Bishop Fredrik Hansen of Oslo, who was unable to attend due to pastoral commitments, described the march to EWTN News as evidence of a broader shift in Norwegian society.

“The Oslo March for Life attests to the increasing interest in and engagement for the defense of life and the dignity of life in Norway,” he said, expressing hope that it would become an annual event and serve to build bridges among the countryʼs pro-life organizations.

Asked whether he viewed the march as a form of healthy political advocacy or as genuine Christian witness, Hansen said it was both.

“The march will serve to witness to Norwegian society about the sacredness of life and to the need to challenge the many threats to life,” he said. “In so doing, it will send a firm message to our politicians and to the media that many Norwegians are deeply committed to a pro-life culture and wish their voices to be heard.”

He also pointed to what he described as quiet but real signs of religious renewal in a country better known for its secularism. “Interest in Christianity is increasing, notably among the young. Pro-life and broader social engagement is increasing in both the Catholic Church and other Christian communities, and public discussion on issues of life and faith are becoming more and more common.”

He closed with a direct appeal to Catholics abroad: “Remember Norway in your prayers.”

Unity among Christians

The Catholic Church was represented at the march by Catholics from several parishes, as well as Ragnhild Helena Aadland Høen, public affairs officer for the Norwegian Catholic Bishops' Conference.

Høen drew an immediate contrast with the last such demonstration in 1986, which was met with large and sometimes violent counterprotests. “This time, we were allowed to walk in peace,” she told EWTN News.

For Høen, the marchʼs most striking feature was not its size but its unity. “Catholics, Lutherans, Pentecostals, and evangelicals stood side by side,” she said, describing this cross-denominational cooperation as “one of the most hopeful signs in Norway today.”

She also highlighted the participation of American worship leader Phil King, whose address centered on Christian unity: “The impossible is not impossible with Jesus.”

Høen was careful to situate the march as a beginning rather than a culmination. “I have the distinct sense that God is gathering his people in Norway,” she said. “It felt like the opening lines of a new chapter,” one in which both Christian ecumenism and the pro-life movement, she believes, will continue to grow.

“I left with such a strong sense of expectation and joy,” she noted.

The fundamental question remains

Among the speakers at the Parliament steps was Ingrid Olina Hovland, chairwoman of the youth wing of Norwayʼs Christian Democratic Party, who was candid about the political landscape facing pro-life advocates in the country.

Pro-life politicians, she acknowledged, remain a minority in Norway and frequently face opposition from fellow lawmakers and the wider public alike. She explained that national debates have become too narrowly focused.

“The public discussion focuses primarily on healthcare and womenʼs rights while giving less attention to the unborn child,” she told EWTN News.

Hovland also challenged a common assumption underpinning arguments that economic hardship is a primary driver of abortion. Norwayʼs extensive welfare state, she argued, makes that case difficult to sustain.

“Even in a society with generous welfare benefits, the fundamental question remains: What moral value do we assign to unborn human life, and how should that value be weighed against other interests and rights?”

She expressed cautious optimism about the direction of her generation. Younger Norwegians, she said, appear increasingly willing to engage seriously with the moral dimensions of abortion rather than treating the debate as settled, a willingness that, for those gathered in Oslo on Saturday, the march itself was designed to reflect.

In an address at the Vatican to representatives of the United Jewish Appeal-Federation of New York, the pontiff praised their organization as “an instrument of global Jewish philanthropy, providing essential humanitarian aid and social services to vulnerable populations.” He also drew parallels between their work and the Catholic Churchʼs commitment to human development.

“These efforts reflect a clear recognition of human dignity and fraternity, resonating with the Church’s own commitment to integral human development and the call to love our neighbor,” Leo said in his remarks.

The pope also reflected on the progress of Catholic-Jewish dialogue since the 1965 publication of Nostra Aetate, a declaration from the Second Vatican Council that condemned all forms of antisemitism. Reaffirming the Churchʼs stance against antisemitism, Leo emphasized the need for Catholics and Jews to work together to combat all forms of discrimination.

"[Nostra Aetate] affirmed, among other things, the truth that we belong to one human family,“ Leo said. ”Recognizing the inherent dignity of all men and women, Nostra Aetate took a firm stand against antisemitism and declared that the Church rejects all forms of discrimination or harassment because of race, color, condition of life, or religion. In a world still wounded by division and conflict, it called us to move beyond past misunderstandings toward collaboration for the common good."

The court’s decision, based on the Judicial Rehabilitation Act, confirms that the prelate was a victim of unlawful deprivation of liberty in the 1950s by the communist regime in what was then Czechoslovakia. He was not formally convicted, yet he was forced to remain in the archbishop’s palace under surveillance by the State Security, and this was recognized as imprisonment.

The current archbishop of Olomouc, Josef Nuzík, said he is “very happy that after so many years we have managed to complete this procedural step and achieve justice” in civil law as well.

Matocha is “constantly present in our palace and in the hearts of believers,” and guests “are often moved when they realize that these beautiful spaces were his prison,” said Nuzík, who is also president of the Czech Bishops’ Conference.

The rehabilitation is an important sign “also for the entire society,” he added, one that shows “the heroism and suffering of people who did not let themselves be broken must not be forgotten.”

Ladislav Müller filed the initial motion for rehabilitation at the request of Jan Kratochvil, director of the Museum of Czech, Slovak, and Ruthenian Exile of the 20th Century in Brno.

Decades of isolation

Matocha, who held doctorates in philosophy and theology, was appointed archbishop of Olomouc by Pope Pius XII in 1948. He was deeply dedicated in his pastoral visits, initiated the beatification process of Archbishop Antonín Stojan, and secretly ordained František Tomášek as a bishop, who later became a cardinal and archbishop of Prague, according to the Archdiocese of Olomouc.

After his internment in 1950, he could not read newspapers or listen to the radio, and visits to the garden were permitted only sporadically. The isolation lasted until his death from a heart attack in 1961, which was also due to the denial of medical care. In 1999, then-Czech President Václav Havel posthumously awarded Matocha the first class of the Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk for outstanding services to democracy and human rights.

The press office of the Archdiocese of Olomouc told EWTN News that no special event regarding Matocha is planned at present, but it noted that a rehabilitation process is underway for Cardinal Štěpán Trochta. Trochta also suffered internment as the bishop of Litoměřice, but “we consider him ours,” the press office said, because he was born within the Archdiocese of Olomouc.

A wider reckoning

The unjust treatment of two other churchmen by the communist regime in Czechoslovakia has recently been recognized.

Cardinal Josef Beran, the former archbishop of Prague, who was interned in several locations, was rehabilitated in February, the District Court of Prague confirmed to EWTN News.

In 2024, the regional court in Hradec Králové rehabilitated the priest Josef Toufar, who was illegally arrested and tortured to death.

In a Truth Social post, Trump declared: “The deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete. Congratulations to all!”

He added: “I hereby fully authorize the toll-free opening of the Strait of Hormuz, and, simultaneously herewith, authorize the immediate removal of the United States naval blockade. Ships of the world, start your engines. Let the oil flow!”

A formal signing ceremony is scheduled for June 19 in Switzerland.

Between 7,500 to 10,000 people have died since the war erupted in February, with the majority of fatalities occurring in Iran and Lebanon. Civilian deaths across the region are estimated between 2,500 and 4,000. The United States has lost 13 service members in the conflict.

The pact is expected to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, lift the U.S. naval blockade on Iranian ports, and include a 60-day period for further negotiations, particularly on Iran’s nuclear program, according to the Associated Press.

The deal only partially addresses the issues that sparked the conflict, which began with U.S.-supported Israeli airstrikes that killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Feb. 28.

While the agreement requires Iran to refrain from producing or acquiring nuclear weapons and to maintain the current nuclear status quo during the 60-day negotiation period, it does not include a full dismantling of Iran’s nuclear program or the removal of its highly enriched uranium stockpile.

Nor does the deal require Iran to halt funding, arming, or directing its network of militant groups, including Hezbollah.

Those questions have been deferred for future talks.

According to Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, a mediator in the peace deal, the agreement calls for “the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon.”

Hezbollah launched projectiles from Lebanon into Israel on Sunday, however, leading Israel, which maintains it has the right to respond to Hezbollah attacks, to retaliate by striking Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Both Iran and Trump criticized Israelʼs airstrikes. In a separate Truth Social post earlier that day, Trump wrote: “This morning’s attack on Beirut should not have happened, particularly on a special day when we are so close to a peace deal with Iran.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has repeatedly stated that Israel is “not a party” to the deal, said the strikes targeted Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure and a Hezbollah command center.

Pope Leoʼs repeated calls for peace

The peace deal follows repeated appeals for peace by Pope Leo XIV. He has consistently called on all parties to return to dialogue and protect innocent lives.

In April, the pope stated: “Search always for peace and reject war … especially a war which many people have said is an unjust war.”

Trump took issue with Leoʼs statements, leading to a public dispute in which the president accused the pope of saying Iran “can have a nuclear weapon,” despite the popeʼs repeated calls for nuclear disarmament.

“The Church has spoken for years against all nuclear weapons, so there is no doubt there,” Leo said in response on May 5.

“The peace that Jesus gives us is not merely the silence of weapons, but the peace that touches and transforms the heart of each one of us!” the pope said in his Easter “urbi et orbi” message. “Let us allow ourselves to be transformed by the peace of Christ!”

The peace deal announcement comes on the same day as Trump’s 80th birthday, on which he held the first-ever professional UFC fights on the South Lawn of the White House. Trump hosted the event as part of America’s 250th anniversary celebrations.

Speaking from the window of the Apostolic Palace for the June 14 Angelus in St. Peter’s Square, the pope reflected on the day’s Gospel from Matthew, saying it “brings us a great gift, for it draws all who hear it into Jesus’ gaze.”

“It is a story that bears witness to the attentiveness of this gaze, as well as telling us what the Lord sees,” Pope Leo said, citing the passage in which Christ, “when he saw the crowds, … had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless.”

“Having become our brother, the Son of God looks at the people, he looks at humanity: He sees the oppression that burdens and the violence that causes strength to fade,” the pope said.

Christ, he continued, also sees the wounds of the contemporary world.

“He sees the wounds of war and the emptiness of consumerism. He sees faces reduced to masks, families torn apart by evil, and young people misled by false ideals,” Pope Leo said. “Jesus sees and loves. He loves and suffers for and with us: His compassion expresses not only fraternal closeness but his desire to redeem.”

Before humanity’s wounds, the pope said, Christ remains near and sends “workers into the field of the world.”

“What is their task?” he asked. “They must offer God’s comfort to those who suffer by bringing charity where there is misery, hope where there is affliction, faith where there is distrust.”

The pope noted that the Gospel names the first 12 “workers,” the disciples made apostles, missionaries, and preachers.

“The good news that spans the centuries is the same, always young, fresh, and liberating: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near!’” he said. “Yes, it is near because in Jesus Christ, God draws near to every man and woman, to every people and nation.”

Pope Leo added that the Gospel is not merely announced but also lived.

“When this Gospel is proclaimed and lived out, evil crumbles like a disease that passes away, like a night giving way to dawn, like death conquered by the risen One,” he said.

The pope said the Church is called to continue the mission of the apostles, remembering Jesus’ words: “You received without payment; give without payment.”

“Dear friends, the task of evangelization springs from God’s gift, which in Christ becomes forgiveness for the world, service to the least and the poor, and a commitment to justice,” he said.

After the Angelus prayer, Pope Leo recalled his recent apostolic journey to Spain.

“First of all, I express my gratitude to the Lord for the apostolic journey he has allowed me to undertake in Spain,” he said. “I also thank the Spanish people who have welcomed me with great enthusiasm and devotion.”

“I am especially grateful to His Majesty the King; I affectionately thank the bishops, all the communities I visited, and the entire Church in Spain,” the pope added. “Que Dios bendiga siempre a España!”

Pope Leo also remembered several newly beatified martyrs: the diocesan priests Václav Drbola and Jan Bula of Moravia, and Jan Šwierc and eight companions, Polish Salesian priests.

“All were beatified as martyrs, as victims of the persecution by totalitarian regimes because of their fidelity to Christ,” he said.

The pope also recalled that Nazareno Lanciotti, “a Roman missionary priest,” had been beatified Saturday in Mato Grosso, Brazil.

“He too was a martyr, for he defended the poorest in the name of the Gospel,” Pope Leo said. “May the example and intercession of these courageous witnesses sustain the mission of priests and of the entire Church.”

The pope concluded by expressing his closeness to the people of the Philippines, “struck a few days ago by a powerful earthquake.”

“I pray for the deceased and their families, for the wounded and for all those suffering because of this disaster,” he said.

This story was first published by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

In the packed church, Boyea told the ordinands: “You have been spending years being with Jesus. He’s calling you as he called those 12 so many centuries ago. Today, as you are consecrated by the Church for a sacred ministry, consecrate yourselves to drink the cup which the Lord gives and take in the word which the Spirit is providing. Though weak vessels that we are, we will not let that prevent us from following the calling we have received.”

Now 75 and due to retire from his duties in Lansing, Boyea has ordained 45 priests during his 18 years of leadership of the diocese in Michigan’s capital. The diocese, one of seven Latin-rite dioceses in Michigan, is currently sponsoring 29 seminarians, and last year’s ordination class was the largest in nearly 50 years.

Fathers Joshua Bauer, Jacob Derry, Ryan Ferrigan, and Peter Randolph, ordained by Boyea, all attended Sacred Heart Major Seminary of the Detroit Archdiocese.

Before their ordination, the men were interviewed on video, displaying the chalices they will use as priests.

Ferrigan, 28, said his antique sacred vessel had been left behind at the now-shuttered St. Michael Parish church in Flint, Michigan, established more than 170 years ago. Inscribed on its base are the words of an anonymous donor: “In reparation from a friend of the Sacred Heart.”

“You know, it’s a paradox because this chalice has a long history, and I don’t know who the priests are who used it in the past,” he said. “They offered the Holy Sacrifice using this vessel for over 100 years, and I get to continue faithfully offering the Mass and praying for the salvation of the world every day.”

In his thanksgiving address to the congregation, Ferrigan said of his priesthood: “It’s all about the glory of God and the salvation of souls!”

In an interview with EWTN News, the new priest said: “In being ordained, the palpable joy they could see in me was there because in ordination, I am seeing the purpose for which God created me coming to fruition. I have become what the Lord created me to be.”

“The day of my ordination was the best day of my life. Lots of friends and family were there to support me. The Lord has blessed me and is very good to me. I’m still adjusting and realizing that I’m really a priest now and have the privilege of offering the Mass every day. This is my commission and what the Lord wants me to do for his praise and the salvation of the world. It is still sinking in,” he told EWTN News.

Ferrigan celebrated his first solo Mass that same day at St. Martha Parish in Okemos, near Lansing. He was able to distribute the Eucharist for the first time in both instances to his mother. He will serve at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in Ann Arbor, which is close to the University of Michigan campus and known for its music and solemn liturgies.

“I’m excited to be going there, and I expect to serve about three years at St. Thomas,” he said, adding: “I’m excited about learning to be a parish priest and diving into ministry. This is how the Lord wants me to feed his sheep.”

Randolph, 27, reflected in the video about his journey to the altar, which has included profound loss.

“The emphasis of this chalice upon the humanity of Christ and about receiving the chalice, and then living it out to the fullest extent, both in pain and suffering, and full self-abandonment and full self-emptying and glory, means a lot to me, because my [18-year-old] brother Xavier died less than a year ago. And the Lord has really promised me that he’s going to meet me in the place of my pain,” he said, adding: “He’s not going to leave me alone. But it’s going to come in my very broken humanity. In my humanity that is now broken in a particular way in grief.”

Randolphʼs grandfather serves as a deacon in the Lansing Diocese. At the July 2025 funeral for Xavier, hundreds of friends and parishioners of the close-knit Christ the King Parish in Ann Arbor were on hand to support the Randolph family with the same solidarity shown at Randolphʼs ordination. He has been assigned to St. Patrick Parish in Brighton, Michigan, which is known for its healing services and charismatic liturgies.

As Boyea consecrated Randolph, the newly ordained young man openly sobbed in the presence of his many friends and family members.

“I want every day of my priesthood and every time that I offer Mass in this chalice, to be able to say, like, ‘Accipiam calicem,’ right, I accept the chalice,” Randolph vowed.

Paraphrasing Matthew 26:42, Randolph said: “Father, I accept this chalice, and I will drink it to the dregs with your Son.”

Then, suddenly, their excitement ended when Pilato went into her doctor’s office and was told that her baby no longer had a heartbeat. She had undergone a miscarriage. It was this experience that inspired her to write a book called “H.U.G” — an acronym for “Here, Understood, and Gently held.”

“It was a very quick emotional roller-coaster ride,” Pilato told EWTN News. “And when I had the miscarriage, my doctor, she looked at me and she basically said, ‘Iʼm so sorry. Miscarriage is really not talked about. I donʼt know why women donʼt talk about it, but itʼs very common.’ And in that moment, as she looked at me, I thought to myself, ‘OK, Iʼm going to talk about it.’”

She recalled sitting in the doctor’s office, alone, looking for anything that would help her with her grief — a pamphlet, a picture on the wall, anything — and there was nothing. Instead, all she was handed as she walked out the door was her bill for the office visit.

“There was just nothing for me to make me feel that I was going to be OK and that I wasnʼt alone. I felt completely isolated and I felt like I was the only person in the world that was feeling this,” she recalled.

Once she got home, she felt lost, not knowing what to think or do. After some time alone at home, she heard God tell her to sit down and write.

