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null / Credit: Ivan Galashchuk/ShutterstockWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 14, 2025 / 13:38 pm (CNA).A recent study found that among adults who attend Christian worship at least monthly, 68% agreed marriage is between one man and one woman, but only 46% defined "family" in corresponding terms of a husband and wife, their children, and relatives.Family Research Council in partnership with the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University released findings this week from a new national survey of 1,003 churchgoing adults. The survey, "Social Issues and Worldview," was conducted in July to build off a similar 2023 study. The research identified beliefs of the faithful in regard to social topics and family life.Of the 9 in 10 respondents identifying as Christian, 39% were Catholic, 20% mainline Protestant, 18% evangelical, 9% independent or nondenominational Christian, and 4% Pentecostal.Among the respondents, about 22% claimed the definition of family changes over time an...
Holy Family Church in Booneville, Kentucky, with solar panels implemented as part of the Catholic Diocese of Lexington's goal of net zero emissions. / Credit: Photo courtesy of the Catholic Diocese of Lexington, KentuckyWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 14, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).The Diocese of Lexington has developed an ambitious plan to make all of its buildings net-zero by 2030 because, it noted, as Scripture says: "The earth and all in it belongs to God." The plan includes all buildings of the 59 parishes in the diocese, spanning over 50 counties in central and eastern Kentucky.The plan is a direct response to Pope Francis' 2015 encyclical Laudato Si' ("On Care for Our Common Home"), which called on the global Catholic Church to engage in dialogue about the future of the planet. Within the writings, Pope Francis urged the Church to acknowledge environmental challenges.The diocese was inspired by Laudato Si' No. 217, which says "living our vocation as protectors of God's handiw...
Cardinal Pietro Parolin greets the parents of St. Carlo Acutis before Mass at Church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Assisi, Italy, on Oct. 12, 2025. / Credit: Diocese of AssisiACI Prensa Staff, Oct 13, 2025 / 16:13 pm (CNA).In a Mass marking the first liturgical memorial of St. Carlo Acutis, who was canonized by Pope Leo XIV on Sept. 7, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin on Sunday said the saint spoke of Jesus with a "radiant" and "smiling" face."Many when they see his picture are touched by his smile: Carlo spoke of Jesus above all with his radiant, luminous, and smiling face. He taught us to live out St. Paul's exhortation: 'Rejoice in the Lord always,'" Parolin said in his homily at the Mass he celebrated Oct. 12.The Mass took place in St. Mary Major Church in Assisi at the Shrine of the Renunciation (Santuario della Spogliazione). The body of St. Carlo Acutis, who died in 2006 of fulminant leukemia at the age of 15, rests in a glass case on the side of the nave ...
The main altar at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, which was desecrated on Oct. 10, 2025. / Credit: Jorge Royan (CC BY-SA 3.0)ACI Prensa Staff, Oct 13, 2025 / 17:43 pm (CNA).Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, archpriest of St. Peter's Basilica and vicar general of the pope for Vatican City, presided Oct. 13 over a penitential rite of reparation at the main altar of the church following a serious act of desecration that had taken place on Oct. 10.After a penitential procession that began at 12:45 p.m. local time, Gambetti sprinkled the altar with holy water and incensed it to purify it.The rite, attended by members of the chapter of the Vatican basilica, emphasized asking God for "forgiveness" for the desecration, Father Enzo Fortunato, director of communications for St. Peter's Basilica, told ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner.On Friday, Oct. 10, a man whose identity has not been revealed was arrested by security guards after he climbed onto the Altar of the Confession, located...
Bishop Sosthène Ayikuli Udjuwa is the apostolic administrator of the Congolese Wamba Diocese. / Credit: Radio MotoACI Africa, Oct 13, 2025 / 15:12 pm (CNA).The Vatican Dicastery for Evangelization has suspended the formation of seminarians in the Diocese of Wamba in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), citing a "difficult ecclesial environment," which it says undermines priestly training.In a letter issued Oct. 7, the apostolic administrator of the Congolese episcopal see, Bishop Sosthène Ayikuli Udjuwa, informed the seminarians of the dicastery's decision, alluding to the challenge of transition.The Wamba Diocese has been experiencing a leadership crisis since the January 2024 appointment of Bishop Emmanuel Ngona Ngotsi as its local ordinary. Although he was ordained a bishop in the Congolese capital city, Kinshasa, Ngotsi has yet to take canonical possession of his episcopal see amid opposition from some members of the clergy and laity who insist that the diocese ...
