Pope Leo XIV will canonize seven new saints on Sunday including an Italian lawyer who renounced Satanism and became “an apostle of the Rosary,” a martyred Armenian archbishop, and a Venezuelan considered the “doctor of the poor.” Banners of the new saints are on display on St. Peter's Basilica for all to see in St. Peter's Square. / Credit: Courtney Mares / CNA

Vatican City, Oct 18, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV will canonize seven new saints on Sunday including an Italian lawyer who renounced Satanism and became “an apostle of the rosary,” a martyred Armenian archbishop, and a Venezuelan considered the “doctor of the poor.”

The canonizations, previously approved by the late Pope Francis, will be presided over by Pope Leo XIV on Oct. 19 at the Vatican. The group includes three women and four men, with two martyrs, three laypeople, and two founders of religious orders. Among them are Papua New Guinea’s first saint and the first two saints from Venezuela. 

Let’s get to know these soon-to-be saints:

Bartolo Longo (1841–1926)

Bartolo Longo underwent one of the most dramatic conversions in recent Church history. He grew up in a Catholic household, but after studying law at a university in Naples, Italy, he went from being a practicing Catholic to taking part in anti-papal demonstrations to becoming an atheist, then a Satanist, and eventually being “ordained” to the Satanist priesthood.

Through the prayers of his family and the influence of devout friends, particularly Professor Vincenzo Pepe and Dominican priest Father Alberto Radente, Longo experienced a profound conversion, renouncing his past and returning wholeheartedly to the Catholic Church.

Following his conversion, Longo dedicated his life to promoting the rosary and the message of mercy and hope through the Virgin Mary. He settled in the poverty-stricken town of Pompeii  where he began restoring a dilapidated church and tirelessly worked to build a Marian shrine dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary. With support from benefactors and the local community, he transformed Pompeii into a thriving center of Catholic devotion. His efforts culminated in the construction of the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii, which continues to be a major pilgrimage site to this day.

In addition to his religious work, Longo was a tireless advocate for social justice. He founded schools, orphanages, and charitable institutions, especially for the children of prisoners, believing in the power of education and mercy to transform lives. 

For the last 20 years of his life, Longo had constant health issues. He died on Oct. 5, 1926, and in 1980 was beatified by Pope John Paul II, who called him the “Apostle of the Rosary.”

Ignatius Choukrallah Maloyan (Ottoman Empire, 1869–1915)

Ignatius Maloyan was an Armenian Catholic archbishop of Mardin in the Ottoman Empire who was executed during the Armenian genocide for refusing to convert to Islam and renounce his Christian faith.

At the age of 14, Maloyan was sent to the convent of Bzommar-Lebanon. In 1896, he was ordained a priest in the Church of Bzommar convent and took the name Ignatius in honor of the beloved martyr of Antioch. 

From 1892 to 1910, Maloyan was a parish priest in Alexandria and Cairo, where his good reputation was widespread. On Oct. 22, 1911, he was named archbishop of Mardin. 

Soon after, the first World War broke out and Armenians in Turkey began to endure great suffering. On June 3, 1915, Turkish soldiers dragged Maloyan in chains to court with 27 other Armenian Catholic figures. During the trial, Mamdooh Bek, the chief of the police, asked Maloyan to convert to Islam. The archbishop answered that he would never betray Christ and his Church and was prepared to endure all types of punishments for his fidelity. He was imprisoned and frequently beaten. 

On June 10, the Turkish soldiers gathered 447 Armenians and took them to a deserted area. During the ordeal, the archbishop encouraged those gathered to remain firm in their faith and prayed with them that they would accept martyrdom with courage. 

After a two-hour walk, naked and chained, the prisoners were killed by the soldiers in front of Maloyan. Bek once again asked the archbishop to convert to Islam. He refused and was shot and killed by Bek on the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. 

Before he was killed, Maloyan said: “I consider the shedding of my blood for my faith to be the sweetest desire of my heart, because I know perfectly well that if I am tortured for the love of him who died for me, I will be among those who will have joy and bliss, and I will have obtained to see my Lord and my God up there.”

