Catholic News

The 2026 FIFA World Cup is currently taking place in cities across North America, and soccer fans from around the globe have traveled to host cities to support their teams as they play in the world's most important soccer tournament. With so many foreigners visiting, a Catholic radio show in one city is taking the opportunity to evangelize and share the Gospel.

The Quest Atlanta Catholic Radio has set up a Catholic hospitality booth at the ATL Experience — Atlanta's official local merchant marketplace for the 2026 World Cup, which features over 90 local businesses ranging from food and drink to clothing and art. The ATL Experience is taking place in three different locations in the Atlanta area, with The Quest booth located between the State Farm Arena and the old CNN Center.

Allison Dalloul, a co-host on The Quest's morning show and outreach coordinator, told EWTN News that when she heard that the World Cup was coming to Atlanta, she thought, "What a great opportunity for us to just have our booth out there and sharing our smiles and our personal presence out there."

Visitors to the booth will find information about local churches, Mass schedules, information about the Catholic faith, brochures, prayer cards, religious images, rosaries, and a wheel people can spin to win prizes.

Dalloul shared that the prayer cards were made by The Quest team to feature St. Luigi Scrosoppi, the patron saint of soccer.

The booth is open the day before matches take place in Atlanta and on game day and is run by volunteers from the Archdiocese of Atlanta, parishioners from the many parishes, and those who work at The Quest Atlanta. Clergy from the archdiocese as well as the St. Paul Street Evangelization team are also present at the booth.

"It has just been such a great way to evangelize, even the Catholics here, even the people that are volunteering, because not many people get the opportunity to be a part of something like this," Dalloul said.

She added that a plethora of different kinds of people with different backgrounds have come up to the booth. For example, a woman who recently lost her husband visited the booth and a member of the St. Paul Street Evangelization team prayed with her. Many couples have also come up to the booth to ask the priests in attendance for a blessing on their marriage.

"People are coming up hungry [for the faith], people are coming up not knowing anything about the Church, people are coming up going, 'Oh, I'm Catholic. This is so neat that this is here,'" Dalloul said.

A moment that impacted Dalloul personally took place on the first day at the booth between her and the daughter of one of the other vendors at the ATL Experience. She explained that she was roughly 12 years old and went over to see what The Quest's booth was all about. Dalloul shared who they were and asked her if she had any prayer intentions.

"I don't think she fully understood what that was. So I said, 'Is there anything going on in your life that you would like God to assist you with?' And she was like, 'Oh!' And was diligently writing things down on those cards," Dalloul recalled.

"That alone, that first encounter, the innocence of a child — I'm a cradle Catholic. I was born into this. So many people are not born into this. So, just the excitement she had writing those prayer intentions down with all her might, I was like, 'Thank you, Jesus.'"

She added: "So, we're not evangelizing only to the folks attending the World Cup but also the vendors who are actually working in the different areas."

Speaking to the many moments of faith seen on the field so far, Dalloul emphasized that it has been "a beautiful witness to all that are watching."

"It makes my heart so happy when I see men out there that are faith-filled, living their faith out, not ashamed, not embarrassed to make the sign of the cross," she said. "In our society, I feel sometimes many people are afraid to say grace before a meal in a restaurant and make the sign of the cross because somebody might look at me weird or strange. We have got to be unapologetically Catholic. We should never be afraid to share our faith, wherever we are."

As for her hopes for all those visiting The Quest's hospitality booth, Dalloul said she hoped they experience "the love of Christ."

She also highlighted the importance of The Quest's mere presence at the event.

"I feel that just our presence of being there is the key, with smiles on our face, just talking [to people] … our presence of Christ there," Dalloul said. "I just want them to encounter Christ when they meet us, because we have no idea what is going on in the lives of others … We don't know what they've gone through. We don't know what they're going through. And you never know, the Lord might be prompting them to do something or go to church or go to Mass."

"There's so much that we can be doing and we just have to not be afraid and let Christ work through us and ask the Holy Spirit for guidance to not be afraid."

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Amid a sexual abuse scandal affecting the Diocese of Northampton in the United Kingdom, Pope Leo XIV named an apostolic administrator to oversee the diocese until a new bishop is appointed.

