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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 21, 2025 / 15:22 pm (CNA).

The Pontifical Academy for Life, the elderly advocacy group AARP, and the Muslim Council of Elders this month signed a declaration promising to support elderly populations and promote research on brain health. 

The organizations launched the initiative in order to help safeguard the elderly from discrimination and abuse and to protect their human dignity, right to independence, and engagement in society. 

The leaders met at a two-day global symposium held at the Vatican titled "The Memory: Addressing the Opportunities and Challenges of an Aging Global Population."

Representatives from the Vatican and AARP talked with doctors, scientists, academics, nongovernmental organizations, and nonprofits from more than 20 countries about the future of the elderly population and how organizations can advocate for older generations.

?"We promote this symposium in partnership with AARP to reflect with scientific and academic institutions on how to promote a model of longevity that does not limit itself to extending the years of life but to enriching them," Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, said at the summit.

The event concluded with Paglia, AARP CEO Myechia Minter-Jordan, and Muslim Council of Elders Secretary-General Mohamed Abdelsalam signing the official declaration pledging their commitment to the mission.

The "landmark initiative marks the first official activity of the Vatican under Pope Leo XIV,"  Abdelsalam wrote in a post to X.

"Caring for the elderly is a religious and moral responsibility, as they are the memory keepers of human societies," he wrote. "They serve as a living record for transmitting wisdom and knowledge across generations."

The event and declaration were spearheaded by the leaders to help plan for future demographic shifts. 

"By 2050, 1 in 5 people worldwide will be over the age of 60," AARP reported. "Globally, systems and supports are not in place to handle the unique needs of a rapidly aging population."

"Aging is not a problem to solve," Minter-Jordan said at the event. "It is an opportunity to rethink how we support our communities."

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Vatican City, May 21, 2025 / 10:46 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV will hold a meeting of cardinals on June 13 to give the final approval to the canonizations of several beatified men and women.

The ordinary public consistory, as it is called, will be the first of Leo's pontificate. Pope Francis had called for the consistory in late February, when he was in the hospital, but the date was never set.

At the consistory, cardinals will vote to approve the canonizations of five beatified men and women whose causes were advanced earlier this year by Pope Francis. The vote of the cardinals marks the final step in the canonization process and allows a date for the Mass of canonization to be set.

Among the almost-canonized saints expected to be discussed on June 13 is Blessed Bartolo Longo (also known as Bartholomew Longo).

Longo, an Italian layman and lawyer, was a former Satanist "priest" who returned to the practice of the Catholic faith through the influence of Mary and the rosary.

The canonization of the Venezuelan "doctor of the poor," José Gregorio Hernández, is also expected be voted on at the June 13 consistory, along with Pietro To Rot, the first blessed from Papua New Guinea; Vincenza Maria Poloni, the founder of the Sisters of Mercy of Verona; and Ignazio Maloyan, a bishop martyred in the Armenian genocide in 1915. 

The consistory will take place in the consistory hall in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace with all of the cardinals resident or otherwise present in Rome. It usually begins with a short time of prayer.

The Vatican also announced Wednesday a slew of liturgies to be celebrated by Pope Leo XIV in June, including a Mass at the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran followed by a Eucharistic procession through Rome to the Basilica of St. Mary Major for the solemnity of Corpus Christi on June 22.

Here is the full list of public Masses Pope Leo will celebrate during the month of June:

• June 1: Mass in St. Peter's Square for the Jubilee of Families, Children, Grandparents, and the Elderly

• June 8: Mass in St. Peter's Square for the solemnity of Pentecost and the Jubilee of Movements, Associations, and New Communities 

• June 9: Mass in St. Peter's Basilica for the memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, and the Jubilee of the Holy See

• June 15: Mass in St. Peter's Square for the solemnity of the Holy Trinity and the Jubilee of Sports

• June 22: Mass in the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran and procession to the Basilica of St. Mary Major with Eucharistic benediction for the solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

• June 27: Mass in St. Peter's Square for the solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Jubilee of Priests
  

• June 29: Mass in St. Peter's Basilica for the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, with the blessing of the palliums for the new metropolitan archbishops

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Denver, Colo., May 20, 2025 / 17:28 pm (CNA).

