From the popemobile, Pope Leo XIV greets thousands of people lined up along Via della Conciliazione on the morning of his inaugural Mass, Sunday, May 18, 2025. / Credit: Vatican MediaVatican City, May 22, 2025 / 14:18 pm (CNA).Pope Leo XIV has appointed Sister Tiziana Merletti as secretary of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.According to the Vatican Press Office, the 66-year-old consecrated religious previously served as superior general of the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor for nine years.She will report directly to another nun, Sister Simona Brambilla, whom Pope Francis appointed in January as prefect of the Vatican department, responsible for all matters concerning the government, discipline, studies, assets, rights, and privileges of institutes of consecrated life.Under the late Argentine pontiff, women's leadership increased significantly. According to data maintained by the Vatican on its website, the female presence increas...
From the popemobile, Pope Leo XIV greets thousands of people lined up along Via della Conciliazione on the morning of his inaugural Mass, Sunday, May 18, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media
Vatican City, May 22, 2025 / 14:18 pm (CNA).
Pope Leo XIV has appointed Sister Tiziana Merletti as secretary of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
According to the Vatican Press Office, the 66-year-old consecrated religious previously served as superior general of the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor for nine years.
She will report directly to another nun, Sister Simona Brambilla, whom Pope Francis appointed in January as prefect of the Vatican department, responsible for all matters concerning the government, discipline, studies, assets, rights, and privileges of institutes of consecrated life.
Under the late Argentine pontiff, women's leadership increased significantly. According to data maintained by the Vatican on its website, the female presence increased from almost 19.2% to 23.4% during Francis' pontificate. With the 2022 apostolic constitution Praedicate Evangelium, Francis decreed that laypeople, in addition to women, could lead a dicastery and become prefects, a position previously reserved for cardinals and archbishops.
Doctorate in canon law, experience in Church government
Born Sept. 30, 1959, in Pineto in the Teramo province of Italy, Merletti made her first religious profession in 1986 at the Institute of the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor. She holds a degree in civil law from the then-Libera Università Abruzzese degli Studi "Gabriele d'Annunzio" in Teramo (1984) and obtained her doctorate in canon law in 1992 from the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome.
From 2004 to 2013, she served as superior general of her congregation. Currently, Merletti is a professor in the canon law department of the Pontifical Antonianum University in Rome and collaborates as a canon lawyer with the International Union of Superiors General, the organization representing women religious of apostolic life worldwide.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Those who want to participate can visit the eCatholic website to "take a moment to offer a message of prayer, encouragement, or support" and submit a video. / Credit: "EWTN News Nightly"/ScreenshotWashington, D.C. Newsroom, May 22, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).Tech company eCatholic is collecting video messages of prayer, encouragement, and support from Catholics across the globe this month to create a montage of "blessings" for Pope Leo XIV.Jason Jaynes, CEO of eCatholic, said the initiative was born during a meeting earlier this month when a team member asked: "Wouldn't it be a really great and cool initiative [if] we could let Catholics all over the world share their blessings with the new pope?"The effort, launched shortly after Pope Leo XIV's election, has already received submissions from "every continent across the globe," Jaynes told "EWTN News Nightly" anchor Catherine Hadro.Planning for the initiative started during the first day of the conclave, when eCatholic emp...
Those who want to participate can visit the eCatholic website to "take a moment to offer a message of prayer, encouragement, or support" and submit a video. / Credit: "EWTN News Nightly"/Screenshot
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 22, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).
Tech company eCatholic is collecting video messages of prayer, encouragement, and support from Catholics across the globe this month to create a montage of "blessings" for Pope Leo XIV.
Jason Jaynes, CEO of eCatholic, said the initiative was born during a meeting earlier this month when a team member asked: "Wouldn't it be a really great and cool initiative [if] we could let Catholics all over the world share their blessings with the new pope?"
The effort, launched shortly after Pope Leo XIV's election, has already received submissions from "every continent across the globe," Jaynes told "EWTN News Nightly" anchor Catherine Hadro.
Planning for the initiative started during the first day of the conclave, when eCatholic employees "had no idea that just 24 hours later, there'd be white smoke and we'd already have a new pope," Jaynes said.
"We wanted to do something meaningful — and a little creative — to mark the moment and celebrate with the universal Church," eCatholic marketing director Michael Josephs told EWTN's ChurchPop.
Some of the submissions eCatholic has received so far feature children singing in Latin, people offering prayers to the first U.S.-born pope, and group messages from parishes congratulating Pope Leo XIV on his election.
The videos have come from people around the world speaking multiple languages, which Jaynes said "reinforces the universal nature of our Church."
Those who want to participate can visit the eCatholic website to "take a moment to offer a message of prayer, encouragement, or support" and submit a video.
"We're going to keep the submissions open through the end of this month," Jaynes said. "Then we'll be reaching out with the montage, probably first over social media since Pope Leo has a presence there, and also trying to reach out to work with the Vatican media and others to get these messages in front of him."
The childhood home of Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, in Dolton, Illinois. / Credit: Michael Howie, Attribution, via Wikimedia CommonsCNA Staff, May 22, 2025 / 09:21 am (CNA).The village of Dolton, a suburb just south of Chicago and the hometown of Pope Leo XIV, is seeking to acquire his childhood home for use as a historical site.Steve Budzik, the home's listing broker, told CNA he and the home's current owner, Pawel Radzik, are eager to work with the village and come to an agreement. "The seller wants to sell and the village wants to buy," Budzik told CNA. "The question is: How do we determine what is fair market value for something so unique, so rare? There are no comps, there is nothing else like this."According to Budzik, they received a letter from the village last week indicating its interest in purchasing the home. The letter said the Archdiocese of Chicago is also working with the city to acquire the home. The archdiocese did not respond to a request for comment...
