The Holy Father visited four countries during his first apostolic visit to Africa.
Pope Leo XIV departed Africa and returned to Rome on April 23, concluding an 11-day visit to several countries that marked his first visit as pope to the continent.
The Holy Father departed Equatorial Guinea after saying Mass at the coastal nation's Malabo Stadium. He had earlier visited Algeria, Cameroon, and Angola throughout mid-April.
Here's a look at Leo XIV's departure from Africa and return home:
A panel at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, discussed Jewish-Catholic identity and antisemitism among Gen Z.
Catholics of Jewish descent shared their faith journeys and urged renewed dialogue and theological clarity to counter antisemitism at a Benedictine College panel.
The panel was part of an April 22 event, "Shoulder to Shoulder: Strengthening Jewish-Catholic Friendship at a Moment of Crisis," cosponsored by the college and the Coalition of Catholics Against Antisemitism.
Featured speakers on the panel included Yarden Zelivansky, an active reserve sergeant in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and a Jewish convert to Catholicism; Gideon Lazar, an American Jewish convert to Catholicism; and Aviva Lund, a Catholic of Ashkenazi Jewish descent.
The panel was moderated by Coalition of Catholics Against Antisemitism founding member Simone Rizkallah and Peter Wolfgang, president of the Family Institute of Connecticut Action.
Observing an uptick in antisemitism among Catholics online, Lazar pointed to Gen Z's reticence to accept arguments rooted in "brotherhood" or theological similarities between Catholics and Jews.
Lazar said Gen Z men are looking for answers related to theological and political differences, and that when arguments fail to address these differences, "what they're hearing is you don't have answers to their questions."
"Gen Z men in many ways see a culture that has failed them, and they're looking for answers and feel that because the older generations failed them, they don't have those answers," Lazar said.
"When Gen Z men don't get those real answers," he said, "they're going to get them from random antisemites online who have quote-mined a bunch of random Church fathers to make the Church fathers and the tradition look antisemitic."
He further condemned the weaponization of the phrase "Christ is King," saying "one of the worst things that's happened is this beautiful message, the kingship of Christ, has been corrupted by people who are fundamentally opposed to Christ."
"How are we possibly supposed to tell our Jewish brothers and sisters that Jesus is their Messiah when we tell that to them, they think that means you hate us?" he said. "This should be a message of love."
Zelivanksy, who co-hosts "The Voice of Jacob" podcast with Lazar, shared that his experience being a Jewish convert to Catholicism living in Israel has been "mostly surprisingly benign."
"It seems to me that especially since Oct. 7, [2023], there's been a shift in how Israelis view what kind of makes you a part of the nation of Israel," Zelivansky said, explaining even if Israelis disagree with your theological position, he said, it is more important to them that "you do what everybody else does to be a part of the nation of Israel."
"I can't say life is too complicated for me as a Christian. Generally, people seem to just not really care," he said, noting that his IDF gear and car are marked with the Jerusalem cross.
"A lot of the problems people speak of in Israel are kind of centered in Jerusalem," said Zelivanksy, who lives just outside Tel Aviv. "My friends who live in Jerusalem do experience some of the spitting and the cursing that you hear about, but I've never experienced it anywhere else."
Zelivansky, who attended the conference virtually after his flight was delayed due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, also offered his view as a Catholic regarding the war.
"Faith comes first. Faith informs morals. Morals inform politics," he said. "And serving in a certain country's military certainly does not entail agreeing with every single policy."
"I wouldn't say it's my place to comment on politics," he said. "I would say that we all need to inform ourselves on current events that are relevant to us and examine them in the light of faith and not examine faith in the light of politics, which is something that tends to happen a lot, left and right, these days."
During her remarks, Lund said embracing her Jewish roots as a cradle Catholic among her extended Jewish family has been a mostly positive experience, noting: "From my experience, Jews are not evangelical. They just care about their own people."
"For me it's honestly kind of been an evolution," she said. "The way I approach it now is basically our Jewish brethren are our brethren, they're our older siblings, and so, we might as well just enjoy them as fellow human beings."
