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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 4, 2025 / 17:02 pm (CNA).

Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) testified during a Senate hearing on Sept. 4 that a federal review of the safety concerns related to the abortion pill is still ongoing.

Kennedy told the Senate Finance Committee that former President Joe Biden's administration "twisted the data" to downplay health concerns about the abortion pill mifepristone.

"We're going to make sure that doesn't happen anymore," Kennedy said. "We're producing honest science and gold-standard science on that."

Republican Sens. James Lankford and Steve Daines both pressed Kennedy on their concerns about the drug during the Thursday hearing.

Kennedy was unable to say when the review would be completed or whether HHS or the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would move toward regulating mifepristone more strictly. However, he committed to keeping the senators up to date on any developments. 

The FDA is "getting data in all the time — new data that we're reviewing," he said.

Daines, the founder of the Senate Pro-Life Caucus, referenced a study by the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) that found that 11% of women who take the abortion pill suffer at least one "serious adverse event" within 45 days. The study reviewed the insurance claims of 865,727 women who used the drug to calculate that number.

"That is 22 times higher than the FDA's long-standing estimate of less than 0.5%," Daines told Kennedy. "... For years we've heard the misleading and frankly very harmful lie that's being sold to women that this drug is 'as safe as Tylenol.' These lies sadly have real-world consequences."

Both Daines and Lankford expressed concern about the deregulation of mifepristone under both the Biden and Obama administrations.

The FDA reduced the number of in-person doctor visits required to obtain mifepristone from three to one in 2016 and then to zero in 2023. Another 2016 change ended requirements that mifepristone be dispensed by a physician, taken in a doctor's office, and monitored in a follow-up visit. 

Another 2023 change permitted mail delivery of the drugs.

Daines said the FDA "has steadily stripped away safeguards related to this drug" and asked Kennedy whether the Trump administration would reverse the Biden administration's deregulation.

Kennedy told Daines he needs to check with the White House to know its position on that and would "need to get back to you on that" by next week.

In December 2024, Trump told Time magazine that he was committed to ensuring the abortion pill remains legally available. However, he also directed Kennedy to facilitate studies on the safety of the drug.

"Those studies are progressing and … they're ongoing," Kennedy said in the hearing.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, in a statement published after the hearing thanked the senators for raising those concerns and thanked Kennedy and the administration for reviewing safety concerns about the drug.

"We are grateful that Secretary Kennedy confirmed the FDA's review of abortion drugs is now underway and look forward to his promised release of new data after years of the Biden administration ignoring this urgent issue," she said. "Secretary Kennedy even revealed that Biden's FDA 'twisted' data to bury safety signals."

Dannenfelser warned that "as women and children are harmed, these dangerous drugs continue to be bought and sold with no commonsense safeguards and no accountability."

"We look forward to hearing the update on restoring the in-person dispensing of mifepristone," she said.

More than half of all abortions nationwide are now conducted chemically with pills, including mifepristone.

The FDA approved mifepristone in 2000 to complete abortions through the first seven weeks of pregnancy. In 2016, the FDA expanded its approval to the first 10 weeks of pregnancy.

At 10 weeks of pregnancy, an unborn child has a fetal heartbeat, early brain activity, and partially developed eyes, lips, and nostrils. Mifepristone blocks the hormone progesterone, which cuts off the child's supply of oxygen and nutrients to kill the unborn child. A second pill, misoprostol, helps expel the body from the mother by essentially inducing labor.

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CNA Staff, Sep 4, 2025 / 11:32 am (CNA).

A transgender-identifying plaintiff in a major lawsuit being considered by the U.S. Supreme Court has requested that the court drop the case and reverse lower court rulings favorable to him, with opponents meanwhile urging the Supreme Court to hear the case as scheduled. 

Lindsay Hecox originally sued Idaho over its Fairness in Women's Sports Act, which was passed to block males from gaining access to women's sporting leagues. A district court and an appeals court both blocked the law. 