The childhood home of Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, in Dolton, Illinois. / Credit: Michael Howie, Attribution, via Wikimedia Commons
CNA Staff, May 22, 2025 / 09:21 am (CNA).
The village of Dolton, a suburb just south of Chicago and the hometown of Pope Leo XIV, is seeking to acquire his childhood home for use as a historical site.
Steve Budzik, the home's listing broker, told CNA he and the home's current owner, Pawel Radzik, are eager to work with the village and come to an agreement.
"The seller wants to sell and the village wants to buy," Budzik told CNA. "The question is: How do we determine what is fair market value for something so unique, so rare? There are no comps, there is nothing else like this."
According to Budzik, they received a letter from the village last week indicating its interest in purchasing the home. The letter said the Archdiocese of Chicago is also working with the city to acquire the home. The archdiocese did not respond to a request for comment.
According to village attorney Burt Odelson, Dolton would like to purchase the home, which was listed for sale in January, in order to turn it into a publicly accessible historic site. If an agreement on price cannot be reached, however, Odelson told Fox2Now the village will attempt to acquire the home by eminent domain.
"We have a legal right to take the property for public use. That's the key word — public use. A historic site is public use," he said.
Recently-elected Dolton Mayor Jason House told ABC7 Chicago that the village will only use that option if current negotiations fail.
Last year, Radzik paid $66,000 for the three-bedroom, three-bathroom, 1,050-square-foot home at 212 E. 141st Place. After extensive remodels, it was listed for sale for $219,000 in January. The price dropped to $199,900 in April.
Upon learning on May 8 that the home had belonged to the newly elected pope's parents, who bought the house from the builder in 1949 and lived in it for decades, the owner removed it from the market "to regroup" and reassess the situation, according to Budzik.
About a week later, after enlisting the help of Paramount Realty USA in order to sell the house at a closed bid auction, Radzik put the house back on the market. Bids are currently active and are open until June 18.
However, House told ABC7 Chicago that if anyone else purchases the house through the auction, they should know that their purchase would only be "temporary" because the city will still attempt to acquire it through eminent domain.
The listing states the home is "a piece of papal history," calling it "a one-of-a-kind opportunity" with "a story of transformation, legacy, and limitless potential," and where a buyer can "own a place where history was made."
"Born Robert Francis Prevost in Chicago and raised right here in Dolton, Pope Leo XIV's journey from this humble neighborhood to the Vatican is a testament to faith, perseverance, and purpose. Now, you have the rare chance to own a tangible piece of his inspiring legacy," the listing says.
This past Monday, Dolton officials moved to rename a portion of 141st Place after the first U.S.-born pope, Budzik told CNA.
Ward Miller of the group Preservation Chicago, a nonprofit advocacy organization dedicated to preserving historic sites of Chicago and encouraging landmark designations in the city, told CNA that while the home will not be a candidate for historic landmark designation through the city of Chicago because it falls outside its service area, he hopes it will receive a local Dolton landmark designation at the very least.
He said that "would not stop the house from eventually being" listed as a National Register of Historic places site "or even a National Historic Landmark."
Miller is advocating for Pope Leo's childhood parish, St. Mary of the Assumption, which is within the city's jurisdiction, to receive a Chicago landmark designation. A petition has been set up for the purpose.
The parish has been vacant since 2011. "A Chicago landmark designation is the only thing that will keep the building from being demolished," Miller told CNA. It was purchased recently by Joel Hall, who told ABC7 Chicago he is open to pursuing the Chicago landmark designation.
Miller told CNA that Preservation Chicago went before a committee of the Commission on Chicago Landmarks last Friday recommending the creation of a landmark district that would include many of the sites — including St. Mary of the Assumption — associated with Pope Leo XIV.
He said he hopes the decision to create the landmark district will be expedited considering the "phenomenal, remarkable thing that happened" with Prevost's election to the papacy.
This is "a chance for Chicago to rise to the top," Miller, a Catholic, told CNA. "It's amazing, the first American pope, and he's from Chicago!"
null / Credit: BUTENKOV ALEKSEI/ShutterstockCNA Staff, May 22, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).The Canadian government's abolishment of a government ministry for disabled citizens underscores the government's "demeaning attitude" toward disabled people, advocates say, particularly after the country opted to expand the national euthanasia program to include those with disabilities. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, the Liberal Party leader who assumed office in March, unveiled his new cabinet last week vowing a government that will promote "new ideas, a clear focus, and decisive action." Notably missing from the cabinet, however, was any minister charged directly with administering to the needs of disabled Canadians. The position was held most recently by Kamal Khera, who served as the country's minister of diversity, inclusion, and persons with disabilities until March before she became the Canadian minister of health. Direct support for disabled Canadians has been...
null / Credit: BUTENKOV ALEKSEI/Shutterstock
CNA Staff, May 22, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).
The Canadian government's abolishment of a government ministry for disabled citizens underscores the government's "demeaning attitude" toward disabled people, advocates say, particularly after the country opted to expand the national euthanasia program to include those with disabilities.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, the Liberal Party leader who assumed office in March, unveiled his new cabinet last week vowing a government that will promote "new ideas, a clear focus, and decisive action."