The Archdiocese of Denver launched a vocations campaign this weekend to connect young men who may be interested in pursuing the priesthood with the archdiocese.

The "Called By Name" campaign invites parishioners across the archdiocese to nominate young men ages 15 to 35 who they think may have the qualities to become a priest.

The archdiocese is one of nine dioceses currently collaborating with Vianney Vocations, an organization founded in 2009 that helps support vocations efforts in Catholic dioceses around the U.S.

Men who are nominated by their fellow parishioners will receive a letter from the archbishop congratulating them for being recognized.

The letter encourages them to be open to God's call in their lives and invites them to connect with Father Jason Wallace, the archdiocesan director of vocations, who will send a weekly message about discernment to nominees. Nominees are also invited to attend the small discernment groups led by priests or deacons trained by Vianney Vocations.

While Denver is one of the leading dioceses in the U.S. for vocations by size, according to a 2025 report, Denver Archbishop Samuel Aquila has in recent years expressed his hope to see more seminarians in the growing archdiocese. 

"Denver is good soil, so we're really hopeful that there'll be a lot of fruit from this," Chris Kreslins, senior client manager for Vianney Vocations, told CNA. 

Rather than recruiting abroad, many bishops are moving toward encouraging "homegrown guys" to discern and apply for seminary, Kreslins noted.

"The hope and the goal is that there will be more men applying for seminary," Kreslins said. 

With more priests, "parishes will have the priests they need to minister to the people of God" and priests will not be "so thinly stretched," he noted. 

These vocation campaigns across the country come amid a decadeslong decline in men pursuing the priesthood. Globally, the number of priests has been decreasing in recent years, except in Africa and Asia, where vocations to the priesthood are on the rise.  

To kick off the campaign in Denver on Sunday, priests across the archdiocese shared their vocation stories in their homilies and invited parishioners to nominate young men to consider discerning. 

"Some men may need to hear from others that their faith is recognized and that they possess the qualities of a good priest," Kreslins explained. "Sometimes, we need another person to lead us to Jesus." 

Father Brian Larkin, pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Englewood, Colorado, shared his own experience discerning the priesthood in a homily on Sunday.

"When I was wrestling with if God was calling me, my first question wasn't necessarily the office of priesthood," Larkin said. "My question was, 'God, are you calling me to give you everything?'"

"I felt this pull on my heart that God was calling me to give up my hopes and my dreams," Larkin said. "What I saw at first was just a price tag."  

"Maybe some of you are called to the priesthood. Maybe some of you are called to a consecrated life. I don't know," Larkin said to an array of parishioners. "You are called to a radical love, and I do know that. Every single one of us [is]."

"We've seen tremendous growth in the faith and the number of Catholics. But then we also have a need when we see that growth, to serve all those people," Wallace told the Denver Catholic. "The Archdiocese of Denver is in need of many more vocations."

In his homily, Larkin prayed for more priests who are "on fire" for God.  

"Jesus, we pray for more priests — not just any priests," Larkin said. "Only priests [who] will be on fire with the love of God. Not men who are perfect, not men who have no mistakes, not men who know everything, but men whose hearts have been transformed." 

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CNA Staff, May 20, 2025 / 17:58 pm (CNA).

A new biography of Pope Leo XIV, the first pope from the United States, will be available May 21 from EWTN and is now available for preorder. 

"Leo XIV: Portrait of the First American Pope," written by Matthew Bunson, vice president and editorial director at EWTN News, is the first authoritative biographical portrait of Cardinal Robert Prevost, 69, who was elected the new Holy Father on May 8. 

The book will be officially launched at a May 22 event set to be held at the Vatican's Campo Santo Teutonico in the Aula Benedict XVI at 5:30 p.m. local time.

The biography provides an "assessment of his three fundamental roles as a successor to the apostles: his sanctifying role as a priest, his governing role as a bishop, and his prophetic role as a teacher and missionary," EWTN said. 