He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on Oct. 7, 2001.

Peter To Rot (Papua New Guinea, 1912–1945)

Peter To Rot, a lay catechist in Papua New Guinea, was martyred during the Japanese occupation in World War II. When the Catholic priest in his village was taken to a Japanese labor camp, the priest left To Rot in charge of catechizing the village and told him before he was taken: “Help them, so that they don’t forget about God.”

Despite Japanese oppression, To Rot worked in secret to keep the faith. He was a great defender of Christian marriage, working to defy Japanese law, which allowed men to take a second wife. 

Toward the end of the war, the rules against religious freedom became even stricter, with any kind of prayer being forbidden. To Rot was arrested and sent to a manual labor camp in 1944 for his continual disobedience. In 1945 he was killed by lethal injection and is considered a martyr for the Catholic faith. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on Jan. 17, 1995. He will be Papua New Guinea’s first saint.

José Gregorio Hernández (Venezuela, 1864–1919)

José Gregorio Hernández, a Venezuelan physician, scientist, and layman, is revered as the “doctor of the poor.” 

Born on Oct. 26, 1864, in Isnotú in the Venezuelan state of Trujillo, he lost his mother at the age of 8. 

He studied medicine in Caracas and received government funding to continue his studies in Paris in 1889 for two years. After returning to Venezuela, he became a professor at the Central University of Caracas, where he started each lesson with the sign of the cross.

Hernández attended daily Mass, brought medicine and care to the poor, and made a profession as a Third Order Franciscan. In 1908 he gave up his profession and entered a cloistered Carthusian monastery in Farneta, Italy. However, nine months later he fell ill and his superior ordered him to return to Venezuela to recover. 

After some time, Hernández concluded that it was God’s will for him to remain a layman. He decided then to promote sanctification as an exemplary Catholic by being a doctor and giving glory to God by serving the sick. He devoted himself to academic research and deepened his dedication to serving the poor.

One day, as the doctor went to pick up medicine for an elderly poor woman, he was hit by a car. He died in the hospital on June 29, 1919. He was beatified by Pope Francis on April 30, 2021.

Maria Troncatti (Italy/Ecuador, 1883–1969)

Maria Troncatti, an Italian Salesian sister, spent nearly five decades as a missionary in Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest among the Indigenous Shuar people. 

Growing up in Italy, Troncatti showed an interest in religious life from a young age. She made her first profession as part of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, also known as the Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco, in 1908.

During World War I, Sister Maria trained in health care and worked as a Red Cross nurse in a military hospital. In 1925 she began her mission serving the Shuar Indians in the Amazon forest in the southeastern part of Ecuador. For 44 years, she was known as “Madrecita,” or “little mother,” by everyone in the village. Not only did she serve as a surgeon, dentist, nurse, orthopedist, and anesthesiologist, she was also a faithful catechist sharing the Gospel with all those she served. 

Sister Maria died at the age of 86 on Aug. 25, 1969, in a plane crash. She was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012.

María del Carmen Rendiles Martínez (Venezuela, 1903–1977)

Carmen Elena Rendiles Martínez was born in Caracas, Venezuela, without her left arm and was given a prosthetic arm that she used for her entire life. 

In 1918, Martínez began to feel a call to religious life, but having a disability was considered a reason for rejection from some religious congregations at that time. Eventually, she joined the Servants of the Eucharist in 1927 and took the name María Carmen. She once said: “I want to be holy. I want to say like St. Paul: It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” 

When her religious community sought autonomy from its French motherhouse in 1965, she went on to found the Servants of Jesus in Caracas to continue its mission of Eucharistic devotion. She served as the superior general of the congregation from 1969 when she was appointed until her death in 1977 from influenza. 

She was beatified by Pope Francis in 2018 and will become Venezuela’s first female saint. 

Vincenza Maria Poloni (Italy, 1802–1855)

Vincenza Maria Poloni, an Italian religious sister, founded the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy of Verona to care for the poor, sick, and elderly. 

Born the youngest of 12 siblings, she discerned her vocation under the guidance of Blessed Charles Steeb as she devoted her time to working with the poor, the elderly, and chronically ill.

