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CNA Staff, Jun 7, 2025 / 10:30 am (CNA).

Evangelical pastor Rick Warren this week said the upcoming 2,000th anniversary of the death and resurrection of Jesus highlights the Lord's "unanswered prayer" of unity in the Christian world, a unity which he said will help bring the message of salvation to the world.

Warren, the founder of the Baptist Saddleback Church in California, spoke to EWTN Vatican Bureau Chief Andreas Thonhauser in Rome on attending a gathering of Global 2033, a Catholic evangelization initiative working to spread the Gospel message ahead of the two-thousand-year observance of Christ rising from the dead.

Asked by Thonhauser why he was speaking at a Catholic event, the Protestant minister claimed that "no single denomination can complete the Great Commission on their own."

"There are 2.5 billion people in the world who claim to believe in Jesus Christ," Warren said. Of those, "1.3 billion are Catholic. About half of the Christian Church is Catholic."

Dismissing potential criticisms that his intent is to convert Catholics to Protestantism, Warren pointed to Christ's prayers in John 17, in which he prayed to God: "Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one."

That plea "is still the unanswered prayer of Jesus," Warren said.

"We're never going to have cultural unity. We're never going to have structural unity," Warren pointed out.

"We're never going to have unity in doctrine," he further claimed. "But we can all agree on one thing. Every Christian understands we're called to go [and evangelize]."

On praying alongside Catholics in Rome, Warren said: "I pray with anybody who believes Jesus Christ is the Lord of my life. These are brothers and sisters in Christ."

Looking forward to 2033, Warren said: "What the world needs now is hope."

The Baptist pastor further shared that EWTN has been a "great ministry in [his] life." He pointed to the 2013 death of his son, who took his own life that year after struggling with mental illness.

"It was the worst day of my life," Warren said. "One of the things that helped me through was on EWTN, they were praying the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. And the Chaplet of Divine Mercy ministered to me and to my wife."

"It was a healing balm in my heart," he said.

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CNA Staff, Jun 7, 2025 / 11:00 am (CNA).

Police in Brussels arrested pro-life activist Lois McLatchie Miller and child protection advocate Chris Elston on Wednesday for peacefully displaying signs that advocated for the protection of children against transgender medical treatments. 

The incident occurred when Miller, a Scottish senior legal communications officer with ADF International, and Elston, a Canadian pro-child activist known as "Billboard Chris", were surrounded by an angry mob as they held signs that read: "Children are never born in the wrong body" and "Children cannot consent to puberty blockers." 

The pair were in the EU capital engaging members of the European Parliament about the dangers of puberty blockers for children. 

Belgian police arrested the duo amid the nonviolent demonstration. Officers took them to separate police stations, where they were ordered to remove their clothes and subjected to searches. 

They were released after several hours in custody with no charges filed, though police informed them that their signs would be destroyed.

Elston said police initially told them they needed a permit and were later told they would be charged with "disturbing the peace."

"I just can't believe that we live in a world where we were the bad guys in this situation," Miller said in a video posted to social media after her release.

Speaking of the police, she said: "They saw that we were the minority, that we were being attacked … Instead of standing up for our rights … they took us away, and let the mob go free."

On June 6, Miller's husband and fellow pro-life advocate Calum Miller told EWTN News Nightly that Europe needs to "wake up" and that Americans have a "profound role" in helping Europeans preserve their basic freedoms. 

He also called for the sanction of politicians and authorities involved in the assault on free speech in Europe.

Paul Coleman, the executive director of ADF International, condemned the arrests, stating: "The Belgian authorities not only failed to uphold the fundamental right to speak freely, they turned the power of the state against those who were peacefully exercising their rights at the behest of a mob." 

Coleman described the incident as a disturbing display of authoritarianism in the heart of Europe, emphasizing that ADF International is exploring all legal options to defend free speech rights in Belgium. 

"We are grateful our colleague has been safely released, but we are deeply concerned by her treatment at the hands of the police in Brussels," he added.

After his release, Elston said activists "are not going to stop" talking about the dangers of puberty blockers for children. "We are going to keep having these conversations." 

The arrests come amid tensions over free expression in Belgium. Just a year ago, a Brussels mayor attempted to shut down the National Conservatism Conference, citing ideological disagreements with its speakers. 

