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A German auxiliary bishop has said the Catholic Church "could afford" to ordain married men as priests while firmly rejecting demands for the ordination of women to the priesthood ahead of a crucial gathering of German bishops later this month.

Auxiliary Bishop Josef Graf of Regensburg told the Catholic Sunday newspaper of the Diocese of Bolzano-Brixen in an interview published Sept. 15 that he personally believes the Church could open the door to so-called "viri probati" — men of proven faith who are married.

"I personally believe the Church could afford 'viri probati.' It could grant ordination to 'proven men' with a marriage and a family," Graf said.

The German prelate pointed out that the Diocese of Regensburg had several married priests — former Protestant pastors who converted to Catholicism and were ordained with Rome's permission while continuing to live in marriage and family.

"We also recognize the priestly ordination of the Orthodox churches and of the Eastern Catholic churches of the Byzantine rite. These have married priests alongside the monastic state," Graf said. "I could well imagine the Church taking the path of 'viri probati.' But the priest shortage would probably not be eliminated by it."

Celibacy 'not indispensable'

Graf, 69, who served as seminary spiritual director for 26 years before his episcopal appointment in 2015, affirmed the value of priestly celibacy but said it is not a prerequisite for ordination.

"I still believe that the celibacy of the priest has not only a great tradition in the Catholic Church but is also a charism that is helpful in the exercise of priestly ministry," he said.

Celibacy, when lived honestly, Graf added, will always involve renunciation of sexual intimacy, and "the lifelong partnership of marriage, of having one's own children."

"Celibacy, as an expression of following Christ, will always also involve the way of the cross. However, the unmarried state of the priest would not be a 'conditio sine qua non' — an indispensable prerequisite — for receiving priestly ordination," he said.

The celibacy lived by ordained men and women in the Latin Church is rooted in the example of Christ, who lived unmarried. It enables the priest to serve his community with undivided attention and functions as an eschatological sign pointing to the fullness of communion with God, in which "they neither marry nor are given in marriage" (Mt 22:30). Pope Paul VI described celibacy in Sacerdotalis Caelibatus (1967) as the object and outward sign of a complete and generous self-giving to the mystery of Christ.

Women's ordination rejected

Graf firmly rejected calls for the ordination of women, a demand raised by Germany's Synodal Way process.

"I believe that is not possible. Already because we have a different tradition," he said. "If a pope were to break with this tradition, it would at present lead to a split in the Church."

Asked whether tradition was the only argument against it, Graf replied: "Not at all. In my view there are still very weighty theological reasons for the sacrament of ordination being reserved to men. Listing them here would require too much space."

The Catholic Church holds that only men can be validly ordained to the priesthood, a teaching declared as definitive by St. John Paul II in his 1994 apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis. The teaching applies analogously to the diaconate and the episcopate.

Ordination numbers and 'crisis of faith'

Germany ordained 30 men to the priesthood in 2026, up from 25 the previous year. Eleven of the country's 27 dioceses and archdioceses had no new priest this year. Regensburg had one. In 1966, there were 447 ordinations across Germany.

Graf attributed the decline primarily to secularization and anti-Church sentiment rather than celibacy.

"When I entered the seminary in 1977, it was practically an honor for a village and even more for my parents. Today it is unfortunately different. The priestly vocation is a contested profession — the abuse scandal being the key word," he said.

He also pointed to the experience of Germany's Protestant churches as evidence that abolishing celibacy does not solve the underlying problem.

"All our Catholic hot-button issues like celibacy and women's ordination have long been settled by the Protestant church in Germany. Yet it now also suffers from personnel shortages and ongoing membership losses," Graf said.

"I say that with no 'schadenfreude,' certainly not. But one can see that the root of the problems lies elsewhere. It is the decline of faith."

Fulda plenary ahead

Graf's public remarks were made less than two weeks before Germany's bishops convene for their autumn plenary in Fulda from Sept. 28 to Oct. 1. The agenda under new conference president Bishop Heiner Wilmer includes surrogacy, assisted suicide, organ donation, artificial intelligence, and sexual abuse.

Wilmer, the bishop of Münster and a member of the Priests of the Sacred Heart, was elected president of the German Bishops' Conference in February. In an interview with Vatican News published Sept. 16, he called for renewal.

