Alveda King responds to Charlie Kirk's assassination: 'We've got to care again'

Alveda King has suffered three assassinations in her family: that of her father, Rev. Alfred Daniel Williams King; her grandmother, Alberta King; and her renowned uncle, Martin Luther King Jr. / Credit: "The World Over with Raymond Arroyo"/ScreenshotCNA Staff, Sep 12, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).After the assassination of Charlie Kirk at a college campus on Wednesday, Alveda King, the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., encouraged people to pray."It broke my heart," King said when asked about her reaction to learning of the assassination."I was so very startled when I got the news that Charlie had been shot, and my heart immediately went to him and his family, his beautiful wife, his little children," she told Raymond Arroyo on EWTN's "The World Over with Raymond Arroyo.""Having experienced those kinds of occurrences in my own family, I immediately went into prayer," she said.King shared about her own experience with political assassinations in her family. Not only was her uncle, Dr...

Pope Leo XIV tells World Meeting on Human Fraternity to welcome migrants, care for poor

Pope Leo XIV greets participants in the third edition of the World Meeting on Human Fraternity at the Vatican on Sept. 12, 2025. / Credit: Vatican MediaVatican City, Sep 12, 2025 / 11:51 am (CNA).Pope Leo XIV spoke out on Friday against what he called the business of wars, while condemning attitudes of rejection and indifference toward migrants and the poor, as he received some of the participants in the third edition of the World Meeting on Human Fraternity at the Vatican.Among those present were several Nobel Peace Prize laureates, including Iraqi activist Nadia Murad, American Jody Williams, Liberian Leymah Gbowee, Yemeni Tawakkol Karman, Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov, Ukrainian lawyer Oleksandra Matviichuk, Filipino journalist Maria Ressa, and Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege.In his remarks, the pontiff reflected on the need for fraternity and reconciliation in a world where wars "shatter the lives of young people forced to take up arms; target defenseless civilians, chil...

New film on St. Maximilian Kolbe's final days highlights hope amid darkness

The premiere of "Triumph of the Heart" in Dallas on Sept. 8, 2025. / Credit: Nicole Marie RichardsCNA Staff, Sep 12, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).A new film called "Triumph of the Heart" depicts St. Maximilian Kolbe's last days on earth in a starvation bunker in the German death camp of Auschwitz. The film will be released in theaters on Sept. 12.St. Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish Franciscan friar and priest who volunteered to die in place of another man in Auschwitz. He spent the last 14 days of his life in a starvation bunker alongside nine other men.The red carpet at the premiere of "Triumph of the Heart" in Dallas on Sept. 8, 2025. Credit: Nicole Marie RichardsAt the film's Sept. 8 premiere in Dallas, where over 1,000 people gathered at the Edith O'Donnell Arts and Technology Building on the University of Texas at Dallas campus to show their support and watch the film, writer and director Anthony D'Ambrosio told CNA on the red carpet that it was "surreal" to see the magnitude of th...

Brazilian court denies mother's right to home-school her child

Regiane Cichelero. / Credit: Courtesy of Alliance Defending Freedom InternationalSao Paulo, Brazil, Sep 12, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).The Santa Catarina State Court of Justice in Brazil has denied Regiane Cichelero's request to home-school her son. In its Sept. 2 ruling, the court upheld the previous decision requiring the child to be enrolled in a regular school in addition to a fine of 100,000 reais (more than $18,000).In 2020, with the closure of public schools in Santa Catarina state due to fears surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, Cichelero decided to home-school her son. After schools reopened in March 2021, the lawyer decided to continue home-schooling him, believing it would guarantee a quality education in line with the family's religious beliefs.At that time, the school began an "active search" for Cichelero's son. The Child Protection Council went to the lawyer's home and warned her about the mandatory school enrollment requirement, according to the Child and Adolescent S...

Benedictine College launches AI center on Carlo Acutis' canonization day

Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas. / Credit: "EWTN News in Depth"Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 11, 2025 / 18:37 pm (CNA).Here's a roundup of the latest Catholic education news in the United States:Benedictine College launches AI center on Carlo Acutis' canonization dayIn response to calls by Pope Leo XIV to the rise of artificial intelligence, Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, launched its new Center for Technology and Human Dignity to promote Catholic digital and biomedical ethics on the same day as Carlo Acutis' canonization on Sept. 7 in Rome. "We are excited to dedicate this center under the patronage of St. Carlo Acutis, a model of how Catholics should use new technology thoughtfully but without fear. And its biomedical emphasis will help as we pursue a medical school," said Benedictine College President Stephen Minnis in a press release. The center will be directed by Benedictine College Professor of Theology and Bioethics Mariele Courtois, who is ...

