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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 17, 2025 / 09:10 am (CNA).

Support for religious liberty among Americans grew over the past year in most categories, according to the 2024 Religious Freedom Index survey from the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, published Jan. 16.

The sixth edition of the report found that religious freedom overall continues to grow with its religious freedom index hitting 70 out of a possible 100 — the highest score recorded by the organization and a two-point increase from the previous year. The survey polls Americans on a variety of religious liberty issues.

According to the survey, the category of “Religious Pluralism” had the highest support, scoring an 86 out of a possible 100. This subset measures how respondents view basic rights and the ability to live out one’s faith, especially when those practices are outside of the mainstream.

Other high-ranking categories were “Religious Sharing” at 72, which measures to what extent people should be free to share their beliefs with others, and “Religion in Action” at 70, which measures to what extent people believe a person’s faith should be permitted to be expressed in their public lives.

Some lower-ranking categories were “Religion and Policy” at 68, which measures how much people support religious freedom in law; “Religion and Society” at 67, which measures how much people believe religion should influence society; and “Church and State” at 58, which measures how much people believe government and religion should be able to intersect. 

The report, which surveyed 1,000 adults, was released on National Religious Freedom Day.

“Americans drew a line in the sand in this year’sindex: Government doesn’t get to push people around for keeping the faith,” Mark Rienzi, president and CEO of Becket, said in a statement. “From coast to coast, we witnessed a groundswell of support for Americans to live out their faith in public, even when their beliefs cut against the grain.”   

“Even in a time of deep division, most Americans still believe religion — and the freedom to practice it — is crucial to overcoming our disagreements,” Rienzi said. “As we celebrate Religious Freedom Day, we should take heart that our nation remains committed to forging a future where faith is a cornerstone of our culture.”

According to the survey, 77% of Americans either strongly or mostly support a parent’s right to opt their children out of public school curriculum about gender identity and sexuality if it violates their religious beliefs or they believe it is not age appropriate. Only 23% disagreed.

The survey also found that about two-thirds of respondents believe Massachusetts was wrong to reject a foster parent application from a Catholic couple because they adhere to Catholic teachings about marriage, sexuality, and gender. About one-third sided with the state’s decision.

On issues related to abortion, most Americans also took the side of religious liberty. 

The survey found that 70% of respondents oppose government mandates that would force a religious employer to pay for abortions when abortion is against the organization’s beliefs. It also found that 70% of respondents believe health care workers with religious objections to abortion should not be forced to participate in abortion procedures. 

According to the survey, 82% of Americans believe people should have freedom of religion at work, such as the right to wear religious clothing or not work on certain days. Another 63% of respondents said that people should have the freedom to practice their religion even if it creates an inconvenience for others. 

The survey also found that 56% of Americans believe that religion is part of the solution to society’s problems and 44% believe religion is primarily part of the problem.

Pope Francis’ arm, tied up in a white sling, was visible in photos taken on the morning of Jan. 16, in the apostolic palace, during his scheduled audiences. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Jan 17, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Pope Francis is being treated for a contusion on his right forearm after falling at his residence, the latest of several recent health challenges for the 88-year-old pontiff.

The incident comes just weeks after he suffered a facial injury and battled a cold during the Christmas season.

Francis spent much of the past decade as pope in relatively good health but has dealt with several painful medical conditions over the last few years.

Here is a timeline charting Pope Francis’ recent health concerns:

December 2020

A bout of sciatic pain in the final days of 2020 keeps Pope Francis from presiding at the Vatican’s liturgies on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

Francis has suffered from sciatica for a number of years; he spoke about it during an in-flight press conference returning from a trip to Brazil in July 2013.

“Sciatica is very painful, very painful! I don’t wish it on anyone,” he said about the condition, which starts in the lower back and can cause pain running down the back of the thigh and leg to the foot.

January 2021

Pope Francis cancels three more public appearances at the end of the month due to sciatic nerve pain.

July 2021

A problem with his colon lands the pope in the hospital on July 4.

Pope Francis undergoes surgery to relieve stricture of the colon caused by diverticulitis. The three-hour surgery includes a left hemicolectomy, the removal of one side of the colon.

The pope spends 11 days in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital recovering from the surgery.

January 2022

Pope Francis shares that he was having problems with his knee.