“Iʼm like, ‘Well thatʼs a really weird thing to do right now. Thatʼs like the last thing that I want to do is open my laptop,’” she said. “But, when God gives you directions itʼs always best to follow. And so I sat down and I opened my laptop. Iʼve got the tissues out, Iʼm still a mess, and I just started writing what I was feeling.”

Her writing went up on her blog and after several hours, Pilato returned to the blog post where she saw hundreds of women commenting and sending her messages of their own similar experiences.

“Thatʼs when I knew that we needed to share these stories and that I wasnʼt the only one that had ever felt like this,” she shared. “And it became so important to me, in that moment, that no one ever felt like we felt again — if we can make that feeling go away for as many women as possible, it would be worth it.”

This is when Pilato was inspired to write her book, “H.U.G.,” which is made up of over 30 testimonies from women who have walked through pregnancy loss as well as men who share their perspectives as husbands and fathers walking alongside their wives. After each story, there are several reflection questions.

“This book is meant to be for the woman thatʼs experiencing it at any stage,” Pilato explained. “And itʼs really the kind of book that you can open, look at the table of contents, and theyʼre all labeled — a hug for when you just want to scream or a hug for when you feel alone, a hug for when you donʼt have the words to pray … So, you can pick it up, put it down, pick it up, put it down whenever you need it, wherever youʼre grieving.”

She added: “I wish Iʼd had a book to just hug when I was laying there on my couch that would just make me feel seen.”

Speaking to the men in the book, Pilato realized through her own miscarriage that her husband “had no idea what to do with me or how to respond or what to do with his own emotions.”

“[Men are] kind of forgotten and theyʼre processing in a very different way. And I realized that he didnʼt know what to do and so I realized that he needed to have a story as well,” she said.

Pilato explained that the book was entirely funded by donations from individuals, and with the donations she is now working to get the book available “in any place that a woman might be grieving.”

“We have them in hospitals, in urgent cares, in churches, therapy offices — Iʼve had requests come in from all different places. And our goal is to get the book into every state,” she said.

Books are available for purchase or, if an organization is unable to pay for them, they can request free books to be donated to them.

“I do always say if your organization has the budget and you would like to pay, absolutely, it helps, it all goes back into the book, but if not, if we have inventory, we make it happen,” she said. “So, it is all God filling our inventory, bringing us to the people. And so far, weʼve been able to get books to women as soon as two hours after theyʼve heard that theyʼre experiencing a loss.”

The author shared that her main hope for women who come across her book is that “she feels seen and loved and finds hope in her future. I think Itʼs so hard to feel seen and loved and hopeful in the moment, but by reading these stories, I believe that she can feel that and get closer to it in her healing.”

The Sacre Coeur Perpetual Adoration Chapel was opened on the property of St. Denis Church in Havertown on the western edge of the city. Pérez was the principal celebrant at the Mass during which the site was dedicated an archdiocesan shrine.

In his homily the archbishop called attention to the liturgyʼs first reading from the Book of Deuteronomy, in which Moses tells the Israelites that God “set his heart on you and chose you.”

Pérez said the description of “the heart of God” grants “a very human attribute to a divine being.”

Christ himself “is the very incarnation, the visible being, the manifestation of the very heart of God,” Pérez said.

The prelate also noted the example of the 17th-century nun St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, who was responsible for spreading the devotion of the Sacred Heart through the Western Church.

“She had an incredible heart for the Lord from a very, very, very young age,” the archbishop said. “And at a young age, she promised Our Lady that she would consecrate her life to the heart of Christ.”

“She had a big heart,” Pérez continued. “Big hearts feel deeply. The biggest heart of them all is actually the heart of Christ, the heart of all hearts right from which all our hearts flow.”

The archbishop predicted that the faithful “will come from all over the place” to the Sacre Coeur chapel, where they will “speak to the heart of Christ so beautifully present in the Most Blessed Sacrament.”

“And at that moment — watch out,” he said. “Watch out. Because God will do what God will do.”

Sacred space will ‘hopefully bring people to the Lord’

The chapel came about in large part because of the work of Ward and Kathy Fitzgerald, two Philadelphia residents who several years ago identified the need for such a site in the city.

Ward, the CEO of the I Am the Vine Foundation — a capital charity initiative — told “EWTN News Nightly” on June 12 that his wife, Kathy, had realized that “there were 12 parishes in Philadelphia within about a three-mile radius that did not have perpetual adoration.”

"The vision was to make a place that was beautiful and comfortable," he said. “[W]e not only want people to be at peace when theyʼre talking to the Lord because of the beauty around them, [but] we also want to attract people that arenʼt [part of] the Church today."

“We felt that an adoration chapel was a way to bring meditation [and] conversation with the Lord without technically participating in the sacraments,” he said. “And many people that are either members of the Church and donʼt participate in the sacraments, or theyʼre not members of any church ... still their hearts are restless.”

At the dedication on June 12, Pérez commended Ward and Kathy for their “big hearts” after their work to bring the chapel to life.

“What a gift,” he said. “God will do what God will do, and only God knows right in his big, enormous heart what will happen in that chapel — how people will be touched, conversations will be had, [and] hearts will be healed.”

YouTube creator Jesse Ridgway went viral for posting about how he and his wife decided to abort their unborn baby after they learned the child would likely have Down syndrome. Advocates on X reacted by sharing posts celebrating the worth of individuals with the medical diagnosis.

"Down syndrome shouldn’t mean a death sentence,” Live Action Founder and President Lila Rose said.

SBA Pro-Life America posted in response to Ridgway’s post: “This is so sad and awful. We CANʼT stand silently by.”

“Research shows 99% of people with Down syndrome are happy with their lives, and their families love them,” the pro-life group continued. “Families deserve truthful information and support. People with Down syndrome deserve to live. They should never be targets for discrimination, inside the womb or out. Period.”

“Babies with Down syndrome arenʼt a ‘glitch.’ Theyʼre a blessing.” Live Action posted. “Yet 67%-80% of these beautiful babies are killed for their disability before they are born."

Study: Women aren’t informed on emotional, physical impact of abortion

Women want information on abortion symptoms and the emotional impacts associated with the procedure, but they often aren’t given it, according to a recent peer-reviewed study.

The study by scholars associated with the Charlotte Lozier Institute found women experience significant informed-consent gaps when they are given abortion drugs.

The researchers found that 3 in 10 women report experiencing unexpected levels of pain and bleeding.

“Because they didn’t know what was ‘normal,’ many women turned to the internet for information about abortion side effects like excessive pain and bleeding, help processing difficult emotions, and urgent reassurance during the abortion process,” the study read.

Tessa Cox, senior research associate at the institute and one of the authors of the study, emphasized the risks associated with this lack of medical information sharing.

“The stakes are too high for informed consent to be treated as a formality,” Cox said in a statement.

14 attorneys general call for clean water protections from abortion drugs

Fourteen attorneys general this week called on the federal government to track water pollution from abortion pills.

The attorneys general asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to track pollution from the drugs dumped into the U.S. water supply. They argued that “loosened regulations” have “increased the number of chemical abortions occurring in the home,” resulting in “tons of chemically tainted medical waste being flushed into American waterways.”

Students for Life President Kristan Hawkins, who spearheaded the movement, called the request “common sense.”

“Because of negligent FDA policy and the failure to enforce the Comstock Act, more than 50 tons of chemically tainted blood, placenta tissue, and human remains go into our waterways every year. With infertility on the rise, we need to know: What is the extent of the damage?” Hawkins said in a statement shared with EWTN News.

The letter was signed by attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas.

Head of Knights of Columbus awarded for ‘building up a culture of life’

The Sisters of Life, a religious organization centered on affirming the life of every human being, gave an award to the head of the Knights of Columbus, Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly, for his life-affirming work.

Kelly received the John Cardinal O’Connor Award on June 5 at the annual Friends of the Sisters of Life Gala in Rye, New York.

“His Eminence John Cardinal O’Connor was a towering pillar of the pro-life movement,” Kelly said in a press release. “With an unshakable resolve, he dedicated so much of his ministry as bishop to proclaiming the sanctity of every human life, made in the image and likeness of God.”

“Speaking for the Knights, we will keep doing everything we can to support the Sisters of Life and to protect vulnerable mothers and their children,” Kelly said. "As we prepare for the work ahead, we take comfort in the knowledge that Jesus Christ will continue to guide us.”

Alabama attorney general launches legal challenge against abortion drug companies

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall issued cease-and-desist letters to six companies that have been allegedly illegally distributing abortion drugs.

According to a June 9 press release, the companies were providing chemical abortion drugs in Alabama, where abortion is illegal.

“These companies are not only breaking the law, they are deceiving Alabama consumers about the very real dangers of these drugs,” Marshall said in a statement. “That stops now.”

The letters were sent to abortion drug providers across the United States as well as one company based in the United Arab Emirates. Several companies were based in California or New York, which have “shield laws” designed to protect abortion companies.

The civil unrest followed a brutal knife attack in Belfast carried out by a Sudanese national. Footage of the incident has been widely circulated globally and on social media. Bishop Alan McGuckian, SJ, of Down and Connor said: “My thoughts and prayers are firstly with Stephen Ogilvie, who sustained life-changing devastating injuries in a brutal and horrific attack.”

Referring to the rioting, intimidation, and vandalism toward immigrant people that followed, he said: “So many newcomers make an outstanding contribution to our communities, including our parishes. They are our friends. Shame on all those who have sought to mobilize, agitate, weaponize, and politicize the fear and concerns of others over the last few days. All of us have a responsibility to de-escalate societal tension rather than stoke the flames of racism.”

Lebanese priest says ‘situation drastically deteriorating’ for Christians

Father Youssef Semaan, parish priest of Kfour, Nabatieh District, in Lebanon, said the situation for Christians remaining in the country is continuing to worsen.

“Every week is more dangerous than the last. The situation has become unbearable,” Semaan said, according to a press release from Aid to the Church in Need on Thursday.

The priest, who was forced to leave Kfour due to safety reasons, said he has managed to return on two occasions. He said many Christians have been faced with the difficult decision to “stay and risk their lives or abandon our land without any guarantee that we will ever get our houses or our goods back.”

In Kfour, the Christian population has dropped from 120 to around 12, ACN noted. “We still have hope,” Semaan said. “But hope itself is not enough. It has to be based on solid foundations that allow us to rebuild and go on living. We are human after all.”

Zimbabwe bishops consecrate nation to Mary, a ‘model of courage’ in difficult times

Members of the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference (ZCBC) have consecrated the Southern African nation to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, entrusting the country to her maternal protection and presenting her as a model of faith, hope, courage, and love amid ongoing challenges.

The consecration took place during a Mass marking the conclusion of the bishops’ 2026 plenary assembly at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Cathedral of the Archdiocese of Harare on June 10, ACI Africa, the sister service of EWTN News in Africa, reported Thursday.

In his homily, ZCBC president Bishop Raymond Tapiwa Mupandasekwa said the bishops identified Mary as a fitting patroness for Zimbabwe, saying: “The act of surrender to God is indeed an imitation of this Holy Virgin. She is the woman who not only shows her total surrender to God in faith, but she is also a woman of great hope. At the foot of the cross she stands. A great sign of courage in a very difficult moment.”

Legislation threatening the seal of confession in France fails

A provision in a bill proposed to the French National Assembly that would have compelled priests to violate the seal of confession to report instances of abuse against minors has failed.

The bill, aimed at preventing and combating violence in schools in the wake of a sex abuse scandal at a Catholic boarding school in southern France, was adopted on June 1 without the proposed clause that would have removed exemptions for priests from mandatory reporting of information regarding sexual abuse heard during the sacrament of confession.

The French Bishops’ Conference expressed “grave concern” ahead of a debate on the bill, noting several articles in the bill that “call into question several fundamental freedoms,” including the right to secrecy under the seal of confession.

Christians in Tyre face new wave of uncertainty

The Christian community in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre is watching recent developments with growing concern after the area was included in an Israeli evacuation warning for the first time, ACI MENA, the Arabic-language sister service of EWTN News, reported Thursday.

Church leaders fear that any military escalation could have lasting consequences for one of Lebanon’s oldest Christian communities, which has already endured years of economic hardship and emigration.

Melkite Greek Catholic Archbishop Georges Iskandar called for urgent efforts to protect civilians and preserve the city’s historic and religious character, warning that further instability could accelerate the decline of the local Christian presence.

Victims of clergy abuse in Australia clash with diocese over memorial

A group representing victim survivors of clergy abuse has announced its agreement with the Diocese of Ballarat in Australia to build a memorial for victims “null and void” after an alleged communication breakdown with the diocese.

“Throughout the memorial process, we have sought to engage with Church representatives in a respectful, transparent, and constructive manner. We have acted in good faith and demonstrated a genuine willingness to work collaboratively towards memorials at both sites: St. Patrick’s Cathedral and St. Alipius Old Boys School,” the Ballarat and District Survivors Memorial Committee said in a June 6 Facebook post. “Regrettably, we do not believe the same level of transparency and good faith has been demonstrated by the Church during these negotiations.”

British National Trust reopens 420-year-old Catholic lodge

Lyveden, a three-story Tudor lodge in Northamptonshire, England, known for its Catholic symbolism, has been reopened following conservation work.

“Weʼre very excited to open Lyveden Lodge after 18 months and welcome visitors back inside this remarkable building,” Matthew Glasgow, senior building surveyor, said in a BBC News report on Friday. “While further conservation work will be needed in the coming years, the completed repairs mean visitors can once again enjoy this extraordinary unfinished vision of Sir Thomas Tresham.” Conservationists conducted repairs to the lodge’s stonework, replaced timber, and restored its Elizabethan garden.

Constructed in the 16th century by Sir Thomas Tresham, a practicing Catholic who faced persecution for refusing to attend Anglican church services during the late 1500s and early 1600s, Lyveden is built in the shape of a Greek cross and features references to Christian numerology, according to the National Trust’s website.

Rebaptisms raise questions in Syria’s Maronite community

Reports that several Maronites in the Latakia countryside of Syria joined Protestant groups and underwent “rebaptism” have sparked discussion within the local Church about the challenges facing parish life in the region.

The situation came to light in the village of Ain Halaqim, where community members pointed to years of pastoral difficulties, including the absence of a resident priest and limited opportunities for ongoing catechesis, ACI MENA reported Friday.

Rather than focusing solely on the individuals who left, many local voices are asking broader questions about how the Church can better accompany the faithful, especially in communities affected by economic struggles and migration.

The arrest marks a significant breakthrough in investigations into the killing that shocked both the local community and the Catholic Church.

In a June 10 press briefing, the Officer Commanding Police Division (OCPD) for Marakwet East, Zablon Okoyo, identified the suspect as Meshack Kilimo and said he was apprehended through intelligence-led operations.

“Luckily enough, we managed to arrest one suspect by the name Meshack Kilimo. It is unfortunate that this one guy is also part of the reformed bandits that we have managed to tame. But of course, you know, human beings have different traits and characters. As for him, he has not changed,” Okoyo said.

He explained: “We used our wits and managed to arrest the fellow yesterday. As we are talking today, he is supposed to be arraigned before the law courts by our Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) department.”

According to a June 10 report by The Star, a Kenyan publication, Kilimo was “arrested after he shot dead another man using an arrow during a quarrel over clan land in the same Kerio Valley area.”

In the June 10 press briefing, Okoyo said investigations remain active and are being led by the DCI in Kenya.

“We shall prosecute the case accordingly, according to the witnesses and the evidence that we have gathered,” he said, and added: “The case of the late Father Alois is within the DCI. The DCI opened a case and is still very active. Now that the suspect has been apprehended and presented before the magistrate, I believe all avenues will be opened.”

The police commander cautioned that investigators are still examining whether the evidence collected directly links the suspect to the murder of the priest.

“If at all, the evidence that has been adduced and collected and placed in the active case of the late Father will connect to him, then I think it is a case that is going to come up very soon. But I canʼt preempt as of now because the officers handling the case are with the suspect right now before the court,” Okoyo said in the press briefing.

Bett, a priest of Eldoret Diocese, died from gunshot wounds after being ambushed by armed assailants at Kabartile Village in Mokoro Location, Elgeyo Marakwet County. He was serving as pastor of St. Matthias Mulumba Tot Parish at the time of his death.

In a statement issued on the day of the attack, Kenyaʼs National Police Service (NPS) said preliminary investigations indicated that the killing was not related to cattle rustling or banditry, despite the regionʼs long history of armed criminal activity and intercommunal conflict.

Bett was laid to rest on June 3, 2025, at Holy Family Parish in Nandi County, the day after his funeral Mass at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Cathedral of Eldoret Diocese.

Since the priestʼs murder, security operations in the Kerio Valley have intensified as authorities continue efforts to restore stability in the region, The Star reported on June 10.

According to the report, government officials have confirmed recovering more than 500 firearms through the ongoing amnesty and disarmament program, and that hundreds of former bandits have undergone rehabilitation.

Speaking recently on the broader security situation in Kerio Valley, Cabinet Secretary for Interior and National Administration Kipchumba Murkomen attributed persistent insecurity in the region partly to environmental degradation.

Murkomen said shrinking grazing land, drying rivers, and declining natural resources have intensified competition among communities and contributed to cattle rustling, banditry, and violence.

He argued that lasting peace would require not only security operations but also environmental restoration and sustainable economic opportunities for young people through initiatives such as tree planting, rehabilitation of water sources, agroforestry, beekeeping, and ecotourism.

This story was first published by ACI Africa, the sister service of EWTN News in Africa, and has been adapted by EWTN News.

Throughout his journey, the pope connected with Catholics across the country while highlighting Spainʼs rich spiritual heritage and encouraging believers to renew their faith in an increasingly secular world.

