Pope Leo XIV visits favorite Marian shrine of John Paul II outside Rome

Pope Leo XIV prays at the Marian shrine at Mentorella on Aug. 19, 2025. / Credit: Vatican MediaNational Catholic Register, Aug 19, 2025 / 18:43 pm (CNA).Pope Leo XIV made a private visit Tuesday to the Shrine of Our Lady of Mentorella, Mother of Graces, near Rome, underscoring his devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.A favorite pilgrimage site of St. John Paul II and close to the picturesque mountain town of Capranica Prenestina, it is the fourth Marian shrine the Holy Father has visited since his election on May 8.The Vatican said in a short statement that after visiting and praying at the shrine, Leo XIV spent some time with members of the Polish Resurrectionist congregation who run the shrine before returning to Castel Gandolfo.Perched on the top of a small mountain overlooking a vast valley below with breathtaking views, the Shrine of Our Lady of Grace at Mentorella is said to have been founded in the fourth century by Constantine, who wanted to commemorate the site of St. E...

Court says California school district must allow Christian club access to facilities

A federal district court in California ordered the Oakland Unified School district to grant equal access of school facilities to a Christian club. / Credit: zimmytws/ShutterstockCNA Staff, Aug 19, 2025 / 12:35 pm (CNA).A federal district court has ordered that a California school district must grant a Christian children's club equal access to school facilities, arguing that the denial of that access violates the club's free speech rights.The Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) will be required to provide "equal access to available spaces and benefits" to the group Child Evangelism Fellowship of NorCal, District Judge Haywood Gilliam Jr. said in an Aug. 15 ruling.The court order found that the school district apparently engaged in "viewpoint discrimination" in violation of the U.S. Constitution when it barred the group from after-school use of campus facilities.The district had argued that the Christian group did not meet the administrative requirements to be allowed access t...

English priest presents Our Lady of Persecuted Christians icon to Iraqi bishop

Bishop Benedictus Hanno receives the Our Lady of Persecuted Christians icon in Qaraqosh, Iraq, on Aug. 6, 2025, from Father Benedict Kiely of Nasarean.org. / Credit: Father Benedict KielyACI MENA, Aug 19, 2025 / 14:03 pm (CNA).Marking the 11th anniversary of forced displacement of Christians in Iraq, Father Benedict Kiely presented an icon of Our Lady of Persecuted Christians to Bishop Benedictus Younan Hanno, Syriac Catholic archbishop of Mosul and its dependencies, on Aug. 6 in Qaraqosh, Iraq.The bishop announced that the icon will be placed in St. Ephrem Church in Qaraqosh, which is currently under construction and expected to open in November.Father Benedict Kiely (left), a priest of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, England, who has spent the last decade supporting persecuted Christians, presents the icon of Our Lady of Persecuted Christians to Bishop Benedictus Younan Hanno, Syriac Catholic archbishop of Mosul and its dependencies, Aug. 6, 2025, in Qar...

Pope Leo XIV to Amazon bishops: Nature is not to be worshipped but exists to praise God

Pope Leo XIV blesses the crowd at his Wednesday general audience in St. Peter's Basilica on Aug. 13, 2025, at the Vatican. Due to the heat, the pope gave his address in Paul VI Audience Hall but also greeted pilgrims in other locations. / Credit: Vatican MediaACI Prensa Staff, Aug 19, 2025 / 14:33 pm (CNA).Pope Leo XIV sent a telegram to the bishops of the Amazon region participating in a meeting in Bogotá, Colombia, this week, reminding them of the importance of caring for nature without becoming slaves or worshippers of it.In his message, addressed to Cardinal Pedro Barreto Jimeno, president of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon, the Holy Father thanked the prelates for their "efforts made to promote the greater good of the Church in favor of the faithful of the beloved Amazonian territory."Recalling what was learned during the Synod on the Amazon in 2019, the pontiff urged the bishops to seek, based on the unity and collegiality proper to an "episcopal body," ways to hel...

14 things we learn about Pope Leo XIV from his brother's latest interview

Pope Leo XIV greets the faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square from the popemobile during his Wednesday general audience on Aug. 6, 2025. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNANational Catholic Register, Aug 19, 2025 / 11:51 am (CNA).Ever since his brother was named pope, John Prevost hasn't been shy about talking to the press. Pope Leo XIV's first phone call with his brother went viral after a reporter captured it on video ("Why don't you answer the phone," the newly elected pontiff had snapped at his brother in a highly relatable sibling interaction captured for posterity). Now, in a wide-ranging, half-hour interview with NBC's Chicago affiliate that aired over the weekend, the 70-year-old retired high school principal opened up again. Here are some highlights from their talk:Prevost still speaks with his brother every day.Yes, they still talk on the phone each day, and they still play "Wordle" and "Words With Friends" together, Prevost told NBC's Mary Ann Ahern."I usually no...