“Excuse me if I stay seated, but I have a pain in my leg today ... It hurts me, it hurts if I’m standing,” the pope tells journalists from the Jerusalem-based Christian Media Center on Jan. 17.

Francis tells the crowd at his general audience that the reason he is unable to greet pilgrims as usual is because of a temporary “problem with my right leg,” an inflamed knee ligament.

February 2022

Pope Francis cancels two public events at the end of February due to knee pain and doctors’ orders to rest.

In the month that follows, he receives help going up and down stairs but continues to walk and stand without assistance.

April 2022

During a trip to Malta, Pope Francis uses a lift to disembark the papal plane. A special lift is also installed at Malta’s Basilica of St. Paul in Rabat so Francis can visit and pray in the crypt grotto without taking the stairs.

On the return flight on April 3, Francis tells journalists: “My health is a bit fickle, I have this knee problem that brings out problems with walking.”

At the Vatican’s Good Friday service, the pope does not lie prostrate before the altar as he has done in the past.

He also does not celebrate the Easter Vigil Mass on April 16 or participate in the paschal candle procession but sits in the front of the congregation in a white chair.

On April 22 and April 26, Francis’ agenda is cleared for medical checkups and rest for his knee. The following day, the pope tells pilgrims at his general audience that his knee prevents him from standing for very long.

Pope Francis also begins to remain seated in the popemobile while greeting pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square.

On April 30, he says that his doctor has ordered him not to walk.

May 2022

The pope says at the beginning of the month that he will undergo a medical procedure on his knee, “an intervention with infiltrations,” by which he may have meant a therapeutic injection, sometimes used to relieve knee pain caused by ligament tears.

Two days later, he uses a wheelchair in public for the first time since his July 2021 colon surgery. Throughout May he continues to use the wheelchair and avoids most standing and walking.

Francis also undergoes more than two hours of rehabilitation for his knee every day, according to an Argentine archbishop close to the pontiff.

The treatment “is giving results,” then-Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández writes on Twitter on May 14 after he has a private meeting with Francis.

Other than his knee, “he’s better than ever,” Fernández adds.

Earlier, Lebanon’s tourism minister says that a reported papal visit to the country in June was postponed due to the pope’s health.

The pope does stand for long periods of time when celebrating a May 15 Mass in St. Peter’s Square. Afterward, a seminarian from Mexico catches a moment of lightheartedness between pilgrims and the pope as he greets them from the popemobile. Someone thanks the pope for being present at the Mass, despite his knee pain, to which Francis responds: “Do you know what I need for my knee? A bit of tequila.”

June 2022

In early June, the Vatican postpones Pope Francis’ planned visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan for health reasons. The trip was planned for July 2–7 but is put off “at the request of his doctors, and in order not to jeopardize the results of the therapy that he is undergoing for his knee,” according to the Vatican.

Less than a week later, the Vatican announces that Pope Francis will not preside over the June 16 Corpus Christi Mass because of his knee problems and “the specific liturgical needs of the celebration.”

Pope Francis comments on his health and speaks about the effects of old age in general terms during his June 15 general audience.

“When you are old, you are no longer in control of your body. One has to learn to choose what to do and what not to do,” the pope says. “The vigor of the body fails and abandons us, even though our heart does not stop yearning. One must then learn to purify desire: Be patient, choose what to ask of the body and of life. When we are old, we cannot do the same things we did when we were young: The body has another pace, and we must listen to the body and accept its limits. We all have them. I too have to use a walking stick now.”

Toward the end of the month, on June 28, Pope Francis walks with a cane to meet bishops from Brazil and tells them: “I have been able to walk for three days.”

August 2022

On Aug. 4, the Vatican announces that Massimiliano Strappetti, a Vatican nurse, has been appointed as Pope Francis’ “personal health care assistant.”

November 2022

José María Villalón, the head doctor of the Atlético de Madrid soccer team, is recruited to assist Pope Francis with his knee problems. He says the pope is “a very nice and very stubborn patient in the sense that there are surgical procedures that he does not want” and that “we have to offer him more conservative treatments so that he will agree to them.”

January 2023

In an interview published by the Associated Press on Jan. 25, Pope Francis announces that his diverticulitis has returned. He emphasizes that he is in “good health” and that, for his age, he is “normal.”

February 2023

On Feb. 23 the Vatican announces that Pope Francis has a “strong cold.” The pope distributes copies of his speeches at two morning appointments rather than reading them aloud as usual.