The pontiff named Archbishop Richard Moth of Westminster to replace Bishop David Oakley, who was charged with abuse of an underage girl.

In a statement addressing the charges against Oakley, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales expressed its pain upon learning of them and offered a heartfelt apology to all those affected.

"We are profoundly aware that the report of this allegation may reawaken painful memories for many people and again offer an unreserved apology to those who have been hurt by abuse in the Catholic Church in England and Wales," the bishops' statement said.

The bishops' conference also reaffirmed its commitment to safeguarding and ensuring the safety of all who attend their parishes and schools.

"Anybody who comes to our parishes, schools, and communities must be safe, and we are resolute in our commitment to safeguarding."

"We are committed to continual review and development, assisted by the independent auditing work of the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency, so that all our communities are places of safety and sanctuary for all," the bishops wrote.

The Diocese of Northampton did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.

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Before his conversion to Catholicism, EWTN Norway's editor-in-chief, Pål Nes, was a Freemason. But when he joined the Catholic Church, he left Freemasonry behind.

The Nordic bishops, as well as the Church's hierarchy, agree: A formal association with Freemasonry is incompatible with Catholicism.

But this issue, which has come up in public conversation among Catholics around the world, is often controversial in the Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, where some mistakenly believe that there is an exception to the Catholic Church's instruction.

This week, the Nordic Bishops' Conference clarified the teaching.

"We write to you at this time as shepherds to clarify a matter that for many years, if not decades, has generated uncertainty, speculation, and diverging opinions in our countries: the question of whether or not Catholic faithful in the Nordic countries may be Freemasons or belong to a Masonic lodge," the bishops wrote.

In the June 29 letter to parish priests signed by Nordic Bishops' Conference president Bishop Erik Varden of Trondheim and others, the bishops stated that there is "no exception" for Catholics in Nordic countries from the "universal law of the Church" regarding Freemasonry.

The Nordic bishops had met with officials from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith during a plenary assembly in Rome from Sept. 1–5, 2025, to discuss the matter. The dicastery's response was unequivocal.

The bishops said the Church's teaching applies "in full and without exception in the territory of the Nordic Bishops' Conference."

The letter is not to detract Freemasonry but rather a clarification that its principles clash with those of the Church, according to the bishops.

"We wish to stress that the Catholic Church's firmness on the question of adherence to Freemasonry is not a negative judgment on the goodwill or good works of individuals," the bishops wrote.

"The Church's position springs from awareness that the theological and philosophical principles of freemasonry are incompatible with confession of the Catholic faith," the bishops said.

Nes told EWTN News the bishops' statement helped give clarity on the issue in his home country of Norway.

"Their statement gives priests and lay faithful the clarity that many of us have needed for a long time," he said.

Nes has seen confusion in his home country, largely because of "a myth developed that the Scandinavian form of Freemasonry was somehow an exception, and that Catholics in the Nordic countries could belong to a lodge without contradicting the teaching of the Church."

Many prominent Catholics in Norway "have been associated with Freemasonry, including laypeople and clergy," according to Nes.

"That has made the situation more confusing for ordinary Catholics," he said.

Meanwhile, "public statements and pastoral practice have sometimes contributed to uncertainty," Nes observed, citing a 2025 instance where Bishop Emeritus Bernt Eidsvig of Oslo, Norway, said "that he would not refuse holy Communion to Freemasons."

"Many understood this as a softening of the Church's position, even though the universal teaching of the Church had not changed," he said.

"The bishops' recent clarification is therefore very important," Nes said. "It makes clear that there is no Nordic exception: A Catholic cannot be a Freemason."

Why are Freemasonry and Catholicism incompatible?

Nes explained that Freemasonry is more than a social group because of its "religious character."

"In my experience, Freemasonry in Norway was not simply a social network or a charitable association," Nes told EWTN News. "It had a strong sense of fraternity but also a very clear spiritual profile. Its rituals, symbolism, and solemn ceremonies gave it something of a religious character. For that reason, I think Freemasonry must be treated as a religious and spiritual system, not merely as a club."

Nes found good in Freemasonry but was ultimately drawn to Catholicism.

"I eventually realized that I wanted the real thing," he said.