The high court in July had agreed to consider Hecox's challenge to Idaho's ban on men in women's sports. Two lower courts had ruled in the male athlete's favor, with Idaho ultimately appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court to settle the dispute. 

The Supreme Court at the time said it would also consider a similar case out of West Virginia. Both lawsuits have the potential to significantly affect U.S. case law regarding sports policy and accommodations for those who identify as the opposite sex. 

Yet in a Sept. 2 filing, Hecox — through his lawyers at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) — said he was "voluntarily dismiss[ing]" his case, with the ACLU further urging the Supreme Court to vacate the two favorable rulings in the lower courts. 

In a declaration in the filing, Hecox said he had made the "extremely difficult decision" to "cease playing women's sports" in any context covered by the Idaho law. He cited a desire to graduate college quickly, find employment, and move back home to be near his family. 

Hecox further cited "negative public scrutiny" and "increased intolerance" as he continued the case. He promised in the declaration that he would not sue Idaho over the law in the future and would not seek to participate in women's sports in the state.

Hecox's "unequivocal abandonment of [his] claims ... renders this case moot," the filing states. 

Women's advocates urge court not to drop the case

The decision brought rebuke from women's advocates, who argued that the filing was a means of avoiding a potentially unfavorable Supreme Court ruling.

John Bursch, a senior attorney with the legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, said in a Sept. 4 press release that the group would "urge the Supreme Court to rule in this case" and ensure that federal law continues to "protect fair competition and equal opportunities for women and girls."

Bursch noted that the high court has previously criticized efforts to "insulate a decision from review" by the justices. The Supreme Court has noted that such maneuvers "would permit a resumption of the challenged conduct as soon as the case is dismissed."

Alliance Defending Freedom President Kristen Waggoner similarly criticized the filing on X, describing it on Sept. 3 as "a desperate, bad-faith move that the court should soundly reject."  

"Let's be clear: The ACLU picked this fight. In red states throughout America, they've gone on offense, filing lawsuits against commonsense laws meant to protect women's sports," she wrote.

"And now that the Supreme Court has taken up the case, they suddenly want to take their ball and go home?"

Waggoner said advocates would "urge the Supreme Court to thwart the ACLU's attempt to game the system and to move forward with hearing the case."

The West Virginia dispute, also being considered by the Supreme Court, arose after a then-11-year-old boy brought a lawsuit against the state over its Save Women's Sports Act. 

The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the law last year, claiming its enforcement would harm the boy "on the basis of sex."

Waggoner wrote on Wednesday that "too many women and girls are losing their chance to be champions to kick this can down the road."

"The issue of men in women's sports is an ongoing, nationwide controversy. It deserves its day at America's highest court," she said.

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Vatican City, Sep 4, 2025 / 12:14 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV discussed the conflict in Gaza, including a two-state solution, with Israel President Isaac Herzog in a private audience at the Vatican on Thursday morning. 

According to a Vatican statement after the meeting, the talks focused on the political and social situation in the Middle East and the need to guarantee "a future for the Palestinian people and peace and stability in the region, with the Holy See reiterating the two-state solution as the only way out of the ongoing war."

The Israeli president also met with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Vatican Secretary for Relations with States Archbishop Paul Gallagher.

The Sept. 4 Vatican audience was the first closed-door meeting between Leo and Herzog, 64, who has been Israel's president since 2021.

In a post on X following the encounter, Herzog thanked Leo for a "warm welcome today at the Vatican" and said he looked forward to strengthening Israel's cooperation with the Holy See "for a better future of justice and compassion."

The Vatican communique on Leo's meeting with Herzog — a longer and much more detailed statement than those usually issued after audiences with heads of state — repeated Pope Leo's regular public pleas for a resumption of negotiations, a permanent ceasefire, the release of Israeli hostages, respect for humanitarian law, and the safe entry of aid into Gaza.

The Vatican said the hope was also expressed that the "legitimate aspirations" of both Israeli and Palestinian people can be guaranteed.

"Reference was also made to the situation in the West Bank and the important question of the city of Jerusalem" and to issues in the relations between Israeli state authorities and the local Church, the statement added.