March 2023

On March 29 the Vatican announces that Pope Francis is expected to remain in a hospital in Rome for “some days” due to a respiratory infection. It had announced earlier in the day that he was in the hospital for previously scheduled medical checkups.

June 2023

Pope Francis undergoes a three-hour abdominal surgery to repair an incisional hernia on June 7.

A team of surgeons removes scar tissue and operates on a hernia in the pope’s abdominal wall at the site of a previous surgical incision in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital. 

The pope is discharged on June 16 after an eight-day stay in the hospital recovering from the operation.

November 2023

Pope Francis comes down with a “mild flu,” according to the Vatican. The pope cancels his scheduled meetings and goes to the hospital on Nov. 25 for precautionary testing.

The CT scan at the hospital rules out pneumonia but shows that the pope has lung inflammation that is “causing some breathing difficulties,” Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni tells journalists on Nov. 27.

The pope is treated with antibiotics intravenously as he recovers. A bandage holding in place a cannula for intravenous treatment can be seen on the pope’s right hand as he gives the Angelus blessing from his residence, the Casa Santa Marta, rather than from the usual window of the Apostolic Palace overlooking St. Peter’s Square. 

“Today I cannot appear at the window because I have this problem of inflammation of the lungs,” the pope says in the Angelus broadcast on Nov. 26.

Pope Francis feels well enough to keep his scheduled appointment with the president of Paraguay the following day. The Vatican releases photos of the pope’s meeting with the Paraguayan president showing the pope smiling and using a cane to walk.

December 2024

According to Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni, Pope Francis hit his chin on a bedside table on the morning of Dec. 6, causing a large hematoma on the lower right side of his cheek. Despite the visible bruising, he continues with his scheduled appearances, including the consistory for the creation of new cardinals the following day.

The pope is also sick with a cold right before Christmas. At Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Dec. 24, he is seen wearing what appears to be hearing devices.

January 2025

The Vatican says on Jan. 16 that Pope Francis suffered a “contusion” on his right forearm after falling at his residence that morning. Photos from his scheduled audiences show his arm tied up in a white sling.

While the arm was not fractured in the accident, it was braced “as a precautionary measure,” the brief communication says.

This story was originally published May 21, 2022, and was last updated on Jan. 17, 2025.

Friar Paolo Benanti is president of Italy’s Commission for Artificial Intelligence. / Credit: Courtesy of Paul VI Foundation/Screenshot

Madrid, Spain, Jan 17, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Franciscan friar Paolo Benanti, an expert in artificial intelligence (AI), warned of its ethical risks during a colloquium organized by the Paul VI Foundation in Madrid, pointing out that “the people who control this type of technology control reality.”

The Italian priest, president of the Italian government’s Commission for Artificial Intelligence, emphasized that “the reality we are facing is different from that of 10 or 15 years ago and it’s a reality defined by software.”

“This starting point has an impact on the way in which we exercise the three classic rights connected with the ownership of a thing: use, abuse, and usufruct,” he explained. (The Cambridge Dictionary defines usufruct as “the legal right to use someone else’s property temporarily and to keep any profit made from it.”)

This is especially true regarding usufruct, because “the values ​​that you produce with the use of these devices are not yours but go to the cloud,” Benanti noted.

“So who are those who do not have the usufruct of things? The slaves,” he explained. 

Therefore, he encouraged reflection on what it means to live in a reality defined by software. “We have to have an ethical approach to technology” and in particular to those linked to artificial intelligence, he said, “because they are the ones that shape the reality of our world, and the people who control this type of technology control reality.”

“We have to recognize that we live in a different reality. Software is not secondary but questions what reality is, what property is, what are the rights we have,” the Franciscan said.

Centralization and decentralization of power

Secondly, the Franciscan explained how the development of computer technology after the Second World War has produced different processes related to power, democracy, and privacy.

In the 1970s, decentralizing processes took place in the United States and Europe that led to the creation years later of personal computers that “allowed everyone to have access to very simple things.”

In the 1990s, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the idea was that a more liberalized market “would lead to greater well-being and promote the liberal democracy model in countries with other models. However, this policy “made China richer, but not more democratic,” the AI expert continued.

Thus, Western democratic values ​​entered into crisis when it was realized that “you can be rich and have well-being without being democratic,” he observed.