In 1836, during the cholera epidemic of 1836, she worked tirelessly in the emergency wards, putting her own health at risk. In 1840 she devoted herself full time to the care of the sick and elderly and began to live a similar lifestyle to that of a religious sister — fervent prayer, strict schedules, and total service of charity toward others. 

On Sept. 10, 1848, Poloni founded the Sisters of Mercy of Verona and took the name Vincenza Maria. Her motto, “Serving Christ in the Poor,” became the foundation of her congregation, which can be found today on three continents. She died on Nov. 11, 1855, from a tumor that had spread throughout her body. She was beatified in 2008.

The painting St. Luke the Evangelist in the church Iglesia El Buen Pastor by Miguel Vaguer (1959). / Credit: Renata Sedmakova/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Oct 18, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

On Oct. 18, Catholics and other Christians around the world celebrate the feast of St. Luke, the physician and companion of St. Paul whose Gospel preserved the most extensive biography of Jesus Christ.

St. Luke, who is also the author of the Acts of the Apostles, wrote a greater volume of the New Testament than any other single author in the earliest history of the Church. Ancient traditions also acknowledge Luke as the founder of Christian iconography, making him a patron of artists as well as doctors and other medical caregivers.

Luke came from the large metropolitan city of Antioch, a part of modern-day Turkey. In his lifetime, the city emerged as an important center of early Christianity. During the future saint’s early years, Antioch’s port had already become a cultural center, renowned for arts and sciences. Historians do not know whether Luke came to Christianity from Judaism or paganism, although there are strong suggestions that Luke was a Gentile convert.

Educated as a physician in the Greek-speaking city, Luke was among the most cultured and cosmopolitan members of the early Church. Scholars of archeology and ancient literature have ranked him among the top historians of his time period, besides noting the outstanding Greek prose style and technical accuracy of his accounts of Christ’s life and the apostles’ missionary journeys.

Other students of biblical history deduce from Luke’s writings that he was the only evangelist to incorporate the personal testimony of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose role in Christ’s life emerges most clearly in his Gospel. Tradition credits him with painting several icons of Christ’s mother, and one of the sacred portraits ascribed to him — known by the title “Salvation of the Roman People” — survives to this day in the Basilica of St. Mary Major.

Some traditions hold that Luke became a direct disciple of Jesus before the Ascension, while others hold that he became a believer only afterward. After St. Paul’s conversion, Luke accompanied him as his personal physician — and, in effect, as a kind of biographer, since the journeys of Paul on which Luke accompanied him occupy a large portion of the Acts of the Apostles. Luke probably wrote this text, the final narrative portion of the New Testament, in the city of Rome, where the account ends.

Luke was also among the only companions of Paul who did not abandon him during his final imprisonment and death in Rome. After the martyrdom of St. Paul in the year 67, Luke is said to have preached elsewhere throughout the Mediterranean and possibly died as a martyr. However, tradition is unclear on this point.

Fittingly, the evangelist whose travels and erudition could have filled volumes, wrote just enough to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world.

This story was first published on Oct. 17, 2010, and has been updated.

Cardinal Robert McElroy of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., speaks at the University of Notre Dame Forum event on “Healing Our National Dialogue and Political Life” on Oct. 17, 2025. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Michael Caterina/University of Notre Dame

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 17, 2025 / 18:29 pm (CNA).

Cardinal Robert McElroy of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., expressed concerns about increasing political polarization in the United States and urged Americans to remember “that which binds us together as a people.”

McElroy made the comments at the University of Notre Dame on Friday, Oct. 17. He spoke with Notre Dame President Father Robert Dowd, CSC, in a conversation titled “Healing Our National Dialogue and Political Life.” The event was part of the university’s 2025-2026 Forum on the theme “Cultivating Hope.” McElroy holds doctorates in sacred theology and political science.

“The conflict between the two parties has done, I think, terrible damage to us,” McElroy said, noting that a “notion of warfare, of tribalism has seeped into us” when discussing political disagreements.

