Pope Leo calls for 'prudent' evaluation of supernatural phenomena to avoid superstition

Pope Leo XIV gives his apostolic blessing at the end of the general audience in St. Peter's Square on Nov. 12, 2025. / Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNAVatican City, Nov 13, 2025 / 15:54 pm (CNA).Pope Leo XIV during an address at the Vatican on Thursday called for the "prudent" evaluation of supernatural phenomena to avoid falling into superstition."To avoid falling into superstitious illusion, it is necessary to evaluate such events prudently, through humble discernment and in accordance with the teachings of the Church," the Holy Father said to participants in a Nov. 13 meeting organized by the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints that reflected on the relationship between mystical phenomena and holiness of life.The conference focused on the theme "Mysticism, Mystical Phenomena, and Holiness." Upon receiving the participants at the Vatican, the pope noted that, through constant commitment, the magisterium, theology, and spiritual writers have provided "criteria for distinguishing authe...

Pope Leo XIV receives exiled Nicaraguan Bishop Rolando Álvarez

Pope Leo XIV and Bishop Rolando Álvarez, bishop of Matagalpa and apostolic administrator of Estelí, Nicaragua. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN NewsACI Prensa Staff, Nov 13, 2025 / 18:06 pm (CNA).Pope Leo XIV on Nov. 13 received Rolando Álvarez, the exiled bishop of Matagalpa and apostolic administrator of Estelí in Nicaragua. Álvarez is in forced exile after being deported by the dictatorship of President Daniel Ortega and his wife and vice president, Rosario Murillo, in January 2024."The Holy Father received in audience this morning His Excellency Bishop Rolando José Álvarez Lagos, bishop of Matagalpa (Nicaragua)," the Vatican Press Office reported, without providing further details.From Chicago, Father Erick Díaz, an exiled Nicaraguan priest, said that Pope Leo XIV's meeting with Álvarez is "an audience of hope and ecclesial communion" as well as "a significant moment for our Nicaraguan Church, marked by challenges, fidelity to the Gospel, and hope in the Lord."After offeri...

CatholicVote report examines moral implications of immigration enforcement

A person detained is taken to a parking lot on the far north side of the city before being transferred to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Chicago on Oct. 31, 2025. / Credit: Jamie Kelter Davis/Getty ImagesWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 13, 2025 / 18:26 pm (CNA).The Catholic advocacy organization CatholicVote has released a report examining the Trump administration's immigration enforcement efforts, concluding Christians must balance charity toward the immigrant with the common good of the receiving state.The report, titled "Immigration Enforcement and the Christian Conscience," comes on the heels of the special message on immigration released by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) at its fall plenary meeting this past week. "A faithful Catholic approach to immigration begins not with politics but with people. Compassion, hospitality, and solidarity with the poor are not optional virtues," CatholicVote President and CEO Kelsey Reinhardt said i...

U.S. bishops pass directive forbidding transgender surgeries at Catholic hospitals

Mercy Health Perrysburg Hospital in Perrysburg, Ohio. / Credit: Wikimedia CommonsCNA Staff, Nov 13, 2025 / 13:20 pm (CNA).Catholic hospitals in the United States are explicitly forbidden from carrying out transgender-related surgeries on individuals who believe themselves to be the opposite sex, the U.S. bishops said this week.The prelates, gathered at the plenary of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in Baltimore, voted on Nov. 12 to direct hospitals to "preserve the integrity of the human body" when treating individuals with gender dysphoria.Such individuals often seek surgery to make their bodies conform to that of the opposite sex. But in updated guidance, the bishops said that while Catholic health care providers must employ "all appropriate resources" to mitigate the suffering of such patients, they can use "only those means that respect the fundamental order of the human body."The new rule makes into explicit USCCB policy what the bishops expressed in a doct...

U.S. bishops receive briefing on artificial intelligence

Paul Scherz briefs bishops about artificial intelligence at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore on Nov. 12, 2025. / Credit: Tessa Gervasini/CNABaltimore, Maryland, Nov 13, 2025 / 13:50 pm (CNA).The U.S. bishops received a briefing on the benefits and risks of artificial intelligence (AI) from Paul Scherz at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore.Scherz, a theology professor at the University of Notre Dame, has studied the ethics of AI. At the Nov. 12 meeting, Scherz highlighted some of his findings and shared how the bishops should approach the technology within their dioceses.AI technologies "have great potential to contribute to human flourishing and the common good," Scherz said. "But note that it would be a mistake to describe these programs as intelligent in the same way that humans are.""They lack consciousness and any kind of subjective relationship to the world...

