According to the latest statistics published by Agenzia Fides, Africa’s Catholic population has now surpassed Europe’s, rising to 288.3 million compared with Europe’s 287.2 million. Africa now has the second-largest Catholic population, after the Americas, which the organization counts as one region.

The data Fides used comes from the Church’s Book of Statistics, which is updated yearly. The latest edition includes data through Dec. 31, 2024.

In responses shared with ACI Africa, the sister service of EWTN News in Africa,  Catholic leaders in Africa pointed to families, catechists, pastoral presence, and the witness of missionaries among factors they believe have contributed to the growth.

Catholics in the world numbered 1.4 billion, with an overall increase of 15.8 million Catholics compared with the previous year. As in previous years, increases were registered above all in Africa and in the Americas, followed by Asia, Europe, and Oceania.

The African continent recorded the largest increase in Catholics, adding 7.58 million compared with an increase of 6.99 million in the Americas. Africa gained 1,676 priests, the largest continental increase, compared with a worldwide net increase of 425 priests.

According to the Fides report, Africa was the only continent to register growth in seminarians, adding 786, while the global total declined by 2,891.

Sharing the gift of faith

For Bishop Edward Hiiboro Kussala of South Sudan’s Diocese of Tombura-Yambio, the findings are a reason for gratitude and renewed missionary responsibility.

“Having received the gift of faith through the missionary witness of others, we are now blessed to share that gift with the universal Church,” Hiiboro said.

As bishop of Tombura-Yambio since 2008, Hiiboro also serves as president of the Integral Human Development Commission of the Sudan and South Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Conference. He said that growth of faith is not a competition.

“Africa is not competing with any continent in the growth of faith. We are part of one universal Church, united in Christ and enriched by the gifts of different peoples and cultures,” he said.

Father Vincent Simba, rector of Nairobi-based St. Thomas Aquinas Senior Seminary, said the increase in Catholics and priests offers hope for Africa and the universal Church.

Simba expressed hope that Africa would have opportunities to send missionaries to places from which the continent received the Christian faith.

Bishop Joseph Kacou Aka of Ivory Coast’s Diocese of Yamoussoukro said the figures are an invitation to deepen communion among local Churches.

“Africa is called to share its gifts: its vocations, its community experience, its theological reflection, and its witness of faith,” he said. “But mission remains a fraternal exchange in which each Church both gives and receives.”

Aka, who was consecrated bishop in 2023, said pastoral action in his diocese is guided by the theme “Autonomous and Missionary Church, Communion of Communities.”

Families, communities, and pastoral presence

In his response to ACI Africa, Hiiboro pointed to family bonds, community life, and openness to God as among the conditions he believes have helped the growth of Christian faith in Africa, alongside the work of missionaries, catechists, priests, women and men religious, and laypeople.

In Nigeria, Bishop Gerald Mamman Musa of the Diocese of Katsina identified the continent’s youthful population, family life, liturgies, and the work of Catholic institutions among factors contributing to growth.

“In Nigeria, parish communities, Catholic schools, hospitals, and lay movements help transmit the faith across generations,” Musa said.

Musa, who also chairs the Communications Commission of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), said his diocese had seen its number of seminarians rise from about 21 in 2023 to more than 40 in 2026. 

He cautioned that “demographic growth alone does not explain conversion.”

Father George Omondi, a Kenyan-born member of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, commonly known as the Spiritans, pointed to the accessibility of pastoral services.

Omondi, who previously served as vice provincial superior and councilor for formation in the Spiritans’ Kenya and South Sudan Province, recalled seeing an increase in parishes in Kenyan Catholic dioceses, bringing services closer to the faithful.

Omondi said during his parish ministry he also observed adult baptisms and received converts from other churches into the Catholic Church.

In his own response, Aka cautioned against assigning a single cause to the growth. The statistics, he said, “describe a development without, by themselves, establishing its causes,” and do not determine the respective contributions of family transmission, adult baptisms, and demographic factors.

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

Led by Bishop David Ricken of the Diocese of Green Bay, the group visited the cities of Brussels, Bruges, Antwerp, Dion-le-Val, and Leuven from Oct. 10–20 on the first-of-its-kind pilgrimage.

Among the stops were the Church of Our Lady, home to The Madonna of Bruges sculpture created by Michelangelo; the Basilica of Our Lady of Scherpenheuvel, Belgium’s most visited Marian shrine; the tomb of St. Damien of Molokai, a Belgian priest known for his service to the leper community on the island of Molokai in Hawaii; the Catholic University of Leuven, the oldest Catholic university in the world; and several locations associated with Brice, including her hometown of Dion-le-Val, her home parish, the site of her confirmation, and the port where Brice and her family embarked for New York in 1855.

In an interview with EWTN News, Ricken described the pilgrimage for those who took part as a “discovering of roots.”

He explained that most of the pilgrims were from Door County in Wisconsin, which is one of the largest Belgian communities in the United States.

“Thereʼs a Belgian heritage center here and lots of deep connections, and they havenʼt forgotten those,” he shared. “And they just loved Adele from the time she came.”

With this in mind, and since Brice’s cause for canonization was officially opened in February, Ricken and others involved with the pilgrimage thought it could serve as a “moment of connecting with her [Brice’s] roots so that we can understand her better” as well as give the pilgrims in attendance “a chance to reconnect” with their Belgian roots.

Ricken recalled that one of the most impactful stops on the pilgrimage was the Mass celebrated at Brice’s home parish, the Church of St. Martin in Dion-le-Val. This small parish typically has roughly 20 people in attendance — as Catholicism in Belgium is currently at a low point, Ricken explained — but for this Mass, 250 people crammed into the space to celebrate the special occasion.

“I think it gave them a whole new sense of pride in their own history over there. So it was a renewal for them. You could see that. The people were so thrilled to have us,” he shared.

After the Mass — which was concelebrated by Ricken, several other priests from the Diocese of Green Bay who were on the pilgrimage, and local Belgian priests — a reception was held. Despite having a language barrier, Ricken said everyone was still able to communicate and many of the local Belgians recognized the family last names of the American pilgrims and found family connections. He shared that one of his priests from the diocese found a relative of his that he “never knew existed before.”

“It was just beautiful and itʼs going to take quite a while to unpack all of that and understand exactly what happened, but it was deeply enriching for everybody, including me,” he said.

The Church of St. Martin was also the recipient of the Our Lady of Champion Adele Brice icon done by Father Paul Czerwonka from the Diocese of La Crosse in Wisconsin. The icon depicts the Blessed Virgin Mary appearing to Brice and has two angels holding a banner with the message the Blessed Mother gave Brice: “I am the Queen of Heaven … Gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation. Teach them their catechism, how to sign themselves with the sign of the cross, and how to approach the sacraments. That is what I wish you to do. Go and fear nothing, I will help you.”

The icon is 8 feet tall by 4 feet wide and took two months to complete.

Ricken said one moment that was very personal for him during the pilgrimage was when the group visited the Catholic University of Leuven. The bishop received his graduate degree in sacred theology and completed his seminary formation at this university in 1980. While the seminary building is now used for student housing, the chapel from the seminary is still in use.

“We were able to arrange for an anointing service of the pilgrims … there in the seminary chapel where I attended Mass every day as a student and loved it so much,” he shared. “And I was able to lead the anointing service. And many people took advantage of that … not everybody, but many did, and it was so beautiful that right there in the former seminary chapel to be able to take care of my own people from here who went on that pilgrimage. That was very touching.”

Reflecting on the pilgrimage as a whole, Ricken said he believes “there will be a lot of answered prayers” through Brice’s intercession.

Ricken said he hopes those who went “see all of their instincts and their love of their culture and language as something thatʼs still alive, still vibrant in certain places, and that the shrine is their connection with home.”

“Theyʼve always felt that, but now they actually saw it themselves. They were able to go to her hometown and experience that connection,” he added.

“And my hope is that theyʼll continue to volunteer and do all the beautiful things they do and have even more commitment to it and be able to identify the work of grace and the Holy Spirit in everything thatʼs happening today in and around the shrine through Adele [Brice] and through the Blessed Mother.”

“We do well to lovingly speak their names, for they are holy members of the family of God,” said Cardinal Frank Leo of Toronto while declaring them “blessed” on Oct. 31 in Savannah.

It was a milestone for the Catholic Church in America: The Georgia Martyrs are the first American martyrs for marriage and the first to be beatified in the southern U.S.

Approximately 9,000 people streamed through the doors of the Savannah Convention Center, breaking city attendance records for an indoor event. They traveled from all over Georgia, the U.S., and around the world, arriving by bus, car, and trolley. Some ferried across the Savannah River. Others flew, including priests and lay Catholics representing the hometowns of several friars.

María Isabel Inoriza De Villota, a 12th generation descendent of one of Friar Francisco’s brothers, came from Spain with her 16-year-old son, Imanol.

“Ever since I was a child, I have witnessed the deep devotion my parents held for Francisco,” she said. “We have always turned to him, seeking his protection and help.”

Her mother prayed “fervently” for the beatification, which is “a dream come true,” she said.

Father Pablo Migone, the vicar for mission advancement in the Savannah Diocese and a longtime promoter of the cause, said 2,000 attendees “tops” were projected. But registrations kept pouring in.

U.S. beatifications are rare. But it was more than that. The diocese has been educating the faithful about the martyrs for a decade. “The fruit and the story are resonating in people’s hearts and minds,” Migone said.

Until learning of the beatification, many residents of La Albuera, Spain, where Friar Antonio was baptized, hadn’t heard of him. Now the town square is being renamed in his honor.

“God is full of surprises,” said Father Antonio Jesús Marín Romo, the town’s parish priest. “This comes at a crucial moment when we were in need of a catalyst for the work we wish to begin in the parish.”

The Franciscans’ story began in the 16th century when they arrived from Spain. By 1595, they had established missions along the Georgia coast, evangelizing the Indigenous Guale people. Serving like Peace Corps volunteers, they succeeded where other orders had failed.

Two years later, however, faith clashed with local custom. A baptized convert in line for chiefdom insisted on a second wife. When the friars refused to compromise Christ’s teaching on marriage, a war party murdered the friars, mission by mission. A sixth friar, Francisco de Ávila, was tortured, but lived to tell the tale. The missions were eventually reestablished, and Catholicism thrived.

The bilingual service on Oct. 31 began with a procession down the runway-like aisle created from joining four exhibition spaces, the center’s largest configuration.

More than 200 clergy, including Franciscan Friars of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Cardinal Leo, 31 bishops and archbishops, over 100 deacons and seminarians, and the apostolic nuncio, were joined by nearly 200 members of the Knights of Columbus, the Knights of Malta, Knights (and Dames) of the Holy Sepulchre, and the Knights of Peter Claver. Seventy ciboria waited at the altar. 

Cardinal Leo read the apostolic letter and declared the Georgia Martyrs “blessed,” by having “placed the saving truth of the Gospel before their own safety.”

Atlanta Archbishop Gregory Hartmayer and Archbishop Joan-Enric Vives i Sicilia, bishop emeritus of Urgell, who represented the Spanish Episcopal Conference, read English and Spanish translations of the apostolic letter, respectively.

The letter declared the martyrs’ feast day as Sept. 22, the octave day of Friar Pedro’s martyrdom. 

Thunderous applause erupted at the unveiling of the official portrait of the martyrs, showing them in humble repose and bathed in golden light. Before and after the beatification, the crowd toured the adjacent Georgia Martyrs Museum and art exhibition.

By worldly standards, it might seem like the martyrs failed, Cardinal Leo said during his homily. “But it is not so.”

They succeeded by embracing “the call to holiness, which further led them to embrace the call to consecrated life, the call to the sacred priesthood, the call to missionary work, the call to evangelize, the call to share and defend the faith and, ultimately, the call to give their very life.”

But “how compelled are we” to “follow Jesus’ call to follow him?” he asked.

A holy life requires defending the truth and “always put[ting] Christ first,” he stated, even while striving for unity in the world. “Polarization is not from God.”

The martyrs also bore witness to “the Christian doctrine of marriage and held to that divine truth to the shedding of their own blood,” he said, stressing the sacred nature of the family “founded upon the covenantal, sacramental, indissoluble union of one man and one woman.”

In his first public audience after recent surgery, Pope Leo XIV said that protecting marriage and family “is more urgent than ever before.”

The beatification itself was “perfect timing,” said Christine Camp, who came from Atlanta with more than a dozen other Catholics who had just attended a three-day retreat to pray for restoration of their marriages.

Moms and dads with children had traveled from near and far. “It’s our pilgrimage,” said Theodora Ferrant, who came from Pensacola with her husband and two children.

“I truly believe through the intercession of Blessed Pedro de Corpa and four companions there will be greater respect for the dignity and character of holy matrimony,” Savannah Bishop Stephen Parkes said.

“May the witness of these holy men inspire fidelity between spouses called into the covenantal bond of holy matrimony and help create a renewed commitment to the growth of faith-filled families in the state of Georgia and beyond.”

The celebration will continue Nov. 1 with a Mass of thanksgiving at the Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist.

The archbishop added his name to a lawsuit that includes Rockville Centre Bishop John Barres, the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, the Missionary Sisters of St. Benedict, and the Little Sisters of the Poor. Hicks’s addition to the suit was announced by the religious liberty law firm Becket on Oct. 30.

The New York Archdiocese joins the suit after it was launched in July of this year by Catholic objectors to the state’s new suicide law. The Catholic plaintiffs in that suit argued that the state’s assisted suicide rules would force them to participate in the process of helping suicidal patients kill themselves, a violation of core Catholic teaching on the sanctity of life.

Shortly after the lawsuit was filed, a federal court ordered that the state could not enforce the suicide rules against the Catholic objectors while the suit itself played out.

Hicks said on Oct. 30 that Catholics “are guided by the compassion of Jesus to serve those of every background who are in need of healing.”

“We refuse to allow New York to force us to harm the very ones we’ve been called to care for,” he said.

Hicks is the latest Catholic prelate to join the legal fight against assisted suicide in the U.S. A total of four bishops and dozens of religious sisters have sued the governments of New York and Illinois after the states enacted assisted suicide programs.

In addition to the New York ruling, the Catholic objectors in Illinois — which include the Archdiocese of Chicago and the Diocese of Springfield — have secured victories at federal court, with a judge ordering the state to hold off on enforcing suicide rules against them while the suits play out.

In New York, the Catholic healthcare ministry ArchCare also joined the lawsuit against the state. Among ArchCare’s facilities is Calvary Hospital in the Bronx, which offers hospice care for those with six months or less to live.

Becket describes the Calvary facility as “the only fully-accredited acute care hospital in the U.S. devoted exclusively to the palliative care of adult patients with life-limiting illnesses.”

Fans of all ages packed into the Pope Paul VI Audience Hall in Rome for an audience with the pope, who is himself a Villanova graduate.

“Growing up on the south side of Chicago, we oftentimes heard, ‘Go Irish!’” Pope Leo told the crowd. “But as you all know, Prevost graduated from Villanova. So, the pope doesn’t take sides. Prevost has another opinion, but we won’t do that now,” he added, to cheers from the Villanova supporters.

The Nov. 1 event, called the Eternal City Tip-Off, will open the 2026-27 college basketball season for the Division 1 teams. Organized as a collaboration between Fox Sports, On Location, and Players Era, inspiration for the event came from Leo’s election as the first American pope.

Leading up to the Sunday games, supporters of both universities — including alumni, faculty, staff, students, and fans — were able to participate in a special Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica along with the papal audience.

Father Peter Donohue, OSA, president of Villanova, and Father Robert Dowd, CSC, president of Notre Dame, began the audience by addressing the pope on behalf of their universities. Four student-athletes from each school then presented the pope with gifts, including commemorative basketballs, jerseys, and a special prayer for athletes written by the late Holy Cross Father Theodore Hesburgh, a past president of Notre Dame.

Pope Leo drew laughs and cheers from the crowd when he began to dribble the basketball offered by Villanova team representatives.

The pope then addressed the gathered fans, speaking about a “vision of sport” proposed by the Catholic Church centered on “the dignity of the human person, on his or her integral development, on education, and on relationships with others.”

He pointed out that the games will take place on the feast of All Saints’ Day, saying that the occasion was a valuable reminder “that God calls everyone to be a saint. … We are invited, therefore, to ensure that every aspect of our lives, including our athletic endeavors, will help us to love God and our neighbor.”

Pope Leo emphasized the importance of sport as “a concrete means of bringing people together,” particularly in an age “marked by the distance that can be created by technology.” He added, “Sport is a medicine for both body and spirit when it is practiced well.”

Ambrose Weidmann, an architecture student from the University of Notre Dame studying abroad in Rome, attended the papal audience with his friends. “It was great to hear each school’s president’s viewpoint on sports, school, and faith, and even better to hear the Holy Father’s comments on sports and especially our universal calling to sainthood,” he said.

Eric Heinz, who was at the audience with his wife and two sons — one of whom graduated from Villanova, the other from Notre Dame — echoed Weidmann’s sentiments.

“I think it’s really great to have so many people that you know [in the room],” he said, citing the thousands of supporters from both universities who filled the hall. “It’s really attributed, I think, to the love of not just their schools, but Pope Leo, and having an American as the pope. … Everyone’s in a great mood about it.”

Shannon Murphy and Gabriel Alvarez, sitting a few rows down from the Heinz family, had already planned on a trip to Rome for their honeymoon, but when they saw that the dates lined up perfectly with the Eternal City Tip-Off weekend, they were thrilled.

“We put it on the calendar, and the minute they went for sale we were refreshing [the page] to get the best tickets we could that were available… we’re very excited,” said Murphy, who is a Villanova alumna. She added that sharing both an alma mater and the Catholic faith with Pope Leo made seeing him “pretty great.”

Before the papal audience, fans had the chance to attend a special morning Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica honoring the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Mass was presided over by Archbishop Nelson Perez of Philadelphia and concelebrated by the presidents of both universities.

During the homily, Perez praised the discipline, perseverance, and sacrifice of the student-athletes, quoting St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians to remind the faithful that sport is a model for the spiritual life, and offering Mary as a model of this excellence: “She played the game of life, the game of grace, in such a beautiful, powerful, profound way,” he said, offering Mary’s humility and service as an example of “true greatness.”

Weidmann commented that the Vatican events on Saturday tied basketball and Catholicism together in an “ideal connection” between faith and sports, and even served as a means of evangelization.

“I know a few of my peers who are atheist or agnostic, but went to the papal audience and Mass today and got to hear the voice of the Church calling to them through the Word of God and the pope’s words, which I thought was a really great way to expose more people to our faith,” he said.