A person’s political beliefs, the cardinal explained, “has become shorthand now for worldview in the views of many, many people,” which he warned “is a very damaging development in our society” because it moves Americans away from focusing on a “shared purpose and meaning” when crafting political solutions. 

The United States, McElroy said, is not bound by blood or ethnicity but rather “bound together by the aspirations of our founders.”

‘What binds us’

“What binds us is the aspirations of freedom, human dignity, care for all, the rights of all, the empowerment of all, democratic rights,” he said. “... We’re proud to be Americans because of what our country aspires to be and to do.”

McElroy said “much of this needs to take place at the parish level” to facilitate dialogue among those who disagree with one another and argued that the founders “believed on a very deep level [that the country] could only succeed if religion flourished.”

“They believed that only religion could genuinely bring from the human heart a sense of the willingness to look past self-interest or group interest to a wider sense of what the common good is,” McElroy said.

“So for that reason, they thought religion was essential not as a direct force in politics, certainly, or governance but rather in contributing in the human heart and in the understanding of the issues that come forth,” he added.

Although McElroy said the Church does not have a specific political role, he said it does have “a moral role within the political and public order,” which “needs to be rooted in the moral understanding.” If a political question has a moral component, the cardinal said “the Church contributes to the public debate.”

“It speaks not in terms of the politics — or it should not speak in terms of the politics — but rather solely the moral questions involved,” McElroy said.

McElroy was appointed in January by Pope Francis to serve as the archbishop of the nation’s capital and assumed the position on March 11. He succeeded Cardinal Wilton Gregory, who retired.

In his installation Mass, McElroy emphasized the importance of respecting the human dignity of all people, particularly the unborn, migrants, and the poor.

A protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement features a sign that reads "Chicago Stands With Immigrant Families." The Department of Homeland Security denies ICE targeted a Chicago parish on Oct. 12, 2025. / Credit: Antwon McMullen / Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 17, 2025 / 16:24 pm (CNA).

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is pushing back against reports of immigration enforcement officers being present outside a Chicago parish during a Spanish Mass Oct. 12. 

Videos circulated on social media of the parish priest at St. Jerome Catholic Church in Chicago warning his congregation to leave the 8:30 a.m. Sunday Mass with caution. 

The priest may be heard in the video saying in Spanish, “[ICE] is in the parking lot… they are looking for people here, as well as in the north part.” The priest continued: “There is a group in front of the church that could take you away: those with babies can leave with them—you will be accompanied to your houses because I think it will be dangerous for you to drive your cars from the parking lot if you don’t have documents." 

A local Chicago NBC affiliate reported that “several neighbors showed up and formed a human chain outside the church to guide parishioners home.” 

“This protection is for all who need accompaniment,” the priest added. 

In a statement shared with CNA on Friday, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said: “Border Patrol did not ‘target’ this church nor were enforcement actions taken at the church.” When asked to elaborate on whether there were ICE agents present at or around the church, DHS declined to comment further. 

President Donald Trump expanded use of deportations without a court hearing this year and ramped up federal law enforcement efforts to identify and arrest immigrants lacking legal status. The administration set a goal of 1 million deportations this year.

Recently Pope Leo XIV received letters from U.S. migrants fearing deportation. The pope encouraged U.S. bishops to firmly address the treatment of immigrants under the Trump administration’s policies.

In July, Bishop Alberto Rojas of the Diocese of San Bernardino, California, granted a dispensation from the obligation to attend Sunday Mass for those fearing deportation.

In comments at the Union League Club on Oct. 13, Cardinal Blase Cupich of the Chicago archdiocese spoke on “the moral and ethical issues related to the mass deportation of undocumented persons happening in our country.” 

“What is in question, however, is the obligation we all have as human beings, and as a society comprised of human beings, to respect and protect the dignity of others,” Cupich said. “Keeping the nation safe and respecting human dignity are not mutually exclusive. In fact, one cannot exist without the other. It is up to citizens and communities such as  the church to raise their voices to ensure the safety of a nation does not come at the expense of violations of human dignity.”

