Catholic News

Christchurch, New Zealand, Bishop Michael Gielen described the status of plans to rebuild the city's earthquake-damaged cathedral, with work likely to begin during the next few years.

In an interview with Colm Flynn on "EWTN News Nightly" that aired Sept. 10, Gielen said New Zealand's laity desired to rebuild their church.

"They want another one. They want something that they can celebrate in, and it can unify us," Gielen said. "So, we've responded. We've chosen a design; it's a Romanesque Gothic design, and we've now presented it to the people we've fundraised over. We're very hopeful that in the next few years we'll be able to get started and build it."

Worshippers used a temporary parish during the past 15 years since the 2011 earthquakes that collapsed buildings and killed nearly 200 people throughout the city.

Gielen said the restoration work has become a symbol of something larger — a reminder that the diocese's rebuilding is both physical and spiritual.

"It is a metaphor. Rebuild my church, but we're actually. It's not only the cathedral we're rebuilding. We lost 30 or 35 of our churches — damaged or demolished — in the last 15 years," Gielen said. "So, it's a real example of how faith is. There's a resurgence of faith in the West and in New Zealand as well."

Gielen said the rebuilding has stirred energy across the diocese.

"People are very excited, and it shows the wider community that our people are still hope-filled and they believe in this; and even secular society has gotten behind this, and they're very excited about it as well," he said.

A perpetual adoration chapel is going to be attached to the cathedral, Gielen said.

Full Article

VATICAN CITY — For centuries, "ad limina apostolorum" visits — the periodic pilgrimage of diocesan bishops to the tombs of the apostles Peter and Paul and their meetings with the successor of St. Peter — have often been perceived primarily through an administrative or canonical lens.

In response to the 2021–2024 synodal process, however, Study Group 7 of the Synod of Bishops has proposed a significant structural and spiritual renewal of the visits from what it describes as a "missionary synodal perspective."

The study group is examining "Some Aspects of the Person and Ministry of the Bishop," including criteria for selecting candidates for the episcopate, the judicial function of bishops, and the nature and course of ad limina visits.

A call for missionary synodality

Rooted in Pope Francis' apostolic constitution Praedicate Evangelium and the final document of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, the study group argues that the ad limina visit should go beyond routine administrative reporting.

As the synod's final document states: "The visits ad limina Apostolorum are the apex of the relation between the Bishops of local Churches and the Bishop of Rome and his closest collaborators in the Roman Curia. Many Bishops desire that the way these visits are conducted will be reviewed to make them more and more an opportunity for open exchange and mutual listening" (No. 135).

Study Group 7 says the central purpose of revising the process is to ensure that "the ad limina visit should not concern itself primarily with matters relating to the internal administration of the particular Church, matters that can be addressed just as effectively through the ordinary contacts with the Curia."

Instead, the group says, the visits should, "in keeping with the biblical witness, support the mission that the Christian community is called to carry out in the world in which it lives, becoming an instrument at the service of the missionary conversion of ordinary pastoral ministry."

Theological grounding: The Church as the people of God and a communion of Churches

To explain the proposed renewal, Study Group 7 grounds its framework in the ecclesiology of the Second Vatican Council, particularly Lumen Gentium and Ad Gentes.

The ad limina visit historically developed within a theological understanding of the Church as a "communion of Churches," as described in Lumen Gentium 23. The relationship is based on reciprocal exchange between the particular Churches and the See of Rome.

The visit provides an opportunity for local pastors to give an account of the Church's mission and to share how the Gospel is proclaimed in different cultural contexts, while ensuring that these local expressions find their proper place within "Catholic unity," as described in Lumen Gentium and Ad Gentes.

At the same time, the visit serves the Petrine ministry by giving the bishop of Rome an opportunity to encourage his brother bishops while exercising Peter's unique primatial service.

As Vatican II teaches, the Chair of Peter "presides over the whole assembly of charity" and "protects legitimate differences, while at the same time assuring that such differences do not hinder unity but rather contribute toward it" (Lumen Gentium, 13).

Scripturally, the study group compares this dynamic to St. Paul's journeys to Jerusalem to meet Peter and the apostles, as recounted in Acts and Galatians, where the central concern was maintaining unity in faith while fostering missionary expansion among the nations.

Praedicate Evangelium, meanwhile, says structures such as episcopal conferences express a "Communio Episcoporum ... in service to the Communio Ecclesiae grounded in the Communio Fidelium."

Preparation in the particular Church: Convoking the people of God

One of the most significant elements of Study Group 7's proposal is the re-centering of the ad limina process within the entire people of God.

Rather than being an exercise restricted to the bishop and a small number of diocesan officials, preparation for the visit would begin in the local Church through a process of shared ecclesial discernment.

Study Group 7 states that before bishops travel to Rome, "it will be necessary for the Bishop to convoke the People of God so that they may engage co-responsibly in the preparation of the Preliminary Report through a process of ecclesial discernment, nourished by prayer and participation, in a manner corresponding to the various charisms, missions, and ministries."

That communal preparation would make use of existing participatory structures and involve "Priests, Deacons, Consecrated Men and Women, and Lay faithful, particularly within the various diocesan bodies, beginning with the Presbyteral Council and the Diocesan Pastoral Council."

By grounding the "Relatio Praevia," or Preliminary Report, in periodic local processes of evaluation and accountability, the group says moments such as the ad limina visit "must be understood and lived as events that involve, insofar as possible, all the members of the People of God."