"We need not be afraid of renewal," Wilmer said. "Nor need we be afraid of the spirit of the times, which shows us how to proclaim the Gospel well today."

Wilmer argued that a synodal Church is essential for Europe. "Europe urgently needs a synodal Church, because Europe is becoming ever more complex, ever more fragmented. The danger is that Europe falls apart, descends into petty statism, and there are skirmishes," he said.

The statutes for Germany's planned Synodal Conference — a controversial, permanent body that would give laypeople a formal advisory role alongside bishops — remain pending approval from the Holy See. Wilmer submitted the text to the Vatican on March 31. The conference's inaugural meeting, originally planned for November in Stuttgart, has been postponed until Rome's response is finalized.

This story was first published in two parts by CNA Deutsch, the German-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

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More than 100 Catholics processed to a rally near the U.S. Capitol in Washington and met with congressional staffers to advocate for migrant dignity and show solidarity with the community.

The Dorothea Project — named after two servants of God, Dorothy Day and Sister Thea Bowman — organized the Sept. 15 event to coincide with the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, one of the patrons of the organization.

Catholics gathered for Mass at St. Peter's Church on Capitol Hill, celebrated by Washington, D.C., Auxiliary Bishop Gary Studniewski, and processed to Upper Senate Park, which is less than a mile from the parish and sits adjacent to the Capitol. They prayed the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary.

In his homily, Studniewski reflected on the Gospel reading from John 19 when Mary, the mother of God, stood before Christ on the cross. As Mary did, he said, "we want to stand at the foot of the cross of suffering, the suffering Christ, [and] we want to be present to our suffering brothers and sisters to offer our tears and our prayers and our consolation."

The bishop said that "these days, in our own country, we are aware of so many who suffer the pains of injustice." He said: "We gather today, mindful of the many men, women, and children — real families — who suffer the injustice of being mistreated as immigrants, migrants, strangers."

"Like our Blessed Mother, we may appear to be powerless at the foot of the cross," Studniewski said. "But the suffering of our brothers and sisters in need is somehow softened by our presence and by the agency of those who love them. They are not alone. They are accompanied in their suffering. They are loved."

Anna Marie Gallagher, executive director of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC), an organization that works closely with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), said the procession and rally come at a "difficult and frightening moment for immigrant communities in the United States."

She said deportations impact people "who have lived, worked, worshipped, raised children, and have contributed to our community for years." She said immigration status is more complicated than "legal" and "illegal," noting that people can face deportation when protected status expires or have difficulty moving from temporary to permanent status.

People who follow the laws, Gallagher said, may "find that the rules have changed around them."

Policies, she said, must protect "family safety and human life" and always be consistent with "human dignity." She said policies should recognize every person, regardless of immigration status, as "a person created in the image and likeness of God."

"You are part of our communities," Gallagher said of migrant communities. "Your dignity does not depend upon your immigration status. You are not invisible and the Church will continue to walk with you."

Many gathered for the procession carried signs, some of which were premade and depicted Our Lady of Sorrows with the text, "dignity, family, solidarity." Art Laffin, a member of the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker movement in Washington, D.C., carried a handwritten sign saying, "Love your neighbor means to welcome the immigrant, not to detain and deport them."

Kathy O'Leary, who traveled from New Jersey, told EWTN News she came to connect with Catholics "taking action right now," adding: "We need to show our love for our neighbors." She said she's grateful Pope Leo XIV and the U.S. bishops have spoken up for migrants, noting that their statements have encouraged more people to attend events like this.

Frank Panopoulos, a human rights attorney and activist, told EWTN News he also believes it's "great that the bishops and the pope are speaking about it." Yet, he said he does not believe the message has reached the pews to the point that it motivates more people to take action.

He said gatherings that defend the dignity of migrants should have "the same kind of crowd that Jesus got when he entered into Jerusalem."

Ken Cooper, a retired religion teacher, told EWTN News he attended the event because "when you welcome the stranger, you welcome [Christ]," quoting from Matthew 25.

"If they're here, you must treat all human beings like Christ," he said.

Following the rally, the Dorothea Project took groups to several congressional offices with whom they coordinated meetings.

