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Inspired by Pope Leo XIV's encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, tech leaders, clergy, and educators gathered in Rome for a hackathon to reimagine parish life in the age of artificial intelligence (AI).

The event "From Roadmap to Practice" was held at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross on Nov. 7. Following the annual Builders AI Forum that week, the hackathon focused on developing practical prototypes to address parish needs, including liturgical calendars, accessible Church teaching, and digital evangelization.

The hackathon is also set to expand to the United States. Organized by the Catholic Digital Commons Foundation (CDCF) and the Evangelization Lab, the Virtual-to-Sacramental (V2S) hackathon will be held in 4 U.S. dioceses in early 2027.

Where coding meets faith

According to a Nov. 9 press release, more than 60 people gathered for the hackathon, which focused on both building software and organizing ways to support Catholics in the AI era.

More than 15 digital projects were created during the conference, from a digitized Roman martyrology to a database for religious orders.

Father Patrick Mary Briscoe, OP, promoter general for Social Communication of the Order of Preachers, was part of a team that created a database that lets him access documents from his order dating back centuries.

"Typical PDF searches are complex, inefficient, and often incomplete," Briscoe said. "I teamed up with a developer who, in a few hours, allowed me to tap into hundreds of years of documents to get access to our own resources for formation, content creation, and governance."

Other projects built included AI-governance tools for parishes, a lunch sign-up sheet for a Roman seminary, and a digitized version of the Roman martyrology.

Keeping the human at the center of American parish life

A central focus of the hackathon was how to implement AI and other technologies into parish life, including in the U.S. in 2027.

Taylor Black, executive director of the Leonum Institute at The Catholic University of America, emphasized that the Church under Pope Leo XIV needed to embrace its vocation to build in the digital age.

"Pope Leo emphasizes the builder's vocation in the Church, and it starts with sitting down with the people who do the work and creating something they can try together," Black said.

José Manuel De Urquidi, founder of the Evangelization Lab, expressed his hope that bishops in the U.S. would support the initiative, which he believes will address the challenge of encountering Christ online but not within Catholic communities.

"[The bishops] not only have to bless it but also support it, because the Church as an institution can be slow and risk-averse," Urquidi said. "A hackathon brings a few involved Catholics and a coder to the same table for a whole day, and by evening they have something they can actually try in real life."

Sister Nancy Usselmann, FSP, director of the Pauline Center for Media Studies, said the hackathon, her first ever, revealed the potential for collaboration between Church and tech leaders to spread the Gospel.

"This was my first hackathon — a phenomenal learning experience of profound collaboration between pastoral leaders and builders," Usselmann told EWTN News. "It helped all of us to imagine possibilities, develop opportunities, and create collaborative relationships for the Gospel."

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Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins and three staff members are facing a civil lawsuit in Texas after conducting an undercover investigation that documented the continued illegal mailing of abortion-inducing drugs into the state.

The case, filed by pseudonymous plaintiff Maria Puerto, alleges that Hawkins, along with Lydia Taylor Davis, Jamie Curry, and Megan Roos, violated the Texas Woman and Child Protection Act by ordering the pills during a March investigation in Houston.

Puerto seeks $459,782 in damages and an injunction against Students for Life.

Thomas More Society attorneys, working with co-counsel Texas State Rep. Briscoe Cain, have filed a formal response on behalf of the four women. They deny any violation of the law and are asking the court to dismiss the case, arguing that the plaintiff lacks standing and that the defendants' actions fall outside the statute's reach.

The Texas Woman and Child Protection Act, enacted in 2025, allows private citizens to bring lawsuits against those who distribute, mail, or otherwise provide abortion-inducing drugs in Texas. The measure was designed to address shipments from out-of-state providers operating under shield laws in other jurisdictions.

The defendants contend that their investigation was a form of protected speech and reporting. They say that none of the women involved in the investigation were pregnant or seeking an abortion and that the law itself exempts activity conducted for purposes other than performing or assisting an abortion.

They also point out that the plaintiff's own petition describes the effort as a "publicity stunt" and fails to identify any specific prohibited act by the defendants. They also argue that the amount in damages sought is not authorized by the law and that Students for Life is not a party to the case, rendering the requested injunction improper.