The goal, it adds, is that "the People of God living within each local Church will come to perceive the ad limina visit as an event that directly concerns them."

Roman dialogue and returning home

In Rome, the focus would shift toward spiritual revitalization and collegial dialogue.

Rather than concentrating on formal briefings, Study Group 7 envisions an "exchange of gifts."

"The dialogue, understood as an 'exchange of gifts' and conducted in a collegial style, should be frank, cordial, and reciprocal rather than one-directional," the group states. "It should be capable of bringing to light both the strengths and the needs of the local Churches, while fostering the sharing of good practices."

To give greater expression to the participation of the people of God, the study group also says "it is desirable that a diocesan delegation accompany the Bishop during the ad limina visit, in whatever manner may seem most appropriate, giving preference to those who collaborated in its local preparation."

After returning home, the bishop and other delegates would report back to the local Church through public meetings, allowing diocesan participatory bodies to discern concrete pastoral steps flowing from the visit.

From canonical requirement to missionary instrument

By grounding ad limina visits more firmly in the image of the Church as the people of God, Study Group 7 seeks to turn what can be perceived primarily as an authoritative or bureaucratic requirement into an instrument of missionary synodality.

Under the proposal, the local Church would discern its mission together, send its pastor — potentially accompanied by representatives of the faithful — to meet the successor of St. Peter, and then receive the fruits of that encounter as a renewed impetus for evangelization.

In this vision, the ad limina visit becomes a more visible expression of co-responsibility, Catholic unity, and missionary conversion.

Full Article

Pope Leo XIV sent greetings to Rome's Jewish community as it prepares to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot in a telegram addressed to the city's chief rabbi, Riccardo Di Segni.

"I wish to extend to you and to the entire beloved Jewish community of Rome my most heartfelt good wishes on the occasion of the solemn feasts you are preparing to celebrate. I hope that these celebrations will be an occasion of abundant blessings from the Most High and a source of joy," the pontiff wrote.

Rosh Hashanah begins the evening of Sept. 11, followed by Yom Kippur on Sept. 20 and Sukkot on Sept. 25.

"May the arrival of Rosh Hashanah bring with it the promise of serene renewal and the sweetness of an auspicious beginning; may the sacred silence of Yom Kippur be an occasion of peace and inner light; may the feast of Sukkot be filled with joy, gratitude and fellowship," the pontiff added.

"Renewing my esteem and that of the entire Church, I ask the Eternal One to grant that we may grow in mutual friendship, in our city of Rome and throughout the world. Shalom aleichem!" Leo XIV concluded.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Full Article

Bishop Francisco Cota de Oliveira of Sete Lagoas, Brazil, has banned the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages at recreational events, fundraising activities, bingos, and cash-prize raffles held during religious festivals throughout his diocese.

"It is the Church's mission to exhort the faithful to bear witness to the virtues and to avoid vices," Cota stated in two decrees establishing the new rules. According to the bishop, "the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that vices can be classified according to the virtues they oppose."

"The virtue of temperance disposes one to avoid every kind of excess, including the abuse of alcohol," the bishop said. The catechism also states that "it is praiseworthy to impose restitution "to correct vices and maintain justice."

Sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages

Cota cited Document 100 of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB, by its Portuguese acronym), which states: "The sale and consumption of alcohol at patron saint festivals and other religious events stand in contrast to the Church's efforts to combat drug abuse. There is an urgent need for the conversion of parish communities to avoid the counter-witness of promoting alcohol consumption at stalls and other community recreational activities."

According to the bishop, "Pope Francis' encyclical Amoris Laetitia, on the family, views drug addiction as one of the scourges of our time — one that causes suffering for many families and, not infrequently, ends up destroying them."

Ban on bingo games and raffles with cash awards

In a second decree, Cota stated that "bingo games and other raffles offering cash awards tend to lead people into addiction to various forms of gaming and betting." He further pointed out that, "under current legislation, holding unauthorized raffles and conducting bingo games constitute criminal misdemeanors, as defined in Article 51 of Law 3.688/41 and Article 50 of Law 3.688/41, respectively."

The bishop noted that Amoris Laetitia regards "games of chance and other addictions as scourges of our time that cause suffering for many families and, not infrequently, end up destroying them." The bishop's decree also cites CNBB Document 114, which draws attention to gambling addiction, noting that it "causes great suffering and indebtedness within countless families and in society."

According to Cota, "tithe offerings and spontaneous contributions from the faithful are the proper means for the Church's financial maintenance."

"Should it become necessary to conduct a donation drive offering prizes to participants, or to hold recreational raffles, the prizes must consist of small gifts and household items," the bishop decreed.

This story was first published by ACI Digital, the Portuguese-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Full Article

Imagine trying to make your way down more than 70 floors of a burning skyscraper while supporting the weight of a woman you barely know. For Paul Carris, that was the reality he faced on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.

Carris worked for the Port Authority, and his office was on the 71st floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center. That morning, before going to work, he had attended 8 a.m. Mass at a small chapel near Battery Park.

Shortly afterward, he was sitting at his desk overlooking Manhattan when he heard the roar of a jet engine. Before he could process what was happening, there was an enormous impact. Flames and debris began falling outside his window.

"The building tilted, and it tilted so much, books fell off my bookshelf, and for a split second, I thought it was gonna keep going over," Carris told me in a recent interview. As people ran for the stairs, he noticed a woman in distress. Her name was Judith Toppin. She suffered from sarcoidosis and had a defibrillator in her chest. She was struggling physically.