Notably missing from the cabinet, however, was any minister charged directly with administering to the needs of disabled Canadians.
The position was held most recently by Kamal Khera, who served as the country's minister of diversity, inclusion, and persons with disabilities until March before she became the Canadian minister of health.
Direct support for disabled Canadians has been ministered via a variety of government positions over the years. The position most recently vacated by Khera was first created in 2019. Following Khera's departure it was consolidated under the minister of jobs and families.
'Demeaning attitude towards disabled Canadians'
Advocates have criticized the abolishment of the cabinet position that directly provided support for disabled Canadian citizens. Data show that slightly more than 25% of Canadians report having a disability of some kind.
Disability advocates say the removal of the ministry is particularly troubling in light of the government's permitting disabled Canadians to seek euthanasia under the country's medical assistance in dying (MAID) law. The government in 2021 expanded the law to allow euthanasia for people who are not actively dying — an option known as "Track 2" — including those with disabilities.
The Carney government's "glaring omission of a minister for disabled Canadians" reflects "the demeaning attitude of the Liberal Party towards disabled Canadians," said David Cooke, the campaigns manager for Campaign Life Coalition, a Canadian pro-life group.
Cooke argued that the Carney government is "prioritizing euthanasia over improving medical and social supports for this vulnerable and marginalized group."
The 2021 expansion of the euthanasia law, Cooke said, "defined disabled Canadians as 'killable,' allowing them to qualify for consensual death by lethal injection on the basis of their disability."
Cooke pointed out that the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities last month called for Canada to repeal the Track 2 provision of the euthanasia law. The U.N. committee said in its report that the expansion of the law was made "on the basis of negative, ableist perceptions of the quality and value of the life of persons with disabilities."
Amanda Achtman, a pro-life activist who launched the anti-euthanasia group Dying to Meet You in 2023, said the abandonment of a disability cabinet position suggests disabled Canadians "have become less of a priority for the federal government."
"The fact that the Canadian government now has a minister of artificial intelligence but not a minister for persons with disabilities is symptomatic of a broader cultural shift," she said.
Achtman pointed out, however, that the presence of a disabilities minister did not stop the expansion of the country's euthanasia law to cover disabled Canadians. Earlier disability ministers voted for both the original 2016 law and the 2021 expansion.
"There is a kind of social euthanasia that happens whenever a person is discarded, dismissed, or discounted," she said of the law.
Alex Schadenberg, the executive director of the Canadian Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, agreed. The disability ministry "was an important appointment," he said, "except for the fact that the ministers who had the role did not share the point of view of the disability community concerning MAID."
"The government needs to focus on providing the needs for people with disabilities but this should be done from the point of view of people with disabilities," he said.
Government data indicate a high percentage of individuals seeking euthanasia under Track 2 are disabled. The most recent Canadian government report on euthanasia found that, of those who reported a disability prior to being euthanized, more than 58% were under Track 2, meaning their deaths were not "reasonably foreseeable."
The government in its report claims that "several enhanced safeguards are in place for individuals under Track 2 to provide additional protections." Yet there are "some concerns regarding the quality and reliability" of data regarding disabilities, the government admitted.
There are further possible expansions of Canada's euthanasia law on the horizon: The federal government in 2027 will consider expanding MAID provisions to those suffering from mental illness.
The government has also considered allowing so-called "mature minors" to request to be killed by doctors, and the government is also debating whether to allow citizens to prearrange to be euthanized at a time when they are unable to consent to the procedure.
Achtman acknowledged the "disappointment at the removal of this portfolio from cabinet," though she said it presented "an opportunity to citizens to offer a corrective to the shortcomings of government when it comes to disability advocacy."
She quoted Pope Francis, who in his encyclical Fratelli Tutti wrote: "Only a gaze transformed by charity can enable the dignity of others to be recognized."
"That gaze is at the heart of the authentic spirit of politics," the late Holy Father wrote. "It sees paths open up that are different from those of a soulless pragmatism."
Achtman argued that both Canadians and Americans should work to "find creative ways to 'give voice' to those with disabilities as Pope Francis said."
This "depends on encounter, solidarity, and presence, experiences of which we are all capable," she said.
Spanish Augustinian Bishop Luis Marín de San Martín and Cardinal Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV. / Credit: Courtesy of Bishop Luis MarínVatican City, May 22, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).The undersecretary of the general secretariat of the Synod of Bishops, the Spanish Augustinian Bishop Luis Marín de San Martín, is among those who have collaborated most closely with Pope Leo XIV.In 2008, Marín moved to Rome because the then-prior general of the Augustinians asked him to take charge of the order's archives. The past 17 years of association allow him to make a clear prognosis of what Pope Leo's pontificate will be like."He's not a person who governs from his office; he goes out to meet people," the bishop told ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner. He also noted that Pope Leo XIV is a son of the Second Vatican Council: "He embraces its theological development, above all, the ecclesiology of the constitution Lumen Gentium, which is a point of reference for synodality, althou...
Spanish Augustinian Bishop Luis Marín de San Martín and Cardinal Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV. / Credit: Courtesy of Bishop Luis Marín
Vatican City, May 22, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).
