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Sacred Heart Cathedral in Da Nang, Vietnam. / Credit: Andreas Bossard via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 3, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).The Catholic Church in Vietnam welcomed with great joy and hope the ordination of 40 new priests during June, the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.According to the Vatican news agency Fides, the Diocese of Da Nang welcomed six new priests, "consecrated to be each an 'alter Christus' ['another Christ'], to become pastors of the people of God, not to live for themselves but to be all things to all people," said Archbishop Joseph Dang Duc Ngan, archbishop of Hu? and apostolic administrator of Da Nang, in his homily at the ordination Mass on June 24 in the local cathedral before numerous faithful."A priest does not become perfect from the day of his ordination. The priesthood is a journey of daily growth in Christ and constant strengthening in the Holy Spirit to fulfill the mission of God and the Church with joy and true love," the prela...
The childhood home of Pope Leo XIV in Dolton, Illinois. / Credit: "EWTN News in Depth"/ScreenshotCNA Staff, Jul 2, 2025 / 17:17 pm (CNA).In a unanimous vote at a special board meeting held on July 1, the village council of Dolton, Illinois, voted to purchase the childhood home of the first U.S.-born pope, Robert Francis Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV.Newly-elected Dolton Mayor Jason House called for the vote, which was unanimous, after hearing from the trustees and allowing for comment from members of the public, several of whom opposed the home purchase by the cash-strapped village.Amid the pushback from Dolton residents who complained about the dilapidated state of local roads and the village's high debt, House said the purchase would eventually "pay for itself," calling it a "historical opportunity."In Dolton, the per capita income is $29,776 and 20% of the residents live in poverty, according to census data.Trustee Edward Steave referred to the "busloads of people" in and out of...
Pope Leo XIV greets Sviatoslav Shevchuk, primate of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, on July 2, 2025, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican MediaACI Prensa Staff, Jul 2, 2025 / 17:47 pm (CNA).Following last week's meeting with pilgrims from the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in St. Peter's Basilica, Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday received in audience the bishops who are members of the Ukrainian church's synod.Noting that the encounter is taking place in the context of the jubilee year, in the July 2 meeting Leo recalled the words of Pope Francis, who said that "hope does not disappoint, because it is founded on the love of God in Christ Jesus, Our Lord."In the context of the bloody war in Ukraine, the Holy Father acknowledged that "it is not easy to talk about hope to you." "It is not easy to find words of consolation for the families who have lost their loved ones in this senseless war," he said.Addressing the Ukrainian bishops, he noted that they are "in contact every day with pe...
People gather at the Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Family on Palm Sunday in al-Zaitoun neighborhood of Gaza City on March 24, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. / Credit: AFP via Getty ImagesStockholm, Sweden, Jul 2, 2025 / 18:17 pm (CNA).A United Nations delegation made a surprise visit on Tuesday to Holy Family Parish, the only Latin-rite Catholic Church in Gaza, which hosts hundreds of people displaced by the war. According to Servizio Informazione Religiosa (SIR), the news agency of the Italian bishops' conference, representatives from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) visited the parish on July 1 to survey the current situation there. "It was their first visit here to the parish," Argentine Father Gabriel Romanelli, pastor of Holy Family Parish, told SIR. "The delegation wanted to check on our conditions, greeted our displaced people, and gathered their testimonies of ...
The Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Farragutful, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 2, 2025 / 18:37 pm (CNA).An organization encouraging the presence of "the Catholic intellectual tradition" in universities across the globe has a new leader. Dominican Father Ambrose Little has been appointed the new director of the Thomistic Institute (TI), a position held for the past seven years by Father Dominic Legge, OP, who has now been named president of the Pontifical Faculty at the Dominican House of Studies."The Thomistic Institute is one of the most dynamic apostolates in the Church, and we are immensely proud that it is an institute of our Pontifical Faculty," Legge said in a statement. "It is very dear to my heart! Serving as the TI director has been one of the greatest privileges of my life. I am therefore delighted to announce that, as my first official act as president, I have appointed Father Ambrose Little, OP, as the new...