"There were elements in Freemasonry that I found beautiful: the seriousness, the brotherhood, the use of ritual and the sense of entering into something larger than oneself," Nes said. "But as I gradually came to know the Catholic Mass and the Catholic faith, I began to see that much of what had attracted me in Freemasonry — its solemnity, ritual, and symbolism — was only an echo of something fuller and truer in the Catholic faith."

Nes left Freemasonry behind with the help of a priest who mentored him.

"During my conversion process, the priest who guided me was very clear," Nes said. "I could not become Catholic and remain a Freemason. I am deeply grateful for his clarity, and also for his courage in saying it plainly. That clarity helped me make a clean and honest decision."

Now, Nes is spreading the word that the two groups are fundamentally irreconcilable.

"For the last seven or eight years, I have tried to explain publicly that one cannot be both a Catholic and a Freemason," Nes said. "I have never wanted to speak badly of Freemasonry or of individual Freemasons. My point has always been doctrinal: Catholicism and Freemasonry are two different religious and spiritual systems, and they cannot be reconciled."

In their letter to parish priests, the bishops provided several "pastoral and sacramental provisions" to be followed.

First, the bishops encouraged Catholics who are Freemasons to "relinquish this membership" with Masonic lodges and to abstain from the Eucharist and other sacraments until they do. Freemasons seeking to join the Catholic Church are instructed to "terminate this membership" first.

In addition, the bishops instructed Catholic groups not to collaborate with Masonic groups.

"No parish, no institute of consecrated life or society of apostolic life, no Catholic organization or institution in our local Churches is to enter into agreements of collaboration with Freemasons or Masonic lodges or make use of properties belonging to Masonic lodges," the bishops wrote.

The bishops encouraged the faithful to support one another in following Jesus.

"The call of Our Lord Jesus Christ, 'Come, follow me' (Mt 4:19), presupposes readiness to leave behind other attachments that stand in the way of wholehearted discipleship," the bishops wrote. "This has always been, and will always remain, a criterion of Christian authenticity. Let us help each other by word and example to live up to it, trusting in God's grace."

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WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on June 30 that President Donald Trump exceeded his authority when he signed an executive order to deny citizenship to children born in the country to parents who lack legal immigration status.

Trump signed the order on his first day in office, prompting immediate legal challenges based on the 14th Amendment, which guarantees automatic citizenship to anyone born in the country and "subject to the jurisdiction thereof." The U.S. bishops opposed Trump's directive, saying the "immoral" order would harm families, destabilize communities, and undermine human dignity.

The executive order was blocked by courts before it went into effect, so children born to parents who lack legal immigration status were not being denied citizenship. The Supreme Court ruling in Trump v. Barbara maintains the legal framework that existed before Trump's executive order, essentially voiding the president's actions.

In a 6-3 decision that the executive order was unlawful, the court held 5-4 that the order violated the 14th Amendment's citizenship clause and exceeded presidential authority. The ruling leaves intact the long-standing practice of granting citizenship to nearly all children born in the United States.

The opinion states that children born to parents who lack legal immigration status are indeed "amenable to the jurisdiction of the country" and therefore their U.S.-born children are citizens under the 14th Amendment.

The ruling reaffirmed the 1898 precedent set in U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark, which found there to be only a small number of limited exceptions to birthright citizenship: those born to foreign diplomats and occupying enemy forces.

Wong Kim Ark also rejected birthright citizenship for certain Indigenous Americans, although this exception became irrelevant after every Indigenous American was granted citizenship with the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924.

The administration's legal team had argued that birthright citizenship only applied to those who were legally in the country and "domiciled" with the intent to remain. The executive order was part of Trump's broader immigration crackdown, which includes mass deportations of people in the country unlawfully and extends beyond people accused of violent crimes.

In February, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops petitioned the Supreme Court to protect birthright citizenship, urging the court to preserve long-standing constitutional interpretation to protect human dignity and social cohesion.

"At its core, this case is not solely a question about citizenship status or the 14th Amendment," the court filing read. "It is a question of whether the law will affirm or deny the equal worth of those born within our common community — whether the law will protect the human dignity of all God's children."