In the so-called Arab Spring of 2011, the use of mobile phones showed the “the power of personal computers.” But soon after, this power began to be suspected: “Mobile phones were no longer the allies of democracy but the worst ally of fake news, polarization, post-truth, and all that kind of thing,” Benanti noted.

With the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdowns, “we were able to adapt our lives thanks to the power of our personal computers” through the use of video calls or the development of applications for bank payments among other useful tools to substitute for doing things in person. 

“We realized that, silently, from 2012 to 2020, the smartphone had subsumed reality and now things that happened in reality were happening directly on the phone,” he recalled.

The risk to democracy in the computer age

During the second decade of the 21st century, “we have artificial intelligence inside the smartphone” and, according to Benanti, classical liberal democracy is turning into “a computer-based democracy.”

In it, “we are using artificial intelligence to take away a person’s ability to use the computer on his own and take it to a centralized place that we call a data center” in such a way that a new ethical challenge appears: “Now all the processes are centralized in the cloud again.”

The expert emphasized that these “clouds” or data centers “belong to five companies” that own “all the data,” which represents not just a personal challenge but also a challenge “for democratic processes.”

Regarding these challenges, the priest explained how artificial intelligence can also pose a threat to people’s freedom through its ability to make predictions about behavior.

“The suggestion you may be interested in is not only predicting what you can buy, but it is also producing the things you are going to buy,” he summarized.

This possibility poses “a real problem” because the existence of this type of system in our pockets “is capable of forcing and shaping the freedom of public spaces.”

These kinds of questions about the weaknesses, opportunities, strengths, and threats of artificial intelligence constitute the reason why “we should have governance over these kinds of innovations.” 

Regarding the future, Benanti predicted artificial intelligence will have a major impact on access to information, medicine, and the labor market. Regarding the latter, he noted: “If we do not regulate the impact that artificial intelligence can have on the labor market, we could destroy society as we now know it.”

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

Archbishop Nelson Pérez at his installation Mass on Feb. 18, 2020, at the Cathedral Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul in Philadelphia. / Credit: Sarah Webb/Archdiocese of Philadelphia

CNA Staff, Jan 17, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

After the Archdiocese of Philadelphia found that 83% of baptized Catholics are missing from the pews in the archdiocese, Archbishop Nelson Pérez decided to launch a missionary outreach program in his archdiocese to “invite people home.”

The number of “missing Catholics” is based on Mass count attendance data compiled each year by the archdiocese. (The number relates only to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.)

Pérez is launching a 10-year missionary endeavor to bring Catholics back to the pews by implementing “missionary hubs” in many parishes in the area. The missionary hubs are designed to work with existing parishes and ministries by providing additional resources to minister to those who have left the Church.

Pérez said he does not want to “perpetuate this cycle” of “widespread parish closures” due to finances and number of priests — something many dioceses are facing in the United States.

“I want to begin to close this distance between many of our loved ones and the Church,” Pérez wrote in a pastoral letter earlier this month. “I want people to know that the Lord is still calling them, that they are of great worth, have a divine purpose, and an eternal home.”

Pérez recalled that one of the first questions he was asked when he became archbishop was “will you close parishes?”

“I didn’t come here to close parishes; I came here to build up the Church of Philadelphia,” Pérez said.

One strategy Pérez plans to employ is to provide parish life directors — deacons and consecrated or lay individuals who manage operations of a parish, allowing retired and senior priests to continue to minister to souls “without bearing the responsibilities of administration.”

The missionary hubs are designed to grow the Church by working with various existing Catholic ministries, reaching out to those not actively involved in the Church, and providing local community and resources. Ultimately, they are designed to bring people to Jesus through both the Eucharist and service to the poor, according to Pérez.

The large-scale initiative will be gradually “phased in over a 10-year period,” Kenneth Gavin, chief communications officer for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, told CNA.

“This process will require tailored approaches to be successful across the diverse five counties of the archdiocese,” he said. “We also want to allow sufficient time for people to learn more, discern their participation, and refine our efforts over time.”

The archdiocese hopes to make the approach sustainable over time. In terms of funding, Gavin told CNA that the initiative “will be primarily subsidized by private philanthropic funding secured over time and hopefully endowed for long-term sustainability.”

The missionary hubs are part of a large-scale initiative to renew the Church in Philadelphia, known as the New Way Forward.