The undersecretary of the general secretariat of the Synod of Bishops, the Spanish Augustinian Bishop Luis Marín de San Martín, is among those who have collaborated most closely with Pope Leo XIV.
In 2008, Marín moved to Rome because the then-prior general of the Augustinians asked him to take charge of the order's archives. The past 17 years of association allow him to make a clear prognosis of what Pope Leo's pontificate will be like.
"He's not a person who governs from his office; he goes out to meet people," the bishop told ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner. He also noted that Pope Leo XIV is a son of the Second Vatican Council: "He embraces its theological development, above all, the ecclesiology of the constitution Lumen Gentium, which is a point of reference for synodality, although the term does not appear in it."
The then-Cardinal Robert Prevost — now Pope Leo XIV — actively participated in all phases of the Synod on Synodality, a signature project of Pope Francis launched three years ago that aimed to make the Church more coherent and participatory, and less clerical. This is an approach that the pope "holds very dear," since "Augustinian spirituality is very synodal," as are "our style and structures," Marín emphasized.
"The Augustinian charism very much fosters communion, fraternal life. It's our most distinctive feature. We Augustinians are also a mendicant order that doesn't have a pyramidal structure like the monastic structures do, but rather a much more horizontal one. We are governed by the prior, a 'primus inter pares' [first among equals]. And our chapter is very participatory: Decisions are made among all the friars," he explained.
Bishop Luis Marín de San Martín, undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops. Credit: Victoria Cardiel/EWTN News
The key to synodality, Marín emphasized, is not ideological or political but theological and ecclesial: "Pope Leo XIV is synodal because the Church is synodal. To realize this, it's enough to know sacred Scripture, patristics, Church history, canon law … It's the life of the Church, which becomes experience and witness."
In 1985, Prevost, then a priest, was sent to Peru to work in the Chulucanas mission. After a brief return to Chicago in 1987, he returned to Peru in 1988, specifically to Trujillo, where he served as a teacher and formator. While there, he was elected prior provincial of the Augustinian Province of Chicago in 1998 and, in 2001, prior general of the Augustinian order, a position he held until 2013.
"The Church has required him to make big changes in his life, but he has always trusted in what God asked of him at each moment, with total availability to the Lord and great love for the Church," Marín commented.
In October 2013, Prevost returned to Chicago to serve again as master of the professed and vicar provincial, a role he held until Nov. 3, 2014, when Pope Francis appointed him apostolic administrator of the Peruvian Diocese of Chiclayo, making him a bishop and assigning him the titular diocese of Sufar, until he was appointed bishop of Chiclayo the following year.
Pope Leo XIV loves to drive
Marín visited him in Chiclayo, and together they toured the coastal city by car: "Prevost loves to drive, and I was able to see the affection the people had for Padre Roberto, my bishop, as they called him."
The prelate described him above all as "a simple, genuine, authentic person, somewhat reserved, but one who greatly values ??fraternity" and highlighted his great "sensitivity to social justice, to the poorest, the most needy, and the oppressed."
"He has great inner balance. He is a profound, serene, precise, thoughtful, and prayerful man. He's not given to improvisation," the undersecretary summarized, also highlighting his ability to work as part of a team.
"He will exercise global leadership, and his voice will be greatly taken into account," he added.
The 12 years he served as prior general of the Augustinians, from 2001 to 2013 — the order is present in 47 countries — gave him a vision of the universal Church that also demonstrated his abilities.
"During those years, he visited all the communities in the order, some several times, and embraced cultural diversity. He has a panoramic view of the universal Church; he knows it well," the prelate explained.
Continuity with Francis
In January 2023, Pope Francis appointed him to head the Dicastery for Bishops, one of the most important departments of the Roman Curia, from which the future leadership of the Church is drawn.
"He had his full confidence. They had known each other since Prevost was prior general and [then-Jorge] Bergoglio was archbishop of Buenos Aires," he recounted, recalling a pivotal episode in their relationship.
"Pope Francis had just been elected, and Prevost, who was ending his term as prior general, asked him, without much hope, to preside over the opening Mass of the general chapter of the Augustinians in St. Augustine Basilica in Rome. And he accepted. It was historic. Never before had a pope presided over the opening Eucharist of the general chapter of the Order of St. Augustine," he noted.
In any case, Marín made it clear that Pope Leo XIV will not be a "Francis clone," although "there will be continuity in many aspects."
The new pope is, above all, a man of profound interior life. He possesses a solid spirituality, forged through prayer, which is also reflected in his apostolate and his understanding of ecclesial leadership.
"Communion with Christ," the prelate said, "leads us not only as priests but also all Christians to feel responsible for the Church. Each with a different vocation, but all co-responsible and interconnected to proclaim the risen Christ and bear witness to him in today's world."
For Marín, the election of this Augustinian as the successor of Peter has immense value: "It's a blessing from God. An extraordinary gift not only for the order but for the universal Church. As you get to know Pope Leo XIV, you will see what a gift the Lord has given us, you will get to know his qualities. He is the right person for the right time."
According to the undersecretary, the spirituality of the order to which the man who now sits on the chair of Peter belongs is based on four pillars: community life, interior life, integration into the world, and availability to the needs of the Church.
"The Church is like a family, the family of God, which, in love, integrates unity and diversity. I believe it is crucial to strengthen communion," he emphasized after warning against empty activism.
"Furthermore, if we don't cultivate the interior life, we're not offering anything. We have to bear witness to Christ, to communicate him to the world. And we can only bear witness to Christ if we know him from experience. Because the risen Christ is a living person."