Michael Warsaw, EWTN's CEO and chairman of the board, told CNA that he is "excited that EWTN Publishing is releasing this biography of Pope Leo XIV so soon after his election."

"As the leading Catholic media platform, our aim is to share the Holy Father's story with the world, starting with his early life, to help people connect with the man now serving as the vicar of Christ," Warsaw said.

"EWTN is uniquely positioned to publish this biography of the first pope born in the United States and the second pope from the Americas. Like Pope Leo, the EWTN family is global, but our roots are American."

Bunson, a longtime Vatican journalist and Church expert who has written over 50 books, said he hopes to help to inform readers about the importance of Pope Leo's membership in the venerable Order of St. Augustine and the fact that he is both a mathematician and canon lawyer, and how those credentials will help him address the Vatican's financial woes. 

Bunson will also discuss the significance of the choice of the name "Leo" and what that says about the pope's vision for his pontificate. 

"He has also taken the name Leo XIV in honor of Leo XIII, the great pope from 1878 to 1903, who is like Pope Leo XIV taken up profoundly with the concerns of the encounter between the Church and modernity," Bunson said May 15, speaking to "EWTN News Nightly." 

"We had the great industrial revolution at the end of the 19th century; [Leo XIV] is very concerned about the technological and digital revolutions that are taking place right now in the 21st century. So he's a man very much of his times but somebody who understands the importance of the perennial aspects of Church teaching, to apply them to all the modern situations that we can find ourselves in."

Additionally, Bunson's book touches on some of the moral and theological issues currently being debated in the Church and public arena, offering the "informed, balanced, accurate picture of our new Holy Father that the world has been waiting for."

"We saw that with Pope Benedict XVI [elected] in 2005 and Pope Francis in 2013, many of the things that you read or watch in secular media either weren't accurate or were sort of a deliberate misrepresentation," Bunson said.

"So what we want to do with this book is to offer a first portrait of the life, formation, and journey of Robert Francis Prevost from Chicago all the way to Rome, and now, of course, as Pope Leo XIV."

The future Pope Leo XIV was born on Sept. 14, 1955, in Chicago. He studied at an Augustinian minor seminary in Michigan and later earned a bachelor of science degree in mathematics from Villanova University in Pennsylvania. He joined the Order of St. Augustine, taking solemn vows in 1981, and was ordained to the priesthood in June 1982 after studying theology at the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago.

After being ordained, Leo earned a doctorate in canon law from Rome's Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (also known as the Angelicum) in 1987. He spent over a decade ministering in South America before being called back to the U.S. to head the Midwest Augustinians and was later elected prior general of the Augustinian order, serving in that role for a dozen years. 

He returned to South America after Pope Francis in 2014 appointed him bishop in Chiclayo, Peru. Francis later called him to Rome in 2023 to head the highly influential Dicastery for Bishops.

The book about Leo's life is available for preorder on EWTN Religious Catalogue.

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 20, 2025 / 18:28 pm (CNA).

While speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, President Donald Trump said he likes Pope Leo XIV and looks forward to meeting with the pope's elder brother, Louis Prevost, at the White House.

"I like the pope and I like the pope's brother," Trump told reporters after meeting with House Republicans in an attempt to rally support behind a budget reconciliation bill.

Trump noted that the pope's brother Louis "is a major MAGA fan," alluding to the "Make America Great Again" campaign slogan.

"I look forward to getting him to the White House," Trump said. "I want to shake his hand. I want to give him a big hug."

Louis Prevost, a Florida resident, U.S. Navy veteran, and older brother to Leo, sat beside Second Lady Usha Vance at Pope Leo's inaugural Mass on Sunday, May 18. He also joined Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio when the U.S. delegation met with Leo on Monday, May 19.

After Leo was elected, becoming the first U.S.-born pope, Louis Prevost did several media interviews expressing his happiness for his brother and confidence in his leadership. Later, some media outlets found social media posts by Louis that also evidenced strong support for Trump and criticism of Democrats.

In an interview on "Piers Morgan Uncensored" on May 12, Prevost responded to criticism he received in response to some of his derogatory comments about Democrats.