Numbers down but engagement up among youngest U.S. Catholic adults, survey finds

null / Credit: Wirestock Creators/ShutterstockCNA Staff, Nov 13, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).According to a new survey, engagement among U.S. adults who identify as Catholic is strong, especially among the youngest adults, and there is growing trust in the Church after the fallout of the clergy sexual abuse crisis of the early 2000s.In July, Leadership Roundtable commissioned a polling firm to conduct a national survey of Catholics in the U.S. in order to inform Church leaders of problems as well as strengths within the Catholic Church since the sexual abuse crisis came to national attention in 2002 and the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People was composed to address it.Researchers composed a 72-question survey and divided respondents into three groups: the Faithful (1,541 respondents), the Occasional (472 respondents), and the Disengaged (1,020). The Faithful said they attend Mass at least monthly, the Occasional said they go a few times a year, and the Disengaged...

Vatican, German bishops continue dialogue on synodal body

Representatives of the Roman Curia and the German bishops' conference meet to discuss the proposed Synodal Conference statute at the Vatican on Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025. / Credit: Deutsche Bischofskonferenz/KoppEWTN News, Nov 13, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).Representatives of the Roman Curia and the German bishops' conference met on Wednesday to continue discussions on the proposed statute of a "synodal conference" for the Church in Germany, marking the fourth such dialogue since talks began in 2022.The meeting, held in Rome on Nov. 12, took place in what a joint press statement described as an "honest, open, and constructive atmosphere," with both sides discussing various aspects of the planned synodal body's character, composition, and competencies.No further details of the encounter were shared. The proposed conference concept represents the latest iteration of plans to establish a permanent body in Germany in the wake of the controversial Synodal Way, following repeated inte...

Mother Frances Cabrini: The unsinkable saint who missed the Titanic

A photo of St. Frances Cabrini from 1880, the year she founded her order, is seen against a 1913 painting by Harry J. Jansen, "The Steamship Titanic." / Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, England, public domain via Wikimedia CommonsNational Catholic Register, Nov 13, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).In April 1912, Mother Frances Cabrini was in Italy with her sisters. Her plans were to visit her foundations in France, Spain, and England before sailing back to the United States in mid-April to continue work in New York City. Her sisters in England were eagerly awaiting this visit from their 62-year-old founder and superior. To help make her journey back to the U.S. more comfortable, they bought her a ticket and booked passage on a new ocean liner, the RMS Titanic.Although an intrepid traveler who would eventually make 24 transatlantic crossings to establish her foundation, hospitals, and orphanages, Mother Cabrini was not a fan of ocean voyages since she had almost drowned as a ch...

Catholic schools in Bangladesh close amid political unrest

Catholic religious sisters conduct classes at a school they run outside Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Nov. 2, 2023. / Credit: Stephan Uttom RozarioDhaka, Bangladesh, Nov 12, 2025 / 18:31 pm (CNA).Several Catholic schools in Dhaka will close on Thursday amid fears of political violence as Bangladesh's International Crime Tribunal prepares to announce a verdict date for ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.On Nov. 13, the International Crime Tribunal will announce the date of the first verdict in the ongoing case of crimes against humanity against Hasina, who was ousted in August 2024. The political climate has become unstable, as the ousted Awami League called for a Dhaka blockade on social media Thursday.In July 2024, a student-led uprising toppled Hasina's government, and on Aug. 5, 2024, she fled to India. An interim government was subsequently formed under the leadership of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus. According to a United Nations report, around 1,400 people died during the July p...

Vatican declares alleged apparitions of Jesus in France 'not supernatural'

St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. / Credit: Xosema (CC BY-SA 4.0)ACI Prensa Staff, Nov 12, 2025 / 14:54 pm (CNA).The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) has declared that the alleged apparitions of Jesus in Dozulé, France, do not have an authentic divine origin and are therefore "not supernatural."The prefect of the dicastery, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, confirmed the declaration based on the Norms for Discerning Alleged Supernatural Phenomena in a document released Nov. 12 and addressed to the bishop of Bayeux-Lisieux, Jacques Habert.In 1972, Madeleine Aumont claimed that Jesus had appeared to her, asking the Church to build a giant "glorious cross" in Dozulé, next to a "shrine of reconciliation." Furthermore, the alleged visionary claimed that Jesus had announced his "imminent" return.In the document, the Vatican authority notes that the alleged apparitions in the Normandy town "have elicited spiritual interest" but also "not a few controversies and diffic...