Marín concluded by recalling that Pope Leo XIV's first words in his greeting to the people of God were those of the risen Christ: "Peace be with you all."
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Police patrol in Mexico City. / Credit: David Ramos/ACI PrensaPuebla, Mexico, May 21, 2025 / 19:22 pm (CNA).The Mexican Bishops' Conference expressed its "profound consternation" following the assassination of two senior officials of the Mexico City government, which occurred Tuesday in the Mexican capital.The victims of the shooting are Ximena Guzmán, private secretary to Clara Brugada, Mexico City's mayor, and José Muñoz, adviser to the city government. "We join in the grief of their families, friends, and colleagues. To them, we express our closeness, prayers, and solidarity, asking God to grant them comfort, hope, and strength in the face of this painful loss," the Mexican bishops expressed in a message following the assassinations.The Mexico City government reported in a statement that the "direct attack" occurred in the Moderna neighborhood of the Benito Juárez borough, approximately four miles south of Mexico City's historic Zócalo (main square)."Personnel from the ...
Police patrol in Mexico City. / Credit: David Ramos/ACI Prensa
Puebla, Mexico, May 21, 2025 / 19:22 pm (CNA).
The Mexican Bishops' Conference expressed its "profound consternation" following the assassination of two senior officials of the Mexico City government, which occurred Tuesday in the Mexican capital.
The victims of the shooting are Ximena Guzmán, private secretary to Clara Brugada, Mexico City's mayor, and José Muñoz, adviser to the city government.
"We join in the grief of their families, friends, and colleagues. To them, we express our closeness, prayers, and solidarity, asking God to grant them comfort, hope, and strength in the face of this painful loss," the Mexican bishops expressed in a message following the assassinations.
The Mexico City government reported in a statement that the "direct attack" occurred in the Moderna neighborhood of the Benito Juárez borough, approximately four miles south of Mexico City's historic Zócalo (main square).
"Personnel from the Mexico City Secretariat of Citizen Security and the attorney general's office, both with support from the Mexican [federal] government, are already conducting the corresponding investigations to determine the motive for the attack. Additionally, video surveillance cameras in the area are being analyzed to identify the probable perpetrators, who are known to have been traveling on a motorcycle," the Mexico City government stated.
"There will be no impunity; those responsible will be arrested and must face justice," the statement assured.
The Mexico City attorney general's office stated that "according to initial reports, the incident occurred while the victims were in the course of their daily routines, when the vehicle they were traveling in was intercepted by individuals who reportedly opened fire from a motorcycle."
"Departmental, forensic, and investigative police personnel are carrying out the corresponding investigations to determine the facts of the case," he said, indicating that they are analyzing recordings "from video surveillance cameras in the area" and gathering information from witnesses "that will allow us to identify and locate the probable perpetrators."
May Christ 'sustain us in this dark moment'
In their statement, the Mexican bishops lamented that this recent crime "joins a painful chain of violent events that, as we noted in our statement of May 19, following the massacre of seven young people in Guanajuato, 'is an alarming sign of the weakening of the social fabric, impunity, and the absence of peace in vast regions of our nation.'"
"As shepherds of the people of God, we do not resign ourselves to living with fear nor with violent death. We trust that, with the power of the Gospel and the collaboration of all, it is still possible to build a Mexico where life, justice, and peace flourish," the bishops said.
"May Christ, our peace, sustain us in this dark moment. May Our Lady of Guadalupe, queen of peace, intercede for our nation," they concluded.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Pope Leo XIV shakes hands with U.S. President JD Vance in the papal library. The two had a private encounter before they were joined by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on May 19, 2025. / Credit: Vatican MediaWashington, D.C. Newsroom, May 21, 2025 / 17:02 pm (CNA).In a sit-down interview with the New York Times' Ross Douthat, Vice President JD Vance opened up about how his Catholic faith informs his political views and how he squares his religious beliefs with his hard-line views on immigration enforcement.Vance, an outspoken convert to the faith, appeared on Douthat's "Interesting Times" podcast while the two were in Rome for Pope Leo XIV's inaugural Mass this past weekend. Douthat, who is also a convert to Catholicism, is a conservative columnist at the Times.During the interview, Vance discussed how his faith and Catholic social teaching contribute to his views on governance. Yet, he also explained why he believes an American vice president cannot simply "do everything t...
Pope Leo XIV shakes hands with U.S. President JD Vance in the papal library. The two had a private encounter before they were joined by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on May 19, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 21, 2025 / 17:02 pm (CNA).
In a sit-down interview with the New York Times' Ross Douthat, Vice President JD Vance opened up about how his Catholic faith informs his political views and how he squares his religious beliefs with his hard-line views on immigration enforcement.
During the interview, Vance discussed how his faith and Catholic social teaching contribute to his views on governance. Yet, he also explained why he believes an American vice president cannot simply "do everything the Holy Father tells me to do" because of his obligations to serve the interests of the American people.
A Catholic American approach to governing
"When you really believe something, it ought to influence how you think about the way that you do your job, the way that you spend time with your wife and your children," Vance said. "It just kind of necessarily informs how I live my life."
Regarding governing, this philosophy means he thinks "the purpose of American politics" is "to encourage our citizens to live a good life."
Vance said his faith informs his care for "the rights of the unborn" along with his belief in "dignified work," where a person has "a high enough wage that [he or she] can support a family."