ADF International intervened with emergency legal action that allowed the event to take place. The organization is vowing to challenge the recent arrests as well.

"We will not stand by while peaceful citizens are criminalized for speaking out on vital issues – especially when it's the safety and wellbeing of children at stake," Coleman said.

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CNA Staff, Jun 7, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

In a recent interview with the Vienna-based Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe (OIDAC Europe), former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback discussed how Christian organizations are increasingly being deplatformed and debanked when engaging in public debate and offered ways to address these challenges and uphold religious freedom. 

"The typical technique in the West is a suffocation technique on religion," Brownback told OIDAC Europe Executive Director Anja Hoffmann in an interview released June 4. OIDAC Europe is a nongovernmental organization that researches, analyzes, documents, and reports on cases of intolerance and discrimination against Christians in Europe. 

According to Brownback, examples of this technique include pro-life pregnancy centers being dropped by their insurance companies and organizations being taken off of social media platforms. 

Brownback's own National Committee for Religious Freedom had its bank account canceled without explanation by Chase Bank in 2022 after 45 days of it being opened. 

"You see these techniques and it's all a suffocation effort. We're not going to throw you in jail — we can't throw you in jail — but we can try to strangle you as much as possible so that you can't operate as a group. And that's why we've got to push back against it in the West more and more," he said.

In 2018, Brownback — who previously served as a U.S. Senator from Kansas from 1996–2011 and as the 46th governor of Kansas from 2011–2018 —  was sworn in as the U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom during President Donald Trump's first term in office. He became the first Catholic to serve in the role.

During his tenure, he promoted religious freedom as a means of promoting individual and economic flourishing and reducing religion-related violence. He also highlighted China's persecution of Uyghurs and strongly condemned the Xinjiang internment camps. At the 2020 Ministerial to Advance Freedom of Religion or Belief in Poland, Brownback also spoke about the COVID-19 pandemic's effect on religious freedom.

In the interview, Brownback pointed out that now with the use of social media, issues of religious persecution happening around the world have become more visible and need to continue to be brought to light.

"We're not powerless now … we used to be just dependent upon the media to surface and to get these things out and for us in the United States; if it didn't get on CBS, NBC, or ABC it didn't happen, we didn't know about it," he explained. "That's not the case now. You've got all these social media outlets that are out there … and you can put it out there and you need to get it out there."

Brownback also encouraged individuals to not only share content about the issues taking place but also to include ways that individuals can help. He said he thinks many might be surprised to see how much people actually care about these issues once they find out they're happening.

"You're seeing more support for religious freedom in the United States and other places and a lot of it has been a long-term awareness building. These things are going on and then as people look at them and say, 'Is that really happening?' you say, 'Yes, that's really happening.'"

He added: "Changes rarely happen until people actually have to smell and feel something and see that something actually is going on here that's wrong." 

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 6, 2025 / 16:30 pm (CNA).

The Archdiocese of Washington has announced plans to "cut spending, reduce its workforce, and restructure departments" to combat "crippling economic challenges."

In a June 5 letter sent to archdiocesan staff members, Cardinal Robert McElroy indicated that the archdiocese has had an annual operating deficit of $10 million for the past five years, leading the archdiocese "to draw from financial reserves to cover shortfalls."

The cardinal archbishop of Washington said "our situation has only been exacerbated by the present economic uncertainty that is impacting so many, both locally and globally." 

"I have come to the painful realization that the only way forward is to take drastic measures to achieve a balanced budget by July 1 of this year," McElroy wrote. "This means that the archdiocese will need to cut spending, reduce its workforce, and restructure departments to accommodate a more streamlined pastoral center."

McElroy explained that "the financial impacts of the pandemic and the fallout of the [former cardinal and leader of the archdiocese Theodore] McCarrick scandal, coupled with an extended period of inflation and volatile financial markets" are among the causes of the "crippling economic challenges" facing the archdiocese.

"The most difficult decision that I have had to make in order to achieve a balanced budget was to authorize a reduction in force to eliminate approximately 30 positions of pastoral center staff. Several vacant positions will be left unfilled, and a number of dedicated, hardworking employees will lose their jobs," McElroy wrote. 

"I apologize profoundly to those who will be losing their jobs," McElroy wrote. "This process is not a reflection on the quality or importance of your work." 