“The archbishop recognizes the urgency of reaching out to the 83% of baptized Catholics not regularly practicing their faith while continuing to serve more effectively and efficiently the 17% who do attend Mass,” Gavin told CNA.

“This is the impetus of the New Way Forward in the Church of Philadelphia, a process to renew the local Church over the next 20 years and invite everyone to deepen their relationship with Jesus Christ,” Gavin continued.

To reach the people of Philadelphia, Pérez advocates for a “pastoral change of heart.”

“I want to embark on a new form of pastoral planning by asking a new question: ‘Where does the Church need to be and how?’” Pérez said. “We need to inspire a pastoral change of heart that focuses on those who are absent.”

Pérez took inspiration from the “missionary disciples” Pope Francis wrote about in the 2013 apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel), who are involved in the community and then go forth and “seek those who have fallen away, stand at the crossroads and welcome the outcast.”

“We must be a community of missionary disciples focused on renewal, rebuilding trust, and inviting people to a relationship with Jesus Christ!” Pérez concluded.

null / Credit: GagliardiPhotography/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Jan 16, 2025 / 17:15 pm (CNA).

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

Virginia pro-abortion ballot proposal advances 

Virginia Democrats advanced a proposal to enshrine abortion as a right in the state constitution earlier this week. The amendment would ensure a “fundamental right to reproductive freedom,” protecting abortion in the first two trimesters as well as in the third trimester with some restrictions. 

Abortions are currently legal in Virginia through the second trimester. Abortions in the second trimester are allowed when the mother’s life is at risk, with the certification of three doctors. The proposed amendment would bring this number down to one doctor. 

The measure passed narrowly in the House of Delegates 51-48. Virginia Republicans criticized the measure, calling it “extreme” and expressing concern that the amendment could supersede a current Virginia law requiring parental consent for abortions for minors. Democrats argued that the government shouldn’t be making decisions about women’s health care. 

If approved again by the state House and Senate next year, the amendment would be on the ballot. The state follows the trend of many states voting on abortion laws following the overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022.

Idaho could raise voting threshold for ballot initiatives

Idaho Republicans introduced a bill Wednesday to raise Idaho’s voting threshold for statewide ballot initiatives. The bill would change current Idaho law, which requires 50% of the vote plus one to pass an initiative or referendum. The bill would increase the threshold to 60%, which state Rep. Bruce Skaug, who introduced the bill, argued would fix Idaho’s “broken” system and prevent out-of-state money from having as much sway in the state. In Idaho, residents can place and vote on laws on the ballot without the Idaho Legislature’s involvement.

The measure could affect future abortion amendments, which continued to crop up throughout the United States in the wake of Roe v. Wade’s overturn. In Florida, a pro-abortion constitutional measure failed to pass in the 2024 election, largely due to the high threshold of 60% for passing a constitutional amendment.

OneLife LA event moved to cathedral 

Amid the ongoing wildfire emergency, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ annual Catholic pro-life event OneLife LA is set to be held indoors at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels due to poor air quality and the need for law enforcement elsewhere in the city. The walking portion of the event has been canceled.

Instead, the event, beginning at 1 p.m. local time on Jan. 18, will be held in the cathedral’s plaza, with a speaker and performance program followed by the annual Requiem Mass for the Unborn in the cathedral. The event will also address the impacts of the recent L.A. fires and reflections on the impact of the emergency. The theme for the annual event is “Let Us Stand Up Together in Hope.”  

OneLife LA typically draws thousands to downtown Los Angeles, where it begins with a prayer service followed by a walk to the Los Angeles State Historic Park, where attendees listen to speakers and musical performances. It is held near the anniversary of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision as a West Coast parallel to the National March for Life in Washington, D.C., which is set to be held Jan. 24.

null / Credit: Ulf Wittrock/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 16, 2025 / 16:45 pm (CNA).

The American Humanist Association (AHA) filed a lawsuit to block West Virginia from awarding a $5 million grant to the College of St. Joseph the Worker — a Catholic trade college based in Steubenville, Ohio, that hopes to expand into the state.

St. Joseph the Worker, which offers a bachelor’s degree in Catholic studies and teaches trades related to construction, intends to use the grant to develop a construction company that would employ students in the northern part of West Virginia and expand its job training and education opportunities into the state.