Here is a look at 10 of the most powerful moments from Pope Leoʼs visit to Spain:

1. Over a million Catholics join Pope Leo for Corpus Christi procession in Madrid

One of the most stunning moments came during the Eucharistic procession on the solemnity of Corpus Christi when 1.6 million people gathered in the famous Plaza de Cibeles in Madrid to be a part of the pope’s celebration of Mass, procession, and Eucharistic blessing.

In Madrid, Pope Leo said Corpus Christi is “more than just another celebration on the liturgical calendar ... It is a way of returning to the heart of the faith to renew our love and fidelity to God.”

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2. Pope Leo meets with abuse victims

On the third day of his apostolic journey to Spain, Pope Leo met with six victims of abuse committed “by members of the clergy and the Church” in the country.

The victims, the Vatican stated, were “accompanied by Church personnel engaged in supporting and accompanying victims.”

During the hourlong meeting, the victims shared their “painful personal experiences” with the Holy Father, and each person presented him with “proposals to make the Church’s response to such tragic cases more effective.”

Shortly before meeting with victims, the Holy Father urged the Spanish bishops to respond to the “scourge” of abuse in the Church “with listening, truth, justice, reparation, and an ever-more-determined commitment to prevention and a culture of care.”

“Every wounded person must be able to find sincere listening, welcome, protection, and real paths to healing,” the Holy Father said.

3. Pope Leo becomes first pope to address Spanish Parliament

Pope Leo XIV became the first pope in history to address the Spanish Parliament when he spoke to lawmakers on Monday, June 8, the third day of his apostolic journey.

Although he is the third pope to visit Spain, after St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, none of Leoʼs predecessors addressed the legislative body representing the Spanish people.

The pope received nearly seven minutes of applause at the end of his speech, which urged lawmakers to protect human life from conception until natural death.

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4. Pope honors Our Lady of Almudena with Golden Rose

One of the greatest devotions among Spanish Catholics is to Our Lady of Almudena — the patron saint of Madrid.

According to tradition, as Moorish forces invaded the region in A.D. 712, the citizens of Madrid secretly hid their beloved statue of the Virgin Mary inside the thick stone walls of the cityʼs fortress, leaving two lit candles beside it. In 1085, after King Alfonso VI reconquered Madrid, the Christians searched for the statue. While processing around the city walls, a section of the wall miraculously crumbled, revealing the statue perfectly preserved with the candles still burning after centuries.

On June 8, that enduring devotion received one of the Church’s highest marks of recognition when Pope Leo XIV bestowed a Golden Rose upon the historic statue.

“As a symbol of the pope’s filial love for the Virgin Mary, I will place a Golden Rose at her feet,” Leo said during a ceremony at Madrid’s Cathedral of Santa María la Real de la Almudena.

The papal honor — one of the highest distinctions a pope can bestow upon a Marian image or shrine — recognizes the deep devotion generations of Spanish Catholics have shown to the Blessed Virgin under the title of Almudena.

The exact origin of the gifting of a Golden Rose is unknown, although it is considered one of the oldest papal traditions. The earliest reliable record dates to 1096, when Pope Urban II sent one to Fulcone d’Angers.

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5. Pope Leo entrusts his pontificate to Our Lady of Montserrat

While in Montserrat, the Holy Father visited the Abbey of Montserrat, which is nestled among towering rock formations that resemble sculpted figures of animals or objects.

At the foot of Montserrat, after praying the rosary, the pope lifted up his prayer: “Let us ask her to help us clothe ourselves only with the armor of God.”

He added: “Let us also consider how the Virgin holds the globe in her right hand, a sign of her maternal care, for the whole world finds a place in her heart. She invites us to recognize one another as brothers and sisters, so that no one is excluded and that communion is stronger than every division,” he added.

The image of Mary currently venerated is a 12th-century Romanesque wooden sculpture, just over 3 feet tall, depicting the Blessed Virgin Mary with the Child Jesus. Except for the faces and hands, the statue is covered in gold, while the Virgin’s dark complexion has earned her the popular nickname “La Moreneta."

“I am happy to come to the feet of La Moreneta to entrust to her, with full confidence in her maternal intercession, my Petrine ministry and the mission of the Church in a world that cries out for justice and peace,” the pope said.

6. Pope Leo prays with young manʼs rosary — then gives it back to him

While in Barcelona, an encounter between the pope and a young man named Sergi went viral.

During the pope’s visit to the Shrine of Our Lady of Montserrat, Sergi handed Leo his rosary. The pontiff slipped it into his pocket before using it minutes later to pray during the event.

“I just wanted him to bless it, that’s all, but he asked me, ‘Is it for me?’ And I’m not going to say no, so of course I said yes, and he kept it,” the young man told EWTN News.

But the story didnʼt end there. Unexpectedly, after the event, Sergi managed to recover his prized sacramental, now prayed with by the pope.

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7. Pope Leo visits the tomb of Venerable Antoni Gaudí

Before celebrating Mass at the Sagrada Familia Basilica in Barcelona, ​​Pope Leo took time to visit the crypt, pray before the Blessed Sacrament, and light a candle at the tomb of Venerable Antoni Gaudí, who designed the iconic basilica more than a century ago.

Gaudí, known as the “architect of God,” died in 1926 and is buried in the basilica crypt. He was known for his intense personal faith and devotion to the building of the Sagrada Família.

The Vatican announced April 14, 2025, that Pope Francis had formally recognized Gaudí’s “heroic virtue,” a key step in the canonization process. Two miracles attributed to Gaudí’s intercession are now required for his canonization.

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8. Pope Leo celebrates Mass in iconic Sagrada Familia Basilica

One of the historic milestones of Pope Leo’s visit to Spain was the opportunity to realize Antoni Gaudí’s dream: the inauguration and blessing of the Tower of Jesus Christ, coinciding exactly with the centenary of the great architect’s death.

The spectacular central spire is crowned by a white cross that makes the basilica the tallest in the world and will be open to visitors starting in 2028.

After Mass, Leo XIV stepped outside to bless and inaugurate the Tower of Jesus Christ — before a stunning celebration of lights and sacred music — in which the pope, rather than simply putting his stamp on a finished work, charted a course for Christians.

“The Sagrada Família is the tallest church in the world — not to stand out in worldly rankings but to guide the steps of God’s people journeying through this land of Catalonia, with the cross illuminating the path like a lamp lit in anticipation of the Bridegroom’s return,” he affirmed.

“The entire city of Barcelona and all of Catalonia gather in this temple — itself a sign of unity and harmony for all of Spain — and lift their gaze to encounter the face of God the Father, resplendent in his Son-made-man, Jesus Christ,” the pope added.

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9. Pope Leo blesses a cross made of wood from the boats of migrants

At the Port of Arguineguín in Gran Canaria — a place that became a symbol of the migration crisis in the Canary Islands — Pope Leo offered a powerful witness to the dignity of every human person. Standing at a dock marked by the suffering and loss of those who arrived after dangerous journeys across the Atlantic, he prayed for migrants, denounced human trafficking, and called the world to a deeper examination of conscience.

The visit concluded beside the image of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, patroness of seafarers, where the Holy Father blessed a memorial cross made from the wood of migrant boats and erected in honor of those who lost their lives at sea. Entrusting migrants and all who undertake perilous journeys to her maternal care, he transformed a place once known for tragedy into a sign of hope and remembrance.

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10. Pope Leo gives a powerful message to human traffickers

During the last day of his papal trip, Pope Leo raised his voice with unusual force.

In Tenerife, he spoke against human traffickers — those who charge staggering sums to allow migrants cross the ocean and those who enslave them mercilessly.

“For every life lost, every family deceived, every body subjugated, every woman threatened, every worker exploited, you will have to appear before divine justice,” the pope said.

“Break those chains and free those you hold in bondage,” he added. “Return what has been taken and make amends as much as you can.”

Leo declared strongly: “Stop. Repent.”

To those who profit from the suffering of others, the Holy Father left open the door of return to God.

“Repent while there is still time,” he said, “for God’s mercy can reach even the most hardened sinner, but it enters only through the narrow gate of truth, justice, and conversion.”

“The devotion to the ‘Saint of the Peoples’ is truly universal perhaps because he himself desired to consider all the world his as his home,” Father Oliviero Svanera, rector of the Basilica of St. Anthony of Padua, Italy, told EWTN News.

“He was Portuguese by birth, he went to Morocco to spread the faith, he landed in Sicily by shipwreck, then he went back up the Italian peninsula all the way to Assisi and joined the friars of St. Francis, who sent him all the way to France.”

Once St. Anthony returned to Italy he was appointed provincial superior and served in Padua, where he died in 1231.

“It is told that he would speak one language made of a thousand accents but which was understandable to all,” Svanera said. “As such, he was a neighbor to all: to the poor, to people in difficulty, to the sick. In this, his being ‘brother of all’ is perhaps his universality, something that renders him a friend of all the peoples of the world, beyond nationality, culture, and even religions, given that St. Anthony is respected even by those who do not profess the Catholic faith.”

St. Anthony was born as Fernando Martins in Lisbon around 1195, and when he was 15 he entered the Abbey of St. Vincent with the Canons Regular of St. Augustine and was ordained a priest.

In 1220 he was deeply moved when he encountered the relics of five Franciscan missionaries who had been martyred in Morocco. He was allowed to leave the Augustinians to join the Order of Friars Minor, where he took the name Anthony. He worked as a preacher and laid the foundations of Franciscan theology.

He was canonized in 1232, only a year after his death, by Gregory IX, who had heard him preach and called him the “Ark of the Testament.”

It was also in 1232 that construction of the basilica that houses St. Anthony’s body was begun. It was finished at the beginning of the 14th century.

Svanera explained the famous “Tredicina” that takes place before St. Anthony’s feast day.

“The word ‘Tredicina’ [refers to] the 13 days of meditation and spiritual preparation for the solemnity of the saint — that is, from May 31 to June 13. Every day those devoted to St. Anthony invoke the intercession of the saint through a particular prayer ... to entrust themselves to the mercy of God the Father. These are the days in which the basilica becomes the goal of pilgrims, both individuals and those organized in groups, and our sanctuary becomes truly universal, as in these days of veneration and prayer there are tens of thousands of pilgrims who come here from every country of the world.”

The priest also explained the story behind another popular tradition related to the famous saint called the “Bread of St. Anthony.”

“The birth of this tradition of charity has its roots in one of the ‘miracles’ of the saint, that of Tommasino, a baby of 20 months who drowned in a washtub,” Svanera said. “The desperate mother invoked the help of the saint and vowed that if she would obtain this grace, she would give to the poor the child’s weight in bread. And the little one returned miraculously to life.”

This gave rise, he said, to two Antonian works faithful to the spirit of St. Anthony: the Bread Work of the Poor (“l’Opera Pane dei Poveri”) — an organization in Padua that works to bring bread and other necessities to people in difficulty; and also Caritas Sant’Antonio, which supports many development projects in dozens of countries around the world.

Svanera also highlighted the key lessons of St. Anthony’s life.

“St. Anthony’s preaching was always capable of provoking the hearts of everyone,” he said. “And this too is thanks to his exemplary life and his humility, which he learned from Most Holy Mary, to whom he was profoundly devoted.”

He continued: “St. Anthony proclaimed the Gospel which conquers the temptation of power, the temptation of pride, the temptation ... of worldliness ... Through his love, St. Anthony knew to stoop for the other (refugee, migrant, unemployed, alone, sick, imprisoned, marginalized, poor) and to take care of him. We will thus be effective Christians of a Church which goes forth if, like St. Anthony, we manage to go forth from ourselves to preach Christ crucified, following him with a style of humility, of true humility, a humility full of love.”

This story was first published on June 13, 2017, and has been updated.

The proposed legislation would fast-track euthanasia requests, allowing only a single hearing in a lower court before the decision could be appealed solely to the Constitutional Court, effectively reducing the opportunities for extended legal challenges.

The vote to consider the proposal, spearheaded by the Catalan regional parliament, took place just three days after members of both houses of Spain’s legislature gave a seven-minute standing ovation to Pope Leo XIV, who in his historic address asked: “If life ceases to be recognized as a fundamental value, what future can our societies have?”

Coinciding with this legislative initiative, the Christian Lawyers Foundation has released a video featuring the father of Noelia Castillo, the young woman who was euthanized on March 23 following a two-year legal battle led by her father, Javier Castillo.

‘An injustice has been done to Noelia’

Sources at the foundation told ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, that this marks the “first and only” time Castillo will make a public statement, since from the time his daughter’s case became known and even after her death, he hasn’t spoken out.

“An injustice has been done to Noelia,” declared Castillo, who emphasized that “more resources could have been allocated” to address her psychological and psychiatric ailments. In contrast, he said the state was “very efficient” when it came to administering euthanasia, essentially “to get the problem off their hands.”

In his opinion, Noelia managed to convince the doctors that her case met the criteria set out in the euthanasia law passed in 2022: “She deceived them very effectively, and they let themselves be deceived,” said Castillo, who also argued that the assessment of euthanasia cases should include the parents' perspective.

Castillo decried the fact that, when he was in Noeliaʼs room before her death and the members of the Guarantees Committee provided for in the euthanasia law arrived, “they kicked me out of the room” and didn’t give him information when he asked for it.

No one in the family wanted euthanasia for her

Recalling his daughterʼs death, Castillo burst into tears, and overcome with emotion, said: “I was able to see her in the box, I said goodbye to her and here I have her” he said, pointing to his head, indicating he will remember her forever.

“I would be the happiest man alive if she had wanted to keep living with me and if I could have continued looking after her until the day I died,” he said, lamenting that as soon as he decided to turn over the case to the Christian Lawyers Foundation, his daughter decided to shut him out.

“The moment she saw that her father was opposed, that I was trying to stop the euthanasia, she completely cut me off, even though up until then, I had been with her every day of the week,” he recounted.

“Right up to the last moment, none of us in the family lost hope … not one of us,“ he said. ”Neither mother, nor father, nor sisters wanted euthanasia; each of us, in our own way and with our own lives, tried to prevent this from happening.”

Following Noelia’s death, which came after a long legal battle, Castillo admitted to having mixed feelings: “Powerless, like a failure. We lost, yet we won. I have to say that Christian Lawyers has prevailed over all those people who did nothing for her. Yes, they certainly did their homework,” he said.

Castillo expressed his conviction that “my daughter is now in heaven,” while also acknowledging that the legal battle “gave to me two years of my daughter’s life. Two years. Do you know what two years of life means? A lot. A whole lifetime.”

‘Fast track’ procedure

The legislative proposal taken under consideration June 11 aims to mandate a “fast track” procedure for appeals in euthanasia cases.

Furthermore, under the proposed legislation, such appeals would only be filed with the Administrative Disputes Chamber of the High Court of Justice of an autonomous community, thereby bypassing trial courts and the provincial courts.

Spain has 17 autonomous communities, the rough equivalent of states in a federal system.

The appeals process would be conducted in only one court without any right of appeal, save for an “amparo” appeal before the Constitutional Court, which is a type of appeal that is rejected in 98% of cases, as detailed in the explanatory memorandum of the bill.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

The young girl had the opportunity to describe to the Holy Father and the king and queen of Spain how she perceives the tower, which was completed earlier this year and is the tallest of the basilicaʼs 14 completed towers, with the help of a tactile model of the basilica.

She offered details about its structure, shapes, and volumes based on the information she gathered through her sense of touch, a demonstration that particularly moved the pope.

The National Organization of the Blind of Spain (ONCE, by its Spanish acronym), said that moments before the encounter, Valentina said she was “excited and enthusiastic but not nervous to meet one of the most important people in the world."

Valentina suffers from a hereditary optic atrophy known as Leber’s disease, which allows her to distinguish only light and shadow. Since being diagnosed at barely a year old, she has been a member of ONCE, which has helped her with her education.

Valentina lives a short distance from the basilica and is in her first year at a neighborhood high school. Like her, more than 7,000 students with disabilities are assisted by ONCE in attending classes alongside sighted students in traditional schools. She also attends the Barcelona Educational Resource Center to supplement her education.

The young girl studies the violin and aspires to become a concert performer. Her hobbies include traveling with her family and reading in Braille. In fact, her ONCE teacher, Ramon Coma, noted that she “devours books.”

A family with ties to the Sagrada Família

The connection between Valentinaʼs family and the Sagrada Família is not just a matter of living in the same neighborhood, where construction has been ongoing for over a century. Her father, Francisco, an engineer by profession, worked at the basilica for years.

According to ONCE, Francisco shared a wish with his daughter: “It would be wonderful to see the Sagrada Família together one day, once it is finished.”

Although that moment is still some time away, this week they were able to realize part of that dream when they attended the pope’s blessing of the tower together and Valentina gave the pope a drawing she made that shows how she sees the Tower of Jesus Christ “with her heart.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Leaders from the seven global powers — the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, and Japan — will meet for the annual G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains, France, from June 15–17. G7 summits focus on issues of international cooperation among the powers.

On June 12, ahead of next week’s meeting, the heads of the bishops’ conferences from each power issued a joint statement outlining their priorities. It touches on ongoing conflicts, such as the Russia-Ukraine war and wars in the Middle East, and emerging technology such as artificial intelligence (AI).

“Amid armed conflict, geopolitical fragmentation, the crisis of multilateralism, growing inequalities, climate disruption, and accelerating technological change, we affirm that the dignity of the human person must remain the foundation of political and economic governance,” the bishops wrote to the political leaders.

Peace efforts

The bishops encouraged the nations to cooperate with one another on peace efforts and adhere to international laws, warning that geopolitical tensions are causing international order to erode and stating that international institutions like the G7 are "indispensable for preventing conflicts.”

Some concerns listed by the bishops are the protecting of civilians and promoting justice among people. The document urges G7 powers to “strengthen these institutions so that they might better serve the global common good.” The bishops also emphasized safeguarding religious freedom and protecting religious minorities, families, prisoners of war, and the displaced.