Pope names new bishop for Jefferson City, Missouri

Father Ralph O'Donnell, bishop-elect of Jefferson City, Missouri. / Diocese of Jefferson City website.Vatican City, Aug 19, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).Pope Leo XIV named Father Ralph O'Donnell of the Archdiocese of Omaha as the new bishop of Jefferson City, Missouri. He will succeed Archbishop Shawn McKnight, who in May was installed as archbishop of Kansas City, Kansas.Bishop-elect O'Donnell has most recently served as pastor of Saint Margaret Mary Parish in Omaha.Born on August 31, 1969, in Omaha, he earned a bachelor's degree in religious studies from Conception Seminary College and a Master of Divinity from the University of Saint Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary. He later obtained a master's degree in spirituality from Creighton University.Ordained a priest in 1997, O'Donnell has served in various pastoral and administrative roles, including vocations director, seminary vice rector, and executive director of the U.S. bishops' Secretariat for Clergy, Consecrated Life an...

From Rome to home: Young people strive to be witnesses for Christ

Young people gather on the esplanade of Tor Vergata during the Jubilee of Youth. / Credit: Courtesy of Claudia ArrietaACI Prensa Staff, Aug 19, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).Two weeks ago, 1 million young people returned to their countries after participating in the Jubilee of Youth, an experience that undoubtedly left a profound mark on their lives of faith. Now, beyond what they experienced in Rome, they have a mission: to take that message and testimony home.In the days leading up to the long-awaited event, Pope Leo XIV exhorted a group of young Peruvian pilgrims to "keep everything you live in these days in your heart, but not to conserve it only for yourselves. This is very important: Let what you will experience here be not only for yourselves. We must learn how to share."A young man reads a book on the Tor Vergata esplanade. Credit: Photo courtesy of Claudia ArrietaBeing an example of the love of Jesus ChristMarta Zambrano, a 25-year-old Spaniard who participated as a volunteer ...

Report: Taliban law erases religious freedom, targets women and religious minorities

A mosque in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2024. / Credit: eyetravelphotos/ShutterstockWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 18, 2025 / 16:04 pm (CNA).The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has released a report examining the religious liberty implications for women and minorities in Afghanistan four years after the Taliban's takeover. "Religious freedom conditions in Afghanistan continue to decline dramatically under Taliban rule," the USCIRF wrote in an Aug. 15 report examining the Taliban's Law on the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice one year after its enactment. "The new morality law reinforces a systematic and overt erasure of religious freedom in Afghanistan and facilitates the ongoing repression of religious minorities."According to the USCIRF, the morality law "impacts all Afghans" but "disproportionately affects religious minorities and women, eradicating their participation in public life and systematically eliminating their right to [freedo...

Latin patriarch of Jerusalem: Satan wants to rule where Jesus lived

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa tours the war-torn area surrounding Holy Family Church with the parish's pastor in Gaza, Father Gabriel Romanelli. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Latin Patriarchate of JerusalemACI Prensa Staff, Aug 18, 2025 / 16:56 pm (CNA).The ongoing violence in the Holy Land, especially now with the war in Gaza, was addressed by the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, in his homily during the solemnity of the Assumption of Mary.The prelate's diocese includes not only Israel but also those living in the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank. This has allowed him to experience firsthand the consequences of violence, especially that which has ravaged the Gaza Strip in the last two years and which requires true words of peace, not "sugarcoated and abstract" speeches, he said.From the Benedictine Monastery of Abu Gosh in Israel, the cardinal stated that while everyone wants an end to the conflict, its end will not mark "the en...

Israel issues evacuation order for Holy Family Parish's Gaza City neighborhood

Worshippers attend a Sunday morning Mass led by Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, at the Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Family in Gaza City on July 20, 2025. / Credit: OMAR AL-QATTAA/AFP via Getty ImagesCNA Staff, Aug 18, 2025 / 15:04 pm (CNA).Father Gabriel Romanelli, the pastor of the only Catholic church in Gaza, Holy Family Parish, said Monday that an evacuation order was issued by Israeli forces for the al-Zaytun neighborhood surrounding the parish in Gaza City.The Aug. 18 order was part of a broader Israeli plan to relocate Palestinians from northern Gaza, where the parish is located, to designated zones in the south. Earlier this month, Israel revealed its plan to occupy Gaza.Romanelli expressed concern about the feasibility of relocating Gaza's 2.3 million inhabitants, however, asking: "Where can they find the space for all the inhabitants?" He said Israel was distributing tents to facilitate the evacuation.The Israeli military said the ...