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Stained glass window of Blessed Carlo Acutis at St. Aldhelm's in Malmesbury, England. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Father Thomas Kulandaisamy/Catholic HeraldVatican 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 mirac...
A statue of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in the Seton Legacy Garden at the Seton Shrine in Maryland. / Credit: Photo courtesy of the Seton ShrineWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 6, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).This month the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton is hosting two pilgrimages to commemorate the 50-year anniversary of the canonization of the first American-born saint. The Footsteps of Mother Seton pilgrimage and the Camino of Maryland will both offer a chance for the faithful to walk together in prayer and travel through some of the same places that Seton did more than 200 years ago."As the late Pope Francis once said, 'Making a pilgrimage to the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton is one of the most eloquent expressions of the faith of God's people,'" the executive director at the shrine, Rob Judge, said in a press release."We see every day how our sacred and historical spaces at the shrine enable pilgrims to encounter Our Lord, grow in their faith, and receive ...
Fairbanks, Alaska, Bishop Steven Maekawa, OP, said he plans to offer a special Mass at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Fairbanks for Father Alphonsus Afina, who was captured by Boko Haram on June 1, 2025. / Credit: RadioKAOS, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsCNA Staff, Jun 5, 2025 / 16:09 pm (CNA).A Nigerian-born priest who served in the Diocese of Fairbanks, Alaska, for more than half a decade has been captured by the terrorist group Boko Haram after returning to his home country. Fairbanks Bishop Steven Maekawa, OP, said in a statement this week that Father Alphonsus Afina was "captured by Boko Haram as he was serving the Church in the Diocese of Maiduguri" in the Nigerian state of Borno.Afina served in the Alaskan diocese for six and a half years before returning to Nigeria last April, the bishop said. "Pray for his freedom from captivity and for his physical and spiritual strength," he wrote. The bishop said he planned to offer a special Mass at Sacred Heart Cathedral...
Kentucky Capitol. / Credit: Alexey Stiop/ShutterstockCNA Staff, Jun 5, 2025 / 17:34 pm (CNA).Here is a roundup of recent pro-life and abortion-related news:Kentucky ACLU drops suit challenging state's near-ban on abortion The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky recently dropped a lawsuit it filed last year challenging Kentucky's protections for unborn children. The ACLU filed a motion last Friday to voluntarily dismiss the lawsuit and did not give a reason. The organization filed the suit, Poe v. Coleman, last year in a state court in Louisville on behalf of a woman identified under the pseudonym Mary Poe for her privacy. She was seven weeks pregnant at the time.The suit challenged Kentucky's laws that protect unborn children from abortion: namely the state's trigger law prohibiting most abortions after Roe v. Wade was overturned and a separate law protecting unborn children after six weeks of life. Kentucky law allows abortions only when the m...
The Embassy of Equatorial Guinea in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Kurt Kaiser, CC0, via Wikimedia CommonsWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 5, 2025 / 18:13 pm (CNA).President Donald Trump's order this week to restrict foreign nationals in 19 countries from entering into the United States will impact six countries with a majority Catholic population and four other countries with a heavy presence of Catholics or other Christians.According to the order, some of the countries are facing restrictions based on national security concerns and a high terrorism risk. Others were chosen due to high rates of people from those countries overstaying their visas for entry into the United States and remaining in the country unlawfully.The order includes a near-total ban on three countries with a majority Catholic population: the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Haiti. There are also partial restrictions on three others with Catholic majorities: Burundi, Venezuela, and Cuba.The near-total...
Steve Dorsey, U.S. head of communications and public affairs for the International Committee of the Red Cross, speaks about civilian suffering in Gaza with "EWTN News Nightly" host Erik Rosales on June 4, 2025. / Credit: "EWTN News Nightly"CNA Staff, Jun 5, 2025 / 11:45 am (CNA).The International Committee of the Red Cross said its 60-bed field hospital in Rafah, Gaza Strip, was nearly overwhelmed by a mass casualty event on Tuesday that brought 184 patients through its doors.The aid group said Tuesday's influx of patients was the highest the hospital has seen in one day since its opening more than a year ago. Nineteen of those patients were dead on arrival, and an additional eight died shortly thereafter, mostly from gunshot wounds. The same day, International Committee of the Red Cross President Mirjana Spoljaric told the BBC that Palestinians have been stripped of their human dignity and international humanitarian law is being ignored, saying "humanity is failing" and t...
The Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion on Thursday, June 5, 2025, saying Wisconsin violated the First Amendment protections of Catholic Charities. / Credit: Wolfgang Schaller|ShutterstockCNA Staff, Jun 5, 2025 / 12:05 pm (CNA).The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously held that the state of Wisconsin had violated the First Amendment when it denied a tax exemption to a Catholic charity after claiming that the group's charitable undertakings were not "primarily" religious.The high court said in its Thursday decision that the First Amendment "mandates government neutrality between religions" and that the state had run afoul of that principle when it refused to extend the tax break to the Catholic Charities bureau operated out of the Diocese of Superior.The state allows organizations "operated primarily for religious purposes" to be exempt from paying into the state's unemployment system. But the Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review Commission had claimed that the Catholi...
The Archdiocese of New York superintendent of schools announced the launch of a school renewal plan and the final results of a school viability study on June 4, 2025. / Credit: alexkich/ShutterstockWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 5, 2025 / 12:35 pm (CNA).Archdiocese of New York Superintendent of Schools Sister Mary Grace Walsh, ASCJ, announced this week the launch of a school renewal plan and the final results of a school viability study.On June 3, the archdiocese laid out the first part of the Elementary School Renewal Plan based on the results of the School Viability Study (SVS), which assessed every elementary school in the archdiocese between October 2024 and January 2025 in order "to ensure the long-term sustainability and effectiveness of Catholic education within the community." The two-part school renewal plan, according to a press release, will evaluate four key areas for each school: mission and Catholic identity, governance and leadership, academic excellence, a...
Pope Leo XIV greets members of the Vatican Secretariat of State on June 5, 2025, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican MediaVatican City, Jun 5, 2025 / 14:51 pm (CNA).In his audience with members of the Vatican Secretariat of State on Thursday, Pope Leo XIV thanked them for their support in the first month of his pontificate.Among those present was Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, who introduced the meeting with a brief address. Also participating was Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, substitute for general affairs of the Secretariat of State.Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, secretary of relations with states within the Secretariat of State, did not participate in the audience because he is in Cuba for the 90th anniversary of relations between that Caribbean country and the Holy See.At the outset of his speech, Pope Leo thanked the Secretariat of State for assisting him in the "first steps" of his pontificate and for "carrying forward the mission" entrusted to him....
Al Pacino as Father Theophilus Riesinger in "The Ritual." / Credit: XYZ FilmsCNA Staff, Jun 5, 2025 / 15:21 pm (CNA).In 1928, Father Joseph Steiger, a priest at St. Joseph's in Earling, Iowa, was approached with an urgent concern. A 46-year-old woman named Emma Schmidt was experiencing blackouts, aversions to holy objects, and other terrible afflictions. After years of extensive psychiatric treatment provided no relief, Schmidt's priest suggested an exorcism. Father Theophilus Riesinger, a Capuchin friar, was assigned to perform the exorcism while Steiger would be the stenographer. After a 23-day battle, Schmidt was freed from her affliction and able to live the rest of her life in peace.The exorcism of Schmidt remains the most thoroughly documented and widely publicized exorcism in American history and now a new movie has been made to tell the story. "The Ritual," starring Al Pacino, Dan Stevens, Ashley Greene, and Patricia Heaton, will be released in theaters on June 6.F...