“Churches and religious communities can help rebuild trust, accompany those wounded by war, and create the social and moral conditions for lasting peace,” the bishops wrote. “Through its local presence, humanitarian commitment, and capacity to build bridges among peoples, the Catholic Church remains a credible partner for peace and dialogue.”

Development and technology

The bishops encouraged G7 countries to work in solidarity with the Global South and took issue with reductions in development assistance for developing countries.

“As humanitarian needs grow across the world, millions of people are seeing their access to food, healthcare, education, and protection eroded,” they wrote. “We call upon G7 states to renew their commitment to international solidarity and to an equitable partnership with countries of the Global South. Development policies must focus above all on poverty reduction, food security, access to education and healthcare, and the protection of the most vulnerable.”

The bishops added that industrialized countries should ensure economic partnerships with other nations are grounded in equity, the rights of local populations, decent working conditions, and environmental protections.

With respect to AI, the bishops recommended global rules that ensure the innovation serves the human person and the common good, and referenced Pope Leo XIV’s guidance on the subject in his encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, in which the Holy Father called to “disarm AI.”

“To disarm means discrediting the assumption that technical power automatically confers the right to govern,” Leo wrote, which was quoted in the bishops’ letter to the G7 leaders.

“To disarm does not mean rejecting technology but preventing it from dominating humanity,” the pope added. “It means freeing technology from monopolistic control and opening it to discussion and debate, therefore making it human-friendly and restoring it to the plurality of human cultures and ways of life. … Merely regulating it is insufficient; it must be disarmed, welcoming, and accessible.”

The bishops wrote that AI “must remain under human control and be governed by clear ethical principles.” They said it must be directed toward the common good, justice, transparency, and inclusion. They added that it “must never lead to the dehumanization of social relations or to the automation of decisions that affect human life.”

Shared responsibilities

The bishops wrote that G7 powers should assume a shared responsibility toward creation and displaced people.

This includes environmental concerns, such as climate change. The bishops urged joint efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emission and expand renewable energy. Such protection, they said, “is not only an environmental necessity but also a requirement of justice.”

"The most industrialized countries bear a special responsibility in view of their level of resource consumption and their historical contribution to global warming,” they wrote.

Additionally, the bishops emphasized the shared responsibility for migrants and refugees, who “must always be received with dignity, while recognizing the legitimate responsibility of states to safeguard the common good.”

“Those forced to flee war, persecution, poverty, or climate disasters cannot be regarded as a threat,” they wrote. “They are our brothers and sisters in humanity.”

The bishops noted that G7 countries bear “a particular responsibility for the global common good.”

“The decisions taken by member states have direct consequences for peoples, for international stability, and for the future of younger generations,” the bishops wrote.

“Burning crosses, dramatic expressions of hatred designed to terrorize, were once sadly commonplace in our country,” Cupich said in a June 10 statement. “Yesterday, we were reminded that the sickness of spirit they symbolize exists not only in the pages of history but in our present day. Seeing a burning cross in one of Chicago’s most-visited public parks was shocking but not surprising.”

Cupich’s statement comes after video footage circulated online of a large cross being burned along a sidewalk in the Loop at Grant Park.

According to a June 11 community alert from the Chicago Police Department (CPD), the incident took place at 2:38 p.m. on June 9. CPD also released images of the suspect, a shirtless male with a black backpack, fleeing the scene.

CPD confirmed to EWTN the suspect has not yet been apprehended.

“We condemn in the strongest terms this action and affirm that hate has no place in our country, our city, and our hearts,” Cupich said. “We pledge to work with our city’s faith and community leaders to redouble our efforts to share the Gospel message that we are all children of God, made in his image.”

The proposed Safe Social Media Act, introduced in the House of Commons on Wednesday by Culture Minister Marc Miller, would ban children under the age of 16 from creating social media accounts on Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook, and similar platforms.

The move comes amid mounting evidence linking heavy social media use to increased rates of anxiety, depression, sleep disruption, and distorted body image among youth.

Canadian officials cited studies showing that platforms designed to maximize engagement often exploit the vulnerabilities of adolescent brains still developing impulse control and judgment.

The legislation requires platforms to implement age-verification systems and to delete any existing accounts belonging to users under 16.

Under the bill, social media companies would be required to conduct risk assessments and take concrete steps to mitigate harms to young users. This includes limiting addictive design features such as infinite scrolling, autoplay videos, and personalized algorithmic feeds that target children.

Platforms must also provide robust tools for reporting harmful content, blocking users, and protecting against material that promotes self-harm, eating disorders, bullying, hate speech, violence, or the sexual exploitation of minors.

The legislation would create a new Digital Safety Commission of Canada to oversee enforcement. Companies that fail to comply could face significant penalties of up to $10 million or 3% of their global annual revenue, whichever is greater.

Adult-oriented websites, particularly pornography services, would face even stricter rules with very limited exemptions. The bill excludes gaming platforms such as Roblox and AI chatbots from the under-16 ban but still requires them to meet certain safety standards.

The Safe Social Media Act also mandates that platforms submit and publicly disclose detailed “Digital Safety Plans” outlining how they will protect young users.

The Canadian proposal aligns with a broader global trend of governments stepping in to protect children. Last year, Australia became the first country to ban social media for teens under 16, though the law’s effects remain mixed.

Australia’s online safety regulator, eSafety, reported in March that while social media platforms had taken “some steps” to comply with the country’s ban on users under 16, a “substantial number of children” still retained accounts on the restricted platforms.

The compliance update revealed that approximately 4.7 million under-16 accounts were removed or restricted by mid-January, with another 310,000 blocked in the following weeks.

However, eSafety expressed concerns over ongoing gaps, including weak age verification, poor reporting systems, and practices that allowed children to repeatedly attempt age checks until they gained access. The regulator is now investigating major platforms — including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube — for potential noncompliance.

Meanwhile, earlier this year, both France’s National Assembly and the Senate approved a bill that would prohibit children under 15 from using major social media platforms. The measure also includes a ban on mobile phones in high schools. If finalized, the restrictions are expected to take effect in September, making France the first European country to impose such limits.

France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, said last year he would push for a ban on social media for children under age 15 after “a senseless wave of violence” he attributed to social media use that included the stabbing of a teacher by a 14-year-old boy.

“I am banning social media for children under 15,” Macron wrote in a social media post on June 10, 2025. “Platforms have the ability to verify age. Do it.”

Closer to home, Catholic leaders in the United States are voicing strong support for similar protections. The bishops of Minnesota recently praised state legislation limiting social media’s addictive features for children under 16, including infinite scrolling, algorithmic feeds, and push notifications.

In a statement, the bishops highlighted how such measures promote healthier habits and allow young people to engage more fully with family, faith, and real-world relationships.

“These restrictions will mean happier kids who are less anxious, less worried, and more focused on the present moment,” a spokesperson for the Minnesota Catholic Conference noted.

The Holy Father offered the commendation to participants at the 2026 Canterbury Medal Gala, an annual event held by the nonprofit law firm that represents clients defending their religious liberty in court. The message, dated June 4, was read by Philadelphia Archbishop Nelson Pérez.

Leo noted that the defense of “religious liberty as an integral part of upholding dignity” acquires “particular significance as the United States of America prepares to celebrate the 250th anniversary of its foundation.”

Reflecting on the history of his American homeland, Leo said: “Indeed, we can recognize in the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence an expression of the truth regarding the human person. Namely, the innate dignity of every man and woman, created by God in his own image and likeness, and the rights that stem therefrom.”

Speaking directly on the efforts of the Becket Fund, the pope said the organization works “to safeguard the dignity of the human person” by “ensuring that all men and women are free to act in conformity with the dictates or their conscience and to practice their faith openly, without coercion or fear.”

“As you continue this noble task, it is my hope that every individual will embark upon the pursuit of truth sincerely and without fear,” the Holy Father said, adding that “the Scriptures tell us that truth itself has a name, Jesus Christ (cf. Jn 14:6), and that God will undoubtedly aid those who search for him with all their heart (cf. Jer 29:13).”

2026 Canterbury medalist

At the event, William P. “Bill” Mumma — the longtime board chairman of the Becket Fund and former CEO of Mitsubishi UFJ Securities, Japan’s largest financial services company — was awarded Becket’s highest honor, the Canterbury Medal.

The medal draws its name from one of history’s most dramatic religious liberty standoffs, that which occurred between Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas à Becket, the law firm’s namesake, and King Henry II of England.

Mumma served as the Becket Fund’s full-time volunteer CEO from 2011 to 2021 and continues to serve as the organization’s board chairman. In his remarks accepting the award, Mumma said that religious liberty "has to be defended.”

“The last 50 years have taught us not to take it for granted,” Mumma continued. “I urge all of you to redouble your commitment to this noble cause.”

Past Canterbury medalists include the late Nobel Peace laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel; Cuban poet and former political prisoner Armando Valladares; Orthodox rabbi of the oldest Jewish congregation in the U.S., Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik; First Counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints President Dallin H. Oaks; and 62nd Chaplain of the U.S. Senate Barry C. Black.

With Philadelphia’s Independence Hall forming a backdrop as he spoke to the gathering at the National Constitution Center, current Becket President and CEO Mark Rienzi noted that “religious freedom is at the heart of the American story.” 

For 250 years, Rienzi said, U.S. religious freedom “has enabled people of differing and conflicting beliefs to live together in peace."

“Becket exists to ensure that each new generation of Americans can write its own chapter of that story. We look forward to carrying our mission into America’s next 250 years,” he said.

The Holy Father spent time in Madrid and Barcelona before finishing his visit in the Canary Islands off the coast of Europe. Throughout his weekʼs trip he also met with civic groups, including those that minister to migrants, and visited a prison in Barcelona.

The visit finished with the papal plane suffering a malfunction forcing the pope to deboard before takeoff. He ultimately left for Rome on the king of Spainʼs personal airplane after the king personally offered him the use of the aircraft.

Hereʼs a look at the popeʼs final days in Spain before his return to the Holy See:

Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo of Kidapawan, spiritual director of the Our Lady of Guadalupe Philippine Pilgrimage, led the reception and blessing of the pilgrim image at Malacañang Palace in Manila in the presence of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.; first lady Liza Araneta-Marcos; papal nuncio Archbishop Charles Brown; Manila Mayor Francisco Domagoso; and other government officials, clergy, and lay faithful.

Marcos and the first lady hosted the reception and blessing, formally launching the Philippine Pilgrimage 2026.

The occasion highlighted the Philippines’ deep Marian devotion and its participation in the Novena Intercontinental Guadalupana, a worldwide spiritual preparation for the 500th anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe to St. Juan Diego. She appeared on four occasions on Dec. 9–12, 1531: three at the hill of Tepeyac and a fourth before Juan de Zumárraga, then the first bishop of Mexico and a Spanish Basque Franciscan prelate.

The replica of the Mexican Marian icon and an image of St. Juan Diego, a Nahua peasant and Marian visionary, are considered a source of inspiration for many around the world.

The pilgrimage forms part of a global initiative promoting prayer, evangelization, and unity among Catholics across different nations.

The image, a replica of the original enshrined at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, embarks on a pilgrimage across the Philippines, visiting more than 50 churches.

In a social media video, Bagaforo invited the faithful to join the nationwide pilgrimage, calling it a “moment of grace” and an opportunity to pray for hope, peace, and blessings amid today’s challenges.

Cardinal Jose Advincula, archbishop of Manila, will hold a special Mass at the Manila Cathedral on June 13, formally opening the pilgrimage, before the image visits more than 50 cathedrals, shrines, and parish churches across the country.

The image will also be present during the 132nd Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) Plenary in Ozamiz City on July 3–10 before its permanent installation at the Manila Cathedral in December.

Bishops call for a spiritual journey

In a June 3 pastoral letter, the CBCP urged Catholics to take part in the spiritual journey and renew their relationship with Jesus through Mary.

According to Archbishop Gilbert Garcera of Lipa, the CBCP president, churches hosting the pilgrimage will recite the Act of Consecration and Entrustment to Our Lady of Guadalupe during all Masses while the image is present.

“During this pilgrimage, the Act of Consecration and Entrustment to Our Lady of Guadalupe shall be recited in all Masses in the churches to be visited,” he said.

The pilgrimage hopes to inspire Filipinos to come closer to Jesus and to deepen their devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

“This visit aims to bring us, Filipinos, closer to Our Lord Jesus Christ and our Blessed Mother,” Garcera said.

Advincula named the pilgrim image “Madre Peregrina de Guadalupe,” or “Pilgrim Mother of Guadalupe,” underscoring Mary’s role as a mother who journeys with the faithful.

According to event organizers, the pilgrimage would deepen devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe and prepare Filipino Catholics for the 500th anniversary celebrations in 2031.

The Philippines is home to more than 93 million Catholics and has the third-largest Catholic population globally, after Brazil and Mexico. In the Asian context, it is the largest Catholic nation, followed by East Timor.

Pope Pius XI declared Our Lady of Guadalupe the “Celestial Patroness of the Philippines” in 1935. In 2001, the CBCP declared Dec. 12 an obligatory memorial, and in 2002 it recognized her as the “Pro-Life Patroness of the Philippines” in response to the global movement to entrust the plight of unborn children to her intercession.

“I am glad to know that the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe is on a pilgrimage in the Philippines. It will strengthen people’s prayer, Marian devotion, and spiritual renewal,” Janice Castro, an elementary school teacher from the Diocese of Cubao, told EWTN News.

“Cherish your priestly fraternity: Seek one another, listen to one another, and support one another. The priest who isolates himself slowly fades away; the priest who walks alongside his brothers grows,” the pope said in the June 12 message.

The World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests takes place every year on the solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, which in 2026 is celebrated on June 12.

The Sacred Heart, Leo said, “is the ‘place’ where holiness is manifested as closeness and tenderness. The priest’s holiness, then, is embodied in humble and courageous nearness, in being all things to all people, and in keeping the gate of the sheepfold open so that many can enter and find pasture and rest.”

“For this reason, we are called to a relationship with God that does not distance us from others but brings us closer to everyone — shaping patient and tender hearts, capable of closeness, compassion, and listening,” he added.

Pope Leo said it is “through the union of our imperfect hearts with Jesus’ pierced heart, our journey toward holiness is fulfilled. It is no longer we who live but Christ who lives in us. Such holiness cannot be lived in isolation.”

Reflecting on the mystery of the Lord’s pierced heart, the Holy Father emphasized that holiness is not an abstract ideal but a share in God’s own holiness.

“When he calls us to be holy as he is holy, he indicates that the path we must follow involves being fashioned after his own heart. And for us, dear brothers, this call is particularly radical,” he said, addressing his fellow priests.

The holiness asked of priests, Leo continued, is of a trustful abandonment transformed by the Holy Spirit: “Yet it is precisely here that the great paradox of our priestly life emerges. We are called to share in God’s own holiness, but we carry this treasure in earthen vessels.”

Reflecting on the imperfect, human side of the priesthood, the pontiff noted that “we are limited and imperfect, often weak and weary, and at times wounded. How can such a vulnerable human heart respond to such a high calling? The priest lives this tension. Yet at the same time, he must recognize that he finds peace in the open side of the Lord Jesus.”

“Our humanity is not compartmentalized,” he said. “Prayer, ministry, relationships, weariness, joys, and failures — even time or love that apparently seems wasted — all become privileged places where God reveals himself and his infinite love.”

He urged priests to renew the grace of their ordination through the daily celebration of the Eucharist, prayer, meditation on the word of God, and humble service to others.

“A priestly life that is steady and configured to Jesus’ heart is a credible sign of unity, peace, and mercy. Thus, in an age marked by division and fear, we must be builders of peace and witnesses of the tenderness of the Good Shepherd who knows how to gather the scattered and heal the wounded,” he said.

In his message, Pope Leo invited priests to daily renew their “Here I am” before Christ’s pierced heart and to remember the words of the Curé of Ars, St. John Vianney, who loved to say that “the priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus.”

“This love is a pledge and a guarantee that, if we surrender and offer ourselves completely, nothing of us will be lost,” the pontiff said.

He did so in Tenerife, speaking against human traffickers: those who charge staggering sums to help migrants cross the ocean and those who enslave them mercilessly.

“For every life lost, every family deceived, every body subjugated, every woman threatened, every worker exploited, you will have to appear before divine justice,” the pope said.

“Break those chains and free those you hold in bondage,” he added. “Return what has been taken and make amends as much as you can.”

Then, in a cry reminiscent of Pope Francis’ 2014 appeal to members of the Mafia, Leo declared: “Stop. Repent.”

To those who profit from the suffering of others, he also left open the door of return to God.

“Repent while there is still time,” he said, “for God’s mercy can reach even the most hardened sinner, but it enters only through the narrow gate of truth, justice, and conversion.”

The remarks came during the pope’s meeting with organizations working for the integration of migrants in the Plaza del Cristo de La Laguna, in the capital of Tenerife, before some 4,000 people.

In this final day of his trip, Leo held a second encounter focused on the reality of migration, underscoring the importance he has given the issue throughout his visit.

The pope offered several keys for migrants so they do “not ... remain forever trapped in the role of victims.”

Speaking to “dear migrant brothers and sisters,” Leo said that part of their journey is “to open yourselves with trust to the community that welcomes you, to learn its language, to respect its laws, to get to know its customs, to participate in communal life, and to offer your gifts with gratitude.”

He also addressed Catholics directly, as he had done the previous day in Las Palmas, asking “that integration not be reduced to a social undertaking, however necessary that may be.”