At that moment, Carris made a split-second decision that would define the rest of their lives. Supporting her on one side, while she clung to the banister on the other, he began the long, slow descent with her — 70 stories, one step at a time.

Toppin was moving slowly and Carris knew they had a long way to go. Yet what is striking is how calm they said the people on the stairwell remained.

'The Lord is my shepherd'

In 2001, there were relatively few cellphones and no social media.

People watching news coverage of the attacks on television in Australia knew more about what was happening than those inside the towers.

Carris and Toppin did not know that a passenger jet had deliberately struck the building. They did not know another plane had hit the South Tower. And they had no idea that the building they were in was about to collapse.

Then, partway down, something incredible happened.

"Judith was really struggling, and suddenly she started to pray out loud, 'The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.' And when she started doing that, I said, 'I better start praying, too.'"

Eventually they emerged from the tower and stepped onto the street.

"When we got out, it was like the Twilight Zone. There was complete chaos."

As they moved away, Carris began to realize that among the surrounding debris were the bodies of people who had fallen or jumped from the towers.

He told Toppin not to look at the ground, just to look ahead and muster up the last bit of energy she had to get away. Then, when they were barely a block away, the North Tower, from which they had just escaped, came crashing down.

Toppin would later write an essay called "Angels Walk Among Us," describing Carris as the man who saved her life. But as he would eventually tell me, he soon realized that it was actually Toppin who saved him.

Recently I traveled through New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington making an EWTN News documentary to mark the 25th anniversary of Sept. 11. I wanted to remember what happened that day, but also to ask a more difficult question: Where was God in the midst of such evil?

The stories I would go on to hear from priests and religious who responded on that day, and how faith helped survivors and family members of victims cope, provided a lot of inspiration. In midtown Manhattan, not far from where the Twin Towers once stood, I sat down with Franciscan Father Brian Jordan, who ministered for months at Ground Zero after the attacks.

He remembered seeing the very best and the very worst of humanity side by side.

"We saw goodness at its best. We also saw evil at its worst," he told me. "But good always triumphs over evil."

He watched firefighters, police officers, construction workers, and volunteers work together in the ruins. When human remains were found, work would stop, and prayers would be said.

But there's one image that stayed with him the most. Days after the attacks, a construction worker approached him and said, "Hey, Father, you wanna see God's house?" He led Jordan into the wreckage, where there were two steel beams, one standing vertically, the other horizontally. "Oh my God, it was the shape of a cross," Jordan remembered. "God meant this for a reason. Now I know why you call this God's house."

Jordan remembers that for everyone at Ground Zero that steel-beamed cross became a powerful sign that faith had not disappeared beneath the rubble and that God was with them.

Shanksville's sacred stillness

In contrast to the rumble and noise of lower Manhattan, Shanksville, Pennsylvania, is quiet and tranquil. As I stood overlooking the crash site of United Airlines Flight 93, I looked at the trees, rolling fields, and an enormous expanse of sky. There is an almost sacred stillness to the place. It is difficult to imagine an airliner hurtling toward this peaceful patch of Pennsylvania before smashing into the ground.

But in the minutes before that impact, something extraordinary happened aboard the aircraft. Through telephone calls, passengers knew their plane was part of a terrorist attack and decided to fight back.

Todd Beamer asked a telephone operator to pray the Lord's Prayer with him before he attempted with other passengers to storm the cockpit and try to overthrow the hijackers. And because of their brave efforts, rather than the plane hitting the White House or Capitol Hill, killing hundreds if not thousands more, the plane crashed at 500 miles an hour, completely upside down, here into this field.

Father Joseph McCaffrey, a Catholic priest and FBI chaplain, arrived at the crash site the following morning.

"When I first arrived the trees were still smoking. And the first thing I did when I came was I prayed, and I consecrated the ground. I prayed the prayers of interment for all who perished here," he tells me there at the site. And as grieving families began arriving, McCaffrey was there to meet them.

"My approach was to listen, and then based on what I heard, I would offer a word of the hope of eternal life, of God's ultimate compassion and mercy, and that they're not alone, that God enters into their suffering."

From Shanksville, my journey took me back toward Washington and the Pentagon. The Pentagon Memorial feels more intimate. Beside the enormous military headquarters are 184 individual memorial units, one for each person killed there and aboard American Airlines Flight 77.

Each consists of a cantilevered bench above a shallow pool of flowing water, arranged according to the ages of the victims.

The benches are pointed toward the direction in which the plane flew that morning.

Newly ordained

Father Stephen McGraw was a newly ordained priest when he was stuck in traffic near the Pentagon that morning. He sat in his car as the plane flew so low overhead that it struck a lamppost. Moments later, he watched it smash into the Pentagon. He immediately ran toward the Pentagon.

Sitting with me on one of the memorial benches, he said, "I had the sense that God had placed me there. This is what I've signed up for. I want to give the sacraments. But it was beyond anything that I had done. It was just that God had placed me there as an instrument, a humble, weak servant priest at his disposal to be a witness of his closeness and his presence, to say that God was here."

For those on board the plane, or in the direct area of impact, there was no hope of survival, but other victims ran from the building onto the Pentagon lawn, many with horrific burns. They lay down in the grass in agony, and while paramedics ran around from person to person, McGraw knelt beside them. "I was telling them, 'Jesus is with you.' And I repeated that to them several times, and more than once, there was actually a positive response."

