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Bishop Yaacoub Camil Afram Antoine presides over a Mass celebrating the launch of the Association of Hebrew Catholics on Aug. 8, 2025, at St. Thomas Syriac Catholic Church in Jerusalem. / Credit: Yarden ZelivanskyWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 11, 2025 / 12:19 pm (CNA).A group dedicated to providing a welcoming space for Jewish converts to Catholicism has launched in Israel. The Association of Hebrew Catholics celebrated its official launch with a Mass on Aug. 8, the eve of the feast of its patron, St. Edith Stein, who was a Jewish convert to Catholicism.The Syriac Catholic Exarch of Jerusalem, Bishop Yaacoub Camil Afram Antoine, acted as host for the event and celebrated the Mass, which took place at St. Thomas Syriac Catholic Church in Jerusalem. Yarden Zelivansky, a Jewish convert to Catholicism and member of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) who worked to bring the Association of Hebrew Catholics to Israel, told CNA that about 30 people attended the event.Zelivansky said...
Cardinal Fernando Chomali, archbishop of Santiago, Chile. / Credit: Courtesy of Archdioceses of Santiago, ChileACI Prensa Staff, Aug 11, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA)."The Christian of the 21st century will either be a martyr or will not be a Christian," the archbishop of Santiago and primate of Chile, Cardinal Fernando Chomali, said during a seminar about the role of faith in public life. The cardinal made the remark during his presentation at the seminar "And in Everything Charity," which took place on the occasion of the centenary of Pope Pius XI's encyclical Quas Primas.The seminar's title was inspired by a quote from St. Augustine. Organizations including the Catholic University of Chile's law department, Community and Justice, and the ConBoca Foundation collaborated to host an event highlighting charity as the central pillar uniting social, cultural, and political efforts.Chomali opened his presentation with a statement about the current reality: "We are glutted with everyth...
The Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration from the Our Lady of Solitude Monastery in Tonopah, Arizona, accompanied by their local priest. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Mother Marie Andre CampbellCNA Staff, Aug 11, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).On Aug. 11 the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of St. Clare of Assisi, a woman born into a noble family who was moved by St. Francis' preaching and decided to embrace a life of poverty, founding a cloistered contemplative order of religious sisters called the Poor Clares.The order spread rapidly throughout Italy with young noblewomen selling all their possessions to take on the habit of a Poor Clare. In 1218, the order began to spread outside the Italian border. Agnes of Assisi, Clare's sister who also became a Poor Clare soon after she did, introduced their way of life to Spain. Soon monasteries in Belgium, France, and other European countries began to open.Branches within the order include the Colettine Poor Clares, Capuchin Poor Clares, and th...
Members of The Catholic University of America Office of Campus Ministry receive their RISE Award from the Associates of St. John Bosco. / Credit: Photo courtesy of The CartiedasCNA Staff, Aug 10, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).As more efforts are placed on reaching young adults on college campuses, one organization is encouraging Catholic campus ministries to think outside the box when it comes to helping students grow in faith and reach those who are unfamiliar with the Gospel message.As part of its campaign to inspire new and creative outreach efforts on college campuses, the Associates of St. John Bosco (ASJB) recently announced its first-ever winners of the RISE Awards (Renewal of Innovative Student Evangelization) on Aug. 6. The ASJB is a nonprofit whose purpose is to help college students keep and grow in their Catholic faith.This year's winners include George Mason University, The Catholic University of America (CUA), and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virgi...
Pope Leo XIV in his Sunday Angelus on Aug. 10, 2025, urged the faithful to reflect on how they invest the "treasure" that is their life. / Credit: Vatican MediaCNA Newsroom, Aug 10, 2025 / 08:20 am (CNA).In his Angelus address on Sunday, Pope Leo XIV urged the faithful to reflect on how they invest the "treasure" that is their life, challenging Catholics to share not only material possessions but also their skills, time, and compassion for the good of others. Drawing on the Gospel reading from Luke 12:32-48, the pope emphasized that generosity and love are the keys to fulfillment, reminding the crowd that these gifts must be cultivated and put at the service of others, rather than hoarded or misused."Sell your possessions and give alms," Jesus exhorts in the passage. Pope Leo made clear that this invitation extends beyond charitable donations, pressing his audience to offer their presence, love, and talents to those most in need. "Everything in God's plan that makes each of us ...