"I posted it and I wouldn't have posted it if I didn't kind of believe it," Prevost said. "However, I had no idea that what was coming [Leo becoming pope] was coming this soon and I can tell you, since then, I've been very quiet, biting my tongue."

"I don't want to create waves that don't need to be there because I'm a MAGA type and I have my beliefs," he said. "I don't need to create heat for [Leo]. He's going to have enough to handle as it is without the press going 'the pope's brother says this.' He doesn't need that."

When the U.S. delegation met with Leo, Vance handed Pope Leo a letter from Trump that invited the pontiff to the United States for a meeting at the White House. Leo said he would make the visit "at some point."

Vance told Leo "we'll pray for you" and said: "As you can probably imagine, in the United States the people are extremely excited."

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St. Louis, Mo., May 20, 2025 / 12:32 pm (CNA).

Republican lawmakers in Missouri approved a new referendum last week that, if passed by voters, could reinstate many of the state's pro-life laws, largely undoing a previous statewide referendum that expanded abortion rights a few months ago. 

The ballot measure, HJR73, would ask voters if they want to allow abortion only in the case of a medical emergency, fetal abnormality, or rape or incest. It also would ban public funding for any abortions not done because of medical emergency or rape or incest. 

In addition, the referendum would allow the state General Assembly to enact laws that regulate the provision of abortions, abortion facilities, and abortion providers to ensure the health and safety of pregnant mothers.

The measure would also constitutionally ban hormones, puberty blockers, and surgeries for "gender transition" for minors. Missouri already bans those procedures for minors, but that restriction, first passed in 2023, is set to expire in August 2027.

The measure is expected to appear before voters in November 2026, or sooner if Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe, who is Catholic, calls a special election. 

Missourians had last November narrowly voted to overturn the state's near-ban on abortion and enshrine a provision guaranteeing "reproductive freedom" in the state constitution, coming into effect Dec. 6, 2024.

Missouri law had previously extended protection to unborn babies throughout all of pregnancy with the only exception being cases of "medical emergency."

Although the 2024 amendment language mentions that laws could be passed to restrict abortion past the point of "fetal viability," the amendment simultaneously prohibits any interference with an abortion that a doctor determines is necessary to "protect the life or physical or mental health" of the mother.

Missouri lawmakers had in recent years passed numerous laws designed to protect patients and limit the abortion industry's influence, including 2017 regulations requiring that abortion doctors have surgical and admitting privileges to nearby hospitals; that abortion clinics must be licensed with the state; and that clinics must meet hospital-like standards for outpatient surgery.

Soon after the 2024 amendment took effect, Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit challenging numerous pro-life protections in Missouri, including the state's 72-hour waiting period for abortions; the state's ban on abortions done specifically for reasons of the race, sex, or a Down syndrome diagnosis of the baby; the state's ban on "telemedicine" abortions; and the state's requirement that only licensed physicians may perform abortions.

The Missouri Catholic Conference (MCC), which advocates policy in the state on behalf of the state's bishops, described the upcoming referendum as an "opportunity to add health and safety protections for mothers and their preborn children back into the state constitution."

The MCC had previously expressed support for HJR73, urging support for "the effort to reduce abortions in the state of Missouri and to create a culture of life and compassion and limit the effects of Amendment 3."

Missouri was one of the first states to fully ban abortion after the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022. Following the 2024 vote, Missouri and six other states expanded legal protection for abortion, while voters in Florida, Nebraska, and South Dakota voted down major pro-abortion proposals the same night.

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 20, 2025 / 14:50 pm (CNA).

Two American Catholic bishops are hailing a Republican-led legislative effort to end certain taxpayer funds for abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood as well as an attempt to block funding for transgender drugs and surgeries for children.

Proposed budget language currently being considered in the U.S. House of Representatives would prevent Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers from receiving Medicaid reimbursements for any services. It would also end all reimbursements for transgender drugs or surgeries that doctors prescribe for children.

"Americans should not be forced to subsidize abortions and 'gender transition' services with their tax dollars," Toledo, Ohio, Bishop Daniel Thomas and Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, said in a joint statement on Monday from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

Thomas is the chairman of the USCCB's pro-life committee, while Barron chairs the Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth.