He remembered kneeling beside one badly burned man as medics worked to save him. "I said to him, with more conviction, with more vigor, I said, 'I tell you, Jesus is with you now.' And I remember he said, 'Yes, I know.'"

Back in New York, Paul Carris, the Port Authority worker who escaped the North Tower with Judith Toppin, told me that for years after 9/11, the trauma of that day affected him deeply. But something else troubled him too. Toppin kept portraying him as an angel, as the man who had done everything right. It forced Carris to look at the way he had been living his own life.

"I had to face up to the fact that I had not always lived my life like the Catholic that I was being portrayed as. I separated my faith from the secular world. It has caused some issues in my marriage over the years, and so on. And Judith wrote this piece that described me as an angel."

Carris began therapy with a priest and later attended a spiritual retreat. This had a profound effect on him, and in time his faith deepened and he entered formation for the permanent diaconate for the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey. Judith, who died in 2021, was there when he was ordained.

"She said to me, 'You saved me,' and I replied, 'No, you saved me. In fact, God saved both of us that day.'"

This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, the sister partner of EWTN News, and has been adapted by EWTN News.

Full Article

Bishops across the country issued remarks, reflections, and prayers for the United States and the lives lost in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks 25 years ago. 

"Twenty-five years later, its memory lives on; in a new skyline, in simple plaques and great memorials, and in the photographs of first responders who were lost, still displayed outside of firehouses and police stations," Archbishop Ronald Hicks of New York said in a statement.

"We remember those who died and the extraordinary courage, service, sacrifice, and compassion that followed," Hicks said.

Hicks will celebrate an invitation-only Vigil Mass on Sept. 10 at St. Patrick's Cathedral to commemorate all those affected by the terrorist attacks. It also will be available via livestream.

The archdiocese reported the Mass will remember those who died as a result of the tragedy and mourn with their loved ones.

In honor of the anniversary, the archdiocese also shared words from Cardinal Edward Egan, who served as New York's archbishop in 2001 and died in 2015.

"We will not pretend that words can deal with this adequately. The healing will take time, as it always does," Egan said. "Still, we insist that the extraordinary goodness of our people has marched alongside the pain and the hurt."

"Amidst the tragedy, the sadness and the grief, there was this real genuine kindness and fraternal love in the city of New York of all places," Bishop John Bonnici of Rochester, New York, previously said in an interview with the diocese's news publication.

"The Lord was able to use people to reach out to others and allow for the healing that was so necessary," said Bonnici, who served as a priest in New York at the time of the attack.

In the nation's capital, the faithful also will gather to remember those who died. Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who leads the Archdiocese for the Military Services,  USA, will celebrate Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., inside its Crypt Church.

The Mass will "honor the brave first responders and members of our Armed Forces who answered the nation's call in its aftermath, and entrust to the mercy of God all affected by that tragic day," the basilica reported.

It will be held at the 5:15 p.m. on Sept. 11 and will be livestreamed.

President of U.S. bishops encourages commitment to be 'instruments of peace'

Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City invited Catholics to join "in prayer for the victims taken from us in acts of unjustifiable violence 25 years ago at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in rural Pennsylvania."

"In a special way, we lovingly embrace in prayer the victims' families and friends, who still mourn the irretrievable loss of their loved ones on that day," said Coakley, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

"We also remember the first responders and emergency workers, so many who gave their lives in selfless acts of courage," he said in the statement.

Coakley said that amid the fear and uncertainty following the attacks, "our faith lifted us up and sustained us," as the nation turned to God in prayer with "a new intensity and a sense of unity."

"As conflicts intensify around the world, let us renew our commitment to be Christ's instruments of peace in an increasingly fractured and divided world," Coakley said.

He echoed Pope Leo XIV, who said peace "is more than just a goal, it is a presence and a journey."

Bishops offer personal reflections of 9/11 attacks

Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, who was then the bishop of Bridgeport, Connecticut, reflected on Sept. 11, calling it an "unthinkable morning."

After learning about the attacks, "I quickly realized that many of my parishioners worked in the World Trade Center," Lori wrote in an article for the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

"Driven by an urgent need to be with my flock, I arranged to offer Mass at St. Augustine Cathedral in Bridgeport. As the hours unfolded, I also celebrated unannounced, yet well attended, Masses at St. John's in Stamford and St. Thomas Aquinas in Fairfield."

Throughout the day, Lori met "incoming trains from New York, simply to stand with commuters emerging dazed and traumatized by what they had witnessed," he said.

Lori also said he checked local hospitals for burn victims but realized "the vast majority had not survived."

"What followed was a relentless, agonizing search through the rubble," Lori said. "As names were identified, the agonizing weeks of funerals began. I sat with spouses, children and parents trying to make sense of the unimaginable."

"Nearly 3,000 souls perished that day, including 343 firefighters, 72 law enforcement officers and 55 military personnel, followed by thousands more responders whose later illnesses stemmed from their selfless recovery efforts at Ground Zero," he said.

"To truly honor those we lost and the legendary courage of our first responders, we must never forget," Lori said. "Let no one believe that terrorism or violence can ever resolve injustice."

Bishop Frank Caggiano of Bridgeport also recalled his experience and what his community taught him afterward.