The AHA, which is represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of West Virginia, contends in its lawsuit that the grant violates the state constitution’s guarantee of freedom of religion because it requires that taxpayers fund a Catholic college.

AHA executive director Fish Stark said in a statement that “no one should have to pay taxes to fund someone else’s religion.”

“Humanists believe deeply in the freedom of conscience, and this attempt to force West Virginia taxpayers to fund religious activity is an offense against the Constitution and common sense,” Stark added. 

“As a former West Virginia resident, I believe ‘Mountaineers Are Always Free’ means your faith is your business — no one else, and certainly not the government, has the right to push it on you,” he said.

Secular humanism is a nontheistic philosophy that suggests humans can develop ethical codes absent of God or religion. 

The lawsuit was filed against the West Virginia Water Development Authority, which is the agency that approved the grant to support economic development. In a statement provided to CNA, agency officials declined to comment on the lawsuit, adding: “Any comments … will be made in public court filings or other public disclosures.”

St. Joseph the Worker is not named as a plaintiff in the lawsuit. A spokesperson for the college could not be reached for comment by the time of publication.

The lawsuit cites Article III of the West Virginia Constitution, which is the state’s Bill of Rights, to justify its lawsuit. 

Section 15 of the article, which guarantees religious freedom, states that “no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry.” It further prohibits “any tax for the erection or repair of any house for public worship or for the support of any church or ministry.”

The lawsuit asserts the grant program from which St. Joseph the Worker would receive the funding — the Economic Enhancement Grant Fund — “is funded, in part, by appropriations levied against the taxpayers of West Virginia.” The grant was created with funds from the federal American Rescue Plan Act.

“[The AHA] has been negatively impacted as a result of this violation, as their members have been required to fund and support a religious practice contrary to their shared beliefs and their constitutional right to freedom of, and from, religion,” the lawsuit asserts.

St. Joseph the Worker offers instruction in several trades: heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC); carpentry; masonry; electrical; and plumbing. The proposed nonprofit construction company would employ students learning those trades to revitalize the region.

Some of the funding would also support St. Joseph the Worker purchasing training facilities in Weirton, West Virginia, which borders Steubenville, Ohio. It would also support partnerships with tradesmen and contractors in West Virginia to place apprentices there after graduation.

The college would also use the funds to expand recruitment and scholarship opportunities for prospective students in West Virginia.

The musical will be available for a month for pilgrims coming to Rome during the 2025 Jubilee of Hope. / Credit: Courtesy of ACI Prensa

ACI Prensa Staff, Jan 16, 2025 / 15:45 pm (CNA).

A musical that tells the story of St. Bernadette, visionary of Our Lady of Lourdes, made its debut in Rome on Jan. 14. The premiere was reserved for a select group of guests: 1,600 people from low-income families.

The Office of the Papal Almoner, headed by Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, invited more than a thousand low-income people and refugees to enjoy the show in the large auditorium located on Via della Conciliazione, the wide avenue that leads to St. Peter’s Square.

On Tuesday afternoon, the thousands of guests presented their tickets, distributed at the soup kitchens and in the communities where they live, to enjoy this live performance that has been a success in France and that, starting Jan. 16, will be included in the official program of the 2025 Jubilee of Hope.

At the end of the musical, members of the Missionaries of Charity order founded by St. Teresa of Calcutta offered each guest a bag of food.

Krajewski emphasized in a statement to Vatican News that it is “very beautiful to think that the poor will see the premiere since, after all, “even in the Gospel” they are given priority.

Fatima Lucarini, the musical’s producer in Italy, expressed her desire to present the premiere to the poor of Rome, an initiative that she was able to share with the Holy Father during a private meeting they had Dec. 12, 2024, at the Vatican.

The musical will be available for a month for pilgrims coming to Rome during the Jubilee of Hope. The show will then be performed in other Italian cities such as Naples, Bari, and Turin. It is also expected to come to the United States and Latin America in 2026.

Premiered in France in 2019, “Bernadette of Lourdes” shows the plight and perseverance of Bernadette Soubirous, a 14-year-old girl who experienced mystical encounters with the Virgin Mary in the grotto of Massabielle.

In that grotto, Bernadette saw a lady dressed in white who later identified herself as the Immaculate Conception.

The play is directed by the renowned Canadian stage director Serge Denoncourt and the starring role is played by the French singer Eyma.