Katie Holler, founder of the Dorothea Project, told EWTN News the group "feels really blessed that so many people came from both near and far" for the event. The advocacy of Leo and the U.S. bishops on behalf of migrants, she said, "gives us fertile soil" to bring more Catholics into public advocacy for migrants.

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As Mexico commemorates the 216th anniversary of Mexico's War of Independence, the Mexican Bishops' Conference (CEM, by its Spanish acronym) acknowledged the nation's political progress but warned that "open wounds" such as violence, kidnappings, corruption, and inequality persist.

Every year, on the night of Sept. 15, Mexico begins its independence day celebrations by reenacting the "Grito de Dolores" ("Cry of Dolores"). On Sept. 16, 1810, in the town of Dolores, Father Miguel Hidalgo rang the church bells and urged the assembled people to take up arms against the Spanish colonial government.

Mexico's independence was finally achieved on Sept. 27, 1821, with the entry of Agustín de Iturbide into Mexico City at the head of the Army of the Three Guarantees. The army got its name for its defense of the three "guarantees" of the Plan of Iguala: the Catholic faith as the national religion, independence from Spain, and social and legal equality between between all citizens regardless of ethnic origin.

'Celebrating independence does not mean turning a blind eye'

In a Sept. 14 statement, the CEM said that in Mexico, "we have made progress in recognizing people's rights, women's participation, the strengthening of institutions, solidarity in the face of disasters, and a societal yearning for peace that can no longer be ignored."

"At the same time, the country continues to bleed from violence, persons inexplicably gone missing, impunity, humiliating inequality, and the forced displacement of entire communities," the bishops lamented.

For the Catholic Church in Mexico, "celebrating independence does not mean turning a blind eye; it means remembering where we come from so we have the resolve to keep on building."

In their message, the bishops called on leaders at all levels to ensure "that freedom is not [viewed as] a concession, but is a guarantee; that security and justice cease to be mere promises; and that victims are heard."

"Furthermore, on the eve of a new election season, we call for public debate to be worthy of the [nation that] sustains it," they stated, with an eye toward the June 2027 elections, in which the entire federal house of representatives will be elected as well as local officials across Mexico's 31 states.

The bishops also urged citizens "to love Mexico by acting uprightly every day," participating politically, fulfilling their personal responsibilities, and "by caring for those who have the least."

Our Lady of Guadalupe, 'the heart and soul of our people'

The bishops emphasized that Mexican independence "was born clasping a standard," noting that "the image of Holy Mary of Guadalupe became the banner of a people realizing that it had become a nation."

"It was the recognition that this people already had a mother and with her, a common identity capable of uniting the Indigenous person, the person of European descent born in Mexico, and the mestizo in a single home. Even the first president of the republic chose to call himself Guadalupe," they noted, referring to Guadalupe Victoria, Mexico's first president.

Originally known as José Miguel Fernández y Félix, the independence fighter adopted that name due to his devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe and his confidence in the victory of the independence cause, according to the General Archive of the Nation.

"Two centuries later, she continues to be the heart and soul of our people," the bishops stated, pointing out that Our Lady of Guadalupe "continues to ask for the same thing as she did on Tepeyac: that her sacred little house [chapel] be built in order to show and give all her love, her compassion, her help and her protection to her littlest children, to hear their cries and remedy their sorrows, their miseries, their pain."

With a view to the upcoming fifth centenary of the apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which will be celebrated in 2031, the bishops pointed out that "the Intercontinental Guadalupana Novena calls us to make that love an encounter, reconciliation and justice."

'Protecting and safeguarding' freedom of expression and religion

Noting that "independence evokes a decisive word: freedom," the bishops called for "protecting and safeguarding" two human rights in particular: freedom of expression and religion.

The former, they pointed out, "requires media representing various viewpoints, the personal safety of journalists, and a public debate that does not dismiss those who think differently," while religious freedom "is not limited to worship within a temple but encompasses the right to believe, to educate in accordance with one's own convictions, to associate, to serve, and to contribute publicly to the common good."

"This national anniversary finds us amid the centennial remembrance of the Religious Conflict (the Cristero War). We recall it during these celebrations because it was a fratricidal conflict between brothers who shared the same faith, heart, and culture, and because its lesson is urgent: When freedom of conscience is restricted, the entire nation suffers."