"Twenty-five years is long enough for a wound to close into a scar, and long enough for a generation to grow up knowing that morning only as a chapter in a textbook. It is not nearly long enough for the families I serve," Caggiano said.

"In Fairfield County the loss has never been abstract. Our trains carried neighbors into those towers, and that evening they came back with empty seats," he said.

"In the years since, I have sat with some of them: parents who lost children, children who were infants then and are grown now, colleagues who still wonder why they were late to work that day," he said.

Caggiano said they have taught him numerous lessons, including "that resilience is not the same thing as moving on" and "that fear must not be allowed to govern us."

"The third lesson is the hardest, and I offer it carefully," Caggiano said. "It is mercy."

"It is not forgetting, excusing, or indifference to justice. Justice without mercy becomes vengeance, and mercy without justice becomes indulgence. Forgiveness begins with a full acknowledgment of the wound and then refuses to let that wound dictate the rest of a life," he said.

"It is not a feeling that arrives one morning but a deliberate decision, sometimes one that must be made again and again over years," he said.

Ukrainian Catholic bishops: 'What is the legacy of September 11?'

The Ukrainian Catholic Bishops of the United States issued a pastoral letter   about the attack and the legacy it left.

The bishops said Christians must do more than remember. They asked: "What is the legacy of September 11? What have we learned? What can that terrible day teach us today?"

The tragedy "confronts us with the terrible reality of the capacity of fallen humanity for evil," they said. "When hatred is allowed to take possession of the human heart, when another person is no longer seen as a child of God but as an enemy to be destroyed, the consequences can be horrifying."

Sept. 11 also revealed "an even greater capacity for goodness, courage, compassion, sacrifice and love," the bishops wrote.

"We saw strangers helping strangers. We saw firefighters climbing stairways toward almost certain death. We saw ordinary people performing extraordinary acts of courage. We saw communities opening their doors, people donating blood, churches filling with worshippers, and a nation and the entire world coming together in grief and solidarity," he said.

"Even in the midst of tragedy, God gives us opportunities to become instruments of His love," they said.

The bishops concluded with the words of St. Paul: "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."

Full Article

Bishop Robert Boxie reflected on why the United States has so few Black Catholic bishops, citing "racism" as the short answer.

"I really enjoy the gift of a Black Catholicism, Black Catholic spirituality, and it certainly does have a place in the universal Church," said Boxie, an auxiliary bishop of Washington.

Boxie is a former lawyer and graduate of Vanderbilt University and Harvard Law School. He is now the youngest bishop in the United States.

"The last time that an African American bishop had been ordained was 10 years prior. When I was appointed a couple of months ago, I became the second African American bishop in the entire United States," Boxie explained in an interview with "Vatican Access," a Catholic News Service podcast.

"We have a total of four active Black bishops, but there are only two African American bishops," he said. "We need Black bishops in the United States … And I am OK with being a voice for the Black community that needs to be in the hierarchy of the Church."

When asked why there are so few Black bishops, Boxie said: "The short answer is racism."

"People may not want to hear that. People may not agree with that. But the short answer is racism."

"For a long time, Black men were not accepted or allowed in seminary," he said. "We had the first recognized African American priest, Father Augustus Tolton, Venerable Augustus Tolton, whose cause for canonization is currently underway ... But it took so much more than an arm and a leg for him to even be … allowed to study for the priesthood."

"So after him, it was a while before dioceses, and bishops, and religious communities would accept African American men. And when they did accept them, they experienced racism and discrimination and injustice and all the things that we would not associate, or should not associate with, the Church."

Racism within the Church

Boxie shared his own personal experience with racism in the Church, even during his time in seminary.

"There was a time in seminary where my next-door neighbor … had a Confederate flag in their room and … I was totally taken aback by that," Boxie said.

"I would never go in his room … We would talk outside in the hall. I wouldn't go in his room as long as he had that flag up," Boxie said.

"Eventually he did take it down and he eventually discerned out of seminary. And so we didn't really talk … much about it."

About seven years later, "during COVID, during 2020, and the summer of George Floyd … all of these things were sort of being revealed and uncovered in the United States — disparities within our country."

During that time, he said, "I got a Facebook message from him saying that … he was working at a Catholic school with a large minority population, large number of African American students and Hispanic students."

"He realized, for himself, how wrong that was seven years prior for him to have that Confederate flag in his room, especially at a seminary. And he wanted to have a conversation to apologize."

"We had a really wonderful conversation" and "I accepted his apology," Boxie said. "We had a real honest conversation about race, the Church, and how we can be healers."

The conversation addressed "how we can help to bridge these gaps, these disparities, the misunderstanding, all the things that pull us apart, how we can in fact be healers and bridge builders in the Church," Boxie said.

In the interview, Boxie noted other areas where Black Catholics lack presence in the Church, specifically noting "images" in Catholic churches.

"In our churches, we often only see white saints," he said. "I have no problem with that. There's nothing wrong with that. But that's not the only view, or the only image, or icon of holiness that we can aspire to."

He noted that seven Black Catholics who lived in the United States are currently in line for canonization.

"I feel as though every parish in the United States should have images of them in their church in some form or fashion, because these were Americans who were raised and formed in this country who have an authentic … Catholic American spirituality," he said.

The Church has the answers on race

Boxie has previously said that "culture does not have the answers" in regard to race. In his recent interview, he was asked whether the Church has the answers, to which he said that it does.

