Pope names new bishop for Jefferson City, Missouri
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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...
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 and Vocations (2015–2019).
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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 ...
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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...
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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...