Lund said her Jewish roots have influenced her Catholic faith, because "the more I meet Jewish brethren, the more I deepen into the mystery of Jesus, especially with evangelizing."
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pledged to help strengthen laws that protect people with disabilities from assisted suicide, saying "we can't be a moral society" with these laws in place.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), called assisted suicide laws "abhorrent" during budget discussions this week.
During HHS budget discussions on Wednesday, Sen. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma, pressed Kennedy about assisted suicide, noting that in several states, disability groups have filed lawsuits saying that their assisted suicide laws are discriminatory.
"Disability groups are filing against some of the assisted suicide laws because it seems to target those with disabilities and the Americans with Disabilities Act passed in 1990: That act has worked to protect those with disabilities, not incentivize them to take their own life," Lankford said.
"We've now seen a rise of people with eating disorders that are given access to assisted suicide, and this is just wrong a multitude of ways," Lankford added.
"What is HHS doing to protect those with disabilities that may be targeted by those assisted suicide laws?" Lankford asked.
"To me, I think those laws are abhorrent," Kennedy responded. "And we just see in Canada today, I think the No. 1 cause of death is assisted suicide, and as you say, it targets people with disabilities and people who are struggling in their lives."
Euthanasia is the fifth-leading cause of death in Canada, accounting for an estimated 1 in 20 deaths in Canada. The country is currently considering expanding medical assistance in dying (MAID) to individuals whose sole underlying condition is mental illness.
In the United States, assisted suicide is legal in 12 states and Washington, D.C. A recently-compiled database found that at least 14,000 Americans have died by assisted suicide since 1997; the actual number is likely much higher because not all states provide data.
"I don't think we can be a moral society — we can't be a moral society around the globe if that becomes institutionalized throughout our society," Kennedy told Lankford. "So, I am happy to work with you in whatever way we can."
Three ongoing lawsuits allege that their state's assisted suicide laws are discriminatory against people with disabilities.
Most recently in December 2025, several disability and patient advocacy groups filed a lawsuit alleging that Delaware's new assisted suicide law discriminates against people with disabilities.
The Delaware lawsuit maintained that "people with life-threatening disabilities" are at "imminent risk" because of the new law.
"Throughout the country, a state-endorsed narrative is rapidly spreading that threatens people with disabilities: Namely, that people with life-threatening disabilities should be directed to suicide help and not suicide prevention," the lawsuit read.
"At its core, this is discrimination plain and simple," the lawsuit continued. "With cuts in health care spending at the federal level, persons with life-threatening disabilities are now more vulnerable than ever."
In another recent lawsuit in July 2025, United Spinal v. Colorado, a coalition of advocacy groups claimed that Colorado's assisted suicide law is unconstitutional because it allegedly discriminates against those who suffer from disabilities.
In 2023, a similar California lawsuit challenged California's assisted suicide law, saying it puts people with disabilities at greater risk.
Despite losses from religious switching, Catholics still make up the majority of the population in a number of countries Pew Research Center analyzed across the globe.
A Pew Research Center study found that more adults leave the Catholic Church than enter it in most countries, but Catholics still make up the majority of the population in a number of countries analyzed.
The research released April 23 found that Christianity has experienced some of the largest losses of followers due to religious switching, when people identify with a different religion in adulthood than they were raised in as a child, compared with other faith groups around the world.
The U.S. data in the report, "Catholicism Has Lost People to Religious Switching in Many Countries, While Protestantism Has Gained in Some," comes from the Center's 2023-24 U.S. Religious Landscape Study (RLS). The international data comes from surveys conducted by Pew in spring 2024.
The global data that analyzed 24 countries was from Pew's international surveys conducted via telephone or face-to-face interviews. Pew has conducted more than 800,000 interviews in over 110 countries. The margin of sampling error is based on individual countries' research.
Religious switching has affected Catholicism and Protestantism, two of the largest Christian subgroups, in differing ways. Catholicism has lost more people than it has gained in almost all the countries surveyed, whereas Protestantism has seen a net gain from religious switching.
