Vice President Vance presents a Christian vision of politics

U.S. Vice President JD Vance. / Credit: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsCNA Staff, Dec 23, 2025 / 14:27 pm (CNA).U.S. Vice President JD Vance, America's second Catholic vice president, laid out a distinctly Christian vision for American politics in a speech this week, declaring that "the only thing that has truly served as an anchor of the United States of America is that we have been and, by the grace of God, we always will be a Christian nation."Speaking to more than 30,000 young conservatives at Turning Point USA's AmFest 2025 some three months after the death of TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk, Vance called for a politics rooted in a Christian faith that honors the family, protects the weak, and rejects what he described as a decades-long "war" on Christianity in public life.The Christian faith has provided a "shared moral language" since the nation's founding, the Yale-trained lawyer argued, which led to "our understanding of natural law and rights, our sense ...

UPDATED: Pope asked Illinois governor to veto assisted suicide bill

Pope Leo meets with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker in November 2025. / Credit: Courtesy of the Office of Gov. JB PritzkerCastel Gandolfo, Italy, Dec 23, 2025 / 14:55 pm (CNA).Pope Leo XIV appealed to Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker to veto a bill legalizing assisted suicide during a Vatican meeting last month, the pope told reporters Tuesday.The pope, responding to a question from Rudolf Gehrig of EWTN News, said he made his opposition to the bill clear in the November conversation with the governor. Leo told Pritzker it was important to defend the value of life and that every life is sacred, the pope told reporters outside the papal villa of Castel Gandolfo before his return to Rome.The Vatican had not earlier provided details of the meeting.Pritzker signed the assisted suicide measure, ardently opposed by Catholic leaders, into law Dec. 12."I spoke very explicitly with Gov. Pritzker about that," the pope said, and he said Cardinal Blase Cupich also expressed his views. "But we were...

130 students and teachers kidnapped from Catholic school in Nigeria released

null / Credit: hyotographics/ShutterstockACI Prensa Staff, Dec 23, 2025 / 15:25 pm (CNA).Nigerian authorities have confirmed that 130 students and teachers kidnapped in November from a Catholic school in Nigeria have been released.According to the Associated Press (AP), Wasiu Abiodun, a police spokesperson for Nigeria's Niger state, said "the remaining batch of the abducted students" were released, in addition to the first 50 who managed to escape shortly after the abduction and another 100 who were freed in early December.At least 303 students and 12 teachers were kidnapped on Nov. 21 at St. Mary's Catholic Primary and Secondary Schools.Sunday Dare, spokesperson for Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, stated on X that with the 130 released, there are "none left in captivity."However, Abiodun said there are still 35 students and teachers unaccounted for and "further details will be communicated" concerning them.According to Bayo Onanuga, another figure close to the Nigerian p...

Trafficking victims rise worldwide as experts, survivors call for stronger action

Rome's International Conference on Human Trafficking was held at the Pontifical Gregorian University on Dec. 10, 2025. / Credit: EWTN News/ScreenshotRome Newsroom, Dec 23, 2025 / 15:55 pm (CNA).Fifty million people are currently being trafficked around the world, according to the 2023 Global Slavery Index, driving over $236 billion into the hands of criminals, with numbers continuing to rise.The 2024 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report documented that between 2019 and 2022 the number of identified trafficking victims increased by 25%, forced labor rose by 47%, and the number of child victims rose by 31%, with a dominating 38% increase in girls. Earlier this month, the Sovereign Order of Malta, Praeveni Global, the Santa Marta Group, and the Institute of Anthropology of the Pontifical Gregorian University organized an international conference in Rome to discuss prevention efforts, strengthen collaboration, and promote comprehensive action plans. Con...

Catholic federation denounces withdrawal of EU funds due to ideological bias

The Berlaymont building in Brussels, seat of the European Commission. / Credit: EmDee/Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 23, 2025 / 16:25 pm (CNA).The European Commission has decided to withdraw funding from the Federation of Catholic Family Associations in Europe (FAFCE), an organization founded in 1997 to promote and defend the family, based on marriage between a man and a woman, before European institutions.The decision comes at a time when the European Union has recently given the green light to initiatives that promote so-called abortion tourism financed by European funds and the imposition of the recognition of homosexual unions on all member states.In contrast, funding is being denied to this Brussels-based Catholic federation, which brings together 33 associations from 20 European countries and is currently active with EU institutions, the Council of Europe, and the U.N.At the end of November, the EU froze the funds allocated to projects submitted by FAFCE wi...