Villanova and Notre Dame will face off on Sunday beginning with the men’s basketball game at 3:30 pm CET (9:30 am EST), which can be viewed on Fox. The women’s game, aired on FS1, will follow at 6:00 pm CET (12 pm EST).

In an interview with Mark Irons of “EWTN News In Depth,” the 98-year-old Simoni explained how he escaped death through remaining steadfast in faith.

Simoni was imprisoned and tortured for practicing his faith, and eventually his death sentence was commuted to forced labor. Simoni continued secretly to say daily Mass as the Communist Party tried to eradicate religion across their region.

Though many understood the risks involved, no one informed the communist authorities. Had the regime discovered what he was doing, he said, he likely would have been hanged. He credited his survival solely to Godʼs grace.

After the Party of Labor of Albania was dissolved in 1991, Simoni was freed from manual labor under state surveillance. He doesn’t speak much about torture he experienced.

“They also took me into the army…and had me march, for 16 hours marching...without eating, or drinking, I was dying,” Simoni said. “Thank God, he wanted me to be saved. There it was the Hand of God that protected me.”

In 2014, Pope Francis was moved by this priest’s testimony and named him one of 17 international bishops and priests to the College of Cardinals in 2016. Pope Francis described him as “a living martyr.”

Simoni travels across countries bringing the Gospel to all people while also speaking of his experience in communist Albania. His visit to the United States this November comes 63 years after the assassination of Kennedy in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

Simoni said he holds no resentment toward those who persecuted him and his fellow Catholics. Earlier this year he returned to the prison where he was tortured and was able to celebrate Mass publicly.

"We are required to pray for every enemy, that God has mercy, to see them all in heaven, because Christ has shed his blood for us all,” he said.

“We express our sincere gratitude for all those who work to provide necessary resources to women, babies, and families during pregnancy and beyond,” Bishop Daniel Thomas, chair of the bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, said in an Oct. 27 statement.

“Pregnancy help organizations, maternity homes, medical and resource help centers, and adoption agencies provide heroic services every day to anyone in need,” he said. “Many pregnancy care centers offer free medical services, including ultrasounds, prenatal and postnatal care, and referrals for free or low-cost childbirth.”

“They also provide resources such as baby clothes and diapers, childcare, career services, referrals for housing, and much more,” the bishop said.

Pregnancy Help Appreciation Week, which will be celebrated from Nov. 9-13 this year, is a celebration created by Heartbeat International — a network of pregnancy centers that offer pregnancy help as an alternative to abortion clinics.

A report published last November by the Charlotte Lozier Institute found that in 2024, pro-life pregnancy resource centers provided over $452 million worth of support to women in crisis pregnancies and struggling women with young children, including medical care, support and education services, and material goods.

The bishops’ statement noted that about 2,750 life-affirming pregnancy centers currently operate in the United States.

To mark the celebration, Thomas also recognized “the life-changing help being provided by the countless volunteers in our parishes that accompany vulnerable women and families through our nationwide Walking with Moms in Need initiative,” a parish-based initiative, created by the bishops, to provide support to pregnant women and mothers who need support.

“May all those who serve and protect life be encouraged by our prayers, our good works and our financial support to build a culture of life,” the bishop said.

Florida attorney general talks fetal personhood with Lila Rose

Republican Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, who is Catholic, discussed the prospect of “fetal personhood” — the belief that unborn children should be legally recognized as persons at the moment of conception — on a podcast this month with Live Action President Lila Rose.

When Rose — who is also Catholic — asked Uthmeier whether there will be a day when abortion has fully come to an end in Florida, Uthmeier told her: “I certainly pray so; I do believe we have the truth on our side and the truth will prevail.”

“But we as faith-driven people, as pro-life advocates, weʼve got to continue going out and educating and explaining, getting people to soften their hearts and listen,” he said.

Uthmeier discussed his opposition to surrogacy and expressed concerns about people coming to Florida to “purchase a baby.” He called the practice “very dangerous and horrific,” but said he hopes it can raise discussions about whether this is a form of slavery.

“It is going to bring the conversation of fetal personhood and life front and center,” Uthmeier said. “Is this a human being? Which I believe truthfully, factually, the answer is unequivocally yes. If it is a human being, you cannot contract to buy and sell this individual.”

Pro-life activists mark 59 years since UK’s Abortion Act

In London on Oct. 27, pro-life advocates gathered in Parliament Square to mark 59 years since the passing of the UK’s Abortion Act, which legalized abortion in England, Wales, and Scotland under certain conditions.

More than 11 million abortions have taken place in the UK since the act was passed, according to government statistics compiled by Right To Life UK.

Bede Teeton from March For Life UK told EWTN News: “It is our duty to commemorate those who have been affected by abortion, and those who have sadly lost their lives through it too.”

Former Conservative MP Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg told EWTN News: “59 years ago was a black day in the civilization of the UK. We did something that was fundamentally wrong, and itʼs gotten worse. We now allow abortion up to birth. We kill disabled babies because they are disabled. Society is quite schizophrenic about this, because we all have all sorts of disability rights acts, but then we murder disabled babies. So I think it is a day of infamy.”

Pro-life runners complete global relay

Thousands of pro-life runners cumulatively completed a 5,124-mile relay this week, which concluded at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, with the men’s and the women’s cross-country and track teams finishing the final stretch.

The 2026 A-Cross America Relay, which is organized by the pro-life organization LifeRunners, had 26,257 participants in 4,061 cities across 53 nations. EWTN Global Catholic Network was a sponsor of the event.

Many of the runners wore jerseys displaying the Trinity and a cross with “Jer. 1:5,” written on it, in reference to the Bible verse: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you.”

The jersey displays the text, “REMEMBER The Unborn,” as runners seek to promote a culture of life to the public in every location they run.

Elliot Hartley contributed to this article.

For centuries, the Catholic Church widely observed All Saints’ Day (Nov. 1) as an octave, extending the holy celebration to eight days.

The observance was established by Pope Sixtus IV in the 15th century and demoted in the liturgical calendar around the middle of the 20th century, although some Catholics still mark the eight-day observance.

Notably, the Church itself still indirectly acknowledges the ancient eight-day octave in its granting of plenary indulgences for the first week of November.

What is a plenary indulgence?

A plenary indulgence is a grace granted by the Catholic Church through the merits of Jesus Christ to remove the temporal punishment due to sin.

It is not a forgiveness of sin but the remission of punishment for sins already forgiven. It may apply either to oneself or to souls already in purgatory.

In order to obtain a plenary indulgence the faithful must — in addition to being in the state of grace — both have the interior disposition of complete detachment from sin (even venial sin), have sacramentally confessed their sins and received the Eucharist (either within or outside of Mass), and must pray for the intentions of the Holy Father.

What about the All Saints’ octave?

The Vatican’s Apostolic Penitentiary, in its “Enchiridion Indulgentiarum” (“Handbook of Indulgences”), states that the faithful can obtain a plenary indulgence for the faithful departed “every day, from the 1st to the 8th of November,” if, in addition to fulfilling the normal terms of a plenary indulgence, one “devoutly visit[s] a cemetery and at least mentally pray[s] for the dead.”

The conditions for a plenary indulgence can be fulfilled a few days before or after performing the works to gain the indulgence, but it is appropriate that Communion and the prayer take place on the same day that the work is completed.

The All Saints’ octave was notably extended throughout the entire month of November in both 2020 and 2021 amid concerns about avoiding large gatherings of people in churches or cemeteries due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This article was updated on Oct. 31, 2026.

Father Edwin Limas Falcón, an Oblate of St. Joseph, presented the Spanish-language book titled “Itinerary of Faith: The Child of Eten Arrives in Lima and Callao" to the Holy Father.

The book summarizes the work of the lay group Eucharistic Miracle Peru 1649, led by researcher Jesús León Ángeles. The presentation took place during an audience held to mark the 150th anniversary of the Canon Law Department of the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

The book documents a pilgrimage through 21 parishes in Lima and Callao including the cathedrals of Lima, Carabayllo, and St. Peter in Lurín as well as the parishes of St. John Mary Vianney and St. Luke, among others.

“We have witnessed the grace of God expressed through the piety of thousands of families who come to adore the Lord in the Eucharist. We know well that Pope Leo XIV deeply values ​​each of these steps, for he himself taught us in Chiclayo that Jesus continues to become alive and present among us in every Eucharistic celebration,” Ángeles told EWTN News Español, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News.

When he was bishop of Chiclayo, Pope Leo encouraged the recognition of Ciudad Eten, the site of a Eucharistic miracle, as a “Eucharistic City.” He personally secured an 11-hectare plot of land (about 27 acres) for the construction of Peru’s first Eucharistic shrine.

In 2024, as Ángeles recalled, during the 53rd International Eucharistic Congress, he received a call from Monsignor Edgar Rimaycuna, personal secretary to the then-Cardinal Robert Prevost, who encouraged them to “seek every possible opportunity to make the miracle known.”

The Eucharistic miracle of Eten

On June 2, 1649, in the town of Santa Magdalena de Eten, during the Mass on the eve of the solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Divine Child appeared within the consecrated host.

The miracle occurred again on July 22 of the same year during the Mass celebrated in honor of the town’s patroness, St. Mary Magdalene. Two apparitions took place that day: first, the Child appeared once more, and in second, three intertwined hearts appeared, symbolizing the Most Holy Trinity.

Although the hosts in which the Divine Child of the Miracle appeared have not been preserved, the then-bishop of Chiclayo told ACI Prensa in 2019 that “the history, the data, and the devotion spanning these 370 years are quite well documented …. It was never submitted to the Vatican for formal Church approval, and we are working on that now."

Formal approval of the Eucharistic miracle by the Vatican now rests with Pope Leo XIV.

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

“In Jesus’ Name” takes viewers into the world of what an exorcist does and why exorcisms were established, and offers guidance on things that the faithful should consider staying away from in order to keep themselves safe.

The docuseries features prominent exorcists, theologians, and survivors of demonic oppression and examines how evil operates, how it enters human lives, and how it can be overcome. Through personal testimonies and expert insight, the docuseries explores the tension between good and evil, biblical teaching on exorcism, the reality of spiritual warfare, and, above all, the hope and power of Jesus Christ.

The creators of “In Jesus’ Name” seek to take exorcisms out of the sensational and instead provide an accurate view of how they are conducted and how people have found deliverance.

“With ‘In Jesus’ Name,’ we wanted to demystify the rite of exorcism and invite audiences to see how the Church responds to the presence of evil in an authoritative but compassionate and deeply human way,” Peter Gagnon, president of EWTN Studios, said in a press release.

“By giving viewers rare access to experienced exorcists, theologians and those who have confronted profound spiritual darkness firsthand, the series reveals not only the reality of spiritual warfare but the truth at its heart: the battle is real, but God’s love and grace is greater,” Gagnon said.

Father Dan Reehil, pastor at St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church in Columbia, Tennessee, and an appointed exorcist for the Diocese of Nashville, is one of the authoritative figures in the docuseries, alongside Father Vincent Lampert, who served for nearly 20 years as the designated exorcist for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, as well as Archbishop Jeffrey Grob of Milwaukee, a theological expert on the history of the Catholic rite of exorcism.

In an interview with “EWTN News Nightly,” Reehil emphasized that “the devil is real" and that while “thereʼs a lot of banter on social media and also the internet about the devil,” the faithful should focus their time “on God, particularly on Jesus Christ, who is the one who crushes Satan.”

He explained that when Lucifer rejected Godʼs plan and one-third of the angels followed Lucifer, those angels became the demons that were cast down to earth.

“Theyʼre cast down to earth, and now they roam the earth, and their No. 1 enemy, according to Revelation Chapter 12, is theyʼre making war against those who keep Godʼs commands and bear witness to Jesus Christ,” he said. “So if thatʼs you, you should at least be aware thereʼs a target on your back, [but] not to be afraid of it. Itʼs actually a badge of honor because youʼre in this great elect group of people that he hates because of who we are.”

Reehil shared that “the best thing you can do is have a very robust prayer life, have a deep relationship with Jesus Christ as a true disciple. And we use the same weapons. We use obedience to God, we use humility, we use purity, all the aspects of Our Lady would be the weapons we use in this battle.”

Created by EWTN Studios and Cumberland Creative, “In Jesus’ Name” is available for streaming on EWTN+ and EWTN.com as of Oct. 28. The first episode will also be available on the EWTN YouTube channel.

The cardinal expressed his gratitude to those who “showed their solidarity through prayers and expressions of affection and appreciation for the community” of the Redemptorist priest, the pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish, who passed away on Oct. 17.

“As a security measure, and in coordination with the fire department and other state institutions, we will proceed with a technical inspection of the structures of churches and parish buildings, as well as the mountings of religious objects that could potentially cause similar injuries,” Cabrera explained during an Oct. 28 press conference held in anticipation of the Mass marking the 100th anniversary of the feast of Christ the King, which he will celebrate on Saturday, Oct. 31.

“Accidents are not planned; they are chance occurrences … Some can be logically foreseen, and appropriate precautions can be taken to avoid them,” he added, noting that “there are 161 parishes, and each parish must ensure that its structures are in good condition.”

On Thursday, EWTN News Español, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, was told that the archdiocesan technical department, in collaboration with the fire department and other experts, will review the structural, electrical, water flow, and technical aspects of each parish.

This will be done, the archdiocese explained, according to the availability of the parish priests who will be present for the inspection, taking into account that with Advent approaching, there is an increase in church activities.

What will happen to the cross that fell on Sánchez?

Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish told EWTN News Español that the cross that fell on Sánchez has not been put back up. “What the media are saying is false,” the parish noted, referring to some reports stating that the crucifix had been returned to the wall where it had previously hung.

Father Pedro Calle, a Redemptorist priest who was in Guayaquil to participate in the novena for Sánchez, told EWTN News Español on Oct. 29 that whether or not the crucifix is ​​put back up “depends on the new parish priest who will be assigned. It is a matter of time and internal organization.”

El Niño phenomenon

At the press conference, Cabrera also addressed the El Niño weather phenomenon that is wreaking havoc in Guayaquil with heavy rains. According to the National Secretariat for Risk Management, it is estimated that 32,000 people have been affected by the rains.

The cardinal stated that each parish has “a team of volunteers ready to assist those in need. Furthermore, in each of the seven episcopal vicariates, locations have been designated for the collection of food and other supplies.”

A collection taken up at the Mass on Saturday, Oct. 31, will assist those affected.

The 100th anniversary of the feast of Christ the King

On Oct. 31, Cabrera will celebrate the Mass to commemorate the feast of Christ the King, established 100 years ago by Pope Pius XI, which left a lasting mark on life in Guayaquil and led to the custom of the faithful adorning their balconies with an image of the Lord and the flag of Ecuador.

In Ecuador, this feast is celebrated with the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to whom the country was consecrated on March 25, 1874, a consecration that was renewed this June. Ecuador was the first country in the world to be officially consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. At the conclusion of yesterday’s press conference, Cabrera blessed the image that will be displayed during Saturday’s Eucharist.

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

The shortwave service, which has operated under the call sign WEWN since its launch in 1992, will shut down on Oct. 31. EWTN’s board of governors recently confirmed the decision.

Warsaw pointed to the decline of shortwave radio consumption as one of the driving factors leading to the station’s closure. A widely used media source in the 20th century, shortwave’s popularity has decreased in the 21st century amid the rapid global uptake in streaming and digital platforms.

Operating costs at the WEWN network have been high relative to the declining number of shortwave listeners, Warsaw said, and the aging facility was in need of significant and expensive repairs, which he said would not be a “prudent stewardship of our resources.”

“As we shift the use of shortwave to newer and more far-reaching distribution channels, we remain grateful for the co-workers and benefactors who sustained the service for so long,” he said.

Among them, Warsaw recalled the late Dutch Catholic entrepreneur Piet Derkson and his wife, Trudy, whose $26 million gift made the construction of WEWN possible and helped Mother Angelica, EWTN’s foundress, advance the network’s mission of sharing the truth of the Gospel around the world.

“We are also mindful that it was Shortwave which inspired and allowed the growth of EWTN Radio,” he noted. Since its launch, EWTN Radio has grown to currently broadcast over 600 AM/FM stations worldwide, in addition to airing on satellite and digital platforms.

In 2008, EWTN had previously ceased direct shortwave broadcasts to North America. Since then, its English-language shortwave service had reached audiences primarily in Africa and the Middle East. The Spanish-language shortwave coverage was directed to Latin America.

EWTN Radio’s content continues to reach these audiences through its digital platforms, online streaming services, mobile applications, podcasts, satellite distribution, and its extensive network of AM/FM affiliates.

The award-winning team at the global Catholic network’s flagship nightly newscast, “EWTN News Nightly,” will kick off election night coverage at 6 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Nov. 3, with an hourlong, scene-setting special.

Anchors Veronica Dudo and Erik Rosales will be joined by EWTN News Vice President and Editorial Director Matthew Bunson, along with correspondents Owen Jensen, Roselle Reyes, Paola Flynn, “EWTN Pro-Life Weekly” host Abi Galván, and other colleagues on election night.

At 9 p.m. ET on election night, the network will return to the air with a half-hour special as early results come in.

The programming will include coverage of referendums on abortion in Virginia, Nevada, Idaho, and Missouri; key House, Senate, and gubernatorial races; and several other referendum questions Catholics are following closely.

Joining the team for analysis of the elections and the issues surrounding it will be Josh Altic of Ballotpedia, political analyst Tim Rosales, Kelsey Pritchard of SBA Pro-Life America, Alejandro Ramos of Ramos Research Institute, and Kristi Hamrick of Students for Life of America, among others.

"EWTN News offers vital and timely coverage and analysis of the midterm elections from the Catholic perspective,” Bunson said of the coverage.

“We provide reporting and commentary across multiple platforms and multiple languages, but above all we deliver professional award-winning journalism that is faithful to Catholic teaching and that touches on all of the issues that are of concern to Catholics,” he said.

“EWTN News is uniquely positioned to be the go-to news outlet for a proper understanding of the results of the vote and their implications for Catholics in the United States and around the world,” Bunson added.

To Bunson’s point, on Nov. 4, the network will also offer an expanded one-hour edition of “EWTN News Nightly” recapping all of the major results.

The coverage will be accessible on multiple platforms, including cable television, YouTube, EWTN.com, Roku, Amazon Fire, and the EWTN app, which is free in the Google Play and Apple stores.