Despite losses from religious switching, Catholics still make up the majority of the population in eight of the 24 nations Pew surveyed, including Poland (92%), the Philippines (80%), Italy (69%), Mexico (67%), Peru (67%), Hungary (63%), Colombia (60%), and Argentina (58%).
In 12 of the 24 surveyed countries, most of the population was raised Catholic and many adults still identify with the faith today. For example, 96% of Polish adults were raised Catholics. Of the group, 92% still identify with the religion, with 4% reporting they have left Catholicism.
Hungary also experienced a slight loss with 57% of the population identifying as lifelong Catholics and only 2% reporting that they left the Church.
But overall, more people left Catholicism than joined it in 21 of the countries. People who leave Catholicism tend to join Protestantism or disaffiliate from religion altogether, the report said.
Disaffiliation was found to be especially common in parts of Europe and Latin America, including Chile, where 19% of all adults who are former Catholics identify as atheist, agnostic, or "nothing in particular."
In comparison, in Kenya, Brazil, Ghana, Nigeria, and the Philippines, former Catholics are more likely to have joined Protestantism than to have become religious "nones," the report said.
Other adults have left the Church, with former Catholics making up 10% or more of the total population in 15 countries.
In Italy, 22% of adults said they were raised Catholic but no longer identify as such, and an additional 1% were not raised Catholic but entered the Church. The nation's Catholic population experienced a net loss of 21% due to religious switching.
In the United States, 30% of adults surveyed reported they were raised Catholic and only 17% remain Catholic. An additional 2% who were not raised Catholic reported they entered the Church, for a total of 19% of U.S. adults who are Catholic.
Similar to Catholics, former Protestants also make up a large share of the population in many countries. In nine of the 24 countries analyzed, the group was found to make up 10% or more of the population.
In several countries, more people have joined Protestantism than have left it, with the religion having a net gain from switching in almost as many places as it has seen a net loss. Adults who leave Protestantism tend to become religiously unaffiliated, the report said.
Most of the countries where Protestantism has had net gains are in Latin America, including in Brazil where 15% have joined Protestantism and 6% have left. Most Brazilians who reported switching into Protestantism were former Catholics.
Speaking to reporters on his flight from Malabo to Rome, the pope addressed war, migration, same-sex blessings, and the Vatican's diplomacy with authoritarian governments.
ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT — Pope Leo XIV spoke bluntly about war, migration, same-sex blessings, and the Holy See's relations with authoritarian governments during a roughly 20-minute in-flight press conference with journalists traveling with him from Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, to Rome after his apostolic journey to Africa.
Before taking questions, the pope stressed that the primary purpose of a papal trip is pastoral rather than political.
"When I make a trip — speaking for myself, but today as pope, bishop of Rome — especially an apostolic, pastoral trip, it is to find, accompany, and come to know the people of God," he said.
He added that such journeys should be understood above all as "an expression of wanting to announce the Gospel, proclaim the message of Jesus Christ," and as a way "to draw close to the people in their happiness, in the depth of their faith, but also in their suffering."
Asked about the chaotic state of negotiations aimed at ending the conflict involving Iran, Israel, and the United States, the pope called for a new mindset rooted in peace rather than violence.
"Certainly, I would like to begin by saying that we need to promote a new attitude, a culture of peace," he said. "Many times when we evaluate certain situations, the immediate response is that we must enter with violence, with war, by attacking, and we have seen that many innocent people have died."
Leo said the key question was not simply whether a regime should change but how to defend important values without more innocent victims.
"Regime change or no regime change, the question is how to promote the values in which we believe without the death of so many innocent people," he said.
Describing the situation as "very complex," the pope said the back-and-forth of negotiations had created "this chaotic and critical situation for the world economy," while innocent people in Iran were suffering because of the war.
"Rather, I would encourage the continuation of dialogue for peace," he said. "As Church, I say again, and as a pastor, I cannot be in favor of war, and I would like to encourage everyone to make every effort to seek responses that come from a culture of peace and not of hatred."