Peter Breen, executive vice president and head of litigation at the Thomas More Society, said the suit appears aimed at discouraging scrutiny of abortion pill distribution.

"Kristan Hawkins and her colleagues gathered evidence of an illegal trade and shared it with the public, investigative reporting the First Amendment protects," he said. "This case is a patently meritless attempt to silence and cover up the truth that out-of-state interests are flooding Texas with abortion pills—we will vigorously defend Kristan and her colleagues until this case is thrown out of court."

Hawkins described the lawsuit as an effort to target those pointing out violations of the law rather than those committing them.

"Attempting to punish the Students for Life team for noticing the obvious — abortion pills can be illegally trafficked — is like going after the person reporting a fire instead of the arsonist. Laws are being broken, and babies are dying, while the sovereignty of Texas law is violated. We are ready to defend ourselves."

Last week, newly elected Texas Attorney General Nathan Johnson said he would end current lawsuits against abortion providers in other states for illegally mailing abortion pills into Texas.

Hawkins and the other defendants have indicated they will seek sanctions against the plaintiff's attorneys, calling the lawsuit frivolous and intended to harass. No hearing date has been set.

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The British bishops are warning against a proposed parliamentary bill that they say would criminalize counseling that helps people identify with their biological sex rather than an opposite-sex "gender."

The draft conversion practices bill, proposed earlier this year in Parliament, seeks to "fill the gaps in criminal law to target conversion practices."

"Conversion therapy" has long been defined as the practice of counseling homosexual people to adopt heterosexual sexual attraction. LGBT advocates have argued that such counseling is impossible and potentially harmful.

In recent years, the term has been applied to therapeutic services that attempt to steer people away from self-identified "gender" identities in order to accept their objective biological sex. The proposed U.K. bill would criminalize what the government calls "conversion practices" involving gender identity.

In a Nov. 10 statement, Liverpool Archbishop John Sherrington, who chairs the social justice department of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, expressed "serious concern" about the bill, which he described as "very broad in scope."

He noted that the bill purports to outlaw "abusive" counseling, which he affirmed the Catholic Church already "opposes … in all circumstances." But current law already outlaws such practices, he argued.

The new bill "proposes to extend the legal definition of abusive practices in ways that threaten a person's fundamental rights, including freedom of religion or belief and freedom of expression," he said.

The legislation "will also create uncertainty around lawful pastoral care by the Church, family life and open conversations that can take place in a range of social settings."

The legislation could further hamper the Catholic Church's ability to "proclaim an authentic understanding of the human person with clarity, simplicity, love and respect," he said.

He urged British politicians to "abandon" the bill and focus instead on existing legal protections for those facing abuse.

A similar dispute played out in the U.S. recently, one that culminated in the U.S. Supreme Court in March striking down a Colorado ban on "conversion therapy."

"The First Amendment stands as a bulwark against any effort to prescribe an orthodoxy of views, reflecting a belief that each American enjoys an inalienable right to speak his mind and a faith in the free marketplace of ideas as the best means for finding truth," the court said when it issued the ruling.

Alternately, Catholic bishops in Switzerland in May endorsed a national legal ban on so-called conversion measures aimed at people who identify as LGBT, though they argued that legitimate pastoral care, counseling, and psychotherapy be expressly shielded from any prohibition.

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The provincial municipality of Callao in Peru has unveiled a monumental 14-meter (45-foot)-tall statue of Pope Leo XIV, the tallest statue dedicated to a pontiff in Peru.

The statue is located in the new Niño Gaelito Park, named in honor of Jesús Gael Alejandro Rodríguez, a 4-year-old boy who died while rescuing his sister during a fire in March.

The figure has a 12-meter (39-foot) metal framework and is constructed from polyurethane foam, fiberglass, and polyester resin, with a finish that resembles marble. The statue itself stands 12 meters (13 feet) tall and is set upon a 2-meter (6-foot) pedestal.

It was created by sculptors Deyvi Wong Arana and Rafael Gutiérrez Quispe.

