Catholic News

Pope Leo XIV on Monday appointed Bishop Steven J. Lopes, bishop of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter, to also lead the Anglican ordinariate in Australia, effective immediately.

There are three personal ordinariates erected for former Anglicans who convert to Catholicism: the Chair of Saint Peter for the United States and Canada, Our Lady of Walsingham for the United Kingdom, and Our Lady of the Southern Cross for Australia.

The Vatican also announced on May 11 that Archbishop Anthony Randazzo — who was named prefect of the Dicastery for Legislative Texts in March — has concluded his role as apostolic administrator of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross, which began on July 1, 2023.

Each of the three Anglican ordinariates is a personal (non-territorial) jurisdiction, similar to a diocese but defined by people (those with an Anglican background who have entered full communion with the Catholic Church) rather than by strict geographical boundaries. Any Catholic may belong to or attend an ordinariate parish.

"As I conclude my time as apostolic administrator, I give thanks for the grace-filled growth of the Ordinariate [of Our Lady of the Southern Cross] and the faithful witness of its clergy and people," Randazzo wrote on his Facebook page on May 11.

"It has been a privilege to serve the Ordinariate during this period of renewal and hope," he said. "I am encouraged by the strong foundations laid and the emerging signs of vitality, and I remain confident that its mission will bear fruit well into the future."

The Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross is based out of a suburb of Sydney. Randazzo was also the bishop of Broken Bay, Australia, from 2019 to 2026.

Lopes, who was ordained a bishop for the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter in 2016, wrote to members in an email on May 11 that he has been privileged to come to know the Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross over the years and to now "be its custodian for a while."

Lopes has been appointed apostolic administrator "sede vacante et ad nutum Sanctae Sedis," which means "the see being vacant and at the disposition of the Holy See."

Lopes, who is originally from California, has a doctorate in sacred theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. Ordained a priest in 2001, he served as an official at the then-Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 2005 until his appointment as bishop of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter, of which the mother church and cathedral is in Houston.

The Vatican reaffirmed its support for the Anglican ordinariates in a document issued by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith in March.

In "Characteristics of the Anglican Heritage as Lived in the Ordinariates Established Under the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus," the Vatican highlighted key characteristics of the Anglican patrimony as lived in the ordinariates, including a distinctive "ecclesial ethos" in which both the laity and the clergy participate actively in Church governance, and a focus on evangelization through beauty in worship, music, and art.

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After well over a decade of prayer, planning, and perseverance, a historic parish in the Archdiocese of Toronto, St. Patrick's Parish in Brampton, Ontario,  Canada, will officially break ground on its new church May 24.

For many, the project's next — and most important — step marks a joyous continuation of a dream long held by generations of parishioners and clergy alike.

Celebrations will take place on Pentecost Sunday with Mass at the current St. Patrick's Church, followed by a procession to the new site located at 150 Martin Byrne Dr. for the formal blessing and groundbreaking ceremony. There, Toronto Auxiliary Bishop Ivan Camilleri will preside, joined by parishioners, major donors, local mayors, and councillors. The day will conclude with a festive barbecue, live music, games, and family activities back at St. Patrick's.

Monsignor Owen Keenan, pastor of St. Patrick's, the archdiocese's second-oldest parish, said the long-awaited moment is deeply meaningful for all. He spoke to Canada's The Catholic Register about the parish community's vision for a larger church, dating back to the 1980s, with planning truly intensifying in 2015 under the late Father Vito Marziliano. 

Unfortunately, misfortune befell the project even in its earliest stages.

"?First, our architect Renzo Pianon died at 47, and then COVID hit us hard with the drop in attendance and various fundraising challenges before Father Vito left us far too young," Keenan said. "There were moments of asking what is next? How much more can the community endure?"

Still, the community persisted through Marziliano's Loaves and Fishes Campaign — a project solely dedicated to St. Patrick's mission of building a new, larger church property to serve a growing local population.