On family policy, Vance said he fears that American and other Western societies have "become way too hostile to family formation," contending that they "have been quite bad at supporting families over the last generation, and I think you see that in the fact that fewer people are choosing to start families."
Vance added that he has faced criticism from the political right for being "insufficiently committed to the capital-M market." Although he said "I am a capitalist," he said he is not in principal against all interventions in the marketplace and cited the administration's tariff policies as an example.
"I think one of the things that I take from my Christian principles and Catholic social teachings — specifically whether you agree with the specific policies of our administration — is the market is a tool, but it is not the purpose of American politics," the vice president said.
Vance also discussed the potential benefits and drawbacks of developments in artificial intelligence (AI) and said he looks forward to Pope Leo providing moral guidance on these questions.
"The American government is not equipped to provide moral leadership, at least full-scale moral leadership, in the wake of all the changes that are going to come along with AI," he said. "I think the Church is. This is the sort of thing the Church is very good at."
Vance said he disagrees with the view that policy and religion are "two totally separate matters … because it understates the way in which all of us are informed by our moral and religious values." Yet, he also said that taking direct orders from the Vatican on policy matters "would be a violation of the U.S. Constitution."
"My obligation more broadly as a vice president [is] to serve the American people," Vance said.
During his time in Rome, he said, "I'm not there as JD Vance, a Catholic parishioner" but rather "I'm there as the vice president of the United States and the leader of the president's delegation to the pope's inaugural Mass."
"So some of the protocols about how I respond to the Holy Father were much different than how I might respond to the Holy Father, or how you might respond to the Holy Father purely in your capacity as a citizen," Vance told Douthat.
For example, the vice president said he did not bow down to kiss Leo's ring. Although that is a common act of respect for the pontiff, he noted that kissing the ring of a foreign leader would be against the protocol for an American vice president.
"So, no sign of disrespect, but it's important to observe the protocols of the country that I love and that I'm representing and that I serve as vice president of, the United States," he added.
When explaining this balance, Vance said he does not "just disregard" positions of Church hierarchy but that "you make a prudential judgment informed very much by the Church's teachings as reflected by these leaders."
The dignity of migrants and immigration enforcement
One of the primary issues on which President Donald Trump's administration has sparred with the Vatican and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is the enforcement of American immigration laws.
During the first four months of Trump's presidency, he has clamped down on illegal border crossings, halted the entry of most refugees, stripped federal funding from nongovernmental organizations (including Catholic ones) that resettle migrants, and vowed mass deportations of those who are in the country illegally.
These policies have been criticized by Catholic charitable organizations, the USCCB, Pope Francis, and then-Cardinal Robert Prevost, who is now Pope Leo XIV.
On U.S. immigration policy, Vance noted that the Catechism of the Catholic Church and Catholic leaders acknowledge "the right of a country to enforce its borders" but also emphasize the need to respect "the dignity of migrants." He said: "You have to be able to hold two ideas in your head at the same time."
"There are obligations that we have to people who in some ways are fleeing violence, or at least fleeing poverty," the vice president said. "I also have a very sacred obligation, I think, to enforce the laws and to promote the common good of my own country, defined as the people with the legal right to be here."
Vance said he spoke with "a lot of cardinals this weekend" about immigration policy and "had a lot of good, respectful conversations, including with cardinals who very strongly disagree with my views on migration."
"The point that I've tried to make is I think a lot about this question of social cohesion in the United States," he said. "I think about how we form the kind of society again where people can raise families, where people join institutions together."
The vice president argued that proponents of mass migration do not recognize "how destructive immigration at the levels and at the pace that we've seen over the last few years is to the common good" and that "I really do think that social solidarity is destroyed when you have too much migration too quickly."
"That's not because I hate the migrants or I'm motivated by grievance," he said. "That's because I'm trying to preserve something in my own country where we are a unified nation. And I don't think that can happen if you have too much immigration too quickly."
Vance became Catholic in August 2019, when he was 35 years old, and is the second Catholic vice president of the United States. Former president Joe Biden was the first when he served under former president Barack Obama from 2008–2016.
Gold dome of the Georgia Capitol in Atlanta. / Credit: Rob Hainer/ShutterstockCNA Staff, May 21, 2025 / 17:33 pm (CNA).In response to national outcry over the case of Adriana Smith, a brain-dead pregnant woman on life support, the Georgia attorney general's office released a statement clarifying that the state's heartbeat law, which prohibits abortions after detection of a fetal heartbeat, does not require Smith be kept alive."There is nothing in the LIFE act that requires medical professionals to keep a woman on life support after brain death," said the statement, issued by Attorney General Chris Carr's office last week. Quoting the law itself, the statement continued: "Removing life support is not an action 'with the purpose to terminate a pregnancy.'"Doctors at Emory University Hospital declared Smith, who was nine weeks pregnant at the time, brain dead in February after she was diagnosed with multiple blood clots in her brain. According to Smith's mother, Ap...
Gold dome of the Georgia Capitol in Atlanta. / Credit: Rob Hainer/Shutterstock
CNA Staff, May 21, 2025 / 17:33 pm (CNA).
In response to national outcry over the case of Adriana Smith, a brain-dead pregnant woman on life support, the Georgia attorney general's office released a statement clarifying that the state's heartbeat law, which prohibits abortions after detection of a fetal heartbeat, does not require Smith be kept alive.