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The U.S. Supreme Court on June 30 ruled that states can bar men from competing in women's sporting leagues, dealing a blow to LGBT activists who have advocated for allowing men who "identify" as women to join female teams.

The court ruled in a consolidated set of cases out of Idaho and West Virginia that federal Title IX rules permit schools to "provide separate women's and men's sports teams defined by biological sex," meaning schools can prohibit men from playing on women's teams even if those men believe they are women.

The court had taken up the issue in July 2025 when it agreed to hear the two cases, which arose after the two states moved to block males from playing on female sports teams.

Both cases arose from lawsuits brought by, or on behalf of, young men who identify as female and who sued against the states' respective bans on males competing in females' sports.

In the June 30 ruling, the court rejected arguments from the plaintiffs that Title IX requires schools to let males play in women's leagues. The court said "safety and competitive fairness" are "important interests" for equal protection concerns, and sex-separated teams are "substantially related" to furthering those interests.

Schools "may determine eligibility for women's and girls' sports based on biological sex," the court said.

The ruling was divided largely 6-3, though three of the court's four female justices — Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson — filed partial concurring opinions.

Sotomayor wrote that though she was sympathetic to concerns of fairness in women's sports, the ruling "inflicts a hardship" on athletes who identify as the opposite sex.

She argued that the U.S. Constitution requires a "fair and full opportunity" for the plaintiffs to litigate the dispute. However, she said the Supreme Court's decision treats the issue as a "winner-takes-all" situation and makes it too easy for sex-based rules to be upheld without enough careful review.

Jackson, meanwhile, argued that definitions of "sex" in Title IX rules includes the concept of "gender identity." A law banning male participation in female sports "might well run afoul" of those regulations, she said.

In September 2025, Lindsay Hecox — the plaintiff in the Idaho case — asked the Supreme Court to dismiss the challenge to that state's law. Idaho moved to oppose the dismissal; a U.S. district judge ultimately ruled against the request, claiming that Hecox was attempting to "avoid Supreme Court review."

The debate around transgender participation in opposite-sex sporting leagues has exploded in recent years, with LGBT advocates arguing that athletes should be permitted to compete on sports teams of the opposite sex and critics arguing that female athletes should not be forced to compete against males.

The International Olympic Committee in March announced a new policy under which men who believe themselves to be women will be forbidden from competing in the women's category.

In 2025, meanwhile, the NCAA announced a ban on men competing in its women's categories, though the league issued the decision only in response to an executive order from President Donald Trump threatening federal funding loss for schools and universities that fail to divide sporting leagues by biological sex.

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Pope Leo XIV has issued a letter to the traditionalist Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) asking them not to proceed with their planned July 1 consecrations without papal approval.

In a letter published June 30, the eve of the episcopal consecrations in Écône, Switzerland, the pope issued a final appeal to the SSPX superior general, Fr. Davide Pagliarani, not to commit this "schismatic act."

"In this spirit, and filled with Christian affection, I plead with you and ask you with all my heart: please turn back!"

"I urge you to consider the spiritual good of the faithful carefully, because the schismatic act you are about to undertake would deprive them of the licit and, in some cases, even valid reception of the Sacraments, which they love and seek for their sanctification," Leo wrote in his letter.

The pontiff also warned the SSPX of the serious consequences of their planned episcopal consecrations, calling it "a sin of extreme gravity."

"I pray for you, because to tear the seamless garment of Christ is a sin of extreme gravity," Leo wrote. "May the Lord enlighten your consciences and awaken your hearts.

The Vatican stated on May 13 that the consecrations would be a schismatic act, resulting in automatic excommunication for the consecrating bishops and those consecrated.

On June 16, Pope Leo warned the SSPX that their planned episcopal consecrations risked schism and said that he and the Holy See were preparing a final appeal to the society.

The SSPX exclusively celebrates the Traditional Latin Mass and has rejected certain teachings and reforms of the Second Vatican Council, particularly regarding religious freedom and the Church's approach to other faiths.

SSPX did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.

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This Fourth of July marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. As the country approaches this historic date, one site in America's heartland is preparing to celebrate in a particularly Catholic way.