The pope warned of what he called a “silent shipwreck” that can take place after migrants arrive: “Being left alone in a city, without a voice, without ties, work, or a sense of security, and exposed to those who take advantage of vulnerability.”

“Integration means preventing that second shipwreck,” he said.

Leo said integration must take place “without diluting their identity or closing their hearts to the encounter,” adding that “every welcoming society has responsibilities toward those who arrive,” while those who are welcomed also discover that dignity “flourishes when it becomes a duty and a sincere desire to build together with others.”

Before the final Mass that brought his apostolic journey to Spain to a close, the pope asked the faithful not to forget the many migrants from Latin America, the Philippines, and other parts of the world who are already a living part of the community.

“Let yourselves also be evangelized by them,” he said, “for they surely bring with them gifts that Providence has wished to send to you through those who are integrating.”

His predecessor, Pope Francis, summarized the Church’s approach to migration in four verbs: welcome, protect, promote, and integrate. Leo made that vision his own, insisting that integration cannot be reduced to a merely social task.

“Those who come to our parishes need bread, shelter, language assistance, work, and protection,” he said. “They also must find a community capable of offering paths to knowing Jesus Christ through the witness of life and word, while always respecting the conscience and freedom of each person.”

During the encounter, the pope listened to the testimony of Mbacke, a young Senegalese man who arrived as a child, completely alone.

“I have learned alongside my classmates in all the training activities we have: Spanish, cooking, agriculture, masonry, carpentry, repairs, computer skills, sewing, etc., and in my particular case, basic training in Spain,” he said, thanking the Canary Islands’ El Buen Samaritano Foundation, linked to the Parish of Santa María de Añaza in Tenerife, for giving him a family.

“Thank you for receiving young people like me who arrive alone, without family, and who are only looking for an opportunity to start over,” he added.

His testimony put a face on the drama of migrant minors who cross borders without a parent or guardian. For some who have no family, turning 18 can mean “only the street,” once they leave Spain’s child protection system.

Among those waiting for the pope on this final day was Mamadu, 33, originally from Mali. He arrived 15 years ago, still a child. Today he is fully integrated and speaks Spanish perfectly. He told ACI Prensa that he wanted to see the pope and give him a T-shirt he displayed proudly.

Leo also heard from a Venezuelan migrant priest who has served for seven years on El Hierro, the westernmost and southernmost island in the Canary archipelago. The island, the smallest and least populated of the main Canary Islands, has recorded some of the highest migrant arrivals in recent months: Since March 2023, it has received 50,244 immigrants despite having just 11,600 residents.

“There were days and nights when I wanted to stay in the comfort of my house, but I thought: What would Our Lord do?” the priest said. “And I renewed the service being asked of me. And there, amid pain and suffering, there was always some reason for hope, some smile, some grateful face that gave more than enough reason for our commitment.”

The Holy Father also listened to harrowing accounts, including that of Khalid Allad, a 24-year-old Moroccan who, like many others, reached the Canary coast in 2020.

“My journey in a small boat was not easy at all,” he said. “I tried twice. In the first attempt, 20 people died.”

Although his father forbade him from trying again, he set out a year later.

“Although I was afraid, I decided to leave again, this time without his permission,” he said.

Once in Tenerife, he began a new life thanks to the Don Bosco Foundation.

“They offered me a place to live, taught me Spanish, helped me read and write better, and gave me the confidence to move forward,” he said through tears.

Thalia Johana Saldarriaga Diago, a Colombian immigrant who, thanks to Caritas, not only recovered her independence but also became a volunteer helping others in similar situations, also spoke at the meeting.

“In this way,” the pope said, recalling her witness, “yesterday’s stranger can be today’s brother and neighbor.”

The encounter took place as the European Union entered a new and stricter era in migration policy. The Migration and Asylum Pact, the result of years of negotiations among member states, officially entered into force Friday, promising to strengthen control of external borders, speed up asylum procedures, and increase returns of people without the right to remain in EU territory.

After this effort to put a human face on the drama of migration, and before returning to Rome with an expected delay, the pope celebrated a large outdoor Mass at the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

In his homily, Leo cited Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’ as he reflected on Tenerife’s “tourist vocation” and the island’s contact with visitors from many countries.

“How important it is, especially for those who allow themselves to be guided by the Gospel, not to reduce everything to commerce and profit,” the pope said.

Spain is a global tourism powerhouse, but its success has caused growing tensions in destinations like those the pope visited this week: Madrid, Barcelona, Las Palmas, and Tenerife.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Diouf was among the migrants who greeted Pope Leo XIV at the Las Raíces reception center in Tenerife, where some 700 sub-Saharan African migrants — all adult men — are currently housed. The center is located in the humid Las Raíces area of Tenerife, a eucalyptus-filled area about 3,300 feet above sea level.

The number is relatively low compared with the hardest years of the “cayuco” crisis, especially at the end of 2024, when the center received between 2,000 and 3,000 migrants amid overcrowding and widely reported tensions.

Most of those currently housed at the center come from Senegal, Gambia, and Mali, and on average spend about three months there before being transferred to mainland Spain.

They arrive exhausted after having spent up to 72 hours in police custody for identification and registration procedures.

“We come from countries where poverty, violence, war, persecution, and lack of opportunity forced us to leave,” Diouf said.

Las Raíces opened in 2021 in response to the 2020 crisis, when more than 23,000 migrants arrived on the coasts of the Canary Islands.

Now those numbers have fallen sharply, and the situation is very different.

“Our work is to offer them an initial welcome that is dignified, humane, and organized at an especially difficult moment, immediately after their arrival by sea,” Navarro Atiénzar, regional director of Accem, the nongovernmental organization that manages the Las Raíces Reception Center for Refugees and Immigrants in Tenerife, told Pope Leo.

The pope arrived in Tenerife early in the morning from Las Palmas and went to the large camp set up inside a former rural military barracks after six marathon days in Spain that had taken him to Barcelona and Madrid.

He listened to those housed there as a father listens when a child opens his heart to recount a trauma.

One young Nigerian man said that crossing the ocean to the Canary Islands means facing hunger, cold, desperation, and often death.

“Many brothers and sisters lost their lives at sea, and others continue to suffer in silence, victims of mafias that take advantage of need and human suffering,” he said.

He also made a plea for humanity: “May we not be seen only as migrants, numbers, or documents but as people with stories, dreams, families, and hope.”

“We do not ask for privileges. We do not ask for compassion. We ask for respect, humanity, and the opportunity to live with dignity,” he said.

Among those present was also Aliu Ceesay, a 16-year-old Gambian who arrived in the Canary Islands just one month ago in an irregular boat after a difficult journey from his home country. Like many other migrant minors, his goal is to find work so he can help support his family.

Amid an experience marked by uncertainty, Aliu has followed Pope Leo XIV with interest online. The teenager said he wanted to see him in person and was struck by the pope’s message.

“I have been following him on the internet and wanted to see him. He is very kind, very good,” Aliu said. He also emphasized the pope’s inclusive spirit: “He does not care if we are black or white, Muslim or Christian. He wants to help us.”

More than 54,000 people have passed through Las Raíces. Behind each one is a story, a difficult journey, and, above all, a hope.

In his address, Pope Leo repeated the message he gave on the first day he set foot in Las Palmas: “God’s love knows no borders, makes no distinctions, is given to all and brings us together in unity.”

“As I look at your faces and listen to your stories, I also think of your hearts — wounded by so many difficulties, yet also comforted by the love you have received from other open, generous, and merciful hearts,” the pope said.

“Christ’s heart suffered and was pierced out of love, and he was also comforted by compassionate people who eased his pain,” he added.

Missionary saints and migrants

The pope dedicated part of his address to missionary saints such as St. Brother Peter of St. Joseph de Betancur and St. José de Anchieta, who set out from the Canary Islands to proclaim the Gospel in the Americas, opening new missionary horizons.

“They too were migrants who ventured into the unknown, carrying faith, hope, and charity as their greatest possessions,” he said.

The pope called for “responsibility” with an eye toward future generations, to whom, he said, “we wish to bequeath the heritage of a civilization of love.”

“Migration will play an important role in this,” he said, because it “can become an opportunity for encounter and mutual enrichment among peoples.”

“Dear brothers and sisters, in a sense, all of us are migrants, for we are all pilgrims on our way to our heavenly homeland,” he said. “Let us help make this journey more humane for everyone by contributing in whatever way we can.”

The pope said the name of the center, Las Raíces — “the roots” — had caught his attention. He recalled that Pope Francis, “who so longed to be with you,” often used the image of roots “to emphasize the importance of remembering our origins, staying united, and trusting in the Lord.”

“May this image of roots also help you to be firmly rooted in the Lord, so that no storm may drive you away from his presence, which strengthens and gives life,” Pope Leo said.

At the end of his address, the pope told those gathered: “Dear friends, I carry you in my heart and will remember you in my prayers. May God bless you, your families, and all who do good to you. And may the Blessed Virgin Mary, consolation of migrants, always accompany and assist you with her maternal protection.”

During the meeting, when the pope announced that he would speak in French and English, many migrants responded with loud applause.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Why do Catholics venerate the Sacred Heart of Jesus?

“Devoting ourselves to the Sacred Heart is one of the easiest, fastest, and most pleasant ways to grow in holiness,” Father Ambrose Dobrozsi, a priest of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, told EWTN News.

“Many saints have done many things to grow close to Jesus Christ, but no way is more sure and more pleasing to him than to consecrate ourselves to his Sacred Heart through the Immaculate Heart of his mother,” he added.

Where does devotion to the Sacred Heart come from?

The story behind the modern iteration of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, however, begins on Dec. 27, 1673, at a monastery belonging to the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary (Visitandines) in eastern France.

There, a nun named Sister Margaret Mary Alacoque began experiencing visions of the Sacred Heart. Those visions continued for 18 months.

During her visions, Sister Margaret Mary learned ways to venerate the Sacred Heart of Christ.

These devotions included the concept of a Holy Hour on Thursdays, the creation of the feast of the Sacred Heart after Corpus Christi, and the reception of the Eucharist on the first Friday of every month.

As with many mystics, many people were skeptical of Sister Margaret Mary’s claims of visions. Her confessor, the then-Father Claude La Colombière, SJ, (now St. Claude La Colombière) believed her, and eventually, the mother superior of her community began to believe as well.

The first feast of the Sacred Heart was celebrated privately at the monastery in 1686.

Sister Margaret Mary died in 1690 and was canonized by Pope Benedict XV on May 13, 1920.

Initially, the Vatican was hesitant to declare a feast of the Sacred Heart but did allow the Visitandines to celebrate a Mass special to this day. As the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus spread throughout France, the Vatican granted the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to France in 1765.

In 1856, after much lobbying by French bishops on behalf of the feast of the Sacred Heart, Pope Pius IX designated the Friday following the feast of Corpus Christi as the feast of the Sacred Heart for the entire Latin-rite Church.

On May 25, 1899, Pope Leo XIII promulgated the encyclical Annum Sacrum, which consecrated the entire world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This encyclical was written after a nun, Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart, sent two letters to the pope requesting that he consecrate the world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Sister Mary of the Divine Heart wrote the letters, she said, after Jesus made the request to her. Pope Leo XIII called this encyclical and the subsequent consecration the “great act” of his papacy.

“Finally, there is one motive which we are unwilling to pass over in silence, personal to ourselves it is true, but still good and weighty, which moves us to undertake this celebration. God, the author of every good, not long ago preserved our life by curing us of a dangerous disease,” Leo XIII wrote.

“We now wish, by this increase of the honor paid to the Sacred Heart, that the memory of this great mercy should be brought prominently forward, and our gratitude be publicly acknowledged.”

But why consecrate the world — or anyone — to the Sacred Heart of Jesus? What does that mean?

Pope Leo XIII described the act of consecration as one that will “establish or draw tighter the bonds which naturally connect public affairs with God,” which was especially needed for the world at the turn of the century.

“While many see religion as unnecessary in a world with more and more technology and resources, swearing allegiance and consecrating ourselves to Christ the King in his Sacred Heart shows that humanity still needs and longs for a compassionate and all-powerful God,” Dobrozsi, the Cincinnati priest, told EWTN News.

“In a society where some live in decadence and prideful luxury while others are destitute, the burning love of Christ’s Sacred Heart reminds us that the fires of his mercy are also fires of justice. And when the culture, and so many of us, feel hopeless that we could ever change after falling to sins of the flesh, the heart of Our Lord beats with powerful love, eternally declaring that true charity has triumphed over sin and death,” he added.

These are the promises the Sacred Heart of Jesus made to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque:

1. I will give them all the graces necessary for their state of life.
2. I will give peace in their families.
3. I will console them in all their troubles.
4. I will be their refuge in life and especially in death.
5. I will abundantly bless all their undertakings.
6. Sinners shall find in my heart the source and infinite ocean of mercy.
7. Tepid souls shall become fervent.
8. Fervent souls shall rise speedily to great perfection.
9. I will bless those places wherein the image of my Sacred Heart shall be exposed and venerated.
10. I will give to priests the power to touch the most hardened hearts.
11. Persons who propagate this devotion shall have their names eternally written in my heart.
12. In the excess of the mercy of my heart, I promise you that my all powerful love will grant to all those who will receive Communion on the first Fridays, for nine consecutive months, the grace of final repentance: They will not die in my displeasure, nor without receiving the sacraments; and my heart will be their secure refuge in that last hour.

This story was first published on EWTN News on June 19, 2020, and has been updated.

“We gather not first to celebrate ourselves, but to consecrate, to entrust… and to place our whole nation into the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ,” Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore said in his homily.

The liturgy took place on the final day of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ spring plenary meeting, during the nation’s 250th anniversary year.

In the hours leading up to the Mass, bishops concluded their assembly with reflections that centered on the meaning of devotion to the Sacred Heart in contemporary life.

Archbishop Alexander Sample of Portland, Oregon, described the devotion as a response to modern forms of spiritual strain, including loneliness and the pressure to measure personal worth by achievement or failure. Drawing on Pope Francis’ encyclical Dilexit Nos, he said contemporary culture often unsettles identity itself.

“The Sacred Heart of Jesus answers that question decisively,” Sample said. “When we know that we are loved by Christ, we no longer need to build our identity on achievements or failures.”

He added that devotion to the Sacred Heart offers freedom from fear, self-centeredness, despair, and superficiality while also calling believers to bring that love into public life. “The world needs witnesses whose hearts resemble the heart of Jesus,” he said.

Archbishop Shelton Fabre of Louisville, Kentucky, reflected on the Sacred Heart as a source of communion within the Church, emphasizing that unity within the Church is not built on shared preference but on divine initiative and grace. He described the Church as “a brotherhood not created by personal preference, affinity, or ideology but by the providence of God and the will of Jesus Christ.”

Archbishop Bernard Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis pointed to the devotion as a path of interior renewal grounded in prayer and sacramental life. Citing St. John Henry Newman’s phrase “cor ad cor loquitur” (“heart speaks to heart”), he said the deepest encounter with Christ takes place in a personal, interior communion shaped by prayer and the Eucharist.

Shortly before the Mass, bishops spent time in Eucharistic adoration and benediction and venerated the relics of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, the 17th-century French nun whose visions helped spread devotion to the Sacred Heart throughout the Church.

‘The Sacred Heart does not divide’

In his homily, Lori placed the consecration within the broader moral and spiritual tensions of Church and national life, framing it as an act of trust rather than achievement.

“To love as Christ loves is the true measure of Christian discipleship, and it is the true measure of our humanity,” he said.

He acknowledged that this measure has often not been lived out. “Indeed, it has sometimes obscured it almost beyond recognition,” he said, noting the reality of division, sin, and failure alongside moments of grace.

Lori said the act of entrustment is not an assertion of strength but an admission of dependence on mercy. “We cannot come to the heart of Christ while pretending we have no need of his mercy,” he said.

The future, he emphasized, cannot ultimately be secured by human systems or planning. “The future belongs to God, not to political movements, economic forces, or human plans,” he said.

He then described the Sacred Heart as the source of reconciliation itself, not merely a devotional image but a living reality that reshapes those who turn to it.

“The Sacred Heart does not divide, it reconciles,” he said. “It does not harden hearts, it transforms them. It does not simply invite us to receive love; it sends us forth to share it.”

Reflecting on the Gospel, he described Christ as fully entering the human condition with “a heart that has known joy and sorrow, friendship and betrayal, suffering and sacrifice.”

“The Sacred Heart reveals a savior who desires not merely our obedience, but our friendship,” he said. “Not simply our service, but our communion with him.”

That communion, he added, is meant to shape the whole of Christian life. “To remain in his love and allow that love to shape everything we do,” he said.

Prayer of entrustment

Following the homily, Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, led the solemn prayer of consecration, placing the moment within a wider historical and theological tradition.

He recalled that 127 years earlier Pope Leo XIII consecrated the human race to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, presenting the Orlando liturgy as a continuation of that same act of entrustment.

“In that same spirit, we now consecrate the United States of America,” Coakley said, noting that Christ “in his own blood has removed all divisions and made of many nations one people of God.”

He led repeated invocation throughout the prayer: “Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.”

The consecration prayer addressed Christ as the “Desire of Nations and Center of History,” asking him to bless the United States, heal the nation’s wounds, and bring reconciliation, justice, and peace where they are lacking.

It also gave thanks for the blessings bestowed upon the country, affirmed the dignity of every person as a gift from the Creator, and made reparation for offenses against God and human dignity.

The prayer further asked that the Church in the United States be a visible sign of Christ’s presence in the world, pointing “all people to [his] infinite love.” It prayed for peace in families and communities, the reconciliation of broken relationships, the repair of injustices, and the healing of the nation through a deeper union with the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

‘A powerful moment in our national story’

President Donald Trump also issued a message marking the consecration, calling it “a powerful moment in our national story” and linking it to Bishop John Carroll’s post-Revolutionary consecration of the United States to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

He described the moment as part of a broader spiritual inheritance, noting that American history has long been shaped by public expressions of faith.