It's "not just Catholic social teaching, which … Pope Leo very beautifully expresses in Magnifica Humanitas, but this goes all the way back to the very beginning … just the dignity of the human person."

"That's a core tenet of what we believe as Catholics and certainly part of the foundation for Catholic social teaching."

It is about "the human person being made in the image and likeness of God, with an inherent dignity, an infinite dignity, a magnificent dignity that transcends race and culture and geography and language and land," Boxie said.

"The Church has proclaimed, from the beginning, the dignity of the human person — that's from her teaching, her doctrine, Scriptures. The problem is that we have not always been faithful to that."

"When we have turned away from that, or when we have been unfaithful to that teaching and gone astray, then that's when problems such as this racism have arisen," Boxie said.

Being labeled a 'DEI bishop'

Boxie also addressed the subject of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), which he said has been "hijacked."

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are "biblical" concepts and are "part of our Catholic tradition," he said. DEI was originally "trying to correct a number of institutional wrongs that have occurred in our country," in employment, education, housing, healthcare, and other "disparities."

Now, Boxie said he believes there is a "negative association" with DEI.

It is now seen as taking "something away from a white person who deserves it, who merits" and "giving it to a Black person, or a brown person, or a minority who doesn't deserve it, who doesn't merit it. That's what the association is right now, and it's just not true."

"Some people may believe that I have been selected, picked, because I'm Black," Boxie said about his appointment as bishop.

"I've thought about this, I've reflected on this. And you know what? I'm actually OK with that … because I think my background, my formation, my experience, even though it has been … limited, I think it has prepared me for this moment."

"I do fundamentally believe that even though in my mind ... we never feel ready for whatever the Lord calls us to, but I know that he … has been providing the grace."

Also, "we need Black bishops in the United States," he said. "We need the voice of African American bishops, men in the hierarchy in the Church structure to be more of an advocate for the Black Catholic community."

"I think that the pope has realized that this voice needs to be at the table. And what better way to have a Black Catholic voice than a Black Catholic bishop?"

Full Article

Orlando-based military contractor Idemma has failed to meet payment obligations for some of its subcontractors who worked in Catholic ministry positions at U.S. military bases, according to three people who say they are still owed thousands of dollars by the company.

Three people who spoke with EWTN News reported that Idemma was routinely late in paying them for their work and missed payments that have still not been fulfilled. In some cases, late payments are more than a year overdue, subcontractors said. Each person said Idemma initially promised to make them whole and then eventually stopped responding to emails or phone calls.

Michael Aldeguer, administrative assistant for Idemma, told EWTN News "the overwhelming majority" of obligations were paid, and acknowledged "a limited number of contractor accounts that remain under review or resolution."

He said the company is "firmly committed to honoring our contractual obligations and resolving legitimate outstanding amounts." He said Idemma plans to "make substantial progress toward resolving the remaining matters by year-end."

On Sept. 10, Aldeguer said Idemma would reach out to every subcontractor "today" to "ensure they have received our recent communications and are aware of the latest updates."

The Pentagon referred an inquiry by EWTN News to the military service departments, which oversee the contracts.

Contractor describes worsening payment lag

Paulette Padua began working as a Catholic religious education coordinator at Beale Air Force Base in California in 2013, initially as an independent contractor. In 2020, Padua was underbid by Idemma, which took over the contract but kept her in the role.

Initially, Padua said payments came as agreed upon, but "something happened" in 2025 and "payment became later and later and every month." Her contract ended in September, and she said there is still more than $8,000 in outstanding payments owed to her.

"I kept having to beg for my pay," she said, and was "sending constant, constant emails" to the company to receive her payments. An email chain that Padua shared with EWTN News shows an Idemma employee repeatedly promising to complete the payments, but with her responding that only partial payments were being made.

Padua said Idemma promised to pay her back in increments in 2026, but she only received a $200 check. She said the company no longer responds to her emails about payments, complaining that "they just ghost [me]."

"It was causing me so much stress that it was making me sick so at a certain point I had to let go and let God have his way," Padua said. "I can't let them give me a heart attack."

Padua, who was crying when recalling the situation, said losing payments "was very difficult physically, emotionally, and financially," adding: "I worked for them for so long and I love that military community and I was good at my job and just to be done so dirty it feels terrible."

She said she was "counting on" those payments and was reassured "you're going to get paid."

"Should I tell that to my mortgage company? For my car loans? For my bills?" she asked.

Another subcontractor who said she faced similar issues is Dianne Hodges, who had two contracts with Idemma, one of which was paid late and the other which is still not paid off. She said most of it was paid off by June 2026, about a year after she'd completed the initial contract.

Hodges said they still owe her $3,200 for the other contract she worked but that Idemma did not respond to her most recent emails in August about the remaining balance, saying "they've gone radio silent on me" and worrying "I guess I'll never see it."

"It's been a nightmare," Hodges said. "It's been an absolute nightmare."

Hodges said the delayed payments led to trouble with creditors and late fees on credit cards that she couldn't pay off. She had to pull money out of her 401K to pay her bills and shop for Christmas gifts in 2024.

"It was tough for me sometimes to make ends meet," she said, adding that when she called Idemma about the financial struggles she faced that year, "I broke down in tears, I was telling them this is not how a business works."

Morgan Loftis, who worked as a director of religious education at the Marine Corps Air Station New River from September 2025 through May 2026, told EWTN News she is also still owed thousands of dollars in payments from Idemma.