"This sculpture expresses the pride, gratitude, and faith of the people of Callao for someone whose evangelizing efforts made a profound impact in our diocese," the municipality stated on its Facebook page.

The unveiling ceremony was led by Callao's mayor, Cesar Pérez, who was accompanied by Bishop Luis Alberto Barrera Pacheco of Callao and Monsignor Guillermo Inca Pereda, deputy secretary of the Peruvian Bishops' Conference and national coordinator for Pope Leo's visit to Peru.

Also in attendance at the ceremony were Jorge Guillermo Solís Espinoza, president of Caja Huancayo, the institution that funded the project, and the governor-elect of Callao, Pedro Spadaro.

"We are just about to welcome the Holy Father to Peru! Callao awaits him with open arms and a heart full of faith," the municipality stated on Facebook.

In Peru, Pope Leo XIV served as bishop of Chiclayo from 2015 to 2023 and as apostolic administrator of Callao from 2020 to 2021. He also served as the second vice president of the bishops' conference from 2018 to 2023.

The Holy Father begins his visit to Peru on Wednesday, Nov. 11, where he will be welcomed by President Keiko Fujimori. He will then hold an audience with her at the Government Palace before addressing officials at the Grand National Theater.

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

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U.S. bishops urged the Senate to pass legislation extending immigration protections for Haitians, arguing that escalating violence and instability in Haiti make deportations unsafe and calling for broader immigration reforms to provide a pathway to more permanent legal status.

The Nov. 10 letter sent to every U.S. senator urged passage of a bill, S. 4814, that would designate temporary protected status (TPS) for Haitians through April 20, 2029. It would allow TPS recipients, including more than 330,000 Haitians, to remain and work legally in the United States during that period.

TPS is an immigration status granted to eligible foreign nationals from designated countries that are deemed unsafe to return to due to ongoing conflict, environmental disasters, or other extraordinary conditions.

The Trump administration has moved to end TPS for people from more than a dozen countries since 2025, and Lebanon TPS is set to end Nov. 27. TPS for Haiti ended July 27, after a Supreme Court decision allowed the termination to take effect.

In April, the Republican-controlled U.S. House passed legislation, H.R. 1689, that would extend TPS for Haitians for three more years. No legislative efforts have gained traction in the Senate.

The letter was signed by Bishop-designate Brendan Cahill of Joliet, Illinois, chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) Committee on Migration, and Bishop A. Elias Zaidan of the Maronite Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon, chair of the Committee on International Justice and Peace.

Cahill and Zaidan wrote that they "pray that, in its remaining weeks, the current Congress, along with the incoming 120th Congress, will devote more attention to the situation facing both Haitian families in the United States, especially those who have recently been stripped of their legal protections, and the human tragedies unfolding in Haiti itself."

"Finally, we reiterate the need for all of Congress to work in a bipartisan manner, together with the Administration, to pursue broader reforms that provide expanded opportunities for longtime residents of American communities, such as Haitians and others with TPS, to achieve a more durable legal status, something President Trump expressed openness to in the last few days," they wrote.

Trump told CBS' "60 Minutes" on Nov. 8 that he would "love to do something on immigration" with congressional Democrats, who will hold the majority in the House and Senate starting in 2027.

Crisis in Haiti

The bishops said Haiti's worsening violence, kidnappings, and institutional collapse make it unsafe to return large numbers of people to the country.

In a September appeal to Trump, Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley, USCCB president, referenced a mass killing in Haiti that left 47 people dead and dozens abducted, including children. The bishops' Nov. 10 letter also cited that attack, which Pope Leo XIV later called a "grave massacre," as evidence of the country's ongoing security crisis.

The attack and "the lack of any justice in its wake, and its existence as one of many such tragedies in recent months, help to demonstrate why it is unacceptable and untenable to forcibly repatriate hundreds of thousands of Haitians at this time," the bishops continued.

"This conclusion is bolstered by the absence of an orderly reception system and the lack of coordination needed to safely receive large numbers of repatriated families," Cahill and Zaidan wrote to the senators. "Under these circumstances, we are deeply troubled by the deportation flights that have been departing for Haiti on a weekly basis since August."