The visionary of Our Lady of Lourdes died at the age of 35 after leaving Lourdes to join the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity in Nevers, France.

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

Esther Miller holds a picture and the released documents on Father Michael Nocita as victims and their supporters hold quilts bearing portraits of abused children while gathered outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles on Feb. 1, 2013. / Credit: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images

CNA Staff, Jan 16, 2025 / 12:10 pm (CNA).

Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) revealed in landmark survey results released this week that “dioceses, eparchies, and religious communities of men” have reported $5,025,346,893 in payouts related to minor abuse allegations since 2004.

Those payments include “settlements paid to victims, other payments to victims, support for offenders, [and] attorneys’ fees” as well as other costs, CARA said.

Though that massive sum has been paid out over the last two decades, the vast majority of the alleged abuse occurred much earlier, with 80% of the alleged crimes taking place in the 1980s or decades prior.

The findings come from two decades’ worth of annual surveys by CARA. The yearly survey collects “information about the allegations of sexual abuse of minors by priests and deacons that had been reported to the dioceses and eparchies each year.”

The original survey was first commissioned in 2004 by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

The survey has polled about 200 dioceses and eparchies and approximately 220 religious communities of men over the course of the 20 years. Respondents in the survey were asked to categorize abuse allegations as “credible” or “unsubstantiated/obviously false” as well as “unable to be proven.”

Since 2004 respondents have labeled 16,276 allegations as “credible.” The majority of credible allegations were reported by dioceses and eparchies.

The survey noted that the number of credible allegations jumped by 46% in its second decade, which CARA said was attributable in part to “the greater number of large lawsuits and state investigations as well as the enactment by some state governments of temporary relaxations of statutes of limitations on crimes and lawsuits.”

The findings indicate that alleged abuse dropped sharply in the U.S. Church over the course of the 20th century into the 21st. “More than 9 in 10 of all credible allegations” were said to have occurred or began in 1989 or earlier, CARA said. Just 3% of the allegations were said to have taken place since 2000.

Eighty percent of alleged abuse victims were male, more than half were ages 10 to 14, and 20% were aged 9 or younger.

All told, the allegations involve a total of 4,490 alleged perpetrators, 95% of whom are priests and 4% of whom are religious brothers. An additional 1% of alleged abusers are deacons. 

A full 86% of all alleged perpetrators were identified as “deceased, already removed from ministry, already laicized, or missing” in the survey.

Dioceses spend hundreds of millions on abuse prevention efforts

While dioceses paid out billions of dollars in responding to alleged abuse victims, Church officials have also outlayed huge sums to prevent further abuse over the past 20 years.

Respondents to CARA’s survey have reported a total of $727,994,390 in expenditures for child abuse prevention and safety, an average of about $36,000,000 annually.

Those expenditures include “safe environment coordinator and victim assistance coordinator salaries, tracking and other administrative expenses, training programs for adults and children, and background checks.”

The amount of money spent on abuse prevention has increased in recent years. In the first decade of the survey, dioceses reported $259,771,061 in safe environment expenditures; that figure jumped 80% in the second decade that the survey was taken, to $468,223,329. 

In announcing the findings, CARA said the U.S. Church’s “effort to address the sexual abuse of minors by clergy and religious brothers and to implement safeguards to prevent future abuse is unprecedented by any nongovernmental organization and is the largest effort of its kind.”

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops first promulgated norms for addressing the sexual abuse of minors in the Church in 2002.

In its “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People,” the bishops’ body acknowledged that clergy sex abuse, as well as “the ways in which these crimes and sins were addressed,” have caused “enormous pain, anger, and confusion for victims, their families, and the entire Church.”

“As bishops, we have acknowledged our mistakes and our roles in that suffering, and we apologize and take responsibility again for too often failing victims and the Catholic people in the past,” the bishops wrote.

Father Frank Mann is seen with President Donald Trump in an undated photograph. / Credit: The Tablet

CNA Staff, Jan 16, 2025 / 11:40 am (CNA).

A priest in the Diocese of Brooklyn who has been asked to pray at the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump is describing the experience — which includes a personal friendship with the president — as “mind-boggling.” 

Father Francis Mann is scheduled to deliver the closing benediction at Trump’s second inauguration in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20.

The Brooklyn Diocese told CNA that Mann was unavailable for an interview. But in a Wednesday profile at the diocesan newspaper the Tablet, the priest described the distinction as an “indescribable honor.” 