The majority of layoffs will be from the archdiocese' pastoral center in Hyattsville, Maryland. Prior to the layoffs approximately 120 people worked in the building, but the restructuring plans will reduce the staff by about one-fourth.

"I am sensitive to the reality that there are many people and families who will be impacted by this process — whether it be a devoted employee who loses his or her job, a remaining co-worker who must take on additional responsibilities, or the ripple effect on the many who are served by an important ministry that can no longer be funded at past levels."

McElroy said the archdiocese will be "offering severance, extended benefits, and outplacement services" to the eliminated employees. 

"I pray the Lord will accompany all of you in these days, understanding that it is God's service that unites all of us who work for the archdiocese, and your commitment to God's service that makes our current situation all the more difficult," McElroy said.

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 6, 2025 / 17:27 pm (CNA).

The U.S. Department of State (DOS) plans to destroy a reserve of artificial contraceptives that was previously set aside for distribution in developing countries through foreign aid programs.

The stockpile, including birth control pills, condoms, and long-term implantable contraceptives, is worth more than $12 million.

A senior State Department official confirmed to CNA that officials had concerns that some of the nongovernmental organizations previously contracted to distribute contraceptives may have participated in programs that performed coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization.

According to the official, the DOS is destroying the products to comply with President Donald Trump's executive order to reinstate the Mexico City Policy, which bans taxpayer funding of organizations that promote abortion and forced sterilization abroad.

Destroying the products will cost DOS about $167,000, but rebranding the products to resell them would have cost taxpayers several million dollars, according to the official.

"There is no reason that U.S. taxpayers should be footing the bill for contraception domestically or abroad," the official added.

Rebecca Oas, the director of research for the Center for Family and Human Rights (C-Fam) told CNA that funding of "the international family planning movement" has been "inextricably tied to the abortion lobby" ever since the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) formed the Office of Population in 1969.

"There are a lot of reasons why we should want to support global maternal health separately from family planning in order to ensure a pro-life foreign policy," said Oas, whose organization lobbies for pro-life policies in the United States' international relations.

Oas said the movement has also had a "coercion" problem for the last half-century even though current advocates of international contraception funding "insist that contraceptive use must be voluntary."

"Their metrics unfortunately lay the groundwork for potential coercion by regarding contraceptive uptake and continuation as an unfettered good by falsely conflating a purported 'need' for contraceptives with lack of access, and by regarding things like concern about side effects, openness to having more children, and religious and moral objections as 'barriers' to increased contraceptive use," Oas added. "Family planning groups will admit that their problem is not a lack of supply but a lack of demand."

In one recent example of coercion, Oas noted that several Rohingya Muslim women who are refugees in Bangladesh reported they were forced to get long-term contraceptive implantations if they wanted to receive food rations for their newborn children. These accounts were reported by The New Humanitarian last month, which also cited sources complaining that such coercion against refugees is widespread throughout the country.

Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, a senior ethicist at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, referred to the prior U.S.-backed international family planning programs as "pro-abortion and anti-family imperialism."

"If those countries want to obtain contraceptives, let their own governments set up contracts directly with the manufacturers of these morally-problematic items and drugs, and pay for them on their own," he told CNA. "The U.S., and U.S. aid agencies, should not be serving as middle men, underwriters, or imperialist brokers for any of this."

The moral problems of contraception

Although the Trump administration is preventing tax money from funding contraceptives abroad, it has not taken any actions to discourage or restrict contraceptive use. The administration, along with an overwhelming majority of Americans across the ideological spectrum, support access to contraception.

The Catholic Church, however, opposes artificial contraception when used to prevent pregnancy as intrinsically immoral. Pacholczyk said contraceptives do not "heal or restore any broken system of the human body" but rather break the reproductive system "often by means of disrupting the delicate balance of hormonal cycles regulating a woman's reproductive well-being and fecundity."

"Unspoken ideological agendas which propagate permissiveness and various other false notions regarding our human sexuality should not be allowed to undermine the duty to exercise moral responsibility and to develop the discipline needed to live in a state of sexual restraint and order," Pacholczyk added.

In the 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, St. Paul VI notes that "each and every marital act must of necessity retain its intrinsic relationship to the procreation of human life," adding that one cannot take "any action which either before, at the moment of, or after sexual intercourse is specifically intended to prevent procreation."