The sisters of the Theological Institute of the Inter-Congregations of Lovers of the Holy Cross learned basic principles of Buddhist prayers and “practiced seated meditations” at the visit to Minh Dang Quang Buddhist Monastery on Oct. 26, according to a UCA News report. Controversy followed after photos circulated online of the visit, the report said.

Redemptorist Father Peter Nguyen Van Khai said the visit, which included offering incense and praying in front of a Buddhist statue, was inconsistent with Catholic teaching. “Good subjective intentions are not sufficient to justify an action that is objectively incompatible with the faith,” he said.

Number of bishops in Ireland to drop by a third following merger

The number of Catholic bishops in Ireland could decrease from 26 to 17 after a merger that was decided by Vatican consultations in which Pope Leo XIV participated prior to his election as pope.

The merger was planned during a meeting in February 2025 with Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh, Archbishop Dermot Farrell of Dublin, Archbishop Kieran O’Reilly of Cashel and Emly, and Archbishop Francis Duffy of Tuam, according to an Oct. 27 report from the Irish Times.

“Since the meeting in Rome held in February 2025, between the four archbishops of Ireland with Cardinal Robert Prevost ... the subject of reconfiguration of dioceses within the province of Munster has been on the agenda of the regular meetings of the seven Munster bishops,” a spokesperson for the bishops said in the report, noting a consultative process is underway that could take “a number of years.”

At UN, Holy See calls for ‘peaceful uses of outer space’

The apostolic nuncio to the United Nations, Archbishop Christophe El-Kassis, spoke out against the expansion of space activity at the expense of environmental damage at the 81st session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York City.

“Outer space is a common good entrusted to the responsibility of the entire human family. Its exploration and use hold extraordinary promise for scientific advancement and integral human development,” El-Kassis said in his Oct. 28 statement. “However, it is essential that such progress benefits all peoples, without creating new inequalities or exclusions.”

The nuncio further called for “greater international cooperation,” especially so that developing countries may benefit from any possible advances. “The Holy See therefore encourages States to pursue their common efforts to preserve outer space as a realm of peace, stability, and cooperation, for the benefit of present and future generations,” he said.

Displaced Christians in southern Lebanon appeal for protection, return home

Families from Qouzah, a Christian village in southern Lebanon, are appealing to the Vatican and the United States for help returning to their homes after months of displacement.

Residents have called for their village to be protected from further conflict, while Father Antonios Hanna, the parish priest, reported extensive damage to homes and the 120-year-old St. Joseph Church, ACI MENA, the Arabic-language sister service of EWTN News, reported on Oct. 27.

Before the latest displacement, approximately 54 families lived in the village. Many now face unemployment, rent payments, and difficulties meeting basic needs. Hanna emphasized that residents want neither conflict nor confrontation but lasting peace that will allow them to return to their homes, churches, and farmland.

Syrian curriculum changes spark controversy over religion, women

Changes to Syrian school textbooks have sparked criticism over the removal or alteration of material concerning women, the arts, civic education, and national history.

According to documented comparisons of older and revised textbooks, images of women and girls were removed or digitally altered to include Islamic coverings, ACI MENA reported Oct. 26. References to traditional dances, famous artworks, and historical figures were also deleted. Some lessons on citizenship, democracy, and respect for the law were replaced or removed, while changes to historical and geographical references raised further concerns.

Critics argue that the revisions promote a narrower religious and cultural perspective at the expense of Syriaʼs diverse heritage. The controversy has renewed debate over the role of education in preserving historical accuracy, encouraging critical thinking, and respecting the countryʼs social and religious diversity.

African Church leaders urge quality formation as priestly vocations grow

Catholic leaders and formation personnel in Africa are calling for careful discernment of candidates, qualified formators, and continuing formation for clergy and laypeople as the continent records growth in priestly vocations.

In responses shared with ACI Africa, the sister service of EWTN News in Africa, they said the increase in major seminarians calls for attention to candidates’ motivations, human and spiritual maturity, pastoral preparation, and safeguarding.

“Rigorous discernment at the entry level should be the norm,” Archbishop Ignatius Ayau Kaigama of Abuja, Nigeria, said. “Careful vetting matters more than recruitment drives.” The archbishop further urged psychological and human screening, and for willingness to turn away candidates who are deemed unfit for the priesthood.

Bishop reflects on 20 years of faith and service in Arabian Peninsula

After nearly two decades of service in the Arabian Peninsula, Swiss Capuchin Bishop Paul Hinder is preparing to return home, carrying with him memories of a diverse and deeply faithful Church.

Appointed apostolic vicar of Arabia in 2005 and of Southern Arabia in 2011, he served communities across six countries, visiting Christians in Yemen and witnessing the devotion of migrant Catholics in Saudi Arabia, ACI MENA reported Oct. 23.

Hinder helped build more than seven churches, supported the growth of the clergy, and encouraged lay participation, vocations, and Catholic education. He said his most lasting contribution was helping form people, whom he called the “living stones” of the Church. As he departs, he urged the faithful to remain united, resist hatred, and become peacemakers.

The state earlier this year became the latest in the U.S. to officially remove all limits on abortion. Lawmakers passed a law that permits abortion at any point in pregnancy for any reason; Democratic Gov. Maura Healey signed the bill on Aug. 10.

Opponents of abortion subsequently launched an effort to suspend and potentially repeal the law, seeking enough signatures to enact a “veto referendum” that would put the law up for a statewide vote in 2028.

The advocates needed to collect about 37,000 signatures to place the measure on the ballot; collecting just under 50,000 signatures, meanwhile, would suspend the law prior to that election.

Myrna Maloney Flynn, the president of Massachusetts Citizens for Life, told EWTN News on Oct. 30 that the initiative had collected more than 100,000 signatures toward the effort.

The pro-life coalition will deliver the signatures to the Massachusetts secretary of state, she said. “Then we’ll wait for his office to formally confirm the results.”

“We do not know how long his office will take to verify,” she said.

She said the governor could enact an “emergency preamble” that would nullify the presumptive suspension of the law, though Healey “has not indicated her intentions” in that regard. The governor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the initiative.

Upon its passage, the state abortion measure drew rebuke from the state’s Catholic bishops, who described it as “a radical measure which is gravely immoral.”

The advocacy group CatholicVote, meanwhile, called for Healey — who identifies as Catholic — to be excommunicated.

“Healey is a Catholic in a state of grave sin. She has publicly and now legislatively cooperated in the destruction of innocent human life,” CatholicVote President Kelsey Reinhardt said at the time.

Commenting on the ad, Kelsey Reinhardt, president and CEO of the advocacy organization CatholicVote, said: “I take him at his word that he is a man of prayer and he, as an American Muslim, deserves the same religious liberty we Catholics have fought to protect for two centuries.”

“What I question is something else,” Reinhardt continued. “El-Sayed has repeatedly answered fair questions with false equivalences, and he has put Catholics and our Church at the center of them.”

Reinhardt was referring to El-Sayed’s repeated equation of Catholic canon law with sharia. Addressing concerns about his Islamic faith and fears over the imposition of sharia, in a video shared on social media El-Sayed emphasized that if elected to the Senate, “I’m going to swear an oath to that U.S. Constitution.”

In the video, El-Sayed told a town hall questioner in Michigan, who identified himself as a Christian, that “because of the U.S. Constitution you have the right to live according to canon law and also because of the U.S. Constitution you don’t get to enforce canon law on anyone else.”

Reinhardt squarely accuses El-Sayed of drawing a “false equivalence” between the two systems. “The Code of Canon Law is the internal legal order of the Catholic Church. It governs how the Church administers sacraments, organizes dioceses, and disciplines its own clergy. It makes no claim over the criminal code of any nation,” she explained.

”Classical sharia is a different kind of thing. Many American Muslims understand it as a matter of personal devotion, and that is their right,” she continued. “In its historic jurisprudence, though, sharia is a comprehensive legal order. It reaches into family law, criminal punishment, and the governance of the state. That is why it is written into the constitutions of several nations, and canon law is written into none,” Reinhardt pointed out.

“One can respect both traditions and still see that they are not the same. A Senate candidate should know the difference,” she said.

The issue first came to the forefront during an Aug. 24 interview with Fox News host Jesse Watters, when El-Sayed asked, “Do you know what canon law is, Jesse? ... canon law is the name for Christian law … Nobody is trying to push sharia law on anyone else. Just like I hope nobody is trying to push canon law on anybody else, because we live in an America where you should have the freedom of your religion.”

Following that exchange, Catholic Answers’ Todd Aglialoro also pointed out the problematic comparison and why the issue is a relevant one.

"Sharia is a broad term for codes of Muslim conduct,” Aglialoro explained. “In many countries that are predominantly Muslim, Sharia is deeply embedded into civil and criminal law, with its prescriptions, judgments, and punishments serving a governing function.”

In the West, Aglialoro continued, sharia has become a flashpoint of controversy in places “where Muslim-dense locales experience conflict between local law enforcement, based on liberal Western values, and neighborhood Muslim councils dispensing gray-market Sharia judgments that often contradict those values.”

“The majority of these hot spots are in Europe, but as Islam grows in certain regions of the United States, there has been talk of measures to prevent that kind of ‘parallel justice’ from taking root here," he noted.

Gabriel Said Reynolds, who serves on the Vatican Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue with Muslims and is a professor of Islamic Studies and Theology at the University of Notre Dame, told EWTN News that for Muslims, “God’s will for humanity is sharia.”

Sharia includes explicit implications for non-Muslims. For example, Islamic law allows for a head tax known as “jizya” on Jews and Christians. At different times Christians in the Islamic world have suffered from abduction, enslavement, subjugation, and forced conversion.

In contrast, the Code of Canon Law is neither “Christian law” nor a civil code for all Christians, but orders the life of the Catholic Church. Unlike sharia, as Aglialoro points out, “Catholic canon law is not about superimposing a full spectrum of doctrinal and moral teaching onto the everyday life of religious adherents. It is more like a thick binder of organizational bylaws." 

Professor David Long, who teaches canon law at The Catholic University of America, told EWTN News that comparing canon law and sharia may help illustrate believers’ “freedom to observe religious obligations” but “does not establish that canon law and sharia share the same sources of authority or jurisdiction.”

Long said of El-Sayed’s comparison: “As an appeal to the religious freedom protected by the Constitution, the analogy makes a useful point: Catholics and Muslims alike may seek freedom to observe their religious obligations without thereby claiming authority to impose those obligations on their fellow citizens. That constitutional argument does not depend on the two legal traditions being equivalent.”

“Islamic jurisprudence also provides rules for civil government, including those affecting non-Muslims. The distinction is substantial, but it must be stated without reducing canon law to administrative rules or treating every Muslim’s religious observance as a proposal for state enforcement,” Long added.

For Christians, Long contends, the central issue concerning sharia is the distinction between religious freedom and coercive state authority.

At the time of publication, El-Sayed’s campaign staff had not responded to an EWTN News request for the candidate to clarify his position on the matter.

In an email to students that was reported on by the student-led publication at the college, The Dartmouth, on Wednesday, university president Sian Leah Beilock said Schnell had resigned and was “leaving the university” after an independent, faculty-led committee determined that Schnell may have violated university policies when he used AI in select academic works and popular articles without proper disclosure to the publications he was writing for. Dartmouth will have an interim provost through 2028, Beilock said. 

Several fellow Catholic scholars, including some who have criticized Schnell’s apparent use of AI in writing, expressed surprise at the news, which underscores the thorny questions surrounding the rapidly growing adoption of AI tools in professional writing, particularly in higher education.

“Obviously, I am against AI writing. And yet I feel whiplash here,” said Jennifer Frey, a Catholic philosopher at the University of Virginia, on social media. “Who can hang a man in the wild, wild west, which is an accurate description of AI in higher ed right now? Especially at Dartmouth, which has so strongly encouraged [AI] use in the name of ‘not being left behind’!”

A native of Venezuela, Schnell, a mathematical biologist, was named chief academic officer of the vaunted Ivy League school at the start of the 2025-26 academic year. His appointment generated positive attention among some Catholics in higher education, who expressed appreciation for Schnell’s push for a more classical vision of university life centered on formation in beauty, truth, and friendship.

“His promotion was such a ray of hope in higher education, especially at elite universities,” said Jeremy Tate, the founder and CEO of the Classical Learning Test (CLT), an alternative to the SAT and ACT designed around classical education.

Beyond the secular higher education world, Schnell, who formerly served as a dean of the College of Science at the University of Notre Dame, was also a leading voice of reform at Catholic universities.

In June, Schnell addressed members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) at the the group’s plenary assembly in Orlando, Florida, telling the bishops that they “could be more vocal” and “more pushy” when it comes to making sure that Catholic universities are faithful to their unique mission of forming saints.

Controversial AI usage

But controversy began to swirl following a September article by The Dartmouth, which reported that several of Schnell’s public writings since 2022, including academic papers and op-eds for various newspapers, had been flagged by Pangram, a leading AI-detection tool, as overwhelmingly “AI-written.”

The Dartmouth’s report was prompted by a prior investigative piece by the publication Semafor, which in a broader investigation of AI-generated writing in major newspapers had flagged one of Schnell’s op-eds — a piece for The Washington Post about combating AI-facilitated cheating in schools — as being “100%” AI-generated.

In response to The Dartmouth’s September investigative report, Schnell said in an emailed statement that he uses AI for “language refinement, copyediting, improving clarity and organization and making writing processes more efficient,” but “review[s] the final text and take[s] responsibility for its content.”

“I develop ideas and arguments, conduct the research, evaluate the evidence and sources, determine the structure, prepare drafts and decide what appears in the final text,” Schnell wrote to The Dartmouth. “I regard these technologies as assistive tools. They do not identify the problem, design the research project, guarantee the validity of research results, interpretations, citations, conclusions or substitute for my research, intellectual judgment or authorship.”

He also added that AI detectors are “known to be unreliable.”

“There’s evidence that they’re biased against nonnative English speakers, such as myself,” Schnell wrote.

Schnell wrote three op-eds for the National Catholic Register, the sister partner of EWTN News, this year, two of which were on the theme of AI use and its effects on education. All three were flagged in The Dartmouth story on the provost’s AI usage. Schnell did not comment when asked Thursday if he used AI tools in drafting his commentaries for the Register. He referred questions about the Dartmouth College investigation and his resignation to his attorneys, who did not respond to an inquiry before publication but responded to the Register on Oct. 30.

“Dr. Schnell has decided to resign as Provost and from the Dartmouth faculty. He came to this difficult decision out of deep respect for his colleagues and the broader Dartmouth community, and so as not to bring further distraction to the institution. Although he was not afforded a meaningful opportunity to present his account during the College’s internal review, he has chosen to allow the Dartmouth community to move forward,” Andrew Miltenberg, Schnell’s attorney, told the Register in an email.

“He remains grateful to the colleagues and students who made his time at Dartmouth so meaningful. Over a distinguished academic career, Dr. Schnell has made lasting contributions to higher education, and he looks forward to continuing that work.”

In his public writings and in interviews, including with the Register, Schnell often addressed the current and future effects of AI on education, saying that he sees the rise of AI as an opportunity for classrooms to return to more low-tech, personalized modes of learning.

At the same time, Schnell has also written that he believes educators can make positive usage of large language model (LLM) AI tools.

“Used with discipline, [LLMs] can be genuinely useful,” he wrote, in part, for the Register in one of his op-eds. “A professor may use them to prepare discussion questions. A researcher may use them to survey literature more quickly. An administrator may use them to accelerate routine writing. It would be foolish to deny their utility.”

Catholic reaction

In the full investigative report into Schnell’s use of AI, published by Dartmouth, fellow faculty determined that Schnell had used AI to “meaningfully alter his writing in violation of at least one publication’s AI use and/or disclosure requirement, failed to disclose his use of AI in clear violation of a national newspaper’s stated policy, was not forthcoming about his AI use, and fell short of the standards set forth by” various academic codes of conduct. 

Some higher-ed reform advocates, however, have questioned whether the outspoken Catholic scholar was treated fairly in the process.

“Was he treated with extra scrutiny because of his disposition?” asked Tate, who suggested that AI usage is widespread among university administrators. “I think there’s a conversation to be had.”

“I’m not saying he didn’t make a mistake, but this is a huge loss,” Tate added. “I think everybody loses here.”

Frey told the Register that she found Dartmouth’s decision shocking, in part because the university appears to have “suddenly drawn very clear and sharp lines with the provost’s own use of AI” when the acceptable norms of AI use in higher education remain largely undefined.

Additionally, she noted that Dartmouth itself has actively promoted the use of LLMs to “augment” traditional methods of education. According to The New York Times, the Ivy League school even entered into an agreement last year with Anthropic and Amazon Web Services to provide its faculty and students access to AI tech.

“Perhaps a better outcome, for Dartmouth and for us all, would have been to use the revelation of Schnell’s AI use to start a serious and transparent conversation on our campuses about what we think the lines [about AI use] are and why people and institutions draw them where they do,” she said.

“I am inclined to the view that there is a lot more for us to figure out before we begin to discipline and punish,” she added.

Tate said that he hopes Schnell has additional opportunities to “have a big impact somewhere in higher ed,” noting that “he’s got a lot he can give.”

He also said that others must work to carry forward the vision of higher-education reform that Schnell helped reintroduce into the national discourse, including conversations about the fundamental purpose of a university education.

“He was entering into that in a way that was really beautiful, with really timeless wisdom,” Tate said. “So let’s hold on to this mission. It may be the only mission that can save higher ed right now.”

This story was updated at 5:28 p.m. ET on Oct. 30, 2026, with the statement from Schnell’s attorney.

This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, the sister partner of EWTN News, and has been adapted by EWTN News.

In his homily during Mass on Oct. 29, Bishop Wolfgang Pisa of the Lindi Diocese appealed for forgiveness for those held in connection with the October 2025 election violence, adding that acknowledging difficult realities should guide the country’s response to the violence that followed the disputed elections.

He was speaking at St. Andrew Kaggwa Cathedral in his Diocese of Lindi on the day TEC dedicated national prayers for victims a year after the Oct. 29, 2025, polls.

“If we say that the current electoral law and the present constitution cannot deliver elections that are fair, truthful, peaceful, and secure, then that is the truth that should guide us,” Pisa said.

He added: “We must defend the truth, not protect wrongdoing. Let us do what is good and seek it at all times, so that we may avoid evil and abandon it completely.”

Drawing on the account of John the Baptist in Mark 6:17–29, the TEC chairman called on Tanzanians to acknowledge and defend the truth, even at personal cost.

“John the Baptist acknowledged the truth, even though doing so came at a great personal sacrifice. He was prepared to acknowledge and defend the truth,” he said.