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The cause for canonization of Servant of God Father Willie Doyle, SJ, officially entered the Roman phase of the cause on Nov. 10 after the documentation gathered during the diocesan phase was formally submitted to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints in Rome.

The diocesan phase of Doyle's cause was opened by the Diocese of Meath in Ireland in 2022 and formally closed on Oct. 18, 2026.

This is the first time in more than 40 years that a canonization cause pertaining to an Irish candidate has completed its diocesan phase in Ireland. Venerable Nano Nagle, foundress of the Presentation Sisters, was the last cause in which this occurred.

Jesuit Father Pascual Cebollada, postulator general of the Society of Jesus, will assume the role of postulator for Doyle's cause, while Father John Hogan of the Diocese of Meath will serve as vice postulator.

"I am delighted that the cause has reached this important stage. I am confident that the cause will progress further and I encourage people to pray through the intercession of Father Willie Doyle," Bishop Tom Deenihan of the Diocese of Meath said in a statement. "Father Doyle's generosity and heroism, which stemmed from his religious conviction, is an example for our time. It was very evident from the closing ceremony in Mullingar on 18 October that devotion to Father Doyle has extended beyond his own century and is as relevant today as it ever was."

Hogan added: "More than 3,000 pages of Father Willie's writings, together with extensive historical and theological analyses and commentaries, have been assembled during the diocesan phase and were delivered to the dicastery this week. This represents a major milestone in the cause for his canonization."

"We will now begin work on the positio — the detailed study of Father Willie's life, heroic virtues, and reputation for holiness," he said. "Alongside this, we will continue to promote devotion to Father Willie and encourage people to seek his intercession, particularly through prayer for miracles."

Born on March 3, 1873, in Dalkey, County Dublin, Ireland, Doyle was the youngest of seven children. He grew up in a devout Catholic family who cared deeply for the less fortunate. Long lines of the local poor people would form outside the Doyle home during Christmas where they would be given financial assistance and gifts.

In 1891, at the age of 18, Doyle entered the Jesuit novitiate in Tullabeg, Rahan, in the Diocese of Meath. Most of his priesthood was spent preaching missions in parishes and giving retreats to religious communities around Ireland. He was particularly devoted to ministering to ordinary workmen.

In November 1915, Doyle was appointed chaplain to the 8th Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers. Despite having the rank of captain, he lived and suffered alongside his men, experiencing all of the dangers and trials of life in the trenches.

He was awarded the 16th (Irish) Division Parchment of Merit for bravery during a gas attack in April 1916 and received the Military Cross for his bravery at the Battle of the Somme.

On Aug. 16, 1917, at the Battle of Passchendaele, Doyle laid down his life to assist two wounded soldiers at the front line. He was struck by a German shell and his body was never recovered.

His private diaries, discovered after his death, reveal a life of intense prayer, sacrifice, and spiritual discipline. Devotion to him spread after his death, and his life and writings have continued to inspire people around the world.

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In Andorra, new laws require the signature of a Catholic bishop. Now the government wants him to sign one he is not expected to: a bill ending criminal penalties for abortions.

Ministers approved the bill on Oct. 28 and sent it to the Consell General, Andorra's parliament, under an urgent procedure. No vote has been scheduled.

Mitre and Marianne

Andorra, home to about 90,000 people, has two heads of state, called co-princes: the bishop of Urgell, whose see sits just across the Spanish border, and the president of France. Apart from Vatican City, it is the only country where a Catholic bishop serves as head of state.

Almost 750 years ago, in 1278, the bishop and the Count of Foix settled a feudal fight over the valleys high up in the Pyrenees. The count's rights passed to French kings, then to French presidents.

The centuries have not changed this arrangement. The 1993 constitution kept both co-princes, "jointly and indivisibly," as head of state. Article 8 "recognizes the right to life and fully protects it in its different phases."

Bishop Josep-Lluís Serrano Pentinat succeeded Archbishop Joan-Enric Vives on May 31, 2025.