Loftis said she was owed $12,300 but was only paid $4,875, which leaves $7,425 unpaid.

In May 2026, before she left the role, she said Idemma "offered to pay me in full … if I stayed onto the next year because they were about to lose the contract." She said she considered the offer and requested "an actual payment plan in writing" but never received one. Now, she said "they won't take my calls."

"I think they know our numbers and they're just not going to respond," she said, referring to the subcontractors who are still owed money.

Loftis said she took the role even though she heard other subcontractors were not getting paid, but "I wanted there to be a faith formation program and it looked like there wasn't going to be one."

Yet, as she and her husband are expecting their fifth child and bought a new car, she said, "it would be really nice to have had the full pay. That could really alleviate how hard that car payment hits."

Archbishop Broglio: Allegations 'deeply troubling'

Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, expressed concern about the lack of payments.

"The archdiocese … has no contractual or business relationship with Idemma, which operates under direct contract with the federal government," Broglio said in a statement to EWTN News.

"Even so, the allegations of late or missed payments, if true, are deeply troubling," he said. "Idemma has a moral responsibility to meet its payroll obligations in a timely fashion. I strongly encourage the company to do so."

In email exchanges about the missed payments, Idemma responded to the specific cases of the three subcontractors who spoke with EWTN News.

For Hodges, Aldeguer noted that one contract was "recently cleared and paid in full" and said "payments have continued to be made toward the remaining balance, and we have also added interest."

For Padua, he said Idemma has "agreed to pay interest, which we also confirmed to her in writing." He said in her situation, "we agreed to pay her more than what we received under the contract" because she was the chaplain's first choice. He said: "This arrangement worked until our other live music business was essentially wiped out by COVID."

For Loftis, Aldeguer said "we are still verifying the amounts owed" and "she should have received a request to upload her invoices related to the contract."

"Each situation is different, and we are making our best efforts to get everything cleared as soon as possible, with interest being applied to the final remaining balances where agreed," Aldeguer said. "Ultimately, we are a small team that is extremely dedicated to getting these matters resolved, even in situations where we ourselves sustained significant losses on the underlying contracts."

He said Idemma has implemented a centralized invoice-submission process for contractors with unresolved accounts to collect outstanding invoices and documents in one place to compare them to their records, identify discrepancies, and resolve outstanding balances.

Aldeguer requested that EWTN News delay publication while the company worked to resolve outstanding contractor accounts, saying recent progress wasn't being reflected.

Full Article

The U.S. Supreme Court should reject the broad application of a long-standing administrative rule that can prevent religious liberty lawsuits from progressing through the courts, U.S. bishops argued this week.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops joined with the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission in filing an amicus brief in support of Daniel Grand, who is petitioning the high court to rule in his favor in a legal dispute with the city of University Heights, Ohio.

Grand filed a lawsuit against the city in September 2022 after the city blocked his efforts to convene a minyan, or Jewish prayer group, of about a dozen friends at his home.

A federal district court dismissed his case on the grounds of a legal concept known as "finality," a legal principle requiring property owners to obtain a land-use decision from local officials before bringing certain federal court challenges. A federal appeals court also ruled against Grand in the dispute.

In June the Supreme Court said it would consider the finality question. Grand is being represented by the legal group Alliance Defending Freedom.

In their filing, the U.S. bishops and the Baptist leaders said the lower courts erred by misapplying certain finality standards to Grand's case.

"Forcing a religious plaintiff to exhaust an administrative process before vindicating his rights does not prevent premature adjudication; it imposes the very burden the Constitution forbids," the religious groups said.

Grand's religious liberty objections are clear regardless of the outcome of the administrative process, the leaders said.

"His rights are priceless and he has already been prevented from praying and continues to be prevented from praying," they said, describing the injury to his religious rights as "complete" and "immediately knowable."

The alleged misapplication of the "finality" rule, they said, requires plaintiffs to "complete a potentially years-long administrative process and wait for a final adverse decision even though the act of subjecting [their] religious practice to that process is itself the constitutional and statutory injury."

The bishops and the Baptist convention urged the court to reverse the lower court rulings, arguing that religious objectors have standing to bring a lawsuit "as soon as a credible threat arises."

Grand in his filing with the Supreme Court argued that the finality rule offers "a playbook for government-sponsored religious discrimination."

Numerous other groups, meanwhile, have filed amicus briefs in support of Grand's case, including the Religious Freedom Institute, the American Hindu Coalition, the American Muslim League, the American Association of Jewish Lawyers, and several others.

Full Article

On Sept. 7, Bishop José Valdeci Santos Mendes of Brejo, Maranhão, Brazil, celebrated Mass as part of a national Cry of the Excluded event.

During the Mass, the "Creed of the Ecclesial Base Communities" (known as CEBs, by their synonym in Portuguese) was read. This creed, developed in 2016, professes belief in "a God/Goddess present in the diverse experiences of the communities: a God who is close, a liberating and revolutionary God, a God who is a member of the CEBs, who works and struggles just as Jesus of Nazareth did."

Following the distribution of the Eucharist but before the final blessing, the bishop — who chairs the Episcopal Commission for Social-Transformative Action of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CEPAST-CNBB, by its Portuguese acronym) — introduced the referenced creed. He called it a "supplication from the youth of Latin America, who stand before God asking him to come to meet us," and entrusted the creed's recitation to two young men.