In addition to a two-state solution for Palestine, Vatican diplomacy has called for an international status for the city of Jerusalem, where the Latin patriarch, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, is the Catholic leader of not only Israel but also the Palestinian Territories of Gaza and the West Bank.

During a visit to the town of Taybeh in the West Bank in July, Pizzaballa and other Church leaders said they hold Israeli authorities responsible for "facilitating and enabling" attacks on Palestinian Christians by Israeli settlers.

Thursday's conversation between Leo and Herzog also touched on the importance of ensuring the continued presence of Christian communities throughout the Middle East, the Vatican said.

After the talks, a statement from Herzog said the pope's reception of Israel's president reflected "the great significance of the relationship between the Holy See and the State of Israel, and of course with the Jewish people, and the importance of the very sensitive issues and challenges we experience today."

There was some tension surrounding the meeting due to a Sept. 2 statement from Herzog's office stating that the president's one-day visit to the Vatican came at the invitation of Pope Leo. The Vatican contradicted that claim hours later with a statement that "it is the Holy See's practice to agree to requests for an audience with the pope from heads of state and government; it is not its practice to extend invitations to them."

Vatican-Israel relations were marked by tension toward the end of the last pontificate owing to Pope Francis' criticism of Israel's campaign in Gaza, which was sparked by the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of Israeli citizens and others by Hamas militants.

Pope Francis called Israel's actions in Gaza "terrorism" and on two occasions said what was happening there might qualify as genocide.

Pope Leo has taken a more restrained approach, calling for ceasefires and the release of hostages and emphasizing the need for dignified humanitarian aid and respect for law.

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CNA Staff, Sep 4, 2025 / 12:44 pm (CNA).

Here's a roundup of recent pro-life and abortion-related news:

Pro-life group says late-term abortion clinic halted procedures after campaign against it

A pro-life group said a major Washington, D.C., late-term abortion clinic has ceased operations for the time being after a public campaign against it. 

The Washington Surgi-Clinic, which has been at the center of controversy for years due to allegations of illegal abortion services, has "halted appointments" after a "campaign to shut the facility down" was mounted by the group Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust. 

The pro-life group said in a press release on Sept. 2 that it filed a complaint with the city board of medicine presenting "numerous complaints and lawsuits" against clinic abortionist Cesare Santangelo.

The clinic subsequently said it is "not currently taking appointments" and is hoping to resume them in "late September." 

Santangelo, meanwhile, has not been seen at the clinic "in over three weeks," the press release said.

Texas passes law allowing state residents to sue abortion pill manufacturers

Texas lawmakers this week passed a bill that will allow state residents to sue providers and distributors of abortion pills who circulate the deadly drugs in the state.

State Rep. Jeff Leach, who authored the measure, announced the bill's passage on Facebook on Sept. 3, writing that the law, when signed, will ensure "that those who traffic dangerous abortion drugs into our state are held accountable."

The measure will allow plaintiffs to collect up to $100,000 in damages from those who bring abortion pills into the state or provide them to Texas residents. Pregnant women who use the pills cannot be sued under the law.

Abortion drugs are illegal in Texas, though those seeking to abort children can acquire them through the mail. State Attorney General Ken Paxton last year filed a lawsuit against an abortionist in New York, alleging she illegally provided abortion drugs to a woman in Texas.

Leach on Sept. 3 said the state will continue to be "a national leader in the fight for life." Gov. Greg Abbott is expected to sign the measure into law.

Amy Coney Barrett defends Roe v. Wade repeal in new memoir

Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett in a soon-to-be-published memoir has defended her decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022, citing what she said was public sentiment as well as long-standing legal precedent. 

Barrett's memoir, "Listening to the Law," is due to be published on Sept. 9. Multiple media outlets reported on her remarks touching on Roe ahead of the book's launch. 

"The evidence does not show that the American people have traditionally considered the right to obtain an abortion so fundamental to liberty that it 'goes without saying' in the Constitution," she writes in the book. 