The prelate, only 48 years old at the time, took the oath as co-prince on June 26, 2025, EWTN News Español, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, reported.

Andorra bans abortion outright. The new bill rewrites Article 117 of the penal code so that a woman "who consents to or requests her own abortion, or collaborates in carrying it out" cannot be punished, while leaving penalties for doctors and anyone who performs an abortion in place.

Doctors and anyone who performs an abortion would still face up to three years in prison and a five-year ban from health work.

Today a woman could legally be punished with arrest, though lawmakers say no one has in fact been jailed. Media report that women who have an abortion travel to nearby Catalonia, Spain.

A signature sidestepped

No law takes effect without the co-princes of Andorra, who sanction and enact laws within eight to 15 days under Article 45.

But the bishop cannot block a law alone.

If "circumstances" stop one co-prince from signing in time, the law takes effect with the other's signature and a countersignature from the head of government or speaker, limiting the risk of a total veto.

This has happened before. In 2019, Vives did not sanction laws on assisted reproduction and children's rights, El Periòdic reported. Both took effect.

Andorran media say they expect a repeat. The news site La Veu Lliure reported Oct. 7 that the government and the Holy See had agreed on the bill's terms and that the bishop would not sign.

Discreet dialogue with Rome

Head of government Xavier Espot and Ladislau Baró, the minister in charge of the bill, met Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin on Oct. 22, 2025, and again on July 29. Baró has said there was no "negotiation" with the Holy See, only "dialogue," CNA Deutsch, the German-language sister service of EWTN News, reported.

Parolin set out the Holy See's position in Andorra in September 2023. "For the Holy See, the principle of defending life at all its stages is fundamental," he said. Changing the penal code also raised "the problem of the constitutional system," he added. "It's not easy to reconcile these two aspects."

On Nov. 3 Baró told reporters: "We have no validation, either from Rome or from La Seu, nor do we expect it, because the agreed scenario is already this one," RTVA reported.

The abdication question

In 2018, the Diari d'Andorra reported that Pope Francis warned then-head of government Antoni Martí that decriminalizing abortion would force the bishop to abdicate. A year later, Politico reported that Vives had made clear he would resign if Macron approved an abortion law in his place.

The narrow bill is built to avoid that crisis, observers say. "There is always a way out, which would be not signing the law," the retired Vives told Spanish broadcaster COPE in January, Diari d'Andorra reported.

Serrano Pentinat has said little. "It is not for me to make decisions or speak about it," he said in November 2025 at a hospital chapel.

"Our whole existence is a yes to life," he said according to El Periòdic.

Macron, visiting in April, said: "I hope with affection that this debate progresses."

Votes, voices, and a Christmas address

The government wants the law passed before elections in spring 2027, with an absolute majority of the 28-member Consell General.

The Catholic women's group Stella Mons wants protection for the unborn child and real support for mothers. "The protection of life and the protection of women are not incompatible objectives," it said in August.

The bishop's next likely chance to speak is his Christmas address at the episcopal palace.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church is clear on the question: "The inalienable right to life of every innocent human individual is a constitutive element of a civil society and its legislation" (No. 2273).

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Pope Leo XIV has appointed Bishop Octavi Vilà Mayo of Girona, Spain, as the new archbishop of Barcelona, succeeding Cardinal Juan José Omella, who turned 80 in April.

This is the first in what is expected to be a long list of pending episcopal appointments in the Catholic Church in Spain. With Barcelona now filled, attention turns again to Girona — a diocese in eastern Spain — which was without a bishop for more than two years before Vilà's arrival and is now once again awaiting a new shepherd.

The bishop who entered a monastery at age 45

Born in 1961, Vilà entered the Spanish Monastery of Santa Maria of Poblet in 2005 and made his solemn profession on Aug. 15, 2010. Five years later, he was elected abbot, a position to which he was reelected until 2021, when he reached the canonical age limit.

Holding a degree in geography and history and a diploma in library and information science from the University of Barcelona, he was appointed bishop of Girona by Pope Francis in February 2024 and was ordained bishop in Girona Cathedral on April 21, 2024.