“As Catholic bishops consecrate the United States of America to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in this 250th year of our independence, we recommit ourselves,” he said, calling for renewed attention to the nation’s “spiritual identity and great civilizational inheritance.”

Trump called the consecration “a poignant reminder that America has always been guided by the loving hand of God,” framing it as both reflection and renewal during the semiquincentennial year.

At the dock of Arguineguín, which six years ago became known as the “dock of shame” due to the abandonment there of thousands of migrants who arrived in precarious boats known as cayucos, the pope threw a wreath of flowers into the sea in memory of those who died during the crossing — just as Pope Francis did on the Italian island of Lampedusa in 2013.

He then prayed before a blue cross made from wooden planks of migrant boats that had reached the Canary Islands and blessed it. Standing nearby was Javier, a volunteer with the Cruz Blanca Foundation, which works directly with migrants there. For him, this papal visit was an opportunity to once again place at the center of public discussion the migration crisis, a human tragedy that he says has become socially normalized.

“The pope gave a strong and moving speech. What he said to the migrants — that they are not numbers or files — really impressed me,” he told ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News.

Later, in the Cathedral of Santa Ana, patroness of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Claretian priest Santiago Cerrato Cáceres gave his testimony to Pope Leo XIV, beginning with a heartfelt confession: “Holy Father, those of us inside here… and all those outside: We love you very much.”

Before him, the bishop of the Canary Islands, José Mazuelos Pérez, described to the pope the pastoral challenges facing the local Church.

Mazuelos lamented the “growing secularization that weakens the sense of God, sacramental practice, and the transmission of the faith in families,” especially among young people, where “the Christian experience is becoming increasingly fragile or marginal.”

In the historic cathedral, whose construction began around the year 1500 at the initiative of the Catholic monarchs, Isabel I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, the pope invited those present to live in unity.

Christians should be “building the Church together, founded on Christ, the ‘cornerstone,’ building up the good, harmonizing our differences, and working united for the good of all,” he said. He also recalled that the life of the Church is built through the communion of its “diverse gifts and ministries.”

Three girls dressed in traditional Canarian costumes welcomed the pope and presented him with a bouquet of flowers. Attentive to every detail despite the fatigue of six days of travel, the pontiff gave them a blessed rosary with a smile.

Referring to the sea that surrounds the islands, he said it represents the difficulties of life, quoting St. Augustine: “No one is able to cross the sea of this world unless born by the cross of Christ.”

He also thanked the Catholics of Las Palmas for the help they give to these “crucified brothers and sisters.”

After meeting with bishops, priests, deacons, religious, seminarians, and pastoral workers, the pope was given a genealogical study by the Cabildo, the local governing body, in the hope of finding Canarian roots in his lineage.

Mass in the Canary Islands

In the afternoon, the pope celebrated his first large public Mass at the Gran Canaria Stadium before nearly 40,000 people. “I also invite you to pray together, during this holy Mass, for our brothers and sisters who have lost their lives at sea,” he said.

This is the charity of God, the Holy Father explained, in which our “vocation to love is rooted, which is not based on calculation, nor on mere sentiment, nor reducible to simple philanthropy, but one that invades our entire being: fire for the soul, light for the mind, an irresistible impulse for freedom, peace, and at the same time torment for the heart, which beats in harmony with other hearts, involving the whole person.”

The gratuitousness of the heart of Christ, the pope said in his homily, translates into “helping each person not only to survive but also to recover trust and resume their path, to grow and fully flourish in their uniqueness, for the good of all.”

A fight against cancer, offered for the pope

These words seemed especially directed at Yolanda, one of the volunteers helping with the papal visit. She has battled cancer for nearly two decades and, despite this — or perhaps precisely because of it — she chose to volunteer.

“I’m waiting for a miracle… we all always hope for that. And we keep living,” she said with serenity.

Her body has endured immense suffering: 10 years after her first diagnosis and treatment, the cancer has returned and has spread throughout her body. Several vertebrae are affected, and she has undergone many treatments.

“I thought it was over. But it wasn’t, and here I am, eager to see the pope. I have offered all my suffering for him,” she said.

The pope’s visit to Las Palmas also mobilized hundreds of young people. Four friends from the Parish of San Isidro in the north of the island said they are living this event as a unique moment of faith and community.

One of them, Talía, 25, was overcome with emotion as she recalled the last several days. “I’ve been following everything on TV and crying my eyes out,” she confessed. For her, the pope’s presence is not just a religious event but a deeply personal experience.

The message that touched her most was the pope’s invitation to young people not to be afraid to form a family and make a lifelong commitment. “The part about forming a family and not being afraid of marriage really spoke to me,” she said.

“Today many people are scared to get married. It’s true that birth rates in Spain have risen, but they should rise a little more,” she added with conviction.

Carlos Díaz Alonso, 20, said it was an “immense joy” to see the pope up close. “A pope has never come to the Canary Islands before, and that fills me with pride.”

“That the leader of the entire Catholic world is among us… it’s something very great,” he added.

Like many young believers, Carlos said he sees faith as a practical guide. “In all the things where I can fail in my daily life, I try to be a better person — and even more so now after seeing the pope,” he said, saying his goal is “to try to attain the grace of God.”

The pope will conclude his trip on Friday in Tenerife.

The bishops discussed engagement with the novena at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) spring plenary session in Orlando, Florida, on June 11. The Intercontinental Guadalupan Novena is a nine-year novena called for by Pope Francis in 2022 that anticipates the fifth centennial of the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe in 2031.

“We will celebrate 500 years since the appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and at the same time, all of the graces we continue even now to experience under her patronage,” Bishop Robert Brennan of Brooklyn, New York, chair of the USCCB Committee on Cultural Diversity in the Church, said at the meeting.

The bishops of Mexico have been preparing for the quincentennial celebration  and in the past year invited the U.S. bishops' conference to participate in the celebration, Brennan said.

“The Mexican bishops are, together with the Vatican through the Pontifical Council for Latin America, calling this a … novena of years,” said Bishop Oscar Cantu of San José, California, chair of the USCCB Subcommittee on Hispanic and Latino Affairs.

“There is much depth to be plumbed for us in our diocese and our communities in these five years that remain for this novena,” he said.

As St. John Paul II said in his apostolic exhortation Ecclesia in America: “In blessed Mary, upon whom we see an impressive example of a perfectly inculturated evangelization.”

“Those are words that should echo in our hearts as we seek to evangelize our own churches in the United States,” Cantu said.

Cantu said bishops should reflect and ask, “How do we take the methodology that Mary used 500 years ago and adapt it to our own needs in the culture … in the 21st century here in the United States?” Cantu said bishops should consider not “only the message but the methodology of Mary.”

Cantu recalled Pope Leo addressed the Theological Congress a few months ago in Mexico City, saying Our Lady of Guadalupe is a lesson in divine pedagogy on the inculturation of saving truth. "‘La Morentia’ manifests Godʼs way of drawing close to his people,” Pope Leo said.

Plan for pastoral activity

Following the pope’s call, “the Subcommittee on Hispanic Latino Affairs is proposing three phases in the coming years for our pastoral activity, and weʼve looked to weave them into already existing activities,” Cantu said.

He proposed “Phase 1 of missionary activity in our dioceses and parishes … would lead up to the Eucharistic congress that is being planned nationally.”

The subcommittee proposed “having a tilma for each diocese that would be given to each ordinary for veneration in the cathedral … or in a designated place by the bishop,” he said. “The tilma can be used as a missionary presence to journey from parish to parish, or to key places in each diocese.”

The tilma would be “an exact replica of the original" and it will be “touched to the original, so it becomes a third-class relic,” Cantu said.

“Phase 2 would include the time from the National Eucharistic Congress to the Jubilee 2031, which will be the 500th anniversary,” he said. It would be initiated by the National Eucharistic Congress and would “then continue pilgrimages from parish to parish using the tilma that would go to each diocese,” he said.

Phase 3 would focus on “jubilee celebrations,” including the “2031 Jubilee to the ... great jubilee of the 2,000 years of redemption,” he said.

Then “we are proposing some kind of national celebration for 2031,” he said. “Weʼre not sure what that would look like,” but “we would certainly like to be in dialogue with the administration of the USCCB in that regard.”

“We already know there will be an international celebration in Mexico City” and “we know that Pope Leo has been invited to participate,” Cantu said. “He has not responded yet … But weʼre pretty sure that he will be there.”

“Martyrdom truly belongs to the heart of Christianity,” said the Swiss prelate, who made his remarks in late May during the annual pilgrimage for persecuted Christians organized by the Swiss branch of ACN at the Einsiedeln Benedictine Abbey.

Koch, who has led the organization since November 2025, when he was appointed by Pope Leo XIV, is also the prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity at the Vatican.

Reaffirming the pontifical foundation’s commitment to helping persecuted Christians, Koch emphasized that martyrdom is not merely a phenomenon of the past but remains “a lived reality for countless Christians around the globe,” ACN reported.

The cardinal also highlighted the witness of the many Christians persecuted worldwide: “Dictators do not distinguish between Catholics, Orthodox, Lutherans, Anglicans, or Protestants.”

“Christians are not persecuted because they belong to a particular church but because of their faith in Christ. The blood that has been shed unites Christians beyond their divisions,” he noted, recalling Pope Francis’ expression the “ecumenism of blood.”

During the pilgrimage, prayers were offered for the victims of persecution and violence in countries such as Iraq, Haiti, Pakistan, and Indonesia.

In January, the organization Open Doors published a report revealing that more than 388 million Christians worldwide suffer persecution and discrimination and that 4,849 were killed between October 2024 and September 2025.

The majority of these crimes took place in Nigeria, where Christian persecution is so severe the U.S. redesignated it as a “country of particular concern” in October 2025.

Of his role as president of ACN, Koch said: “I accepted this mission with great joy because ACN has always been very close to my heart. It is a pontifical foundation that does immense good while constantly reminding us how many parts of the Church are living in situations of great need. To contribute to this mission is something very important to me.”

Donations were also collected during the pilgrimage, which will support ACN projects in the Middle East, particularly in Lebanon, where the pontifical foundation assists displaced families and Catholic schools serving vulnerable communities.

What is ACN?

According to the foundation, ACN supports “the Catholic Church in its evangelization work among the world’s most needy, discriminated-against, and persecuted communities,” funding more than 5,000 pastoral and humanitarian emergency projects across 137 countries.

It has 23 offices worldwide dedicated to raising awareness about the reality facing these Christians, fostering prayer, and fundraising. ACN receives no grants from public institutions.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

The document, also known as “the Dallas Charter,” is a set of procedures originally established in 2002 to address allegations of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy.

The bishops voted on the revised document at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) spring plenary session in Orlando, Florida, on June 11.

The revised charter offers changes and additions but maintains the focus of the original document “to address with transparency and accountability accusations of abuse committed by clergy,” said Bishop Barry Knestout of Richmond, Virginia, chair of the Committee on the Protection of Children and Young People, at the meeting.

The revision process began in 2021 and was done in collaboration with USCCB Committees on the Protection of Children and Young People; Canonical Affairs and Church Governance; Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations; the Office of the General Counsel; and the National Review Board.

The new document offers a glossary “in response to repeated requests from dioceses on having more consistent definitions of various terms,” Knestout said.

“Among the influences drawn from the revisions of Book VI of the Code of Canon Law is the integration of the right of an accused to the presumption of innocence,” and “among the Vos Estis Lux Mundi general provisions is the identification of mandatory Church reporters to complement mandatory reporting to civil authorities,” he said.

The revised version also includes a “clear allowance for electronic letters of suitability” and “an added reference to the protection of information under the seal of the sacrament of penance,” Knestout said.

To ensure the charter focuses on abuse of minors, the Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations will develop a separate document from the charter that will focus on standards of behavior for both clergy and laity with adults, including vulnerable adults.

Vote invites debate among bishops

Prior to voting, the bishops discussed and debated the topic. Some of the bishops inquired about the language within the document and offered proposed changes.

During the discussion, Archbishop Shawn McKnight of Kansas City, Kansas, proposed the bishops “postpone [the] vote until the next meeting,” which will be held in November. Bishop Earl Fernandes of Columbus, Ohio, seconded the motion as the bishops will not “lose very much by delaying” and to ensure his presbyteral council is “sufficiently consulted."

In response to the bishops in favor of the postponement, Knestout said that “there has been quite a bit of consultation already." He added: “I am not sure whatʼs gained through the additional time, other than … an opportunity for some dioceses and presbyterates to look at this again.”

Ultimately the majority voted not to postpone the vote. The bishops then approved the revised charter, with 176 voting yes, 22 voting no, and six abstaining.

Bishops react to approval of charter

“Iʼm coming towards the conclusion of my own term as the chair. I inherited the [charter] process and I wanted to make sure it was concluded,” Knestout told EWTN News following the vote.

“This was … our best effort to make sure it was adapted to some of the developments and circumstances of the present,” he said. “So it can function as the guide for our ongoing work in caring for and making sure that we are providing safeguarding for children and young people within our diocese and do it in a good way that is respectful of the role of priests.”

As the bishops revised the document, it was “necessary for us to do two things as bishops,” Knestout said.

“One is to express our love for, our care for those who are victim survivors, and for all those whoʼve been injured or wounded because of the abuse issue or the crisis, and to assure them that ... with both transparency and accountability, [we] will address the issue and continue to do so in a vigilant way.”

It was also to reflect updates “from the developments that have occurred with canon law over the last eight years to also express in a tangible way our concern for our priests and for their needs” and “to address issues of due process and presumed innocence.”

It “tries to do both in a way thatʼs balanced and thatʼs authentic but is consistent and addresses the issue of the crisis in a way that will bring trust and healing over time,” he said.

While the charter was under review, the Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance “wanted to keep clarity … that the charter is for protection of children and young people,” Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois, chair of the Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance, told EWTN News.

“I think it has worked well over the last 25 years” and “I think these amendments that we had and the changes will be for the better,” he said.

“There were voices, and continue to be voices, that wanted to expand that to include other areas of misconduct, misconduct by bishops, or misconduct by priests with adults,” but there “are other avenues … for doing that,” Paprocki said.

“By not including vulnerable adults in the charter does not say that we donʼt think itʼs important,” but “it should be an entirely separate process, and in my experience it has been good to have that as a separate process.”

“I would also point out that there are some things already in existence,” he said. He detailed Pope Francis’ 2016 moto proprio As a Loving Mother, which “provides for the removal of bishops for different kinds of misconduct,” and Vos Estis Lux Mundi.

In contrast, McKnight told “EWTN News In Depth” it is “a missed opportunity” that the revised charter does not address the abuse of adults, abuses of power, and episcopal misconduct or cover-ups.

McKnight explained that he has previously “made a full proposal” that the bishops “consider not revising the charter but to honor it as an historical document written for its time period.”

“My proposal is that we have an integrated statement of moral commitment, like the charter, that would honor it but be organically related to it” and “encompass these other things that are just as pressing of an issue for our ecclesial life,” he said.

The bishops voting to not postpone the vote was also “a missed opportunity for us to exercise a bit more the approach that our Holy Father, Pope Leo, is asking us to do as bishops,” he said.

While “there has been extensive consultation over several years by conference leadership, the bishops as a body have not been involved in that other than four years ago was the last time we were consulted,” McKnight said.

“So my feeling was that … we should have the opportunity to take and solicit feedback from our own clergy and our own laypeople, and to work more collaboratively and in a spirit of co-responsibility,” he said.

Next steps

Going forward, “the administrative committee has asked the Committee for Clergy Consecrated Life and Vocations … [to] take up the next step of looking at issues of sexual misconduct with adults and with vulnerable adults,” Archbishop Ronald Hicks of New York, chair of the Committee for Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations, told EWTN News.

“Weʼve accepted that as the committee, and we are going to start the work on producing such a document,” he said.

“As we do so … we are going to collaborate with all of the other agencies and those who are involved with sexual misconduct on how we respond as the USCCB within the Church,” Hicks said.

Having separate documents addressing different areas of abuse “is making sure that issues stay in their lane properly,” Hicks said.

The charter looks “at issues of children, minors, preventing abuse, protecting children, and also the accompaniment of victim survivors,” he said. “Then thereʼs opportunities for continued conversation of ‘What does abuse and sexual misconduct look like with adults or vulnerable adults?’”

“Let another document address that so that we are properly making sure we attend to the original outset of what the charter was meant for, which is the protection of children, the prevention of abuse, and the accompaniment of victim survivors,” Hicks said.

Nick Rolovich first sued Washington State University in 2022 after he was dismissed from the school for refusing the vaccination in 2021.

In his lawsuit Rolovich said the university failed to uphold its contract with him when it fired him for refusing the shot. The suit alleged that the firing was not made with “just cause” and that the school violated its contract in dismissing him over the dispute.

In the suit Rolovich said he “drew upon his study of the Bible, personal
prayer, personal experience, personal study, advice from others, advice from a Catholic priest, and the teachings of the Church in concluding that his conscience precluded him from receiving any available COVID-19 vaccine.”

A federal district court ruled against Rolovich in 2025. On June 10 the coach and his legal team appeared before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit arguing the case.

Rolovich in his appeal has received the backing of the U.S. Department of Justice, which filed an amicus brief in the case arguing that the coach had provided “voluminous ... evidence where he asserted, and demonstrated evidence of, a sincere religious belief.”

“That evidence attested to his sincere Catholic beliefs and articulated the conflict between that belief system and his objection to taking the vaccine,” the government said, arguing that the appeals court should reverse the lower courtʼs ruling.