Speaking to The Catholic Register in October 2025, Keenan revealed that the City of Brampton, Region of Peel, and the City of Caledon anticipated an increase of between 50,000 to 60,000 people within the confines of the parish in the next 15 to 20 years. He also shared the growing interest from parishioners — and pledges of $1 million to be paid upon the start of construction and an additional $1 million in bequests from an anonymous parishioner and an area business, respectively.

While the community has continued to rally behind the cause — including a promising showing and fundraising efforts at last year's gala in October —Keenan concedes that a sense of restlessness has been creeping in.

"?We've managed to maintain and reestablish a good level of fundraising after COVID, but we've run out of runway — people are only going to throw money at a question mark for so long. Thus far, we have around $350,000 worth of new donations already, with more expected as we go and as we break ground," he said.

In total, the project has amassed several million dollars for the project.

Despite the impressive figures, Keenan reiterated that rising prices have played a role in the project's delay. Even as the market shows it's a good time to build, a 32,000-square-foot project in 2018 was estimated to cost $12.9 million, but by 2024, a reduced 28,000-square-foot building was estimated to cost as much as $26.5 million, leading the parish to scale its operation back from wants to needs.

Still, the new church itself is set to be Marziliano's swan song and become something truly unique as his original vision promised.

"He was quite an artist, and so the design for the new church will be based on a 19th-century reconstruction of a sixth-century church in the Holy Land, specifically the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fish in Tabgha, Israel," Keenan said.

The extensive project involves building a bigger version that remains faithful to the original design, complete with a traditional Romanesque style, rounded apse, cruciform shape, and pillars up the aisles.

Now, the project that required a true test of the community's resiliency, patience, and faith will reach its most defining moment with May 24's first dig.

Looking back on the multigenerational effort, Keenan is grateful for the patience and steadfast support of parishioners who have sacrificed for this new church over a decade.

"?We are all very excited, and I can't say enough about the good people of this parish who have been wanting this for so long. There are lots of good people for whom we're enormously grateful," he said.

"We want a place for families who are stressed to be able to come together to appeal to the Lord. Let's find our identity in Christ, as St. Paul says, and let's truly rejoice together."

This story was first published in Canada's The Catholic Register and has been adapted by EWTN News. It is reprinted here with permission.

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Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé discussed peace and strengthening relations with the Holy See in Rome over the weekend. The head of the transitional government was received by Pope Leo XIV on Saturday and then spoke with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations.

In a brief conversation with EWTN News, Parolin revealed that "we also talked about concrete initiatives regarding peace" with the prime minister, such as a conference on peace in Haiti, but "there is nothing in particular at the moment." The secretary of state acknowledged that the local Church "is certainly active, helps, and contributes" on the ground.

"During the cordial talks," the Holy See Press Office said in a release, both sides appreciated "good relations," stressing the "valuable contribution that the Church offers to the country at this particular time."

They touched upon "the socio-political situation and problems in the humanitarian field, migration, and security fields" while mentioning "the necessary contribution of the international community to face current difficulties," the communiqué concluded.

Haiti is experiencing a multidimensional crisis. The country was struck by a devastating earthquake in 2010 and a subsequent cholera outbreak. In 2021, President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated, and the security and political situation deteriorated. Armed gangs control large parts of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and there have not been general elections for a decade. The next general elections are scheduled for Aug. 30.

"We want to organize elections, ensure security, and move from receiving humanitarian aid to entering the commerce and market," the prime minister said after the Mass for peace in Haiti, presided over by Parolin in the Basilica of St. Mary Major following the audience at the Vatican.

Fils-Aimé added that the audience with Pope Leo "was very emotional." He appreciated "the exceptional relation with the Holy See," highlighting that "the morale of the Catholic Church" is a "positive" factor in Haitian society.

"Looking at the current international situation," Parolin said in his homily, "we can all recognize how much our world needs God's presence and, therefore, the gift of peace."

The Vatican's secretary of state said that "peace is the first gift of the Resurrected" and so "we are called to bring Christ's peace to the world." Quoting St. Augustine, the prelate underscored that "peace is not a mere absence of war, as it has a profound significance and challenges all of us."

He ended his homily with the hope that "peace may reign in Haiti forever."