Pisa urged the people of God to allow themselves to “be possessed by the truth and guided by it.”

“Let us not attempt to distort the truth, because it will remain what it is,” the member of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin (OFM Cap) said.

Turning to the responsibility of those in positions of influence, Pisa recalled how Queen Esther intervened when Haman plotted to destroy the Jewish people. He urged Tanzanians serving in public institutions and other sectors of society to use their positions to prevent further violence.

“The first form of influence is the influence of prayer: fasting and praying. The second is to make use of people who have the ability to influence decisions. They must exercise genuine influence to ensure that such events do not happen again,” he said.

“In all this, we must always seek what is good. But this is not the time merely to complain. It is time to call upon other people like Esther in every institution to do their part: to exercise influence and wisdom.”

The TEC chairman also called for repentance, inviting Tanzanians to examine both acts of wrongdoing and failures to act when others were in danger.

“Through my failure to act, my failure to speak, or my failure to give direction, perhaps killings occurred, people were injured, people went missing, or people were unable to bury their relatives,” he said.

Invoking the biblical account of Cain and Abel, Pisa urged Tanzanians to reflect on their responsibility toward those who suffered during the violence.

“Like Cain, we continue to be asked: ‘Where is your brother Abel?’” the bishop said.

He also appealed for forgiveness for people held, tortured, or arrested for political reasons and in connection with the previous year’s elections.

“If there are others who might also have made mistakes and are being held, tortured, or have been arrested for political reasons and in connection with the previous election, fundamentally, they should not be killed,” he said.

The bishop warned that killing them would not resolve the problem.

“That will not solve the problem; it will bring more hatred and greater division,” he said. “Therefore, just as we ask God to forgive our sins, they too should be granted forgiveness.”

Pisa concluded by calling on the faithful to continue praying for Tanzania and its leaders.

“Let us continue to ask for Godʼs mercy and pray for our nation. Let us pray for all government leaders, asking God, Our Lord, to guide their minds and hearts according to his will, so that all people may enjoy peace, justice, freedom, and truth,” he said.

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

“Machines are tools, not persons,” Leo said in his address.

The pontiff held a private audience on Friday with participants in a meeting on “The Future of AI: A Dialogue Between the Vatican and the Scientific World on the Development and Applications of Intelligent Technologies” at the Vatican. The Pontifical Academy for Life and the Future of Life Institute organized the one-day conference.

AI cannot be given human rights or personhood

During the meeting, members of the Vatican Commission on Artificial Intelligence and scholars discussed ongoing concerns as AI continues to develop.

Noting this concern in his address, the pope warned against efforts to grant AI technologies rights and legal status comparable to those of human beings.

“Today, some propose granting these systems rights, or even legal personhood,” Leo said. “Such an approach risks obscuring human responsibility and leaving those who suffer harm to confront a faceless entity.”

Drawing on his encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, Leo explained that the future of AI technologies depends on the choices made today, choices he hopes will promote the dignity of the human person.

“As a technology developed by human beings, its future depends on the choices we make,” Leo said.

“A reliable system that serves the human person is of greater value than one that is exceptionally powerful but whose consequences cannot be adequately foreseen or controlled.”

Earlier in October, Leo explained the difference between classical art and AI-made art, saying there is an “ontological difference” that exists “even before an aesthetic one.”

Vatican AI leadership and calls to stop super-development

Several conference participants, according to an Oct. 30 press release, expressed hope in the Vatican’s leadership on AI ethical issues. One of those was Max Tegmark, a physicist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“With strong moral leadership, the Vatican can help steer AI development onto a better pro-human path,” Tegmark said.

Others called for an end to the super-development of AI amid fears that AI is making humans obsolete.

“We must turn aside from this trajectory before it is too late and pursue other trajectories,” said Stuart Russell, a professor of computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, adding that if AI developers succeed in super-development, “there’s a good chance that every human being will die.”

The changes were approved by the pontiff on Oct. 19 through a “Rescriptum ex Audientia Sanctissimi,” a Latin expression referring to a decision or provision approved by the pope following an audience granted to a curial official or ecclesiastical authority.

The document is signed by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, secretary of state, and amends Articles 62 §3, 68 §2, and 68 §4 of the Regulations for Personnel of the Roman Curia.

Changes to the role of the disciplinary commission

The reform introduces a clarification to article 62 §3 to define more precisely the responsibilities of the Roman Curia’s Disciplinary Commission.

The new wording states that the commission shall act in determining certain disciplinary sanctions, “with the exception of suspension for a period of up to 30 days.” As a result, shorter suspensions will no longer require the commission’s involvement, while more serious sanctions will continue to be examined by the body.

The change means that, when an employee commits an offense, the head of a dicastery may now impose a sanction directly, including suspension from work for up to 30 days. Beyond that threshold, the Disciplinary Commission must be involved to assess the appropriateness of the sanction.

Previously, even suspensions of less than 30 days required review by the Disciplinary Commission. Under the new rules, such review is necessary only for suspensions exceeding 30 days.

Another significant change concerns proceedings that could result in a lengthy suspension or dismissal.

Until now, the regulations provided employees with 10 days to submit their explanations after receiving notice of the alleged violations.

The new rule maintains that deadline for ordinary cases but introduces an additional safeguard for more serious situations. Specifically, when the alleged conduct is considered by the head of the department to be “liable to result in a suspension exceeding 30 days or dismissal,” the employee will be granted “15 days to present his or her defense.”

Right to legal assistance

The reform also explicitly incorporates the employee’s right to legal assistance in the most serious disciplinary proceedings.

The new text states that the employee may present a defense “making use, if appropriate, of a lawyer chosen from among the members of the Corps of Lawyers of the Holy See or the Register of Lawyers of the Roman Curia.”

This is a significant innovation within the Curia’s internal regulations, as it expressly provides for legal representation when the potential sanction could involve a lengthy suspension or termination of employment.

Obligation to inform the employee

The amendment to article 68 §4 also establishes new notification requirements for heads of Vatican departments and institutions.

When the head of an entity considers that a “suspension exceeding 30 days or dismissal” is warranted, he or she must forward the case file to the Roman Curia’s Disciplinary Commission and inform the employee “of the measure adopted and of the possibility of making use of his or her own lawyer” from among those authorized under the regulations.

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

The appointments mark a leadership change at the body responsible for overseeing the Catholic Churchʼs synodal process. They follow the departure of Sister Nathalie Becquart, who had served as undersecretary since February 2021.

In recent years, Becquart became one of the most prominent figures in the synodal process initiated by Pope Francis and continued by Leo XIV. She was also the first woman to have voting rights at an assembly of the Synod of Bishops, a milestone in the Churchʼs recent history.

A Jesuit deeply involved in the synodal process

Costa, the new undersecretary, was born in Genoa in 1967 and entered the Society of Jesus in 1992. Trained as a sociologist, he earned a diploma of advanced studies in political and moral sociology from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris.

Costa is well known in Italian Church circles. From 2010 to 2021, he served as editor of the journal Aggiornamenti Sociali, and from 2007 to 2025, he chaired the San Fedele Cultural Foundation in Milan.

He has been closely involved in the synodal process, serving as special secretary for both the 15th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, dedicated to young people in 2018, and the 16th Ordinary General Assembly on synodality, held from 2021 to 2024.

Until now, he had served as a consultor to the General Secretariat of the Synod.

A liturgy expert

Alongside Costa, the pope appointed Sister Elena Massimi, a member of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, also known as the Salesian Sisters, as undersecretary.

Born in Rome in 1975, Massimi made her perpetual profession in 2009 and earned a doctorate in theology, specializing in pastoral liturgy, from the Santa Giustina Institute of Pastoral Liturgy in Padua, Italy, which is affiliated with the Pontifical Athenaeum of St. Anselm.

She currently teaches liturgy and sacramental theology at the Pontifical Salesian University, serves as president of the Italian Association of Professors and Scholars of Liturgy, and oversees music for the liturgy at the National Liturgical Office of the Italian Episcopal Conference.

Her appointment strengthens womenʼs representation in one of the Roman Curiaʼs most important bodies and brings recognized academic and pastoral expertise in liturgy to the synodal leadership team.

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

A district court in Tarnów, southern Poland, on Oct. 29 found Bishop Andrzej Jeż of Tarnów guilty and sentenced him to two years' “restriction of liberty,” a noncustodial penalty. Instead of prison, 1,000 zlotys (about $254) of his monthly salary will go to a childrenʼs charity.

The court also ordered him to pay 10,000 zlotys (about $2,538) on each count into a state victims' fund. Prosecutor Marcin Stępień had sought a suspended sentence and a fine of 20,000 zlotys (about $5,075).

The verdict is the outcome of the first criminal trial of a Polish bishop on that charge. The diocese has announced it will appeal.

The courtʼs reasoning

“The court believes that the defendantʼs task was merely, and yet as much as, to file the appropriate notifications, not to assess individual cases,” Judge Małgorzata Adamczyk said.

She found the bishopʼs testimony not credible.

The curia said it “does not agree with the courtʼs decision” and stressed that, in both cases, the curia made formal notifications to law enforcement authorities. It expressed “deep regret for the harm and suffering of all persons harmed by sexual crimes.”

At the trialʼs opening in February, Jeż, who has led the diocese since 2012, pleaded not guilty and apologized to those harmed.

Since July 2017, Polish law has required that authorities be immediately informed of credible knowledge of the sexual abuse of a child under 15.

The first case concerns former priest Stanisław P., who prosecutors found had harmed at least 95 children in Poland and Ukraine. Prosecutors closed the case in 2022 as time-barred.

The curia said the bishop had concrete information only in 2019 and notified prosecutors in 2020. Stępień countered that a Church tribunal had found the priest guilty in a 2013 decree issued by Jeż and that this earlier finding meant the delay left the abuse of 23 boys time-barred.

The second case concerns a priest, Tomasz K., accused of abusing minors between 2008 and 2010. The curia said the bishop learned only in late 2021 that a victim may have been under 15 and reported it that December, while prosecutors said the curia knew in 2017. The priestʼs case is pending in Nowy Sącz.

Other Polish bishops, including Bishop Jan Tyrawa and Archbishop Andrzej Dzięga, have resigned after Vatican inquiries into their handling of abuse claims. None faced criminal charges.

Leo, who has mostly lived outside of the U.S. since the 1980s, “has exercised his right to vote as a United States citizen, whenever he was eligible to do so,” the Holy See said in a statement provided to EWTN News.

The Vatican confirmed that “in keeping with this long-standing practice of civic participation, [Leo] has submitted his mail-in ballot in Chicago” ahead of the 2026 U.S. midterm elections.

Leo confirmed through the Vatican’s statement that “during his years of residence in Peru he exercised his right to vote whenever he was eligible to do so.”

“The Holy Father expresses his belief in the right and the duty of citizens to participate in democratic processes,” the statement added.

Leo’s absentee ballot marks the first time a Catholic pope has voted in a U.S. election in Church history. The United States was established in 1776, about 18 centuries after the founding of the Catholic Church.

The Holy Father, the first pope from the United States, is still a U.S. citizen and also holds Peruvian citizenship, though his election to the papacy raised esoteric questions about those national statuses, such as whether or not he would still pay taxes in the U.S. while serving as head of the Catholic Church.

A 2025 bill proposed in the U.S. House of Representatives moved to “protect the citizenship of, and provide tax-exempt status to, any American elected as the supreme pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church,” a clear reference to Leo’s then-new papacy. The bill ultimately stalled in committee.

Unique among world leaders, the pope serves simultaneously as the universal spiritual head of the Catholic Church and as the head of the Holy See, a distinct sovereign entity under international law that serves as the central government of the Catholic Church.

Following the news of the pope’s vote, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said in a statement that Catholic Americans “are blessed to be able to participate in our nation’s political and public life.”

“With the midterm elections approaching in the United States, the Conference has been encouraging Catholics to exercise their right to vote and to do so in a way that places our faith before our politics,” the bishops said. “In voting, our Holy Father sets the example that encourages each citizen to exercise their civic responsibility.”

Voting history obtained by EWTN News from the Illinois government shows that, prior to being elected pope, Leo voted in multiple U.S. elections while living outside the country, including primary and general elections in 2012, 2016, and 2024.

It is not clear what type of ballot Leo received for the 2026 election. The U.S. government says that overseas citizens whose “intent to return [to the U.S.] is uncertain” are only eligible to receive a “federal-only” ballot, meaning Leo may not have voted in state or local elections on the ballot he cast this year.

This story was updated at 12:40 p.m. ET on Friday, Oct. 30, 2026, with information on Pope Leo XIV’s voting history and information on overseas ballot rules, and at 1:20 p.m. ET with a statement from the U.S. bishops.

“The Holy See has postponed it until next year with no specific date set as of yet because the appropriate conditions do not exist for the bishops who are members of the episcopal conference,” explained the prelate, who also serves as the bishop of Jinotega, in a statement to EWTN News Español, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News.

The “ad limina apostolorum” visit (“to the threshold of the apostles”) is a visit made to the Vatican by bishops from around the world, organized by country and occurring every five years to report to the various dicasteries on the situation in their respective dioceses. These visits conclude with an audience with the pope, who recently met separately with the bishops from Honduras and Panama.

Herrera, who has been in exile since November 2024 after being expelled by the dictatorship of President Daniel Ortega and his wife and vice president, Rosario Murillo, in Nicaragua, participated in a recent meeting regarding the apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, which brought together the presidents of bishops’ conferences from around the world. In that context, the Nicaraguan prelate was able to meet personally with Pope Leo XIV on Oct. 12.

‘We would be left without shepherds’

When asked about the suspension of the ad limina visit, a priest currently serving in Nicaragua, who requested anonymity to avoid reprisals from the regime, told EWTN News Español that there is a factor “related to the reality, the context in which we live here in Nicaragua, that must be taken into account: [the bishops] can’t leave, and the fear is real. If someone leaves [to go to Rome], it‘s possible they might not be allowed to return.”

“Imagine if all the bishops currently in the country were to leave, and the government suddenly decided not to allow them back in — we would be left without a single bishop. Therefore, it’s a matter of prudence not to go on the ad limina visit, because we would be left without shepherds here in the Church” of Nicaragua, he added.

“In any case, the Nicaraguan Bishops’ Conference was already represented there, in a sense, through its president, Bishop Herrera,” the priest said.

Another Nicaraguan priest in exile, who also requested anonymity for the safety of his family and friends in Nicaragua, concurred, stating that “the bishops did indeed have the visit scheduled, but there are two factors at play: government pressure against them and the fear of being stuck outside the country.”

Nicaragua currently has nine active bishops, four of whom are in exile: Herrera; Bishop Silvio Báez, auxiliary bishop of Managua, who was forced to leave the country in 2019 for being critical of the dictatorship; Bishop Isidoro Mora of Siuna; and Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa and apostolic administrator of Estelí. The latter two were expelled from the country in January 2024.

The dictatorship maintains a ban on the ordination of deacons and priests in the dioceses of Jinotega, Siuna, Matagalpa, and Estelí, where bishops are not present.

Furthermore, Bishop Abelardo Mata, the 80-year-old bishop emeritus of Estelí, has become the latest target of the dictatorship in recent months. He was arrested for praying for the persecuted Church in Nicaragua and confined to his home in Tisma (Masaya district), from which he is apparently not allowed to leave.

Dictatorship doesnʼt allow any mention of ‘bishops in exile’

Martha Patricia Molina, author of the report “Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church,” which documents thousands of attacks by the dictatorship against the Catholic Church since 2018, told EWTN News Español that, according to her sources, “the visit was suspended because the relationship between the Church and the Nicaraguan dictatorship is undergoing serious problems, and for that reason, it was not considered appropriate to carry it out.”

Molina also noted that the last ad limina visit by the bishops of Nicaragua took place nine years ago in 2017 and that “given the current context in which the Church in Nicaragua finds itself, it’s impossible for the bishops to meet especially when the dictatorship doesn’t even allow the names of the exiled bishops to be mentioned.”

“If the bishops currently in Nicaragua were to travel, they would be denied reentry into the country. I believe the Holy See is aware of this situation and chose not to take that risk,” she emphasized. Molina described this as a “prudent” decision, given the “severe conditions of religious persecution that our Church in Nicaragua is facing.”

The Holy See Press Office has not yet responded to an inquiry from EWTN News Español regarding the suspension of the ad limina visit by the Nicaraguan episcopate.

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

The date is not just another day on the calendar: The Holy Fatherʼs visit to Uruguay coincides with the feast day of the country’s patroness, Our Lady of the Thirty-Three, a figure deeply rooted in the spirituality and history of the most secular republic in the region.

Between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Uruguay experienced an unusually harsh process of separating church and state, which is why there are officially no religious holidays or symbols in public institutions. In Uruguay, presidents do not take their oath of office on the Bible, there are no chaplains for the armed forces, Holy Week is referred to as “Tourism Week,” and Christmas is called “Family Day.”

Nevertheless, in anticipation of the pope’s arrival, the Church and the state are currently working side by side and with “great expectation” to welcome him and to offer the best possible experience, explained the archbishop of Montevideo, Cardinal Daniel Sturla, during a conference titled “Pope Leo XIV’s Visit to South America,” organized by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN International).

In a continent with a strong Catholic presence, the cardinal acknowledged, “Uruguay is the exception, a country that has experienced intense secularization for over 100 years.”

Citing data from the latest survey, while noting that survey results should be viewed with some caution, Sturla explained that “only 33% of Uruguayans identify as Catholic; 28% believe in God but do not belong to any specific church or religion; 11% follow other religions; and 28% are agnostics or atheists.” These figures “set it apart from the rest of Latin America,” he observed.

However, he described Uruguayan society as “pluralistic and democratic,” with 3.5 million inhabitants, nearly half of whom live in the city of Montevideo.

In Uruguay, “the Church has freedom of action,” he acknowledged. “Although it has often been sidelined, there are high expectations; in fact, the current president of Uruguay himself traveled to Rome and extended an invitation to Pope Leo to come and visit us,” he noted.

When addressing the reasons for the country’s extensive secularization, he acknowledged that there are several, some rooted in history, among other factors, and noted that this process “has taken deep root among the population; it has been very intense and has left its mark on Uruguayan culture.” Nevertheless, he observed that, within this context, “the Church proclaims Jesus Christ and maintains a presence throughout the entire national territory.”

A Church that works tirelessly

“I like to say that in this context, the Church in Uruguay ‘keeps on rowing,’ [works tirelessly]. It is a Church that I describe as poor and free, small and beautiful,” he noted.