The National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion in Champion, Wisconsin — the only approved Marian apparition site in the United States — is hosting an exhibit honoring holy men and women from the United States. The Catholic Saints of America Exhibit will run from July 1–9 and will feature the stories of 76 saints, blesseds, venerables, and servants of God with American ties.

There will also be daily Mass, several presentations, relics available for veneration, representatives from 35 different causes, and a special Mass celebrated on July 5 commemorating the anniversary of the death of Servant of God Adele Brice, the visionary of Our Lady of Champion.

The shrine is also encouraging not only visitors but also American Catholics everywhere to join in the Novena for Our Nation beginning on July 1.

Father Tony Stephens, the rector of the shrine, told EWTN News that the inspiration for the exhibit came in the fall of 2025 as the holy site was coming up with ideas about how to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the U.S.

"Some of our staff had the idea — since we were anticipating the visionary here at the shrine, Adele, potentially being elevated to the the level of servant of God and the canonization process opening — we thought, well, it'd be neat to have some of these servants and maybe venerables and maybe some saints come together here at the shrine, but particularly those who had grown holy in America and were holy Americans," he said.

He added: "So it just grew from there. Then [we] realized, well, what if we did all the servants of God, and then all the venerable, and all the blesseds, and all the saints? So it's been a very extensive process. It started small and it's just one of those things you know the Holy Spirit was driving."

The priest added that the team drew inspiration from the "Eucharistic Miracles of  the World" exhibit designed by St. Carlo Acutis. Stephens explained that each holy person will have his or her own large foam board with that person's story, images, and important dates in their lives.

There will also be a 15-foot-long timeline of the 250 years of the U.S. highlighting important dates in both American history and the Catholic Church in the country.

"We want to celebrate the 250th birthday of our nation," he said. "Faith and reason go together. We love our country and we love our faith. And they can certainly go together — one nation under God."

Some of the relics on site will include those of St. Kateri Tekakwitha, St. Francis Xavier Cabrini, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, St. John Neumann, Blessed Solanus Casey, and Blessed Stanley Rother, among others.

Stephens emphasized that the driving force behind creating the exhibit was that "we're proud to be Americans, but we're Catholics first, so these are some of our holy ones who lived faithfully as Catholic Americans."

Speaking about the novena, Stephens shared that he wrote it specifically for the event. He explained that it's not only about praying for the nation but also that people also "recognize our shortcomings, and we thank God for the many blessings that he's given us in 250 years."

The petitions include praying for families, for the vulnerable in society, for the protection of religious liberty in our country, for a spirit of generosity among all U.S. citizens, for elected leaders, for those who interpret and enforce laws, for those who educate others, for those in the armed services, and for those who died protecting the nation.

Stephens said his main hope for those who visit the exhibit is that they would leave believing "that holiness is attainable for me as a Catholic in 21st-century America."

He added: "These were holy Catholic Americans who lived in this country and … this is something that is attainable because they persevered in their faith. And that's something that all of us can do as well."

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The Vatican Observatory, one of the oldest astronomical institutions in the world, hosted its prestigious Vatican Observatory Lectures at its headquarters in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, last week. This year's series focused on quantum gravity.

The event brought together internationally renowned experts and a select group of doctoral students and young researchers who delved into one of the most complex and fascinating problems in modern physics: unifying quantum mechanics with general relativity.

The difficulty of this challenge lies in the very nature of the two theories. While quantum mechanics describes the behavior of elementary particles with enormous precision, Albert Einstein's general relativity explains gravity as the curvature of space-time on a large scale. However, the two frameworks prove incompatible when one attempts to apply them simultaneously.

In relativity, space and time are not an immutable scenario but rather dynamic entities that warp and evolve. Attempting to subject these quantities to the rules of quantum physics gives rise to profound mathematical inconsistencies.

One of the best known is the so-called "perturbative non-renormalizability." In simple terms, renormalizing involves controlling the infinite corrections that appear in quantum calculations in order to make physical predictions.

This method works in the other fundamental forces of nature but fails in the case of gravity, where these corrections multiply without limit, generating an infinite number of parameters that makes the theory unviable. Overcoming this obstacle constitutes one of the great objectives of current theoretical physics.

The conferences, held at the observatory's headquarters in Castel Gandolfo and coordinated by Jesuit Father Gabriele Gionti and Father Matteo Galaverni, explored the issues from various perspectives.