This remembrance, they affirmed, "calls upon us to always call for religious freedom to be fully recognized and exercised as a fundamental human right — for Catholics and for all religious denominations in our country."

'The Church is not a guest in Mexico'

The Mexican Bishops' Conference further emphasized that "the Church is not a guest in Mexico: It has been part of the country's fabric since before the state even existed."

The Church in the country, the bishops noted, established and "sustained the first schools, hospitals, and shelters; it educated many of those who envisioned what the nation would be; and it has never ceased to be present where the suffering is greatest."

"Today, that presence has concrete names: Caritas and its thousands of volunteers in every emergency; schools, universities, and educational foundations; migrant centers, soup kitchens, clinics, and shelters for women and children; human rights advocacy centers; support for victims and their families; the rebuilding of the social fabric; and constant work for peace," the CEM stated.

The bishops noted that "the social fabric, freedom, and peace in Mexico are also sustained by the quiet, effective work of believers."

"As the Church, we offer who we are: open communities, hands ready to serve, a voice to speak out without hatred, and the ability to build bridges where others erect walls," they affirmed.

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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PHOENIX — For the first time in its nearly 100-year history, the Catholic Medical Association is focusing on how the Eastern Catholic Church's emphasis on mystery, united with the Western Church's emphasis on reason, can give a more comprehensive view of human identity and help Western medicine promote human flourishing.

The group's 95th annual educational conference, held in Phoenix Sept. 10–12, emphasized the early Church Fathers, whose influence was strongest in the East, in order to "promote a more comprehensive view and more respect for the mysteries of human health and disease," said conference chair Dr. Mary Keen-Kirchoff.

"We're embodied spirits, not just physical bodies," she said at the opening. Healing, she added, "is a return to humanity's original creation in the image and likeness of God."

The conference theme was "Mysteries and Miracles: Restoring the Practice of Medicine to Heal the Whole Person." Setting the tone, Father Andriy Chirovsky, a theologian and priest of the Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic Church in full communion with Rome, and psychiatrist Dr. Donna C. Dobrowolsky shared the first plenary.

They moved between theology and clinical practice, saying they hoped to help medical professionals recover a holistic understanding of "the whole person, because that's who all of us care about." Theology without clinical reality stays abstract, they said; clinical work without a complete Christian anthropology becomes fragmented.

"If the human person is misunderstood, then healing will also be misunderstood and therefore less effective," Chirovsky said. "Healing requires a true anthropology."

He quoted Pope Leo XIV's encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, in which the pontiff wrote: "We Christians lift our eyes to the Incarnate God, knowing that it is 'only the mystery of the Word made flesh that the mystery of humanity truly becomes clear.'"

Why the East, and why now?

Chirovsky cited St. John Paul II's 1995 encyclical Ut Unum Sint (That They May Be One), in which the pope, referring to the Eastern and Western Catholic churches, wrote that "the Church must breathe with her two lungs!"

Dobrowolsky noted that what the West calls sacraments, the East calls mysteries: rites "not fully comprehensible by human reason, but revealed by God."

Chirovsky said Eastern spirituality and practice "preserve certain habits of thought that are especially needed at this moment in history."

He was not arguing against the West, he said. Any strength can become distorted when it loses its complement. The East offers "a needed medicine for some of the pathologies of modern culture," especially the idea that a person is the center of the universe, "self-defining," and "the ground of truth."

"We require revelation to understand our own selves," he said.

"If the person is not self-explaining," Dobrowolsky said, medicine has to be careful because lab values and symptom clusters aren't enough to explain a person. They're important, but they don't tell us everything about who a human person is."

The Catholic Church needs both the East and the West in the same way a healthy person must think with both hemispheres of the brain, the priest said, quoting neuroscientist Iain McGilchrist's book "The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World."

In his book, McGilchrist notes that the left side of the brain is analytical and narrow, while the right side focuses more on the big picture, and pathology results when the two sides don't work together and one side dominates.

Chirovsky compared modern medicine's laser focus on the analytical and quantifiable, using hyperspecialization in the medical field as an example, to a pathology with too much dependence on the left brain.

"The analytic mode is powerful, but when it dominates unchecked, the person becomes legible as data but less visible as mystery and as a person," he said.