Under current law, federal tax money cannot directly fund most abortions, but abortion clinics can still receive federal funding if the money is used in other ways. A Government Accountability Office report found that Planned Parenthood pulled in more than $1.75 billion in taxpayer funds in 2019 and 2021 from a variety of sources.

Planned Parenthood's 2023-2024 annual report stated that the organization received nearly $800 million in taxpayer funding over a 12-month period, which accounted for almost 40% of its total revenue.

"For decades, Planned Parenthood has received government money and offered low-income women one terrible option: to end the lives of their babies," Thomas and Barron said. 

"More recently, they have used the same taxpayer funds to expand their destructive offerings by promoting gender ideology and providing puberty blockers and hormones to minors, turning them into lifelong patients in the process."

"Americans should not be forced to subsidize abortions and 'gender transition' services with their tax dollars, and we applaud measures that will finally help to defund Planned Parenthood," they added.

"We encourage greater support for authentic, life-affirming health care providers that serve mothers and their children in need. We urge all members of Congress and the administration to work in good faith to protect vulnerable women and children from mutilating 'gender transition' services and the scourge of abortion."

The proposed language is part of the so-called "One, Big, Beautiful Bill" that would set the nation's budget and incorporate elements of President Donald Trump's agenda. The legislation would only need a majority support in the House and the Senate.

The bill bypasses the usual 60-vote threshold needed in the Senate because certain budget bills only require a simple majority.

Although the bishops have voiced support for this part of the budget bill, they have criticized other proposed elements of the bill. Specifically, the USCCB opposes structural changes to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which the bishops worry could reduce access to the programs.

The proposed Medicaid reforms include work requirements for able-bodied adults under the age of 65 if they do not have young children as dependents and shifting some Medicaid costs to states if they offer benefits to immigrants who are in the country illegally.

Some of the proposed SNAP changes include shifting between 5% and 25% of the cost to states, raising the work requirement age from 54 to 64, and implementing stricter verifications to ensure money does not go to immigrants who are in the country illegally.

If the House passes its version of the bill, it will then go to the Senate, where lawmakers will likely make changes and send it back to the House. It is not yet scheduled for a vote in the House.

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 20, 2025 / 15:20 pm (CNA).

The Archdiocese of Baltimore has been accused of defying a Vatican order after allegedly refusing to reopen a Maryland parish despite a letter from the Holy See halting its closure. 

In the spring of 2024 Archbishop William Lori announced the "difficult" decision to merge parishes in Baltimore and surrounding suburbs as part of the archdiocesan "Seek the City to Come" initiative. Among the parishes slated for closure was St. Clare in Essex.

Several St. Clare parishioners who disagreed with the plan sought assistance from Save Rome of the West, an organization that offers consulting services "to aid in the preservation and maintenance of Catholic churches and parishes."

Group co-founders Jason Bolte and Brody Hale helped parishioner Barbara Pivonski write and send a formal letter to the Vatican in October 2024 appealing Lori's plan and requesting that the church reopen. 

In February they received a letter from Cardinal Lazzaro You Heung-sik, prefect of the Dicastery for the Clergy, stating that the "requested suspension" of the "extinctive merger" was "granted for the duration of the recourse."

Bolte, Hale, and Pivonski believed the response from the Vatican approved the reopening of St. Clare while the appeal was under review, but the archdiocese disputed that interpretation. Diane Barr, a canonical consultant to the archbishop's office, told parishioners in a letter that the suspension only meant that the church property could not be sold.

Archdiocesan spokesman Christian Kendzierski, meanwhile, told CNA that the archdiocese "is faithfully following the requirements included in the letter received from the Dicastery for Clergy." 

The parish "remains open for baptisms, weddings, and funerals," he said. 

"When a decree is suspended, it means that the actions which it orders, all of them, are suspended," Hale, an attorney, told CNA. Yet "the Archdiocese of Baltimore … has refused to do that."

Hale said if the Dicastery for the Clergy "wishe[d] to only suspend part of the decree, or some aspect of it, it would have stated as much."