Later in the exchange, responding to a question about reported executions by the Iranian regime, the pope issued an unequivocal condemnation.
"I condemn all actions that are unjust, I condemn the taking of people's lives. I condemn capital punishment," Leo said. "I believe that human life is to be respected, and that all people from conception to natural birth, their lives should be respected and protected. So when a regime, when a country, takes decisions which takes away the lives of other people unjustly, then obviously that is something that should be condemned."
On migration, a major topic ahead of his next international apostolic journey to Spain, the pope said governments have the right to regulate their borders but insisted that wealthier nations must also address the deeper causes driving people to leave poorer countries.
"Evidently, the issue of migration is very complex and affects many countries, not only Spain, not only Europe, but also the United States; it is a global phenomenon," he said.
Leo continued: "I personally believe that a state has the right to establish rules at its borders. I do not like the idea that everyone enters as if there were no order, and at times creating even more unjust situations than those they had left behind."
At the same time, he challenged richer countries and multinational corporations to do more for developing nations, especially in Africa.
"But having said that, I ask: What are we doing in richer countries to change the situation in poorer countries?" he said. Referring to Africa, he added that for many people it is seen as "a place where one can go to take minerals, to take its riches, to enrich others in other countries."
The pope insisted that migrants must always be treated with dignity.
"When people arrive, they are human beings and they deserve the respect that every human being deserves because of human dignity," he said. "We need to treat human beings in a humane way and not treat them worse than household pets, animals, etc."
A French journalist asked Leo how he avoids lending moral legitimacy to authoritarian rulers when he meets them during papal trips. The pope said such encounters can be interpreted in different ways, but he returned to the pastoral purpose of travel and the diplomatic mission of the Holy See.
"Certainly, the presence of a pope with any head of state can be interpreted in different ways," he said. "I would go back to something I said in my initial remarks about the importance of understanding the primary purpose of the travel that I do, that the pope does to visit the people."
He also defended the Vatican's continued diplomatic engagement even with difficult governments.
"We don't always make great proclamations, criticizing, judging, or condemning," he said. "But there's an awful lot of work that goes on behind the scenes to promote justice, to promote humanitarian causes."
That work, he said, can include efforts to free political prisoners and respond to hunger and sickness. "So the Holy See, by maintaining if you will, a neutrality, and looking for ways to continue our positive diplomatic relationship with so many different countries, we're actually trying to find a way to apply the Gospel to concrete situations, so that the lives of people can be improved."
Questioned about the blessing of same-sex couples after a decision by German Cardinal Reinhard Marx in Munich and Freising, Leo said Church unity should not be reduced to sexual ethics.
"First of all, I think it's very important to understand that the unity or division of the Church should not revolve around sexual matters," he said. "We tend to think that when the Church is talking about morality, that the only issue of morality is sexual, and in reality, I believe there are much greater and more important issues, such as justice, the equality, freedom of men and women, freedom of religion, that would all take priority before that particular issue."
Leo said the Holy See had already made clear to the German bishops that it does not agree with the "formalized blessing of couples," including homosexual couples or couples in irregular situations, beyond what Pope Francis had permitted.
Invoking Francis' well-known statement of "Tutti, tutti, tutti," Leo said: "All are welcome, all are invited. All are invited to follow Jesus, and all are invited to look for conversion in their lives."
"To go beyond that today, I think that the topic can cause more disunity than unity," he added, "and that we should look for ways to build our unity upon Jesus Christ and what Jesus Christ teaches."
This story was first published by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled on Tuesday that Hungary's 2021 LGBTQ law breached EU founding values.
The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled on Tuesday that Hungary's 2021 LGBTQ law breached EU founding values.
This is the first time that the top EU court found an infringement of Article 2 of The Treaty of the European Union, which contains the values on which the union is founded and are shared by all the member states, including Hungary.
Several of the amendments of the Hungary law, the CJEU said, "constitute a coordinated series of discriminatory measures" against "the rights of non-cisgender persons — including transgender persons — or nonheterosexual persons," the judges argued. The problematic parts are also against respect for human dignity, equality, and human rights, "including the rights of persons belonging to minorities," according to the decision.