"Any practice of medicine that loses sight of the whole person as revealed in the incarnate Son of God is going to run into lots of trouble," he added. "Modern medicine is doing exactly that."

Dobrowolsky agreed, adding that "in medicine, that imbalance isn't theoretical, we see it every day."

Seeing the human being as mystery does not mean the person is unintelligible, she said. "We're saying this human person is not exhausted by reductionist accounts. And that the deepest truth of the human person is disclosed in relation to Christ."

"If a person is reduced to a collection of functions, risks, and measurable outputs, their care becomes reduced as well," she continued, saying that while practitioners may "retain technical brilliance … the patient may begin to disappear beneath the technique."

Indeed, the conference's breakout sessions touched upon the necessity for a Christian anthropology informed by a Church "breathing with both lungs," with talks titled "Healing Is Not the Same as Curing: Patristic Anthropology and the Limits of Modern Medicine," "The Neglected Soul: Ancient Monastic Teachings on Depression in the Modern World," and "Psychedelics, AI, Spirituality, and More: Ancient Wisdom for Reenchanting Medicine."

"My prayer before the conference was that all attendees receive abundant graces of understanding and hope for the future," Keen-Kirchoff told EWTN News. "I am so grateful that the Holy Spirit was so present … and trust that attendees are more in tune with who we are in Christ and who we are to become in Christ."

Bishop James D. Conley of the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska, won the CMA's annual Evangelium Vitae award for his pastoral efforts surrounding mental health.

In May 2024, Conley published a pastoral letter titled "A Future with Hope," concerning the Catholic response to mental health struggles. The honor sits close to the conference's theme: care that views the person as a whole, in the mystery of body and spirit.

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Cissie Graham Lynch, the granddaughter of famed late Southern Baptist evangelist Billy Graham, said this week that President Donald Trump asked her to take up a key religious freedom position in his administration.

Lynch, whose father, Franklin Graham, leads the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, revealed the news on X on Sept. 15, saying Trump had asked her to serve as U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom.

The role helps lead the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in the U.S. Department of State. Lynch on X said it would be "a great honor and privilege" to serve in the role.

"If confirmed by the Senate, please pray that I would serve with excellence and make the most of every opportunity to protect our most precious and fundamental right—and one that far too many people around the world still live without—freedom of religion," she wrote.

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Lynch has remained active in the religious advocacy and aid networks started by her grandfather and continue to be run by her family.

She has served as an adviser to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and at Samaritan's Purse, an international Christian aid organization also led by Franklin Graham.

On Sept. 15 Franklin Graham said his daughter is "uniquely" qualified for the role, the duties of which include promoting religious freedom abroad and advising the U.S. government when that right is violated internationally.

The government says the religious freedom ambassador serves as "a principal adviser to the president and the principal adviser to the secretary of state regarding matters affecting religious freedom abroad." The ambassador-at-large also has served as a nonvoting member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, which has three vacancies yet to be appointed by the president.

Franklin Graham said his daughter has "traveled the world and been a student of this issue for many years" and has "a broad worldview and knowledge of the issues facing religious freedom today."

"I couldn't be more proud of her, and I ask you to pray that God would give her wisdom and strength," Graham wrote.

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Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, said the cross is not a sign of defeat or death but an expression of God's love and the victory of life, urging Christians in the Holy Land to make it a way of life rooted in love and self-giving.

Pizzaballa made the remarks while presiding over a Mass on the eve of the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross at Christ the Redeemer Church in Taybeh, a predominantly Christian town in the West Bank.

Bishop William Shomali, patriarchal vicar; Father Davide Meli; and Father Bashar Fawadleh, the parish priest, concelebrated the Mass.

"The cross is our victory, and it is the victory of love," Pizzaballa said.

He added that Christ "chose to enter into the suffering of the cross out of love for us." The patriarch stressed that Christians are "people of the cross" and that the sign defining their identity should be reflected in the way they live and in their relationships within their families, parishes, and wider communities.

"We are called to live according to the logic of the cross," he said.

Pizzaballa noted that Christians do not need to seek out suffering, because they are already surrounded by suffering in many forms. Yet, he said, such experiences can become an opening for God's presence in their lives.