Spokespersons for St. Jerome Catholic Church and the Archdiocese of Chicago did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany, NY. / Drew Proto via Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0)

CNA Staff, Oct 17, 2025 / 15:09 pm (CNA).

A New York man has received an $8 million settlement from the Diocese of Albany over claims that he was abused for years by a priest when he was a child. 

The Albany-based law firm LaFave, Wein, Frament & Karic said in an Oct. 16 press release that the Albany diocese agreed to pay the seven-figure sum to Michael Harmon ahead of a planned Oct. 20 jury trial. 

The law firm said Harmon had been abused repeatedly for years, starting when he was 11 years old, by Father Edward Charles Pratt. During that period, Pratt served as vice chancellor of the Albany diocese. 

Pratt is listed on the diocese’s list of clergy who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse. He was removed from ministry in 2002, the diocese says. 

The law firm said the diocese had “received reports about Father Pratt’s sexual abuse of children before Michael was ever abused.” The priest allegedly lived in the diocesan chancery in the same residence as then-Bishop Howard Hubbard. 

In 2021, Hubbard, who died in 2023, admitted to mishandling clergy abuse allegations based on the advice of psychiatric professionals. He was also accused of committing sexual abuse himself, and shortly before his death announced that he had entered into a civil marriage with a woman.

In the Oct. 16 release, attorney Cynthia LaFave said the “substantial” settlement from the Albany diocese nevertheless “does not erase the trauma that Michael Harmon endured.” 

“Michael will live with this for all of his life,” she said. “But Michael does know that this settlement brings out to the public this horrible abuse and the people who allowed it.”

Harmon had filed his case under the New York Child Victims Act. That law, passed in 2019, suspended the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse and gave abuse victims a window to file claims for decades-old crimes. 

Harmon’s lawyers said he had originally tried to settle his claim in March 2025 but that the diocese’s insurance companies “refused to respond to his offer.”

The Albany diocese did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Oct. 17. 

The Diocese of Albany filed for bankruptcy in 2023, arguing like many dioceses in the U.S. that financial reorganization would help provide some compensation for hundreds of sex abuse victims who filed lawsuits against it. 

In July hundreds of clergy abuse victims agreed to a massive $246 million settlement from the Diocese of Rochester, New York after years of wrangling in U.S. bankruptcy court.

In August, meanwhile, a federal bankruptcy court accepted the Diocese of Syracuse, New York’s $176 million abuse settlement plan.

null / Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 17, 2025 / 14:38 pm (CNA).

On Thursday evening, President Donald Trump announced new efforts to expand access to IVF, which includes a deal with EMD Serono, a subsidiary of the Germany-based pharmaceutical company Merck KGaA, to slash the cost of some fertility drugs, as well as issuing guidance to employers to offer fertility benefits directly to employees similar to vision or dental coverage, though not mandating any employers to participate.

While the Catholic Church encourages certain fertility treatments for couples struggling to conceive children, the use of IVF is contrary to Catholic teaching. Here’s why:

What is IVF? 

IVF is a medical procedure that fuses sperm and egg typically in a laboratory environment in order to conceive a child outside of the sexual act. The live embryo is then later implanted into a uterus to continue developing until birth. 

According to the Mayo Clinic, IVF is typically used as a “treatment for infertility” that “also can be used to prevent passing on genetic problems to a child.” 

Is the Catholic Church against IVF? 

Yes. While the Church encourages certain fertility treatments for couples struggling to conceive, the Church makes distinctions among these treatments and teaches that the use of IVF is not morally acceptable.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (No. 2377) states that IVF is “morally unacceptable” because it separates the marriage act from procreation and establishes “the domination of technology” over human life. 

According to Joseph Meaney, president of the National Catholic Bioethics Center, the 1987 Vatican document Donum Vitae established the moral framework for Catholics with regard to IVF.

Donum Vitae said that “the gift of human life must be actualized in marriage through the specific and exclusive acts of husband and wife, in accordance with the laws inscribed in their persons and in their union.” 

This teaching, Meaney told CNA, laid out a “fundamental distinction” between treatments meant to assist the marital act in conceiving a child versus treatments that replace the marital act. 