A decision from the appeals court will likely be handed down in the next few months. In a June 10 release, Joseph Davis — a senior attorney at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which is representing the coach in the case — argued that the school fired Rolovich solely because it “disliked his beliefs.”

“Sidelining a coach for standing by his faith betrays the spirit of college athletics and religious freedom,” Davis said, arguing that the court should  "throw the flag on WSU’s unnecessary roughness and protect every American’s right to live and work according to their faith.”

Several Catholics in the U.S. have won high-profile lawsuits in recent years over their refusals to take the COVID-19 vaccine.

The University of Colorado’s medical school in late 2025 agreed to pay out a massive eight-figure settlement after it required multiple staffers, including a Catholic doctor, to obtain the COVID-19 vaccination.

In 2024, meanwhile, Catholic Michigan resident Lisa Domski received $12.7 million in a religious discrimination lawsuit against Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan after it fired her over her refusal to take the vaccine.

The announcement was made on June 8 during the blessing and groundbreaking ceremony for a monument to Our Lady of the Assumption on the capitalʼs waterfront, an event attended by the archbishop of Asunción, Cardinal Adalberto Martínez, and the apostolic nuncio to Paraguay, Archbishop Vincenzo Turturro.

In presenting the project, Peña highlighted the close collaboration between the national government and the Paraguayan Bishops’ Conference.

The president said the restoration concerns not only infrastructure but also serves as a tangible expression of the governmentʼs conviction that “the Catholic Church is not merely part of our history, but part of what we aspire to be as a nation.”

Paraguay’s Catholic University developed the specifications for the project, which has received approval from the National Secretariat of Culture. Itaipú, a hydroelectric power plant jointly owned by Paraguay and Brazil, will finance the project, the president announced.

The Diocese of Asunción was erected in 1547. A previous cathedral was built in 1548 and later replaced by the current cathedral, which was dedicated in 1845.

The work is part of a series of restoration projects of emblematic sites with support from Itaipú and includes buildings such as historic St. Bonaventure church in Yaguarón, the Ñandejára Guasu shrine in Piribebuy, and St. Blaise Cathedral in Ciudad del Este.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Several individual plaintiffs and patients‘ rights groups filed the suits in two U.S. district courts arguing against the states’ respective laws that permit doctors to intentionally cause the death of patients deemed terminally ill, a process known as “medical aid in dying,” a term used in state law.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed the stateʼs assisted suicide bill into law in December 2025, while New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed her own stateʼs bill in February of this year. Both measures have been ardently opposed by Catholic leaders.

The Illinois suit — brought by two plaintiffs and several groups including the Institute for Patients' Rights and the National Council on Independent Living — argues that the stateʼs law removes the “ethical obligation of every physician to do no harm,” nullifying a doctorʼs requirement to, in part, “actively prevent the patient from ... suicide.”

The state is offering suicide as a “reasonable option” for medical patients, the suit argues, and permits suicide to be “encouraged by physicians.”

The New York law, meanwhile — which is scheduled to go into effect in August — presents a “looming threat” to individuals with disabilities, the lawsuit in that state says, in part because it does not require medical officials to “consider a patient’s psychiatric or psychological condition or how that may affect their suicidality” when they ask for help in dying.

The New York suit argues that the law will allow patients to obtain suicide assistance even if they are not suffering from terminal conditions; it further alleges that the law would allow patients to “make themselves eligible” for suicide by “declining available medical treatment.”

Both suits argue that the respective suicide regimes violate state and federal laws, including disability protection laws; the suits further claim that the rules violate equal-protection provisions under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Matt Vallière, president and executive director of the Institute for Patients' Rights, which is a party in both suits, said in a June 11 press release that the laws “create a separate and unequal system in which people with life-threatening disabilities are offered death instead of the support programs everyone else gets.”

The lawsuits “are about affirming that every person has inestimable value and dignity, regardless of age, disability, or prognosis, and ensuring that no one is treated as disposable under the law,” he said.

The filings are the fourth and fifth lawsuits filed as part of a national effort by the initiative End Assisted Suicide, a coalition group targeting state suicide laws on behalf of people with disabilities.

Catholic leaders in both states have sharply criticized the assisted suicide laws. New York Archbishop Ronald Hicks said this month that the stateʼs law would usher in a “new and frightening era” there.

“How long before this so-called ‘compassion’ for the terminally ill evolves from a ‘choice’ into an expectation to kill oneself for all sorts of vulnerable individuals, including those with disabilities, the elderly, and those in impoverished and medically underserved communities?” the prelate said.

The Illinois bishops, meanwhile, described their stateʼs assisted suicide law as a “dangerous and heartbreaking path.”

“Rather than investing in real end-of-life support such as palliative and hospice care, pain management, and family-centered accompaniment, our state has chosen to normalize killing oneself,” the bishops said.

The bill, passed by the state Assembly in March and by the state Senate on June 2, now heads to Gov. Kathy Hochul to be signed into law.

Under the new law, “mother” would be replaced with “gestating parent,” and “father” would be “non-gestating parent.” The words “paternity” and “filiation” would be replaced with “parentage.”

The New York State Catholic Conference issued a memorandum on June 10 noting the bishops’ opposition to the new law, calling it “politically charged” and “unnecessary.”

“The truth is that mothers are mothers, and fathers are fathers,” the bishops wrote. “Words matter, and serious changes to our governing language serve only to wash away the importance of these roles in our society.”

“The yearslong push in our state for abortion on demand and up until birth, the endless millions of dollars funneled to Planned Parenthood, and the legalization of commercial surrogacy have reduced women to vessels and babies to disposable commodities,” they said.

“The Legislature’s final twist of the knife is now apparently removing the term ‘mother’ altogether,” they wrote. “We must reverse course and recognize the importance of both mothers and fathers and pursue changes that truly support women and families.”

The legislation (Senate Bill S9316/Assembly Bill A8382A) targets parts of the Family Court Act and laws having to do with, among others, domestic relations, social services, vehicle and traffic, alcoholic beverage control, child support statutes, and education law.

On June 3, Hochul said she was unfamiliar with the specifics of the bill and would familiarize herself with them before commenting.

“I have until the end of the year to review them and make a decision,” she said, though according to New York state law, now that the Legislature is adjourned, she has 30 days to sign it. If she does not, the bill is automatically pocket-vetoed (it dies and does not become law).

New York’s bishops urged Hochul “to veto this upsetting legislation and uphold the importance of both mothers and fathers in our state,” saying the bill’s “wholesale effect will be to mock the foundation of the family.”

The bishops accused legislators of “political pandering and appeasing a small group of very loud advocates.”

“Erasing the terms ‘mother’ and ‘father’ from our laws will not help struggling New Yorkers afford groceries, access healthcare, or find housing, but it will further muddy what is true and good,” they wrote.

All 38 Senate Democrats who voted supported the measure, while all 22 Republicans voted against it. One Democrat also voted no, joining the unanimous Republican opposition. The bill had previously passed the Assembly 91-46 on March 19, with almost all Democrats voting for it and almost all Republicans against.

According to reporting by Fox5 New York, the state Senate bill passed quickly and with no debate, “shocking” some lawmakers.

While there was a short floor speech last week by Republican State Sen. Dean Murray opposing the bill, the overall process was rushed as the legislative session wrapped up June 10.

“These terms matter,” Murray said. “'Mother' is one of the most sacred titles you can have. As is 'father,' 'grandmother,' grandfather.'”

He continued: “In fact ... the term mother is so important, we have a special day named after it,” referring to Motherʼs Day.

“Of course, now maybe we change that to Gestating Parentʼs Day ... and Fatherʼs Day, just change it to Parentʼs Day.”

Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney, a U.S. Congresswoman who previously served in the New York State Assembly from 2011 to 2016, issued a strong rebuke on social media, stating: “The party that can’t define a woman is now rewriting New York law to erase mothers and fathers. Only in Albany could ‘mom’ and ‘dad’ become too controversial.”

Proponents argue the new language is more inclusive and takes into account special cases that occur when there is no clear biological parent, such as in surrogacy and adoption situations.

Santiago Schnell, the provost of Dartmouth University and a former dean at the University of Notre Dame, told members of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops at their plenary assembly in Orlando that they “could be more vocal” and “more pushy” when it comes to making sure that Catholic universities are faithful to their unique identity.

“I think you are being too respectful,” Schnell told the bishops during his June 10 talk. “You own the word ‘Catholic.’ We academic administrators, we don’t.”

Schnell delivered his pointed observations to the bishops at the end of a presentation on the state of Catholic higher education, during which the Ivy League administrator suggested that Catholic universities have focused more on imitating secular universities and chasing college rankings than on imaginatively living out their distinctive mission.

As a result, Schnell contended, the Church is failing to impact the intellectual and cultural life of the nation and even retain its own members.

“They’re leaving it because we don’t have intellectuals and we don’t have a proper formation in higher education that allows them to articulate effectively their faith, to themselves and others,” said Schnell, a frequent commentator on Catholic higher education and influential advocate for higher education reform in America.

One bishop in attendance described Schnell’s presentation as a “sober moment for the bishops.”

“Hopefully the topic motivated bishops to continue the hard work of calling our universities back to their ecclesial and evangelistic mission,” Bishop Andrew Cozzens of the Diocese of Crookston, Minnesota, told the National Catholic Register, the sister partner of EWTN News.

Schnell’s talk preceded a closed-door conversation on Catholic higher education with the U.S. bishops.

The Dartmouth provost’s talk marked the 25th anniversary of the U.S. implementation of Ex Corde Ecclesiae (“From the Heart of the Church”), the 1990 apostolic constitution in which St. John Paul II outlined the Church’s vision for Catholic universities and their relationship with bishops.

Promulgated amid growing tension between Catholic universities and the Church hierarchy, the document presents Catholic universities as participating directly in the Church’s mission.

While Ex Corde Ecclesiae emphasizes that a Catholic university itself has a responsibility for upholding its Catholic identity, St. John Paul II also taught that the local bishop “has the right and duty to watch over the preservation and strengthening” of the Catholic character of Catholic universities in his diocese.

A ‘Catholic paradox’

In his presentation, Schnell described a widening gap between the Church’s vision for Catholic higher education and universities that increasingly resemble their secular counterparts.

“These days, both Catholic institutions and non-Catholic institutions have become very secularized, and they’re doing this through imitation,” he said.

A major driver, he argued, is college rankings, which reward convergence more than distinction.

“Twenty-five years ago when I moved to the United States, I would give a seminar at the University of Chicago, I would give a seminar at Yale, and I would give a seminar at the University of Michigan, and I knew that I was in those universities,” said Schnell, who was born and raised in Venezuela and completed his graduate work in mathematical biology at England’s Oxford University. “Today … we have become so good imitations of each other that you cannot distinguish the place where you are.”

Catholic universities, he added, have followed the same path, becoming “indifferent and indistinguishable” from secular peers.

That shift, he said, has narrowed higher education’s purpose, reducing it to credentials and job preparation rather than intellectual and moral formation.

“It’s about training for the first job,” he said, critiquing the current status quo. “It’s not training for life.”

Schnell also argued that Catholic institutions are not producing enough intellectual and cultural leaders within the Church. He pointed to Hispanic Catholics, who represent a growing share of the Church but lag in educational attainment, as evidence of what he called a “Catholic paradox”: strong infrastructure paired with uneven outcomes.

He also criticized mission statements that increasingly resemble social-service or advocacy organizations.

“All academic institutions and mission statements, particularly the Catholics, have become what I call ‘NGOs,’” he said, referring to the acronym for nongovernmental organizations. “That’s not the mission of the Catholic university.”

Forming future Church doctors 

When Schnell turned to what he described as the core of his proposal, he pointed to a slide outlining a three-part framework for renewal in Catholic higher education focused on forming the Church’s next generation of intellectual leaders, clarifying the role of bishops in university life and strengthening the formative culture of Catholic campuses.

“Our mission shouldn’t be creating individuals who go to the workplace,” Schnell said. Instead, he said that Catholic universities should form scholars who have the potential to be doctors of the Church, i.e., saints who have made significant contributions to theology or doctrine. “That’s the primary mission of a Catholic institution.” 

Schnell said Catholic identity is sustained not only through governance but also through campus culture — what St. John Henry Newman called the “genius loci,” or spirit of place, formed in daily life.

“It’s the conversations that the students have while they are walking to their dorms or they are walking to the chapel,” he said. “It’s the conversations that they’re having about their faith.”

Schnell warned that Catholic character can erode when faculty and administrators do not actively share the Church’s mission.

In some cases, he said, universities have prioritized conformity over fidelity to that mission. Schnell recalled declining an invitation to lead a Catholic university after learning that only about 12% of its faculty and fewer than a quarter of its students were Catholic.

“According to your definition, that’s no longer a Catholic institution,” he recalled his wife telling him.

As the presentation concluded, Schnell returned briefly to the role of bishops in helping to shape the character of Catholic universities.

“What is the participation of the bishops?” he said, telling the gathered Church leaders that the members of a Catholic university were “their flock.”

“They’re not mine. They’re not going to be the flock of any academic administrator.”

This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, the sister partner of EWTN News, and has been adapted by EWTN News.

The conference, held under the theme “Synodality: Sensitivity, Synergy, and Spirituality. All for Caritas — Solidarity,” ran from June 9–11.

“We cannot close our eyes to the reality of the poor. Today, our world is wounded. Humanity cries out. Sometimes people become indifferent to the suffering of others. Caritas is the Gospel made visible through compassion, closeness, and services,” Kikuchi said in his inaugural address.

The Regional Conference and Partners‘ Forum serves as the premier governance and collaborative gathering for the Catholic Churchʼs humanitarian network in the region. It brought together presidents, directors, and senior staff from more than 25 Caritas member organizations across Asia, along with global partners including Catholic Relief Services, Caritas Spain, Caritas Italiana, Caritas Germany, Caritas Canada, and CAFOD, as well as representatives from the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences.

Caritas Asia serves as the regional secretariat for one of the seven regions of the Caritas Internationalis network, said Benedict Alo DʼRozario, president of Caritas Asia, in a message to EWTN News. He said Caritas Asia represents the region within the global networkʼs support structures and takes part in joint work on staff capacity building, advocacy for social justice, care for creation, humanitarian response, integral human development, anti-human trafficking, safe migration, child protection, education, and moral formation.

DʼRozario said Caritas Asia has adopted four priorities going forward: care for people and planet, adaptability and preparedness, organizational capacity and effectiveness, and leadership and engagement.

He said Caritas Asia is not simply an organization but the heart of the Church, practicing synodality by going into communities, listening carefully, and responding to their needs. Caritas serves others, DʼRozario said, because it recognizes Christ in the poor, the suffering, and the vulnerable, and its mission is rooted in an encounter with Jesus Christ.

Participants described Kikuchiʼs remarks as highly relevant and inspiring for those across Caritas Asia.

Caritas Bangladesh acts as the social arm of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Bangladesh, as do other national Caritas organizations across Asia. Daud Jibon Das, executive director of Caritas Bangladesh, said the key message he took from the conference was that, although global funding is gradually decreasing, the Church must continue to care for the poor and those in need.

Caritas Bangladesh has long worked for the poor and neglected people of the country, and the conference will further accelerate its educational work, Das said.

“We work for justice for all, regardless of race, religion, caste, we want all neglected people, poor people to be well,” he told EWTN News. “Even if the funds decrease, we will continue to do our work within our means.”

The case was brought by members of the group, who argued that local authorities had unlawfully prevented them from carrying out their missionary work.

Judges found that regulations adopted by the city of Shumen unlawfully restricted religious activity and failed to clearly define what constituted prohibited religious propaganda. The ruling concluded that the ban violated Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects freedom of thought, conscience, and religion.

Nicolas Bauer, a doctor of law and advocacy director at the European Centre for Law and Justice, which intervened in the case as a third party, said the judgment reaffirms a fundamental principle of religious liberty.

“Evangelizing is often viewed with suspicion in a secularized Europe,” Bauer told EWTN News. “The ECHR ruling reaffirms a basic requirement of religious freedom for believers: the right to the same freedom of expression as everyone else.”

Understanding the situation

At the center of the dispute was what the court viewed as unequal treatment of religious speech. Under Shumen city regulations, residents and organizations were permitted to go door-to-door for commercial and political purposes, but religious outreach alone was prohibited.

“It was permitted to knock on the door of the cityʼs inhabitants to sell a vacuum cleaner or promote a political program,” Bauer explained, “but forbidden to hand out a Bible or a pious image.”

Municipal authorities justified the ban by claiming it protected the privacy of residents against “abusive or coercive proselytism.” The court rejected that argument and dismissed the need for a blanket ban on door-to-door evangelization. It also noted that authorities had not “demonstrated the existence of concrete or repeated disturbances” to justify such a broad measure.

The court stressed that exposure to differing beliefs is part of life in a democratic society, noting that “being exposed to religious ideas or beliefs that one does not share cannot, in itself, justify a blanket ban on peaceful missionary activities.”

Bauer also highlighted that individuals already possess practical means of avoiding unwanted contact, including declining to answer the door, politely dismissing visitors, or indicating that they do not wish to receive canvassers.

Implications beyond Bulgaria

For Bauer and other legal experts, the judgment reinforces the principle that religious expression enjoys the same protection as other forms of speech in democratic societies.

Bauer also noted that restrictions on evangelization affect not only those who wish to share their faith but also those who may want to hear it. “If the court recognizes the importance of the right to try to convince oneʼs neighbor,” he said, “it is also so that this neighbor can exercise their freedom to change religion.”

The judgment does not prevent authorities from acting against coercive, abusive, or intrusive conduct. Rather, it draws a distinction between peaceful evangelization and harassment, making clear that governments cannot impose blanket bans on religious outreach simply because some members of the public may find it unwelcome. Bauer noted that “the role of public authorities is to punish visitors who enter a home against the will of its occupant.”