New embassy inaugurated near the Vatican walls

On Sunday, May 10, the prime minister and Foreign Affairs and Religious Affairs Minister Raina Forbin inaugurated the new seat of the embassy of Haiti to the Holy See, located just off the Vatican walls.

"It is not just a simple change of address," said the embassy's chargé d'affaires, Marie Guerline Janvier, adding that it shows "a political will to strengthen traditional and privileged relations with the Holy See."

In this way, Haiti hopes to increase its visibility at the Holy See and to facilitate dialogue and collaboration.

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The Piarist (also known as the Escolapios) Fathers in Cuba have demanded that the government return ownership of their cloister and school so they can rescue them from the ruin into which they have fallen due to state neglect.

In 1961, Fidel Castro's communist regime confiscated hundreds of schools and other assets from the Catholic Church, among them the cloister and school that the Piarist Fathers maintained in the Guanabacoa district of Havana.

However, the prolonged economic crisis and the negligence of the authorities have led to the gradual deterioration of both buildings.

Compounding this situation was the looting of the Piarists' church in October 2025, during which criminals stole "candelabras for the Blessed Sacrament, vestments, and fans, smashing display cases and windows."

"We filed a complaint, but only a few items could be recovered," they said.

Next came a fire in March of this year at the old cloister — "abandoned for over a year by the municipal department of education without maintenance or security" and a blaze on April 9 that damaged the church door after unknown individuals set fire to trash accumulated in the street.

In their post, the Piarist Fathers warned that what is being destroyed is the first Teachers College for Cuba and Latin America founded by the order in 1857 and declared a national monument in 1990. "Nationalized in 1961, state ownership brought only neglect and, now, destruction," they charged.

They said the parties responsible for the situation are the municipal department of education and the municipal government; for while the former "abandoned the building without protection," the latter "ignored repeated warnings from the cultural heritage authorities as well as our own."

Furthermore, they noted, "the [Communist] Party condones criminal inaction: Promises 'fade into bureaucratic silence' while the looting is carried out in plain sight."

The Piarist Fathers said they have spent "months working to reclaim these places to restore them and breathe new life into them in the service of Guanabacoa."

They are demanding of the authorities the "immediate return of the cloister and school to the Piarist order," an "end to empty promises," and that "public accountability for criminal negligence" be established.

"This is not a demand [in the name of the Catholic religion]; it is the very identity of all the people of Guanabacoa that is fading away. Enough with the complicity. There is still time," they urged.

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.

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Earlier this year, on Feb. 25, the French National Assembly approved after a second reading a bill aimed at legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide in the country.

Called a "right to assistance in dying," the initiative seeks to legalize the administration of lethal medications to patients who wish to end their lives.

The proposed bill will be considered once again in the Senate on May 11–13, coinciding with the feast of Our Lady of Fátima on the 13th.

The bishop of Bayonne, Lescar, and Oloron, Marc Aillet, stated that "the stirring call to conversion and penance that the Virgin of Fátima issues to us, in response to the aberrations of the modern world, is more relevant than ever."

The bishop therefore invited the faithful to a day of fasting and prayer on May 13 so that the Lord may "enlighten the consciences of the senators and of elected officials."

Specifically, he warned of the "formidable moral and spiritual consequences" that would result from the legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide in the country.

In a letter addressed to the faithful of the diocese, the prelate warns of the "extreme gravity" of the proposal, which, in his view, seeks to "abolish the prohibition against killing."

He emphasized that the majority of patients who consider requesting suicide or euthanasia abandon the idea as soon as they receive care in a palliative care unit, where they are supported and their suffering is alleviated.

However, he lamented the inadequacy and lack of support this service receives in France.

With a message of hope, the prelate noted that the number of legislators opposed to the proposed bill on "aid in dying" has risen from 199 on May 27, 2025, to 226 on Feb. 25. Consequently, he pointed out that "it is by no means too late to act and mobilize."

Aillet said he has personally written to parliamentarians to ask them to oppose the bill, which would constitute "a major anthropological rupture," and invited the faithful to do the same.

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.