"In fact, the evidence cuts in the opposite direction. Abortion not only lacked long-standing protection in American law — it had long been forbidden."

The Supreme Court's role, the justice writes in the memoir, "is to respect the choices that the people have agreed upon, not to tell them what they should agree to."

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Rome Newsroom, Sep 4, 2025 / 13:57 pm (CNA).

Before he was known as a soon-to-be-saint, Carlo Acutis was simply a boy in a school uniform, lugging his backpack through the hallways of the Tommaseo Institute in Milan. His teachers remember him as joyful, a bit of a prankster, and passionate about his Catholic faith.

"He was certainly not a perfect student," Sister Monica Ceroni, Acutis' middle school religion teacher, recalled. He sometimes forgot his homework or showed up late. But he had a "healthy curiosity" and "and wanted to get to the bottom of things."

"When he became passionate about something, he didn't give up," she told EWTN News.

Acutis spent nearly eight years at the Tommaseo Institute, a Catholic elementary and middle school run by the Marcelline Sisters in central Milan. Located just across the street from his parish church of Santa Maria Segreta, the school became the setting for his daily routine of classes, soccer games with friends in the courtyard, and visits to the chapel to pray.  

"What is striking in his report cards … is that religion was the only subject he did well in," Ceroni said. "He was someone who liked to be involved in the classroom conversations, especially in religion," she added. 

"He was also a real joker," she added, recalling some of the pranks he played with his classmates. 

The Acutis family hired a tutor named Elisa to help Carlo with his homework, and Carlo would sometimes invite Elisa her to come with him to Mass afterward. Elisa, like so many others in Carlo's life, later said that she grew in her faith because of her relationship with Carlo. 

His teachers also noticed that Carlo gravitated toward classmates who struggled or were left out.  

Sister Miranda Moltedo, who was the principal of Carlo's elementary school when he was a student, recalled a boy in the class whose mother had abandoned him. "Carlo had taken him under his wing, protecting him," she said. "We knew that he was a child who needed special attention, affection, and love, and Carlo cared about him." 

Carlo also stood up to bullies. When a classmate with mental disabilities was being teased and bullied, Carlo defended him. A teacher observed that, as a result, sometimes that classmate could be overly clingy with Carlo. When she the teacher asked Carlo about it, he replied: "He is a great friend of mine, and I want to help him." 

"I think this ability to be inclusive as an 11- or 12-year-old boy was extraordinary. … It was a natural gift of his," Ceroni said. 

"My strongest memory of Carlo is of a cheerful, lively boy. He was a typical boy his age, with a great zest for life and many dreams," she said. 

After graduating from the Tommaseo Institute, Carlo entered the Jesuit-run Leo XIII Institute in Milan. There, his faith stood out even more. "Carlo used to go to the chapel in the morning before entering the classroom and during breaks and would stop to pray. Nobody else did that," said Father Roberto Gazzaniga, the school's chaplain.

Classmates who testified in Carlo's cause for canonization described him as respectful but unafraid to voice his convictions — on the Eucharist, baptism, pro-life issues, and the teachings of the Church. He also helped peers with homework, especially when computers were involved.

Carlo "never concealed his choice of faith," Gazzaniga said. "Even in conversations and discussions with his classmates, he was respectful of the positions of others but without renouncing the clear vision of the principles that inspired his Christian life."

The chaplain described Carlo as having had a "a transparent and joyous interior life that united love for God and people in a joyful and true harmony."

"One could point to him and say: Here is a happy and authentic young man and Christian," he said. 

Unlike many at the private Jesuit school, Carlo paid little attention to what was trendy or popular. When his mother bought him new sneakers, he asked her to return them so they could give the money to the poor instead.

Acutis also asked a cloistered religious order to join him in praying for his high school classmates who partied in clubs and used drugs and spoke to his friends about the importance of chastity.

Carlo's high school years were cut short when he was diagnosed with leukemia at age 15. He died in October 2006, just as his second year of studies was beginning, offering up his suffering from cancer for the pope and the good of the Catholic Church.