In Uruguay, “being a priest is not, let’s put it this way, a badge of honor; ambition is not involved. Rather, it is a service rendered with great simplicity. It’s not necessarily a position of prestige simply by virtue of being a priest, but rather through how he lives his life and his self-giving,” he explained.

“We await the pope with great affection, while also working, as I mentioned, in coordination with the state,” he said, noting that the visit “will have a civic dimension, but it will be, above all, a pastoral visit.”

One aspect of the visit that the cardinal said he finds particularly beautiful is that “in Montevideo, the pope will visit a very needy, impoverished neighborhood, the area with the highest concentration of the Catholic Church’s presence in the entire country,” he said, referring to the Borro neighborhood, located in the Casavalle basin.

“There, in the parish that the pope will visit [Our Lady of Guadalupe] within an area spanning just a few blocks, a few hundred meters, there are around 20 Catholic initiatives, including parishes and chapels, but above all social projects that address issues such as housing, education, care for the elderly, and vocational training,” he enumerated. “In other words, there is a very tangible, very vibrant reality.”

In Uruguay, Sturla noted, “there is an expectation that extends beyond the 33% who are Catholic. Surveys indicate that 60% of Uruguayans are very hopeful about the pope’s visit; there is virtually no opposition to it — on the contrary, there is a desire to welcome him in the best way possible.”

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

On Saturday, Oct. 31, and on Sunday, Nov. 1, Evening Prayer 1 of the Liturgy of the Hours is for All Saints and the vigil Mass on Saturday will observe the Mass of All Saints.

What is the solemnity of All Saints?

Solemnities rank above feasts and memorials and are the highest liturgical celebrations in the Catholic Church. They honor significant mysteries of the Christian faith, including events in the lives of Jesus and Mary, as well as key saints.

The solemnity of All Saints celebrates all Christian saints — those formally canonized by the Church and those who are not but have attained heaven. It is typically a holy day of obligation.

The observance of the solemnity begins with evening prayer (first vespers) the evening before on Oct. 31 — known as All Hallows’ Eve or Halloween — and is followed on Nov. 2 by All Souls' Day, a day in which the entire Church prays for all of the dead.

Solemnities that fall on Saturdays and Mondays

Sometimes a solemnity that falls on a Sunday will be moved to a Monday.

For example, in 2024, the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception on Dec. 8 fell on a Sunday in Advent so the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) transferred the solemnity to the Monday.

The Vatican has clarified that Catholics in the United States must still attend Mass on holy days of obligation even when they are transferred to Mondays or Saturdays, correcting a long-standing practice in the U.S. Church.

The USCCB liturgical calendars for 2026 and 2027 can be found here and here.

The archdiocese announced it will give the Nostra Aetate Award to the billionaire businessman and philanthropist Michael Sacks at the Oct. 29 banquet. He is CEO of the investment firm GCM Grosvenor, the president of Sacks Family Foundation, and a board member of the Obama Foundation.

Sacks, through his foundation, has donated to philanthropic efforts related to education, arts, veterans, and other issues. His contributions also include $500,000 to Planned Parenthood of Illinois from 2020 to 2022 and $600,000 to the Prairie State Access Fund in 2026, which was created by Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker with the help of philanthropists to support the “reproductive health ecosystem” of the state and combat federal restrictions “on abortion and gender affirming care.”

Cardinal Blase Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago, has not publicly referenced Sacks’ support for these organizations. Rather, in a statement, he described Sacks as a “well-respected leader in Chicago and in the Jewish community.”

His statement explained the Nostra Aetate Award is named after the Second Vatican Council document of the same name, which was intended to build stronger relations with non-Christian religions, including Judaism.

“Honoring a leader, shaped by his Jewish faith, for the gifts he brings to society through his leadership, generosity and talent, acknowledges this shared divine heritage, distinct from specific contemporary political or doctrinal disputes,” Cupich said in his statement.

Cupich said the honor “recognizes [the personʼs] dignity” and role in the community “without implying an endorsement of every statement or stance” the person has. He said the recognition helps bring about “conditions necessary for principled dialogue” and that such dialogue “cannot occur if respect is contingent upon complete agreement on Church doctrine or political policy.”

The primary purpose of the banquet is to raise money for seminarians.

‘Scandalizing the faithful’

Pushback against Cupich for his decision to give the award to Sacks has come from the Chicago-based Illinois Right to Life, which was founded in 1968 to “honor the dignity and sanctity of human life at all stages.”

The pro-life group launched a petition “demanding [Cupich] withdraw his award to Planned Parenthood Financier Michael Sacks,” which has garnered nearly 4,000 signatures as of the day of the banquet.

Illinois Right to Life President Mary Kate Zander told EWTN News that the archdiocese has not responded to the petition. Because Cupich stood by his plan to give Sacks the award, the group will hold a protest outside of the IBEW Local 134 in Chicago, where the banquet will be held.

"Weʼre concerned about the scandal that it creates,” Zander, who is Catholic, told EWTN News when asked about the primary motivation for the protest.

In addition to concerns about the funding of organizations that promote abortion access, Illinois Right to Life has noted Sacks in 2013 signed a letter endorsing same-sex marriage and helped organize business leaders to advocate for it, according to local media reports. Equality Illinois, an LGBT advocacy group, gave Sacks its 2015 Equality Illinois Business Leadership Award in recognition of his role.

Zander said Cupich is “leading people astray and is scandalizing the faithful” by honoring Sacks. She said “we’re also concerned with this man’s soul” and said the cardinal has a responsibility to “hold people accountable … on their public stances.”

Illinois Right to Life alleged granting Sacks the award violates rules set by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

The USCCB document “Catholics in Political Life” states: “The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions.”

The USCCB did not immediately reply to a request for comment on whether Cupich’s decision violates any USCCB rules. EWTN News also reached out to GCM Grosvenor to request a comment from Sacks but did not receive a response.

Cupich doubles down

In his Oct. 26 statement about the Nostra Aetate Award, Cupich acknowledged his decision created backlash but did not mention any concerns related to Sacks’ position on abortion or same-sex marriage.

Rather, Cupich said the archdiocese received criticism for its decision to “honor a person who does not hold to core beliefs of the Catholic Church, primary among them being the divinity of Jesus Christ” and said the backlash was about Sacks’ Jewish faith.

“Refusing to honor or engage with Jews solely because they hold conflicting religious or political positions can risk mimicking historic patterns of antisemitism through exclusion and bigotry, which, frighteningly, is on the rise,” he said. “Nostra Aetate urges us to be proactive in separating personal and community respect from doctrinal agreement, ensuring that disagreement does not regress into hostility or social ostracization. This we cannot tolerate.”

Nostra Aetate states that the Church “decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone.” On the 60th anniversary of the document, Pope Leo XIV said “all of my predecessors have condemned antisemitism with clear words” since the Second Vatican Council, “and so I too confirm that the Church does not tolerate antisemitism and fights against it, on the basis of the Gospel itself.”

Cupich’s statement does not name the critics he is referring to. The archdiocese did not immediately respond to an inquiry for clarification.

Zander said Illinois Right to Life is “the only organization that has formally put out any kind of statement” about the award and their concern “has nothing to do with that.” She said Cupich’s statement “is confusing for people” who may infer that his decision to double down “is a response to antisemitism” and the disagreement is “an issue of this man not being Catholic.”

“[Cupich is] distracting from the fact that this man is clearly a supporter of abortion at a very grand scale,” Zander said. “... He’s trying to distract from the fact that [he is also] a same-sex marriage supporter.”

“The cardinal doesn’t want that to be the conversation,” she said. “He wants the conversation to be about that man’s faith background; his ethnic background.”

None of the criticisms published by Illinois Right to Life comment on Sacks’ Jewish faith or ethnic identity.

Last year, Illinois Right to Life launched a similar campaign against Cupich’s decision to give an award to Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, who consistently voted in favor of abortion access. Durbin, who is Catholic, declined the award amid the backlash, which included criticisms from other bishops.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the proposed rule changes would remove demographic questions about race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation, and would count for congressional apportionment only citizens and lawful permanent residents.

The proposal says “illegal aliens (among others) should not be included in the apportionment count, as they are not true inhabitants, members of the body politic, or persons with a ‘usual residence’ in the United States.”

In an Oct. 20 letter submitted to Department of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, among other points, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ general counsel argued that excluding noncitizens from the apportionment count "is effectively to deny they are ‘persons’.” The letter said that this “denial of personhood recalls the ‘overtly sinful and gravely unjust’ Three-fifths Compromise.”

The Three-fifths Compromise was the political deal reached at the 1787 U.S. Constitutional Convention that held the nascent Union together. It set a formula for apportioning seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, which is determined by each state’s population: free persons, including free Black people, counted fully, and “all other persons” (the enslaved population) counted as three-fifths.

Several legal scholars and other experts strongly disagreed with the bishops’ comparison.

Historian Susan Hanssen of the University of Dallas told EWTN News she thinks the bishops’ reference to the Three-fifths Compromise is “an egregious mis-reading of American history.”

“That compromise did not aim at the denial of the personhood of slaves,” she argued, pointing to the compromiseʼs text, which consistently calls both free and enslaved people “persons.”

She said the compromise was intended to mitigate “the power of the slave-owning states in the national government, refusing to award them greater political weight based on subjugated populations without a voice or vote.”

Hanssen said the Census Bureau’s aims regarding the proposed changes are similarly aimed at mitigating political power, arguing that the bureau is refusing “to grant political clout to states that allow a larger number of undocumented illegal workers to be used for labor without the protection of the law.”

David Upham, a constitutional law scholar at the University of Dallas whose work focuses heavily on the 14th Amendment — which established citizenship rights, including the rights to due process and equal protection under the law, particularly for recently freed slaves — told EWTN News that the proposed rule changes do not mean noncitizens are not persons. He called the bishops’ interpretation of persons an “overstatement.”

“If that’s the case, every human being not being counted in the census is not a person,” he said, noting that the principal purpose of the census is to count people in order to determine the allocation of political power in the U.S. House of Representatives, whose members are supposed to be selected by the citizens.

“The question really is, besides bona fide citizens, what other human beings within the state’s border are counted as members of the people,” he said, and noted the president has the constitutional authority to address the question.

“The executive branch has substantial authority to determine whether an individual who isn’t a citizen” should be counted in the census for the purpose of political representation, he said.

“I think the danger the Trump administration is seeking to redress is that those states most enthusiastic about encouraging unlawful migrants will, as result of their disinterest in enforcing federal law, receive more votes in Congress and the electoral college,” he said.

Harvard Law School constitutional law professor Adrian Vermeule also weighed in, writing on X: “The analogy to slavery is utterly absurd unless the USCCB believes that all distinctions based on citizenship are unjust.”

“With all due respect, ‘personhood’ is not a magical trump card that overrides the basic principles of the republican form of government,” he wrote. “One cannot conclude from the bare fact of personhood that anyone and everyone has a right to be counted in the census, to vote, or to stand for office.”

“Why exactly should noncitizens with no status be counted for the apportionment of seats in the representative body?” he asked. He suggested the bishops’ public comment “really should be withdrawn” and added that he hopes “cooler heads prevail.”

Scholars at various major think tanks were also quick to take aim at the bishops’ personhood argument.

Mike Fragoso, a scholar at the Ethics and Public Policy Center’s Constitution, the Courts, and the Culture program, called the bishops “unserious,” while Jay Richards, vice president of social and domestic policy and senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, called the bishops’ position “absurd.”

Andrew Arthur, a former immigration judge and fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, told EWTN News that “our inherent recognition as persons — personhood — does not come from the governmentʼs census as to who is in the country.”

“As Catholics, we believe that unborn children are people,” he continued, “but the bishops do not extend their logic to demand that the unborn be counted in the census notwithstanding the fact that a killing that results in the death of a pregnant mother is, in many places, considered to be two murders. Why not?”

The proposed rule changes, published Sept. 10, are open to public comment until Nov. 2. The U.S. bishops did not respond to requests for comment on the backlash.

The feast coincides with the second to the last procession of the “Cristo Moreno” (the dark-skinned Christ).

The original image of the Lord of the Miracles was painted by an African slave on an adobe wall around 1651 and survived the massive earthquake of 1655, which was considered miraculous given the scale of destruction. Subsequently, additional miracles were associated with the image.

Addressing the sea of ​​devotees gathered outside the Church of the Nazarenas in the historic center of Lima, where the sacred image of the Christ of Pachacamilla (another name for the image) is kept, the prelate posed a question that reached beyond the celebration itself: “Do you come for the miracles of the Lord, or for the Lord who is capable of performing the miracle of your salvation?”

Drawing from the day’s Gospel, in which Jesus speaks with Nicodemus about God’s love and eternal life, Elías invited the faithful to look upon the Cristo Moreno with a faith that does not stop at the image itself nor come to an end when the processions conclude.

“What is the foundation of your faith? Do you come for the miracles of the Lord or for the Lord who performs miracles?” he reiterated.

A faith demonstrated through works

For Elías, devotion must also be evident in how one treats others. During his homily, he recalled a statement by 20th-century Chilean St. Alberto Hurtado, which was cited by Pope Francis: “Not doing evil is good, but not doing good is evil.”

The bishop warned that observing religious practices is not enough if they do not lead to love: “You can do many good things, follow so many precepts, so many good deeds, but if you lack love, it’s not enough,” he stated.

He also addressed the violence in Lima and other parts of the country, lamenting that a person could lose his life during an assault or an attack on a bus, and noted that “a city like ours is in great need of our witness.”

Faced with this reality, he encouraged the faithful not to remain indifferent. “Let us ask that we, too, may bring salvation by loving the vulnerable, those who have nothing, those who have lost hope, by offering them the very best of ourselves,” he urged.

Preparing hearts for Pope Leo XIV

Elías also touched on the upcoming visit of Pope Leo XIV to Peru, recalling he motto of the trip, “Let us open our hearts,” and asked whether the Peruvian people are truly preparing themselves to receive the pontiff.

The call to open your heart, he explained, is not limited to welcoming the pope; rather, it is an invitation to live out Christian values ​​in one’s personal, family, and community life.

“Let us open our hearts to the values ​​of the kingdom — to peace, justice, and solidarity,” he stated.

The second to the last procession of the image of the Lord of Miracles in 2026 made its way through the center of Lima, reaching Archbishop Loayza National Hospital.

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

In a video released by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Portland, Oregon, Archbishop Alexander Sample suggested Catholics should think of themselves as “disciples of Jesus first, Americans second … and, if you’re going to belong to a political party, that is third.”

“Start with your relationship with Jesus. Start with your faith,” the archbishop said. “And then see how that shapes your view on social and political issues.”

The archbishop’s video comes just days before the 2026 U.S. midterms, which could serve as a sharp referendum on U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term, particularly his administration’s launching of a war with Iran, which brought with it major increases in fuel costs and other prices.

Multiple U.S. bishops have urged the faithful to pray ahead of the elections, including regarding major ballot initiatives involving abortion and other issues.

In his Oct. 26 video, Sample — who serves as the chairman of the U.S. bishops’ religious liberty committee — noted that “none of the political parties” in the U.S. “embody all the Catholic social teaching.”

“We don’t start with our party’s political platform,” he said. “We start with Catholic social teaching — the Catholic social doctrine of the Church, and all of those principles of Catholic social teaching.”

Conscience ‘tells us to pursue the good’

In a related video also released on Oct. 26, Baltimore Archbishop William Lori — who previously served as vice president of the USCCB — said the “importance of a properly formed conscience cannot be overstated.”

The archbishop described conscience as “that part of us that tells us to pursue the good and to avoid evil,” a place where “God speaks to us and his word echoes in our hearts.”

“It is vital that in this time when there is so much back-and-forth politically, when the news cycles never cease, when life is moving along rapidly — that in the exercise of our citizenship, we would slow down and engage in discernment.”

The prelate pointed to St. Paul’s admonishment to “cling to what is good.” He described faithful citizenship as “an invitation to know what the Church teaches and then, when you’re faced with ballot issues or the question of for whom to vote, you’re equipped to engage in prayerful discernment.”

He noted that the U.S. bishops issue messages about voting periodically. “[We] have a lot of faith in our people,” he said.

The question of faithful citizenship was “never meant to be simply a list of dos and don’ts, or ‘vote this way or vote that way,’” Lori said. “It’s not a voter guide.” Rather, the principle “strives to present a beautiful vision of the United States as the best version of itself.”

Archbishop Shelton Fabre of Louisville, Kentucky, meanwhile, in a separate video urged Catholics to keep the “desire to be the best disciple of Jesus Christ” at the center of all their decisions.

“We participate in public life and in political life to advance the common good, and to also remind everyone in public life and in politics that the common good and the human dignity of each and every person are paramount,” he said.

Some analysts are predicting a major Democratic victory in the 2026 midterms, particularly amid low approval ratings for Trump halfway through his second term.

As of Oct. 29 the forecast and election-tracking outlet Decision Desk HQ was predicting likely Democratic victories in both the U.S. House and Senate, including an 80% probability of victory in the House.

The conference “The Holy See in the Face of Totalitarian Systems in the 20th Century: New Perspectives and Research Directions” was held at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome from Oct. 28–29. Over the two days, scholars discussed how the Vatican responded to oppressive governments, particularly from the time of Pope Pius XII to the Second Vatican Council.

The Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation and the Pontifical Committee of Historical Sciences, which organized the event, also presented a new exhibit at the Gregorian on the 1966 celebrations of the 1,000th anniversary of the Baptism of Poland in 966.

Totalitarianism: Temptation to be like God

As reported by Vatican News, the conference opened with a keynote address from Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who warned nations against asserting themselves in the place of God.

“[Totalitarianism] arises from the human temptation to want to ‘be like God,’ to control how humanity lives and thinks, and to impose one’s own ideological convictions on it,” Parolin said.

He also criticized the tendency of countries to elevate the state and certain constructs in place of religion.

“By elevating social class, race, or the state to the altar in God’s place, [totalitarian regimes] sacralized their ideological concepts and created political religions, with their own ‘liturgies,’ prophets, martyrs, and ethical norms,” Parolin added.

Pius XII’s Vatican and the Nazi regime

Among the topics discussed at the conference was the Holy See’s stance under Venerable Pius XII toward Nazi Germany during the Second World War, including the Holocaust.

Parolin maintained that Pius XII condemned wars in a way “that would not provoke even greater persecution” and that he displayed “a diplomacy of charity on an unprecedented scale.”

Others at the conference described the Church’s stance during this period as “sustainable.”