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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) launched a website on May 10, Mother's Day, to promote life-affirming pregnancy resources to expectant parents, such as links to information about pregnancy resource centers (PRCs).

According to an HHS news release, the website is meant to help families manage pregnancies in a healthy way and explain resources available to expectant parents navigating unexpected or otherwise difficult pregnancies. It includes information on nutrition recommendations, healthcare options, and dangers about substance abuse.

The website is part of broader efforts from President Donald Trump's administration on fertility. The website does not reference in vitro fertilization (IVF), while the Labor Department proposed regulations May 10 to expand health insurance coverage options to IVF.

"This Mother's Day, the Trump administration is strengthening its commitment to America's families by equipping mothers and fathers with the resources and information they need to build healthy, prosperous lives," HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a news release.

"Moms.gov delivers critical tools and support to help parents foster healthy pregnancies, strengthen young families, and create brighter futures for their children," he said. "This is how you make America healthy again."

The website directs people to PRCs, which often offer pregnancy testing, ultrasounds, classes for childbirth, testing for sexually transmitted diseases, and support for parenting and supplies for childcare. These organizations oppose abortion.

It also directs people to Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), which offer healthcare to low-income Americans. Most do not perform abortion, but many do provide contraceptives and are not ideologically opposed to abortion.

The website links to dietary guidelines for pregnant women, nursing mothers, and children. It offers information on breastfeeding and how health conditions could affect pregnancy along with resources on mental health. It provides information about federal savings accounts available for children and information on low prices for prescription drugs.

Additional information on the website provides resources to fertility awareness-based methods (FABMs), which are designed to help women recognize signs of health conditions that could be causing difficulties for getting pregnant.

Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, senior ethicist at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, told EWTN News the website "seems to be a creative use of government resources that strives to provide potentially useful information on a range of issues relevant to those who are pregnant or interesting in starting a family."

He said it "largely avoids direct promotion of abortion, contraception, and in vitro fertilization, though it does link to certain outside CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] website resources that promote condoms, spermicides, sterilization, and other forms of contraception."

"Still, it is refreshing to see a government-curated website mentioning fertility awareness-based methods as a way of promoting preconception health and assisting in situations of apparent infertility," Pacholczyk said.

Dr. Monique Yohanan, director of the Center of Better Health at Independent Women and a medical doctor, told EWTN News she thinks the website is about "supporting pregnancy, supporting women in a holistic way" and "about supporting parenthood, supporting life."

She noted that many of the resources refer people to information that is available elsewhere but that the website "does put it all together in a single place" and refers them to "practical help."

"This is about offering real choice for women," Yohanan said. "Real choice means real support."

IVF rule proposal

The Labor Department separately announced a proposed rule that would create a category of limited excepted benefits that covers fertility-related healthcare, including IVF.

The proposed rule — which is undergoing the mandatory 60-day comment period — does not impose any mandates but instead creates more options for employers to provide coverage for IVF and other fertility-related treatments.

Some Republican and Democratic lawmakers have introduced a bill to require IVF coverage in insurance plans offered by employers, which the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops strongly spoke out against. Supporters of the bill claim that existing religious freedom exemptions would apply, but opponents warn that such exemptions are not expressly stated in the bill.

The Catholic Church opposes IVF because it separates fertilization from the marital act and results in the destruction of millions of human embryos that are never implanted.

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As Europe prepares to honor this year's European Heritage Awards/Europa Nostra Awards, widely regarded as the continent's highest heritage distinction, the winning projects raise a broader question: What should become of sacred buildings as church attendance declines and religious communities diminish?

The annual awards, co-funded by the European Union's Creative Europe program, recognize outstanding conservation projects, often bringing international visibility, tourism, and funding to heritage sites.

Among the 30 laureates selected from 18 countries this year, two projects have emerged as symbols of Europe's rich Christian heritage and the growing challenges surrounding its future: the restoration of the 18th-century dome of the Church of Escuelas Pías in Valencia, Spain, and the adaptive reuse of the Benedictine Monastery of San Benedetto Po in northern Italy.

A symbol restored

In Valencia, the dome's restoration sought to preserve the Church of Escuelas Pías as an active sacred space while introducing carefully managed cultural activities to support long-term sustainability.