"There is nothing in the LIFE act that requires medical professionals to keep a woman on life support after brain death," said the statement, issued by Attorney General Chris Carr's office last week.
Quoting the law itself, the statement continued: "Removing life support is not an action 'with the purpose to terminate a pregnancy.'"
Doctors at Emory University Hospital declared Smith, who was nine weeks pregnant at the time, brain dead in February after she was diagnosed with multiple blood clots in her brain.
According to Smith's mother, April Newkirk, doctors told her that Georgia's law protecting unborn children with a heartbeat required that they keep Smith on life support until her child could be safely delivered.
Echoing the attorney general's statement, a spokesperson for the Georgia state House told the Washington Post this week that the LIFE Act is "completely irrelevant" regarding Smith's situation, saying "any implication otherwise is just another gross mischaracterization of the intent of this legislation by liberal media outlets and left-wing activists."
Although he supports the hospital's decision to keep the unborn child alive until viability, state Sen. Ed Stetzer, the original sponsor of the LIFE Act, told CNA last week that "the removal of the life support of the mother is a separate act" from an abortion.
Section 31-32-9 of that law states that if a woman is pregnant and "in a terminal condition or state of permanent unconsciousness" and the unborn child is viable, certain life-sustaining procedures may not be withdrawn.
"The majority of states have advance directive laws with a pregnancy exclusion," Gibbs explained.
"When in doubt, the law should err on the side of life," he said.
A pregnancy exclusion means that if a patient is pregnant, the law prioritizes the survival of her unborn child over her stated wishes in an advance directive if there is a conflict between her wishes and the child's well-being.
Several Democratic Georgia legislators have continued to demand the attorney general provide clarification of the heartbeat law, and some are calling for its repeal.
In a letter sent to the attorney general's office last Friday, state Sen. Nabilah Islam Parkes characterized the hospital's decision to keep Smith on life support to sustain the life of her unborn child as "inhumane" and called it "a grotesque distortion of medical ethics and human decency." She asked the attorney general to "speak clearly and candidly" about the applicability of the law.
In a statement released Monday, state Reps. Kim Schofield, Viola Davis, and Sandra Scott called Smith's case "barbaric" and cited the "emotional torture" her family is enduring. They are calling for the repeal of Georgia's heartbeat law, even though Carr made it clear on Friday that the LIFE Act does not require Smith be kept alive.
Joe Zalot, an ethicist and director of education at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, told CNA Wednesday: "I don't know what's barbaric or inhumane about seeking to sustain the life of the unborn child, who is a fellow human being."
For its part, Emory Healthcare released a statement saying that while it cannot comment on particular patients, it "uses consensus from clinical experts, medical literature, and legal guidance to support our providers as they make individualized treatment recommendations in compliance with Georgia's abortion laws and all other applicable laws."
"Our top priorities continue to be the safety and well-being of the patients we serve," the statement continued.
Newkirk told 11Alive last week that Smith was transferred to Emory Midtown recently because she was told that the hospital is better at providing obstetric care.
On a GoFundMe page Newkirk has set up since the story broke last week, she said she was saddened to have "no say so regarding [Smith's] lifeless body and unborn child," who, she claimed, "will suffer disease which will lead to major disabilities."
Newkirk could not be reached for comment by time of publication.
Catholic Health building in Buffalo, New York. / Credit: Andre Carrotflower, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsCNA Staff, May 21, 2025 / 14:01 pm (CNA).A Catholic health care system in New York state has agreed to pay a multimillion-dollar settlement over allegations that it violated federal Medicare reporting laws. The U.S. attorney's office for the western district of New York said in a press release that Catholic Health Systems agreed to pay nearly $3.3 million in order to resolve allegations that the network "knowingly submitted or caused to be submitted false claims to the Medicare program" in violation of federal law. The government had alleged that the Catholic hospital system violated the Stark Law, a federal rule that prohibits health care entities from receiving Medicare payments for services referred by a physician with "a financial relationship to the health care entity."The prosecutor's office claimed that the Catholic health provider "had financial rela...
Catholic Health building in Buffalo, New York. / Credit: Andre Carrotflower, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
CNA Staff, May 21, 2025 / 14:01 pm (CNA).
A Catholic health care system in New York state has agreed to pay a multimillion-dollar settlement over allegations that it violated federal Medicare reporting laws.
The U.S. attorney's office for the western district of New York said in a press release that Catholic Health Systems agreed to pay nearly $3.3 million in order to resolve allegations that the network "knowingly submitted or caused to be submitted false claims to the Medicare program" in violation of federal law.
The government had alleged that the Catholic hospital system violated the Stark Law, a federal rule that prohibits health care entities from receiving Medicare payments for services referred by a physician with "a financial relationship to the health care entity."
The prosecutor's office claimed that the Catholic health provider "had financial relationships with nonemployee physicians" who "referred health services, such as laboratory testing, hospital services, or medical supplies, to CHS and its affiliated hospitals."
"The Stark Law is designed to protect Medicare by ensuring that physician referrals are not influenced by financial interest," U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo said in the press release, stating that his office "is committed to holding health care providers accountable who engage in such conduct."
Though the Catholic medical system will pay more than $3 million over the claims, the payout does not establish the guilt of the hospital, the government said.
"The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only and there has been no determination of liability," the press release stated.