The Hungary law contained amendments strengthening penalties against pedophilia, protecting minors, as well as limitations on promoting LGBTQ and gender-related issues and themes for minors, mainly in schools.
The law was passed by outgoing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has been in power since 2010 and lost recent elections held on April 12. It was the European Commission, one of the main institutions of the EU, that brought an action for "failure to fulfill obligations" before the Court of Justice.
The court also lamented "the offensive and stigmatizing nature of the amending law" as well as "discrimination based on sex or sexual orientation," and "a preference for certain identities and sexual orientations to the detriment of others."
Moreover, the court underlined "a particularly serious interference with several fundamental rights" such as private and family life and found a breach of the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) as well as the right to the protection of data.
Orbán reacted to the decision saying: "Our patriotic government protected Hungarian children from aggressive LGBTQ propaganda. Brusselian empire now strikes back." The politician promised he would "not give up the fight for the soul of Europe!"
The Hungarian Conservative media outlet noted that "Western mainstream media and politicians welcomed the ruling," while "many right-wing activists and political commentators criticized the court's decision."
The case "raises great concerns about whether courts are narrowing the space" for "states to legislate on moral or child-protection grounds," a global network of natural law scholars said in response to the ruling.
The International Society of Natural Law Scholars also noted that the court's ruling exposes a "tension between national authority over education, culture, and family policy" on one hand and "supranational enforcement of rights and nondiscrimination norms" on the other.
Some have questioned the timing of the ruling, coming shortly after the parliamentary elections in Hungary. The winning party, Tisza, is led by former government insider Péter Magyar, who is expected to succeed Orbán.
Hungarian analysts told the National Catholic Register on April 10 that Magyar was a conservative, while others suggested he may bring "dangerous trends," leading to "worse legislation" in favor of "abortion, euthanasia, and LGBTQ issues."
The Hungarian Conservative also noted that "the future of the child protection law remains unclear" as Magyar largely avoided speaking about the gender issues during his campaign but said after his election: "Everyone can live with whoever they love as long as they do not violate laws and are not harmful to others.'"
Apache Stronghold has faced multiple court losses, including a failed Supreme Court bid, to halt the sale of Oak Flat in Arizona.
A Native American group that has faced multiple federal court losses in its attempt to halt the sale of an ancient sacred site is once again petitioning a court to block the land transfer to an international mining company.
The White House said in March that it would go ahead with the planned sale of Oak Flat to Resolution Copper, a transfer that the coalition group Apache Stronghold has been fighting for roughly half a decade.
The Native American group has attempted several times to have federal courts block the sale, which it says violates the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Those efforts peaked in October 2025 when the U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal by the group to have its case heard.
Yet on April 22 the religious liberty law firm Becket said Apache Stronghold filed an amended lawsuit in U.S. district court, with senior attorney Luke Goodrich claiming that the federal government "rushed the Oak Flat transfer through under cover of darkness" in order to avoid "meaningful judicial review."
"That was as illegal as it was brazen," Goodrich said, urging the court to "rescind the illegal transfer and protect the freedom of Western Apaches to continue worshipping at Oak Flat for generations to come."
In addition to claims of violating both the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the suit alleges that the transfer violates the 1852 Treaty of Santa Fe struck between the Apaches and the U.S. government.
The Indigenous coalition has garnered support from major Catholic backers in its religious liberty bid. In 2024 the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) joined an amicus brief arguing that lower court decisions allowing the sale of Oak Flat represent "a grave misunderstanding" of religious freedom law.
The Knights of Columbus similarly filed a brief in support of the Apaches, arguing that the decision to allow the property to be mined applies an "atextual constraint" to the federal religious freedom law with "no grounding in the statute itself."
Resolution Copper was aiming to start exploratory drilling at the Oak Flat site in mid-March, according to a March 15 letter filed at the Supreme Court by an attorney for the company.
The suit concerned allegations against former priest Stephen Kiesle, who has faced dozens of lawsuits regarding alleged child abuse.
