Vatican announces Pope Leo XIV's public Mass schedule for August and September

Pope Leo greets throngs of faithful in St. Peter's Square on June 11, 2025. / Credit: Vatican MediaACI Prensa Staff, Jul 7, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).The Office for Liturgical Celebrations at the Vatican has announced Pope Leo XIV's public Mass schedule for August and September, following his current stay through July 20 at Castel Gandolfo, the summer retreat of the pontiffs.On Aug. 3, Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to celebrate Mass for the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time at Tor Vergata University in Rome as part of the Jubilee of Youth.Although he will be in the Vatican in August, he is also scheduled to celebrate Mass at the pontifical parish of Castel Gandolfo on Friday, Aug. 15, the solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and to pray the Angelus in the city's Liberty Square. On Sunday, Sept. 7, the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, he will celebrate the eagerly awaited Mass for the canonization of Blesseds Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis, which will take place ...

2 sisters, Catholic school students, lost in Texas flood remembered for faith and kindness

The Guadalupe River, already spilling over its banks on July 4, 2025, (left), rose to a record breaking 47.4 feet on July 5 (right). / Credit: Sophie AbuzeidWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 7, 2025 / 15:04 pm (CNA).Two sisters who attended St. Rita Catholic School in Dallas were among the victims of the Texas Hill Country flash floods that have devastated parts of the state, the school confirmed in a statement on Saturday.Blair Harber, 13, and Brooke Harber, 11, were vacationing with their parents and grandparents on the Guadalupe River near Hunt, Texas. The flash flood raised the river more than 22 feet in half an hour in the early morning hours of July 4, dislodging and carrying away their cabin, in which they were staying with their grandparents.They were discovered in Kerrville, 15 miles from their cabin community, with their hands clasped together, according to reports.Their grandparents, Charlene and Mike Harber, have yet to be found.According to a message shared by their a...

Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati's incorrupt body to be in Rome for Jubilee of Youth

Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, who died at the age of 24 in 1925, is beloved by many Catholic young people today for his enthusiastic witness to holiness that reaches "to the heights." / Credit: Public domainVatican City, Jul 7, 2025 / 14:15 pm (CNA).The coffin holding the incorrupt body of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati will be in Rome for veneration during the Jubilee of Youth July 26 through Aug. 4.According to the Vatican's jubilee office, the coffin will be transferred from the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Turin, in the Italian region of Piedmont, to the Basilica of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva in Rome.Frassati, originally scheduled to be canonized on Aug. 3 during the Jubilee of Youth, will now be declared a saint by Pope Leo XIV on Sunday, Sept. 7, together with Blessed Carlo Acutis.Frassati's remains will be displayed in the Basilica of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva in Rome until Aug. 4 so that they can be venerated by young people attending jubilee events July 28 throu...

Auxiliary vicar of Opus Dei charged with human trafficking and labor exploitation 

Monsignor Mariano Fazio is auxiliary vicar of the Prelature of Opus Dei. / Credit: Opus DeiBuenos Aires, Argentina, Jul 6, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).The Argentine justice system has added the auxiliary vicar of Opus Dei, the organization's second in command, Monsignor Mariano Fazio, as a defendant in the case involving the alleged human trafficking and the reduction to servitude of 43 women in Argentina.The case, which was formally filed in 2024 but had been reported in the media several years earlier, accuses Opus Dei authorities of allegedly recruiting 43 women while they were still minors and subjecting them to a regime of semi-slavery in their residences.Until now, the defendants were four priests who served as authorities at different times between 1991 and 2015: Carlos Nannei, Patricio Olmos, and Víctor Urrestarazu, former vicars of Opus Dei in Argentina, and the former director of the women's branch in the country, Gabriel Dondo.The case now includes another defendant: Fazio...

Archbishop in Zambia calls for responsible, ethical journalism ahead of 2026 elections

Archbishop Benjamin Phiri of Zambia's Archdiocese of Ndola. / Credit: Archdiocese of NdolaACI Africa, Jul 6, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).Archbishop Benjamin Phiri of Zambia's Archdiocese of Ndola has called on journalists and media in the South African nation to resist sensationalism and distorting of facts as the country prepares for general elections in August 2026.In his homily on Sunday, June 29, the solemnity of Apostles Peter and Paul, Phiri called for responsible and ethical journalism."When you report in order to educate, you do not tell lies. You tell the facts as they are," he said during a Mass marking the 40th anniversary of St. Peter the Apostle Mushili Parish of his metropolitan see.The archbishop faulted journalists, "whose narratives fuel more conflict than resolve issues because of the practice of pitting one against the other.""You want that political party to fight against that political party; you want that person there to be fighting the other person there. Is th...