Federal authorities were originally tipped off to the alleged violations by Gary Tucker, a former executive in the Catholic Health Systems network. Under whistleblower provisions, Tucker "will receive a share of the settlement," the government said.
In a statement provided to CNA, Leonardo Sette-Camara, the general counsel of the hospital system, said: "Defending these types of subjective allegations requires an unsustainable and unacceptable allocation of Catholic Health resources."
"This investigation was never about the quality of care provided to our patients. By resolving the case now, we can move forward and remain fully focused on delivering the highest standard of care," he said.
This report was updated on Wednesday, May 21, 2025 at 3:00 p.m. with a statement from the hospital.
Pope Leo XIV at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls on May 20, 2025. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN NewsVatican City, May 21, 2025 / 14:32 pm (CNA).Pope Leo XIV on May 20 visited St. Paul Outside the Walls Basilica, one of the papal basilicas located outside Rome, to pray at the tomb of the "apostle to the Gentiles."Upon his arrival, the Holy Father was welcomed by basilca abbot Father Donato Ogliari, OSB, and the archpriest of the basilica, Cardinal James Michael Harvey.Accompanied by Benedictine monks, custodians of the church built over the tomb of St. Paul the Apostle, Pope Leo XIV entered the basilica through the Holy Door amid the chants of the Sistine Chapel choir and the Benedictine community.He then descended to the altar of confession to venerate the tomb of St. Paul, kneeling in silence. After returning to the apse of the church, a passage from St. Paul the Apostle's Letter to the Romans was read.In his homily, delivered in Italian, the Holy Father emphasized th...
Pope Leo XIV at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls on May 20, 2025. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News
Vatican City, May 21, 2025 / 14:32 pm (CNA).
Pope Leo XIV on May 20 visited St. Paul Outside the Walls Basilica, one of the papal basilicas located outside Rome, to pray at the tomb of the "apostle to the Gentiles."
Upon his arrival, the Holy Father was welcomed by basilca abbot Father Donato Ogliari, OSB, and the archpriest of the basilica, Cardinal James Michael Harvey.
Accompanied by Benedictine monks, custodians of the church built over the tomb of St. Paul the Apostle, Pope Leo XIV entered the basilica through the Holy Door amid the chants of the Sistine Chapel choir and the Benedictine community.
He then descended to the altar of confession to venerate the tomb of St. Paul, kneeling in silence. After returning to the apse of the church, a passage from St. Paul the Apostle's Letter to the Romans was read.
In his homily, delivered in Italian, the Holy Father emphasized that the reading revolves around three themes — "grace, faith, and justification" — and entrusted the beginning of his pontificate to the intercession of the apostle to the Gentiles.
Leo XIV reminded the nearly 2,000 faithful gathered in the basilica that St. Paul claimed to have received "from God the grace of his vocation."
An interior view of St. Paul Outside the Walls Basilica on May 20, 2025. Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News
"He acknowledges, in other words, that his encounter with Christ and his own ministry were the fruit of God's prior love, which called him to a new life while he was still far from the Gospel and persecuting the Church," he explained.
He also quoted the convert St. Augustine, the pope's spiritual father, "who spoke of the same experience."
In this context, he emphasized that "at the root of every vocation, God is present, in his mercy and his goodness, as generous as that of a mother who nourishes her child with her own body for as long as the child is unable to feed itself."
Recalling how St. Paul spoke of the "obedience of faith," he pointed out, however, that on the road to Damascus, the Lord "did not take away his freedom but gave him the opportunity to make a decision, to choose an obedience that would prove costly and entail interior and exterior struggles, which Paul proved willing to face."
The pontiff thus pointed out that "salvation does not come about by magic but by a mysterious interplay of grace and faith, of God's prevenient love and of our trusting and free acceptance."
In this regard, he invited the faithful to "ask him to enable us to respond in the same way to his grace and to become, ourselves, witnesses of the love 'poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.'"
"Let us ask the Lord for the grace to cultivate and spread his charity," he continued, "and to become true neighbors to one another. Let us compete in showing the love that, following his encounter with Christ, drove the former persecutor to become 'all things to all people' even to the point of martyrdom."
He further emphasized that "the weakness of the flesh will show the power of faith in God that brings justification."
From this basilica, entrusted to the care of the Benedictine community, Pope Leo XIV also recalled St. Benedict, who proposed "love as the source and driving force of the preaching of the Gospel," noting his insistent exhortations "to fraternal charity."
The pontiff did not want to end his homily without recalling Pope Benedict XVI and his words at World Youth Day in Madrid in 2011: "'Dear friends,'" he said, "'God loves us. This is the great truth of our life; it is what makes everything else meaningful." Indeed, "our life originates as part of a loving plan of God," and faith leads us to "open our hearts to this mystery of love and to live as men and women conscious of being loved by God.'"
"Here we see, in all its simplicity and uniqueness, the basis of every mission, including my own mission as the successor of Peter and the heir to Paul's apostolic zeal. May the Lord grant me the grace to respond faithfully to his call," Leo XIV concluded.
At the end of his homily, the Holy Father knelt again before the altar, located above the apostle's tomb. Later, the Lord's Prayer and the Regina Caeli were sung in Latin.
Pope Leo XIV left the basilica again in procession, preceded by Benedictine monks, to the applause of the faithful.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
From the popemobile, Pope Leo XIV greets thousands of people lined up along Via della Conciliazione on the morning of his inaugural Mass, Sunday, May 18, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media