Donum Vitae compares IVF to abortion, saying that “through these procedures, with apparently contrary purposes, life and death are subjected to the decision of man, who thus sets himself up as the giver of life and death by decree.”

Meaney explained that in IVF “there’s an objectification of the child because essentially they’re producing children almost on an industrial scale.” 

“It’s treating the human person not as a gift but rather as an object to be created and that can be subjected to quality control and discarded.” 

How does IVF separate sex from procreation? 

An IVF pregnancy is achieved through the removal of some of a woman’s eggs, collected by inducing what is called “superovulation,” where a drug is administered so the woman releases multiple eggs in one cycle. The eggs are combined with a man’s sperm retrieved through masturbation. 

Ultimately, IVF involves the use of artificial means to achieve pregnancy outside of the marriage act. The Church holds that this disassociation is contrary to the dignity of parents and children. 

Donum Vitae says that because conception through IVF is “brought about outside the bodies of the couple through actions of third parties,” such fertilization “entrusts the life and identity of the embryo into the power of doctors and biologists and establishes the domination of technology over the origin and destiny of the human person.” 

“Only respect for the link between the meanings of the conjugal act and respect for the unity of the human being make possible procreation in conformity with the dignity of the human person,” Donum Vitae teaches. 

Are children harmed through IVF? 

During the IVF process, multiple human embryos are made and then evaluated in a “grading” process that determines their cellular “quality.” There are multiple grading methods that IVF providers use to examine embryos with an eye for which may be the most suitable for implantation into the uterus.

Almost half of the human embryos created through IVF are “discarded” during the process, according to the Center for Genetics and Society. This has led to millions of human embryos being discarded, something that in the Church’s eyes amounts to the killing of millions of innocent lives.

Additionally, the use of IVF has resulted in a surplus of an estimated 1 million human embryos being kept frozen in laboratories across the country where they are often stored indefinitely or destroyed in embryonic scientific research. 

The Alabama Supreme Court ruled on February 2024 that frozen human embryos are human children under state statute. The 8-1 ruling said that the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act “applies to all children, born and unborn, without limitation” and “regardless of their location.” This ruling was not part of a federal case and only affected the law within Alabama..

Isn't 'more children' good? 

The Church supports a married couple’s desire for children, and calls chilren a gift from God and "the supreme gift of marriage" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No.1652). The problem arises when that desire leads couples to seek children by any means.  

John Di Camillo, an ethicist at The National Catholic Bioethics Center, explained to CNA that “we cannot do evil that good may come.”

“The Church teaches that children have a right to be conceived, gestated, born, and raised within marriage,” he said. “Each human person is in the image and likeness of God, made by God — a body-soul unity of infinite value to be welcomed, loved, and cherished rather than forcibly produced.”

What alternatives to IVF are there for Catholics? 

The Catechism teaches that “research aimed at reducing human sterility is to be encouraged” (No. 2375).

According to Donum Vitae, fertility treatments meant to replace the marriage act are morally wrong while those meant to assist it in conceiving life may be permitted. 

Methods such as natural procreative technology (NaPro Technology), which focus on treating the underlying bodily or hormonal issues causing infertility rather than attempting to skirt around them, are considered morally licit by the Church.

According to Veritas Fertility & Surgery, NaPro Technology treatments often involve medications to improve ovulation and hormone levels for a woman as well as “improve sperm count or quality” for men. NaPro Technology can also involve surgical interventions aimed at restoring the natural procreative functions of the body.

The Church also encourages couples to use natural family planning (NFP), which tracks the fertile and infertile cycles of a woman’s body to either achieve or postpone pregnancy. There are multiple NFP tracking methods such as the Creighton Model Fertility Care System and Billings Ovulation Method that are considered licit by the Church.

“The Church supports married couples struggling with the cross of infertility by encouraging medical interventions to heal the couple, restoring their health and fertility so they are more likely to receive the gift of a child through sexual intercourse,” Di Camillo explained.  

This article was first published on Feb. 28, 2025 and has been updated.