"The fundamental nature of the marriage act, while uniting husband and wife in the closest intimacy, also renders them capable of generating new life — and this as a result of laws written into the actual nature of man and of woman," the Holy Father wrote. "And if each of these essential qualities, the unitive and the procreative, is preserved, the use of marriage fully retains its sense of true mutual love and its ordination to the supreme responsibility of parenthood to which man is called."

The Church permits natural family planning (NFP), which uses the body's natural cycle to know when the wife will be fertile and when she will not be fertile, which can assist a married couple in family planning.

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 6, 2025 / 17:57 pm (CNA).

On Wednesday at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., seven Dominican brothers were ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Anthony Fisher, OP, who leads the Archdiocese of Sydney, Australia.

"We are overjoyed at the ordination of seven of our brothers to the priesthood of Jesus Christ,"  Father Allen Moran, OP, prior provincial of the Dominican Friars of the Province of St. Joseph, told CNA.

"I, and all the friars of the Province of St. Joseph, look forward to the good work that God will do through them in our parishes, campus ministries, intellectual apostolates, hospital chaplaincies, and digital evangelization efforts."

The newest Dominicans joining the community as priests are Louis Mary Bethea, Gregory Marie Santy, Bertrand Marie Hebert, Basil Mary Burroughs, Titus Mary Sanchez, Nicodemus Maria Thomas, and Linus Mary Martz.

"May God bring the good work he has begun to completion," Moran said at the June 4 ordination. "Thanks be to God for the gift of these seven new priests!"

Fisher ordained the priests in a three-hour-long Mass and ordination ceremony. "Now seven of Dominic's sons will become the fantastic seven," Fisher said. "All part of a team of 400,000 priest presbyters sanctifying our world."

Fisher served as the ordaining bishop and was joined by Archbishop James Green, who ordained Pope Leo XIV a bishop in 2014. 

Auxiliary Bishop Evelio Menjivar-Ayala of Washington and Archbishop Borys Gudziak, the metropolitan archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia, also concelebrated the Mass.

At the end of the liturgy, Fisher asked for "a word of thanks" for all "who have influenced and supported the priests on their vocational journeys" and those "who have helped them in discernment and formation."

"Seven is a very Catholic number," Fisher continued.

"Not just for clergy but for sacraments, virtues, hills of Rome, and deadly sins," he joked.

"You can work out which of our new priests is best identified as Father Baptism or Father Confession, and the rest. And who is Father Prudence, or Father Temperance, Father Hope. Which is more aventine or escaline. But of course none of them would be Father Gluttony or Father Sloth," he continued.

"Dominican Province of St. Joseph and the Church universal rings out with joy today; the Church has seven new priests," Fisher said. "Yet the flock of Jesus Christ needs many new shepherds if we are to fulfill Christ's injunction to lead the sheep and nurture the lambs. So I ask you all to pray for more like these."

Fisher offered a message to the young men of America: "People are crying out for words of life and sacraments of grace to transfigure their hearts and lives. You might be the very one by God's grace to offer them this as a Dominican priest."

"May our new priests inspire you to give yourself over to God's plan for you," Fisher said. 

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 6, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Here's a roundup of Catholic world news from the past week that you might have missed:

Petition to Pope Leo XIV to remove German cardinal gains over 60K signatures 

A petition launched by a Munich priest to Pope Leo XIV calling for the dismissal of Cologne, Germany, archbishop Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki has gained 60,130 signatures, CNA Deutsch, CNA's German-language news partner, reported on Wednesday. 

The German-language petition accuses Woelki of moral corruption and argues that he has lost all credibility in the public sphere and the Church at large after investigations of the cardinal were discontinued after the payment of a 26,000-euro (about $29,700) fine. The petition cites the cardinal's alleged failure to deal with sexual abuse by Church officials as legal basis for dismissal under canon law. 

Attempted suicide bombers killed outside Ugandan Martyrs' Day memorial event

Ugandan Bishop Christopher Kakooza of the Lugazi Diocese urged pilgrims participating in Martyrs' Day celebrations on Tuesday to carry on the legacy of the Ugandan martyrs as local authorities intercepted and killed two alleged terrorists, including a female suicide bomber, outside the event.

During his homily at the event, the bishop encouraged the congregation to "endure just like the martyrs who suffered with hope for what was to come." 