Pope Leo XIV prays for victims, families of Texas flood disaster

Pope Leo XIV, speaking in English, expressed his "sincere condolences" to "families who have lost loved ones, in particular their daughters, who were at the summer camp, in the disaster caused by flooding of the Guadalupe river in Texas in the United States" after praying the Angelus with pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square on July 6, 2025. / Credit: Vatican MediaRome Newsroom, Jul 6, 2025 / 10:30 am (CNA).Pope Leo XIV on Sunday prayed for the victims and families affected by the recent flood disaster in Texas.The Holy Father, speaking in English, expressed his "sincere condolences" to "families who have lost loved ones, in particular their daughters, who were at the summer camp, in the disaster caused by flooding of the Guadalupe river in Texas in the United States" after praying the Angelus with pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square.More than 20 children attending the all-girls summer camp are currently missing after flash floods struck Texas Hill Country in the early h...

Catholic schools in spotlight as French abuse report fuels state oversight debate

A photo shows a view of the National Assembly in Paris on June 10, 2024, a day after the European Parliament elections. / Credit: GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT/AFP via Getty ImagesCNA Newsroom, Jul 6, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).A French parliamentary report released on July 2 has shed light on disturbing cases of abuse in schools while also reigniting a longstanding national debate over the balance between state oversight and freedom of education.  The report, resulting from a five-month inquiry into violence within the school system, proposes a series of measures aimed at better protecting minors. However, its heavy focus on Catholic private institutions under state contract has raised concerns about potential political bias and the future of educational pluralism in France. The inquiry was led by parliamentarians Violette Spillebout, from President Macron's centrist party Renaissance, and Paul Vannier, from the far-left party La France Insoumise (LFI). While the report f...

Armed robbers attack religious sisters' home for girls in Mozambique

The Mercedarian Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament in the Diocese of Pemba, Mozambique. / Credit: ACNACI Africa, Jul 5, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).Armed robbers attacked a girls' home in the Diocese of Pemba in northern Mozambique run by the Mercedarian Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament (HMSS) in early June. Violent incidents are reportedly on the rise there, according to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) International. In a report ACN shared with ACI Africa, CNA's news partner in Africa, on July 1, HMSS members recalled the traumatic experience of June 8 when the girls' home under their care was broken into by a group of men armed with guns and machetes.In a message to ACN, Sister Ofélia Robledo Alvarado described the terror they felt during the break-in. "A group of 18 men entered our mission, armed with machetes, iron bars, and weapons. Eight men came into the house, while the others stayed outside, controlling the gates and subduing the guards," Alvarado said in the ACN rep...

Nigerian bishop: Displaced families in need of spiritual and material help

Bishop Mark Maigida Nzukwein of Nigeria's Catholic Diocese of Wukari. / Credit: Courtesy of Diocese of Wukari, NigeriaVatican City, Jul 5, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).Bishop Mark Maigida Nzukwein says displaced families and communities who daily face threats of violence in Nigeria are in great need of spiritual and material support.Since being appointed the first bishop of the Diocese of Wukari, located in Nigeria's Taraba state, by Pope Francis in 2022, Nzukwein has seen the destruction of at least 325 Catholic places of worship by Islamic extremists."Christians here are really suffering," the bishop told CNA in an interview. "The first thing we need from people is their prayerful support.""Secondly, definitely we need material support to help rehabilitate some of our people who are traumatized from the violence that has been very recurrent," he added.Reports released this year by the organizations Aid to the Church in Need and Open Doors have shown that violent attacks against unar...

Pope Leo XIV appoints new president to lead Vatican's child safeguarding commission

Speaking to over 400 bishops from 38 countries on June 25, 2025, in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV emphasized the importance of pastoral prudence, poverty, and synodality in the ministry of a bishop. / Credit: Vatican MediaVatican City, Jul 5, 2025 / 10:35 am (CNA).Pope Leo XIV has appointed Archbishop Thibault Verny of Chambéry as the new president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.The prelate succeeds U.S.-born Cardinal Seán O'Malley, 81, the founding president of the safeguarding commission established by Pope Francis in 2014.  "I thank the Holy Father for my appointment as president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors," Verny said in a statement released on July 5. "I am honoured by the trust he has placed in me, fully aware of the grave and sacred task entrusted to the commission: to help the Church become ever more vigilant, accountable, and compassionate in her mission to protect the most vul...