Archbishop Timothy Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, speaks at the USCCB fall plenary assembly Nov. 14, 2023. / Credit: USCCB video

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 17, 2025 / 14:08 pm (CNA).

Archbishop for the Military Services Timothy Broglio expressed concern about the U.S. Army canceling certain chapel contracts, which he warned “disproportionately harms Catholics.” 

In a pastoral letter also sent to all members of Congress, Broglio wrote that many in the Army who attend Mass and participate in faith formation may have noticed “contract services and contractor offices were dark and music was absent during Mass” beginning on Oct. 5, 2025.

He said this was not a result of the ongoing 16-day government shutdown, but was instead caused by the U.S. Army Installation Management Command’s decision to cancel all chapel contracts for Coordinators of Religious Education (CRE), Catholic Pastoral Life Coordinators (CPLC), and musician contracts in the Army. 

Broglio wrote that these contracts for musicians, administrators, and religious educators “served the faith communities at military chapels” and have been essential to assist Catholic priest chaplains in their duties. 

The archdiocese, he wrote, “has been especially dependent upon the professional skills and theological training of CREs, who under the guidance of the priest, oversee the daily needs of religious education, coordinate catechist certification training for the thousands of men and women who volunteer as catechists, and ensure that proper materials are prepared and procured.”

“In canceling these contracts, the Army over-burdens Catholic chaplains, harms chapel communities, and impedes the constitutional guarantee of the free exercise of religion especially for Catholics,” Broglio wrote.

“The cancellation of chapel contracts may appear to be a neutral elimination of chapel support which itself affects the free exercise of religion for all soldiers,” he said. “However, this action disproportionately harms Catholics, first, because Catholic chaplains are already so low density and in such high demand, and second because the Catholic faith requires continuing religious education and sacramental preparation that can only be accomplished through competent support.”

Broglio cited a RAND report saying, “There are approximately six Protestant chaplains for every 1,000 Protestant soldiers, and approximately one Catholic chaplain for every 1,000 Catholic soldiers.” 

A U.S. Army spokesperson could not immediately be reached for comment.

Pope Leo XIV celebrates Mass in St. Peter's Square on September 28, 2025. / Vatican Media screenshot

CNA Newsroom, Oct 17, 2025 / 13:38 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV has responded to a letter from a grieving father with the encouragement that “death never has the last word.”

In the October issue of Piazza San Pietro magazine, the pontiff penned a letter to Francesco, a father of four, who wrote to the Holy Father about the death of his 12-year-old son, Domenico Maria, from a sudden illness 18 years ago.

Despite the time that has passed, the father said he still felt like his son’s premature death happened only yesterday. 

“Holiness, this letter of mine is intended only as a thought, as well as a remembrance for our son, so that God, in his infinite goodness and mercy as a Father, may welcome him into the kingdom of heaven…” Francesco wrote.

In his response, Leo reminded the father that “the important thing is to always remain connected to the Lord, going through the greatest pain with the help of His Grace, which always comes — be sure of that — even in the darkest moments.”

The pope also recalled the light of the love of God, who walks with us throughout our life, starting at our Baptism. 

“All this begins with our Baptism and will never end,” he said. “Baptism introduces us into communion with Christ and gives us true life, committing us to renounce a culture of death that is very present in our society.”

“But death never has the last word! The last word, which opens the doors to eternity and joy that lasts forever, is the resurrection, which knows no discouragement or pain that imprisons us in the extreme difficulty of not finding meaning in our existence,” the pontiff added.

In his letter, Francesco described his son’s love of soccer and the community of friends he found through playing the sport.

Pope Leo said “authentic prayer, like authentic sport, practiced together, creates bonds and unites forever, as it united Domenico Maria with all those on his ‘team’ of true friendship, with bonds that go far beyond death.”

null / Credit: NMKStudio@Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Oct 17, 2025 / 13:19 pm (CNA).

A federal judge in California will allow a class action lawsuit to proceed for potentially millions of parents and teachers regarding school district rules that hide child “gender transitions” from parents. 