The Vatican Gardens at Castel Gandolfo in Italy. / Credit: Courtney Mares/CNAVatican City, Jul 2, 2025 / 12:35 pm (CNA).Pope Leo XIV declared that nature should not be a "bargaining chip" in his message announcing the theme "Seeds of Peace and Hope" for the 10th World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, set for Sept. 1.Drawing inspiration from Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si', released 10 years ago, the Holy Father said the "Bible provides no justification for us to exercise 'tyranny over creation'" and should therefore not be exploited."Nature itself is reduced at times to a bargaining chip, a commodity to be bartered for economic or political gain," Leo said. "As a result, God's creation turns into a battleground for the control of vital resources."The pope said poor nations, marginalized societies, and Indigenous communities are destabilized and penalized as a result of conflicts over water and natural resources as well as the destruction of forests and agricultural ...
Bishop Daniel E. Garcia. / Credit: Photo courtesy of the Diocese of AustinVatican City, Jul 2, 2025 / 13:49 pm (CNA).Pope Leo XIV has appointed Bishop Daniel Garcia of Monterey, California, as the sixth bishop of Austin, Texas.After leading the Diocese of Monterey for more than six years since 2018, Garcia, 64, has returned to his home state of Texas to serve the Austin Diocese as its leader.At a July 2 press conference held by the Diocese of Austin, Garcia gave thanks to God for the local Church, which he described as "diverse in ethnicity, race, language, and way of life.""I was ordained a priest for this local Church in May of 1988," he said on Wednesday. "It is filled with people of so many great gifts and talents and it is my hope to reacquaint myself with all of you whom I have known and get to know you whom I have not yet met."During his address given in English and in Spanish, the bishop emphasized that the Church and civil society cannot forget the "poor, the weak, and...
An exemption to the restrictions on the Traditional Latin Mass has been granted to a parish in the Archdiocese of San Angelo, Texas. / Credit: James Bradley, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 2, 2025 / 14:51 pm (CNA).The Vatican has granted a parish in Texas an exemption from restrictions to the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) imposed by Pope Francis' encyclical Traditionis Custodes. The exemption, requested by Bishop Michael Sis on Feb. 6, was granted to St. Margaret of Scotland Parish in the Diocese of San Angelo, Texas.No other such exemption by Pope Leo XIV has been reported since the start of his pontificate. "The Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments informed me in a decree of May 28, 2025, that my request has been granted for a further two years for a dispensation from article 3§2 of the motu proprio Traditionis Custodes, so that Mass according to the 'Missale Romanum' of 1962 may be celebrated in the parish...
Palace of the Senate of the Russian Empire in Moscow. / Credit: Angel Miklashevsky, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 2, 2025 / 09:29 am (CNA).Russia continues to perpetuate "particularly severe" religious liberty violations against minority groups within its own country and the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, according to a new report from the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).The June 30 report, which detailed religious liberty violations throughout 2024 and the beginning of 2025, found continued "intense persecution" of Ukrainian Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant Christians.Within Russia's borders, the report also found numerous religious liberty violations against human rights activists, independent media, anti-war protesters, and others who belong to minority religious groups."Russian authorities abuse vague and problematic laws to target religious communities that do not conform to state authorit...
Newlyweds Anna and Cole Stevens meet Pope Leo XIV at the general audience in Rome on Wednesday, June 11, 2025. / Credit: Courtesy of Anna and Cole StevensVatican City, Jul 2, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).Pope Leo XIV recently offered marriage advice to a young American couple days after their wedding, sharing how he was blessed by the example of his own parents who prayed the rosary together every day.Newlyweds Cole and Anna Stevens received Pope Leo's personal blessing for their marriage during one of the pope's first general audiences under the hot Roman summer sun on June 11, just four days after their wedding at the Cathedral of St. Paul in Birmingham, Alabama.Newlyweds Anna and Cole Stevens meet Pope Leo XIV at the general audience in Rome on Wednesday, June 11, 2025. Credit: Courtesy of Anna and Cole StevensThe moment, captured on video, became an unexpectedly intimate exchange with the American pope, who responded warmly to their question of how best to pray together as a marri...