Sister Monica remembered vividly the last time she saw him a few weeks before he died. "We met right in front of the parish church," she said. "We were going in and he was coming out of the church … He was happy to be back at school. He said he wanted to focus on computer science. I will always remember him this way."

She returned to the parish for Carlo's funeral not long after. "Carlo's funeral ceremony was extraordinary. There were a lot of people, also poor people," Ceroni said.

Today, both Sister Monica and Sister Miranda tell Carlo's story to inspire their young students in the same classrooms where he once studied. "Carlo is presented as a child who was a friend of Jesus and found joy, because Christianity is joy," Moltedo said. 

Veronica Giacometti from ACI Stampa, CNA's Italian-language news partner, contributed to this report.

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ACI Prensa Staff, Sep 4, 2025 / 15:03 pm (CNA).

The patriarch of Lisbon, Rui Valério, offered his prayers for the dead and injured in an accident involving the Elevador da Glória, an iconic funicular train that crashed at high speed into a building on Sept. 3.

A statement posted on the patriarchate's website said the patriarch received "with profound sorrow and sadness" the news of the accident, which left 17 dead and at least 23 injured in the Portuguese city. The crash of the funicular, a type of railway operated by cables and designed for steep slopes, occurred around 6:05 p.m. local time.

"At this difficult time Bishop Rui Valério lifts up his prayers to God for the victims and expresses his closeness to their families during this time of separation and profound grief," read the statement in which the patriarch also wished the injured a speedy recovery.

The patriarch also expressed his gratitude and solidarity with those who mobilized to help the victims, including emergency teams, health care professionals, civil authorities, and volunteers.

The patriarchate also announced that Valério was scheduled to offer a Mass for the victims of the accident at St. Dominic Church in Rossio on Thursday, Sept. 4, at 7 p.m. local time. All faithful in the Portuguese capital were invited to attend.

According to the BBC, the cause of the accident is still unknown, nor is it clear how many people were on board the funicular, a tourist attraction inaugurated in 1885 and electrified 30 years later.

A witness told Portuguese television station SIC that just before the accident, the Elevador da Glória was descending "at full speed" down a steep street before violently colliding with a building.

"It crashed with brutal force and collapsed like a cardboard box; it had no brakes," a woman told SIC. 

Carlos Moedas, mayor of Lisbon, stated on X that the city council has declared three days of mourning for the victims of the accident and offered his "sincere condolences to all the families and friends of the victims. Lisbon is in mourning."

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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CNA Staff, Sep 4, 2025 / 10:19 am (CNA).

A man arrested with a car full of weapons after threatening a California Catholic church told the parish he was an angel of death meant to "do the Lord's reaping," according to authorities. 

Police arrested Joshua Michael Richardson on Aug. 28 after he allegedly made criminal threats against St. Michael's Abbey, located in Silverado, about 40 miles southeast of Los Angeles in the Santa Ana Mountains. 

Richardson, an Alabama resident, had a cache of weapons in his car, including knives, brass knuckles, and a sword, police said. He was also reportedly in possession of several gun magazines. 

On Sept. 3 the Orange County District Attorney's office said in a press release that prior to driving from Alabama to the California abbey, Richardson sent an email "threatening to 'do the Lord's reaping'" at the church. 

The suspect also reportedly claimed to be the "rider of the pale horse," an apparent reference to Revelation 6:8, which refers to the personification of death among the apocalyptic Four Horsemen.

Richardson further "claimed to be Michael the angel of death" and "explained that he chose St. Michael's Abbey as it is one of the few churches in the nation that still practices Michaelmas," according to the district attorney's office. 

The prosecutor's office said Richardson traveled to the abbey and on Aug. 26 attended Mass there. After Mass he allegedly "follow[ed] the priest into a private area of the church" and made further cryptic and threatening remarks. 

The suspect was arrested two days later and was charged with multiple crimes, including threats, felony possession of brass knuckles, and felony possession of a dagger. 

Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in the press release that churches "represent the most sacred places of worship and of peace." 