'I don't have a village anymore': Priest decries insecurity, persecution in Nigeria

Father Vealumun Paul Ansbert Mom, the superior general of the Via Christi Society in Nigeria, has decried the state of insecurity in his diocese, saying he can no longer travel to his village because "everyone has been driven away by killer herders." / Credit: ACI AfricaACI Africa, Sep 11, 2025 / 11:34 am (CNA).The superior general of the Via Christi Society in Nigeria has decried the state of insecurity in his native Makurdi Diocese, saying he can no longer travel to his village.In an interview with ACI Africa on the sidelines of a canonical visit to St. Matthew Kuchikau Parish of the Diocese of Lafia on Sept. 7, Father Vealumun Paul Ansbert Mom described the current insecurity in Benue state and others in the north-central region of Nigeria as "deliberate persecution of Christians in the West African nation.""St. Paul Parish Ayititwa in Katsina-Ala Diocese was burnt down and destroyed. The parish house, rectory, and church building were reduced to ashes. From every evide...

Cardinal Parolin on Charlie Kirk death: 'We are against all types of violence'

A general view of a wreath laid by mourners outside the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria on Sept. 11, 2025, following the fatal shooting of U.S. youth activist and influencer Charlie Kirk while speaking during an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. / Credit: PHILL MAGAKOE/AFP via Getty ImagesVatican City, Sep 11, 2025 / 12:11 pm (CNA).In response to the Sept. 10 fatal shooting of Christian conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the Vatican's secretary of state condemned the use of violence against those with whom one disagrees."The Vatican stand is that we are against all types of violence. And we think that we have to be very, very tolerant, very respectful of everybody, even though we don't share the same view," Cardinal Pietro Parolin told journalists at the sidelines of a conference at the Vatican on Sept. 11."If we are not tolerant and respectful, and we are violent, this will produce a really big problem inside the international community and the national community," he a...

Politicians, faith leaders condemn political violence after Charlie Kirk assassination

A makeshift memorial is seen at Timpanogos Regional Hospital in honor of political activist Charlie Kirk on Sept. 11, 2025, in Orem, Utah. / Credit: George Frey/Getty ImagesWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 11, 2025 / 13:04 pm (CNA).Faith leaders and political leaders are uniting their voices to condemn politically motivated violence following the assassination of Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk.Following the confirmation of Kirk's death by President Donald Trump, some hours after the TPUSA founder was shot at a Utah Valley University event on Wednesday afternoon, Sept. 10, countless faith and political leaders began to speak out against the scourge of political violence.In a statement, Bishop Michael Burbidge of the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, railed against the "vicious pattern of political and social disorder" of the past several weeks, citing the Annunciation Catholic school shooting, the murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, "and now the political assassinati...

Catholic and U.S. leaders offer prayers on 24th anniversary of 9/11

Memorial lights commemorate the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. / Credit: Brian E Kushner/ShutterstockWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 11, 2025 / 13:34 pm (CNA).On the 24th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Catholic and U.S. leaders offered prayers and paid tribute to those who lost their lives that day and for all those who continue to grieve."Today we remember Sept. 11, 2001," Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York wrote in a joint post to social media. "We continue to pray for the souls lost that day, the families who still mourn, the heroes who served, and all those who have since died from 9/11-related illnesses or continue to suffer."null Dolan's post offered a prayer to be said on the anniversary: "Lord, on this Sept. 11, we remember all who died 24 years ago in our city and throughout the country. We hold in our hearts those who still carry loss and grief from that day.""Grant eternal rest to the departed, strength to survivors and th...

Mozambique Church leaders decry silence after mosques built on land taken from Church

Archbishop Inácio Saure of Mozambique's Catholic Archdiocese of Nampula has denounced illegal occupation of Church land in the country and the inaction on the part of relevant authorities in the country. / Credit: ACNACI Africa, Sep 11, 2025 / 14:04 pm (CNA).Archbishop Inácio Saure of the Archdiocese of Nampula in Mozambique and other Church leaders in the southern African country have denounced the illegal occupation of Church land in the country and the inaction of authorities there.In a report by the pontifical and charity foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) International, the leaders said mosques are springing up on land snatched from the Church in what they say raises fears of worsening interreligious relations in a country that is already suffering from an Islamist insurgency in Mozambique's northern province of Cabo Delgado, which neighbors Nampula.The land includes plots on which the female religious congregation of the Servants of Mary, two seminaries, and the p...