The landmark structure, one of the largest masonry domes in Spain, underwent a meticulous restoration combining traditional craftsmanship with modern conservation techniques. Thousands of tiles were individually examined and replaced, while the dome itself was stabilized and renewed.

Professor Jacek Purchla, chair of the Europa Nostra Awards Jury, told EWTN News the project stood out for both technical quality and symbolic value. "The dome is a defining element of Valencia's skyline and belongs to the European tradition of monumental domed architecture that emerged in the Renaissance," he said. "It holds strong symbolic value for the city."

The restoration also emphasized community engagement. Seminars, guided visits, and exhibitions attracted more than 46,000 visitors while the church stayed open for worship.

The project's architect, Luis Cortés-Meseguer, told EWTN News that the aim was never to transform the church into a purely commercial or secular space.

"The challenge was to preserve its liturgical and symbolic identity while opening it to compatible cultural uses that could guarantee its long-term conservation," he said.

In a paper shared with EWTN News ahead of publication, Cortés-Meseguer describes the approach not simply as "reuse" but as the "re-employment" of sacred space, a model intended to revitalize historic churches while preserving their original identity.

From decline to renewal

In contrast, the Benedictine Monastery of San Benedetto Po in Italy illustrates how adaptive reuse, which gives historic buildings new civic, cultural, or commercial functions, can also play a central role in preserving religious heritage.

Founded in 1007 and once one of medieval Europe's most important monastic centers, the vast complex had fallen into serious decline by the early 2000s. Following a major earthquake in 2012, nearly 20,000 square meters (about 5 acres) became unusable.

After being listed among Europa Nostra's "7 Most Endangered" heritage sites in 2013, a long restoration effort gradually transformed the monastery into a vibrant civic and cultural center. Today, the complex houses a museum, library, music academy, and exhibition spaces.

"Our international jury selected the monastery as a clear example of adaptive reuse that respects historical integrity," Purchla said, describing it as a "transferable reference model for endangered heritage sites across Europe." The restoration, he added, demonstrates how "heritage conservation can coexist with new cultural and social uses."

More than architecture

Across Europe, declining church attendance, shrinking religious communities, and rising maintenance costs are leaving many religious buildings underused or at risk of abandonment.

Yet not all forms of reuse are equally welcomed. In the Belgian city of Ghent, the redevelopment of the 19th-century Sint-Anna church into a supermarket, restaurant, and wine bar has reignited debate over the transformation of sacred spaces. The Belgian supermarket chain Delhaize secured a 99-year lease and began renovation work in early 2025, with reopening planned for autumn 2027.

Supporters argue the project offers a viable future for a building that might otherwise face vacancy and deterioration. Critics question whether commercial uses risk eroding the cultural and spiritual significance of former places of worship.

At stake, heritage experts say, is more than architecture.

"Across Europe, churches and religious heritage sites are not only historical monuments or architectural structures, but places that carry a soul, a memory, and a vital social function for communities," said a spokesperson for the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Union (COMECE).

In 2018, the Pontifical Council for Culture published Guidelines for Decommissioning and Cultural Reuse of Churches, the Holy See's standing reference document on the question.

Seeking common ground

As debates over reuse intensify, organizations including Future for Religious Heritage and COMECE are increasingly working to develop shared approaches to how churches can be preserved, adapted, and sustained while respecting their historical and spiritual identity.

"There is no single approach to adapting or adding new uses to religious buildings," Jordi Mallarach, executive officer at Future for Religious Heritage, told EWTN News. Successful projects, he said, ultimately seek to preserve the "spirit of the place," maintaining the symbolism and historical identity of sacred spaces even as new uses are introduced.

Through initiatives including the New European Bauhaus Lab, COMECE says it is bringing together churches, heritage organizations, public authorities, and local communities to reflect on sustainable solutions for Europe's religious heritage.

Questions surrounding the future of Europe's sacred spaces are expected to feature prominently during the European Cultural Heritage Summit 2026, where this year's winners will be honored from May 26–30 in Nicosia, Cyprus.