A local news outlet reported that a counterterrorism unit "intercepted and neutralized" a man and a female suicide bomber on a motorbike headed toward the commemorative event after an explosive detonated about midway to the church. 

Kenyan bishop appeals for unity among warring communities after priest's murder

Bishop Dominic Kimengich of the Kenyan Diocese of Eldoret is urging warring factions in the bandit-infested Kerio Valley to end violence and division following the murder of a local priest, Father Allois Cheruiyot Bett, reported ACI Africa, CNA's news partner in Africa, on Tuesday. 

In a heartfelt plea on the sidelines of the requiem Mass for the priest on Monday, June 2, the bishop appealed for an end to the long decades of violence and division in the territiry. "We speak the same language … So, what are these? Where is the problem?" he said, adding: "Can we not sit down and be serious once and for all?"

Cheruiyot Bett was fatally shot by assailants while returning from Mass at his parish on May 22. 

Patriarch Younan meets Pope Leo XIV, calls for support of Middle East Christians

In their first official meeting, Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignatius Joseph III Younan met Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican to discuss the plight of Christians in the Middle East, ACI MENA, CNA's Arabic-language news partner, reported.

Younan shared concerns over emigration, the loss of youth, and the need for continued spiritual and humanitarian support. He highlighted his church's efforts in pastoral care both in the East and in diaspora communities while calling for deeper ecumenical cooperation, especially with the Syriac Orthodox Church. 

Monastic order appeals for return of seized lands in Mosul

The Antonine Hermizdian Chaldean Order is appealing to Iraqi authorities to return more than 1,400 dunams (346 acres) of land that it claims were unjustly confiscated during Saddam Hussein's regime, ACI MENA reported. The call comes after a recent government initiative reallocated part of that land for a housing project for Christian returnees — without acknowledging its original monastic ownership. 

The order, led by Abbot Samer Sourisho, says it is willing to donate hundreds of plots of land to Christian families if the full land is restored. Despite multiple legal attempts since 2003 — including a rejected lawsuit in 2012 — the monastic order says the Iraqi state continues to ignore historical land claims. 

Sourisho criticized the local government for "generously giving away what it does not own" and described the situation as emblematic of how past injustices are being entrenched instead of corrected. 

The monks called on the state to recognize their rightful ownership and support the return of displaced Christians by empowering religious institutions, not sidelining them.

Over 10,000 Vietnamese Catholics participate in Marian jubilee pilgrimage 

Over 10,000 Vietnamese Catholics from across the Da Nang Diocese took part in a jubilee pilgrimage to the Marian Shrine of Our Lady of Tra Kieu, according to Agenzia Fides. 

The pilgrimage took place on the solemnity of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, May 31. Archbishop Joseph Dang Duc presided over Mass, which was concelebrated by hundreds of priests. The archbishop described the event as one "of love, faith, commitment, and service, an opportunity to profess one's faith in the face of the challenges of the present time."

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Vatican City, Jun 6, 2025 / 09:35 am (CNA).

A group of European bishops have turned to Pope Leo XIV and the Holy See for help as the Court of Justice of the European Union reviews a Belgian court case about the cancellation of names from baptismal records.

In a May 23 audience at the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV "told us that he considers the issue very important. He mentioned it right from the start. He said, 'I really want to hear your opinion,'" Alessandro Calcagno, a lawyer and assistant general secretary of the European Union bishops' conference (COMECE), told ACI Stampa, CNA's Italian-language news partner.

The Court of Justice of the European Union is currently hearing a case brought by the Brussels Court of Appeal, which asked for clarification about whether the Catholic Church's refusal to erase names from baptismal records when requested is in violation of Europe's General Data Protection Regulation.

That rule has regulated the processing of personal data within the European Union since May 2018. The ruling of the European court is expected at the end of 2026 or in 2027.

Calcagno told ACI Stampa that when a baptized Catholic would ask to be removed from a register, usually a note was written in the margin of the document stating "formal apostasy from the faith." The record that baptism had taken place would remain as a historical fact. 

But at the end of 2023, in the Diocese of Ghent in Belgium, someone asked for all of their data to be completely removed from the register, which was opposed by the diocese.

There were already some similar cases in Europe in 1995, Calcagno said, but all with national court rulings favorable to the Church.