Within the Spanish bishops' conference, he serves as a member of the Episcopal Commission for Consecrated Life. His episcopal motto, "Lead in Order to Serve," comes from an expression of St. Bernard of Clairvaux.

In a letter to his new diocese, Vilà said he had been called by Pope Leo XIV "to share with you a part of the journey toward the Kingdom of God" and expressed his intentions: "I come to Barcelona ready to work courageously for the future of our Church and to do so together with each and every one of you."

He also underscored the need to "live the faith in communion," praised the richness of charisms in the Archdiocese of Barcelona, encouraged Catholics never to "give up evangelizing" and to do so "through our lives, through our words, and by living the faith consistently."

Drawing on his monastic experience, he encouraged his new flock to keep Christ as their "center, model, and goal" and to cultivate intimacy with the Lord.

Before concluding, Vilà entrusted himself "to the many saints our archdiocese has produced throughout the centuries and especially to the martyrs who, both in ancient times and in the 20th century, are a source of inspiration for all of us."

An Aragon native who arrived in Barcelona by way of Zaire

With this appointment, the long pastoral ministry of Omella comes to an end. Born in the Aragonese town of Cretas in 1946, he studied at the Seminary of Zaragoza and at the formation centers of the White Fathers in Leuven and Jerusalem before being ordained a priest in 1970.

He served in various pastoral roles in the Archdiocese of Zaragoza during his early years as a priest, including a year as a missionary in Zaire. In 1996 he was named auxiliary bishop of Zaragoza and three years later was appointed bishop of the Diocese of Barbastro-Monzón.

Between 2001 and 2003, he also served as apostolic administrator of the dioceses of Huesca and Jaca. In 2004 he was appointed bishop of Calahorra and La Calzada-Logroño, where he remained until the end of 2015, when he was named archbishop of Barcelona.

A trusted collaborator of Pope Francis

Following Pope Benedict XVI's resignation and the election of Pope Francis, Omella's presence in Roman institutions steadily increased. In 2014 he joined the Congregation, now Dicastery, for Bishops, where he served until June 2026. He has also been a member of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura.

That same year, he was created a cardinal by Pope Francis, and in October 2018 he joined the Ordinary Council of the Synod of Bishops. In March 2023 he was appointed to the Council of Cardinals, the advisory body established by Pope Francis.

In Spain, he was elected president of the Spanish bishops' conference from 2020 to 2024, years marked by the parliamentary investigation into abuse committed within the Catholic Church. Earlier, he had served as a member of its executive committee, on various commissions, and as national ecclesiastical adviser to Manos Unidas — a nongovernmental organization of the Catholic Church in Spain for development cooperation — from 1999 to 2005.

In a letter addressed to the faithful of Barcelona, the cardinal said that "the arrival of a new bishop is always a moment of grace for a diocese. People change, new stages begin, but the one Shepherd of the Church, Jesus Christ, remains."

He also emphasized that welcoming the new prelate "also means being ready to walk with him" and therefore urged the faithful to offer their fullest cooperation.

'In love with this land and its people'

"I feel that I leave deeply in love with this land and its people," Omella said after the appointment of his successor was announced. During a public appearance, he revealed that he will not remain in Barcelona but will retire to a priests' residence in Zaragoza: "I am not staying in Barcelona because I do not want to cast a shadow."

Asked by journalists to assess his years in Barcelona, which were marked by strong political and religious tensions in society, the cardinal declined to offer a personal evaluation. However, he said that in the face of these difficulties he had sought "to bring opposing sides together, that is, to build bridges and foster dialogue."

Of his successor, he said he is "a simple man with a solid intellectual formation. ... A man of prayer, a man who loves this land and its people, and who wants to evangelize."

'I neither confirm nor deny it'

Asked whether he had played any role in promoting Vilà's appointment, the cardinal replied that if he answered, "it might seem that I am revealing secrets. I neither confirm nor deny it."

"Who was the person I had in mind and proposed as my successor? I cannot say. Who was the person I had in mind as pope when I entered the conclave? I cannot say that either. But I had a second choice, and it was the same person who was ultimately elected," he said, referring to Pope Leo XIV.

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

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