Fawadleh welcomed Pizzaballa to the celebration, telling him: "Your presence today is more than simply taking part in our feast; it is a sign of communion, consolation, and hope."

The celebration took place as Taybeh continues to face the repercussions of attacks by Israeli settlers, restrictions on movement and access to essential services (Palestinians living in the West Bank require Israeli permits to enter Jerusalem), declining employment opportunities, and continued emigration — all pressures that have placed additional strain on the town's residents.

Following the Mass, the faithful joined a candlelight procession through the streets of Taybeh to the historic St. George Church, known locally as Al-Khader. There, prayers were offered and pomegranates were blessed and distributed to participants before the traditional feast day flame was lit.

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

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The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) urged President Donald Trump to push for the release of religious prisoners in China and for the end of religious persecution by the Chinese government.

The commission called on Trump to continue his efforts for the release of the prisoners ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping's trip to the U.S. on Sept. 24.

USCIRF called for the release of Catholic pro-democracy advocate Jimmy Lai, numerous Christian leaders, and others in prison for practicing their religious beliefs.

"President Trump boldly demonstrated to President Xi during their meeting in Beijing earlier this year that the United States stands for religious freedom by calling for the release of freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) prisoners," said Asif Mahmood, chair of USCIRF.

"Speaking up again sends a clear and consistent signal that religious freedom for all is a priority for the United States and that it expects the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] to respect its population rather than persecute millions for practicing their faith," he said.

The commission highlighted that after a direct appeal by Trump, Chinese authorities previously freed former prisoner Pastor Ezra Jin of the Zion Church in July. He was permitted to relocate to the United States and reunite with his family.

While Jin was released, eight other Zion Church leaders who were arrested alongside him remain detained.

"In releasing Pastor Jin, President Xi showed that he has the power to release FoRB prisoners if he so desires—and indeed he has an obligation to do so under international law," said Cece Heil, vice chair of USCIRF.

USCIRF detailed the other leaders whose release the commission is urging and is asking Trump "to seize the opportunity during his upcoming summit with President Xi," Heil said.

They called on Trump to discuss religious leaders including "Gulshan Abbas, Ekpar Asat, Pastor Gao Quanfu and his wife Pang Yu, Jimmy Lai, the Panchen Lama Gedhun Choekyi Nyima and his family," Heil said.

The commission also asked Trump "to urge the Chinese government to provide a passport to U.S. Lawful Permanent Resident, Pastor John Cao and allow him to reunite with his family and seek urgent medical treatment in the United States," Heil said.

The appeal also precedes a planned hearing on Sept. 16 held by Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, to discuss the release of Lai. Jimmy Lai's son, Sebastien Lai, will offer testimony regarding his father's immediate release and to examine the broader implications of his continued imprisonment.

In its 2026 annual report, USCIRF recommended that the U.S. Department of State redesignate China as a country of particular concern (CPC) for engaging "in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom," according to the commission.

USCIRF urges special watchlist designation for Kyrgyz Republic

In a September report, USCIRF also reaffirmed its call for the Kyrgyz Republic to be placed on the U.S. Department of State's special watchlist.

The brief was released to highlight "legal restrictions as well as recent violations that Kyrgyz officials have committed against independent Muslims and Christians from unregistered communities," USCIRF reported.

"The Kyrgyz government regularly violates freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) as laid out in its constitution as well as in international documents such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which it is a signatory," the report said.

USCIRF detailed that Kyrgyz officials apply a "vague label of extremism" to justify matters such as regularly raiding places of worship, issuing fines, seizing religious materials, imposing prison sentences, forcing individuals to renounce their beliefs, and engaging in physical abuse.

In early 2025, the nation's president, Sadyr Japarov, amended a restrictive  religion law and approved other acts, which significantly tightened state control over religious groups.

"Enforcement of these laws—which often occurs in conjunction with broadly framed anti-extremism statues under the Criminal Code—often involves targeting religious groups that the government considers 'nontraditional,' particularly independent Muslims and members of unregistered Christian groups," the report said.

The commission's report noted that targeted Christian groups often face persecution "from harassment and fines to prison sentences and physical abuse," according to the report.