U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez ruled Oct. 15 that the lawsuit Mirabelli v. Olson will proceed as a class action, becoming what the Thomas More Society said is potentially “one of the largest civil rights class actions” in California history. 

Peter Breen, the head of litigation at the Thomas More Society, a public interest law firm, said in the group’s Oct. 16 press release that parents have a “fundamental right” to direct their children’s education and moral upbringing, and that California school officials “cannot override that right by keeping parents in the dark about major issues and developments in their child’s life.” 

In his ruling, Benitez said the lawsuit satisfies the criteria for class action status. School districts in California, he said, “are ultimately state agents under state control,” and thus the issue of settling “statewide policy” means the class action structure is “superior to numerous individual actions by individual parents and teachers.”

The class action ruling comes ahead of a Nov. 17 hearing in the same court, one that the Thomas More Society says may “potentially deliver a final ruling” on the dispute, including whether secretive school transgender policies violate parents’ constitutional rights. 

“Parents should never be treated as strangers in their own children’s lives,” Breen said. 

The legal group said the suit will now represent “all California parents and teachers affected by school district policies that conceal children’s gender transitions from their families.” 

Those policies have been at the center of ongoing debate over transgenderism and gender ideology in recent years. LGBT advocates and school leaders around the country have argued that teachers and school administrators should be permitted to exclude parents from knowing if their children begin “identifying” as the opposite sex. 

Activists have also argued that school officials should be allowed to facilitate child “gender transitions” without informing parents. 

Rules allowing teachers to hide such sensitive information from parents have come under fire from advocates in recent years, including the Trump administration. 

In February the White House launched an investigation into five school districts in northern Virginia to determine whether their transgender policies violated executive orders forbidding schools from facilitating “gender transitions.”

In 2023, meanwhile, Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin issued directives affirming that parents in the state would enjoy broad oversight of their children while they are enrolled in public schools, reversing earlier rules that allowed teachers to keep children’s transgender “identities” secret from parents.

Pope Leo XIV greets Catholic pilgrims from Russia during an audience in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace on Oct. 17, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media.

ACI Prensa Staff, Oct 17, 2025 / 12:42 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Friday asked a group of Catholic pilgrims from Russia, in Rome on a Jubilee pilgrimage, to be an example of love and brotherhood upon their return home.

In his Oct. 17 address at the Vatican, the Holy Father emphasized that the presence of the Russian pilgrims “is part of the journey of so many generations” who have traveled to Rome. 

For the Holy Father, “this city can be a symbol of human existence, in which the ’ruins’ of past experiences, anguish, uncertainty, and anxiety are intertwined with the faith that grows every day and becomes active in charity.”

“And with the hope that does not disappoint and encourages us, because even on the ruins, despite sin and enmity, the Lord can build a new world and renewed life,” he added.

Bishop Joseph Werth of the Diocese of the Transfiguration in Novosibirsk, Russia, told EWTN News after the meeting that Pope Leo took the time to greet the entire group of around 100 pilgrims, despite being scheduled to only greet the people in the front rows. 

“It’s a sign that the pope wanted to dedicate time to us,” Werth said.

Leo encouraged the Catholics from Russia to continue the path of Christian life upon returning home, appealing to their responsibility in their local Church.

“From your families, from your parish and diocesan communities, may an example of love, fraternity, solidarity, and mutual respect emerge for all the people among whom you live, work, and study,” he urged them. 

In this way, he affirmed that “the fire of Christian love can be kindled, capable of warming the coldness of hearts, even the most hardened.”

In Rome, the pontiff specified, “the heart of the Christian soul beats” and it is where “the events of the faith — received and transmitted since apostolic times, from which so many peoples and nations have drunk abundantly and from which they still live today — are intertwined with the concerns and commitments of daily life.”

Leo XIV also pointed out the monuments scattered throughout the Eternal City, “tangible signs of living faith, rooted in the hearts of people, capable of transforming consciences and motivating them to do good.” 

He emphasized that every Catholic “is a living stone in the building of the Church” who, even if small, placed by the Lord in the right place, “plays an important role in the stability of the entire structure.”

Alexey Gotovskiy of EWTN News contributed to this report.