"No one should have to worship in fear that a stranger would walk through the door with the intent to carry out their own day of judgment and determine who lives and who dies," he said. 

Richardson's Aug. 28 arrest came exactly one day after the deadly mass shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic school that claimed the lives of two children and injured approximately 20 more children and adults.

The perpetrator of that crime, 23-year-old Robin Westman, born Robert Westman, indicated prior to the killing and his suicide that he was suffering from mental health issues, which he claimed in a manifesto had been exacerbated by marijuana and his struggles with his "gender identity."

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 3, 2025 / 18:39 pm (CNA).

U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance visited Minneapolis, Minnesota on Wednesday to meet with victims and families of the Annunciation Catholic Church shooting that occurred last week. 

The Vances visited the church sanctuary, which is the site of the shooting that claimed the lives of two children and left more than 20 wounded. The pair stopped outside the church to observe the memorial and leave bouquets of flowers.

A spokesperson for the vice president said Vance held a private meeting with the parents of the two children who were killed, Harper Moyski and Fletcher Merkel. Mike and Jackie Moyski and Jesse and Mollie Merkel met with Vance, Father Denis Zehren of Annunciation Catholic Church, and Matt DeBoer, the principal of Annunciation Catholic School. 

The Vances also traveled to Children's Minnesota Hospital to visit with some of the victims who are still in recovery, including Lydia Kaiser. Vance later spoke on the phone with Weston Halsne, another victim recovering from surgery who was not yet well enough to be visited in person when Vance was there. 

'I have never had a day that will stay with me like this day did'

"We should talk more about these kids. We should talk less about the shooter," Vance said to reporters at the airport following the visit. "I have never had a day that will stay with me like this day did." 

When asked about Gov. Walz's call for a special legislative session to consider new gun laws, the Vice President said: "I'm not going to tell the Minnesota lawmakers or the governor exactly how they should respond to this tragedy. I think that…there's a strong desire from across the political spectrum to do something so that these shootings are less common."

"I think that it's important that they actually take steps that are favorable, that are going to work. But besides that, I'm not an expert in Minnesota law," Vance said. "I would just say, 'take the concerns of these parents seriously.' I think all of us, Democrat, Republican and independent, want these school shootings to happen less frequently. Hopefully there's some steps that we can take to make that happen." 

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CNA Staff, Sep 3, 2025 / 07:15 am (CNA).

St. Gregory the Great, a central figure of the medieval western Church and one of the most admired popes in history, is commemorated in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Catholic liturgy. He was the first of the bishops of Rome to popularize the now-traditional papal title "servant of the servants of God," which referred to Christ's command that those in the highest position of leadership should be "the last of all and the servant of all."

Born near the middle of the sixth century into a noble Roman family, the future St. Gregory the Great received a classical education in liberal arts and the law. He also had strong religious formation from his devout family, particularly from his mother, Silvia, also a canonized saint.

By around age 30, Gregory had advanced to high political office in Rome, during what was nevertheless a period of marked decline for the city.

Some time after becoming the prefect of the former imperial capital, Gregory chose to leave the civil administration to become a monk during the rise of the Benedictine order. In reality, however, the new monk's great career in public life was yet to come.

After three years of strict monastic life, he was called personally by the pope to assume the office of a deacon in Rome. From Rome, he was dispatched to Constantinople, to seek aid from the emperor for Rome's civic troubles, and to aid in resolving the Eastern church's theological controversies. He returned to Rome in 586, after six years of service as the papal representative to the eastern Church and empire.

Rome faced a series of disasters caused by flooding in 589, followed by the death of Pope Pelagius II the next year. Gregory, then serving as abbot in a monastery, reluctantly accepted his election to replace him as the Bishop of Rome.

Despite this initial reluctance, however, Pope Gregory began working tirelessly to reform and solidify the Roman liturgy, the disciplines of the Church, the military and economic security of Rome, and the Church's spreading influence in western Europe.