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The family of Suleiman Khalil, a former mayor in Sadad, Syria, is urging U.S. officials to intervene after he spent 19 months in detention without charges under the Syrian transitional government.

Khalil was arrested and detained Feb. 8, 2025. His daughter and advocacy group Christian Solidarity International (CSI) have urged U.S. governmental intervention.

Veronica Dudo, "EWTN News Nightly" anchor, interviewed Khalil's daughter, Natalie Khalil, and Joel Veldkamp, CSI director for public advocacy, on Sept. 14 about the detention, the state of U.S.-Syrian relations, and Natalie's recent letter to President Donald Trump appealing for help.

"It's been 19 months since they got him. We don't know why they got him. They didn't claim that they have any charges against him. We weren't allowed to get a lawyer. They came to our house and said, 'He was wanted,'" she said.

Khalil, known for his Christian faith, gained wide respect in 2015 when he organized the defense of Sadad during an ISIS assault, an effort credited with saving more than 9,000 residents.

Veldkamp said: "Suleiman Khalil is very well known in Syria for saving the town."

He received an early warning that ISIS, a violent extremist organization responsible for mass atrocities across Syria and Iraq, was approaching, Veldkamp said.

Khalil was not aligned with the former regime but was an independent Christian political figure who acted out of necessity to protect his community, Veldkamp said.

Veldkamp said it appears Khalil is being punished for those actions, a move that sends a stark warning to Christians across Syria about their place in the country. Veldkamp said such treatment threatens the survival of the Christian community in one of the world's oldest centers of Christianity. The treatment of Khalil, Veldkamp said, undercuts the government's own assurances to Washington.

"For the new Syrian government, which has only been in power for about two years, to tell the United States that they're joining their fight against terrorism, and then to put a man like this in prison, it sends a very confusing message to the U.S. It sends a terrible message to Christians in Syria who are really uncertain about their future under this new government," Veldkamp said.

"The new Syrian government is very dependent on the U.S. government — on the Trump administration. The Trump administration has high hopes for Syria," Veldkamp said.

'We weren't allowed to be Christians'

Natalie Khalil said the family faced strict limits during their visits, including rules that barred them from expressing their Christian identity.

"Even when we went to visit, we weren't allowed to be ourselves," she said. "We were asked to wear hijab to cover the head and hair. We were to cover the whole body. Yet, my brother went wearing a necklace with a cross — they took it off his neck. We weren't allowed to be Christians in that place."

She added: "I wasn't able to get him a Bible inside to the prison."

In a letter to Trump, Natalie expressed her plea for justice.

"My story is not unique. I don't need special treatment; I just need the justice for my father's case," Natalie said.

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Pope Leo XIV has appointed Newark, New Jersey, auxiliary bishop Michael Saporito as the new bishop of the Diocese of Metuchen, New Jersey.

The Vatican announced his appointment on Sept. 15, ending a nearly one-year wait for a new bishop of the diocese. The diocese was previously led by then-Bishop James Checchio from 2016 to 2025, after he served as rector of the Pontifical North American College in Rome. Checchio became the archbishop of New Orleans in 2026 after a brief period as its coadjutor archbishop.

The pope has also accepted the resignation of Bishop Francis Malone of Shreveport, Louisiana. Malone, 76, has led the diocese since 2019. Bishops are required to submit their resignations to the pope at the age of 75.

According to the Vatican announcement, Saporito was born in Newark on May 3, 1962. He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Newark on May 30, 1992.

He also earned an accounting degree from Rutgers University and studied at Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology in South Orange, New Jersey, for several years before his ordination.

After his ordination, Saporito served as a parish priest at several parish churches throughout the archdiocese: St. Peter the Apostle in River Edge (1994–1999), Our Lady of Visitation in Paramus (1999–2001), St. Elizabeth in Wyckoff (2001–2004), St. Joseph in Maplewood (2004–2011), and St. Helen in Westfield (2011–2020).

In February 2020, Pope Francis appointed Saporito as an auxiliary bishop of Newark. He received his episcopal consecration on June 30 of the same year from Cardinal Joseph Tobin, CSsR, who has served as archbishop of Newark since 2016.

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A new biblical drama is bringing the story of the prophet Daniel to the big screen, depicting his rise in the Babylonian Empire and the faith of three men who chose death rather than bow to a king who demanded they worship him.