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Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, the archbishop of Yangon and Myanmar's first cardinal, told the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference on May 8 that his country is enduring a "polycrisis" five years after the military coup that toppled its civilian government.

Speaking on the opening day of the biannual plenary assembly in Sydney, Bo described overlapping economic, employment, social, health, and education crises gripping the southeast Asian nation, also known as Burma.

More than 3.5 million people have been displaced and basic healthcare and education systems have collapsed in much of the country, the cardinal said.

The figure has risen from the nearly 3 million Bo cited in a May 2024 interview with ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, underscoring the worsening trajectory of the conflict.

A 7.7-magnitude earthquake that struck central Myanmar in March 2025, killing thousands, compounded the suffering. Bo at the time described "apocalyptic scenes."

"Among young people in particular," he told the bishops on May 8, "daily life is increasingly defined by insecurity, psychological strain, and a loss of trust in the future."

"We remain a people of hope," Bo added.

The cardinal thanked Australian Catholics for what he called the "unwavering solidarity" of Catholic Mission, the Australian arm of the Pontifical Mission Societies, which has long partnered with the Archdiocese of Yangon on education initiatives.

"Your solidarity is not an abstract idea … it is a light in the darkness," he said. "Your support … reminds our suffering people they are not forgotten by the universal Church."

Bo linked his appeal to the centenary of World Mission Sunday, established by Pope Pius XI in 1926 and to be observed worldwide on Oct. 18.

"Mission," he said, is "not the work of missionaries but the responsibility of the whole Church."

"Your partnership with us is not just charity," he added. "It is communion."

A voice for peace amid civil war

Bo then led a short ceremony to commission Peter Gates as the new national director of Catholic Mission Australia in the presence of Archbishop Timothy Costelloe of Perth, the conference president. Like Bo, Costelloe is a member of the Salesians of Don Bosco.

Myanmar has been engulfed in civil war since the military seized power on Feb. 1, 2021, deposing the elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi. Bo has repeatedly called for nonviolence and dialogue, urging both the junta and pro-democracy forces to step back from further bloodshed. Pope Francis visited the country in 2017. In November 2025, Pope Leo XIV appealed to the international community not to forget the people of Myanmar.

Born in Monhla Village in 1948, Bo joined the Salesians of Don Bosco as a young man and was ordained a priest in 1976. He was appointed archbishop of Yangon by Pope John Paul II in 2003 and was created cardinal by Pope Francis in 2015. He served as president of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences from 2018 to 2022.

The Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference plenary continues in Sydney through May 13.

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Czech and Slovak Christians gathered for ecumenical prayers on Friday at the site of the 1620 Battle of White Mountain and in some 10 cities across the Czech Republic, marking a historic Catholic-Protestant wound as an occasion for reconciliation.

The Habsburg victory at Bílá Hora — Czech for "White Mountain," on a hill outside Prague — ended a Bohemian Protestant revolt and led to the forcible re-Catholicization of the Czech lands. The event is sometimes referred to as the Czech "national trauma" and helped shape anti-Catholic sentiment that has marked Czech religious identity for centuries.

The May 8 events took place on the Bílá Hora hilltop, which is now part of Prague, and on city squares and in churches across the country. At the main gathering, the Slovak Christian band Timothy performed, joined by other musicians and pilgrims.

The lay group Smírení Bílá hora — Czech for "Reconciliation White Mountain" — has organized the annual events since 2020. On the 400th anniversary of the battle that November, Archbishop Jan Graubner of Prague and the head of the Czech Ecumenical Council of Churches, Daniel Ženatý, presided at an ecumenical prayer service on the hill. Chief Rabbi Karol Sidon represented the Jewish community, and the Czech Bishops' Conference co-organized the event.

A reconciliation cross was installed at the site as "a permanent reminder" and "a place for symbolic events," according to Father Stanislav Pribyl — then-general secretary of the Czech Bishops' Conference and now archbishop of Prague — speaking to the Czech weekly Katolický týdeník. He called the cross "part of the Czech spiritual tradition."