Professor Claus Kiefer of the University of Cologne in Germany presented the canonical (in a nonreligious sense) quantization approach to gravity, focusing on the so-called "problem of time."

If time itself is subject to quantum fluctuations, a fundamental question arises: How do we define the evolution of a physical system? Kiefer explored the implications of this issue for the study of black holes, including the nature of singularities where gravity reaches extreme levels.

Professor Roberto Percacci of the International Higher School for Advanced Studies in Trieste, Italy, presented a covariant approach in which gravitons — hypothetical particles that mediate gravity — are treated as spin-2 quantum fields.

A particular highlight was the asymptotic safety program — a proposal suggesting that gravity could be consistent within the quantum regime without recourse to additional exotic entities, thanks to the specific behavior of its constants at very high energies.

From a more conceptual perspective, Professor Sergio Cacciatori of the University of Insubria in Italy delved into the difficulties inherent in quantizing a universe where the very fabric of space-time is subject to uncertainty.

His remarks highlighted questions that border on the philosophical yet carry very concrete technical implications: What does it mean to measure time when it fluctuates? How is observation defined in a context where the observer is part of the system?

Finally, Professor Pierpaolo Mastrolia of the University of Padua in Italy contributed the scattering amplitude approach, a key tool for calculating particle interaction probabilities. His research reveals surprising parallels between the theories describing fundamental forces such as electromagnetism and nuclear interactions and certain formulations of quantum gravity, such as supergravity or string theory. These analogies open up promising avenues toward possibly unifying quantum mechanics with general relativity.

Beyond the technical aspects, these lessons have once again highlighted the uniqueness of the Vatican Observatory as a meeting place between traditions, disciplines, and generations. In an environment marked by centuries of history, young researchers not only receive high-level training but also participate in a setting of free and open dialogue where the great questions of human knowledge, such as the origin of the universe or the ultimate nature of space and time, can be addressed without prejudices.

Founded in the 16th century at the behest of Pope Gregory XIII, who ordered the construction of the Tower of the Winds at the Vatican and gathered astronomers and mathematicians to reform the calendar, the Vatican Observatory has maintained a constant quest to understand the universe throughout the centuries. It was Pope Leo XIII who, in the late 19th century, revitalized its research activities, establishing it as an international point of reference.

At a time when science is advancing in the study of the infinitely small and the immeasurably large, the Vatican has reaffirmed its commitment to research and critical thought. For, as quantum gravity demonstrates, the deepest questions remain open, and finding their answers is a task that can only be tackled as a community.

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

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Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday named Italian economist Sr. Alessandra Smerilli, FMA, to succeed Cardinal Michael Czerny, SJ as prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

Cardinal Czerny will turn 80 on July 18, while the 51-year-old Salesian sister has been secretary, the No. 2 position at the dicastery, since August 2021. She was previously an undersecretary from March of the same year.

The pope has also appointed a pro-prefect to serve alongside Smerilli: the Italian Cardinal Fabio Baggio, CS, who has been the dicastery's undersecretary since 2022. The nomination of a bishop to serve as pro-prefect follows a precedent set with the nomination of the first woman prefect — Sr. Simona Brambilla, MC, of the religious life dicastery — in early 2025.

Smerilli is a professor of political economy and statistics at the Auxilium Pontifical Faculty of Educational Sciences and on the board of directors of the Laudato Si' Higher Education Center, which is led by Baggio.

In 2020, she was one of the principal organizers of the Economy of Francesco online event. She also served in the past as a councilor of the Vatican City State and a member of the short-lived Vatican fundraising commission.

With Smerilli's nomination, Leo continues his predecessor Pope Francis' innovation of appointing women to the highest roles at the Vatican, including the appointment of Montserrat Alvarado — currently the president and COO of EWTN News — as the first woman to lead the Dicastery for Communications earlier this month.

Baggio, 61, was both appointed an archbishop and made a cardinal by Pope Francis in late 2024, after working since early 2017 in the human development dicastery, first as undersecretary of the migrants and refugees section alongside Czerny, and then as undersecretary of the dicastery following the reform of the Roman Curia in 2022.