"Daniel and the Fiery Furnace" stars Mena Massoud, best known for his role playing Aladdin in the live action version of the film, as Daniel and Elijah Alexander, known for his role playing Atticus in the series "The Chosen," as King Nebuchadnezzar.

Co-directed and produced by brothers Matthew and Daniel Kooman, "Daniel and the Fiery Furnace" became one of the most successful recent faith-based crowdfunding campaigns. It raised $1.2 million in order to fund its production.

The movie will be released in theaters on Sept. 18.

EWTN News spoke to the stars of the movie and the Kooman brothers about the inspiration behind the film and what they hope audiences will take away from it.

Daniel Kooman explained that the inspiration for the film came from the "timeless relevance of the story."

"It really felt like coming to it as an origin story of Daniel and his friends being young men at the time of the Jewish exile was something that hadn't been depicted — that we've seen — in [a] story before," he said. "So imagining it, these young men coming up against intense and immense challenges coming into Babylon, which was the heart of the world … and seeing how they stood up under temptation, how they stood for their convictions, and their faith was something that inspired us so much as storytellers."

When it came to making the movie, Matthew Kooman emphasized the importance placed on relying on Scripture to tell the story. While some creative liberties were still taken, he said that anytime Scripture was being spoken or used "we didn't stray from it."

"The first three chapters that we're telling in this movie are really based on a lot of research about time and the world that they were living in and when things happened in sequence," Matthew added. "But then when you're sharing the scriptural moments that everybody knows — that are accurate and what everybody has memorized or learned as kids — without straying from those things, making it interesting with kind of filling in some of the gaps that we don't know."

As for the actors, both had always hoped to portray biblical figures.

Massoud, a Coptic Orthodox Christian, shared that he grew up taking part in church plays and played Jesus in the Stations of the Cross in elementary school, so he has wanted to take part in a faith-based project in his professional career for some time.

"I really wanted to get involved with a biblical, faith-based project and Daniel just seemed like the perfect fit," he said.

He added: "A lot of biblical stories, I think, get the reputation of being older characters, older messages, but I think this is a story that's really about young people taking charge of not only their own lives, but taking charge of their faith, of their relationship with God, and leading by example, which is, I think, the most powerful thing about Daniel and the king's relationship is that they both lead by example and they both challenge each other in action as well."

Alexander, who was born and raised Jewish, said he has wanted to portray an Old Testament figure since Hebrew school.

"Ever since Hebrew school when I was first introduced to the stories of the five books of Moses … I was fascinated by these remarkable stories, these huge epic stories of men and women who changed the course of history," Alexander said.

"They were stories of particular and personal relationships with God," he added. "And I was always inspired by that, by the idea of being close friends with God."

A particularly powerful line from the movie — which the filmmakers call the theme of the film — is: "God does not put you through the fire to test you, he puts you through it to refine you."

"One of the things that the Bible later tells us is that God disciplines those he loves and the one that he calls as a son or a daughter, he will actually refine you, he will make your life come more in line with his will and his ways," Daniel Kooman said. "And that was something that Daniel and his friends actually embraced."

"The furnace was literally seven times hotter, which is the temperature that can refine and purify gold. So these men walked in and they burned hotter than the flames. And they actually saw the refinement of their lives and their hearts and they submitted humbly to God," he added. "They said in incredible reverence to the Almighty, 'Even if God doesn't deliver us, because he's the Almighty, he can do what he wants, we're still going to follow him. We still choose Yahweh.' And that's just such an incredibly powerful theme. And they were refined by the flames."

Massoud — who speaks the line in the film — said: "Young people and old people, people of any age, we often ask the question, 'Why is this happening to me? Why is God putting me through this? Why am I being tested?' And I think it is important to keep in mind that God doesn't throw anything at you that he knows you can't handle. He is not looking to defeat people. He is not looking to have people surrender to life, though, he is looking for people to surrender to him."

"God is throwing things at you, challenges in your life, obstacles in your life, to help you become a better, stronger version of yourself," he emphasized.

As for what they hope audiences take away from the film, Matthew Kooman said that "there's a refining fire that we can walk through, we can be a part of, and that it's worth standing for your faith."

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