Catholic University Press to publish Pope Leo XIV's doctoral dissertation

The Catholic University of America. / Credit: Mehdi Kasumov/ShutterstockWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 12, 2025 / 17:07 pm (CNA).Here's a roundup of some of the latest Catholic education news:Catholic University Press will exclusively publish Pope Leo XIV's doctoral dissertationThe Catholic University of America has secured exclusive English-language editorial rights to Pope Leo XIV's doctoral dissertation, "The Office and Authority of the Local Prior in the Order of St. Augustine."The book will be available in print and Kindle editions in October, according to an Aug. 11 press release, with a foreword by Dominican Father Thomas Joseph White, rector of the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, also known as the Angelicum, where the Holy Father defended his dissertation in 1987."While the future pontiff's dissertation focuses on the role of the prior as the local superior in the Augustinians, his insights as a young priest in areas such as Church authority, the sp...

At 76 and wheelchair-bound, acolyte serves God 'with all I can do'

Acolyte Reynaldo José Osorio Muñoz doesn't let his age or disability interfere with his desire to serve God at the altar of his parish in Colombia. / Credit: Marcos CobosACI Prensa Staff, Aug 12, 2025 / 17:38 pm (CNA).At 76 years of age, and despite being wheelchair-bound, Reynaldo José Osorio Muñoz doesn't let these factors interfere with his desire to serve God at the altar of his parish in Colombia. With love and dedication, he participates as an altar server at Mass, dedicating his service to God, the Church, and his fellow parishioners.Osorio lives at the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary Senior Citizen Wellness Center, a Christian-inspired institution dedicated to the comprehensive care of vulnerable seniors.According to its website, the center offers meals, medical care, recreational activities, and cultural and spiritual formation, "allowing them to meet their basic needs and improve their quality of life in a safe and harmonious environment, through medical and human car...

Proposed solar farm plan threatens English Camino, UK bishop says

St. James Roman Catholic Church in Reading, England, is the starting point of the English route of the Camino de Santiago. / Credit: Kevin Hellon/ShutterstockLondon, England, Aug 12, 2025 / 13:52 pm (CNA).A bishop in the United Kingdom has expressed concern about a proposal to build a huge solar farm on the English stretch of the Camino de Santiago in the south of England.The English leg of the highly popular and historic pilgrimage runs 68 miles from the city of Reading to the port of Southampton, which falls within the Diocese of Portsmouth and has been frequented by pilgrims for more than a thousand years.The Camino de Santiago is made up of many different ancient routes across Europe that all lead to the tomb of St. James in Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain.English pilgrims would traditionally take a boat from Portsmouth and sail to Spain before continuing their pilgrimage.In an email exchange with CNA, Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth expressed his worries about t...

French bishops ask that priest who served time for rape of a minor not be promoted

The side of Toulouse Cathedral (Cathédrale Saint-Étienne de Toulouse) in Toulouse in the South of France. / Credit: Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 12, 2025 / 14:24 pm (CNA).The French bishops' conference has issued a statement addressed to the archbishop of Toulouse, Guy de Kerimel, asking him to rescind the promotion of a priest who served time in prison for the rape of a minor boy.In an Aug. 10 press release from the presidency of the Bishops' Conference of France, the French bishops revealed they had "engaged in constructive dialogue" with Kerimel, "inviting him to reconsider the decision he made regarding the appointment of the chancellor of his diocese.""Such an appointment to such an important position, both canonically and symbolically, can only reopen wounds, reawaken suspicions, and disconcert the people of God," they wrote.The French bishops further recalled the Church's efforts in the...

Baltimore to receive statue by Timothy Schmalz depicting Christ mourning a murder victim

Christ mourns a murder victim in the statue "Thou Shalt Not Kill" by Timothy Schmalz. / Credit: Courtesy of the Archdiocese of BaltimoreWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 12, 2025 / 14:54 pm (CNA).As advocates in Baltimore work to end violent crime in the area, officials with the Archdiocese of Baltimore are bringing to the city a sculpture of Jesus mourning a homicide victim.The statue, made by Catholic artist Timothy Schmalz, is titled "Thou Shall Not Kill."On Aug. 9 the archdiocese held its third annual gun buyback program, inviting citizens to surrender their guns for cash to help lessen violence in the city. The Baltimore City Police Department, St. Joseph's Monastery Parish, and the Health by Southwest coalition helped the archdiocese sponsor the event.Following the success of the buybacks, St. Joseph's Monastery parish priest Father Mike Murphy, the archdiocese, and community leaders are working to bring Schmalz's work of Christian public art to the city.The life-sized statu...