Now, he said, is "the first time that there have been small attempts to undermine this positive tendency. Because until now, case law stated that the judgment was [to add a] notation, but suddenly the idea of the cancellation [of data] has arrived."

The question of how this can be resolved is open and the subject of a legal tug-of-war between authorities and the Church. 

"In both Belgium and the Netherlands, there is an attempt by secular civil courts to interpret canon law to argue in favor of cancellation," Calcagno noted. "This is a great danger because if you start to enter into a law that is not your own, you start to manipulate [that law]."

COMECE is working with the Holy See to defend the Church's position on the issue of baptismal records.

The role of COMECE has been to "bring together reflections and legal arguments when certain cases arise at the European Union level," Calcagno said, and to hold meetings with various jurists from the national bishops' conferences.

"We gathered many arguments that were then used," he said. "Several member states intervened in the procedure, and there was also work done by the churches at the local level. In addition, there was strong collaboration with the Holy See, and a note was published on April 17, 2025, specifically on cancellations from baptismal registers, and we worked very intensively with the Holy See on this."

The note from the Dicastery for Legislative Texts affirmed that "canon law does not allow the modification or cancellation of registrations made in the baptismal register, except to correct possible transcription errors. The purpose of this register is to provide certainty regarding certain acts, making it possible to verify their actual existence."

The issue has been monitored for years, and solutions that the European Court will accept are being sought. But it should be clarified, according to Calcagno, that "the court is merely drafting a response to questions it has received from a national court. It is not an initiative against the Church by the European Union. It is a response to clarifications requested at the national level."

The answer will take a few years, he explained, because "there has to be a public hearing, then there is an advocate general who gives guidance, called conclusions, and then the ruling comes." 

According to a 2023 annual report, 1,270 Catholics in Belgium requested their names be removed from the baptismal register, due largely to profound fallout and public outrage over the handling of sexual abuse scandals.

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CNA Staff, Jun 6, 2025 / 10:31 am (CNA).

Catholic bishops from Maryland, Delaware, and Washington, D.C., released a pastoral letter this week addressing the rapid rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and the Church's response to the numerous challenges and opportunities the technology presents. 

Signed by Baltimore Archbishop William Lori, Cardinal Robert McElroy of Washington, Wilmington Bishop William Koenig, and Maryland's four auxiliary bishops, the letter, titled "The Face of Christ in a Digital Age," urges Christians to discern "how to speak and live the Gospel amid the new language and powers emerging through artificial intelligence."

Released ahead of the solemnity of Pentecost, the bishops write that Christians should not fear the rapid development of technology, which "is not foreign to the Spirit's work, for God's Spirit moves through history, culture, and human creativity."

However, the bishops write: "Will we allow technology to form us in its image — or will we shape it according to the Gospel?"

The Catholic Church "must be a prophetic voice, calling the world to place the human person, made in the image of God, at the heart of this transformation," the letter states.

"No matter how advanced machines become, they can never replicate the soul, the conscience, or the eternal destiny that belongs to each human being," the bishops argue in the letter.

The letter highlights AI's potential benefits to humanity in the realms of health care, education, evangelization, and humanitarian efforts while warning of its risks, including job displacement and the use of lethal autonomous weapons, as well as the manipulation of truth. 

In order to teach discernment in an era where digitally fabricated content blurs the line between truth and falsehood and reality and fantasy, the bishops strongly emphasize a focus on the development of virtue, especially regarding the formation of conscience. 

"It is essential that we form consciences capable of discernment — especially among young people — so that they may not be manipulated by algorithms but by truth and grace," the prelates write. "Digital tools can inform, but they cannot form the heart."

The bishops call for parishes and families to ground digital engagement and media literacy in Scripture and the sacramental life and admonish the faithful to cultivate real "empathy and authentic relationships." 

Michael Hanby, a professor of religion and philosophy of science at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, told CNA that while the document "identifies some obvious dangers with AI as well as some good uses to which it can be put," it does not go far enough.

"There are other dangers," Hanby continued, "especially the reduction of human intelligence ordered to understanding the truth, to a 'functional intelligence without thinking or understanding,' that the letter doesn't really address."

"It is built into the logic of technology, and especially technologies as powerful as this, that there are dangers that we simply cannot foresee.  We have not yet fully comprehended this new kind of power," Hanby said.