The lawyer said prior to February he had "never seen a single parish suspension issued by the Dicastery for Clergy," and now he has witnessed more than a dozen. 

More than 12 parishes in the Diocese of Buffalo in New York similarly appealed a diocesan restructuring plan to the Vatican, asking that their churches stay open. The Vatican granted those requests and the Buffalo Diocese allowed them to remain open while the appeals were evaluated.

"It's very unfortunate to me that the Archdiocese of Baltimore has taken this position," Hale said, arguing that the archdiocese "deprived these good people of being able to celebrate Holy Week in their parish" and "deprived them of three months of parish life."

Pivonski told CNA that St. Clare was "extremely active" prior to the closure. 

The parish is located in a high-poverty area, she said, and catered to the poor and homeless through frequent food donations. It was also working with pregnancy centers. 

A hearing on the matter was postponed due to Vatican departments shutting down after Pope Francis' death. 

The case will be "presented to the Dicastery for Clergy as soon as it's able to hear the matter," Hale said.

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Lima Newsroom, May 20, 2025 / 09:21 am (CNA).

Perhaps many Catholics wonder who Pope Leo XIV's favorite saint is. A Peruvian missionary priest who is a close friend and confidant of the pontiff said he knows the answer in this little-known devotion of the Holy Father, who used to pray to this saint on his knees in a small chapel near Chiclayo in northern Peru.

"St. Nicholas of Tolentine is, without a doubt, his favorite saint. He is the protector of his perpetual vows, his great devotion within Augustinian spirituality," said Peruvian priest Father David Farfán Guerrero, whom the Holy Father met in 1985 in Chulucanas in the Piura district of the country.

Farfán, who has served as pastor of St. Turibius of Mogrovejo Parish for about 10 years, welcomed ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner, to San Nicolás, a small settlement located outside of Chiclayo, specifically to the humble chapel dedicated to St. Nicholas of Tolentine, considered the first saint of the Order of St. Augustine and who lived in the 13th century.

"This place is very special in the life of His Holiness because this is where, as I often say, 'he put his knees to the test.' He had hardly arrived when he would go in and pray to the patron saint of his perpetual profession," said the priest, a former missionary in Canada and the Philippines.

The then-Friar Robert Prevost — now Pope Leo XIV — professed his solemn (or perpetual) vows with the Augustinians on Aug. 29, 1981, taking this Italian mystic as his patron saint. Years later, his brothers in the order appointed Prevost prior general during the 2001 ordinary general chapter and renewed their trust in him for a second term in 2007.

Adopting a saint when making vows — also called "patron" or "intercessor" — is a common custom in some religious orders. It consists of choosing a saint whose life serves as an example and spiritual aid to better live one's devotion to God and fulfill one's commitments.

According to Farfán, the then-Bishop Prevost, who served as bishop of the Diocese of Chiclayo from 2015 to 2023, "never imagined that, in Chiclayo, within the diocese, he would find a chapel and a village dedicated precisely to this saint."

"When he arrived as bishop, he discovered its existence and then adopted the custom of asking for the key to the chapel, entering alone, and praying there before the image of the saint. Right here," he recounted with emotion.

The connection with this chapel was further strengthened when Prevost was put in charge of the formation of the Augustinians in Trujillo.

"He used to have the novices make the pilgrimage on foot from the Guadalupe district to here [more than 30 miles], and then continue on to Pomalca and Tumán [about 25 miles], where there was also an Augustinian presence," the priest said.

The image of St. Nicholas in the village of San Nicolás (a little over 1.25 miles from the town of Zaña) not only bears witness to centuries of faith but also represents a visible symbol of the devotion that has accompanied Pope Leo XIV since his beginnings as a friar.

History of the image

Discussing the image of St. Nicholas of Tolentine inside the chapel, Farfán explained that it is the oldest in the Zaña area. According to a restorer who worked on it, the priest explained, it is more than 450 years old, which directly links it to the arrival of the Augustinians in this region.

The history of the Augustinian presence in Zaña dates back to the 16th century, when St. Augustine Convent, one of the most important centers of devotion to St. Nicholas of Tolentine in northern Peru, was founded.