When commemorative gatherings resumed in May 2021 as COVID-19 restrictions eased, the then-apostolic nuncio to the Czech Republic, Archbishop Charles Daniel Balvo, sent a letter to the lay organizers conveying that Pope Francis appreciated their prayers, "particularly when they are linked to a genuine wish to reconcile" people and "to heal the past wounds, accompanied by concrete gestures of forgiveness and meeting."

Spreading reconciliation across the regions

Diocesan support has gradually widened.

The Archdiocese of Olomouc and the Diocese of Ostrava-Opava told EWTN News that while they do not organize anything specifically tied to Bílá Hora, they support all initiatives aimed at reconciliation. The Archdiocese of Prague is "supportive, including bishops, as well as the clergy and consecrated people, so not only laypersons," its press office told EWTN News. Former archbishops of Prague Cardinal Miloslav Vlk and Cardinal Dominik Duka met with Protestants at Bílá Hora in 2000 and 2010, respectively, the archdiocese recalled.

"We support our local service rather symbolically — through promotion," the press office of the Diocese of Ostrava-Opava said. In the city of Ostrava, the May 8 gathering is led by an ecumenical community on the conviction that "reconciliation begins in families and small communities and can gradually spread further through churches and into society."

The eastern Czech diocese held a separate Lenten reconciliation event in the Opava co-cathedral marking its 30th anniversary, asking forgiveness for the sins "which hurt brothers and sisters from other Christian churches," its press office said.

The Czech Bishops' Conference confirmed to EWTN News that it is no longer involved in organizing or coordinating the Bílá Hora events directly.

A wound rooted in the Thirty Years' War

The Battle of White Mountain took place on Nov. 8, 1620, near Prague during the early phase of the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), a religious-political conflict that ravaged Europe.

The war was ended by the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, which reaffirmed and extended the principle of "cuius regio, eius religio" — "whose realm, his religion" — first established at the 1555 Peace of Augsburg, under which the ruler of a given territory determined the religion of its subjects.

The Catholic Church remains the largest religious community in the Czech Republic, but the country is one of the most secular in Europe. According to the 2021 census, about 22% of Czechs identified as religious, and Catholics made up roughly 9% of the population, down from nearly 40% in 1991. About 30% of respondents declined to answer the religion question.

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Pope Leo XIV called on Christians and Muslims to resist the growing danger of apathy in modern society, warning May 11 that the constant stream of images of human suffering can "dull our hearts rather than stir them" and urging believers to "transform indifference into solidarity."

The pope made the appeal during an audience with participants in the eighth colloquium between the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue and the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies, held under the theme "Human Compassion and Empathy in Modern Times."

In his address in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father said compassion and empathy are essential for "what it means to live a truly human life."

The pope noted that the Muslim tradition associates compassion with mercy, "as a gift bestowed by God in the hearts of believers," and that compassion "always has its origin in God himself."

Likewise, he said, the Christian tradition's sacred Scripture "reveals a God who does not remain indifferent to suffering."

"In Jesus Christ, this divine compassion becomes visible and tangible," he said. "God goes beyond seeing and hearing by taking on our human nature in order to become the living embodiment of compassion."

Following Jesus' example, Leo said, Christian compassion "becomes a sharing in or 'suffering with' others, particularly the most disadvantaged."

"For our traditions, human compassion and empathy are not something additional or optional but are a call from God to reflect his goodness in our daily lives," the pope said.

Addressing Jordan's Prince Hasan bin Talal, who was present at the audience, the Holy Father expressed appreciation "for the generous efforts of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in welcoming refugees and assisting those in need in difficult circumstances."

Leo lamented that "compassion and empathy are sadly in danger of disappearing today" in a society marked by technological advances that, in his view, "have made us more connected than ever before, but they can also lead to indifference."

"The constant flow of images and videos of the hardships of others can dull our hearts rather than stir them," he warned.

In the face of this reality, Leo said Christians and Muslims are called to a common mission: "to revive humanity where it has grown cold, to give voice to those who suffer and to transform indifference into solidarity."

"Compassion and empathy can be our instruments as they have the power to restore the dignity of the other," the pope added.

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

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