'Everybody's had it': Backlash to Charlotte bishop's ban of altar rails, kneelers

After delaying restrictions on the Traditional Latin Mass for three months, Bishop Michael Martin said in a Sept. 26, 2025, letter that the Chapel of the Little Flower in the St. Therese Parish in Mooresville, North Carolina, which was recently renovated by the diocese and can seat just over 350 people, will have two Masses each Sunday and on holy days of obligation, / Credit: Diocese of CharlotteCNA Staff, Dec 23, 2025 / 16:55 pm (CNA).Priests as well as the lay faithful are voicing criticisms after Bishop Michael Martin of the Diocese of Charlotte, North Carolina, issued a pastoral letter last week prohibiting the use of altar rails and kneelers in the reception of Communion in the diocese.In the Dec. 17 letter, Martin said that by Jan. 16, 2026, the use of altar rails, kneelers, and prie-dieus (movable kneelers) will no longer be permitted in the diocese, and any "temporary or movable fixtures used for kneeling for the reception of Communion" must be removed.In the letter, M...

Nigerians must stop 'trading future for crumbs': Catholic official on security crisis

The secretary-general of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), Father Michael Banjo. / Credit: Ijebu-Ode Catholic DioceseACI Africa, Dec 23, 2025 / 11:37 am (CNA).The secretary-general of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) has urged Nigerians to safeguard their future by making informed choices especially during elections and amid the country's security crisis.In his message for Christmas delivered during the festival of Lessons and Carols at the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, Father Michael Banjo highlighted vices such as dishonesty, corruption, and exploitation as major obstacles to peace, warning of the dangers of ungodliness."If we want peace in Nigeria, we must stop trading our future for crumbs and begin to give glory to God by voting for leaders of integrity, compassion, and proven character, leaders who fear God and truly serve the common good," Banjo said during the Dec. 14 event.He added: "When leaders govern without fear of God, consci...

Priest expert in new evangelization on today's Catholic moment

Father Manuel Chouciño. / Credit: ACI PrensaMadrid, Spain, Dec 23, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).Father Manuel Chouciño, an expert in new evangelization who has surprised many by organizing an escape room in a Spanish monastery, is convinced that Catholics "are in vogue" because people "are tired of feeling so empty."Having arrived just three months ago at the parish-monastery of the Divine Savior of Lérez, which belongs to the Archdiocese of Santiago de Compostela, Chouciño saw in the place, an old Benedictine monastery, great possibilities for evangelization.The monastery had been empty since 1835 due to the forced expropriation of Catholic Church property known as "the ecclesiastical confiscations," but in the eyes of a priest with more than 40 years of experience in youth ministry and recreational activities it was full of possibilities. And the parishioners were ready to follow him.Chouciño, on the left, in white, with some of the actors in the "escape room." Credit: Photo courtes...

Florida bishops call for immigration enforcement moratorium over Christmas

Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski serves on the Committee on Migration of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. / Credit: "The World Over with Raymond Arroyo"/EWTN News screenshotWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 22, 2025 / 16:52 pm (CNA).The bishops of the Catholic Church in Florida have asked President Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis "to pause immigration enforcement activities during the Christmas holidays.""We request that the government pause apprehension and roundup activities during the Christmas season. Such a pause would show a decent regard for the humanity of these families," the bishops said in a Dec. 22 statement."Don't be the Grinch that stole Christmas," Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami said in a news conference. "Give people these two weeks to be with their families without fear of being arrested or taken into custody and ending up at Alligator Alcatraz or at Krome or other places to await deportation."Along with Wenski, other prelates including Bishop...

Archbishop Coakley anticipates meeting with Trump, Vance

Archbishop Paul S. Coakley preaches during a Mass in the Oklahoma City cathedral in 2021. / Credit: Archdiocese of Oklahoma CityWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 22, 2025 / 13:07 pm (CNA).Archbishop Paul Coakley said this week he is looking forward to speaking with President Donald Trump in "the near future."Coakley, who was elected president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in November, said he has "not had any personal conversations" with Trump or Vice President JD Vance but anticipates "engaging with them over matters of mutual concern."When Coakley meets with the administration, "undoubtedly, the question of immigration is going to come up," he said in an interview on CBS News' "Face the Nation" on Dec. 21. "I think we have opportunities to work together. We have opportunities to speak frankly with one another."In regard to immigration, Coakley said there is a lot of "anxiety" among migrants, but the situation "varies from place to place." He said: "...