The retired diocesan priest, who was ordained in 1979, originally struck up what the Tablet called an “unlikely friendship” with Trump after he came across the gravesites of Trump’s parents in a Queens cemetery. 

“It was slightly overgrown,” Mann told the Tablet. “I thought this shouldn’t be. This is a historic site. So, I went and bought a weed whacker and some decorations and fixed up the plot.” The priest then sent a photo of the graves to the president.

Several weeks later Trump personally called Mann to inquire about the photograph. Learning that the priest had done the work on his own volition, Trump said the two should “get together the next time he was in New York,” according to the Tablet. 

After his loss in the 2020 election, Trump called Mann up and invited him to a meeting at Trump Tower in Manhattan. The priest described the once and future president as “the nicest, most down-to-earth guy.” 

“There are no airs about him. He has a great sense of humor. He’s a regular guy,” Mann told the Tablet. 

The president and the priest have continued to stay in touch and to meet up, including at Trump’s summer residence in New Jersey as well as a dinner at the president’s country club. Trump subsequently endorsed “The Wounded Butterfly,” a children’s book written by Mann. 

Trump also sought Mann’s advice on winning the Catholic vote in the 2024 election. The president-elect handily won over Catholic voters in his successful November bid for the presidency.

The Tablet reported that Mann intends to make the Jan. 20 benediction “personal” and that he “will be asking for a blessing for his friend, the president of the United States, the new vice president, and the country they will lead.”

“It’s taken me longer than I thought to process having been chosen to be such a significant part of the inauguration’s moment in history,” Mann reflected.

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin meets with Cuba President Miguel Díaz-Canel on June 20, 2023, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Jan 16, 2025 / 09:30 am (CNA).

The Vatican’s top diplomat has called the gradual release of 553 prisoners in Cuba “a sign of great hope” at the beginning of the Catholic Church’s jubilee year.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, also commented on U.S. President Joe Biden’s commutation of death sentences for 37 death row inmates, expressing hope that there will be more “gestures of clemency” from governments throughout the 2025 holy year.

Jubilee years in the biblical tradition included the liberation of slaves and the forgiveness of debts, as described in the Book of Leviticus, which proclaimed liberty and restoration every 50 years as a divine act of justice and mercy.

The Cuban government’s announcement of the prisoner release dated Jan. 14 cited “the spirit of the Ordinary Jubilee of 2025” and noted Pope Francis’ mediation in the negotiations, in which the U.S. State Department agreed to remove Cuba from its state sponsor of terrorism list to secure the release of the political prisoners.

“It is significant that Havana authorities linked this decision directly to Pope Francis’ appeal,” Parolin said in an interview published by Vatican News during his visit to France.

Pope Francis has repeatedly called for “gestures of clemency” during the holy year, the cardinal added, particularly in the jubilee’s papal bull Spes Non Confundit, which specifically asked governments to implement forms of amnesty or pardon, as well as programs to help former prisoners reintegrate into the community.

“I propose that in this jubilee year governments undertake initiatives aimed at restoring hope; forms of amnesty or pardon meant to help individuals regain confidence in themselves and in society; and programmes of reintegration in the community, including a concrete commitment to respect for law,” Francis wrote in the papal bull.

“In every part of the world, believers, and their pastors in particular, should be one in demanding dignified conditions for those in prison, respect for their human rights and above all the abolition of the death penalty, a provision at odds with Christian faith and one that eliminates all hope of forgiveness and rehabilitation,” the pope added.

Parolin noted that the 2024 year “closed with the commutation by the president of the United States of dozens of death sentences to life sentences, and with the news that Zimbabwe had abolished capital punishment.”

One day before the start of the Church’s jubilee year on Christmas Eve, Biden commuted the sentences of 37 federal inmates on death row, changing their sentences from execution to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Since then, two prisoners have rejected the commutation in the belief that it could put them at a legal disadvantage in appealing their cases on the claim of innocence.

The African nation of Zimbabwe approved a law abolishing the death penalty on Dec. 31, 2024, resulting in the resentencing or commutation in about 62 prisoners. Globally, 113 countries have fully abolished capital punishment, according to Amnesty International.

“We hope that this 2025 will continue in this direction and that the good news will multiply, especially with the truce for the many conflicts still ongoing,” Parolin said.