Father Mike Schmitz before his show in Vail, Colorado, as part of his Parables Tour. / Credit: Daniel MilchevCNA Staff, Aug 10, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).While many know him best for his popular "Bible in a Year" podcast, Ascension videos, and inspiring talks he gives across the country, Father Mike Schmitz is first and foremost the chaplain at the Newman Center at the University of Minnesota, Duluth (UMD). This fall Schmitz will mark his 21st year working in campus ministry, which he called "the best of both worlds" in a recent sit-down interview with CNA in Vail, Colorado, during his Parables Tour. The tour is part of Schmitz's Seeds of Faith Campaign, which is raising funds for a new Newman Center to be built on the UMD campus.The 50-year-old priest explained that while he has loved working in both parish and campus settings, each is unique. While college kids can tend to be "fickle" in their faith, he said, they also have a beautiful openness to change that he didn't ...
President Donald Trump answers questions during a signing ceremony with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev (left) and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan (right) in the State Dining Room of the White House on Aug. 8, 2025, in Washington, D.C. The agreement signed during the ceremony is intended to bring an end to the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijani that has lasted for decades. / Credit: Andrew Harnik/Getty ImagesWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 8, 2025 / 18:23 pm (CNA).Here is a roundup of Catholic world news from the past week that you might have missed:Armenian and Azerbaijan presidents sign historic peace deal at White HouseAfter decades of conflict over the ethnically Armenian-Christian Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a peace deal on Friday, Aug. 8. Pashinyan hailed the moment as "opening a chapter of peace" and "laying foundations to a better story than the one we had in the pas...
Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, Nebraska (pictured in St. Peter's Square in 2019) criticized the University of Nebraska for allowing a student to mock the Mass in a drag show. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNACNA Staff, Aug 8, 2025 / 13:08 pm (CNA).The University of Nebraska has officially apologized for sanctioning a profane "drag" performance that mocked the Catholic Mass earlier this year, with the school undertaking an investigation into the incident after Catholic outcry against it. Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, Nebraska, publicly criticized the so-called "drag Mass" in June, calling it "a blatant public display of faith-based discrimination." The event was put on in April by music doctoral student Joseph Willette, who claimed the performance was meant to "bridge the gap between queerness and spirituality."The demonstration "imitated various parts of the Mass, including the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei."On Aug. 8 the bishop said in a public stat...
St. John Henry Newman near the end of his life, in 1887. / Credit: Babouba, Public domain, via Wikimedia CommonsACI Prensa Staff, Aug 8, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).According to Father Francisco Javier Calvo, Pope Leo XIV's recent announcement that St. John Henry Newman will be declared a doctor of the Church represents "enormous hope," because his figure is called to "illuminate the paths of the Church in the 21st century."Calvo is a member of the research committee of the John Henry Newman Chair at the Catholic University of Ávila in Spain.The expert told ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner, that it is no coincidence that Pope Leo XIV decided to name him a doctor of the Church, since St. Augustine was the prime source of the English saint's theology."It is very significant that he is the first doctor of the Church proclaimed during his pontificate. As an Augustinian, Leo XIV recognized in Newman one of his own. Both share a spirituality centered on an interior enco...
Statues of St. Michael and St. Florian. / Credit: Office of Mayor Thomas KochNational Catholic Register, Aug 8, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).A Massachusetts mayor is going to bat for including statues of two Catholic saints on the city's new public safety building, saying he picked them because of their importance to police and firefighters and accusing opponents of harboring "'negative attitudes' toward Catholicism."But lawyers for local residents who object to the planned 10-foot-high bronze statues of St. Michael and St. Florian say the mayor is making non-Catholics "feel like second-class citizens" because of the statues, which they say violates the Massachusetts Constitution by favoring one religion over another.The two sides exchanged pointed arguments in court papers filed recently in a state lawsuit brought earlier this year by the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.Thomas Koch, a practicing Catholic and ...