“I would say that the Church, and the Holy See in particular, did what it considered possible and sustainable during the periods we have discussed, just as it does today,” said Father Nicola Spinato, a theologian from Padua, Italy.

“The Holy See and the Church are not simply political actors competing within the political arena. Their role is pastoral and ecclesial,” Spinato added.

Vatican totalitarian resistance under Vatican II and John Paul II

During the conference, several participants presented on the influence of the Second Vatican Council on the Holy See’s vocal resistance to totalitarian regimes.

Spinato presented on how the Church, through the council, formulated its opposition to racism and all forms of discrimination.

“The confrontation with the totalitarianism and racism of the 20th century contributed to the development of the Church’s social teaching,” Spinato said.

Others noted St. John Paul II’s influence on Vatican diplomacy, particularly in Poland and Latin America.

“John Paul II actively intervened to end dictatorships and to promote the return to democracy. From April 1-6, 1987, he visited Chile — a trip that would change the country’s history,” Gianni La Bella, a member of the Pontifical Committee of Historical Sciences, said.

“Following John Paul’s pilgrimages to Poland in 1983 and 1987, efforts began to overcome the crisis. His influence and laws guaranteeing religious freedom paved the way for Poland and the Holy See to restore full diplomatic relations on July 17, 1989,” Father Albert Warso, a professor at John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, said.

Antonio García Condado, 78, the town pharmacist, was one of the first to see dozens of bodies trapped beneath the wreckage and to assist injured passengers who did not even have the strength to cry out for help.

He was finishing breakfast when his daughter alerted him that a train accident had occurred. Without a second thought, he got into his car and drove toward the area. At first, he believed it was only a minor incident.

“When I got there, it all seemed very minor. There was no traffic, hardly any cars. I said to myself, ‘Well, this can’t be very serious.’ But as I got closer to the AVE train’s cab, there was no cab. It was a mass of twisted metal, bodies, and dying people,” he recalled a day after the tragedy, still visibly shaken, in an interview with EWTN News Español, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News.

‘Some were moving their hands among the bodies’

What struck him most was the deathly silence that hung over the scene.

“There were no screams. Perhaps they didn’t even have the strength to speak. Some were moving their hands among the bodies,” he explained.

Journalists from various news outlets repeatedly asked García what he had witnessed. But repeating the story did nothing to lessen the impact of the scenes he had seen. Every time he told it, García became emotional once again.

“I was deeply affected by the farewell of a dying man to his wife: ‘Maite, I love you very much. Take care of the children.’ The last words he said moved me greatly: ‘God is good,’” he recalled.

Shortly afterward, he noticed another survivor who was calmly asking for help despite the severity of his injuries. García described a young man standing behind him, remarkably composed, asking for an ambulance.

“Then I noticed that his arm had been severed. He had lost his arm. I broke down. I think I even cried,” he said.

After that initial shock, he realized just how serious the situation was and immediately returned to his pharmacy. He gathered all the medical supplies he could and mobilized his entire family.

“I came back here empty-handed to get supplies, especially painkillers. My son came with me, my daughter too, my wife, and my assistant. We practically emptied out the pharmacy and all went back, trying to solve whatever problems we could,” he explained.

When he returned to the accident site, security forces directed him to enter from another access point. There he encountered an even more devastating scene on the other side of the train.

“One carriage had been crushed into another. Just imagine the bodies that were in there. It was horrifying,” he said.

Within minutes, the disaster area involving the two crashed trains, a Renfe AVE carrying 397 people and an Iryo train carrying 147 passengers, filled with the activity that accompanies major catastrophes: dozens of ambulances crossing paths with funeral-home vehicles, fire trucks, Civil Protection units, and officers of the civil guard.

Faith, the only comfort in the midst of tragedy

Throughout the morning, García assisted emergency teams however he could, supplying medicines and medical materials when stocks began to run low.

“What affected me most was that first moment, when I saw people asking for help and I couldn’t do anything, because I was practically alone. It was a tremendous feeling of helplessness,” explained the man of deep religious conviction.

For him, faith in Christ has been and remains his greatest source of support.

“When believers experience traumas this great, we always turn to the same thing. I think it brings tremendous comfort. It’s the only way to keep going forward.”

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

Bill C-41, the MAID Safeguards Act, would amend the Criminal Code to protect practitioners from prosecution “for culpable homicide or administering a noxious thing” to provide MAID to patients who consent in advance to receiving the procedure if they are diagnosed with an illness expected to cause them to lose decision-making capacity in the future. The applicant must prepare the request with the assistance of a medical or nurse practitioner.

The legislation states that MAID cannot be carried out until the patient has lost all capacity to grant consent for euthanasia, is experiencing unbearable suffering, and is in a state of irreversible decline.

According to the text of the legislation, a practitioner cannot administer a MAID substance based on an advance request if the patient “demonstrates, by words, sounds or gestures, refusal or resistance to have the substance administered to them.” If the provider doubts that the patient was exhibiting refusal or resistance, they are mandated to wait 30 days before making another attempt. Per the bill, involuntary words, sounds, and gestures are not considered a demonstration of noncompliance.

Minister of Justice and Attorney General Sean Fraser announced that provinces will decide whether or not to fulfill these advance requests. Alberta has already banned the practice and Quebec has had an advance request MAID regime in place for two years.

Fraser said that the federal government “will work with provinces and territories on implementation, with rigorous safeguards to protect people and ensure the decision remains voluntary and free from external pressure.”

Daniel Zekveld, a policy analyst serving the Association of Reformed Political Action (ARPA) Canada, declared that “ advance consent is not informed consent. It is based only on fear of a future condition that the person has never experienced.”

He further called out this move to legalize advance requests because it places a “future life-and-death decision to third parties to determine when a person should die by MAID.”

Krista Carr, the CEO of the disability rights organization Inclusion Canada, stated that “an advance request is written by someone who cannot know what their future will hold. Consent at the time is the most basic protection a person has. Parliament should not take it away.”

As for the decision to put an indefinite halt to broadening euthanasia access to individuals living solely with a mental illness, Fraser said it wasn’t “reached out of thin air,” alluding to several months of work from a special joint parliamentary committee that arrived at this resolution.

Campaign Life Coalition National President Jeff Gunnarson criticized the decision to pair the MAID for mental illness exclusion with the advance requests decriminalization.

“The government is offering protection for those with mental illness at the expense of those with dementia,” Gunnarson said. “It’s literally trading human lives, and it’s simply immoral.”

Read the text of Bill C-41 here.

This story was first published by The Catholic Register, has been adapted by EWTN News, and is reprinted here with permission.

The front of a Renfe train traveling at 200 km/hr (124 mph) had slammed into the last cars of an Iryo train at kilometer 118 of the Madrid-Seville railway line, leaving behind a horrific scene with dozens dead and injured. As of Thursday, the preliminary death toll was 69.

Without hesitation, the priest went to the site to accompany the victims trapped in the train cars.

According to his account, he arrived around 11 a.m., two hours after the collision, and joined the relief effort improvised by dozens of volunteers, many of them members of his parish.

‘Our minds turn to God and we look up to heaven’

The first thing he saw was “a huge line of injured people emerging from the train cars,” he told Nicolás de Cárdenas, correspondent for EWTN News Español, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News.

Residents of the town did what they could to help, transporting the injured in their own vehicles to Urda so they could receive medical care.

“These are moments that, humanly speaking, break your heart, but very quickly our minds turn to God and we look up to heaven,” Fernández said.

Among the injured, he especially remembered a man who approached him and said: “Father, give me a hug, I’m alive.”

That encounter set the tone for the entire day.

“I said to myself, well, this is how you can draw near today: by giving a hug. So that’s what I spent the entire morning doing while I was at ground zero, holding people’s hands and giving them a hug.”

‘Trust in God, for God is good’

He later went to Urda’s municipal sports hall, which had been converted into a field hospital. Many desperate relatives arrived there looking for news about their loved ones.

“There is no consolation for them. They want to know immediately what has happened. Where is my relative? Where is my loved one? And so what I tried to do was calm them, reassure them, and tell them: What matters is hope. Have hope. Trust in God, for God is good,” he recounted.

‘We are priests, but we are human’

For hours, the priest continued the same mission he had begun beside the railway tracks: accompanying the suffering of people who had lost everything in a matter of seconds.

He also acknowledged that on “many occasions” he ended up crying with them.

“We are priests, of course, but we are human, and the pain and sorrow of our brothers and sisters affect us too,” he explained.

The pope’s affection

From the Vatican, the Holy Father’s spiritual closeness was not long in coming. Pope Leo XIV said he was “deeply saddened” by the tragic railway accident.

In a telegram signed, as is customary, by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, he assured his prayers “for the eternal repose of the deceased” and expressed his “heartfelt condolences to the families of those who lost their lives,” together with words of comfort and his hope for a speedy recovery for the injured.

In the message, addressed to Chaves, the pontiff acknowledged the work of those involved in the emergency response, encouraging “members of the rescue teams to persevere in their relief and assistance efforts” following the disaster.

Finally, the pope imparted his heartfelt apostolic blessing to all those affected as “a sign of hope in the risen Lord.”

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

Although the papal itinerary does not specify whether these dates were chosen deliberately, these circumstances provide additional insight into the pontiffʼs upcoming journey.

1. He will return to Chiclayo on the anniversary of St. Augustine’s birth.

On Nov. 13, Leo XIV will return to Chiclayo, the Peruvian diocese he shepherded before being called to Rome, and will celebrate Mass in the Pampas of Pimentel.

The date coincides with a significant celebration for the Augustinian family: the anniversary of the birth of St. Augustine, which took place in 354 in Tagaste, North Africa.

On that day, the Order of St. Augustine, to which the pope belongs, also celebrates all its saints. The occasion thus brings together two connections that have shaped Pope Leo’s life: Augustinian spirituality and his service to the community of Chiclayo, where he served as bishop.

This date marks the birth of St. Augustine and should not be confused with the saint’s liturgical feast day, which the Church celebrates on Aug. 28.

2. The pope will commemorate the patroness of Uruguay on the day of her solemnity.

On the morning of Nov. 8, Leo XIV will celebrate Mass in the square of the Cathedral Basilica of Florida, which houses the National Shrine of the Virgin of the Thirty-Three, the patroness of Uruguay. His visit will coincide with the solemnity of this devotion, a special occasion for the country’s Catholics.

That day will also be the second Sunday of November, when the national pilgrimage to the shrine traditionally takes place. Thus, the papal visit will coincide both with the solemnity and with the Sunday traditionally dedicated to the pilgrimage.

3. He will be between the Andes and the Amazon during the World Day of the Poor.

On Nov. 15, the pope will visit Cusco and Pucallpa in Peru, encounters that will coincide with the 10th World Day of the Poor, which bears the theme “The Lord Is the Refuge of the Poor.”

In Cusco, the pope will meet with the faithful and representatives of popular piety. Afterward, he will travel to Pucallpa, where he will meet with missionaries and representatives of Amazonian peoples before continuing on to Lima.

This coincidence will provide a unique context for listening both to the pontiff and to the communities that will welcome him, each with its own distinct history, traditions, and challenges.

4. Pope Leo will visit a prison on the feast day of St. Martin of Tours.

On Nov. 11, the itinerary includes a visit to the Federal Penitentiary Complex in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The date coincides with the commemoration of St. Martin of Tours, remembered for having shared his cloak with a poor man.

Although the program does not explicitly link the visit to this liturgical celebration, the coincidence serves as a reminder of his witness of care for those who suffer, on a day when the pope will reach out to individuals deprived of their liberty.

5. The Holy Father will visit the shrine of St. Turibius 300 years after his canonization.

On Nov. 14, Leo XIV will take part in a prayer gathering at the shrine of St. Turibius of Mogrovejo, patron saint of the bishops of the Americas, in Zaña, Peru (southeast of Chiclayo), to mark the conclusion of the jubilee year dedicated to the 300th anniversary of his canonization, which was proclaimed on Dec. 10, 1726.

The calendar also presents another coincidence: St. Turibius, who served as archbishop of Lima, was born on Nov. 16, 1538. On that same day in November, the pope will conclude his activities in Peru and begin his return journey to Rome, arriving the following day. Thus, the memory of the saint will also accompany the conclusion of the Peruvian leg of the trip.

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

“I am deeply grateful to the skilled and compassionate medical professionals who are guiding my care and preparing my treatment plan,” Tobin said in an Oct. 28 statement, one day before the surgery.

“Above all, I place my complete trust in Christ our Redeemer, whose loving presence sustains me in all things,” Tobin said. “I humbly ask for your prayers and support during this time. God willing, I look forward to resuming my full duties within a few weeks after surgery.”

According to the archdiocese, doctors discovered a mass in one of the cardinal’s kidneys and he will undergo surgery to remove it. The announcement states doctors believe the mass is confined to the kidney and are optimistic about his outlook.

The news release states the doctor’s examination of the mass after the surgery will determine its nature and guide the cardinalʼs treatment moving forward.

The archdiocese did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.

The accident occurred in Urda, Toledo province, at around 9 a.m. local time when a Renfe AVE train reportedly rear-ended another train operated by the Iryo company, causing at least two passenger cars of the second train to derail.

Authorities have reported a death toll of more than 60, surpassing the number of fatalities in the accident that occurred in Adamuz in January, which claimed the lives of 45 people.

Father Fernando Fernández de Bobadilla, the parish priest of Los Yébenes, a town near the site of the accident, spoke to COPE (a radio station owned by the Spanish Bishops’ Conference) from the disaster scene while attending to the victims.

“Right now, I’m holding an IV bag in one hand and another bag in the other. It’s horrific,” he said. “They’ve already begun removing the deceased. They place a black wristband on those who have died, a red one on those in critical condition, and a yellow one on those who can be treated. The two people I’m with right now have red wristbands, and I’m waiting for them to be taken away.”

In its message, the CEE expressed its “condolences to the families of the victims and prays for the eternal rest of the deceased and for the recovery of the injured,” while also joining “in the grief of those affected.”

The bishops called for prayers for all the victims during the religious services of the Christian community, so that through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, comforter of the afflicted and queen of peace, the Lord may grant the gift of life to the victims, and hope to their families and all those affected.

The CEE also commended to God “all those involved in emergency response efforts, those caring for the injured, and those providing support to the families of the victims.”

Many prelates have likewise assured their prayers and closeness in the wake of the event.

The archbishop of Toledo and primate of Spain, Francisco Cerro, expressed on behalf of his entire diocesan Church his “profound concern” and closeness to all those affected, assuring that they are offering prayers “for those who have been injured and for all those going through moments of distress and uncertainty as a result of this accident.”

The primatial archbishop further stated that nearby parishes, the local vicariate, and the diocesan Caritas “make themselves available to all those affected and their families, to offer them the help, accompaniment, and support they may need during these difficult times.”

“The diocesan Church of Toledo, like a house with open doors, joins in the pain and worry that this event is causing, and invites the faithful to lift up their prayers for those affected, their families, and the first responders,” he added.

The archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal José Cobo, and the archbishop of Seville, José Ángel Saiz Meneses, have also shared expressions of consternation and prayers via social media. Saiz stated quite directly: “prayer, closeness, and support for the victims and their families.”

Meanwhile, the archbishop of Granada, José María Gil Tamayo, also offered his condolences, while the bishop of Getafe, Ginés García Beltrán, prayed “that the Lord may sustain and bring comfort to those affected.”

Messages in a similar vein have also been posted by the bishop of León, Luis Ángel de las Heras, who offered “our condolences and our prayers to the God of life” as well as by the bishop of Orihuela-Alicante, José Ignacio Munilla; the bishop of Málaga, José Antonio Satué; and the bishop of Vitoria, Juan Carlos Elizalde, who remarked: “May the Lord be their comfort, and may we, as brothers and sisters, accompany the injured and the families who have lost loved ones during these moments of sorrow.”

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

The Oct. 28 report from Pew Research Center found that while religious practice in the U.S. has “remained stable” since 2020, a survey of young adults about religious practice uncovered “mixed signals.” The report is based on data from Pew’s probability-based, nationally representative 2026 National Public Opinion Reference Survey (NPORS) and the center’s 2025 Cross-Sectional Engagement Survey.

Based on a June 2026 survey, Pew found that 34% of adults said they attended a religious service in the past month, while 45% said they either attended or watched a religious service online in the past month. “Both numbers are at their highest levels since the Center started asking these questions in July 2020,” the report said.

However, the report said that while young adults born from 2004 to 2008 are reporting “relatively high rates of attendance at religious services,” young adults born from 2000 to 2003 “are the least religious age group when it comes to how often they pray, how important religion is in their lives and how many of them identify with religion.” In addition, the share of the older demographic that say they attend religious services regularly “is among the lowest of any age group.”

The report noted that the youngest Republicans attend religious services at higher rates than older Republicans, but that “they are not solely responsible for the high levels of religious attendance among young adults,” and that younger Democrats also reported higher levels of attendance than older ones.

The youngest men reported higher levels of religious observance than the youngest women, the report said, noting that “this is something we have not seen before in our surveys.” However, the youngest women did report “relatively high rates” of attendance at religious observance compared with older women.

“Moreover, this is not the first time in recent decades that surveys have shown the youngest Americans entering adulthood with relatively high rates of religiousness,” the report said. “When this has happened in the past, the religiousness of the youngest adults has tended to fade with time, leaving them less religious than people in the preceding birth cohort. We have no way of knowing whether today’s youngest adults will follow that pattern or break it.”

The report highlighted how findings from other organizations contrast with their own. While Gallup polls showed an increase in young men who identified religion as important to them and who attend religious services, more so than young women, the report noted that “by contrast, an aggregation of Pew Research Center surveys from 2025 and 2026 finds that among people ages 18 to 29, more young men than women attend services regularly, while roughly equal shares of young men and women say religion is very important to them.”

The case followed the young men’s posting of a video in which they reenacted a scene from an Egyptian film.

In an interview with ACI MENA, the Arabic-language sister service of EWTN News, Nader Shukry, a citizenship researcher and writer specializing in Coptic affairs, described the case and its broader implications. He highlighted challenges around understanding Egyptian law and using social media.

Shukry said the young men, who live in Ezbet Tanious in the village of Taha al-Amda, in the Samalut district of Minya, reenacted a scene from the 2018 film “Khalawis.” The scene does not mock religion, he said; it depicts prisoners known for bullying and violence trying to pray without knowing how.

Dozens of Egyptian Muslims also reenacted and posted the scene without provoking similar reactions, Shukry said. But when the Coptic young men posted it, one village resident objected and accused them of insulting Islam.