Vatican allows New Zealand ban on Scottish congregation after alleged illicit exorcisms

A panorama of the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. / Credit: Jakub Maculewicz/ShutterstockCNA Staff, Aug 12, 2025 / 15:52 pm (CNA).A religious institute in New Zealand has lost its appeal to the Vatican to continue public ministry in the Diocese of Christchurch after the local bishop ordered the ban amid allegations of unauthorized exorcisms and other abuses.Christchurch Bishop Michael Gielen said in an Aug. 10 letter to his diocese that the Vatican "rejected in its entirety" the appeal of the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer after Gielen forbade the community from ministering in Christchurch last year.The bishop said in July 2024 that the community had been subject to an apostolic visitation by Australian Bishop Robert McGuckin. Gielen removed the ministry faculties of the members after the Vatican's recommendation and also asked the group "to leave the Christchurch Diocese."Gielen in both letters did not clarify why the community was being investigated and sanctioned, but the...

Book on the thought of Pope Francis to be distributed in Buenos Aires province schools

Cover of the book "The Teacher: The Humanism of Pope Francis." / Credit: General Directorate of Culture and Education of the Province of Buenos AiresBuenos Aires, Argentina, Aug 12, 2025 / 16:22 pm (CNA).The government of Buenos Aires province in Argentina will distribute the 168-page book "The Teacher: The Humanism of Pope Francis" in public and private schools, an initiative that seeks to keep his legacy alive and transmit his thought to new generations.Gov. Axel Kicillof and the archbishop of La Plata (the provincial capital), Gustavo Carrara, were present at the presentation of the book, produced by the province's General Directorate of Culture and Education.The book seeks to keep alive the legacy of the Argentine pontiff, who died on April 21. With this initiative, the governor stated, the pope's thought will be present in all schools in Buenos Aires province.The director general of culture and education, Alberto Sileoni, remembered Francis as an "educator who conveyed his...

Archdiocese of Port-au-Prince denounces the 'collapse of humanity' in Haitian society

The Archdiocese of Port-au-Prince condemned the kidnapping of nine people from an orphanage on the outskirts of the capital on Sunday, Aug. 3. / Credit: Creative Photo Corner/ShutterstockACI Prensa Staff, Aug 12, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).The Archdiocese of Port-au-Prince denounced the "collapse of humanity" in Haitian society, "where the unthinkable has become commonplace," in response to the kidnapping of nine people from an orphanage on the outskirts of the capital on Aug. 3. In a statement, the archdiocese said it received the news of the kidnappings, which included an Irish lay missionary and a disabled 3-year-old boy, with "deep sadness and profound indignation" and expressed "its fraternal solidarity and spiritual closeness" with the orphanage, a "tireless sower of hope for the most vulnerable."The archdiocese also expressed its solidarity with the residents of Kenscoff, who have been affected "by the brutal violence that has taken hold in this town over the past few mo...

Colombian senator dies 2 months after being shot by assassin

Miguel Uribe Turbay. / Credit: LuigiVenegas, Original uploader (2019), CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsACI Prensa Staff, Aug 11, 2025 / 14:40 pm (CNA).Colombian Sen. Miguel Uribe Turbay died Monday morning, Aug. 11, just over two months after being shot by a hitman, his wife, María Claudia Tarazona, confirmed. The politician was hospitalized at the Santa Fe Foundation Hospital in Bogotá."You will always be the love of my life. Thank you for a life full of love, thank you for being a father to the girls, the best father to Alejandro. I ask God to show me the way to learn to live without you," Tarazona wrote on Instagram early this morning.Born on Jan. 28, 1986, in Bogotá, Colombia, Uribe Turbay was the son of businessman Miguel Uribe and journalist Diana Turbay, who was murdered in 1991 after being kidnapped by the order of Pablo Escobar, the head of the Medellín Cartel. Uribe Turbay, whose family background is Maronite Catholic, held various public offices until he was ele...

Syracuse's bishop takes on extra job of parish priest for 3 churches

Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Syracuse, New York. / Credit: Mahmoud Masad/ShutterstockWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 11, 2025 / 16:02 pm (CNA).The Diocese of Syracuse, New York, announced on Aug. 9 that Bishop Douglas J. Lucia has taken on the additional job of parish priest at three churches in Baldwinsville, New York. The diocese announced a number of changes to pastoral assignments that went into effect on Aug. 1, including Lucia serving as pastor at St. Augustine Church, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church, and St. Mary of the Assumption Church. The three churches are part of the same parish and share various initiatives and resources."Certainly, a crucial component in our parishes is the priest. Without the priest, there is no Mass; and without the Mass there is no Eucharist, no food for the journey," Lucia wrote in a recent letter to the churches' parishioners.After announcing that the previous pastor, Father Joe O'Connor, received seminary work as a new assignm...