"This indicates that the Augustinians who arrived [to establish] St. Augustine Convent in Zaña brought it from Europe; the image already existed there; it was simply transferred. We don't know who made it or the exact year it arrived, but since we know the date the convent was founded, we assume it came with the first friars who settled there," he explained.

According to the chronicler Friar Antonio de la Calancha, through the intercession of St. Nicholas of Tolentine, represented by the statue in the chapel, numerous miracles were performed in the town of Zaña, attracting great popular devotion and generous alms for the Augustinian order.

Both an approachable and austere saint

St. Nicholas of Tolentine was a humble Augustinian friar who dedicated his life to comforting the sick, preaching by example, and praying for the souls in purgatory.

The Italian saint is considered the first saint of the Augustinian order. He was born around 1245 in Sant'Angelo in Pontano, Italy, but his name was forever linked to Tolentine, where he lived and served for 30 years. At a young age, he joined the Augustinian community in his town, where he began his journey as a novice and student. He was ordained a priest around 1273 and shortly afterward sent to Tolentine, a city that would become the center of his intense pastoral work.

According to the Order of St. Augustine, Nicholas was not known for his erudition or for writing great works but for something much more important: his closeness to the people, his profound life of prayer, and his total dedication to those most in need.

He traveled through the poor neighborhoods, comforted the sick and dying, heard confessions tirelessly, and always sought to alleviate suffering, both physical and spiritual. He lived austerely, but with a contagious joy. Shortly before his death, when asked why he seemed so happy, he calmly replied: "Because my God and Lord Jesus Christ, accompanied by His Holy Mother and my Holy Father Augustine, is saying to me: Come! Good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord."

Throughout his life — and even after his death in 1305 — he was credited with numerous miracles. He is the patron saint of the souls in purgatory and protector against the plague, fires, and stuttering. His canonization was celebrated by Pope Eugene IV in 1446, on the solemnity of Pentecost, and for many, he remains a model of silent devotion, constant prayer, and boundless charity.

Pope Leo XIV's profound devotion to St. Nicholas of Tolentine not only reveals his Augustinian roots but also the soul of a pastor who, like the 13th-century saint, consoles, prays, and walks humbly alongside his people.

Here is a prayer to St. Nicholas of Tolentine:

O glorious wonderworker and protector of the souls in purgatory, St. Nicholas of Tolentine! With all the affection of my soul, I beseech you to intervene with your powerful intercession on behalf of these blessed souls, obtaining from divine clemency the remission of all their crimes and punishments, so that, upon emerging from that dark prison of suffering, they may go to enjoy the beatific vision of God in heaven. And for me, your devoted servant, obtain, O great saint, the most lively compassion and the most ardent charity toward these beloved souls. Amen.

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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Vatican City, May 20, 2025 / 10:43 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV, in one of his first personnel appointments, on Monday named Cardinal Baldassare Reina grand chancellor of the Pontifical Theological Institute John Paul II for Marriage and the Family, replacing Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, who turned 80 on April 20.

Reina, 54, is vicar general of the Diocese of Rome since 2024. As part of that role, he is also grand chancellor of the Pontifical Lateran University, the home of the John Paul II Institute.

Pope Leo's May 19 appointment of Reina as grand chancellor appears to be a return to the former practice of linking the leadership of the institute to the vicar general of Rome. This practice had been changed under Pope Francis, who named Paglia to the role in 2016.

The following year, in 2017, Francis made the controversial decision to re-found the institute, originally established by Pope John Paul II in 1982 under the name the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, broadening its focus from moral theology to the social sciences. When new statutes were issued in 2019, the institute was also criticized for not renewing some of the contracts of longtime faculty and for other hiring decisions.

Paglia, who is president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, told CNA on May 19 it was foreseen he would be replaced as chancellor of the John Paul II institute after turning 80, in accordance with Vatican guidelines. He said he does not know when he may be replaced as head of the Pontifical Academy for Life, but given his age, it is reasonable it may also be soon.

He declined to comment on the institute's controversies under his leadership.

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