For Christian communities engaged in missionary work, the decision offers reassurance that peaceful evangelization remains protected under European human rights law.

Religious freedom debates across Europe

The ruling arrives amid broader debates across Europe over the limits of religious expression in public life.

While Bulgariaʼs case centered on door-to-door evangelization, Bauer said Christians increasingly encounter legal and political challenges in other contexts.

He pointed to the controversial “buffer zone” laws surrounding abortion facilities in countries such as the United Kingdom and Spain. Pro-life advocates contend that some of these measures have been used to restrict activities ranging from conversations and leafleting to silent prayer, if authorities believe they could influence individuals approaching clinics.

Other disputes have involved public manifestations of Christian belief. Finnish Parliamentarian Päivi Räsänen faced years of legal proceedings after publicly expressing Christian views on sexuality. In France, legal controversies have emerged over the display of crosses, Nativity scenes, and religious statues in public spaces.

According to Bauer, these cases reflect a growing tension between traditional expressions of Christianity and increasingly secular societies. “Christian faith in the public sphere stands in stark contrast to the values of modern society,” he said. Yet Bauer also explained that responsibility does not rest solely with governments or courts. Christian communities themselves, he suggested, sometimes contribute to the gradual disappearance of religious expression by ceasing to exercise freedoms they already possess.

He pointed to the decline of public Eucharistic processions in some parts of Europe as an example of a practice that once visibly expressed Christian faith in the public square.

“A freedom that is not exercised eventually erodes,” Bauer said.

As European societies continue to debate the role of religion in public life, the ECHRʼs decision serves as a reminder that religious freedom includes not only the right to hold beliefs privately but also the right to share them peacefully with others. For many Christians, that principle remains at the heart of the Churchʼs missionary mission and witness in the public square.

The small fishing port on the southwest coast of Gran Canaria was once dubbed the “dock of shame” after more than 2,600 migrants were left crowded outdoors there for weeks six years ago, many sleeping on rough concrete after crossing the Atlantic in fragile boats from Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Morocco, and parts of the Sahara.

On June 11, Leo turned the site into what many present described as a dock of hope.

“It is not enough to manage arrivals, distribute figures, reinforce borders, or mourn the dead once they have already died,” the pope said.

Human dignity, he said, “requires legal and safe routes, rescue and assistance, real cooperation against traffickers, effective protection for victims, serious processes of welcome and integration, and policies that allow each person to live with dignity in his or her own land.”

Along the same lines, the pope emphasized that while there is a right to seek refuge when one’s life is threatened, there is also a right not to be forced to migrate: “the right to remain in one’s own home without hunger, without war, without persecution, without violence, without the land becoming uninhabitable, without corruption stealing the bread of the poor, without weapons destroying the future of children.”

“We cannot grow accustomed to counting the dead,” Leo said. “Human dignity has no passport and does not lose its value when crossing a border.”

The Canary Islands marked the final stop of Pope Leo XIV’s visit to Spain and one of its most symbolically charged moments. Migration remains an open wound in Europe and beyond, and Arguineguín has long stood as one of its most visible scars.

“This tragedy must become an examination of conscience,” the pope said.

Leo directed his appeal to several audiences. Countries of origin, he said, “must create conditions of peace, justice, and development.” Countries of transit, he added, must “not leave the weak in the hands of criminal networks.”

He also addressed Europe directly, saying it “cannot proclaim human dignity and grow accustomed to the Mediterranean and the Atlantic becoming cemeteries without headstones.” The international community, he said, is called to “effective and persevering cooperation.”

The Church, too, “must allow herself to be challenged,” the pope said. “Welcoming the migrant cannot be something secondary or delegated only to a few volunteers.”

The pope also offered a direct message to ordinary Catholics.

“We kneel before the altar to adore Christ present in the Eucharist, from whom we receive the strength and the reason to live charity,” he said. “Therefore, we cannot then ‘pass by’ the cayucos and pateras, because from prayer all service flows and to it every commitment returns.”

The pope invoked the biblical figures of Leviathan and Rahab to describe the “monsters that lurk in these seas: mafias that traffic in despair, traffickers who enslave women and children, and the indifference of many who allow the poor to be swallowed up by exploitation or oblivion.”

But faith, he said, “does not remain paralyzed before the power of the sea.”

“We believe in a God who subdues chaos, sets limits to evil, and opens a path when death seems to prevail,” Leo said.

Where Christ “commands the sea to be silent,” he added, “the Church cannot remain silent before those who are abandoned to its waters.”

The pope said conversion begins when “the migrant stops being just one more person, stops being a category and a number.”

Leo’s visit to the Canary Islands was one Pope Francis had wanted to make but was unable to carry out. Leo delivered a message echoing the one Francis brought to Lampedusa in 2013. Leo is also scheduled to visit the Italian island on July 4, the day the United States marks 250 years since its founding.

“We cannot grow accustomed to counting the dead,” Leo said. “Human dignity has no passport and does not lose its value when crossing a border.”

In a speech interrupted several times by applause, the pope asked that history “not have to accuse us of having turned the pain of those who suffer into the usual landscape of our coasts.”

Before speaking, Leo listened to several testimonies from people close to the migration crisis.

Tito Villarmea, captain of the maritime rescue vessel Urania, said that in 18 years he has helped rescue more than 20,000 people — “a number that hurts and is not forgotten.”

Although irregular arrivals by sea have fallen sharply this year — down about 35% from the previous year — rescue operations have continued, many in extreme conditions. According to Spain’s Interior Ministry, 10,224 migrants arrived irregularly in Spain from Jan. 1 to May 31, down 35.2% from 15,769 during the same period last year. Irregular land entries into Ceuta and Melilla rose 210% to 2,366 people.

Villarmea recalled one rescue involving a mother traveling in a small boat with her child, surrounded by wounded people and lifeless bodies.

“Once safely on board, the woman approached the child, about 14 years old, took off the cap and jacket, and pulled out some gold earrings to put them on,” he said. “It was a girl. She cried and I cried, because I am the father of two teenagers.”

María Reyes Alemán, a Caritas volunteer, also addressed the pope, describing her work accompanying migrants amid the humanitarian crisis.

“We learned that it was not about solving everything, but about being present,” she said, explaining that small gestures such as a smile or a look can also communicate hope.

Another powerful testimony came from Blessing, a Nigerian woman and trafficking survivor who was not present for security reasons. In a letter read aloud, she recounted leaving Nigeria at age 22, leaving behind her two daughters. When the time came to cross the sea, she said, she saw people who had departed before her group that same day drown.

“The mafia took me to a place where they performed a ritual, the ‘juju,’” she said. “They told me I had a debt of 25,000 euros that I had to pay when I arrived in Europe.”

During six months of captivity, she became pregnant by a man connected to the trafficking network.

“When I arrived in Spain, they took my baby away from me to force me into prostitution,” she said. Her forced enslavement ended when her son was 11 months old and police arrested those holding her captive. She said the Church helped her rebuild her life.

Leo also warned migrants like Blessing not to trust those who exploit hopes for a better future.

“Do not believe those who promise easy paradises in exchange for your body, your money, your silence, or your freedom,” he said.

Such false promises, he said, are “siren songs” and “industries of death.”

The pope also mentioned El Hierro, the least populated of the Canary Islands, which has become a major arrival point for migrants, with more than 50,000 irregular arrivals since 2020. The peak came in 2024, with nearly 30,000 arrivals.

The island’s treatment by authorities has prompted frustration from local officials, including Alpidio Armas, the socialist president of the island council, who did not attend the pope’s events.

El Hierro, Leo said, “has seen thousands of people arrive, torn from their land and entrusted to the fragility of a cayuco.”

There, he said, “there are people recovered from the sea and lifeless bodies rescued from the waters.” For that reason, “the successor of Peter cannot turn away from these docks.”

The event concluded with a floral offering in memory of the victims of migration by sea, a symbolic gesture at a place that has become an emblem of suffering but also of solidarity.

The pope then went to a nearby image of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, patroness of sailors, where he blessed a cross erected as a permanent memorial to those who never reached their destination.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Following the morning Mass, pilgrims processed several blocks in the rain from the basilica to Baltimore’s Washington Monument, one of the city’s most recognizable civic landmarks, praying and singing as they accompanied the Blessed Sacrament through the city’s historic streets.

The Baltimore stop is part of the 2026 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, which is traveling under the theme “One Nation Under God” as the United States prepares to mark the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

In his homily, Monsignor Jay O’Connor reflected on the meaning of pilgrimage and the public witness of carrying the Eucharist through cities, towns, highways, and waterways across the country.

“This National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, which is of Jesus through the streets and the highways and the plains and the waterways of our country, brings the blessing of the real presence of Jesus into the heart and soul of our fellow citizens and our country,” he said.

The basilica, completed in 1821, is the first cathedral constructed in the United States. It was built under the leadership of Bishop John Carroll, the first bishop of the United States, making the Baltimore stop a significant moment for a pilgrimage moving through many of the original 13 colonies during the nation’s semiquincentennial year.

O’Connor said pilgrimage is not meant to be easy, citing St. John Paul II’s teaching that God uses the challenges of the journey to form his people.

“Through the challenges of the journey, God forms us into the people he calls us to be — a community of missionary disciples,” he said.

The celebrant also recalled a previous Eucharistic procession in Baltimore, when a man came out of his home and asked what was happening as the procession passed through his neighborhood.

“One pilgrim responded, ‘Jesus is walking through your neighborhood,’” he said. “The man asked, ‘Can I join you?’ And he was invited to walk the rest of the way with the pilgrims. That’s what a pilgrimage is.”

For the perpetual pilgrims accompanying the Eucharist along the Cabrini route, the journey has included long days of travel, prayer, public witness, and constant movement.

“It’s been very busy,” said John Paul Flynn, one of the perpetual pilgrims. “But it’s through that busyness, I think, that you start to lean more into it and lean more into the graces that are there.”

He said the experience of traveling with the Blessed Sacrament has been unlike anything else.

“Getting to be with Jesus all the time is a really unique experience,” he said, noting that the pilgrims even have adoration in the van as they travel.

The pilgrimage was scheduled to continue through Maryland with stops in Severna Park and Annapolis before crossing the Chesapeake Bay by boat to Kent Island and the Diocese of Wilmington.

The Cabrini route is named for St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, the Italian-born missionary sister who became the first U.S. citizen to be canonized a saint. Cabrini dedicated her life to serving immigrants, orphans, the sick, and the poor, founding schools, hospitals, and orphanages across the United States and beyond.

The route began over Memorial Day weekend in St. Augustine, Florida, and is traveling north along the Eastern Seaboard before concluding in Philadelphia over Independence Day weekend.

During the pope’s visit to the Shrine of Our Lady of Montserrat, an abbey northwest of Barcelona, Sergi handed Leo his rosary. The pontiff slipped it into his pocket before using it minutes later to pray.

Unexpectedly, the story did not end there — after the event, Sergi managed to recover his prized sacramental, now prayed with by the pope.

Sergi (who asked that his last name not be shared) told EWTN News he had not planned to go to the shrine on the day of the papal visit. He is from Terrassa, a city between Barcelona and Montserrat.

The invitation to go to the popeʼs prayer came unexpectedly through a volunteer with the Missionaries of Charity, connected to his youth group, who encouraged both him and his girlfriend, María, to join the gathering. The night before, they attended the pope’s event at the Olympic Stadium in Barcelona and returned so tired that they almost decided not to go again.

However, they felt they could not miss the chance to see Pope Leo during his visit to their homeland, and in order to attend they both had to take the day off from work. They never imagined what would happen or the gift they would receive.

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Sergi, María, and their friend secured a spot in the atrium of the basilica, and when the pope arrived, Sergi managed to get very close to the mini-popemobile as it passed by. At that moment he took out his rosary, hoping it would be blessed.

“I just wanted him to bless it, that’s all, but he asked me, ‘Is it for me?’ And I’m not going to say no, so of course I said yes, and he kept it,” the young man said.

Indeed, in a video recorded by EWTN News, the pope can be seen taking the rosary and putting it in his pocket. A few minutes later, to the young couple’s total surprise, they saw the pope praying with Sergi’s rosary in his hands.

“When we saw it on the screen, we realized it was the same one he was using to pray!” Sergi said.

But the story did not end there. María had the idea of trying to get the rosary back, and when the event ended, they tried. However, the pope was already in the official car, and the security caravan would not allow anyone to approach.

“We tried to tell him, but he just passed us by,” Sergi told EWTN News.

At that moment, the run of his life began. Montserrat, as its name suggests, is set on a mountain range, so he had to run downhill.

“I ran the whole way down until I said, ‘Well, let the pope keep it,’ and I gave up, but my girlfriend told me, ‘Keep trying.’”

So Sergi started running again, sprinting and shouting to the pope to give it back. Knowing the caravan could not stop, he took an extreme measure: asking the pope to throw it to him.

“At that moment I wasn’t thinking — I just knew I wanted to get the rosary back, knowing the pope had prayed with it. I was overwhelmed with excitement by the moment and the situation.”

The pope granted his request, tossing the rosary from the car window as he drove by. Then, with the help of a police officer, Sergi recovered his rosary, now prayed with by the pope.

“We went without expecting anything, and we came back with the greatest gift we could have received,” the young man said, still moved by the experience.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

The Holy Father will now depart mainland Europe and visit the Canary Islands off the coast of Spain, finishing his trip on June 12 before returning to Rome.

Here is a look at what Pope Leo XIV has been up to in Barcelona:

She hastily scribbled the concept and script that would eventually become a commercial that is set to reach large crowds at the FIFA 2026 World Cup.

“It felt as though I had been handed a glimpse of people whose stories had yet to be told,” Gillett told EWTN News. “I wrote everything down immediately.”

Gillett’s idea was about encounter — giving people the chance to encounter the survivors of abortion.

“Again and again, Christ revealed truth through encounter,” Gillett said. “He met people face-to-face. He restored sight not only to the blind but to those who could see physically while remaining blind to deeper realities.”

Gillett’s nonprofit, Faces of Choice, is scheduled to run a series of advertisements during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will reach global audiences. The ads give abortion survivors a chance to speak and be heard.

“My hope is that when the world sees these men and women, something deeper than opinion will be awakened,” Gillett said. “Not because people hear a new argument, but because they find a human being looking back at them.”

Truth through encounter

“At its heart, Faces of Choice is an invitation to encounter,” Gillett said. “We exist to help people see what has too often remained unseen: that behind every discussion about abortion stands a human being made in the image of God, with a name, a face, and a story.”

“The doctrine of the Imago Dei is not merely a theological concept. It is a reality that demands recognition,” Gillett said. “Every human life possesses an inherent dignity that is not earned, granted by society, or dependent upon circumstance. It is bestowed by God himself.”

“For me, this work is not only about defending life,” Gillett said. “It is about restoring visibility to people whose humanity has too often been denied, and inviting both the Church and the world to see them.”

Gillett originally had an advertisement set to play at the Super Bowl in 2020 — but just days before the game, the advertisement was blocked from airing.

“What seemed like a closed door opened an expanse to an enormous gateway — one that has ultimately led us toward the threshold of introducing abortion survivors to the world through the 2026 FIFA World Cup, one of the largest audiences in human history, with projected viewership in the billions,” Gillett said.

Faces of Choice’s motto can be summed up in a simple phrase, Gillett said: “‘Choice’ is not merely a word. ‘Choice’ is a person.”

Finally heard: Abortion survivors speak

Gillett takes inspiration from Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr., who “helped reveal the full humanity and dignity of African Americans in a society that had too often ignored both,” she said.

“Most cultural debates eventually reach a point where arguments alone stop stirring hearts,” Gillett said. “Historyʼs great turning points often occur when people come face-to-face with those whose humanity can no longer be denied.”

“Abortion survivors occupy a uniquely powerful place in this conversation, because their very existence reveals a reality many people have never considered,” Gillett said.

Hope Hoffman survived a dilation and curettage abortion at 10 and a half weeks' gestation, about three months of pregnancy.

“She bears a visible scar on her head from where the abortion instrument cut into and crushed her skull,” Gillett said. “Today she lives with cerebral palsy, yet she radiates joy, courage, a profound appreciation for life, and hope.”

“When someone looks into the eyes of a survivor and realizes, ‘I never knew people like this existed,’ something changes,” she said. “When they understand that saying ‘I supported your mother’s choice’ to a survivor of abortion means the person before them would cease to exist in the success of that ‘choice,’ the conversation moves from argument to conscience.”

Hoffman shared her thoughts, saying: “I became very upset while thinking about how some people say that an unborn child is not a person.”

“Being small, different, or not yet born doesnʼt change who you are,” Gillett recalled Hoffman saying. “I know this better than most."

Another abortion survivor, Imre Téglásy of Hungary, survived multiple abortion attempts in 1952.

Gillett described him as “remarkable.”

“Since then, he has gone on to help save over 50,000 babies from abortion throughout Europe, raise a large family of his own, and devote himself to serving women and children in need,” Gillett said.

“What stands out most is not simply survival," Gillett said. “It is what many survivors have done with the lives they were nearly denied.”

“I have met survivors who live with significant physical disabilities, survivors who endured lifelong medical complications, survivors who have wrestled with profound emotional wounds, and survivors who have experienced extraordinary forgiveness and spiritual healing,” she continued. “There is a recurring theme among most of them: gratitude, forgiveness, resilience, and purpose. Many see their lives not merely as lives that were spared but as ones entrusted with a mission.”

“What is heartbreaking is how often they have remained unseen,” Gillett said. “What is transformative is what happens when they are finally heard.”