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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...
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...
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...
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...
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 ...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia speaks at a press conference for a Vatican summit on longevity on March 24, 2025, at the Vatican. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNAWashington, 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 an...