Christopher Columbus, by Sebastiano del Piombo, 1519. / Credit: Public domainWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 13, 2025 / 05:00 am (CNA).President Donald Trump renewed the focus of Columbus Day to be celebrated on the second Monday of October, reclaiming the explorer's "extraordinary legacy of faith, courage, perseverance, and virtue," according to the president's proclamation.Since 1971, the second Monday in October has been federally recognized as Columbus Day to commemorate Columbus' discovery of the Americas in 1492, celebrate Italian-American heritage, and acknowledge the 1891 lynchings of 11 Italian Americans. In 2021, former President Joe Biden issued the first presidential proclamation of Indigenous Peoples' Day to be observed on the same day, following backlash toward Columbus.The "current hostility to him is ill informed," Felipe Fernández-Armesto, professor of history at the University of Notre Dame and author of "Columbus on Himself," told CNA. "He was understandably c...
A view of the United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility, also known as the ADX or "Supermax" prison in Florence, Colorado. The facility has been dubbed the "Alcatraz of the Rockies" because of its remote location and harsh security measures. / Credit: JASON CONNOLLY/AFP via Getty ImagesCNA Staff, Oct 13, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).A foreign-born Muslim inmate currently incarcerated in the U.S.'s most severely restrictive prison complex is asking the government to require the prison to accommodate his religious practices under a key federal statute, highlighting the far-reaching and comprehensive nature of religious freedom rules in the United States. U.S. District Judge Philip Brimmer in a Sept. 25 ruling agreed that Mostafa Kamel Mostafa had demonstrated that prison officials at the maximum facility had "substantially burdened the exercise of his religion" by failing to install a special cleaner in one of his cells.The prison, a "supermax" facility in Colorado...
A view of St. Peter's Basilica during the Mass for the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, with Bernini's baldachin and the papal altar decorated with white flowers, Dec. 8, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNACNA Staff, Oct 11, 2025 / 16:28 pm (CNA).A man urinated on the Altar of Confession of St. Peter's Basilica on Friday before being taken away by security officers in the famous basilica, according to news reports.The man climbed the altar and "urinated under the stunned gaze of hundreds of tourists," according to the newspaper Corriere della Sera's Rome edition. Video of the desecration was widely shared on social media.Il Tempo reported that the man "was promptly reached by plainclothes police officers present in the basilica" and was escorted out of the church.The latter newspaper claimed Pope Leo XIV was "shocked to learn of the news," though the Holy See Press Office had not released a statement about the incident as of Oct. 11.This is not the first time thi...
Daniel Ayalon, former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. and former foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaks with "EWTN News Nightly" anchor Veronica Dudo on Oct. 10, 2025. / Credit: "EWTN News Nightly"Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 11, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).Former Israeli government officials, representatives for the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, and Catholic advocates for Israel in the U.S. spoke with EWTN News this week following the historic peace deal brokered by the Trump administration between Israel and Hamas. News of the peace agreement came as "a joy for the entire population of Gaza, for the families of the hostages, and for our parish, our little parish there in Gaza," according to Farid Jabran, the public and government affairs adviser for the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.In an Oct. 10 interview with "EWTN News Nightly," Jabran noted there is still an air of "expectation" as the region waits to "see what happens."Jabran revealed t...
Nicola Tanzi. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Deacon Anthony MammolitiCNA Staff, Oct 10, 2025 / 15:37 pm (CNA).A Catholic man who served as an usher at his Brooklyn parish before he was killed in a brutal attack in a city subway is being remembered as a "good soul" with a "tremendous" faith in Christ.Sixty-four-year-old Nicola Tanzi was killed on Oct. 7, when police say 25-year-old David Mazariegos beat him to death in the Jay Street-MetroTech station in Brooklyn. He later died at New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital. New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch described the attack as "horrific." Police were able to apprehend the suspect using photos and a physical description transmitted through their phones, Tisch said. Mazariegos has reportedly been arrested multiple times before. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on X that state Gov. Kathy Hochul "has blood on her hands" over the death."Nicola Tanzi's life was taken by another repeat offen...