As pope, Gregory brought his political experience in Rome and Constantinople to bear, in the task of preventing the Catholic Church from becoming subservient to any of the various groups struggling for control of the former imperial capital. As the former abbot of a monastery, he strongly supported the Benedictine movement as a bedrock of the western Church. He sent missionaries to England, and is given much of the credit for the nation's conversion.

Even as he undertook to consolidate papal power and shore up the crumbling Roman west, St. Gregory the Great maintained a humble sense of his mission as a servant and pastor of souls, from the time of his election until his death in 604.

This article was first published on Aug. 19, 2010, and has been updated.

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Vatican City, Sep 3, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday pleaded for international assistance for the North African country of Sudan, which is experiencing violence, famine, natural disasters, and disease.

"I am closer than ever to the Sudanese population, in particular families, children and the displaced," Leo said at the end of his general audience at the Vatican Sept. 3.

"I pray for all the victims," the pontiff added. "I make a heartfelt appeal to leaders and to the international community to guarantee humanitarian corridors and implement a coordinated response to stop this humanitarian catastrophe."

The dramatic situation in Sudan, marked by months of armed clashes, mass displacement, and the threat of cholera, has prompted multiple warnings from humanitarian organizations.

In his appeal, Leo drew attention to the civilians trapped in the city of El Fasher, where they are experiencing famine and violence, and to a deadly landslide in Tarsin, which it is believed killed up to 1,000 people, with others still missing.

"And, as if that were not enough," the pontiff added, "the spread of cholera is threatening hundreds of thousands of already stricken people."

"It is time to initiate a serious, sincere and inclusive dialogue between the parties to end the conflict and restore hope, dignity and peace to the people of Sudan," Leo urged.

After three weeks indoors, the pope's public audience returned to St. Peter's Square on Wednesday following a dip in Rome's soaring August temperatures.

'No-one can save themselves'

In his spiritual message at the audience, Leo reflected on Jesus' final moments on the cross as narrated in the Gospel of John, where the crucified Christ utters the phrase: "I thirst."

The pope said the thirst of the Crucified One is not only the physiological need of a tortured body, but above all, the expression of a profound desire for love, relationship, and communion. 

His cry, Leo XIV asserted, is that of a God "who is not ashamed to beg for a sip, because in that gesture he tells us that love, in order to be true, must also learn to ask and not only to give."

The pontiff then stated that "Jesus does not save with a dramatic twist, but by asking for something that he cannot give himself." 

This, according to the Holy Father, opens a door to true hope: "If even the Son of God chose not to be self-sufficient, then our thirst too — for love, for meaning, for justice — is a sign not of failure, but of truth."

"Jesus' thirst on the cross is therefore ours too," he added. "It is the cry of a wounded humanity that seeks living water. And this thirst does not lead us away from God, but rather unites us with him. If we have the courage to acknowledge it, we can discover that even our fragility is a bridge towards heaven."

Thus, the pope said, on the cross, Jesus teaches us that human beings are not realized "in power, but in trustful openness to others, even when they are hostile and enemies."

It is precisely through the acceptance of fragility that we achieve salvation, he emphasized, which "is not found in autonomy, but in humbly recognizing one's own need and in being able to express it freely."

"None of us can be self-sufficient. No-one can save themselves. Life is 'fulfilled' not when we are strong, but when we learn how to receive," Leo said.

A difficult truth

"We live in a time that rewards self-sufficiency, efficiency, performance," he said. "And yet the Gospel shows us that the measure of our humanity is not given by what we can achieve, but by our ability to let ourselves be loved and, when necessary, even helped."

Leo XIV invited the faithful to rediscover the simple joy that is born of fraternity and free gift of self. He emphasized that in everyday gestures, such as "asking without shame" and "offering without ulterior motives," lies a profound happiness, distinct from that which the world proposes.

"It is a joy that restores us to the original truth of our being: we are creatures made to give and receive love," the pontiff affirmed.

He encouraged those listening to not be afraid or ashamed to reach out, even when they feel undeserving. "It is right there, in that humble gesture, that salvation hides," he concluded.

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