A California man has been awarded a massive $16 million payout in a civil suit regarding allegations against a former priest from the Diocese of Oakland.
A jury in Alameda County Superior Court on April 22 awarded the eight-figure settlement to an unidentified John Doe amid ongoing bankruptcy proceedings brought by the Oakland Diocese.
The law firm Jeff Anderson and Associations said in a press release that the settlement was "the first case to reach a jury verdict under the California Child Victims Act." The law, passed in 2019, opened a three-year window for alleged abuse victims to file claims outside of the standard statute of limitations.
The allegations brought by the John Doe in Oakland concerned Father Stephen Kiesle, a priest who has faced multiple abuse allegations dating from the 1970s. The victim said Kiesle abused him during that decade.
Kiesle pleaded no contest in 1978 to lewd conduct involving two boys, for which he received probation, while in the early 2000s he was sentenced to six years in prison after pleading no contest on charges of molesting a girl near Sacramento.
Kiesle was charged in 2022 with vehicular manslaughter and drunk driving after a crash that killed a man in Rossmoor, California. He pleaded no contest to those charges in 2023 and was sentenced to more than six years in state prison.
The Diocese of Oakland says on its list of credibly accused priests that Kiesle was removed from ministry in 1978 and laicized in 1987.
In November 2024 the Oakland Diocese said it would pay up to $200 million as part of a major abuse settlement. The diocese filed for bankruptcy in May 2023.
The bankruptcy filing put nearly all abuse lawsuits against the diocese on hold, though several were allowed to proceed to trial, including the John Doe suit settled on April 22.
At his final Mass in Africa, Pope Leo XIV urged Catholics to proclaim the Gospel with passion and bear witness through their lives to "the faith that saves."
MALABO, Equatorial Guinea — Pope Leo XIV celebrated the final Mass of his Africa trip on Thursday, urging the Church in Equatorial Guinea to continue proclaiming the Gospel "with passion" and to bear witness through lives shaped by faith, service, and solidarity.
The Mass at Malabo's stadium, where about 30,000 faithful were expected, marked the pope's last major public event in Equatorial Guinea, the fourth and final African nation on his 11-day journey.
After riding through the crowd in the popemobile, Leo began Mass amid flags, songs, and colorful hats, with music and dance accompanying the liturgy.
Before delivering his homily, the pope greeted the Archdiocese of Malabo and offered condolences for the recent death of its vicar general, Father Fortunato Nsue Esono, who died unexpectedly April 17 at age 39.
"We remember him in this Eucharist," Leo said. "I invite you to live this moment of sorrow with a spirit of faith, and I trust that full light will be shed on the circumstances of his death."
In his homily, preached in Spanish, the pope reflected on the day's Scripture readings, especially the account in the Acts of the Apostles of the deacon Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch.
"When the deacon Philip approached a traveler who was returning from Jerusalem to Africa, he asked, 'Do you understand what you are reading?'" the pope said. "The pilgrim, a eunuch of the Queen of Ethiopia, replied immediately with humble wisdom: 'How can I, unless someone guides me?' His question is not only a search for truth, but also an expression of openness and desire."
Leo said the figure of the eunuch reveals both human suffering and the liberating power of the Gospel.
"Yet, as he returns to his homeland of Africa, which for him has become a place of servitude, the proclamation of the Gospel sets him free," the pope said. "Through his encounter with Philip, a witness of the crucified and risen Christ, the eunuch is transformed from a mere reader — a spectator — of Scripture into a protagonist in the very story that captivates him, because it now concerns him personally."
"This African man thus enters into Scripture, which welcomes every reader who seeks to understand God's word," Leo continued. "He steps into salvation history, which embraces every man and woman, especially the oppressed, the marginalized and the least among us."
The pope said Christians today, like the Ethiopian eunuch, read Scripture not in isolation but within the life of the Church.
"Together we read Scripture as the shared heritage of the Church, guided by the Holy Spirit, who inspired its composition, and by Apostolic Tradition, which has preserved and transmitted it throughout the world," he said. "Like the eunuch, we too can come to understand the Word of God with the help of a guide who accompanies us on our journey of faith."