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Dicastery for Culture and Education addressed the same concerns as Hanby in a note issued in January titled "Antique et Nova: Note on the Relationship Between Artificial Intelligence and Human Intelligence."

"The Christian tradition regards the gift of intelligence as an essential aspect of how humans are created 'in the image of God' (Gn 1:27)," the note stated, emphasizing that "one of the goals of this technology is to imitate the human intelligence that designed it."

The dicastery acknowledged fears that AI could achieve a kind of superintelligence that "could one day eclipse the human person," though some welcome this possibility.

"We do not know yet whether AI is simply a 'tool' that can be used or shaped according to the Gospel," Hanby told CNA. "I wish the letter had emphasized more strongly the need for more philosophical thinking about this, and I wish it had taken a little more care to distinguish the movement of the Spirit, which is a mystery, from the history of technological progress. But then again, the letter presents an open-ended challenge, not the final word."

Drawing parallels to other historical technological shifts like the invention of the printing press and the advent of the internet, the bishops in their letter encourage Catholics to approach AI with courage and hope, invoking the Holy Spirit to "renew the face of the earth" (Ps 104:30).

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Vatican City, Jun 6, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

When will Carlo Acutis be canonized? That is the question Catholics are asking after the ceremony scheduled for April 27 was postponed due to the death of Pope Francis.

The young millennial, who suffered from leukemia and whose astonishing life and love for the Catholic Church sparked worldwide interest, died on Oct. 12, 2006, and was buried in Assisi, according to his wishes, due to his admiration for St. Francis.

Acutis was declared venerable in 2018 and blessed on Oct. 10, 2020. On May 23, 2024, Pope Francis paved the way for the youth to be elevated to sainthood after approving a second miracle attributed to his intercession.

The scientifically inexplicable event that allegedly occurred with Acutis' intervention concerned a 21-year-old Costa Rican woman, Valeria Valverde, who miraculously survived a serious bicycle accident that left her on the verge of death with a severe head injury.

Last July, Pope Francis convened an ordinary public consistory to confirm several causes for canonization. This ceremony determined the final step of the canonization process through a vote. In addition to Acutis, the canonizations of Blesseds Giuseppe Allamano, Marie-Léonie Paradis, and Elena Guerra were also approved.

However, although the consistory approved Acutis' canonization, the pontiff did not determine the exact date on which he would be proclaimed a saint.

The long-awaited announcement came a few months later, last November, when Pope Francis indicated at the end of a general audience that the young man known as "God's influencer" would be elevated to the altars on April 27, 2025, coinciding with the Jubilee of Teenagers.

The news was received with great enthusiasm by the faithful — and especially by teenagers from around the world, tens of thousands of whom made plans to travel to Rome to be part of this historic event. However, the ceremony had to be postponed following Pope Francis' death on April 21.

Now, following the path forged by Francis, Pope Leo XIV has convened his first consistory for June 13 to confirm the canonization of eight blesseds whose processes were initiated by his predecessor. However, Acutis' name is not included on the official list of blesseds.

The date is not voted on: The pope announces it

Asked about the reasons why Acutis is not among these names, Monsignor Alberto Royo, promoter of the faith at the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, explained to ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner, that "his canonization was approved in the last consistory [on July 1, 2024], so he is no longer included in this one."

In this regard, he clarified that the canonization date "is not something that is approved in the consistory, but rather the pope normally announces it on that occasion, although not necessarily," he added.

"In the case of Carlo Acutis, the pope did not announce the date at the consistory, and it was announced later by the Secretariat of State," he continued.

Therefore, Royo pointed out that at the next consistory on June 13, "it could happen that the pope takes the opportunity to announce the new date of the canonization, but it could also happen that he doesn't announce it and that it will be the Secretariat of State that does."

Regarding Pier Giorgio Frassati, the young "mountaineer" whose canonization will be celebrated on Aug. 3, Royo recalled that Pope Francis "directly announced his canonization before the consistory had even been held," which is why his name appears on the June 13 list.

The Vatican official referred to this gesture as one of Pope Francis' "spontaneous actions" that "preempted the consistory process, as also happened with José Gregorio Hernández," the first Venezuelan saint. "After all, he had the authority to do it," he emphasized.

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

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