The young men deleted the video shortly after posting it because they did not realize some viewers might find it offensive, Shukry said. But incitement continued, prompting security forces to detain them in an effort to contain anger and prevent possible attacks on Christians and their property. He said extremist currents in Minya seek to inflame religious sentiment and create disorder.

Shukry said the young men were not held for long once it became clear they had not intended to insult religion. A de-escalation meeting was also held in the village, with the church taking part. He distinguished this meeting from customary reconciliation sessions, saying it aimed to counter incitement on social media and ease tensions among residents.

Shukry stressed the danger of attributing an individual’s actions, whether the person is guilty or innocent, to an entire religious community. A citizen should be held accountable for what that person did, he said; Christians as a whole, or an entire village, should not bear responsibility for one person’s actions.

He also pointed to pages that publish content insulting Christians without facing legal consequences comparable to those a Christian might face for discussing Islam.

The case involving the six young men remains open until the prosecutor general issues a decision to close it, Shukry said, although it has largely concluded in practice. He cited the short length of their detention compared with other cases involving alleged contempt of religion.

Shukry urged young people to exercise caution when dealing with religious matters and to avoid discussions that others might exploit or present as insults to religion. He distinguished such discussions from interreligious dialogue conducted by specialists.

Egyptian society faces a challenge of awareness, he said, noting that many Christians have previously become involved in cases involving alleged contempt of religion because they were unfamiliar with Egyptian law and how to use social media.

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

Speaking at an event with journalists in Rome, the British diplomat responded to questions regarding the agreement, Pope Leo XIV’s health, and calls for a ceasefire in the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war.

The full text of the 2018 agreement between China and the Holy See has never been made public. Under the publicly understood terms of the agreement, the pope retains final authority over episcopal appointments in China and may reject candidates proposed by Beijing. The Holy See, for its part, agreed not to appoint bishops without the Chinese government’s prior approval.

As reported by Reuters, Gallagher said that, regarding the agreement, its imperfections were visible.

“Itʼs not easy, the dialogue is not easy,” Gallagher said. “The imperfections of the agreement are ⁠evident, but ​there is a commitment to persevere in dialogue ... and that is what will ​continue to happen.”

He also answered questions regarding a potential visit from Leo to the U.S., saying that it could happen “in the not too distant future.”

Regarding the pope’s Oct. 13 surgery and subsequent recovery, Gallagher described it as a “bit of a game changer” and a revelation of the pope’s mortality, as with every human being.

“[The pope] is a poor mortal like the rest of ​us,” Gallagher said.

In August, Gallagher traveled to Russia to discuss the country’s ongoing war with Ukraine with senior officials. He told journalists that he did not believe the Vatican was involved in discussions of the ceasefire between the two nations.

To mark the occasion, Pope Leo XIV held a private audience with Mercedes-Benz executives on Wednesday. That same day, the exhibit “A Century of the Popemobile” opened at the Vatican Museums, featuring the first popemobile, gifted to Pope Pius XI in 1930, and the one in which St. John Paul II was shot on May 13, 1981.

Evolving transportation for the successors of Peter

In his address to Mercedes-Benz, the pope praised the company for its enduring partnership with the Vatican and reflected on how papal transportation — from St. Peter to the present — has evolved.

“Over the decades, the Popemobile has evolved from a means of transportation into an instrument of encounter, enabling the pontiff to draw closer to the faithful during pastoral visits and public celebrations,” Leo said.

“In this way, your work has helped facilitate the Church’s mission of reaching out to people and bringing a message of faith, of hope, and of charity to the world.”

The pope also encouraged them to direct their innovations toward a more sustainable world, placing their "technological innovation at the service of human dignity, care for creation, and the common good.”

Carriages, the ‘sedia gestatoria,’ and modern transport

Papal transportation has evolved since the late Roman Empire, when popes were carried on the “sedia gestatoria” — ornate, ceremonial thrones carried by 12 footmen during processions and major liturgical celebrations.

From the late 19th century onward, popes increasingly chose modern forms of transportation, with Blessed Pius IX using the first papal train in 1859. The Nürburg 460 Pullman, made by Mercedes-Benz and given to Pope Pius XI in 1930, was the first official automobile used to transport the pope.

The word “popemobile” was first used to describe a custom-made Lincoln Continental for St. Paul VI’s 1965 visit to the United States. Popes since St. John Paul II have used the popemobile, with Mercedes-Benz adapting future models for security since his 1981 shooting.

A duty to ensure the pope’s safety

Speaking on the sidelines of the launch of the exhibit “A Century of the Popemobile,” the Mercedes-Benz executives spoke with EWTN News, reflecting on the near-century-long partnership with the Vatican.

Marc Langenbrinck, CEO of Mercedes-Benz Italy, described the partnership as a privilege, especially as a Catholic.

“[This day] is just simply the most beautiful day of my career because I am Catholic and I believe, and for me it is something which is a project of a lifetime,” Langenbrinck told EWTN News.

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Marcus Breitschwerdt, executive vice president of Mercedes-Benz, explained the security and accessibility measures implemented in the popemobile.

“Well, first of all, a vehicle has to move safely, comfortably, but also safely in terms of traffic and accident risks,” Breitschwerdt said to EWTN News. “It has to be safely conceived and executed in terms of the current modern risks you face if you are in big crowds.”

“So we have armored versions; we have the secured glass Popemobiles, which are very, very sophisticated,” Breitschwerdt added.

Breitschwerdt, in a speech for the exhibit launch, also said that no Mercedes-Benz employee is ever allowed to sit on the pope’s seat in the Popemobile.

“There is a strict rule that no one — not even the mechanics who maintain the vehicles or our CEO — is allowed to sit in the popeʼs seat,” Breitschwerdt said.

Father Richard Storey, who was accused in May of stealing $160,000 from Curé of Ars Catholic Church in Leawood near Kansas City, Kansas, pleaded guilty to the theft on Oct. 27.

The Kansas City Archdiocese said in a statement that Storey had already repaid just under $160,000 to the parish as restitution. The priest will be sentenced in January.

The archdiocese said it would initiate a canonical investigation following the guilty plea. In addition to the theft, the diocese said it would investigate an “allegation involving an adult victim.”

The archdiocesan finance council’s audit committee will review the results of the investigation, the statement said, after which the committee would present its own analysis to the archdiocesan promoter of justice, who will suggest potential canonical actions to Archbishop Shawn McKnight.

The archbishop “will share the findings of the investigation with the Curé of Ars Parish and communicate its conclusion to the faithful,” the archdiocese said.

Storey allegedly utilized the stolen funds in part on cruises, including at least one apparent withdrawal from within a casino.

Tens of thousands of dollars, meanwhile, were reportedly spent on international travel. The archdiocesan statement said that Storey’s guilty plea fell under “severity level 7,” or a “non-person, non-drug felony.”

The Kansas City Star reported that the plea agreement recommended the priest receive probation including “substance abuse evaluation.”

According to the Office for the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff, which announced the event on Oct. 27, the Eucharistic celebration will begin at 4 p.m. local time in this historic Roman cemetery, which preserves evidence of a necropolis dating back to the first centuries of Christianity and includes the Catacombs of St. Cyriaca.

The celebration will form part of the traditional commemorations the Church dedicates to the faithful departed during the first days of November. At the conclusion of the Mass, the Holy Father will offer prayers for the deceased and impart the apostolic blessing over the graves.

It will not be the first time a pope has presided over this celebration at Verano Cemetery. Pope Francis celebrated All Souls’ Day Mass there in 2013, 2014, and 2015. In subsequent years, he chose other significant locations, including the Pontifical Teutonic College of Santa Maria in Campo Santo within the Vatican in 2022 and Rome’s Laurentino Cemetery in 2025.

The commemoration at Verano Cemetery will open the pope’s public liturgical schedule for the months of November and December. Among the events already announced are a Mass for the repose of the souls of the cardinals and bishops who have died during the past year, scheduled for Nov. 5 at 9 a.m. in St. Peter’s Basilica.

He will also celebrate nine Masses and preside over a number of prayer services during the apostolic journey he will make to Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru from Nov. 6–17.

Back in Rome, on Nov. 18, Leo XIV will celebrate a 5 p.m. Mass marking the 400th anniversary of the dedication of St. Peter’s Basilica. On Dec. 8, at approximately 4 p.m., he will lead the traditional act of veneration of the Immaculate Conception in Rome’s Piazza di Spagna.

Pastoral visits to Rome parishes

In November and December, Pope Leo will also visit five parishes in the Diocese of Rome, something he also did earlier this year during the season of Lent.

As bishop of Rome, during each of the afternoon visits, the pontiff will meet with parishioners, learn about the ministries in the parish, and celebrate Mass. Each church is from one of the five geographic divisions of the diocese.

On Friday, Nov. 27, he will visit Sant’Andrea delle Fratte in the city’s historic center. On Nov. 29, the first Sunday of Advent, the pope will travel to San Carlo da Sezze, which is west of Rome, in the direction of the coast.

On Sunday, Dec. 6, he will go to Sant’Eligio, in the east part of Rome; on Sunday, Dec. 13, the feast of St. Lucy, he will visit a parish named for the Italian saint in the western part of Rome; and on the Sunday before Christmas, Dec. 20, he will go to San Roberto Bellarmino in the north.

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

In a joint pastoral letter on migration, published Oct. 24, the bishops also warned that restrictive policies are making it nearly impossible for refugees to enter their countries and defended well-integrated migrants against expulsion.

“Migrants must be carefully integrated into their new countries; otherwise, serious problems arise,” the bishops wrote.

The letter, titled “The Earth Is Our Common Home,” is signed by the six members of the Nordic Bishops' Conference, which covers Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Iceland. They are its president, Bishop Erik Varden of Trondheim, Norway; its vice president, Bishop Raimo Goyarrola of Helsinki; Cardinal Anders Arborelius of Stockholm; Bishop Czeslaw Kozon of Copenhagen; Bishop David Tencer of Reykjavik, Iceland; and Bishop Fredrik Hansen of Oslo, Norway. The conference prepared it for Oct. 25, the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

At least 4.6 million people living in the five countries, about 1 in 6 residents, were born abroad, according to national statistics offices. In Sweden, 20.8% of residents were born abroad and in Finland 10.9%. Immigrants make up 19.6% of Icelandʼs population, 17.5% of Norwayʼs, and 13% of Denmarkʼs.

Duties and limits

“Each country naturally needs to assess how many migrants it is able to receive,” the bishops wrote. “When this does not happen, and when more people are received than can be integrated well, social problems result.”

Quoting the Catechism of the Catholic Church, they said migrants are “obliged to respect with gratitude the material and spiritual heritage of the country that receives them, to obey its laws and to assist in carrying civic burdens.” This “must not be seen to exclude their legitimate right to preserve their own heritage,” they added.

“There is a risk that migrants isolate themselves and fail even to attempt to adapt to their new circumstances,” the letter says. “Over time, this tendency generates unease and conflict.” Migrants “are to be encouraged to integrate but not subjected to forced assimilation.”

Refugees and the well integrated

The bishops said social problems arising from poor integration lead to “new strictures in policy, so that it becomes near impossible to enter within our borders even for refugees and asylum seekers, who stand under the protection of international norms to which our countries are obliged.”

“In some cases, this development has reached the point where it is considered good to send away as many people as possible, including those who are well integrated and who make significant contributions to our societies,” they wrote. “The Church must raise her voice in defense of those who are in danger of being subjected to unjust treatment without due cause.”

The bishops recalled that “the Catholic Church was rebuilt, after the centuries of persecution, in our Nordic countries by migrants who brought their Catholic faith to us.” Parishes, they wrote, “often function as integration workshop.”

“To foster love of oneʼs nation, to value its traditions and heritage, is a good thing,” the letter says. “Narrow-minded nationalism, however, must be abhorrent to Catholics and to all people of good will.”

Citing Pope Leo XIVʼs visits to the Canary Islands and Lampedusa and his call to “disarm our language,” the bishops said public coverage of and discourse about immigration “tend to become harsher, less nuanced, and more aggressive.”

“Europe is searching for a new balance in this area,” they wrote. “We must be realistic about our limitations, human and material. Still, we must be ready never to reject a suffering brother or sister who calls on us for help.”

This story was first published by CNA Deutsch, the German-language sister service of EWTN News, and has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

A century later, bishops in mainland China are appointed under a controversial agreement the Holy See made with Beijing in 2018. Its text has never been published.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vaticanʼs secretary of state, defended the deal in a 2022 interview. New bishops, he said, were being ordained under a procedure “that leaves the pope the final and decisive say.” He called the results “small achievements” but “important steps toward the progressive healing of the wounds inflicted on ecclesial communion by the events of the past.”

Human Rights Watch said in 2025 the Vatican had never exercised its veto. Critics who spoke to EWTN News say the Chinese Communist Party now has a role in choosing bishops.

‘Spiritual colonies’

On the seventh anniversary of his own episcopal ordination in 1919, Pope Pius XI spoke of his joy at seeing the first “bishops of the native Chinese clergy” consecrated in Rome.

“Unlike the situation in China today, the 1926 consecrations of Chinese bishops were intended to give China native bishops, not to separate those bishops from the Holy See,” Anthony E. Clark, a professor of Chinese history at Whitworth University and a lay Dominican, told EWTN News.

Missions in China operated under a French protectorate at that time. Father Frédéric-Vincent Lebbe, a Vincentian who arrived in China after the Boxer Rebellion, said the missions had created “spiritual colonies” instead of living Churches. He was an early advocate for indigenizing the Chinese Church.

The concern was shared in Rome: Benedict XV, who issued the 1919 apostolic letter Maximum Illud, “wanted to remove European nationalism from the Chinese Church and empower Chinaʼs Catholics to cooperate with the pope in governing their own local community,” Clark told EWTN News.

Seven years later, Pope Pius XI put building up a native clergy “before everything else” in Rerum Ecclesiae.

Fenggang Yang, a Purdue University sociologist who directs its Center on Religion and the Global East, said the 1926 consecrations came “in a time of rising Chinese nationalism that targeted Christianity as a foreign religion under the protection of imperialist European countries.”

“Chinese leadership strengthened the Church’s claim to belong within Chinese society. However, the Catholic Church made the adjustment too little and too slow,” Yang told EWTN News.

By 1948, Fides figures show, only 14 of Chinaʼs 139 bishops were Chinese, but 2,690 of its 5,780 priests were.

From 1949 to 2018

After the communist victory of 1949, Pius XII rejected a “national” Church in Ad Sinarum Gentem and in 1958 condemned the first ordinations of bishops without a papal mandate in Ad Apostolorum Principis. Catholics were divided into registered and unregistered, or “underground,” communities, which Benedict XVI famously called to reconciliation in his 2007 letter.

Under Benedictʼs successor, Pope Francis, the Holy See and Beijing signed a “provisional agreement” on appointing bishops on Sept. 22, 2018. The deal was renewed three times, in 2020, 2022, and, for four years to October 2028, in 2024.

The Holy Seeʼs case

The deal sought “only to attain the Churchʼs specific spiritual and pastoral aims,” including “to reestablish and preserve the full and visible unity of the Catholic community in China,” Pope Francis wrote in 2018.

In a Fides essay, Father Paul Han, a mainland Chinese priest, wrote that the agreement “established a workable framework” and “avoided the long-standing divisions” between “public” and “underground” communities.

The process has not always run smoothly. In April 2023, Chinese authorities transferred Bishop Joseph Shen Bin from Haimen to Shanghai, informing the Holy See but without involving it in the decision as the agreement provides, Vatican News reported.

Pope Francis appointed Shen three months later, having “decided nevertheless to rectify the canonical irregularity” for the “greater good of the diocese,” Parolin said. Such a way of proceeding, the cardinal added, “seems to disregard the spirit of dialogue and collaboration” between the two sides.

During the 2025 sede vacante, official assemblies “elected” two candidates; the successor to Pope Francis, Leo XIV, approved both that August.

More recently, on Oct. 15, Father Ignatius Ding Zuyao was consecrated bishop of Haimen, the see Bishop Simon Zhu Kaimin led from 1926, after Leo approved his candidacy under the agreement. He is the 19th bishop selected under the deal.

‘Nominate’ and ‘choose’

Father Gianni Criveller, a PIME missionary and editorial director of AsiaNews who opened a centenary conference in Taipei this month, said “the situation of 1926 and today are quite different.”

In 1926, he said, the issue was “to overcome the resistance by many quarters, including foreign missionaries in China, to allow local clergy to govern their churches.” Archbishop Celso Costantini, the Holy Seeʼs first apostolic delegate to China, and Pius XI also “were able to overcome the French interference.”

“I am afraid now the interference comes from China authorities: In spite of the agreement in 2018 between the Vatican and China, the freedom for the Catholic Church is quite limited in China,” Criveller said. “The pope can nominate the bishops, but he can hardly choose them. And the nomination by the pope is not acknowledged during the ceremony of consecration of the bishops.”

“I am not in position to offer advice to the pope,” the missionary added. “I respect any popeʼs decision, and I understand that the Holy See seek dialogue and agreements. My point is that the agreement does not bring the benefits that we all hoped for. The freedom for Catholics in China is less than before.”

The critics' case

Nina Shea of the Hudson Institute said Beijingʼs “Sinicization” policy means “Catholic teaching and evangelization must conform to Chinese Communist Party doctrine.”

“Pope Leo should support the Catholic underground in China, as the Church has done in other regions,” Shea said.

She warned that Chinese President Xi Jinping “seeks control over all civil society, including the Catholic Church.”

“Things have changed in China under communist rule,” Yang said. “The secret agreement since 2018 has pressed underground Catholics to go above ground, so that no new underground bishops have been consecrated.”

Some underground bishops who came above ground were then stripped of their episcopal functions, and some died without replacement, he said. “Therefore, the underground Catholic communities are in disarray.”

Meanwhile, Yang said, the China Catholic Patriotic Association “has strengthened its power over all Catholics in China” while implementing the partyʼs Sinicization policy.

People ask how Chinese the countryʼs Catholics are, he noted. “Another question people also ask is: How Chinese is the Chinese Communist Party [CCP]? Is the CCP primarily Chinese or primarily communist?”

“Over the next two years, Pope Leo XIV should set out the criteria and conditions for the renewal of the Sino-Vatican Agreement,” said Benedict Rogers, senior director at Fortify Rights.

“These criteria should include the release of all imprisoned or detained Catholic bishops, priests, and laity, including the release of Hong Kongʼs pro-democracy activist, 78-year-old Catholic and British citizen Jimmy Lai, currently serving a 20-year sentence,” Rogers told EWTN News on Oct. 27.