Turning to the Gospel of John and Jesus' teaching on the bread of life, Leo said Christ fulfills God's saving work in history and leads every people out of slavery.
"Through Jesus' Passover, the definitive exodus, every people is set free from the slavery of evil," he said.
The pope also stressed that Christian faith does not erase suffering but illuminates it with hope.
"Our problems do not disappear in the Lord's presence, but they are illuminated," he said. "Just as every cross finds redemption in Jesus, so too the story of our lives finds its meaning in the Gospel."
Quoting Pope Francis' Evangelii Gaudium, Leo warned against spiritual self-absorption and called the faithful to keep making room for the poor, for God's voice, and for the quiet joy of his love. He said it is precisely the Lord's love that sustains Christians in the service of justice and solidarity.
He concluded by encouraging the local Church to continue its evangelical mission with joy.
"For this reason, I encourage all of you, as the living Church in Equatorial Guinea, to carry on the mission of Jesus' first disciples with joy," Leo said. "As you read the Gospel together, proclaim it with passion, just as the deacon Philip did. And as you celebrate the Eucharist together, bear witness through your lives to the faith that saves, so that God's word may become good leaven for all."
This story was first published by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
Toronto Cardinal Frank Leo has written to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and members of Parliament in the Toronto area, urging them to "choose life and not death" by supporting Bill C-218.
Toronto Cardinal Frank Leo has written to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and members of Parliament in the Toronto area, urging them to "choose life and not death" by supporting legislation that would block the planned expansion of assisted suicide for those with mental illness.
Bill C-218, the Right to Recover Act, introduced last year by Conservative member of Parliament Tamara Jansen, is a private member's bill that would prohibit the expansion of medical assistance in dying (MAID) to individuals whose sole underlying condition is mental illness.
Under current federal law, that expansion is scheduled to take effect March 17, 2027. Parliament was expected to debate the bill earlier this month, but its order of precedence in the House of Commons has been pushed back, and no new date has been set.
In the April 20 letters, Leo reminded the prime minister and parliamentarians that a society "is rightly judged" by how it cares for its most vulnerable members and said many Canadians are "increasingly troubled" by the expansion of MAID since it was legalized in 2016.
Since then, nearly 100,000 lives have been ended by medically assisted death as eligibility criteria have broadened beyond the original framework that restricted MAID largely to those facing a reasonably foreseeable death.
"Our Catholic faith opposes the taking of any life, and it is with great disappointment and anguish that we have seen our country expand MAID at a rapid and alarming rate," Leo wrote.
Assisted suicide and euthanasia, he said, are "contrary to the dignity of the human person."
Leo and the Archdiocese of Toronto are leading the nationwide Help Not Harm campaign, which is encouraging Canadians to write to their MPs in support of Bill C-218.
"We are encouraging parishes and the faithful to continue their efforts through the month of April and until a date for the vote is announced," Neil MacCarthy, director of public relations and communications for the archdiocese, told The Catholic Register earlier this month.
By mid-April, about 5,000 letters had been sent through the Help Not Harm online portal.
"There is growing anxiety that the normalization and expansion of assisted suicide risks undermining a culture of compassion, weakening investments in palliative support, and diminishing the collective commitment to accompany those suffering," Leo wrote.
He is also calling on Carney to allow Liberal MPs a free vote when C-218 comes before Parliament.
"This legislation raises profound questions of conscience that transcend partisan alignment and touch on deeply held moral, ethical, and spiritual convictions," Leo wrote. "I ask you to choose life and not death; to help build a civilization that cares for those suffering and does not eliminate them, but instead surrounds them with dignity, compassion, and love."
He also asked the prime minister and Justice Minister Sean Fraser to "consider measures that restrict any further expansion of assisted suicide in Canada and instead prioritize investments in palliative care, mental health support, and resources for those who are increasingly marginalized and isolated, especially seniors and Canadians living with disabilities."
This story was first published by Canada's The Catholic Register and is reprinted here with permission.