Prior to his roles at the Vatican, Baggio taught in Argentina, Brazil, the Philippines, and in Rome. He is also a composer of sacred and liturgical music.

Czerny, who reaches the mandatory retirement age for prefects next month, concludes a term in the leadership of the integral human development office that began with its creation nearly a decade ago.

A Canadian Jesuit born in what was then Brno, Czechoslovakia, Czerny served for years in the Jesuit General Curia in Rome starting in the early 1990s. He was also the personal assistant to Cardinal Peter Turkson from 2010-2016.

In 2017, he started as under-secretary of the migrants and refugees section of the newly-formed Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, with the pope himself as the department's official head. Czerny was made prefect in 2022.

Pope Francis made him a cardinal in October 2019.

Pope Leo also appointed on June 30 Father Jozef Barlaš as secretary of the human development dicastery.

The Slovakian priest has been undersecretary since November 2025. He has a doctorate in canon law and served as an official in the Vatican's Secretariat of State from 2020-2022.

Smerilli, Baggio, and Barlaš will start their new roles on Sept. 1.

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KHARTOUM, Sudan — Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), a U.K.-based human rights organization, has called for concrete steps to diffuse tensions in Sudan after the murder of Father Youhanna Al-Amin, a priest who remained with his people amid growing violence in the Nuba Mountains.

In a report shared with ACI Africa, the sister service of EWTN News in Africa, on June 25, CSW founder president Mervyn Thomas condemned the June 19 killing of the priest of St. Vincent's Kauda Parish in Sudan's Catholic Diocese of El Obeid after allegedly reporting the theft of medicines intended for the local population.

"We call on authorities in the area to take concrete steps to diffuse tensions and protect citizens, and once again urge the international community to increase efforts to bring an end to the devastating conflict in Sudan," Thomas said in the report.

Al-Amin was murdered alongside a parish watchman and another person in Sudan's Nuba Mountains, a region long plagued by conflict and instability.

According to a June 20 report by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) quoting local sources, Al-Amin was killed amid escalating tribal tensions and disputes among armed factions operating in the area.

The sources said the killing appears to have been an act of retaliation after Al-Amin reported the theft of medicines that the Church was safeguarding for the benefit of residents.

Kauda serves as the main center of the Nuba Mountains areas controlled by the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N).

In recent months, worsening insecurity and clashes involving armed and tribal groups forced some religious personnel to leave the region.

Al-Amin, however, chose to remain. According to those who knew him, he refused to abandon the community he served even as humanitarian conditions deteriorated.

In a region marked by poverty and limited access to essential services, his ministry extended beyond pastoral care. The Church also served as an important source of healthcare assistance and support for vulnerable families.

News of his death sent shockwaves through the Diocese of El Obeid, where the priest had ministered for nearly three decades.

In a condolence message shared with ACN, St. Peter's Babnusa Parish of the El Obeid Diocese recalled the priest's long years of service, noting that he ministered in the parish from 1997 until 2021.

The parish, located in Sudan's West Kordofan province, described a journey that began when Al-Amin arrived as a seminarian before serving as a deacon and eventually parish priest.

"He was a friend of the youth and the children, and he loved his work until the very end," the parish said in its tribute.

According to the CSW report, tensions broke out in Kauda approximately three months ago when SPLM-N, which is the ruling authority in the city, demarcated land between the Otoro and Shawaya tribes, prompting some members of the former to attack Shawaya villages.

The report says attacks have since extended to the Kawaleeb tribe, to which the commander of the SPLM-N, Izzat Koko, belongs, and CSW sources speculate that this may have been the motive for the killing of Al-Amin, since both the Otoro and Kawaleeb tribes are predominantly Christian.

The CSW report disclosed that there may also be an economic motive arising from shortages of food and medicine among Otoro fighters.

Churches have reportedly been widely used as shelters over the course of the conflict in Sudan, particularly in the Nuba Mountains, from where the majority of Sudanese Christians originate.

Attacks on places of worship and religious leaders have also been widely documented throughout the conflict, and both the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces have used places of worship for military purposes.

"Attacks on places of worship should always be condemned but are particularly concerning in a region known for peaceful coexistence between religious and ethnic communities," Thomas said in the report.

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

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