"We do not believe in a static, patriarchal, clerical, and hierarchical Church," stated the text read by the young men at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Conception. "We believe in an inclusive, intergenerational community with a voice of its own. We believe in this Church that struggles, 'casting its lot with the poor of the earth' in the face of a dominant capitalist system."

"We believe we are daughters and sons of a 'Great Homeland' free from racism and free from rules governing love — embracing all sexual diversity, women, youth, Indigenous peoples, Black people, minorities, and all those at the bottom of the social order."

The Creed of the Ecclesial Base Communities is part of a suggested liturgy outline for Masses, worship services, and public gatherings marking the 32nd Cry of the Excluded — a mobilization bringing together pastoral groups, Catholic organizations, and social movements, held annually on Brazil's Independence Day. CEPAST has called upon dioceses, pastoral groups, and grassroots movements to strengthen this mobilization within their respective jurisdictions this year.

In a message released in June regarding the 2026 elections, the CNBB (National Conference of Bishops of Brazil) stated that "the Catholic Church does not endorse candidates or political parties" but affirmed that the Church, "driven by the Gospel and the mission to proclaim it, promotes life and human dignity, and serves the building of the common good."

Elections, the CEB Creed, and prayers

During the penitential rite, Mass participants asked for forgiveness for "times when we did not take the country's destiny seriously during elections" and for failing to speak out against "candidacies backed by economic power that will harm the people and potentially even impose authoritarian regimes."

The other parts of the penitential rite address wars, people living on the streets, real estate speculation, housing movements, violence against women, and femicide.

During the Prayers of the Faithful, an intention regarding the elections was also included: "For this election season, that we may have the discernment not to vote for anyone who seeks to jeopardize Brazil's sovereignty or harbors plans for a coup. May we not vote for politicians and parties that wish to turn the public good into an object of profit. Sovereignty is not negotiable." The assembly's response was: "Deliver us, Lord, from all those who use politics to betray the Brazilian people!"

CEPAST states it did not draft the liturgy guide

CEPAST's communications office told ACI Digital, the Portuguese-language sister service of EWTN News, that the CNBB commission did not participate in drafting the document. "The 'Cry of the Excluded' is a coalition formed by various organizations, and CEPAST did not participate in drafting the liturgy guide," said Juce Rocha of the commission's communications team.

The National Coordination of the Cry of the Excluded includes among its participants Catholic pastoral groups, organizations, and social movements such as the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT), Caritas Brazil, the Workers' Pastoral, the Migrants' Pastoral Service, Base Ecclesial Communities (CEBs), the Landless Rural Workers' Movement (MST), the Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB), the Central of Popular Movements (CMP), and the National Confederation of Education Workers (CNTE).

The national map for this year's "Cry" documented activities in all regions of the country. In Cachoeiro de Itapemirim, Espírito Santo, a march brought together the faithful, pastoral groups, and representatives of social movements, concluding at St. Peter's Cathedral, where Bishop Luiz Fernando Lisboa participated in the mobilization. In Santos, São Paulo, the "Cry" was part of the diocese's official agenda and was attended by Bishop Joaquim Giovani Mol Guimarães.

The same order of service was not followed at all Masses linked to the Cry. At the National Shrine of Aparecida in São Paulo, for instance, the Sept. 7 Mass was celebrated within the context of both the 39th Workers' Pilgrimage and the 32nd Cry of the Excluded. The Mass was celebrated by the archbishop of Aparecida, Mário Antonio da Silva; among the concelebrants was the bishop of the Prelature of Marajó, Pará, José Ionilton Lisboa de Oliveira, president of the Pastoral Land Commission.

The Cry was mentioned during the Mass and the homily, but the program used in Brejo was not adopted for the celebration.

The Cry of the Excluded first emerged during the evaluation of the second Brazilian Social Week — promoted by the CNBB in 1993 and 1994 — as a way to continue the reflections from that process. The initiative was also inspired by the 1995 Fraternity Campaign, which featured the theme "Fraternity and the Excluded" and the motto "Was it you, Lord?"

The first edition took place on Sept. 7, 1995, in 170 locations. In 1996, the CNBB adopted the Cry during its general assembly as part of the Toward the New Millennium Project.

Today, the mobilization is led by a National Coordination body comprising the CNBB's Commission 8, Catholic pastoral groups and organizations, and various social movements and entities — including the CPT, Cáritas Brasileira, the Workers' Pastoral, the Migrants' Pastoral Service, CEBs, the MST, MAB, CMP, and CNTE.

According to the event's organizers, the choice of Sept. 7 is intended to provide a "counterpoint" to the official Independence Day commemoration. The date has also been identified by the event's organizers as a moment for "political awareness" and the struggle for a "new national and global order."

While the movement's longtime theme is "Life Comes First!", the slogan for 2026 is: "In defense of the land, peace, and housing, we raise our voices: Women alive and sovereignty!" National demands include ending the "6x1" (six days of work and one day off) work schedule, ensuring dignified housing, agrarian reform, quality public education, and the defense of the SUS (Unified Health System), as well as combating femicide, racism, and what is termed as "LGBTphobia."

The event's website states that the choice of Sept. 7 seeks to offer a "counterpoint to the official history of Brazil's independence. Contrasting with the civic and military parades that have traditionally marked the day, it calls upon the people — especially the poor and the excluded — to step down from the grandstands, leave passive patriotism behind, and occupy public squares and streets in defense of their rights."

This story was first published by ACI Digital, the Portuguese-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Full Article