“The agreement should not be renewed if these criteria are not met.”

Toward 2028

Replying on behalf of Cardinal Stephen Chow of Hong Kong, the dioceseʼs communications office told EWTN News on Oct. 28 that he “is happy to see it moving forward,” citing this yearʼs “steadily increasing number” of episcopal ordinations, “all approved by the Holy Father.”

“In the short term, I will continue the policy that the Holy See has followed for some years now,” Leo XIV said in a 2025 interview.

“In the long term, I donʼt pretend to say this is what I will and will not do,” he added.

Pius XI told the six new bishops: “Please come to Rome more often, as traveling is getting easier,” Criveller recalled. “The pope said that in 1926! After 100 years, Chinese bishops cannot freely travel to Rome.”

Clark agreed. “Chinaʼs faithful wish they could return to 1926, when Chinese bishops were free to travel to Rome, meet the Holy Father, and be more integrated in the universal Church that they espouse,” he told EWTN News.

This month, two mainland bishops attended a Vatican meeting convened by Leo XIV.

“The constitution Gaudium et Spes reminds us not to live the faith in a spirit of opposition or hostility towards the world, culture, and its human expressions,” the pontiff said during the general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on Oct. 28.

He then cited a passage from the document that exhorts believers to “live in very close union with the other men of their time and [to] strive to understand perfectly their way of thinking and judging, as expressed in their culture.”

Before arriving at the platform set up in St. Peter’s Square, the pope spent about 15 minutes riding through the area in the popemobile. During the ride, he blessed around a dozen children who were brought to him from among the crowd.

A more credible witness

Leo XIV also stressed in his catechesis that a mature synthesis between faith and culture is “an essential requirement for bearing witness to the faith before the world and communicating it to others in a credible manner.”

The second chapter of the second part of Gaudium et Spes is devoted precisely to culture and its relationship with the Christian faith. In this context, the pope recalled that the Catholic Church “has always been concerned with accompanying the preaching of the Gospel with the establishment of schools of every kind, aimed at advancing the human, cultural, and spiritual formation of men and women across the five continents.”

The conciliar text, the pontiff noted, upholds the need “to direct teaching towards a certain unity of knowledge,” while recognizing that changing living conditions may make this more difficult.

According to Leo XIV, Christians are the first who “must strive to bring about this unity of wisdom, first and foremost within themselves.”

“Although they have received from revelation the answers to the great questions of existence, they are not thereby exempt from patient intellectual and cultural formation,” he warned.

On the contrary, he added, human and scientific knowledge must “go hand in hand with the substance of their faith, which must be continually deepened with age and in accordance with their level of study.”

The pope emphasized that the various manifestations of culture contribute to opening minds to the perennial questions on the meaning of the world and of human existence, “thus preparing people to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

He also explained that “the relationship between faith and culture finds its primary foundation in the Incarnation.” For this reason, he said, faith is “an incarnate reality, interwoven with the culture in which it is immersed.”

In this sense, he noted that faith is also required “to become culture,” that is, “to reach the person in their living environment, made up of human words, traditions, religious meaning, art and poetry, thought and science.”

To illustrate this idea, the Holy Father quoted St. John Paul II: “A faith that does not become culture is a faith not fully accepted, not entirely thought out, not faithfully lived.”

The Christian faith and a particular culture

Leo XIV also insisted that faith can be embodied in any culture because “it does not identify itself with any of them in a specific way.” In this way, he explained, the Church draws from the various cultures “all that is good, beautiful, and true” in order to embody and transmit the message of the Gospel.

Finally, he recalled that Gaudium et Spes urges the international community to ensure that everyone has access to fundamental cultural goods “by overcoming illiteracy and the lack of education.”

He also stressed that “it will belong to all to acknowledge and favor the proper and necessary participation of women in the cultural life.”

In his greetings to Italian-speaking pilgrims, the pope noted that only a few days remain before the solemnity of All Saints, which the Catholic Church celebrates on Nov. 1. He invited the faithful to contemplate “this immense multitude of men and women” who have attained holiness and who stand before the Church as a “prophetic sign of the life to come.”

The Holy Father emphasized that eternal life “already begins in the commitment and Christian witness of earthly life,” encouraging believers to live the Gospel faithfully in their daily lives and to allow themselves to be inspired by the example of the saints.

On Nov. 2, the pontiff is scheduled to celebrate a Mass for the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed at the Monumental Cemetery of Verano, the oldest and largest cemetery in Rome. The Eucharistic celebration will begin at 4 p.m. local time in this historic Roman cemetery, which preserves evidence of a necropolis dating back to the first centuries of Christianity and includes the Catacombs of St. Cyriaca.

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

In an email to supporters on Oct. 23 she said she had been inundated by an avalanche of investigations and complaints about her views on issues including abortion and gender ideology.

“There are now more than 200 allegations and sub-allegations against me,” Howe stated on her website.

“Every single one relates to something I’ve said on a controversial topic. Not one relates to anything I’ve said or done in the classroom. My crime? Disagreeing with the leftwing orthodoxy of the academy.”

None of the complaints, she said, relates to her academic work. She is a Rhodes Scholar who is an expert on the legal regulation of temporary labor migration, labor law, and migration policy. She is the author of three books. She has a doctorate from the University of Oxford and was appointed a full professor in 2023.

Her fierce advocacy for unborn children has made her a national figure in the media. But this should not make her persona non grata in the university, she said.

“Universities should not be a monoculture. Academic freedom means nothing if it doesn’t protect views the activists don’t like,” she wrote.

“This isn’t just about me. It’s about every conservative student, every Christian, and every junior academic who has learned to keep their head down. And it’s about every Australian who has been told to keep quiet at work or face the consequences.”

Howe told the Adelaide Advertiser that other academics were cold-shouldering her over her views. “One colleague came out of the bathroom and, bizarrely, literally screamed in my face,” she said.

She said she wants Universities Australia to decree that “complaints that are made vexatiously or in bad faith” should be dismissed. 

She also wants universities to investigate complaints about academics’ research only “if they are made by a person who is a member of the academic staff of the university, a person of good standing in Australia’s academic research community, or a person directly affected by the alleged misconduct.”

This will not be the first time Howe and her employer have clashed.

In 2024 she took Adelaide University to the Fair Work Commission because the university had demanded that she comply with “corrective actions” even though she had been cleared in six investigations.

It wanted her to complete an anti-bias course and to have a formal discussion with her manager about her research. She won that battle: the university withdrew its “corrective actions.” But the complaints have continued. 

“Enough is enough,” Howe said. She said she is prepared to fight her case all the way to the High Court.

This story was first published in the Catholic Weekly. It has been adapted by EWTN News and reprinted here with permission.

“For us it is very important to realize that the world is watching us,” Sergeant Major Marco Radovinovic, a guard for 12 years, told EWTN News.

He said training for guards of the world’s smallest and oldest active military force focuses on quickly stopping potentially dangerous people without “being brutal or over the top.”

The Swiss Guard “are the first line of defense of the Vatican State,” Radovinovic recalled, noting that even a seemingly normal interaction with someone can suddenly become “physical without any warning.”

He emphasized the importance of good training on how to handle a wide array of situations in an appropriate manner.

“Being discreet is also a means to protect the guard himself, not only [in] … the physical fight, but also for the people around us that take photos and so on,” he said.

Viral videos and increased security concerns

The sergeant major noted that following the COVID-19 pandemic, which also coincided with a steep uptick in tourists to Rome, they have noticed “more and more weird behaviors in people.”

He said there has also been an increase in situations requiring them to put their training to practice at the various entrances to the Vatican City State.

Some of these security issues have been caught on video. In June, two PETA activists tried to hop a fence during Pope Leo XIV’s Wednesday general audience. The swift action of guards in response was caught on video.

In May 2023, a man in his 40s — described as being in psychological distress — attempted to storm a gate of the Vatican with his car before being stopped by Swiss Guards.

Multiple security incidents in St. Peter’s Basilica have also been caught on camera, some even going viral. The basilica has separate security personnel, including the gendarmes. While Swiss Guards were not present during the episodes in 2025 — they assist with basilica security during liturgies with the pope — it demonstrates the ability of these moments to go viral on social media.

520 years of papal protection

The Pontifical Swiss Guard was established by Pope Julius II in 1506. It is responsible for Vatican security together with the Vatican gendarmes, which were formed in 1816.

Each of the 135 members of the Vatican military takes an oath at the beginning of his service “to faithfully, loyally, and honorably serve the reigning pontiff and his legitimate successors, to devote myself to them with all my strength, sacrificing, if necessary, even my life in their defense.”

The swearing-in ceremony usually takes place on or around the May 6 anniversary of the 1527 battle known as the Sack of Rome, when 147 guards lost their lives defending Pope Clement VII from the mutinous army of the Holy Roman Empire. In 2027, the Swiss Guard will mark the 500th anniversary of that battle, the deadliest event in its history.

Training to serve the pope

But before promising to serve and protect the pope, each new recruit goes through a rigorous training. In 2026, this training was expanded from two to three months.

“We noticed that there were a lot of things that we had to do with recruits, and two months wouldnʼt suffice,” explained Radovinovic, who has been responsible for the formation of new guards since February.

Young men who join the Swiss Guard — unmarried Swiss males between the ages of 19 and 30, at least 5 feet and 8 inches tall, and in good standing with the Catholic Church — start their training in Rome.

Now, instead of one month in Rome and a second month of physical training with police in Switzerland, recruits will have two months of formation at the Vatican.

“The first step is to come here” to the Vatican “to receive the equipment, the material, the introduction to life in the Vatican State,” the sergeant major said.

He pointed out that new guards are coming to live in a new country with a new language and a different way of doing things. They study Italian and learn how the Vatican works.

Then they spend a month doing martial training with the police in Switzerland, including self-defense, psychological training — like de-escalation tactics — and gun training as well as safe firearm handling.

Guards are trained in the Monadnock Defensive Tactical System, which is rooted mostly in Japanese and Okinawa martial arts, including jujitsu, judo, and karate.

Radovinovic explained that this security defensive tactic is “not as stylistic or … theatrical as judo. It’s more discreet, much more quick and efficient to block someone, to stop someone in a nonlethal way.”

Swiss Guards don’t carry guns and in general try to avoid the use of weapons.

“We are not trained for gunfights,” the sergeant major said. “Thatʼs why the emphasis of our training is especially physical contact.”

“It’s so important for us to have a good training, and especially also mental training, to know what to do in what situations,” he underlined.

Radovinovic noted that with their training they hope to avoid the situations that one sometimes sees in international media, where during stops or arrests, six or seven law enforcement officers may block a single person.

“That can have a negative impact“ on the professional reputation of the Swiss Guard, he said.

“For us, certain techniques like wrist handling or arm handling, [are] very important. Once you do that and you immobilize someone, it can be very clean. It can be very fast. … The other person doesn’t suffer too much,” he said.

“Unfortunately, a little bit of suffering is needed, because it’s a physical contact. But in that way, we know that the guard can handle situations very quickly and very discreet and very efficiently.”

“Persecuted and Forgotten?” outlines how Christians are being forced from their homes through conflict, extremism, and religiously motivated violence in 18 countries across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America between August 2024 and June 2026.

According to research by ACN, 220 million Christians are directly exposed to persecution worldwide. The latest data from Pew Research Center indicates that anti-Christian harassment, ranging from verbal abuse to killings, occurred in 165 countries in 2023, up from 160 in 2021.

At the launch of the report in Portcullis House, London, John Pontifex, head of press for ACN UK, told EWTN News: “By virtue of our shared faith, we identify, inevitably, particularly strongly, with those of our brothers and sisters who suffer for their faith, and we recognize that itʼs an accident of birth that sees them in that situation of persecution and us in a situation of much greater liberty.”

He added: “There are Christians that suffer persecution in more countries than is the case with any other faith group. Up to 165 countries are those where Christians suffer from discrimination, oppression, or persecution. Thatʼs far more than any other religious group, so we need to share their story, and to tell people, our friends, our family, our parish, our [politicians].”

The report outlines how the persecution of Christians by authoritarian regimes has grown to unprecedented levels in countries where there is an anti-West sentiment.

Chinese authorities have intensified their oppression of Christians, as they aim to align religious doctrine more closely with communist principles. This has led to mass detentions, clergy being jailed on legal technicalities, churches closing, and online religious content being controlled.

The report tells of the persecution in Nicaragua, where the regime increased its crackdown on Christians, arresting and exiling clergy, preventing ordinations, seizing Church institutions, and preventing people entering the country with Bibles.

The report also outlines how the arrests of Christians doubled within 12 months in Iran, as crackdowns have intensified.

“Weʼre calling on all countries around the world and the U.N. to fully implement Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which enshrines religious freedom,” Pontifex said.

“Weʼre not calling for special treatment but simply calling for people to band together, to stop acts of oppression — be it people being kidnapped for their faith, be it people being forced from their jobs for reasons to do with their faith …  And indeed, for those who are unfairly tried and sentenced to life imprisonment, for crimes theyʼve not committed,” he said. “Like blasphemy laws, which are arbitrarily enforced. And then recognizing there are people who are often asked to pay the ultimate price. This should stop.”

Sub-Saharan Africa was one particular area of focus, listing Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger as territories with the worst extremist attacks since the height of the Daesh (ISIS) violence in the Middle East.

The report outlines how jihadist violence in the Sahel region has led to militant groups now controlling 40% of the country.

“They often coerce villagers to follow Islamic customs, making women veil their faces in public and men grow beards. Those who refuse are expelled or even publicly executed. Where insurgents allow Christians to practice their faith, this is restricted to inside churches, and it cannot be taught to children,” Pontifex explained.

Speaking to the conference about the Christians suffering from this oppression, Caroline Hull, national director of ACN UK, said: “These are people just like you and me. If someone said, ‘Will you give up your faith or I will take your children?’
what would you do? If someone said, ‘Iʼll let you get out of prison if you turn your back on Jesus Christ’? These are fair questions to ask ourselves, and we need to remember that these are people just like us.”

In October 2025, receiving an ACN delegation, Pope Leo XIV declared that religious freedom is “a cornerstone of any just society for it safeguards the moral space in which conscience may be informed and exercised… Religious freedom, therefore, is not merely a legal right or a privilege to us granted by governments; it is a foundational condition that makes reconciliation possible.”

ACN is a Catholic charity founded to help Christians in need where they are persecuted, oppressed, or in pastoral need through support, charitable work, and generating awareness.

On Nov. 18, ACN will celebrate the 10th anniversary of its #RedWednesday campaign, which raises awareness about the persecution of Christians worldwide.

The full report is available to read here.

The survey was published on Oct. 26 by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), which is a research center at Georgetown University that produces social scientific studies about the Catholic Church.

It found significant differences among racial and ethnic categories, with Indigenous and Black Catholics reporting the highest levels of racial discrimination. Non-Hispanic white Catholics reported the lowest levels of racial discrimination.

The survey found that 75% of Indigenous Catholics reported experiences of racial discrimination in their lives. About 15% said they have experienced it in their parishes and 23% have experienced it in Catholic education.

It found that 66% of Black Catholics said they have experienced racial discrimination at some point in their lives, with 26% experiencing it in their parish communities and 26% experiencing it in Catholic education.

About 54% of Hispanic Catholics reported experiencing racial discrimination in their lives, with 15% saying they have experienced it in their parishes and 16% saying they have experienced it in Catholic education.

Among Asian, Pacific Islander, and Native Hawaiian Catholics, 54% said they have experienced racial discrimination in their lives, with 11% saying they experienced it in their parishes and 14% saying they have experienced it in Catholic education.

For white non-Hispanic Catholics, 29% reported they have experienced racial discrimination in their lives, with 6% saying they experienced it in their parishes and 7% saying they experienced it in Catholic education.

The largest category of respondents was white non-Hispanic Catholics, who made up 49% of those surveyed. About 24% of respondents were Hispanic; 16% were Black; 6% were Asian, Pacific Islander, or Native Hawaiian; 2% were Indigenous; 1% were another race; and 1% were mixed.

Ali Mumbach, research assistant for CARA, told EWTN News: “The findings from this report are very revealing about racism in the U.S. Catholic Church.”

“There is one group that experiences racial discrimination within the walls of the Catholic Church in the U.S. more than any other,” Mumbach said. “Black Catholics are the most likely to attend a parish that has merged (26%), have experienced racial discrimination in their parish (26%) as well as in Catholic education (26%). Twenty-six percent is 1 in 4 Black Catholics, compared to 1 in 10 adult Catholics in their parish or in Catholic education.”

“Based on the findings in this study, adult Catholics are generally in agreement with Church teachings that racism is a sin,” she said. “However, the reality of living out anti-racism within the Church seems to be a different story.”

A large majority of each racial and ethnic group said they believe implicit and explicit racism exist in their local communities to some degree. Implicit racism refers to forms of discrimination, such as unfair housing, access to education, and job opportunities. Explicit racism refers to forms of discrimination, such as verbal name calling, being denied services, and racial profiling.

The survey found that 17% of Catholics believe implicit racism exists “very much” in their local communities. It found that 33% believe it exists “somewhat,” 28% believe it exists “a little,” and 22% said it does not exist at all in their communities.

It found that 19% of Catholics said they believe explicit racism exists “very much” in their local communities, 32% said it exists “somewhat,” 27% said it exists “a little” and 22% said it does not exist at all.

White Catholics were the least likely to say explicit and implicit racism exists “very much” in their local communities. Black Catholics were the most likely to say those forms of racism exist “very much” in their communities.

Views about racism

The survey also asked respondents about their views on racism, which CARA said is derived from Church documents that condemn and define racism. A majority of each racial and ethnic group strongly or somewhat agreed with each statement.

It found 75% of Catholics strongly or somewhat agree it is sinful to “exclude, ridicule, mistreat, or unjustly discriminate against persons on the basis of their race or ethnicity.” It found that 19% neither agree nor disagree and 7% either strongly or somewhat disagree.

The survey found that 73% of Catholics strongly or somewhat agree racism can also come in the form of a sin of omission “when individuals, communities, and even churches remain silent and fail to act against racial injustice when it is encountered.” Another 20% neither agree nor disagree and 7% either strongly or somewhat disagree.

It found 67% of Catholics strongly or somewhat agree “racism can only end if we contend with the policies and institutional barriers that perpetuate and preserve the inequality — economic and social — that we still see all around us.” Another 24% neither agreed nor disagreed, and 9% either strongly or somewhat disagreed.